Building a collaborative communication ethics manifesto

Courses: This activity could be used in courses where persuasion, dialogue, and communication ethics are primary. Thus, a communication ethics course, or course units where students discuss ethics, would be appropriate. For instance, even a human communication course could use this activity to describe ethical treatment of “the other” or a mass communication class can use this activity to discuss ethical power (i.e. the power of technology or news media). This activity could also be modified for use in a public speaking, rhetoric, organizational, or small group communication.

Objective: This activity should be used in tandem with the National Communication Association (NCA) ethical credos on communication. In 2014, to mark the 100th anniversary of the NCA, NCA reaffirmed three ethical credos: The Credo for Free and Responsible Communication in a Democratic Society (National Communication Association, 2013); The Credo for Free and Responsible Use of Electronic Communication Network (National Communication Association, 1963); and the Credo for Ethical Communication (National Communication Association, 1999). When training students to think ethically, it is important to help them develop categories and determine declarative statements. Thus, the NCA documents are effective examples of communication manifestos. Ultimately, through collaboration with partners, small groups of students will develop a communication ethics manifesto in a format similar to the NCA examples. Specifically, they will identify ethical dilemmas, in the activity these are called “Urgent 21st Century Communication Ethics Issues,” and determine declarative statements that provide an ethical framework to address the issue. The “big question”: can student groups create a declarative and collaborative manifesto that addresses urgent 21t century communication ethics issues?     

Defining Cataloging Ethics: Practitioner Perspectives

ABSTRACT

Catalogers often need to make ethical decisions about their daily work. What is the starting point for defining cataloging ethics and how do practitioners define the concept? In this paper, the authors explore definitions of ethics and cataloging ethics in the literature, and subsequently analyze responses to a question asking respondents to define cataloging ethics. Set against the existing backdrop of the American Library Association “Code of Ethics,” the authors propose that shared values create a framework for discussing cataloging ethics, rather than a single articulated definition.     

Focus on Ethics and Public Relations Practice in a University Classroom

Courses: Intermediate and advanced public relations courses. Can also be modified for graduate courses.

Objectives: The following objectives, based on Fink's (2005) recommendations for writing learning objectives, focus on what students should learn about ethics in the practice of public relations: ? Understand basic notions of the philosophical basis for ethical decision making.

? Relate their intuitive senses of ethics to ethical decision making in public relations.

? Understand the social implications of ethical public relations practice.

? Use the Public Relations Society of America's (PRSA) code of ethics on in-class case examples and for all subsequent case analyses for the semester.

? Value ethics as an important dimension of effectiveness and professionalism.

? See ways to build on ethical understanding now and in their careers.

     

Information

Just as gold, silver and other precious metals are regarded as valuable commodities, so now is information. We call it the information age. But with this recognition there are many questions. One of the more pressing ones is, “What are the needs of Librarians, Archivists, Records Managers and other information specialists so that they can insure that information, like the precious metals, retains itsreliability and accountabilitythrough time?” This paper presents several technology changes that are shaking the foundations of our previous “tried and tested” methods. It identifies the current problems with what has worked in the past. An attempt is made to predict what will be happening in the future and what effect it has on a Global Information Society and the way we need to go about our business in the coming decades.     

The Use of Fictional Stories in Science Exhibits: The Emperor Who Only Believed His Own Eyes

The authors explore how fictional narratives (stories) can be used as a learning tool in the context of informal science environments and specifically science centers. They base their argument on an analysis of the theoretical, structural and epistemological properties of stories and how those can serve to establish a story as a cognitive tool. They offer an example of an application of these properties to a story‐based learning design called “The Emperor who only Believed his own Eyes” in the context of a large, public science center, and specifically an exhibition about “senses”. This paper focuses on the idea of a “hack,” a museum sanctioned strategy for exploring the potential and implications of narrative‐based design as a way to reinterpret science exhibits in a way that can engage young users in content exploration and offer recommendations for future research.     

Ethical Challenges of the Information Society in the 21st Century

The paper deals with theoretical and practical challenges of the information society in the 21st century. In the first part an overview of past and current activities in the field of information ethics at UNESCO is provided (Virtual Forum, Second International Congress on Information Ethics, Observatory on the information Society). The second part presents a historical interpretation of the development of modern information society with the emerging networked world society with its characteristics of interactivity and decentralization. The diversity of moral norms and traditions within this global medium gives rise to the question concerning an Internet-morality as a challenge to ethical thinking. The third part deals with the question of our identity within the framework of a digital ontology. The concepts of “net” and “information” are analysed. A future information ethics is based on a digital ontology. Living in the information age is considered from the point of view of both an ethical imperative and the art of living.     

From Knowing to Not Knowing: Moving Beyond “Outcomes”

The ways that museums measure the success of their exhibitions reveal their attitudes and values. Are they striving to control visitors so that people will experience what the museum wants? Or are they working to support visitors, who seek to find their own path? The type of approach known as “outcome‐based evaluation” weighs in on the side of control. These outcomes are sometimes codified and limited to some half‐dozen or so “learning objectives” or “impact categories.” In essence, those who follow this approach are committed to creating exhibitions that will tell visitors what they must experience. Yet people come to museums to construct something new and personally meaningful (and perhaps unexpected or unpredictable) for themselves. They come for their own reasons, see the world through their own frameworks, and may resist (and even resent) attempts to shape their experience. How can museums design and evaluate exhibitions that seek to support visitors rather than control them? How can museum professionals cultivate “not knowing” as a motivation for improving what they do?     

Cyber Ethics: Bodies or Bytes?

Information ethics requires: (1) an ethical theory that recognizes the importance of the body; and (2) a materialist theory of information. Alasdair MacIntyre's ethics of acknowledged dependence is an example of the former. It holds that the virtues we need to achieve both personal and common moral goods recognize networks of dependence based upon bodily vulnerability and disability. Pierre Lévy's theory of collective intelligence is an example of a view that disregards both requirements. Based upon a secular appropriation of medieval angelology, it holds that in cyberspace, social relations are dematerialized, and that information is an incorporeal substance flowing between disembodied minds. The new anthropological space of virtuality that Lévy holds to be ushered in by new electronic information technologies proposes a radical rethinking of ethics. But on close inspection, his information ethics turns out to be stripped of any serious moral dimension. To address serious moral issues, information ethics cannot abstract from our bodily animal nature. Several recent studies recognize that information is an effect of social relations between embodied subjects. They provide the materialist information theory required for meaningful information ethics.     

Cyber Ethics: Bodies or Bytes?

Information ethics requires: (1) an ethical theory that recognizes the importance of the body; and (2) a materialist theory of information. Alasdair MacIntyre's ethics of acknowledged dependence is an example of the former. It holds that the virtues we need to achieve both personal and common moral goods recognize networks of dependence based upon bodily vulnerability and disability. Pierre Lévy's theory of collective intelligence is an example of a view that disregards both requirements. Based upon a secular appropriation of medieval angelology, it holds that in cyberspace, social relations are dematerialized, and that information is an incorporeal substance flowing between disembodied minds. The new anthropological space of virtuality that Lévy holds to be ushered in by new electronic information technologies proposes a radical rethinking of ethics. But on close inspection, his information ethics turns out to be stripped of any serious moral dimension. To address serious moral issues, information ethics cannot abstract from our bodily animal nature. Several recent studies recognize that information is an effect of social relations between embodied subjects. They provide the materialist information theory required for meaningful information ethics.     

The Gaze and The Spielberg Face: Steven Spielberg's Application of Lacan's Mirror Stage and Audience Response

Through the theoretical framework of Jacques Lacan's “mirror stage,” this study employs statistical analysis to code the frequency with which Spielberg utilizes the “gaze” in his work to emotionally influence viewers by providing them with desirable images of the human face. This study examines if these psychologically desirable images are used with more frequency in Spielberg's successful films, thus providing quantitative support for the assertion that Spielberg “manipulates” his audience through his signature style.     

Facsimiles,fakes, and forgeries: Concerning punctuation in Shakespeare's King Richard II

While T. M. Parrott's proposal that Shakespeare may have written the title‐role of King Richard II "for his own interpretation as an actor” suggests an interesting area of bibliographical research, the prevailing unreliability of facsimile editions of Shakespearean quartos makes investigation of presumed authorial pointing in Q₁ —theoretically rhetorical or dramatic, rather than syntactical—both hazardous and frustrating. Still, the neophyte American bibliographer (who must resort to such texts), if forewarned concerning the nature of tamperings in photo‐lithographic facsimiles—made‐up lines, editorial “emendations” of original punctuation, occasional alteration of details in printers’ ornaments, and sometimes even outright forgeries—should find the liabilities well worth braving.     

Student success pocket-graphic: a mountain of data transformed

Abstract

How does a small community college library, without marketing experience or budget, advocate for its value to a campus community and its administrators? We did so by creating an engaging, bright, and easy-to-read “pocket-graphic.” In this column, we reflect on the process of shaping a multi-use product out of a mountain of data. Through research in design practices, field observations of popular information tools, and an uncomfortable step into braggadocio, we learned to articulate the successes of our library. Our “pocket-graphic” told our story, yes – but it also provoked surprise, questions (“you really have all that?”) and delight in the lesser known successes (“you really DO all that!”). In the process, we connected our students more deeply to helpful services and resources, faculty to supportive instruction, and positively changed the tone of conversation with all our stakeholders. By turning data points into selling points, we found insights and a focus that moved our own development forward, helping ourselves to define improved priorities for advancing our critical role in student success.     

THE WAGES OF SYNERGY

In the current economic environment, message synergy may result in a perceptible manifestation of ownership's impact on media content. That influence raises ethical issues: journalistic independence and access to the media marketplace for a variety of messages. This project analyzes the “soft news” content of the two most popular morning television news shows, The Today Show and Good Morning America during November 2007 sweeps. The analysis demonstrates that “soft news” story topic selection appears to be strongly influenced by economic connections to the parent corporation. The potential impact of this distortion of the cultural public sphere for journalists, viewers, creative artists and advertising at the institutional level are analyzed. The wages of synergy include a restriction of journalistic autonomy, confining viewers to a role that is exclusively consumption oriented, and, at the institutional level, jeopardizing the credibility of news programming which could have a long-term impact on advertising revenues.     

Emerging Issues in Academic Library Cataloging & Technical Services

This article responds to Jonathan Tuttle's article “The Aphasia of Modern Subject Access” in which Roman Jakobson's semiology of “shared codes” consisting of preexisting signs is offered as the explanation for two redundant linguistic tools associated with cataloging: LCSH and LCC. The article criticizes Tuttle's terminology, his semiology, and his argument that selection and combination are both necessary for the operation of language but each are associated with only one of these tools.

“The Aphasia of Modern Subject Access” by Jonathan Tuttle appears in Cataloging &; Classification Quarterly, Vol. 50, Issue 4, 2012, pp. 263—275. doi: 10.1080/01639374.2011.641199. Jonathan Tuttle's “Jakobsonian Library Science? A Response to David Bade” appears in Cataloging &; Classification Quarterly, Vol. 51, Issue 4, 2013, pp. 439—440. doi: 10.1080/01639374.2013.763321.     

What Makes “Good” News Newsworthy?

To combat the constant supply of negative news, some online news outlets focus solely on “good” news. But what is the value of “good” news? A content analysis was conducted to determine which traditional news values (timeliness, conflict, impact, etc.) appear in stories on Web sites dedicated to positive news. The researcher compared “good” news sites to the New York Times. Results indicated that the majority of “good” news stories were entertaining and emotional, whereas the majority of New York Times stories involved authority figures and conflict. Good news stories were less committed to journalism’s core functions, such as holding power accountable and providing the public with information necessary for creating an informed electorate.     

Giving voice to the accused: Serial and the critical potential of true crime

The first season of Serial, to date the most popular podcast in the medium’s decade-long history, told the story of the conviction of 18-year-old Adnan Syed in 2000 for the murder of his ex-girlfriend, Hae Min Lee. At the center of Serial, producer Sarah Koenig presented Syed’s voice, his take on the prosecution’s evidence, and his own contemporaneous experience. This essay examines the way Serial used Syed’s voice to challenge institutional truth claims from within the textual space of crime journalism. “Criminal biography,” as a genre affordance of true crime, offers a textual means to interrogate modes of truth production and representation.     

Remembering and Disremembering: A Museum Perspective

Abstract Ken Waliaula’s essay in this issue, Remembering and Disremembering in Africa, acutely observes the interaction of individual memory with what has been remembered and “disremembered” (willfully erased) by local communities and larger national political structures in Kenya. His reflections on the way society deals with memory offer valuable insight into museum‐making. Exhibitions can accommodate the fuller range of complexity, meaning, and interpretation that is reflective of real history as experienced from the range of perspectives Waliaula describes. To create such exhibitions, museum professionals need to adopt methods of collection and curation that differ from the common practice of “telling the story” in favor of incorporating greater narrative variety that embodies the complex contradictions of events that become history. By doing so, museums may better equip their users to share interpretive authority and experience a greater sense of authenticity within the exhibition.     

Mutatis Mutandis: Writing (After Derrida [After McLuhan {After Joyce}])

This essay plays Jacques Derrida and Marshall McLuhan off of one another and allows each to rub up against the other's voice. It will be argued that these works (which are rarely, if ever, read in conjunction) elicit underlying themes of each other, including similarities found in both their subjects and their reception. A connection via James Joyce will be discussed as well. The “writing” of non-books by Derrida and McLuhan, it will be argued, deconstructs communication form in a manner similar to Joyce, highlighting and applying to Derrida and McLuhan what Samuel Beckett once said of Joyce: “His writing is not about something; it is that something itself.”     

Digitally Empowered

In January 2013, Peter Bradshaw, a film critic for The Guardian, said that Twitter users had become the favourite “critics” of the film industry. The implicit concern in this article on a subject dear to cultural journalism—“Would be criticism bankrupted when we are all ‘critics’ on the Web?”—became evident in the following years. It is pertinent, then, to explore the media answer not only to this subject but both to sourcing and expertise in general in the culture section. Did they embrace these new news sources (and which) that emerged in the digital environment, such as the reader, blogs or artists tweets? Assuming the first hypothesis, how did they include them in their editorial model, alongside with the “traditional” experts and sources? We conducted a content analysis to the culture section of an international media—The Guardian—between 2014 and 2016 (n?=?992), identifying the role of what we would like to call digitally empowered sources and the presence of new “experts” in cultural criticism. We concluded that these digitally empowered sources play an important role in the overall editorial, business and engagement media's strategy and are deeply engaged with a new digital feature: hypertextuality. New patterns of expertise also reflect an editorial positioning supported in an engagement strategy and in the recognition of the readers’ added value to content.     

Placing Facebook

Facebook is challenging professional journalism. These challenges were evident in three incidents from 2016: the allegation that Facebook privileged progressive-leaning news on its trending feature; Facebook’s removal of the Pulitzer Prize-winning “Napalm Girl” photo from the pages of prominent users; and the proliferation of “fake news” during the US presidential election. Using theoretical concepts from the field of boundary work, this paper examines how The Guardian, The New York Times, Columbia Journalism Review and Poynter editorialized Facebook’s role in these three incidents to discursively construct the boundary between the value of professional journalism to democracy and Facebook’s ascendant role in facilitating essential democratic functions. Findings reveal that these publications attempted to define Facebook as a news organization (i.e., include it within the boundaries of journalism) so that they could then criticize the company for not following duties traditionally incumbent upon news organizations (i.e., place it outside the boundaries of journalism). This paper advances scholarship that focuses on both inward and outward conceptions of boundary work, further explores the complex challenge of defining who a journalist is in the face of rapidly changing technological norms, and advances scholarship in the field of media ethics that positions ethical analysis at the institutional level.