Edward Spence

Information Ethics as a Guide for New Media

Good journalism is based—and to some extent thrives—on a diversity of perspectives from those who supply information and informed opinions to the public. New media journalism is a contemporary newsgathering and disseminating method with enormous communication potential because it is an online forum that can connect a great number of diverse contributors and audiences. Citizen journalism—performed on a global level through the Web—is a potential marvel because of its wide reach and range of diversity. This paper offers an examination and philosophical analysis that shows which facets of new media information ethics and epistemology can be reconciled with universal ethical and epistemological principles and which, if any, cannot. To that end, we wish to provide groundwork for the description and critical evaluation of universal ethical and epistemic standards consistent with the phenomenon of new media journalism.

Information, knowledge and wisdom: groundwork for the normative evaluation of digital information and its relation to the good life

This paper provides a general philosophical groundwork for the theoretical and applied normative evaluation of information generally and digital information specifically in relation to the good life. The overall aim of the paper is to address the question of how Information Ethics and computer ethics more generally can be expanded to include more centrally the issue of how and to what extent information relates and contributes to the quality of life or the good life, for individuals and for society. To answer that question, the paper explores and provides by way of a theoretical groundwork for further research, the concept of wisdom understood as a type of meta-knowledge as well as a type of meta-virtue, which can enable one to both know in principle what a good life is and how to successfully apply that knowledge in living such a life in practice. This answer will be based on the main argument presented in this paper that the notion of wisdom understood as being at once a meta-epistemological, meta-axiological and meta-eudemonic concept, provides the essential conceptual link between information on the one hand and the good life on the other. If, as we are told, this is the Age of Information, both the theoretical examination and analysis of the question of how information relates to the good life and the provision of an adequate answer to that question are essential for developing a deeper understanding of how to evaluate the theoretical and practical implications and ramifications of information for the good life, for individuals and societies generally.

The Epistemology and Ethics of Internet Information

Abstract Beginning with the initial premise that as the Internet has a global character, the paper will argue that the normative evaluation of digital information on the Internet necessitates an evaluative model that is itself universal and global in character [1]. The paper will show that information has a dual normative structure that commits all disseminators of information to both epistemological and ethical norms. Based on the dual normative characterization of information the paper will seek to demonstrate: (1) that information and internet information (interformation) specifically, has an inherent normative structure that commits its producers, disseminators, communicators and users, everyone in fact that deals with information, to certain mandatory epistemological and ethical commitments; and (2) that the negligent or purposeful abuse of information in violation of the epistemological and ethical commitments to which it gives rise is also a violation of universal rights to freedom and wellbeing to which all agents are entitled by virtue of being agents, and in particular informational agents.

A universal model for the normative evaluation of internet information

Beginning with the initial premise that as the Internet has a global character, the paper will argue that the normative evaluation of digital information on the Internet necessitates an evaluative model that is itself universal and global in character (I agree, therefore, with Gorniak- Kocikowska’s claim that because of its global nature “computer ethics has to be regarded as global ethics”. (Gorniak-Kocikowska, Science and Engineering Ethics, 1996). The paper will show that information has a dual normative structure that commits all disseminators of information to both epistemological and ethical norms that are in principle universal and thus global in application. Based on this dual normative characterization of information the paper will seek to demonstrate: (1) that information and internet information (interformation) specifically, as a process and product of communication, has an inherent normative structure that commits its producers, disseminators, communicators and users, everyone in fact that deals with information, to certain mandatory epistemological and ethical commitments; and (2) that the negligent or purposeful abuse of information in violation of the epistemological and ethical commitments to which its inherent normative structure gives rise is also a violation of universal rights to freedom and wellbeing to which all agents are entitled by virtue of being agents, and in particular informational agents.

Virtual Rape, Real Dignity: Meta-Ethics for Virtual Worlds

This chapter explores what ought to be the ethics that guide the conduct of people participating in virtual worlds in their roles as designers, administrators and players or avatars. Using Alan Gewirth’s argument for the Principle of Generic Consistency (Reason and Morality, 1978) and an expanded argument for the PGC (Spence, Ethics Within Reason: A Neo-Gewirthian Approach, 2006), the chapter will demonstrate that avatars as virtual representations of real people (at least with regard to some virtual worlds in which the virtual agency of the avatar can be considered an extension of the agency of the person instantiating the avatar in the real world) can and must be perceived as virtual purposive agents that have moral rights and obligations similar to those of their real counterparts. With regard to agency those rights are merely prima facie but with regard to personhood framed around the notion of self-respect those rights are absolute. Finally, the chapter will show how the rules of virtual worlds as instantiated by the designers’ code and the administrators’ end-user license agreement (EULA), must always be consistent with and comply with the requirements of universal morality as established on the basis of the Principle of generic Consistency (PGC). When the two come into conflict, the PGC, as the supreme principle of morality, is always overriding.

Is Technology Good for Us? A Eudaimonic Meta-Model for Evaluating the Contributive Capability of Technologies for a Good Life.

The title refers to the question addressed in this paper, namely, to what degree if any technology, including nanotechnologies, in the form of products and processes, is capable of contributing to a good life. To answer that question, the paper will develop a meta-normative model whose primary purpose is to determine the essential conditions that any normative theory of the Good Life and Technology (T-GLAT) must adequately address in order to be able to account for, explain and evaluate the Contributive Capability of Technology for a Good Life (CCT-GL). By CCT-GL understand the capability of any technological product or process in its design and/or its use to contribute in some way, if any, to the good life of individuals and society at large. In this paper, the all-embracing term “technology” will be used to refer to both the products and processes of different technologies.

Journalism Ethics' Eightfold Truths

Because the book review editor contributed to two of the volumes reviewed below, this book review section features a guest editor for both the Whitehouse review of Ethics and Entertainment and the Spence review of Journalism Ethics. Special thanks to Bernard Armada from the University of St. Thomas for editing these reviews. The Journal of Mass Media Ethics continually seeks suggestions of both titles and thoughtful reviewers for books, software packages, films, and other materials that relate to teaching and research in media ethics. Please contact the book review editor with recommendations and comments.

The normative structure of information and its communication

Purpose – Beginning with the initial premise that the internet has a global character, the purpose of this paper is to argue that the normative evaluation of digital information on the internet necessitates an evaluative model that is itself universal and global in character. To this end, the paper aims to demonstrate and support a universal model for the normative evaluation of information on the internet.Design/methodology/approach – The design and application of a dual normative model of information show how such a model commits all disseminators of information to universal epistemological and ethical norms.Findings – Based on the dual normative characterization of information, the paper demonstrates that information and internet information specifically, have an inherent normative structure that commits its disseminators to certain mandatory epistemological and ethical commitments; and that the negligent or purposeful abuse of information in violation of those commitments is also a violation of univer...