Media Ethics in the Digital World: Emerging Technology Concerns and Covid-19 Lessons

Abstract

When teaching the Internet section in the introductory class a year ago, I used to cover only Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 eras. This year, what some termed as “Web 3.0” becomes an inevitable topic. While the term is still controversial, it is clear that we are witnessing the rise of a new era marked with blockchain, cryptocurrency, and metaverse, which all bring about new concerns and challenges. Technological advancement has been fueling media ethics concerns for a long time. The ethical issues of Web 1.0 and 2.0 eras are still lingering as we discuss digital ethics, and it is already time to start thinking about what technology might bring us in the near future. This essay reviews two edited volumes that are published at the end of 2022. Ethics in the AI, Technology, and Information Age provides cutting-edge insights about the emerging ethical issues related to the advancement of digital media and technologies, and Social Media Ethics and Covid-19 offers multidisciplinary perspectives about the ethical use of social media (or the lack thereof) during the COVID-19 pandemic. These two books present helpful materials for us to think about current issues and look toward the future. Boylan, M., & Teays, W. (Eds.). (2022). Ethics in the AI, Technology, and Information Age. Rowman & Littlefield. This book is edited by two philosophy professors with an expertise in ethics: Michael Boylan from Marymount University, and Wanda Teays from at Mount Saint Mary’s University. While the book title is not explicitly tied to media ethics, most information technologies covered in this volume play important roles in media and communication industries. In the preface, the editors explained the purpose of this volume is to “promote discussion on how we might take the best from technology while avoiding possible ethical pitfalls.” This is a discussion important to media ethics when more and more information and digital technology are being used in media industries. The 20 chapters in the book are divided into three parts: theoretical background, applications, and challenges. Michael Boylan starts the book with two chapters discussing ethical reasoning and the definition of “nature.” The ethical reasoning chapter provides a detailed philosophical explanation of different views and principles about moral decision-making. The chapter on “nature” discusses this concept as a “background condition” that is fundamental to evaluate various technologies when they go against nature. Boylan outlines the ethical constraints on interfering with nature (p.25), and advocates for a “go slow” approach to technological changes. Part one of the book further discusses the relationship between humans and machines with such topics as transformative technology, which the authors define to be “technology significantly transforms existing states of affairs” (p. 35), transhumanism, which promotes technology to radically enhance human intelligence, health, happiness and longevity” (p.49), and artificial intelligence’s impact on human rights. Part two of the book strikes me as the most relatable among the three for media ethics scholars as the topics are directly connected to technology’s impact on media use, media landscape, and moral development. “The Moral Fog of Social Media” by Dean Cocking and Jeroen van den Hoven describes how our social worlds online create “moral fog” that obscures our understanding of value and reality. They remind us that the ever-developing social worlds, now with the “metaverse,” are selling us