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Ethics is a form of inquiry concerned with the process of finding rational justifications for our actions when the values we hold come into conflict.

Ethics is about reasoning.

Ethical question: How do we justify an act as being the “right” thing to do?

Morality asks: what is Good?

Ethics Asks: How can we say that this particular action would be the Right thing to do?

Consequentialist (or Utilitarian) ethics:

Figure out the cost and benefits of actions. What are the possible good and bad consequences of possible acts, and which action will generate the more positive outcomes?

The problems with consequentialist:

1. What if not everything can be judged in terms of pleasure or pain?

2. What if there are longer-term consequences that we can’t know or didn’t consider?

3. What if there are greater consequences for some than others, or if those consequences outweigh the benefits to others?

A consequentialist approach to mask wearing:

· Pros: lower chance of getting sick, lower chance of transmitting to others, keeps others safe

· Cons: can be inconvenient at times, always remember to bring one, can irritate skin/face, difficulty breathing

· Pro or con: other’s opinion of you

Pros and cons to the consequentialist policy that we now have, e.g. masks are optional:

· Pro: Get to make the decision for yourself

· Con: Don’t care about protecting their community

Duty-based (or Deontological) ethics:

We have certain duties to others that cannot be overridden by considerations as to how much pleasure or pain might be gained or avoided.

“Act only according to the maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law.”- Immanuel Kant [in other words, “what if everyone did that?”]

Kant: there are ethical absolutes such as human rights. We have a duty to ensure that the rights of all are respected at all times and in all situations.

A duty-based approach to mask wearing:

· Pros: follow the mandate, follow CDC protocols; Protecting the community; make a promise to yourself to not endanger others; Ensures that we are each responsible members of society doing our part

· Cons: imposing mask wearing as a duty may align with a particular political party; THUS forcing a duty on someone else could go against some people’s personal belief

Jan. 9 Notes: Meta-Ethics

Media Ethics Case: Google’s PR problem with Ethics

· Timnit Gebru was appointed Head of AI Ethics

· She wrote research papers related to AI

· Her staff wrote about natural language processing

· The system used that translates code into Siri

· They estimated the cost of training a model once → costs have increased exponentially

· PR problem for Google

· Google fired Timnit Gebru

· No evidence that they discussed with PR team before taking action to remove her

· Google head claimed that the issue was literature review rather than sensitive material

· her team disputed this view and many believe she was wrongly let go

· Consequentialist → look at costs and benefits of situation

· Duty-based → based on obligation/promise

· What strategy did Timnit use?

· Duty-based due to her position as an ethicist to hold the company accountable

· Consequentialist when weighing this information for the public

· What strategy did Google use?

· Consequentialist because sweeping information under the rug was more important than allowing the public to see the information

· Less cost to company overall by firing her

Small-Group Discussion

· Relativism → more tolerant approach to ethical norms; different cultures and regions will affect the ethical values

· Absolutist → universal ethical values, know right and wrong

· Pluralist → universal truths, but they are applied differently based on the culture and environment; recognizes some things are indisputable, but people may understand them in different ways

· Different cultures in the US and how that affects the culture and type of ethical reasoning

· Midwest, Northeast, South

· Religion = absolutism?

· (note from Lynn: this discussion was about Catholicism and Catholic schools that mandate prayer, with leaders who are anti-abortion and that expect everyone to adopt the same doctrine. We discussed that there are parts of the Catholic church that can be seen as absolutist, e.g. demanding that the church is in possession of universal understandings of what is right and wrong. We then discussed the experiences that several had had in class with Catholicism, some of which was negative, and some of which looked different in the contexts of Latin America and Mexico. Naila raised the point that in her experience Black and Brown Catholicism was often about communities and could be different from White Catholicism (which can be seen to prioritize rules). Lynn added that Liberation Theology, which is about justice and about the need to emphasize human rights for the poor, grew out of the priests of Latin America who were concerned about the strong linkages between the Catholic church and the governments. This example was meant to illustrate that within Catholicism there is some pluralism, e.g. some Catholicism is absolutist, and there are some within Catholicism who criticize absolutism when it is linked with power and when it overlooks other virtues, like caring for the poor).

· Some want the choice to believe what they want, but they also want to push this onto others

· (we discussed Roe vs. Wade and our concern with absolutism: that it can lead to an imposition onto others. This, Cassis and Antonia pointed out, reveals a contradiction in U.S. society: we think we’re all about individual freedoms, but we also have a system that allows those in power to limit the freedoms of some)

· Christianity → blurring some lines on what is right vs wrong based on the culture of practicing

· How do religion and culture meet and interact?

· Different cultures/religions creating the opportunity to experience religion without it being absolutist

· How does power play a role in deciding what is right and wrong?

· Power linked to class, race, gender

· We will often reflect the values of those in power

· Idea of productivity

· Tied to American Dream

· Systemic power imbalances in every culture

· Ideologies of ethics affect how we see religion, power, and culture.

· Power shapes the choices we have, and both power and religion can be appealing sources for people to base their ideologies around.

Full-Group Discussion

· Objectivity in journalism and how gift-giving can cause tension in this

· Receiving a gift and accepting it as a means of adhere to/respecting the culture, or following your duty as a western journalist to not accept gifts

· Moral relativism is hard to operate with on a daily basis even if it seems intuitive

· No true moral relativists

· Ethics to guide conduct in journalism

CHECK OUT Discussion posts by: Lucy (great critique of relativism), Julianna and Julia (both great entries on pluralism), Cassis (great on how to evaluate when one might utilize absolutism vs. relativism in relation to ethical reasoning.

Jan 11: Feminist, Virtue, Confucian, and African Indigenous/Ubuntu Traditions

MATTHEW’S GROUP NOTES:

· feminist ethics - how men make decisions vs how women make decisions

· definition of feminism - desire to achieve equal representation and rights between men and women…being an individual apart from a man…breaking norms that have been fixed for so long, in terms of career and life choices

· women trying to exist in this already in-place structure

· Are you actually liberated by that or are you just good at playing the male patriarchy game?

· true equity will dissemble that patriarchy

· feminism in-part is playing the game but also combating it, it is hard to define what being liberated is

· What are the virtues that you named in your discussion post that are important for the “good life”?

· empathy

· the practice allows you to experience connection with other people but also yourself and your own experiences

· getting to share that with another person

· understanding of another person

· humility

· looking in on yourself and realizing that not everything revolves around you

· recognizing your relationship to the rest of the world

· being honest towards

· Courage

· What stops us from living the “good life” is comfort and fear

· Have to constantly live with courage to have the “good life” - you can live without it but you won’t be living your best life

· Carebots

· Programmed and hardwired to being caring, honest, and giving

· Virtues that don’t really get built upon is empathy - there needs to be a 2 way connection, they don’t really have a conscience

· Is it an ethical device?

· They are honest and truthful

· If you ask Siri how old Justin Bieber is, she will give you an accurate and honest answer

· You still need to have an ethical framework to decipher what that AI is giving you

· You can’t really have really have a relationship with them

· Do you need to be intentional in order to be virtuous?

· I think it depends on how you grew up, integrated into your everyday life, if you grew up practicing those virtues everyday

· It depends, it can be intentional but most times it is part of our programming

· The rate in which we are developing technology AI could possibly show feeling the way we do, it may not ever get to the same level but at this rate it could get pretty close, close enough for us to not be able to tell the difference

· Ethics?

· Should anyone be able to produce this technology? Someone with good ethics, bad ethics?

· Becoming more of a threat so we will see more regulation as to who is allowed access to that kind of software

· How might religion step into ethical relativism, absolutist, pluralism?

· Most religions have a set of absolutist rules

· Central idea of judaism of asking questions - having a better understanding that isn’t so absolute - offering more perspective

· Asking questions vs being told the rules → creates a different kind of environment

· Is there potential for theological pluralism?

· There’s a relationship with a text

· Theological pluralism would force us to interpret those texts in a more modern way → ask if they are still relevant, old problems in a new context

KATIE’S GROUP NOTES:

· Siri and Alexa don’t really have care and empathy.

· Carebots try to mimics empathy but they don’t provide the true intention.

· It’s hard to grow as a person if you are not honest about where you are at any given moment.

· How can you grow without courage?

· How perspective and humility are important components to have when it comes to empathy.

What happens if you read an article that has been completely composed by AI, but you don’t even know that?

· It could work for basic articles, but if you’re trying to write a piece about human nature and human relationships, how could AI replicate that? They don’t even have the relevant experience.

Some people say Siri or Alexa are honest, so we can trust them. What does it mean to trust them?

· Who’s programming them? We don’t know who they are and what their intentions are.

· They’re only being as honest as you are.

· It depends on their motive.

· Alexa and Siri are going to give us the information that we ask for, in that perspective of honesty.

How do these virtual assistants select articles to give back to you?

· Advertising and recent search history.

· Google tracks your data and they will give you answers that are more closely aligned with your point of view. While it may not be fully honesty, it will give you your version of honesty and what you want o see.

· Human beings are flawed beings that are trying to create a non-flawed being through AI.

· We must consider the consequences of larger technology and how the flaws could be impactful to society.

Do you think technology could advance to the point where machines or software could feel or detect/replicate empathy?

· They can be programmed to be see the micro expressions to see how people are feeling. They can be programmed to reflect it and to “convince” others that they are feeling, but they can’t actually because they’re not sentient beings.

· Ex Machina basically convinces this guy to use his empathy for him to fall in love and then uses his empathy against him to let her free into the world. Considering the cannot feel emotions towards us, they will manipulate and use it against us.

· What’s the purpose of the person who creates it? What are their intentions?

Do you think having an emotional connection to an AI is ever moral or ethical?

· Humans are curious creatures and we’re going to do it anyway, no matter how dangerous it might be.

Can a user act in a virtuous way with the AI in the way that they utilize it? Is there a way that programmers can ensure that users are only using AI in virtuous ways?

· Carebots and elderly people, we hope that they will act virtuous because they are what the patients are relying on. But, it’s not an emotional substitute when its taking care of a person you love.

Any objections to the people who are deciding what is virtuous and what isn’t?

· Are the people creating things thinking about the consequences that may hit society?

· After looking at Timnit’s case, it’s hard to see a tech company as ethical. They are aware of how it hurts the environment and the people who work there. Given the massive impacts of their production on society, it’s hard for them to be ethical.

· Siri and Alexa “listening to us,” is that ethical?

· Some responsibility can fall onto the user, because we signed contracts for them to sell and mine our data. What amount of responsibility do we have for ourselves?

Social media influencers (specifically older gen z) constantly share their lives on social media and don’t really have any boundaries on social media. Whose responsibility is it to educate the younger gen z and generations about how to protect their privacy?

What is the impact for social media user on their self-image and general perspective on life?

· If we were to have grown up with their technology, it would be so hard to understand how we view other people and how we think. Each person is idealizing themselves on social media, so how will they build their true self-image? The younger generations will have a much harder time identifying how they truly look and think that they are the only one like them out there due to social media filters being able to change so much. It will cause intense dysmorphia.

· AI imposing features onto people feeds into the idealized version of beauty rather than understanding that there are so many different versions of beauty.

· Social media AI is just setting a higher beauty standard.

· Filters that can change your features and when you look at a version of yourself that doesn’t actually look how you are in person, it can truly alter reality for you. The filters can distort how people see real life and real image. And then It can seep into our relationships with others.

LYNN’S GROUP:

What virtues are related to AI?

· Alexa and Siri, only really honesty comes into play. These bots are designed to be “nice to us”, “so there are no real feelings involved”

What role does consciousness play in virtues, e.g.:

· Do animals know when they misbehave?

· Yes

· Siri and Alexa can’t have many virtues because they are programmed to not feel many virtues.

· What is different than a dog versus Siri?

· Dogs have a life, emotions, they can be fearful.

· Do other living things have virtues?

· Some have self- awareness, some don’t.

· Will machines be alive?

· No, we don’t think so nor want them to

What is the role of control in our relationships with our machines and other beings?

· Do we control dogs and cats like we control Siri and Alexa?

· They are not the same thing.

· When we talk about control, we are talking about an unequal relationship.

· Do we have an abusive relationship with our devices?

· Not really a relationship.

Do we have to be intentional to be virtuous? Or can a machine or you be unintentionally virtuous?

· If you are too intentional it becomes fake.

· The relationship aspect makes you want to do something for someone. It is in human nature to be unintentionally virtuous. It is in our control on how we react to people.

· Will AI machines be programmed to feel?

· Hopefully not

Can carebots fill in for disability aides?

· Some people are very resistant to the technology

· There is a shortage of care-givers

· People given care mainly have relationships with their care-giver, they won’t want to lose that

CHECK OUT Discussion posts by: Nicole (great discussion of virtues); Molly (great on recognizing the limits of carebots), Emma (raises the interesting question of self-awareness in relation to virtues), Sam (relating virtues to the good life), Tyler (on how AI lacks the ability to discern and intervene positively in human relationships), Britta (on the example of how GPS has deskilled us navigationally and hence how we may be similarly already undergoing deskilling in the realm of care).

Jan 18: Critical Race Theory

Media Ethics Case: Chicago Cubs 2003

· 2003 National League Championship series, Chicago Cubs vs the Miami Marlins

· A fan caught a ball that impacted the game score for the Cubs

· Chicago Cub fans blamed the fan (Steve Bartman) and his identity, job and suburb were published in several papers following the incident

· Was Bartman’s identification neccessary for the story?

· His identification didn’t add anything to the story

· Publishment of suburb was unacceptable

· What is the responsibility of the journalists involved to tell a fair and accurate story? Does that include identifying Bartman by name?

· Journalists could have told a fair and accurate story by identifying him as “just a fan”

Can the media be held responsible for causing Bartman undue harm and his exit from the public eye?

· Yes, the media can and should be held responsible

· Bartman was forced into the public eye

Should the Cubs players or organizations have released a statement on the treatment of Bartman after the incident?

· Bartman was given a world cup ring as reparations

· No statement was released at the time

Critical Race Theory

· What do you feel about a white teacher leading this conversation?

· There are a majority of white professors at DU, like many other universities

· White professors will have to lead these conversations until more POC are professors

Intro to Critical Race Theory Presentation

· Three themes presented in readings:

· Racism is ordinary

· Color-blindess only address blanatn forms of racism and not systemic or institnulizated racism

· Interest convergence

· Racism advances the interests of white elites and white working-class

· Social construction thesis

· Race and races are products of social creation

· Race has no scientific backing but is very socially powerful

· Racism is ordinary in Seeing White

· The Seeing White podcast worked to acknowledge whiteness

· Recognizes racism as something that was socially create

Covergence in Seeing White

· Racism was accepted in Trump election to reap benefits of supporting the president

· Social Construction Theory in Seeing White

· Systemic racism is often ignored in favor of blatant bias

· Techno- Racism

· Digital technologies can discriminate against POC

· The way POC can interact with technology is different than how white people interact with it (risk assement systems, fraud detection, etc. are inherently racist)

· All systems are based in racist data collection and racist systems that have been built over time (facial recognition software can reproduce racist assumptions)

· Demanding legislation for algorithm restrictions and hiring more POC in power positions for technological companies can help offset this

The New Jim Code, Ruha Benjamin

· What are Jim Crow laws?

· State laws and local statues common after the Civil War that denied Balck people the right to vote, hold jobs and have access to education and other benefits

· Ruha Benjamin argues this is the New Jim Crow: new technologies reproduce existing inequities but are perceived as more progressive and objective than other discriminatory systems

Race After Technology

· New technology encourages us to reexamine relationships with others

· POC were seen as in a servile position: carebots will take this role

Small Group Discussion: Lynn’s Group

1. What was familiar to you in the readings or podcasts?

a. Current systems cannot be equal, structures need to be totally rebuilt

b. Color blindness can only do so much: instituionalized racism will be overlooked

2. What was new to you that you found memorable or surprising?

a. CRT was outlined in a very clear way

b. Raical bias and structural racism were presented as seperate ideas

c. Race as a created structural system, starting with Porteguese colonists

3. If someone in your group listened to the podcast, ask that person to talk about what Chenjerai Kumanyika said about ignornace preceding exploitation. How were you taught about racism in elementary, junior high or high school: was it similar to what Chenjerai described?

a. Ignorance didn’t precede exploitation: Exploitation was the goal and racism was used to justify this

b. Lynn was taught that colonization was heroic and that slavery was embarrassing for both Black people and white people. Patriotism and whiteness were connected and white people were supposed to “civilize” and make this country better for their descendants.

c. Sami was taught that Thanksgiving was about creating peace and learned about the racism and violence from friends in the Native American community

d. Britta was taught to glamorize Christopher Columbus and saw the narrative around race change with Trump’s election.

e. Southerners have an interesting perspective around race: guilt works with defensiveness. Abbie was taught to celebrate MLK day and that being color blind was good.

f. Analeez didn’t really discuss slavery in school and was taught more about the Spanish Conquistadors in a way that painted them in a very positive light.

4. When have you discussed CRT in your other classes at DU?

a. Classes in Spanish department and International Relations have touched on themes of CRT

b. English language is very pervasive in South Africa - prestige associated with English, inheritance of colonial power relations

c. Our experiences have been limited to the white perspective

d. Classes have discussed school to prison pipleline for Latinx and Black Americans - people in lower income and minority communities have a greater chance of going to prison than to college- there is an emphasis on discipline in schools that have a large POC population and some graduate highschool with a record and are denied opportunities later on

5. How do you see CRT as relating to the media and communication professions?

a. Understanding CRT is important for recognizing and reporting on larger systemic issues

6. What about techno-racism: how do you see this as relevant to the media and communication professions (if you do)?

Matthew’s Group:

Podcast talked about law changes that created more slaves: lineage based on mother, not father

Evolution of race education from elementary school to college

Catholic and Christian schools may avoid teaching CRT because those religions are primarily responsible for colonization

If we are going to be working in media and communication spaces your job is to spread objective information and understanding of CRT is vital for this

Techno-racism is very imbedded in every day life

-interesting how the podcasts framed the creation of race/racism: couldn’t be enslaved if an individual was christian, but once that began to free enslaved individuals they went and changed the laws in order to keep individuals enslaved

-We were initially taught that race is a biological category, then we were taught to “not see color” and now we are learning that race is a social construct, the definition of race seems to be ever changing since we first started learning about it

-when you go to an all white or mostly white school, race isn’t really talked about

-christian/catholic schools may avoid teaching CRT because those religions are historically responsible for colonization and oppression of people of color

-the social constructionist theory mentioned in the podcast illuminates the fact that racism isn’t just something that is learned about in history class, it is baked into society and needs constant work

-when we see pictures from the civil rights movement or from the I Have A Dream speech, they are all in black and white and it subconsciously makes us feel like these issues were so far in the past

-white fragility: white people find it difficult to talk about race and can even spin it into feeling like the victim

-coming to college opened up opportunities to read texts and other materials by a wider range of authors of different races and ethnicities

-in order to work in media and communication spaces, having knowledge about techno racism is important to have when your job is to spread objective information

-soap dispensers and towel dispensers have been shown to be more receptive to lighter skin tones, this shows how deeply embedded techno racism is

Student Group:

All were taught color blindness

Evolution of race education to race being a social construct

CRT is based on radical feminism and critical legal studies

DU is a PWI and white professors explain CRT without experience - conversations about race in high school were rare

Media field doesn’t have a lot of diversity, studying CRT adds a critical lens and larger viewpoint but problem cannot be solved on an individual level

How Ethics Relate to Communications Technologies:

· Individual ethics are related to duty and consequentialist ethics

· Social ethics are related to policy, regulation, legislation, design process, project management, organizational norms and corporate cultures: CRT provides a good foundation for these critiques

· Refers to the systematic reflection on the moral dimensions of social structures, systems, issues and communities

· What you do when considering social ethics:

· 1. Examine social conditions to identify injustices

· 2. Analyze possible actions that could alter those conditions

· 3. Select course of action that enables collective work

Jan. 23: Privacy

8 Michigan sailors went missing

A journalist wanted to come sit with the family, and the editor forced her to intrude on the families privacy; they knew man had died but family hadn’t been told yet.

“Your job is not to concern yourself with what sources want or don’t want. Your job is to get the story.”

Reporters should be able to say no and not get fired.

Stakeholders: editor: consequentialist: competing w/others who were getting the story. Also duty to news organization. Journalist: feminist ethics of care.

Privacy Approaches:

· There are strong cultural influences of the way that they see and understand privacy between the US and EU

GDPR: The general data protection regulation is a regulation in the EU law on data protection and privacy in the EU and the European Economic Area.

· Implemented on May 25, 2018

Colorado Privacy Act: Legal entities conducting business in CO or delivering products/services to CO residents that either

1. Control or process the personal data of 100000 or more consumers during a year

2. Control or process the personal data of 25000 or more consumers and derive revenue or a discount on the price of goods/services for the sale of personal data.

CO must give privacy notices and CO consumers have the right to opt out of personalized advertisement

Social Credit System: The Chinese communist party employs a social credit system to monitor the behavior of its citizens, rewarding “high” social credit and punishing “low” social credit. CCP justified this by saying SCS encourages ethical behavior

· low privacy for the public goods

Lynn’s Group:

Chat GPT isn’t something we’ve heard of before, but the video made us weary of how much AI is advancing.

Feels like we’re going in the direction of robots over humans, especially since the AI is multi-dimensional and can not only write the paper, but they can grade it as well.

Influencers post without boundaries online and they have to be okay with having almost zero privacy because that’s how they gain popularity.

· Influencers don’t really mean to become popular, whereas journalists are following trends.

· Journalists address important things and are involved within the community.

· There’s an overlap, but they earn money in different ways. Journalists don’t specifically promote brands, but both influencers and journalists become their own personal brands.

Could journalists act ethically when promoting a product?

You could report on something after the fact: saying that “hey I did this for your company and you should now pay me”

Journalists shouldn’t be looking for stories that can constantly be monetized.

Where does privacy come into play within journalists and influencers?

· It depends on the journalist. Do they want to be personable and take away third place, or do they want to be objective and just report on the issues themselves?

· It comes to the point where journalists have to decide how they want to build their career.

Can ChatGPT be useful under certain circumstances?

· If you’re using it for papers, you’re not doing the actual work that you need to be doing.

· It’s a tool and it's there, so it comes to the point where you want to align yourself with the new technology, or if you want to fall behind.

· It can be good for those who have ADHD because they are able to see the structure behind processes.

The Social Credit System: ignores the entire aspect of what being a human is. You’re going to have ups and downs, and you shouldn’t be docked for not having a good interaction with every single person that you meet.

· There’s a certain part of your brain that puts humanity into things, but the SCS takes that humanity away. It takes away the qualities of life that are specific to each person.

It could be used to combat biases if it was built correctly, but each person would have to be unbiased to each new person that they meet.

In the SCS you get credits based on personality, doing things that are expected within the community. Whereas systems like Uber ratings work because they are doing a job.

Students are having to fight certain battles everyday, especially when it comes to balancing mental health. There are some students that have a hard time being academically on top of things, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t trying.

· You get out of school what you put into it, and just because some people seem to put more effort into things doesn’t mean that everyone else isn’t putting in any effort.

SCS would be detrimental to mental health because that’s just one more thing for people to worry about. We are already so concerned with how we look and how people see us, that this would be so hard on mental health.

SCS shouldn’t be a huge influence on people’s lives.

SCS can also take away our personalities and our humanity, we will all eventually act the same if we were to be rated like they are in Black Mirror.

In society, we have an undocumented SCS system where we can still keep track of a person’s reputation. We all want to be loved and seen as a kind person, whereas a system to be rated like on Black Mirror would make it difficult to act on our own.

· Without having people pushing back, there would be no change within our society. If we all had to act according to a system, who would push things back when things are unethical?

Jan. 25: Privacy, II

Media Ethics Case Study

· BlackkKlansman

· Directed by Stan Lee

· Tells story of Ron Stallworth

· Fictionalized history

· Role of the film when it come to history

· It's important for viewers to fact check and look at the real history themselves

· If filmmakers are going to do a film on historical event, filmmakers are responsible to tell the truth as it is

· We don’t hold filmmakers to the historical rigor as we do with professionals

Privacy II Class Presentation

· Ubuntu

· Personal info is known to group

· Group mindset

· Buddhist

· Stresses idea of rational self that is defined by relationship with family and community

· Encourages sharing info with community

· Confucian

· People are defined through relationships

· Selfhood is rooted in relationships rather than in the self

· EU Approach

· More duty-based

· More focused on private life

· More communal in regards to privacy

· Asian Approach

· More communal approach to privacy

· US Approach

· “Privacy us an essential condition for our creating our very selves”

· Have to put extra efforts for privacy= opt out v. opt in

Class Video: The Transition “Digital Economy”

· EU is more hands on vs. US is more hands off

· EU has lots of work to do in regard to how to form antitrust rules

· We always expect people to know what tech companies are going to do with their info

· There is a power imbalance

· Tech sector hasn’t been regulated like others

· Checks and balances has not stayed in sync with spread of technologies

· Governments have to step in to give fairness

· EU has broad spread of taxation on tech companies/ softwares

· EU and US should work together on shared standards

· Take responsibility for world order with tech

· Hasn’t been much of an effort to do this

· Transatlantic relations with other countries has not been easy

· Urgency should come from the whole world

· A matter of defending self interest by working together

· Can democratic institutions keep up?

· Theoretically strong enough

· Challenge is significant for lawmakers

Small Group Discussion: Leadership Team

· Why hasn't the tech industry been regulated?

· Tech isn’t really known to have longer term effects

· Impacts of other industries is so physical, very different compared to tech

· Regulations started when tech was just starting/ today it is hard to keep track of advancements

· Tech advances way too quick for us to keep up with

· People are less willing to regulate things that make profit

· Why is the EU more in favor of taxing tech companies?

· EU is more collaborative

· A lot more concerned with privacy= help with regulation through taxing

· American tends to prioritize business = less incentive to tax big tech

· Should there be a rules based international order over the digital realm?

· That would be almost impossible= different cultures, views on privacy, etc.

· It’s not realistic

· Are democratic institutions strong enough to provide fundamental weight to protect people’s rights in society?

· On a smaller scale= could be possible

· Why don’t legislatures know more about the tech environment? Impacts us in self governing?

· Tech is such a big field=it is almost impossible to observe

· Tech is always changing

· Not a huge issue from voters = won’t be a huge issue to politicians

· More in support of seeing where it's going to go than to stop it

· Why does it matter that there are different approaches to ethical reasoning?

· It would be hard to get everyone to on board on one way for everyone to follow

· Unethical to make one ethical choice for the whole world

· What tensions arise in Western convenience and Eastern emphasis on relationship building?

· Gives rise to tensions on how the world should regulate

· Opens convos on what approaches are right or wrong= unethical to pick one or the other

· Social media today

· We are moving towards more communal way of sharing

· Ex. private stories on social media

· Generational gaps in understanding privacy

· It’s almost impossible to not have a digital footprint in this day and age

Lynn’s Group

· Tension between cultures asked to enact western values, tech parts made outside U.S., influence of colonization, made for largely American marketplace

· Western sharing of secrets online is often performative, almost nothing on social media is candid, it’s put there for a purpose - “selective secrets”, sometimes fabricated completely to put forth a persona on social media, not necessarily accountability, “performative”

· influencers come up with secrets to share to give them a leg up, fabricate a secret to make yourself seem more authentic, performative

· U.S. has more of an emphasis on family privacy rather than communal, polarized by different traits and beliefs, scew towards what you grew up with, as a country we don’t have one communal interest that we all agree on, wearing masks wasn’t a communal agreement in the U.S., family and communal interests can interconnected, AIDS crisis (some people turned a blind eye but if someone in family got sick, people started caring about AIDS crisis as a communal issue)

· Individualistic society in U.S., loss of social capital and communities in the U.S., people are individualistic but when you do try to be communal, think of family first, what you know/comfortable with more than strangers. Because we don’t interact with one another (worker living next to boss) on a social basis, destroys fabric of United States

· Communities built through technology might not be understood by older communities, creates a new era of community, goes above and beyond neighborhoods/borders/places, community has changed

· When Molly was getting American visa and thought she would reveal any sensitive content about U.S. or China, issue of national security interests/trust, difficult to address someone else’s suspicions

· Took a long time to regulate pharmaceutical industry, will probably take a long time to regulate tech industry especially since its rooted in a libertarian, hands off principles, less willing to have taxed, pays off in quality of life

· Pros & cons of rules-based privacy policy, outsider perspectives on U.S. help us see how they view our policies, makes us rethink, countries affected by colonialism who make parts for technology could be exploited/affected negatively by U.S. and European alliance, calling the shots for the rest of the world, the concern is who gets to save a say about this international order, emphasize power discrepancies that are already a part of our systems

· Bipartisan system in American politics, creates polarization that means that not much gets done, both sides aren’t happy, end up in gridlock, voting against other party rather than build alliances across multiple parties and a willingness to compromise to keep politics going - compromises democracy

· China only has one party, intense COVID protocols, only reopen for economic interests rather than democratic values or what’s best for people

· Worst case scenario of nationalism and one-party system w/ technology - manipulation of media/censorship/fake news

· Russia produces news in English and other languages as a means to extend control to build a bigger empire - ex. Of manipulation of media

· Consider various approaches to privacy across cultures/communities/examine pros and cons - one overarching opinion doesn’t give us freedom to gain a broader perspective from other cultures

Abbie’s Notes:

· Film and Fictionalizing Truth

· BlacKKKlansman

· Black policeman infiltrates the KKK by using a fake (i.e. more white-sounding) voice

· Do filmmakers have a responsibility to accurately portray history rather than fictionalize it?

· Privacy II

· Non-Western approaches to privacy

· Ubuntu

· Personal information known and shared with group

· Withholding information is “abnormal”

· Buddhist

· “No self” - the idea that one should share their most intimate/personal secrets in order to reach enlightenment

· Confucian

· Emphasizes the good of the larger community

· People defined through their relationships - self is defined through these relationships

· Encourage sharing information rather than keeping it private

· EU approach to privacy

· More concerned with duty-based ethics

· Asian culture more concerned with the communal effect of privacy

· US approach to privacy

· Privacy of spaces → information

· “...privacy is an essential condition for our creating our very selves”

· Default system of opting out if one has reservations about their information being collected, processed, and distributed

· New types of privacy

· Accessibility privacy

· Freedom from unwanted intrusion

· Decisional privacy

· Freedom from interference from others in one’s personal choices, plans, and decisions

· Relational privacy

· Protection of close relationships that define our sense of selfhood

· Contextual integrity → divulging vs. withholding information in certain contexts

· Relational autonomy → middle ground between individual and relational sense of self

· The Transition (YouTube video)

· Differences between American and European thoughts about privacy

· European countries are more likely to consider the compatibility between facial recognition software and personal privacy

· Small Group Discussion

· Why has the tech industry not been regulated like the drug industries?

· Can the law truly catch up with technology given how quickly it is developing?

· Why are Europeans more in favor of taxing tech countries than we are in the U.S.?

· Cultural differences

· Europeans - taxed to support social programs (“taxing them [Europeans] down the right path”)

· US - we don’t particularly like taxation and resist turning our money over

· How does the American Dream play into this?

· Europe, though still a capitalist system, have a more socialist approach in looking at how these things will benefit their people

· Americans emphasize agency

· How do religion, taxation, tech and agency tie together?

· Some religions more likely to encourage taxation and others less so

· Should there be a rules-based international order?

· Potentially, but it will be hard to create one given the variety in levels of mastery/knowledge of technology

· What is the balance between prioritizing personal privacy and convenience

· Convenience is important in that we’re not going to spend hours of our day making sure that all of our information is protected - we simply don’t have the time

· We care until we don’t anymore

Legal and Cultural Differences in Privacy

Maddison’s Notes

US vs. EU

Cultural influences on approaches to privacy

The US doesn't see IP addresses as personal, whereas the EU does

EU Law: GDPR- General Data protection regulation to prevent businesses from taking data

Colorado Privacy Act:

Legal entities conducting business in CO or delivering products/services to CO residents

Personal Data: Data that is linked to personal identity

Social Credit System

What does SCS include? Chinese Government

Personal & Financial Information

Positive Behavior(+)

Negative Behavior(-)

How does ChatGPT protect our privacy?

Tyler: asked provided question; Chat GPT takes data privacy seriously; email/personal data signed up with is pointless to keep up with

Abbie: Still a risk when entering things into the server

Casis: If people cared about protecting data, they wouldn't ask and give options for not using it

Tyler: Programmed with Ethics in mind, Chat GBT could/would not guess his nationality

Discuss ChatGPT and the social credit system:

Maddi: Social Credit System could benefit in small ways but not on a large scale

Casis: Should people be able to take down things that got them canceled on the internet?

Maddi: Important to have some

Abbie: Flawed to assign value to people, not a forgiving system, could wreck people's life(Black Mirror Episode), Not the Best way to go about societal standings. Is it fair to characterize a person on their worst day?

Discussing GDPR:

EU regulation that businesses must protect the data of all EU citizens

Natalie: It would drastically change social media/social media feeds

Seeing what you want to see before you see it, people like the algorithm

Mario: Depends on the social media site and how GDPR would affect it?

What do the GDPR, Colorado Privacy Act, and CCPA can protect your rights when using ChatGPT?

How will ChatGPT affect media professions?

Tyler: Journal articles, How will this change the field of journalism

Concerning how this will affect the journalism field

Casis: Journalism holds institutions accountable. Can ChatGPT hold institutions accountable in the same way

Is ChatGPT ethical for journalism?

Probably not… Could it be hacked? How could that change public perception of the issue being reported

Abbie: How can we fact-check a machine? Since they're so evolved, how can we go about making sure they are correct and protecting media ethics?

How can privacy be a luxury?

Casis: Government surveillance monitors minority communities more than white communities, its a luxury not to be perceived as a threat

Media Literacy

Mario: VPN puts in another country luxury to not have location tracked

Jan. 30: Social Media & Ethics

Media case study: Embedded reporters:

· Embed long-term with military unit

· Unrestricted access to operations and activities

· Media coverage necessary to shaping public perception

· Does media influence the perception on war?

· Embedded reporters only have a reputation of putting our side of the war in a positive light

Ethical issue: can this be unbiased?

Embedded reporters ‘santized’ Iraq war: people not given full picture of the war, tended to be ‘pro-war’

What about photos of violence and death? It’s actually hard to have photos of the ‘other’ side that are neutral

Antonia: “There is no neutrality.” But if it’s not reported, what are the consequences? We have to ask: is the reporting truthful, and how does ‘truth’ serve as a reflection of our own reality?

There are newspaper-related issues. Reporter, out in the war zone, editor says: give me one column on the conflict. Which is about 500 words. Can’t do justice to the complexity of the conflict. The editor has a lot of say in what gets in the news. Inverted pyramid: lead (or lede) paragraph: summarizes the whole story. Can be one sentence. If it’s a longer story, it gets to “the jump,” e.g. take them to another page. Many people don’t get to the second page. Have to write for a 7th grade reading level. Now 5th grade. And the “news hole” is shrinking.

Cassis: it’s not just that the journalists are biased, it’s that the U.S. news media is seeing things from the perspective of the U.S. troops.

Embedded reporters

· Embed journalists with the military long term

· Media coverage necessary to shaping public perspective

o Journalists often only share positive stories

· Embedded reporters accused of ‘sanitizing’ Iraq war

o Seeing conflict directly through the lens of American troops

Ch. 3 & 5 Class Presentation

· Chapter 3 “Copying and Distributing”

Copying is different than stealing

Arguments against DRM

- DRM is necessary to fight copyright infringement

4 kinds of freedom for software users

o Intellectual property law is shaped by utilitarian ethic

§ In US copyright is used to protect corporations, while in the EU it protects the individual

· Chapter 5 “ Sex bots, Porn, and Games”

o Introduction to a hyper stimulate age of taboo media as a source of entertainment

§ Phenomenological analysis- uses human experience as primarily embodied beings (an approach to research that describes the essence of a phenomenon by exploring in form a perspective of those who have experienced it)

o Sexbots

§ Robots entered the Western imagination as often female, and almost always seductive and dangerous (the male dream of the ‘perfect’ woman)

§ Utilitarian approach

· Not in too distant future

· Entail economic benefits like teenage pregnancy, abortion, STDs, and pedophilia

§ Deontological and virtue ethics

· The rights of robots as they become more independent

o Sex and violence in games

§ The diffusion of games, as with the diffusion of pornography has followed the diffusion of mobile devices

§ Game world creates a space to make ethical decisions whether they are right or wrong

· Cometitive gaming is starting to look like professional sports

· School shootings can be linked to high use of violent video games

· Game violence and how they are guarded per country differ widely depending on the games

Personhood

· Race

- Is there a scientific basis for race? - No

Race is real in the concept of how we treat eachother dependant on the color of our skin

- The “So What? Why Should we Care, Nerds?”

Because people do religion with porn

Because the ethics discussing goes to the heart of bodily autonomy, gender, representation of women and marginalized peoples

- Because harm?

- Gender

- Porn can create a larger divide in how each gender is treated in terms of submissive and dominant roles among male and female

o Gender- how does the porn industry define gender norms

§ Male and female identities

§ Creates a binary, misrepresentation, lack of representation for non-binary and gender binary non-conforming individuals

· Only Fans- Is it empowering?

o Allows people who have been objectified to take back the profession and if they have agency over what they are producing, it can be empowering

§ If the person can control their own narrative about their own personhood, then it can be empowering

o Based on who is consuming this media, this kind of media can still be objectified

· How will sexbots play into gender, race, and religion?

o The buyer gets to customize

o Dangerous implications

· At what point do robots become people or when should we consider robots people?

Sex, Pop Culture, and Religion

· Can the involvement of the porn industry be empowering?

- Linking your identity and choosing how their body is being used and seen can be empowering by keeping the personhood in place

- Is there a disconnect between who they are and the character they choose to be in the sex world?

Sexbots

· How may sexbots influence gender, race, and religion

- You can choose and customize sexbots to any race, religion and gender you want

- This customization can influence how a person treats others that may closely mirror what their sex bots look like

- Is a robot a person? At point could they or will they ever?

- Should a robot have any legal rights? “Person under the law”

- Sexbots should be regulated to what they can look like to protect real-life people against harmful fetishization

January 30 2029

Case Study: Embedded Reporters

· Embed long-term with military unit

· Unrestricted access to operations and activities

· Media coverage necessary to shaping public perception 

Embedded reporters sanitized Iraq War

· Reporters accompanied british and us military to document the iraq war

· Avoided capturing images of the war

Ethics

· Humanity - Was the graphic display of war necessary for the information being told

· Impartiality, does the portrayal of advances made by either side stay to context and informative language

· Accountability liability in false implication that on aspects of the case have implications toward the benefitting party

· Accuracy of the event.

1. How can journalists ensure their work is not viewed as war propaganda?

2. When is it ethical for journalists to capture image of the wounded and dying?

3. How does this affect the neutrality of reporters in the eyes of the American public, combatants, and local civilians?

“There is no neutrality, they are journalists, does not mean they are not part of the unit. They are placed there and it is impossible for there to be neutrality, especially when it comes to how they are perceived by others. Their work and presence will be perceived this way” “They are supposed to be unbiased, are they reporting the truth if it is not unbiased? If it is not neutral, then how they perceive it will be our reality” Reporters are only given a certain amount of space to cover a whole conflict, the space will affect what gets put into the article, and put the most important in it (what they think is most important)

4. Should long term national security be a consideration for reporters?

Social Media and Ethics

While copying is different than stealing there are still militarism and consequentiallist and virtuous point of view that can be seen from these situations

DRM- necessary to fight copyright infringement online and keep consumers safe from viruses. But there is no evidence that the DRM helps.

US has a utilitarian ethic

EU has a more deontological approach because copyright is considered to be an intrinsic right of the individual

Four freedoms:

1. Freedom to run program

2. Freedom to

3. Freedom

4. Freedom to

CH5

-Introduction to a hyper stimulate age of taboo media as a source of entertainment

-Phenomenological analyses use carefully disciplined attention to human experience as primarily embodied veins (an approach to research that describes the essence of a phenomenon by exploring it from the perspective of those who have experienced it.

-Sexbots: Robots entered the western imagination as often female, and then as almost always seductive and dangerous.

-In japan, Anime, and western countries and cultures sexbots are clearly designed and marketed to be perfectly compliant to their owners wishes

-Utilitarian approaches

- Deontological and virtue ethics

Sex and Violence in Games

1. The diffusion of games, as with the diffusion of pornography has followed diffusion of mobile devices

2. A long list of subsequent school shootings, both in the US and in Europe were linked to heavy use of violent games

3. Ethics of computer games: Developed an extensive analysis of the game player as an ethical subject

Us has more self regulation, other countries have more of a co-regulation. Other countries also recognize game addiction as a problem.

1. Do you think there is any ethical approach that could potentially see stealing intellectual property as okay?

2. Do you think that predispositions about standard privacy rights are based in western ideology?

a. “They are, tied to an idea that we have to own everything” “Europe copyright rules see it as protecting the individual and not like businesses like the US”

3. Is pornography an ethical problem and if so then what kind?

4. What might be some solutions to the rapid consumption of hyperlized sexual content

5. Do you think video games are regulated enough?

6. What did you find most interesting in these chapters?

Sexbots & Porn

· People do religion with porn (religion is everything — especially sex)

· Religious beliefs

· Storyline of porn

· What is taught to kids/people about sex and religion (marriage)

· Because the ethics discussion goes to the heart of bodily autonomy, gender, representations of women and marginalized peoples.

Religion

Not all muslim women wear hijabs the same reason, Pornography will perpetuate things like the hijab is oppressive and for a certain reason/fetishize that

Is pornography Victimless?

Is pornography a crime?

Sexbots are here, people have married their sex dolls

Sexbots promote the fetishization of different characteristics and if people look like these bots then people who look like them in real life then they will also get fetishized

Sexbots that look like children.

Feb. 1: Social Media & Ethics, II

Ethics of Self Care (Ambriel Speagle)

Panic Attacks: What to Do

1. Take deep breaths

2. Focus on your senses (chew gum, watch a lit candle, wrap a blanket around yourself, etc.)

3. Tell someone what you’re experiencing, or what you’ve experienced after the fact

Articles:

1. The Ethical Imperative of Self-Care

a. For mental health professionals, it’s not a luxury

i. Deontological approach

b. Recommendations:

i. Go back to basics, routines, breaks, exercise and eat well

ii. Practice self compassion

iii. Make time to do something that sparks joy

iv. Seek out support

v. Embrace flexibility

2. Signs You’re Overdoing Self-Care

a. You only do self-care by yourself

b. You push too hard on workouts

c. You reach for a bottle of wine and a pint of ice cream

d. You compare your self-care to others and do what others do

e. You are using self-care to avoid feeling sorrow, anger, rage, etc.

“Good Anxiety” book ideas:

Fear:

· Can crash our mood, trigger memories of failures, rob our attention, OR it could make us more careful about our decisions, deepen our reflection, etc.

Worry:

· Can make us procrastinate, get in the way of accomplishing our goals, OR it could make us fine tune our plans, adjust our expectations, become more realistic/goal oriented

Two theories about media and anxiety:

1. Seeing things in the media can trigger anxiety

2. Myths and fairytales can play an important role in grappling trauma (provides distance)

Small group notes (Matt’s group):

Are we ethically obligated to watch videos of graphic violence in the news/media? (such as videos of police brutality)

· “If it bleeds it leads”, i.e. crime stories sell well

· Responsible media consumption and incorporating self-care by avoiding graphic violence in the news?

· More of a call-to-action for people who are visual learners (to better understand the gravity of the situation)

· Does too much exposure to said violence make us numb to it though?

· School shootings are so common, for example, that some of us have been desensitized

What role do journalists play in desensitizing the public?

· Nearly impossible to avoid desensitizing the public

· Need to show the violence to give victims justice

· However, repeatedly showing graphic videos that are always against one group of people will desensitize the public towards violence against those victime

· How you package the story is important

· Need to package it as a tragedy, not as entertainment

· Video has become increasingly common in journalism

Is self-care an ethical imperative?

· We spend the most time with ourselves, so we have a duty to take care of ourselves

· We also have a duty to others to take care of ourselves

· Can’t be a good friend to others if we don’t take care of ourselves first, for example

Can self-care be overdone?

· If it is an excuse to avoid obligations or responsibilities then it could be overdone

· If it becomes obsessive, then it can be dangerous (like exercising too much)

· Comparing yourself to others’ self-care practices can also be dangerous

· Depends on how you define self-care

· If you’re taking self-care seriously, and prioritizing yourself even when it’s difficult, then you can’t overdo it

· There is a difference between self-care and self-obsession

· Self-care as an avoidance tactic

· Never letting yourself process emotions/traumatic events is dangerous

Can we reframe anxiety/fear as a positive?

· In certain scenarios it’s good to feel fear; those emotions make us human

· Experiencing emotions lets us further understand ourselves

· Fear is an instinct and can keep us safe–pushes us to take steps to protect ourselves in dangerous situations

· Any emotions in extremes can be bad, but moderate levels can be helpful for us to process things/problem solve

Chapter 4 Presentation - Self-Care Ethics

· Friendship is both amplified and threatened by social networks

· Chance to connect from long distances

· Death

· This refers to how many people announce and grieve the deaths of their loved ones on social media

· Post-digital era

· While most people have an online life, people are increasingly discovering importance of their offline life

· Self-commodification

· There is a very narrow chance of self-presentation

· Democracy in digital media

· Due to an increase of fake news, social media has only added to the increase in polarization

Friendship:

· Primary focus of virtue ethics

· Requires empathy; is this possible on fast-paced social networks?

Death:

· Humans have an interest in digital immortality

· Privacy online after death

Self-care

· Has been commodified due to social media

· It must be personalized and mindful to be effective

· Personal burnout can lead to professional impairment

· Self-care is an ethical imperative to some professions, like psychologists