iscs-m2-reply

This is the Five Moral Dimensions of the Information Age work you have done a week ago.

Each reply must be at least 1 paragraph and 100 words in overall length. Each post must address

the original post and can either agree or disagree with the original poster's position. As with the

original post - support your arguments, but you are only required to have 1 supporting argument

and cite at least 1 external source for this reply.

Statement 1:

The advent of new social media systems and sites has created waves of new sources of

information many of which lack credibility or have no verifiable mechanisms to validate the

accuracy of the information posted. Foreign actors can easily control the narrative or the

direction of the discussion, hijacking political ideology, social and governmental policies,

installing proxy governments, essentially resorting to modern technologies to weaken and

conduct warfare on adversarial countries, they see as potential enemies (fbi.gov, 2018).

The lack of accountability with social media tools/sites is percolating into more traditional forms

of media as well. Historically print media has had the highest level of accountability in the US

when it comes to publishing news stories. Though sources can stay unnamed, most nationally

recognized newspapers rarely publish stories that cannot be backed by credible sources. This is

how historically print media has worked in the US, including TV stations and radio stations as

well. However, the advent of a new media TV station as a nationally recognized TV station over

the last 2-3 decades has really blurred the lines of ethical journalistic reporting with ratings and

eyeballs driving everything, and feeding to a demographic that craves for sensationalism and

conspiracies. regardless of whether they are true or not. The 2020 election denialism perpetuated

by this TV station and other media outlets not bound by any journalistic ethics and fair-reporting

practices, even led to rioting on the US Capitol the seat of democracy and can only be the result

of the frenzy created by misleading media reporting (US House of Representatives, 2022). This

has a direct impact on the Quality-of-life dimension of people, as a result of Information and

media tools available today.

Should the latitude of leeway based on first amendment/free speech, be taken to such an extent

that it could threaten even the governing structure of the country, and assaulting the very

freedoms that are also the basis of these attacks? Where is the line to be drawn with free speech?

Statement 2:

The consumer has better access than ever before to websites and apps with eh touch of a finger to

their smartphone. With each click, data is being retrieved, analyzed, and then spit back out with

targeted advertising tailored specifically to that user. This leads to the question: are targeted

advertisements clever marketing tactic or an invasion of consumer privacy? The moral

dimension here is Information Rights and Obligations with a sub-dimension being Ethical

Issues.

GCF Global defines targeted advertising as “a form of online advertising that focuses on the

specific traits, interests, and preferences of a consumer. Advertisers discover this information

by tracking your activity on the Internet” (GCFGlobal, 2022). Large companies like Apple are

beginning to recognize the growing privacy concerns amongst users and have worked to create

better privacy settings on their phones with the Apple App Tracking Transparency feature. This

feature was implemented via an update to the operating system update and allows users to

choose which apps, if any, can track sites visited and buttons clicked (DeNisco Rayome,

2023). With this, the consumer (Apple products only) can decide what apps are tracking your

data, leading to less targeted advertising. But is that enough to ensure your data is safe?