Ethics, Internet and Communications
I’ve been reading a book titled: Ethics, Internet and Communications recently which contains three papers. I’ve only finished the first (Ethics in Communications) and still have to read “Ethics in Internet” and “The Church and Internet”.
There were a couple of statements in this first paper that I wanted to remember and invite people to comment on:
- Speaking regarding the ethics of communication: Communication must always be truthful, since truth is essential to individual liberty and to authentic communication among persons.
- And regarding the use of media in communication: In the best of circumstances, human communication has serious limitations, is more or less imperfect and in danger of failing. It is hard for people consistently to communicate honestly with one another, in a way that does no harm and serves the best interests of all. In the world of media, moreover, the inherent difficulties of communicating often are magnified by ideology, by the desire for profit and political control, by rivalries and conflicts between groups and by other social ills. Today’s media vastly increase the outreach of social communication – its quantity, its speed; they do not make the reaching out of mind to mind and heart to heart any less fragile, less sensitive or less prone to fail. Which I think points out that communication is hard any way, without the further barriers of media over direct person to person communication. I have often thought how inappropriate media Email and Internet Chat are to communicate deep or emotional content. This paragraph adds that it’s hard to communicate these things honestly and accurately anyway!
I might add more to this post that I want to remember in the future!
Peace
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