Ethics in the Digital Domain

As a core text for undergraduate courses in new media, media ethics, and global communication, Ethics in the Digital Domainhelps students explore the big questions surrounding the impact of the digital domain on our daily lives.

There are those who promise an enhanced human future through adoption and acceptance of digital culture, and those who condemn this shift in no uncertain terms. What are the positions taken by futurists and technology inventors and adopters on these issues? Through a series of case studies, this groundbreaking text challenges students to consider the future they will inhabit. Should they fear such changes or embrace them? What ethical systems will help provide guidance in this new world? What role will they have to play in this ecosystem? Will their humanity survive? Does it matter?

Presented in a format designed to initiate debate and discussion, Ethics in the Digital Domain covers enduring debates in ethics such as privacy, copyright, libel, consent, surveillance and the necessity for truthful discourse. It also looks at new dimensions introduced by media practices in digital media, including:

• 24/7 tracking of handheld devices
• machine-to-machine and machine-to-human communication
• promises of immortality in the cloud
• the movement of AI robots toward humanlike activities

Regardless of where students stand on the different issues raised here, they will find themselves in ethical conundrums because the tensions raised are both ordinary and profound in the new world of digital media ethics.