Essay on Technology Advancements: Pros and Cons

While many people, experts and laymen alike may attest to the improvement that technological advancements in the communications industry has improved and made the sharing of information better, some individuals may question some of the implications that accompany the successes. For example, today, it is far more easy for individuals to spread false news and propaganda than it was a few years back. The reason behind this being telecommunication technology that has made the spread of information instant if not real-time. Coupled with the digital platforms that are available to virtually anyone, the internet has virtually turned every individual into an amateur journalist. In this context, this confab will explore two texts on the subject in a bid to investigate the ethical responsibilities of journalists on digital platforms.

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The first text in this consideration is Amanda Hess's Is All of Twitter Fair Game for Journalists? In the article, the author explores the different dynamic intricacies of twitter as a journalistic and social platform. The writer considers the different stories and journalistic pieces that first originated from Twitter, a social media platform that has in the recent past harbored a lot of stories some of which are genuine news pieces. After all news outlets and other journalistic avenues also use the platform to gain traffic into their private websites. For example, the writer cites a case of a user who posted a tweet about sexual assault. Initially, the post was intended to be just an inquisition by a private individual into the public view of sexual assault victims.

Owing the significant following that the writer enjoyed, the post quickly gained traction with various victims of sexual assault replying to the tweet others narrating their experiences and granting the user with permission to share their stories. Gradually, the tweet and the thread that followed gained the attention of various journalists and journalism houses which wanted to publish the story. Buzzfeed, for example a media house which enjoys a 150 million following on the internet picked up the story with one of its reporters receiving the permission of some of the victims and thus published the story on the company's news website. After Buzzfeed published the story and used the original tweet and the user's face and identity for the story, a public debate ensued with the user contesting the use of her image without her consent.

In this context, a lot of journalists, the public and other media exparts argued the grievances of Fox, the original twitter user who had posted the story. According to majority of the public domain, it was wrong for Buzzfeed, and especially Testa, its reporter to use Fox's image and identity without her consent. According to public opinion the reporter had no right whatsoever to use a private individual's image to publish a story at their detriment. It was ethically wrong, despite the fact that the information was already public information owing to the media following and traffic it had attracted when it was first posted on twitter.

On the other hand, many media experts and journalists defended their colleague. One of the experts, Hamilton Nolan, reiterated that any information published on a social site is public. According to Nolan, the things that an individual posts on twitter are public since the digital platform is a public domain that is accessible to everyone across the world. Despite the fact that journalistic principles would have disputed the assertion in the past, the current digital landscape has indeed changed, and with it the journalistic practices. Arguably, Testa had the ethical responsibility to publish her story. The fact that the story was already in the public domain cements this point. It was unnecessary for Fox to call her out yet she knew the consequences of posting such a trivial and sensitive topic on her twitter handle.

The advanced blast when the new century rolled over predicts various difficulties just as open doors for ordinary residents who interface with electronic correspondence advances as either client, beneficiaries, or makers of substance, proficient writers, and other media specialists just as correspondence controllers. The Internet, for example, has been named a help only as a bane for media professionals. As much as it is an empowering influence of news-casting practice, it additionally acquires its wake plenty of moral and legitimate difficulties which don't just undermine media validity yet, also make it simple for the media and non-proficient communicators. The same to perpetrate lawful and moral 'sins, for example, criminal slander, written falsification, distributing stories without checking certainties, deceptions, lies, creations, photograph control, an inclination for sensationalizing stories to improve appraisals, etc. Media Law, Ethics, and Policy in the Digital Age reaffirm what Ashley Packard prior saw in his single-composed book Digital Media Law urging that perception of media laws is never again the privilege of customary media associations and expert columnists alone.

The ordinary individuals from the general population and expert communicators the same may likewise be familiar with the fundamental moral norms related to advanced correspondences just as separate administrative and strategy conditions for them to adapt to negligible issues as national or worldwide residents. Advanced advances have been the focal point of a few prominent legitimate and moral contentions that have pulled in overall consideration. Julius Assange's WikiLeaks, Edward Snowden's introduction of intrusion of protection by the US government, disrespected previous IMF manager Dominique Strauss-Khan's supposed sexual outrages, South African Paralympic Oscar Pistorius' hyper-intervened court preliminary in 2014, Charlie Hebdo's disputable kid's shows, to refer to however a couple. Internet-based life stages, for example, Twitter, Facebook, blogging, Whatsapp, have become the indispensable foundation of the design for creating and scattering development about worldwide occasions, subsequently undermining customary media's syndication in breaking news.

The utilization of new data and correspondence advancements by one and all can subvert the old administrative systems with telling outcomes. Oscar Pistorius' homicide preliminary was communicated continuously universally on Twitter, in this way raising worries about the legitimateness and ethicality of a 'preliminary by the media,' which contradicts the sub-judice rule. The computerized generation, spread, allocation, and guideline of unnecessary items have additionally welcomed the two difficulties and debates, in this manner bringing to the fore the complexities and logical inconsistencies specialist to the difficult insurgency problem. As an outcome of the transformative idea of advanced innovations, there are new and various methods for conceptualizations of robbery, protection, profound quality, aggregate information, and individual responsibility for the property.

As the utilization of advanced innovations disturbs old stories, practices, and conceptualizations in the media, it is essential to reevaluate traditional media practices and methods of dispersing and directing data. A few establishments of higher adapting, for example, Harvard University's Kennedy School of Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy, and the University of South Carolina, St Petersburg's College of Arts and Sciences have planned 'model' schedules on 'News coverage Ethics in the Digital Age' and 'Computerized Media Ethics and Law' separately, to assist students with thinking 'carefully' about media, law and morals in the new online condition. Further, issues connected with media, morals, and guidelines in the advanced age are likewise progressively becoming the overwhelming focus in the academic plans of companion evaluated extensive diaries, for example, the Journal of Media Law and Ethics distributed by the school of law at the University of Baltimore. Over the world, an ever-increasing number of expert associations are thinking of advanced media codes of morals as well.

Works Cited

Hess, Amanda. "Is All Of Twitter Fair Game For Journalists?". Slate Magazine, 2019, https://slate.com/technology/2014/03/twitter-journalism-private-lives-public-speech-how-reporters-can-ethically-navigate-social-media.html. Accessed 30 Nov 2019.

Ward, Stephen. "DIGITAL MEDIA ETHICS." CENTER FOR JOURNALISM ETHICS, ethics.journalism.wisc.edu/resources/digital-media-ethics/.