Rewrite #2 ༄

 Hi and welcome back to my blog!

This week I expanded my knowledge on the topic of media ethics, which can be broadly defined as a branch of ethics that addresses moral issues arising in connection with creation and distribution of information through the means of mass media.

Ethics

In the beginning, it was a little difficult for me to understand how ethics wrapped around the topic of digital media. However, with the help of four videos, I began to understand the importance of ethics in the digital world.

After watching ‘‘Ethics’’, I began to understand the definition of that term and why it is important for us to apply ethics in our everyday use of digital media. Our ethics help us understand and interpret right or wrong in society, which could also be applied to the digital world as there is lots of spaces where we shouldn’t involve ourselves in.

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The second video that I had watched is called ‘‘The medium is the message’’, where the creator explains the quote in a little more detail and tells us of the theories behind it, in particular, the power of content and ideas that are spread online. The creator claims that ‘‘the idea is that mediums have a far greater impact on the fundamental shape and nature of society than any message that is delivered through that medium’’, and I think that ethics tie in well into this statement. 
 
It is very simple for one to get manipulated on the internet, be it to make a purchase, sign up for a subscription, share your email to be notified about a discount in a clothes shop, you name it! However, some of these may be misleading, therefore it’s important to be able to identify right from wrong in situations like these.

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The last three videos that I had watched, ‘‘The Cambridge Analytica Scandal Explained’’, ‘’How dark patterns trick you online’’ and ‘’How one man manipulated all of America’’ all tie in with manipulation and how the internet is designed in order to capture our attention.
The Cambridge Analytica is a data marketing firm, which had harvested online information to create micro targeted content. It had used data collected from Facebook users in order to use it for advertisements not only to the users themselves, but also their friends.
 
This leads me to the topic of how the media is designed in order for you to forward your attention to a pop up or advertisement, which benefit the business in question. By watching ‘’How dark patterns trick you online’’, I found out about a design element called ‘’Roach Motel’’, this is a design that makes it particularly easy for you to get into a situation but tricky and confusing to get out of. For example, using colour and design to misdirect you and get you to click on a false offer. 

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Finally, the last video that I had watched, ‘’How one man manipulated all of America’’, this is somewhat similar to the video I had discussed above, as it is tactics for creative effective propaganda and misdirecting you into doing things you may not want to do. These four steps include:
-        creating symbols
-        appeal to unconscious desires
-        normalising behaviour
-        getting into someone’s mental space. 
This is why it is particularly easy to get manipulated on the internet and comes to the conclusion as to why ethics are so important for us in the digital world in modern society.

Reference list:

Ethics | Ethics Defined

Minisode: The Medium is the Message

The Cambridge Analytica Scandal Explained

How Dark Patterns Trick You Online

Original blog post:

https://darjasidmblog.blogspot.com/2021/11/media-ethics.html







How One Man Manipulated All Of America

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