Ethics in the Digital Domain

(Hardback, 2nd edition)

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Description

Fortners introduction to media ethics challenges students to confront the impact of the digital world on their lives.
Ethics in the Digital Domain addresses the principal ethical issues created or enhanced by life increasingly conducted in digital environments. It provides an ethical template to use in encountering these issues and case studies around each major issue that are open for discussion. Chapters discuss social media, the construction and maintenance of identity, the incursion of robots into the workplace and their replacement of work, the increasing reliance on artificial intelligence and the likely future of its implementation, the arrival of alternative realities, such as virtual and augmented reality, even reality after death. Fortner explores what constitutes truth in what many consider a post-truth world, and the implications of our new digital age for the maintenance and conduct of democracy.

Through providing a detailed examination of these issues, this book raises significant questions about how the digital age may change our conception of our selves, our friendships and marriage opportunities, our conception of the value and concept of work and career, along with the necessity of navigating through both physical and digital (or artificial) life quickly becoming dominant in the human experience.

The second edition includes expanded treatments of truth, politics, identity construction and maintenance, and social change resulting from our increasing existence within digital realities. It includes new chapters on the consequences of incorporating robots into everyday life, and both virtual and augmented realities realities for human flourishing. It asks the question of what human means in this new set of environments and whether peoples understanding of their own humanity, or that of others, will change as technology advances.

Features include
a glossary of keywords highlighted throughout the text;case studies in each chapter that allow students to debate significant ethical issues in the digital age;discussion questions at the end of each chapter to further explore the issues raised in each chapter; andfigures that illustrate the realities of this digital age;

Reviews

"Robert Fortner has written a deep, humane book for an increasingly dehumanized world, challenging digital citizens to act responsibly. Fortner addresses the urgent issues of Artificial Intelligence, social media, and virtual reality-and answers clearly why we should bother with digital ethics." --Stephen J. A. Ward, Distinguished Lecturer in Ethics, University of British Columbia, Canada

Author Bio

Robert S. Fortner is a research professor of communication at the University of Illinois. He has published widely on international communication, global public diplomacy, the history of international media, media ethics, and media theory. He has extensive experience teaching, lecturing, and interacting with media practitioners in various countries around the world from Moscow to Nairobi and Abidjan to Ulaanbaatar.