Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions

Ethical Theory Comparisons

Media Ethics

National Communication Ethics Conference

3.1 FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION

Check out Debate Central.

http://debate.uvm.edu/

Listen to oral arguments given before the US Supreme .

http://oyez.at.nwu.edu/oyez.html

Categories of speech excluded from protection under the First Amendment include defamation, invasion of privacy, fraudulent misrepresentation, obscenity, advocacy of imminent lawless behavior, and fighting words.

On the Internet, you can express your opinions, practice effective communication, find interesting topics of discussion, and just enjoy communicating. Your registration and e-mail address is often required on the for such discussion groups to help make users more accountable. Note, they can also result in junk mail. You are expected to show effective communication skills, which includes interacting in a responsible manner.

The Los Angeles Times "Speak Out." [Requires Membership.]

http://www.latimes.com/HOME/SPEAKOUT/#discuss

The New York Times Forum [Requires Membership.]

http://www.nytimes.com/comment/

The Washington Post Talk Central.

http://discuss.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/talk/front.htm

3.2 REACHING CONCLUSIONS

Critical Thinking

1. Seek a clear statement of the thesis or questions.

2. Seek reasons.

3. Try to be well informed on the topic or issue.

4. Use and mention credible sources.

5. Take into account the total situation.

6. Try to remain relevant to the main point.

7. Keep in mind the original or basic concern, issue, or topic.

8. Look for alternatives.

9. Be open minded.

10. Take a position (and change a position) when the evidence and reasons are sufficient to do so.

11. Seek as much precision as the subject permits.

12. Deal in an orderly manner with the parts of a complex whole.

13. Be sensitive to the feelings, knowledge, and degree of sophistication of others.

14. Be aware of other speakers' attempts to manipulate you with the use of doublespeak, false facts, partial information, biased stands, and emotional appeals disguised as logical ideas.

Theological Reasoning

Philosophical Thought

Conflicts Between Systems for Reaching Conclusions

3.3 ETHICS

Ethics and Society

Ethics are action oriented.

To be an effective communicator, it is helpful for you to understand your own ethical system. Such an understanding has several benefits: making sense of your life; fulfilling personal, professional, and social responsibilities; making informed political judgments; and guarding against social or political excesses that promote bigotry and repression.
 

Making informed political judgments. As a member of a democratic society, you have an obligation to realize your role as a voter and a citizen. Consider your role as you look at the Capitol Online Speakers Bureau.

• How do you select the candidate you decide to vote for in an election?
• How much of that decision is yours, based on an understanding of your ethical system, and how much is influenced by well-contrived advertisements emphasizing such extraneous factors as the candidate's physical appearance?
• Do you select a candidate according to factors that have little to do with the duties of the office, such as whether the candidate has the same religion as you?

Differing Ethical Views

Ethical public speakers are generally defined as those who conform to the moral standards the society establishes for its communicators.

Plagiarism consists of a speaker using the ideas and words other others, while offering them as her or his own without giving credit to the originator of the material.

Fabrication is making up information or guessing at information and making it appear as being true.

According to research, an ethical public communicator:

• Speaks with sincerity.
• Does not knowingly expose an audience to falsehoods or half-truths that cause significant harm.
• Does not premeditatedly alter the truth.
• Presents the truth as he or she understands it.
• Raises the listeners' level of expertise by supplying the necessary facts, definitions, descriptions, and substantiating information.
• Employs a message that is free from mental as well as physical coercion, by not compelling someone to take an action against his or her will.
• Does not invent or fabricate statistics or other information intended to serve as a basis for proof of a contention or belief.
• Gives credit to the source of information and does not pretend that the information is original when it is not.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

After reading this chapter you should be able to:
Define freedom of expression and explain how it relates to the public forum.

Explain how people reach conclusions through critical thinking, theological reasoning, and philosophical thought.

Explain the role of evidence in critical thinking.

Define ethics and explain the role of ethics in our society.

Contrast differing ethical views.

Explain the role of ethics in public speaking and listening.

Be aware of the unethical nature of plagiarism and fabrication.

This chapter investigated reasoning to conclusion, ethics and freedom of expression. The major ideas presented include:

Freedom of expression is the right to present one's views in a public forum.

The First Amendment to the US Constitution protects speech.

As a public communicator you will constantly be making judgments concerning what you communicate, to whom you communicate, and how you listen to speakers.

People process information and reach conclusions in a wide variety of ways, such as through critical thinking, theological reasoning, and philosophical thought.

Critical thinking is reasonable, reflective thinking that is focused on deciding what to believe and do.

Theological reasoning is based on the concept that there is a prime mover that causes things to happen in a prescribed manner.

Philosophical thought recognizes that some areas of human existence "lie beyond the province of conceptual analysis and the practical uses of intelligence" and involves alternative, nonintellectual ways of reaching conclusions.

It is possible to respect others' beliefs without actually believing as they do.

Ethics are the values that have been instilled in you, which you have knowingly or unknowingly accepted, and how you act according to those values.

It is helpful for you as a communicator to understand your own ethical system in order to be a responsible public speaker and listener.

You experience a dilemma of principle when you are torn between conflicting moral obligations that cannot be fulfilled at the same time.

Ethical communicators are those who conform to the moral standards the society establishes for its communicators.

Public speaking itself is neither good nor bad. It is what you do with your public communication skills that can be ethically judged.

In listening to a speech, it is your responsibility to yourself to listen constructively and objectively.

freedom of expression

critical thinking

evidence

theological reasoning

philosophical thought

ethics

ethical value system

dilemmas of principles

utilitarianism

ethical public speakers

plagiarism

fabrication

participative communication

5. Imagine that you are a voter in Virginia (you may be). Look at the speeches of Virginia Senator Charles S. Robb.

Write an essay analyzing his speeches.

• Would you vote to re-elect him? Why or why not?
• How much of that decision is yours, based on an understanding of your ethical system, and how much is influenced by this web site emphasizing such extraneous factors as the candidate's physical appearance?
• When voting, do you select a candidate according to factors that have little to do with the duties of the office, such as whether the candidate has the same religion as you?