Impacts of Digital Media on Society - Term Paper Example

ESSAY Contents Contents 2 Introduction 3 Discussion 3 Supporting arguments 3 Opposing arguments 6 Conclusion 9 References 10 Introduction Digital media refers to any media that are encoded in a format which is machine readable. Digital media may include computer programs, software, digital videos, digital imagery, data and databases, electronic books, digital audio, web pages and websites etc. Digital media includes the information and contents that can be created, distributed, viewed, reserved as well as modified on computing devices. Due to the widespread use of personal computing and the internet, digital media has become very commonly used media for collecting and distributing contents. Digital media has caused much disruption in the domains of journalism, politics, commerce, education, entertainment and publishing by creating new challenges to intellectual property laws and copyrights. The open content movement fuelled by the popularity of digital media has made it evident that there are many harmful impacts of digital media on the society along with the numerous benefits of the same. As such, a critical question arises as to whether the country specific cyber laws and other rules governing the digital media movements are sufficient or an internationally accepted code of conduct should be developed and implemented in order to reduce the negative impacts of digital media on the global societies. Discussion Supporting arguments Information technology has become ubiquitous in the life of almost each and every person living in the modern society. The widespread use of information technology has made the digital media emerge as a critical media in recent years. However, it can be observed that many times that the advantages of the digital media as a highly functional media to reach people, outweighs the disadvantages associated with the new media. Information technology has made it possible to develop a number of channels which can be used for the distribution of digital media. These include personal computers, internet, and digital assistances, smart phones, mobile phone application, web applications and cloud computing. All these technological aspects are directly or indirectly related to digital media. The increasing impact of the digital media on the lives of the general people has made it necessary to establish suitable controls and monitoring over the activities of the digital media. Digital media have changed the way information is provided to people. The transfer of information now takes only some seconds to reach millions of people across the world through the distribution of contents in digital form. This indicates that the responsibilities of the digital media should also be as high as its impacts so that the positive impacts of this media can be leveraged on by the society (Spinello, 2010). In countries like the United States of America, where the use of digital media is exceedingly high, it has been pointed out by some scholars that digital media have started acting in a pervasive manner in the lives of people, especially the youth section of the society (Vallor, 2010). There have been claims made by some scholars that the digital media as an important channel is overthrowing knowledge and culture in the developed societies across the world. The fact that the digital media has emerged as a necessity according to the modern lifestyles of people across the globe, makes it necessary that this medium is used to its full potential while maintaining suitable controls on any misuse or harmful use of the same. In order to ensure that the huge potential of the continuously evolving digital media is reached while making it possible to restrain the harmful effects of these media, it is necessary to establish an internationally accepted ethical code of conduct to be followed in the digital media uses and applications. The process of data gathering in relation to digital media is ever present and more automated which makes the negative impacts on moral values much prominent. There may be a number of varied information that can be generated and collected through digital media but it should be kept in mind that the sharing of the information be controlled to the appropriate degree. Not all information is meant to be made publicly available. There should be suitable discretions as to whether the contents are appropriate for making them available for public view and use. Also, how the sensitive information like political information and personal information is to be managed should be an important part of the code of conduct established for the digital media. The questions of access, control and production of information should be at the core of the moral values and challenges associated with digital media. The discretion as to which pieces of information should be made public, which pieces of information should be made private and which should be made available to the third parties like external companies and other entities should be maintained in a careful manner (Tavani and Spinello, 2004). A universally accepted ethical code of conduct seems to be the right solution to the generic problems associated with the misuse and negative impacts of the digital media. One might be of the view that the situation of protecting information in digital media is same as the handling of information in the general media. However, there lies a very important difference between the handling of information in the digital media and in other media. In general scenario, if one party or entity has the ability to control the access of any kind of resource then in necessity, the party would be able to exclude others from using the same resource. Often one party, who is the owner of the information, protects the information or any other resource legally through the use of copyrights, trademarks, patents etc. In contrast, in the case of digital media the situation is much different because digital information is mostly non exclusionary in nature which means that the general public can theoretically have an access to the same digital information because acquiring some digital information from a source does not make it necessary to delete the information from the primary source. Since, the physical obstacles to spreading any information are very less in the digital media; therefore, the factors of ethics and moral value assume more crucial roles in this media (Warschauer, 2003). The globally accepted ethical codes of conduct should be established so that the government and cyber governing bodies of different countries can use these codes of conduct to prevent the distribution of varied forms of information which might be inappropriate for viewing by certain sections of the society or which may cause harm to any individual, group, society or country. All the different entities involved in distributing information through the digital media like bloggers, social media moderators, content creators, website managers should be guided by the established ethical codes of conduct so that an appropriate level of ethicality and morality is maintained in the digital media covered by these people and companies. An internationally accepted code of conduct related to ethics in digital media is necessary for the digital media because of two main reasons. Firstly, a non-global code of conduct for ethics is no longer sufficient for addressing the emerging problems being faced by the digital media entities and global journalism. Secondly, the increasing global reach and impact of the digital media and journalism makes it necessary for the digital media entities and governing bodies to take a notice of the newer global responsibilities being added to the prospects of digital media. Opposing arguments Digital media in the recent years has provided a platform through which individuals can interact with one another and even exchange required information. Ethics though is essential for operating in such platform but it even restricts an individual for putting across one’s thoughts. It can be stated as a jurisdiction that eliminates the overall flexibility which was previously offered by digital media. The code of ethics which has been suggested to be applied on digital media will not be a productive idea for long term as it will bound individuals from taking desired actions. There are two important elements stated as restricting elements for such code of ethics that are Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Information. This international code of ethics will restrict content writer or bloggers to display any information which is the real fact but might disrupt the code of ethics. In present scenario where digital media is considered to be a tool to reach out to people located in any corner of the world, this form of ethics will disrupt the basic operations of digital media. It can also be stated that due to unethical practices conducted by some individuals this procedure will affect rest of the individuals. On the other hand such code of ethics will even result into conflict in the society. As this form of code will encompass restrictions for certain actions which is considered to be most critical in current scenario. For journalists or other media personnel who gain information through this media or communicate essential information by means of this platform, this ethical conduct will initiate many limitations that would not prove to be beneficial for long term. In certain context ethics cannot be given much importance as more focus should be on portraying the truth which might be harmful for someone but useful for the entire society. For example, content creators, bloggers, etc., should possess a separate code of ethics and it should not be a part of any such international code of ethics. This is simply because it would enable them to create contents which would be based on real time facts. Though ethics might prevent them for taking up such an initiative as it may cause harm to certain section of the society but it will be based on facts which should not be hidden from the world. In today’s world opinions are often modified depending upon the code of ethics which is associated with any form of media (Ess, 2013). This in turn restricts the actual fact from reaching the common people. Ethics is taken to be a shield that prevents any form of violence or disruption caused to the image of media. However in long term, this ethical conduct procedure proves to be ineffective as it is often modified by individuals as and when required. In this scenario it cannot be stated that international code of ethics is best for digital media or it can prevent any form of corruption that occurs through this media. Digital media is not a tool that causes harm to individuals but it can be regarded as a procedure which helps individuals to come closer to the truth. For instance, various forms of research which is taking place across the globe are at times based on the information which is available on the Internet. This information can have a direct impact on individuals and may even possess certain unethical information, but is providing the required insights for future research. In this situation, ethics will limit accessibility of essential information and would even not allow content writers to display such information on the Internet. Thus, code of ethics for digital media cannot be standardized though it is a vital component in present scenario due to alarming conditions of digital media. There are already certain codes of ethics which are maintained by all channels of digital media. However internal code of ethics is not a necessity in the present scenario as individuals operating on such media possess sufficient knowledge to discriminate between right and wrong. Businesses that use such digital media follow their own ethical conduct to justify their initiatives to be inclined towards common benefit rather than individual interests. There should be code of ethics for digital media due to its flexibility and openness but specific guidelines need to be set first so that the major motive of such platform is not lost. For instance, emails, blogs, or social media cannot follow similar international code of ethics. This is because; such an ethical conduct might prevent individuals from interacting with wrong personnel on social networking sites but will prove to be a major restriction for all those bloggers or content writers who deliberately wishes to proclaim the truth to target audience (Pavlik, 2013). To some extent these ethics are most appropriate for social media simply because of the fact that major corruptions are associated with this platform. On the contrary digital media as a whole do not require such international code of ethics as it affects overall operations of the platform. To be more precise, international code is best applicable for those set of applications that have some common operations but in case of digital media due to diversity of operations such an approach will prove to be unsatisfactory. Conclusion In context of digital media, code of ethics can be considered to be an essential factor that drives the overall operations of the platform. International code of ethics can be considered to be a critical component for digital media as it safeguards the platform from getting disrupted. Digital media is a tool through which it has become simpler to reach out to individuals located across the globe. Along with the flexibility and openness that digital media has provided it has even initiated various unethical practices which needs to be controlled so as to enhance overall effectiveness of the platform. It can be stated that this platform based on advanced technology makes life and work simpler but even arises a lot of questions regarding security and authenticity. An international code of ethics appears to be a vital factor in digital media. On one hand it will assure ethicality but on the other hand it may be a restriction for many individuals. The factor of ethicality would be essential to ensure the authenticity and morality of the digital content distribution. In contrast, the restriction would prevent individuals from outlining real time facts and will even initiate certain limitations on individuals accessing information. Therefore, it should be carefully evaluated whether an international code of conduct should be implemented in context of digital media so that the far reaching impacts of the new code of conduct are positive for the global societies. References Ess, C., 2013. Digital Media Ethics. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons. Pavlik, J. V., 2013. Media in the Digital Age. New York: Columbia University Press. Spinello, R. A., 2010. Cyber ethics, 4th ed. Sudbury: Jones and Bartlett Publishers. Tavani, H. & Spinello, R., 2004. Privacy Protection, Control of Information, and Privacy-Enhancing Technologies. Sudsbury: Jones and Bartlett. Vallor, S., 2010. Social Networking Technology and the Virtues. Ethics and Information Technology, 12 (2), pp. 157–170. Warschauer, M., 2003. Technology and Social Inclusion: Rethinking the Digital Divide. Cambridge: MIT Press. Read More