Rewrite #3

 

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Hello everyone! This week, I would like to discuss the topic of ethics as it relates to media. I would like to delve into its history and how its power may be used for both malicious and sincere gains. The first video (McCombs School of Business, 2018) defines ethics as either “the investigation and analysis of moral principles and dilemmas,” or “rules and guidelines that establish what conduct is right and wrong”.

Ethics is heavily intertwined with media production and consumption. The second video, ‘Minisode – The Medium is the Message’ (Folding Ideas, 2015) examines the work of Marshall McLuhan in his book, ‘Understanding Media’. Importantly, I found a more thorough understanding of his quote, “the medium is the message”. This is contextualised through his understanding of media as “any extension of ourselves”. An example as shown in the video is “the electric light reshaped how humans interact with day and night”. As new technologies and mediums develop, the way people interact with the world around them changes drastically.

So how can these mediums be used with malicious intent? ‘How Dark Patterns Trick You Online’ (Nerdwriter1, 2018) reviews a series of methods used by corporations to sway the actions of consumers. The most common sort of dark pattern is a ‘roach motel’; a situation that is easy to get into, but difficult to get out of. Amazon’s hidden account deletion process is a great example of this phenomenon. This can make customers feel trapped when dealing with an unfamiliar and intentionally confusing system.

There are many other types of dark patterns that may be found both on the web and mobile apps. One pattern I personally experience occurs when websites prompt the user for consent to use cookies. In many cases, companies will hide or obscure the ‘disable’ option behind another menu, making it harder for users to prevent tracking.

Disabling cookies is hidden behind a 'Learn More' button in this case.

 

The fourth video opened my eyes to the vast reach of media campaigns and how advertising can expand beyond obvious messaging. The video (Freedom in Thought, 2017) discusses Edward Bernays’ pursuits in marketing while consumerism saw a dramatic increase in popularity. His belief was that propaganda was “the mechanism by which ideas are disseminated on a large scale”. He felt no objection to propaganda as a method of promoting a product or service, assuming it had no ill ends or was untruthful. This way of thinking allowed him to expand marketing efforts into many different forms of communication, appealing to consumers’ emotions, thoughts, and desires. This is easily highlighted through his most famous campaign, getting women to smoke in 1920’s USA. His use of ‘influencer marketing’ created a local perception of smoking as an act of empowerment for women. ‘Influencer marketing’ being the use of influential figures in the local area to generate buzz around an idea. By getting suffragettes to smoke during a parade, smoking would become symbolic of their cause and convince more women to smoke. He also appealed to the beauty standards of the time by conveying smoking as a health benefit. With doctors and suffragettes pushing cigarettes to the public, it became much easier to influence customers than through direct advertisement alone.

I feel that I have a much better understanding now of the place media has in our society. It is always present in our day-to-day lives, making it easy to miss out on the finer details. By acting more critically to the media around us, it can help to identify manipulative messaging. Thank you for reading!

 

References:

McCombs School of Business (2018) Ethics Defined [online] Available from <https://youtu.be/4vWXpzlL7Mo> [accessed 1 Nov 2021].

Folding Ideas (2015) Minisode - The Medium is the Message [online] Available from <https://youtu.be/OseOb_wBsi4> [accessed 1 Nov 2021].

Nerdwriter1 (2018) How Dark Patterns Trick You Online [online] Available from <https://youtu.be/kxkrdLI6e6M> [accessed 1 Nov 2021].

Freedom in Thought (2017) How One Man Manipulated All of America [online] Available from <https://youtu.be/nj_UWbifM2U> [accessed 1 Nov 2021]. 

Blogger (2021) Media Ethics [online] Available from <https://milo-idm.blogspot.com/2021/11/media-ethics.html> [accessed 3 Dec 2021].