The social media has an open nature. This causes a number of ethical issues, including unfair reviews of services and products, or clickbait headlines. Users expect to get accurate and fair information, instead they get fake PR materials, news stories and other information. The media ethics books and articles are full of important conclusions that speak to social media accuracy.
- A successful business strategy is based on honest information and careful decisions.
- Ethics codes create external guides, while ethical decisions are made by informed individuals with ethical thinking skills.
- Truth is a matter of human dignity according to all global cultures.
- In the best PR and journalism practices, truth and moral reasoning come from the social values of community and individuals.
Truth, responsibility and free expression
Truth, responsibility and the freedom of expression are the key points of the successful social media activity that aims to promote freedom within the ethical frames of responsibility. We live in the time when the quantity of accessible information grows rapidly. Indeed, more available information is good, but it should only drive truthful storytelling.
The first responsibility of companies and advertisers is to represent information in an accurate and truthful way instead of generating stories that deceive customers and raise suspicions about the sphere of their work. The times when sellers tried to fool their customers to sell more have passed a long time ago. This strategy is not effective in the modern world. However, social media is a relatively new space for advertising and trading, moreover, it does not stand still. That is why new ethical issues arise.
The matter of digital literacy
Citizens of all ages admit that social media is becoming an effective source of digital literacy for them. It is quite obvious, that younger generation aims to keep up with the times and fashion. Therefore, their technology skills develop naturally, while the older people have more life experience and understanding of the important questions stated by the digital century. In general, these questions include: When do you have to ignore what you see and avoid responding? How social media impacts the decisions people make? What are the outcomes of common practices? These questions are worth consideration and reflection to educate society about the freedom of information in all of its aspects, both negative and positive.
In general, the ethics of social media is a question of the consciousness of those who work in the industry of trade, advertising, journalism and other spheres that provide information for the general public. In turn, citizens come more into details every time they face a piece of information and learn to sate the correct questions before swallow something whole.
It is impossible to defend actions with the help of moral reasoning when we stray from the truth that is based on the verifiable and solid evidence. Telling the truth is the way to make a complicated world of the ambivalent freedom of social media no different from the other media contexts. Just tell the truth.
About the author: Thomas Brown is an academic writer at http://online-essay-writing-service.com/ . His specialization is Business and Management. When it comes to writing, he likes to write articles for blogs and projects for students to assist them with their studying.