Digital Media Ethics, 3rd edition, reviewed

By Simon Cocking review of Digital Media Ethics, 3rd edition available from Wiley / Polity here. 

The original edition of this accessible and interdisciplinary textbook was the first to consider the ethical issues of digital media from a global, cross-cultural perspective.  

This third edition has been thoroughly updated to incorporate the latest research and developments, including the rise of Big Data, AI, and the Internet of Things. The book’s case studies and pedagogical material have also been extensively revised and updated to include such watershed events as the Snowden revelations, #Gamergate, the Cambridge Analytica scandal, privacy policy developments, and the emerging Chinese Social Credit System.

New sections include “Death Online,” “Slow/Fair Technology”, and material on sexbots. The “ethical toolkit” that introduces prevailing ethical theories and their applications to the central issues of privacy, copyright, pornography and violence, and the ethics of cross-cultural communication online, has likewise been revised and expanded. Each topic and theory are interwoven throughout the volume with detailed sets of questions, additional resources, and suggestions for further research and writing. Together, these enable readers to foster careful reflection upon, writing about, and discussion of these issues and their possible resolutions.

Retaining its student- and classroom-friendly approach, Digital Media Ethics will continue to be the go-to textbook for anyone getting to grips with this important topic.

Digital Media Ethics, 3rd edition, reviewed

Originally written and published in 2010, it makes sense to have produced a 2020 version of this book. It covers very relevant topics for the times we are living in. It is clear to see it is a useful book to be used by students at college, in a variety of disciplines and would have been a useful book to have had on the shelves when we were at college too.

Over six thorough and well written chapters it covers the following topics:

1 Central Issues in the Ethics of Digital Media
2 Privacy in the (Post-)Digital Era?
3 Copying and Distributing via Digital Media: Copyright, Copyleft, Global Perspectives
4 Friendship, Death Online, Slow/Fair Technology, and Democracy
5 Still More Ethical Issues: Digital Sex, Sexbots and Games
6 Digital Media Ethics: Overview, Frameworks, Resources

In a time where we are seeing a lot of digital media being (mis)used with very little recourse to any considerations of ethics a book like this is timely and important. Wouldn’t it be great if #potus45 had his device taken away from him until he had read and agreed to abide by the principles laid down in this book…

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