Ender's Game Ethical Analysis
What are the practical, ethical and legal implications of astroturfing for public relations practitioners under current Australian law?
“They needed respect, and that they could earn. With false names, on the right nets, they could be anybody. Old men, middle-aged women, anybody, as long as they were careful about the way they wrote. All that anyone would see were their words, their ideas. Every citizen started equal, on the nets.” (Card, 1997)
In Orson Scott Card’s science fiction epic, Ender’s Game, two child geniuses use fake profiles to generate social and political unrest over the ‘nets’. The novel was published in 1985, around the same time that the term ‘astroturfing’ was coined. Almost thirty years later, reality is catching up …show more content…
He drew this conclusion as he believed that our worth as human beings is derived from our capacity as rational agents. To be a rational agent, one has free choice. To be ethical, he surmised, is to respect that power to make free, rational choices within ourselves and others. Through deception, we take away our ability to make those rational choices.
This brand on deontological ethics, ethics where all actions are inherently good or bad, often leads people to the conclusion that lying or deception is almost always wrong. From a Kantian perspective, it seems even white lies, such as telling your girlfriend she ‘doesn’t look fat in that dress’ could be unethical as they hinder our capacity to make rational choices.
However, what if the lie doesn’t harm a person? What if by lying we are helping people to make a decision that we believe is in their best interests?
This line of reasoning more closely follows the teleological school of ethics. You could evaluate the dilemma in two different ways, from a utilitarian or a virtue-based …show more content…
Though they were not charged specifically for assuming a false identity as was implied, they were charged for not taking down the postings even though they knew the testimonials were misleading.
In section 139B of the CCA, it states that persons may be liable for actions of their employees and contractors. In this case, if a company in no uncertain terms asked their employees to ‘post feedback on their site as a satisfied customer’ the employers would be held liable for any legal actions made against the employee.
In 2010, Sydney blogger, Neerav Bhatt, who blogs about tourism and technology found suspicious comments on his blog. According to Bhatt, ‘the comments looked innocuous, but at the bottom of the comment there was a direct link to a large government tourism organisation and within the text of the comments in several places there were specific words which were deep linked to pages on that tourism organisation’s website’ (ABC, 2011). This was carried out on seven other
“They needed respect, and that they could earn. With false names, on the right nets, they could be anybody. Old men, middle-aged women, anybody, as long as they were careful about the way they wrote. All that anyone would see were their words, their ideas. Every citizen started equal, on the nets.” (Card, 1997)
In Orson Scott Card’s science fiction epic, Ender’s Game, two child geniuses use fake profiles to generate social and political unrest over the ‘nets’. The novel was published in 1985, around the same time that the term ‘astroturfing’ was coined. Almost thirty years later, reality is catching up …show more content…
He drew this conclusion as he believed that our worth as human beings is derived from our capacity as rational agents. To be a rational agent, one has free choice. To be ethical, he surmised, is to respect that power to make free, rational choices within ourselves and others. Through deception, we take away our ability to make those rational choices.
This brand on deontological ethics, ethics where all actions are inherently good or bad, often leads people to the conclusion that lying or deception is almost always wrong. From a Kantian perspective, it seems even white lies, such as telling your girlfriend she ‘doesn’t look fat in that dress’ could be unethical as they hinder our capacity to make rational choices.
However, what if the lie doesn’t harm a person? What if by lying we are helping people to make a decision that we believe is in their best interests?
This line of reasoning more closely follows the teleological school of ethics. You could evaluate the dilemma in two different ways, from a utilitarian or a virtue-based …show more content…
Though they were not charged specifically for assuming a false identity as was implied, they were charged for not taking down the postings even though they knew the testimonials were misleading.
In section 139B of the CCA, it states that persons may be liable for actions of their employees and contractors. In this case, if a company in no uncertain terms asked their employees to ‘post feedback on their site as a satisfied customer’ the employers would be held liable for any legal actions made against the employee.
In 2010, Sydney blogger, Neerav Bhatt, who blogs about tourism and technology found suspicious comments on his blog. According to Bhatt, ‘the comments looked innocuous, but at the bottom of the comment there was a direct link to a large government tourism organisation and within the text of the comments in several places there were specific words which were deep linked to pages on that tourism organisation’s website’ (ABC, 2011). This was carried out on seven other