Ethical Responsibilities in the Backends of Media and Digital Technologies

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Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethics elsewhere

Nelson, R. H., Moore, B., Lynch, H. F., Waggoner, M. R., & Blumenthal-Barby, J. (2022). Bioethics and the moral authority of experience. The American Journal of Bioethics, 23(1), 12–24. https://doi.org/10.1080/15265161.2022.2127968

This article describes the paradox of experience. Experience often presents important knowledge that is difficult to gain through observation or testimony alone, but it also has the potential to create conflicts of interest and unrepresentative perspectives. The authors suggest that experience can be an asset in relation to themes in feminist and moral epistemology and also explain the concern of experience being a liability in relation to cognitive biases and partial representation. Preliminary recommendations for addressing the paradox and questions for future discussion are included in the article.

Zhang, J., & Zhang, Z. (2023). Ethics and Governance of Trustworthy Medical Artificial Intelligence. BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making, 23(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12911-023-02103-9

This article provides an overview of how artificial intelligence in healthcare has brought both technological breakthroughs and risky challenges. The authors summarized five subjects that impact the trustworthiness of medical AI: data quality, algorithmic bias, opacity, safety and security, and responsibility attribution. The authors discussed these factors from the perspectives of technology, law, and healthcare stakeholders and institutions to suggest ethical governance measures for trustworthy medical AI.

Martin, D.A., Polmear, M. (2022). The Two Cultures of Engineering Education: Looking Back and Moving Forward. In: Christensen, S.H., Buch, A., Conlon, E., Didier, C., Mitcham, C., Murphy, M. (eds) Engineering, Social Sciences, and the Humanities. Philosophy of Engineering and Technology (pp. 133–150). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-11601-8_7

This book chapter argues that tension exists between the technical culture of engineering and its incorporation of ethics. Since ethics has roots in the humanities and social sciences (HSS), the disconnection between engineering and HSS culture has impacted the integration of ethics in engineering education. The authors discuss the dichotomy between technical and nontechnical learning outcomes in engineering education and the implications for ethics. Interviews with educators in Ireland and the US uncovered four themes that help explain the de-prioritization of ethics in engineering education: the weight assigned to ethics in accreditation, the piecemeal integration of ethics in the engineering curriculum, the perceived status of ethics as soft and ancillary, and the lack of faculty training. The end of the book chapter provides recommendations to bridge the gap to support more interdisciplinary integration of ethics in engineering education.

Atenas, J., Havemann, L., & Timmermann, C. (2023). Reframing Data Ethics in Research Methods Education: A pathway to critical data literacy. International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education, 20(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s41239-023-00380-y

This article discusses an ethical framework to support critical data literacy for research methods courses and other higher education data training programs. The authors reviewed 250 research methods syllabi from across disciplines and 80 syllabi from data science programs to evaluate how or if data ethics was taught. From this process, along with reviewing other data ethics frameworks and literature, the authors developed a transversal model for higher education. The authors assert that in order to promote and support ethical approaches in the collection and use of data, ethics training must go further than securing informed consent; there must be a critical understanding of the techno-centric environment and power structures built into technology and data. Ethics as a method can help educators enable research that empowers communities, including vulnerable groups.

Acknowledgments

A special thanks to Hope D Hansen, undergraduate student in the Department of Emerging Media, University of St. Thomas, for contributing to the Ethics Elsewhere section.