Critical perspectivism: Educating for a moral response to media

ABSTRACT

Social media is a key player in contemporary political, cultural and ethical debates. Given much of online engagement is characterised by impulsive and emotive responses, and social media platforms encourage a form of sensationalism that promotes epistemic vices, this paper explores whether there is space online for moral responses. This paper defends the need for moral engagement with online information and others, using an attitude entitled ‘critical perspectivism’. Critical perspectivism sees a moral agent adopt a critical eye, supplemented by a caring disposition, when engaging with interactive digital media and the stories of others that are technologically mediated. Such an ethical attitude is required given our globally connected, technological world features new versions of recognisable challenges to democracy and the reasonableness of citizens. There is a vital role for educationalists to play in teaching and making space and time for students to practice being critically perspectival.

KEYWORDS:

• Moral education
• critical perspectivism
• digital citizens
• technology
• social media
• epistemic vices

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. A legendary analyst with Morgan Stanley.

2. Singer (2002), Nussbaum (2012), Appiah (2007), and Klein (2010, 2014)) have all argued in support of the notion of the global citizen. The global citizen sees all human beings as members of a single, global community.

3. For the purposes of this paper, I will set aside the vital debate about the appropriate limitations on free speech and ‘who decides’ what counts as harmful, except to note that it is not always straight-forward and obvious. Having said that, in some examples (i.e., neo-Nazism) it is. The debate around ‘harm’ and ‘personal choice’ in relation to anti-vaccination rhetoric is complex; yet sound, reasonable scientific consensus falls indisputably on the pro-vaccination side of the debate.

4. Again, due to lack of space in this paper, I will flag but set aside the question as to what role the very same companies may and should have in relation to democratic processes such as elections given the controversial impact of disgraced data analytics firm Cambridge Analytica in the 2016 US Presidential election campaign and 2016 UK Brexit referendum.

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Laura D’Olimpio

Dr. Laura D’Olimpio is Senior Lecturer in Philosophy of Education at the University of Birmingham, UK. Laura co-edits the Journal of Philosophy in Schools and regularly contributes to The Conversation, and Radio National’s Philosopher’s Zone and The Minefield. Her first book, Media and Moral Education: a philosophy of critical engagement (Routledge, 2018) won the 2018 Philosophy of Education Society of Australasia’s annual book prize. Her second book, The Necessity of Aesthetic Education is forthcoming with Bloomsbury.