Contending Ethics

“Communication ethics takes on both philosophical and practical challenges when met with increasing diversity of competing views of the good; the narrative within which we situate ourselves as communicators takes on increasing power and significance” (Arnett et al, 2009, p.215).  This statement nicely summarizes our study of communication ethics this semester. In all of the areas that we have studied, from dialogue to organizational ethics, we have defined a good that people work to protect and promote in that area and have been challenged to situate ourselves within a spectrum of that good.
Our study of communication ethics has been particularly interesting for me this semester because although we have discussed common themes, such as responsibility, diversity, conflict, dialogue and difference, throughout all of the topical areas, our conclusions of what constitutes the definitive good of any given context or situation remain incomplete.  In view of the rest of my education this abstraction is abnormal: usually when I am done with a course I feel that I have a concrete idea of what a particular subject is all about.

Both fortunately and unfortunately, this cannot be the case with ethics. Because every ethical situation is so different, from who is involved and what experiences they bring to the table to what the power dynamics are like and where the interaction is taking place, there really is no one way to define successful communication ethics in action. Although we can certainly develop guidelines as to what an ethical experience might look like, you really cannot pin down all of the immense variables at play in a situation involving ethics.

Taking this stance, it is not too much of a stretch to say that every interaction occurring between people involves ethics to some degree. Because everybody and every situation is different, there will always be a contesting view of the good occurring somehow, whether the disparity is large or small. In this way ethics is, as the textbook states, a very pragmatic subject to study and employ.

As we continue to shift through our current period of historical contention, crises in communication are bound to occur. Hopefully when we encounter these moments of difference we will be able to slip on the “optical lenses” of communication ethics and allow ourselves to take a step back to evaluate the situation with an eye on the value of dialogue and difference. .As Arnett et al (2009) state, it is not only in our best interest to do so out of respect for others, it is our responsibility to do so (p. 220).