Public Discourse Ethics

Communication ethics are critically important in the field of public discourse. As the textbook says, “Public discourse allows for the articulation of many different ideas, providing a forum for idea testing from multiple perspectives,”(Page101) we need to avoid a narrow focus. In chapter 5, we discussed about dialogue ethics explaining learning from differences. In addition to that, public discourse requires appropriate decision based on correct understanding of different perspectives and responsibility. Public discourse needs to be respectful under the assumption that its audiences have multiple perceptions. Your sense of good would not be good for them.

Differentiation of public and private space is getting complex since the technology allows us to access a bunch of informative websites. For example, we need to think about whether our own instagram and facebook are private spaces or public spaces. They provide a great place to share and express our opinion and perspectives, but we need to take the responsibility for what you say on social network services. Public discourse ethics lead us to make an integrated space with the deeper understanding about diversity of ideas. If President Obama gives a speech with his own perspective and ignore the nation’s opinion, he could not get support from them. I believe all of successful speakers and critics have broad knowledge in order to attract many audiences in different fields. Through the practice of being open-minded and respecting others’ idea, story, theory and background, we would be able to build a public sense of good.