COMM 3110U – Communication Ethics: Making Media for the Social Good

Communication ethics refers to the principles and standards that guide how we conduct ourselves when communicating. What ethical frameworks are available for helping us to make judgements about what is “good” or “bad” about various media? What conditions help or hinder ethical frameworks for guiding our professional communication and media creation practices? How can we uphold ethical frameworks of trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, self-restraint, equity, diversity, inclusivity, and sustainability?  How are our ethics employed when producing, circulating, consuming, using, and interacting with media? This course is based in theoretical concepts of philosophy and employs historical and contemporary case studies to address and analyze ethical behaviour in interpersonal, mass-mediated, and social media communication.  Students learn how to conduct themselves as ethically minded media-makers and users, and understand how to become professional communicators in ways that make our society and culture more just and good.