Agenda

Ethics in PersuasionMedia DeterminismCultivation Theory

Aristotelian Ethics

Moderation in all thingsIdentified unethical elements:

falsifying or fabricating evidence

distorting evidence

conscious use of specious evidence

deceiving audience about speaker intentions

PROPAGANDA DEVICES

Name callingGlittering generality

TransferPlain-folks

Card stackingBandwagon

Ethics of Communication

Ethics Judged by Ends SoughtProblem 1: worthy ends can be

found to rationalize anythingProblem 2: ends may be defined

in very different ways

Ethics of Communication

Ethics Judged by Means UsedProblem 1: there may be

competing goalsProblem 2: strained when dealing

with unethical or totalitarian societies

Ethics of Communication

Ethics Judged by Speaker’s IntentionsProblem 1: may excuse

disgraceful choicesProblem 2: actually just relies

on the ends sought

Ethics of Communication

Ethics Judged by the Situation

Defined: the view that “the right solution to any moral problem depends much more on the situation itself than on any general, external code; and that the key to the solution is always love”

McLuhan’s Notion of Media Determinism

1: "The Medium is the Message“2: Media are both extensions and

environments3: "The 'content' of any

medium is alwaysanother medium"

McLuhan’s View of Media Determinism

global village Media are not neutralwe become what we behold

Medium hot and medium cool

Cool Hot

Television Movies Radio Books

Attempt at Clarity

Question 1: What does it (the medium or technology) extend?

What does it make obsolete?What is retrieved?What does the technology reverse into if it is

over-extended?

How has popular music changed since MTV?

How has the Internet changed the way we stay in touch?

Did the printing press change the course of Christianity?

Word processing, cell phones, and calculators has improved efficiency, but how has it hurt learning?

I don't necessarily agree with everything I say.

There is absolutely no inevitability as long as there is a willingness to contemplate what is happening.

The new electronic interdependence recreates the world in the image of a global village.

The medium is the message.

Cultivation Theory

Agenda Setting Theory

East Timor: 200,000 (1981-1995)Rwanda: 657,000 (1994)Tibet