Our Lecturer started by saying that our expectations may differ from his as he comes from a computer science background. I was a little wary at first due to me being a Creative Media student. I knew that this could become more of a debate as different people have different ideas on what ethics are and what is or is not ethical. Because of this, being ethical is not something that can easily be taught. It is up to us as designers to form our own standpoints on ethics. This could be based on morals or religion. So what are ethics ? Beliefs? Right and Wrong? Behaviour? Guidelines in society? This is a matter of opinion. Some people see ethics as a good thing, some as a bad thing. Everybody ethical belief system is different from the next persons. We are all brought up to believe different things. Something I think is bad somebody else could perceive as an excellent idea. I liked the way the lecturer kept reinstating the fact that he was not there to change our ethical views. His personal view is that ethics are the things that you're bound to do. They are some form of responsibility that you give to yourself. In my opinion, ethics are a sense of right or wrong. I would like to do good with my work rather than bad. This is also linked to my morals. I agree with the lecturer that morals affect oneself whereas ethics effect others.
Ethics help us make decisions. Making ethical decisions is not always easy. When it is clear what outcome is right and which is wrong, it's simple to make an ethical decision. It becomes more clouded judgement when it's not so certain. This is called an ethical dilemma.These dilemmas make designers question what they are doing. It is usually just a gut feeling in your ethical system. These can pop up at any point in a career. A decision could cause a knock on effect. We must consider the after effects of a decision. Ethics are so difficult because they involve humans. Subjective information is open to interpretation, making it difficult to find an all rounded ethical standpoint. This is particularly true in art and design. I may think a photograph I have taken sends one message, the message I was trying to portray to my audience, yet another individual may interpret it to mean something completely different. Humans add this subjective factor. This complicates things as one persons subjective viewpoint will vary from somebody elses, as demonstrated in the example I have just given. We have feelings, we are not all logical and deductive. Our ethical standpoint can be influenced by other peoples circumstances. The example we were given was if we were a manager and had to make somebody redundant, who would we choose? If it was between a single mother of 3 or somebody who's wife owns their own very successful business, I know that I would keep the mother on my team. Should we be influenced by this ? Each individual would answer this differently.
Practical ethics are what we have and apply to the real world. This how we solve problems with fairness. Descriptive Ethics is the human side of it, the subjective factor. Trying to understand this is hard. It's like a debate. One of the examples we were given as to how subjective factors come into ethics is the big abortion debate. Is it wrong or right, should it be illegal or stay legal? When asked this question, the participants of the lecture seemed equally spread for and against. This exercise helped me to understand subjectiveness a little more. I am effected by ethics, as is my 'subject'. This could be my client or people I research. We all have different perspectives. Even people who aren't directly involved can be affected. Society is difficult to predict. Not everybody can be pleased all of the time.
Ethics can be used as a marketing tool. A prime example of this is Fairtrade. Increasingly more and more products are being pumped out with the Fairtrade badge on it. It could be argued that it is ethically wrong to use this for marketing. People shouldn't have to say that there stuff is ethically sourced, it should be anyway. People like to think that they are doing good by buying these products.
As designers, everything we do is for the public. This is why ethics are extremely important in my line of work. I should have a debate with myself before making decisions to get things out as best as I would like. We have a threshold of what is right or wrong. we can waver each way. I need to decide whether or not my work will look ethically correct to most people. An example of this is when I take a candid picture of someone. Should I publish it? If so, where? does the circumstance of the image provoke a conflict of morals? How far we push the boundaries is up to the individual.
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