This module is not currently running in 2024 to 2025.
This module seeks to investigate some of the most pressing ethical issues in contemporary media culture and the mediated arts. Topics may include: violence in video games, nudity on the screen and in advertising, anti-heroes and villains in fiction, propaganda and manipulation, sexism and racism in humor, shock value in the news and in contemporary art. To answer the many moral questions that arise in this context students will examine basic notions such as truth, objectification, voyeurism, exploitation, offence, harm, gender, and stereotype.
Contact hours: 32
Private Study Hours: 268
Total Study Hours: 300
30% Seminar Diary (6000 words)
70% Essay (3000 words)
Gaut, Berys. Art, Emotion and Ethics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007.
Kieran, Matthew. Ed. Media-Ethics., New York: Routledge, 2008. 152-164.
Langton, Rae. Sexual Solipsism: Philosophical Essays on Pornography and Objectification, Oxford University Press, 2009.
Wilkins & Christians. Eds. The Handbook of Mass Media Ethics, Routledge, 2008.
See the library reading list for this module (Canterbury)
On successfully completing the module students will be able to:
- Engage in a range of critical debates surrounding media culture and consumption;
- Demonstrate understanding of some of the key moral issues and ethical dimensions of contemporary media practices;
- Demonstrate understanding of theoretical discourse regarding media representation and the formation of identities within digital domains;
- Examine the moral, social and cultural impact of mediation on communication and everyday life;
- Reflect upon their own role and responsibilities in relation to ethical media practices.
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