Module 3 Communication Ethics
Learning Outcomes
At the end of this lesson, you are expected to:
1. compare and contrast the different approaches to communication ethics;
2. assess communicative multicultural situations using an appropriate ethical approach;
3. write a position paper on a timely issue using an ethical approach to communication.
Activity Based on your understanding, what is ETHICS? Present your answer in a
creative manner of your choice.
Answer:_______________________________________________________________
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Analysis
Why do we have communication ethics? Explain.
What do you think is the lesser of these two evils—helping the guilty or punishing the
innocent? State your answers and justification.
Abstraction
WHAT IS ETHICS?
• Ethics deals with the issues of right and wrong in human affairs. A system of moral
principles.
• Deals with values relating to human conduct, with respect to the rightness and
wrongness of certain actions and to the goodness and badness of the motives and ends
of such actions.
• Ethics deals with the issues of right and wrong in human affairs. A system of moral
principles.
• Deals with values relating to human conduct, with respect to the rightness and
wrongness of certain actions and to the goodness and badness of the motives and ends
of such actions.
COMMUNICATION ETHICS:
• Maintaining the correct balance between the speaking and listening.
• Ethical communication encompasses being honest in all communications, keeping
confidential information confidential and not discussing the personal or business
situations of others in public or in front of a third party.
• A business with unethical communication practices is not as effective as one with
ethical communication practices.
NORMS FOR ETHICAL COMMUNICATION:
• Be truthful.
• Show respect for the power of words. Invoke participatory democracy.
• Demonstrate mindfulness of cultural diversity. Treat people as ends, not means.
GUIDELINES FOR ETHICAL LISTENING:
• Be courteous and attentive. Avoid prejudging the speaker.
• Maintain the free and open expression of ideas.
Application
Research a TED Talk video of your choice. List down the communication ethics depicted in
the video.
Assessment
Discuss the following dilemmas:
1. The Partiality of Friendship
Jim has the responsibility of filing a position in his firm. His friend Paul has applied and is
qualified, but someone else seems even more qualified. Jim wants to give the job to Paul, but
he feels guilty, believing that he ought to be impartial.
That's the essence of morality, he initially tells himself. This belief is, however, rejected, as Jim
resolves that friendship has a moral importance that permits, and perhaps even requires,
partiality in some circumstances. So, he gives the job to Paul, Was he right? Justify your answer.
2. The Plagiarized Report
You are an English teacher at a high school. One of your pupils is a very bright and gifted girl,
whom you have always enjoyed teaching. She has always achieved A grades throughout her
school years and is now in her final year and getting ready to graduate.
Unfortunately, she has been very ill this term, and missed several weeks of schooling. She has
just turned in a report which is worth 40% of her final grade, but you realize that she did not
write it herself—she has copied a report found online and tried to pass it off as her own work.
If you report her act of plagiarism to the school authorities, it will be entered on her permanent
record, and she will no longer be eligible to attend the prestigious university that she has
dreamed of attending. If you refuse to accept the report, her final mark will be very poor and
may harm her chances of being chosen for this university.
If you mark the paper as though you believed it was her own work, she will do very well, and
stand every chance of getting her desired university place. What should you do? Explain.
TASK 1: Write a position paper on the following issue using an ethical approach to communication.
Consider a situation in which a group of people are enjoying an outdoor adventure together. One
person gets stuck in the only way in or out of an enclosed space, such as a cave. Water starts rising
in the cave due to high tide or heavy rainfall. Everyone will perish if the person isn’t removed from
the entrance. There is no way of removing the person who is stuck so that the individual will
survive. If you are in that position, what would you do? Consider the ff. guide questions in creating
your position paper.
• The group has to make an extremely difficult decision. Do they take an extreme action that will
cost one member of the group her life? Or, do they do nothing, knowing that chances are good
that none of them will survive if that choice of action is taken.
• Who would be responsible for making such a decision? Is it different if the person who is stuck
offers to sacrifice herself versus members of the group suggesting that she be eliminated?
• What are the consequences of facing such an extreme moral dilemma? It is commonly accepted
that killing a person is wrong, but what about when it’s done to save others?
• What might the consequences be for the survivors if the group chose to kill the person who is
stuck so they might survive? Would there be legal consequences? What about guilt?
