Thien “Christian” Nguyen Prep #8

Preparing to Participate: Chapter 3Ethics and Ethical Communication1. Describe the difference between ethics and ethical communication.

Ethics are set of standards that offer guidance about the choices we make and explain why we behave as we do. For example, we all know that lying is ethically wrong (even though there are always some exceptions).

Ethical communication results when we apply ethical standards to the messages we produce and consume.

2. Think of an example of something that may be legal, but not ethical. Is it possible for something to be ethical, but not legal?

Example of something that may be legal, but not ethical.o Promoting high-calorie/low-nutrient foods with inadequate information about the risks.o Producing products that you know will break before their time.

Example of something ethical, but not legal.o Providing rock-bottom prices only to distributors in underserved areas.o Collaborating with other medical clinics to guarantee low prices in low-income countries

(conclusion)Ethical Standards3. List and explain the four standards that can be used to make ethical communication decisions.

Four ethical standards include:o (1) A Political Perspective: Helps us to understand ethical practices based on a value

system. Even with one particular political system and culture, people do not always agree on which view should prevail when competing values comes into conflict.

For example: In 20011, Charlie Hebdo, the French satirical weekly newspaper, featured a cartoon of Muhammad, whose depiction is forbidden in some interpretation of Islam. This publication was extremely offensive to the Arab world, who reacted violently by fire-bombing the office and mass shooting in 2015, which led to the death of 12 people.

o (2) A Dialogical Perspective: Says that interaction between should promote the development of self, personality, and knowledge. That is, each participant in a communication event should make decisions based on his or her ability to improve mutual understanding and dialog between participants.

For example: This perspective tries to explain that Muhammad cartoon was the example of media outlets should print anything in order to communicate a point of view. People may don’t agree with a word of the cartoon, but people must respect their right to say it.

o (3) A Human Perspective: Says that we have a responsibility both to ourselves and to others to be open, gentle, compassionate and critically reflective in our choices;.

For example: The French newspaper had every right to publish these cartoon of Islam but the human perspective requires us to consider the consequences of our message and to weigh the costs and benefits of exercising our right to free speech.

o (4) A Situational Perspective: Takes into account the context of the communication event. Some guidelines include the role of the communicator for the audience, what is reasonable or appropriate for the audience, what the audience’s goals and values are.

For example: Charlie Hebdo, if followed this perspective, would consider whether their target audience’s opinion of the satirical depiction of Muhammed or anything related to the Arab world.

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Thien “Christian” Nguyen Prep #8

4. Think back to an ethical communication dilemma you have faced. How did you decide what was right or wrong in your situation? Did you consider any of the standards or guidelines discussed in the chapter? Did any of these standards help you make your decision?

For example, choosing the topic for the informative speech poses an ethical communication dilemma to me. My topic is about Syrian diaspora, which deeply connects to the political situation in Syria (and Middle East) and its connection with the Western world.

Based on a situational perspective, I strongly believe that using this topic is the right thing to do since my role as the communicator is the informer, not someone who persuades the audience what is right or wrong; moreover, as college students at TCU who aim to be the ethical leader and global citizen, I think it is important for my audience’s goals and values to understand the causes and its impact on world politics.

Ethical Credo5. Describe the premise of the National Communication Association Credo for Ethical Communication.

The premise of the credo is to guide of communication behaviors, to help you understand the relationship between ethics and ethical communication. The credo is based on the First Amendment, respect for others, access to information, democratic decision making, and responsibility for our behavior.

6. Which of the ethical standards mentioned earlier do these premises relate to? What is a speech topic that might violate the NCA credo? Do you think that some speech topics should be banned from being presented in the classroom?

“We promote communication climates of caring and mutual understand that respect the unique needs and characteristics of individual communicators” a dialogical perspective.

“We accept responsibility for the short- and long-term consequences for our own communication and expect the same of other” a human perspective

“ We condemn communication that degrades individuals and humanity […] through the expression of intolerance and hatred.” a political perspective.

A speech topic that might violate the NCA credoo Fabrication of the public figure’s personal life since it degrades an individual through

distortion,Becoming Ethical Producers of Information7. Define plagiarism. Explain the difference between intentional and unintentional plagiarism.

Plagiarism occurs when you present someone else’s words or ideas as if they were your own. o Intentional plagiarism can occur on a global effect (taking entire passages or speeches) or

on a partial level (using key words and phrases within your own speech) If you knowingly piece together several excerpts from various sources and pass

them off as your own, it is still considered the intentional plagiarism.o Unintentional plagiarism occurs when you neglect to take careful notes or fail to cite your

source. It also happen if you think paraphrasing someone’s idea without giving them credit is OK, or providing a reference page without providing an oral citation is OK.

More subtle form is collaboration on a speech topic; therefore, it raises the question of whose ideas belong to whom.

8. Plagiarism is a problem on college campuses. Do you know of anyone who has plagiarized a paper or speech? Why, do you suppose, they chose to plagiarize? What were the short term consequences of their action? What could be long term consequences of their action?

I know someone who plagiarized a paper in the past. In my opinion, they chose to plagiarize because of the amount of work she had at that particular time. Moreover, the amount required for that particular is too huge for her to spend time working on her original ideas.

The short-term consequence was that the professor took some immediate action on her paper. The long-term consequence was that she had to go through the disciplinary process regarding academic misconduct inside her business program, which eventually led to her permanent expulsion from the program.

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Thien “Christian” Nguyen Prep #8

Media Interaction: Chapter 3

1. What is plagiarism? According to Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, “plagiarize" means:

o to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one's owno to use (another's production) without crediting the sourceo to commit literary thefto to present as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source

2. What tips does this site offer to help you avoid plagiarism? During the process of planning your speech, you should plan what sources you are going to use

and how to cite them correctly. During the process of developing your speech, make sure you cite the sources (orally and in the

reference page) when in doubt, make it clear to the audience of the author of the source, and more importantly, analyze and evaluate your sources to determine how credible they are.

3 . How is plagiarism detected? Plagiarism is detected through automatic checker using my instructors and universities.

4. What did you find about citing sources? There are several citation styles, for different fields of study. For example, Chicago and MLA for

Humanities; ACS and NLM for Science; APA for Social Sciences; and legal style Citing sources also include having a bibliography, which is a list of all the sources you have used

in the researching your work. Footnotes are notes placed at the bottom of a page. They cite references or comment on a

designated part of the text above it.

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