Engaging with the Digital - Celebrating Inclusion - WACC Global
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4/2018 Engaging with the Digital Celebrating Inclusion
Media Development is published quarterly by the
World Association for Christian Communication
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Toronto, Ontario M4C 4X7, Canada.
Join the World Tel: 416-691-1999 Fax: 416-691-1997
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Association for Christian
Editor: Philip Lee
Communication!
Editorial Consultants
WACC is an international organization that pro- Clifford G. Christians (University of Illinois,
motes communication as a basic human right, essen- Urbana-Champaign, USA).
tial to people’s dignity and community. Rooted in Margaret Gallagher (Communications Consultant,
Christian faith, WACC works with all those denied United Kingdom).
the right to communicate because of status, identity, Cees J. Hamelink (University of Amsterdam,
or gender. It advocates full access to information and Netherlands).
communication, and promotes open and diverse me- Patricia A. Made (Journalist and Media Trainer, Harare,
dia. WACC strengthens networks of communicators Zimbabwe).
to advance peace, understanding and justice. Robert W. McChesney (University of Illinois,
Urbana-Champaign, USA).
MEMBERSHIP OPPORTUNITIES Samuel W. Meshack (Hindustan Bible Institute &
Membership of WACC provides opportunities to College, Chennai, India)
network with people of similar interests and values, Francis Nyamnjoh (CODESRIA, Dakar, Senegal).
to learn about and support WACC’s work, and to Rossana Reguillo (University of Guadalajara, Mexico).
exchange information about global and local ques- Clemencia Rodriguez (Ohio University, USA).
tions of communication rights and the democratiza- Ubonrat Siriyuvasek (Chulalongkorn University,
tion of the media. Bangkok, Thailand)
Pradip Thomas (University of Queensland,
Brisbane, Australia).
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2 Media Development 4/2018
a
VOL LXV 4/2018
4 Editorial
6 Critical media literacy and
digital ethics
Allan Luke and Julian Sefton-
Green
13 Gender and human rights in the In the
digital age Next Issue
José Peralta
The 1/2019 issue of Media Develop-
16 “Vulnerability” as the key
ment will continue the debate around
concept of a communicative ethical questions posed by today’s
ethics for the 21st century world of digital communications and
Hugo Aznar and Marcia Castillo- their impact on people and societies.
Martín
WACC Members and Subscribers to
Media Development are able to down-
20 Digital poison or digital balm load and print a complete PDF of
Phil Haslanger each journal or individual article.
23 Challenges facing Albania’s
media landscape
Klea Bogdani
27 Recuperar la utopía de la
democratización de las
comunicaciones
José Luis Aguirre Alvis
34 On the screen
3 Media Development 4/2018
EDITORIAL practices at Facebook in 2018 has demonstrated.
The Global Risks Report 2017 goes on to warn:
Digital communication technologies have become
ubiquitous and policymakers are still struggling to “Technological tools are also being used to in-
crease surveillance and control over citizens,
respond with appropriate infrastructure and gov-
whether for legitimate security concerns or in
ernance models.
an attempt to eradicate criticism and opposition.
It is critical, therefore, to move beyond cele-
brating greater accessibility and affordability in Restricting new opportunities for democratic
order to tackle the fundamental questions about expression and mobilization, and by conse-
ownership and control, regulation, privacy, sec- quence the digitally enabled array of civil, po-
urity and surveillance that are central to conver- litical and economic rights (such as the right to
sations about the ethics of digital technologies. work and education; freedom of expression) just
As The Global Risks Report 2017 published by as citizens have become more connected and en-
the World Economic Forum notes: gaged – creates a potentially explosive situation.”
“A new era of restricted freedoms and increased A role for digital communication ethics
Communication ethics is a well-worn academic
governmental control could undermine social,
political and economic stability and increase the discipline. Journalism ethics a vital professional
risk of geopolitical and social conflict. Empow- discipline. Yet, digital technologies have opened
ered by sophisticated new technological tools in up the proverbial “can of worms” with regard to
areas such as surveillance, governments and de- social ethics – with which today’s youth in par-
ticular are struggling. As Allan Luke and Julian
cision-makers around the world are tightening
Sefton-Green ask in their article in this issue of
control over civil society organizations, individ-
Media Development:
uals and other actors.”1
On the positive side, for the first time in “How do today’s young people and children
deal with right and wrong, truth and falsehood,
the history of communications, people have the
chance to seize a form of democratic expression representation and misrepresentation in their
that could improve their lives and livelihoods. And, everyday lives online? How do they anticipate
clearly, when it comes to such lofty ideals as Agen- and live with and around the real consequenc-
da 2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals, es of their online actions and interactions with
it is clear that this can only be achieved through others? How do they navigate the complexities
the simultaneous implementation of communi- of their public exchanges and their private lives,
cation rights that enable people to express their and how do they engage with parental and insti-
needs and concerns and to advocate solutions that tutional surveillance? Finally, how can they en-
are locally relevant and appropriate. gage and participate as citizens, consumers and
Seen from this perspective, Agenda 2030 workers in the public and political, cultural and
ought to include taking steps to advance the avail- economic spheres of the internet?”
ability, transparency and accountability of the 21st
century’s digital infrastructures. Failure to do so It is not just a question of digital media lit-
will have political and ethical consequences ran- eracy, but of using digital platforms and new in-
ging from the outright subversion of democracy to formation and communication technologies
the spread of misinformation and extremist views (ICTs) to bring about greater equity and inclusion.
to intrusion into and control over peoples’ lives. This can only occur within a framework of rights
This may ultimately undermine the legitimacy of that generate genuine opportunities for free and
digital platforms, as the scandal around privacy informed participation in order to create more ro-
4 Media Development 4/2018
bust societies and meet the sustain-
able development goals.
Digital communication plat-
forms are vital tools for people to
influence political and social poli-
cies in favour of their interests, to
help communities to organize for
positive change, and to foster active
citizenship. In this respect, WACC
and its partners are urging govern-
ments and international institu-
tions to:
* Build the capacity of civil soci-
ety organizations to participate
in policy-making processes
related to communication infra-
structure, policy, and digital
rights.
* Support community-initi-
ated efforts to develop and/or
manage telecommunications
infrastructure in order to in- cially among young people.
crease access to mobile telephony and internet * Build the capacity of marginalized and exclud-
services ed communities, including women and girls,
* Promote initiatives that link established com- to develop and use open-source software.
munity media platforms to ICTs, especially in
ways that promote interactivity and participa- As WACC’s own principles make clear:
tion.
* Promote digital solutions that help enable
community participation in decision-making.
“Only if communication is participatory can it
empower individuals and communities, chal-
* Advance research about the relationship be- lenge authoritarian political, economic and cul-
tween access to ICTs, community participa- tural structures and help to build a more just and
tion, and development.
peaceful world.” n
* Promote inter-sectoral partnerships to address
violations to human rights online, such as on- Note
line violence and illegal surveillance 1. The Global Risks Report 2017, 12th Edition is published by the
World Economic Forum within the framework of The Global
* Help strengthen networks of citizen com- Competitiveness and Risks Team.
municators and journalists belonging to mar-
ginalized communities and social movements
so that they can use digital communication
platforms in their advocacy work.
* Provide digital media production training for
marginalized and excluded communities, in-
cluding women and girls.
* Advance digital media literacy among margin-
alized and excluded communities, and espe-
5 Media Development 4/2018
Critical media and digital tools, making business deals with auto-
cratic and theocratic states to suppress, control
literacy and digital and surveil citizens, engaging in dubious labour
practices, are implicated in forms of production
ethics and manufacture that are environmentally un-
sustainable, and who bury profits to avoid taxa-
tion responsibilities that might fund improved
Allan Luke and Julian Sefton-Green
education, health care and communities.
Wikileaks and false news; an American And there is a multinational secret state/
corporate nexus that monitors and surveils com-
Presidency run via Twitter; Charlie Hebdo; munications and exchange at all levels for their
hackers manipulating elections, stealing own commercial and political purposes. Nor is
corporate secrets and shutting down this all idle ideological debate: many communities
public utilities; mass surveillance via the have to contend with the stark realities of everyday
internet of things; 24/7 news, information poverty, violence and warfare, unstable policing
and public security, the effects of environmental
and disinformation cycles broadcast decay and climate change, public health and large-
continuously on public and personal scale mental health crises, and the unavailability of
screens; wall-to-wall cultures of celebrity meaningful and skilled work.
and political bullying and libel via social Digital technology per se didn’t cause these
media; social media supplanting face- problems, nor does it in and of itself have the cap-
acity to solve or fix them. But the current situation
to-face relations at dinner tables and in requires a remaking of citizenship, ethics, and a
bedrooms; conspiracy theories overriding renewed social contract. This will require an on-
peer refereed science … No wonder many going “problematicisation”, to use Freire’s (1970)
young people are checking out into worlds term, of these conditions as focal in the curricu-
of videogames, comic superheroes and lum, thematically crossing social studies, the arts
and sciences. Our view is that critical media lit-
pharmacologically altered realities. While eracy, multi-literacies and digital arts can be a
schools and school systems stand frozen in staging ground for that new civic space – where
the headlights. critique and technical mastery can led to “trans-
formed” and, in instances, “conserved” practices.
O ur current situation is stark and simple, and
probably can’t be understated. We live in an
era where governments and political culture are
The curriculum challenge is about setting the
grounds for rebuilding of community relations of
work, exchange and trust – while at the same time
modelling and exploiting the unethical, immoral giving young people renewed and powerful tools
and destructive use of digital media, and attacking for weighing, analysing and engaging with truths
the longstanding practices and criteria of print and lies, representations and misrepresentations,
journalism, broadcast journalism, and peer-ref- narratives and fictions, residual and emergent
ereed science. Children and young adults inhabit traditions, competing cultural epistemologies and
an online environment where new forms of ex- world views.
change, creativity and community sit alongside
new forms of criminality and bullying, real and The everyday challenges for youth
symbolic violence. How do today’s young people and children deal
We are increasingly shaped and ruled by with right and wrong, truth and falsehood, rep-
powerful corporations that are profiting from the resentation and misrepresentation in their every-
reorganization of everyday life by social media day lives online? How do they anticipate and live
6 Media Development 4/2018
with and around the real consequences of their harassment, bullying, real and symbolic violence,
online actions and interactions with others? How from sexual and commercial exploitation of young
do they navigate the complexities of their pub- people and children, to exposure to violence, por-
lic exchanges and their private lives, and how do nography, ideological indoctrination and outright
they engage with parental and institutional sur- criminal behaviour.1
veillance? Finally, how can they engage and par- Their power to generate fascinating new
ticipate as citizens, consumers and workers in the expressive forms and relationships, to reshape the
public and political, cultural and economic spheres arts and sciences notwithstanding, digital media
of the internet? These questions are examined in are amplifiers of the best and the worst, the sub-
current empirical studies of young peoples’ virtual lime and the mundane, the significant and the most
and real everyday lives in educational institutions trivial elements of human behaviour, knowledge
and homes (e.g. Livingstone & Sefton-Green, and interaction. How could it be any other way? It
2016; Quan-Haas, 2004). is all here online: statements, images, sounds, and
On the ground, the everyday issues faced by acts of hatred and love, war and peace, bullying
digital youth are prima facie ethical matters. This and courtship, truth and lies, violence and care,
is a key beginning point in an era where the ethic- oppression and liberation – and every possible
al/moral implications of all forms of literacy are at third or fourth space, in ever proliferating redun-
once educational imperatives for informed, critic- dancy, cut through with noise and clutter.
al citizenship, civic participation and everyday so-
cial relations. The policy response
In this regard, the push towards a critic- In the meantime, educational systems continue to
al digital ethics and critical media literacy is the pursue business as usual: a neoliberal consensus
central educational challenge. It is not new, with whereby human capital, standardization and com-
prototypical work on media literacy initiated in modification of the curriculum, and accountabil-
Canada as early as the 1970s, evolving from broad- ity via transnational testing regimes narrow the
cast TV and print advertising to current work on parameters of what will count as knowledge and
digital media internationally (C. Luke, 1990). But schooling to human capital for economic com-
it has largely been seen as an adjunct to the core petitiveness. If there is an unintended effect of the
curriculum – this result is a relegation of new emergence of nationalist and xenophobic backlash,
media into the category of popular culture, as nei- it is a reconsideration of the movement across
ther part of the educational “basics” nor of long- OECD countries – aided and abetted by PISA2 –
standing school subjects of literature and scientific to a curriculum consensus that, in effect, reduces
disciplines. knowledge to a technical and measurable com-
There are now almost continuous public calls modity for the “new economy”. What has been lost
for heightened child protection and surveillance is the focus on what Delors (1996) called “learning
in response to widespread moral panic around to live together” and models of “active citizenship”,
digital childhood (e.g. Havey & Puccio, 2016). To which, fortunately, have defied measurement and
refer to this as a moral panic is not to understate standardization but, accordingly, have been left by
the very real challenges and difficulties that digital the side of the road in models of education for hu-
technology raises for parents and families, schools man capital job skills.
and teachers. It is however, to acknowledge popu- At the same time, the appropriation of digit-
lar discourses and widespread generational frus- al multi-literacies (New London Group, 1996)
tration about the effects of digital technology on into the official curriculum has been fertile ground
everyday life. These range from concerns about for neoliberal educational policy. Our view is that
the displacement of embodied activity, physical there are three forms of the colonization of digital
play and face-to-face verbal exchange by com- multi-literacies: (1) Digital multi-literacies have
pulsive online messaging and gaming, to online been incorporated into the human capital ration-
7 Media Development 4/2018
ale, the very heart of corporate neoliberalism: re- Critical media literacy and digital ethics
defined as requisite job skills or “tools” for the new How we can enlist and harness these media to learn
economy. This strips it out of a broader critical to live together in diversity, mutual respect and
education, it can silence classroom debate over difference, addressing complex social, econom-
the morality, ethics, and everyday social conse- ic and environmental problems while building
quences of communications media, their owner- convivial and welcoming, just and life-sustaining
ship and control. communities and societies is the key educational
(2) Digital multi-literacies have been re- problem facing this generation of young people
defined as a measureable domain of curriculum and their teachers. This is an ethical vision and an
for standardized assessment: digital tasks will be ethical challenge.
included in the current PISA testing. This has the Our case is that a digital ethics – indeed, an
effect of normalizing, controlling what officially ethics of what it is to be human and how to live
‘counts’ as digital creativity, critique and innov- just and sustainable lives in these technologically
ation; (3) Digital multi-literacies have been the saturated societies and economies – is the core
object of commodification, with curriculum pack- curriculum issue for schooling. Nor do we believe
ages, approaches, methods and materials offered that is it an adequate educational or philosophic
by publishers, corporations and consultants. This or political response to current cultural, geopolit-
has the effect of eliminating the local, idiosyncratic, ical and economic conditions and events for this
cultural play and interaction with new media and generation of teachers and scholars, parents, care-
supplanting it with formulae and scripts, inevit-
ably aligned with (1) and (2) above.
The alternative is to view critical media lit-
Recent issues of
eracy as an “open” curriculum space for students Media Development
and their teachers to explore, critique and con-
struct texts, identities, forms of social and com-
munity actions (Share, 2009). This is about as new 3/2018 WACC at 50: Celebrating Inclusion
as Dewey’s (1907/2012) discussion of the project
2/2018 Journalism that serves the Public
or “enterprise”. In Australia, digital multi-liter-
Interest
acies and critical media literacy have “worked”
precisely because there wasn’t an official curricu- 1/2018 Gender and Media
lum definition, or even a formal academic/schol- – A holistic agenda
arly doxa around it.
But over the last decade of Neoliberal gov- 4/2017 Digital Media and Social Memory
ernance, the move has been to put all curricu-
lum and pedagogy in the box of standardization, 3/2017 Changing Media, Changing
assessment, accountability, control and surveil- Perceptions
lance – aided by government initiated and corpor-
ate-sponsored work in the “learning sciences” to 2/2017 Reforming the World
measure and assess digital practices. This is an ap-
propriation of multi-literacies into the same sys- 1/2017 Digital Futures
tem of standardization and commodification that
defined and delimited print literacy and tradition- Media Development is provided free to
WACC Individual and Corporate Members
al curriculum. And it sets the terms for systems
and is also available by subscription.
to replicate yet again the core problems with the
teaching of print literacy: a “closed” curriculum
that yields differentiated and stratified achieve- For more information visit the WACC web site.
ment.
8 Media Development 4/2018givers and community Elders to simply document To begin to set a curriculum agenda for
or celebrate the emergence of new digital youth teaching and learning digital ethics, then, we out-
cultures without an attempt to call out ethical par- line three key foundational claims. These set the
ameters and concrete historical consequences for curriculum contents for digital ethics as a field or
communities, cultures and, indeed, human exist- area for teaching and learning.
ence in this planetary ecosystem. Our first claim is that digital ethics must
This is a generational and pedagogic respons- operate at two analytically distinct but practical-
ibility as we stand at a juncture where residual and ly interwoven levels: it must engage at once with
emergent cultures meet, where Indigenous and now classical questions about ideology (Kellner,
non-Indigenous, historically colonized and col- 1978) and with questions about social actions and
onizing, settler and migrant communities attempt relations. As we have argued, the core concerns
to reconcile and negotiate new settlements, where of educators about student digital lives relate to
traditional, modernist and postmodern forms of the ideational and semantic “stuff” – the ideolo-
life and technologies sit alongside each other, un- gies, beliefs and values that learners must navigate
easily, often with increasing inequity and violence. online. This raises key questions about the truth,
Our view is that this is a moment that requires veracity, verification and belief, and, indeed, con-
more from researchers, scholars and educators sequences of the information represented online.
than descriptions of instances of local assem- A recent article by a senior editor of The Guardian
blage or student voice. Following on from Naomi put it this way:
Klein’s (2015) analysis of the effects of capitalism,
technology and modernity on the planetary eco- “For 500 years after Gutenberg, the dominant
system – our view is that this historical conver- form of information was the printed page:
gence of forces and events has the potential to knowledge was primarily delivered in a fixed
“change everything”. format, one that encouraged readers to believe
The question of who owns, regulates and in stable and settled truths. Now, we are caught
controls, and indeed profits and dominates from in a series of confusing battles between opposing
control and use of the dominant modes of infor- forces: between truth and falsehood, fact and
mation comes centre stage, shifting from reli- rumour, kindness and cruelty; between the few
gious authorities to the state and, ultimately, to and the many, the connected and the alienated;
the industrial and post-industrial, national and between the open platform of the web as its ar-
transnational corporation (Graham, 2017). Some chitects envisioned it and the gated enclosures
regimes burn books, others write, print and man-
of Facebook and other social networks; between
date them; some governments censor the inter-
an informed public and a misguided mob. What
net, all use it and monitor it; disputes over hate
is common to these struggles – and what makes
speech, libel and what can and cannot be said in
their resolution an urgent matter – is that they
the media-based civic sphere are now daily news
– alongside of revelations of the profit structures, all involve the diminishing status of truth” (Vin-
labour practices, environmental consequences er, 2016).
and taxation schemes of those media and technol-
At the same time, truth claims and rep-
ogy corporations that have become arguably the
resentations are themselves social actions – con-
most profitable and dominant businesses in hu-
sequential assertions about what is. Hence, our
man history. Note that this political economy of
simultaneous and equivalent ethical concern is
communications typically is not studied in schools
with the interactional pragmatics of life online. In
– even as this corporate order competes for the
response to the aforementioned concerns of edu-
edubusiness of what counts as knowledge, how it
cators and the public, digital ethics must focus on
is framed and assessed within these same schools
the use of online social media as a primary site for
(Picciano & Spring, 2012).
9 Media Development 4/2018everyday social relationships with peers and others. 2013): that is, the relationships between state
To speak of ethics, then, refers simultaneously to regulation and control, corporate ownership of
both the ideational contents – the semantic stuff the modes of information, and their ideological
– of online representations, and the social and and economic effects. Following the prototypic-
interactional relations of exchange between hu- al work of Stuart Hall (1974) on broadcast media,
man subjects. Hence, our first foundational claim: the field of cultural studies has focused variously
1) On ideology and social relations: That digit- on audience positioning and responses to media
al ethics must address questions about ideological texts (“decoding”), on the actual economic owner-
contents – the values, beliefs, ideas, images, nar- ship and control of dominant modes of informa-
ratives, truths, that one produces and accesses tion (political economy) and how these are mani-
online – and questions about social relations that fest in ideological message systems (“encoding”).
are lived and experienced online, specifically the Of course, digital exchanges operate on radically
interactional and material consequences of indi- different dimensions of scope and scale, speed
vidual and collective actions. and interactivity than the broadcast media stud-
The ideational contents (M.A.K. Halliday’s ied by Hall and colleagues. Digital tools have the
(1978) “field”) and the interactional relational revolutionary effect of altering the monologic and
protocols and consequences (Halliday’s “tenor”) linear relationships of production/consumption,
may appear analytically distinct, but are always encoding/decoding established through broadcast
interwoven in practice. What we say, write, speak, radio, television and cinema, leading to claims
signify, how we speak, write, gesture, sign and to that social media enables new community, agency
whom are ethical actions – no matter how con- and democratisation in ways that were intrinsic-
scious, unconscious or self-conscious, explicit, ally more difficult in an era of network and stu-
tacit or implicit the intentions and decisions of dio-based broadcast media (Isin & Ruppert, 2015;
the human subject may be. In educational terms, Jenkins et al. 2016).
then, digital ethics by definition engages both the For our present purposes, what remains
“classification” of knowledge qua ideational con- powerful and relevant from Hall’s ground-break-
tent (whether construed as disciplinary, thematic, ing work is the acknowledgement of the ideo-
artistic, scientific) and the “framing” of knowledge logical interests at work in the production and
via social relationships and actions (Bernstein, reception of screen and image. Where it takes up
1990). the challenge of digital content, the tendency in
Accordingly, our case is that schooling needs schooling has been to focus principally on student
to introduce two interwoven strands of digital and teacher responses and uses of media texts
ethics: (through models of viewer and reader response),
* The teaching and learning of a performative on the semantic content (through models of com-
ethics that enables the evaluation and antici- prehension, literary and, to an extent, ideology
pation of real and potential human and cultur- critique) – and, far less explicitly if ever, on the re-
al, social and economic, bodily and environ- lationships between ideological content, relation-
mental outcomes and consequences of digital ships of institutional control and power, and the
actions and exchanges, their real and potential corporate ownership of the modes of information.
participants and communities; and, Consider this analogy. This would be very
* The teaching and learning of a critical literacy much if we were to teach – recalling Innis’ proto-
that enables the weighing and judging and typical analysis of the “bias of communications”
critical analysis of truth claims vis a vis their (1951) in pre-industrial mercantilism and in-
forms, genres, themes, sources, interests and dustrial capitalism – how to read newspapers or
silences (Luke, 2018). how to use the railroad, without raising questions
Our second claim focuses on the political about who owns the press and transportation
economy of communications (Graham & Luke, infrastructure, whose interests these structures
10 Media Development 4/2018of ownership and control serve, who benefits and “biases” – but that such study can be extended to
who is exploited by these configurations of polit- understanding the relationships between know-
ical economy. As Innis’ (1949) discussion of the ledges and global, planetary interests, including
relationships between “empire and communica- the corporate ownership, capitalization and profit
tions” argues, all emergent communications media from dominant modes of information. There are,
and transportation systems effectively reshaped furthermore, persistent questions about the com-
human/machine and political economic and geo- plex relationships between digital work and cul-
graphic ecosystemic relations as well. ture and its relationship to carbon-based economy
The basis of economic rule (and plutocracy) and resource utilisation (e.g., Bowers, 2014).
has shifted from those of colonial trade docu- Our third claim is core to the establishment
mented by Innis (e.g. the Dutch East India Com- of any set of ethics. As argued, for many schools
pany, Hudson’s Bay Company) to the owners of digital policy and practice tends to be both pro-
elements of the dominant transportation infra- hibitive in reaction to “risks” posed by digital
structure (e.g. the railways, steel, oil and auto technologies and simultaneously silent about the
industries), to the emergence of media empires reconstructive institutional uses of digital tech-
(e.g., telephone, wireless, newspapers, television nology. Ethics is by definition a normative field:
networks) – to the current situation, where the like all education and schooling, ethical systems
world’s economy is dominated by digital hard- and claims are predicated upon a vision of what
ware/software /information corporations (e.g. should be, of how human beings can and should
Apple, Facebook, Google/Alphabet, Oracle, Tesla, live together.
Samsung), and producers of military and advanced The central message of Aristotle’s Nicom-
technological hardware (e.g. Boeing, Airbus, arms achean Ethics (1999) is that everyday judgments
manufacturers). about right and wrong are grounded on visions of
Hence, our second foundational claim: what might count as the “good life”. Ethical judg-
2) On the political economy of communica- ments are the prerequisite philosophic and prac-
tions: That in digital culture the political and eco- tical grounds for civility and justice. Habermas
nomic are always personal, with every personal (1996) refers to this as a “counterfactual ideal” that
digital action an interlinked part of complex and is presupposed in each speech exchange. There-
often invisible economic exchanges that by def- fore, our third foundational claims is:
inition support particular corporate and class in- 3) On a normative model of digital cul-
terests and by definition have material and eco- ture: That ethics cannot exist as a set of norms
systemic consequences. or procedures for everyday life in digital cultures
The educational lesson here is simple: that without a shared normative vision of the good life.
the media that we use are not “neutral” or benign In terms of digital ethics, this means that
but are owned, shaped, enabled and controlled, any set of ethical injunctions taught to youth and
capitalized upon and managed in their own cor- children by definitions presupposes a vision of
porate interests (Pasquale, 2015). These interests, “what should be”: a lifeworld where digital com-
social scientists, ecological scientists and com- munications are used for ethical purposes for “the
munity activists are increasingly realizing, have good”. Further, this version of “the good”, follow-
reshaped the transnational and domestic divisions ing Behabib (2002), must acknowledge the mor-
of wealth, labour and power, and have broad, pre- al imperatives and challenges raised by diverse
viously unexamined, effects on the use and sus- communities in pluralistic democratic societies,
tainability of finite planetary resources and eco- whether online or face-to-face. Our view, then, is
systems (cf. Klein, 2015). that any school-based approach to media literacy
Our point is that the curriculum should en- and digital ethics must move beyond silences, pro-
tail both the study of the sources of information hibitions and negative injunctions (which, in-and-
and their apparent distortions and ideological of themselves, are less than effective with adoles-
11 Media Development 4/2018cents) to the reconstructive project of modelling order, and, for many communities, the sustaina-
and enacting digital citizenship, convivial social bility and survivability of everyday life. Any rec-
relations, and action for social justice in education, onnoitring of critical media literacy, multi-lit-
economy and culture. eracies and digital ethics has to begin from an
Our aim, then, is to reframe critical media educational engagement and critical analysis of
literacy and digital ethics as part of a larger inclu- these new economic and cultural, civic and media
sive and decolonizing educational project that re- conditions. For many students and communities
fuses to relegate diversity and difference (includ- have to contend not just with poverty, joblessness
ing childhood and adolescence) to “second class and inequality, but also the stark effects of autoc-
moral status” (2002, p. 2) and pursues a vision of racy and plutocracy, renewed racism and sexism,
sustainable forms of life for all. ideological distortion and untruth, unethical and
unjust social relations and conditions, and funda-
Digital media as tools for conviviality mental issues around freedom, policing and public
All communications media reorganize and alter safety, control and surveillance.
our sense of space and time. They enable and con- Now, more than ever, schooling, education
strain epistemic and cultural stance, the building, and literacies have to be about “reading and writ-
conservation, critique, and transformation of cul- ing the world” – to return to Freire (1970). Lives
tural forms, meanings and identities. And digital and futures are on the line. n
media has expanded exchange between students,
teachers and citizens beyond the confines of em- Notes
1. For example: http://www.lse.ac.uk/media@lse/research/
bodied and geographic place. Successful work with EUKidsOnline/Home.aspx
young people shows how digital arts and culture 2. The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA)
can provide “tools for conviviality” (Illich, 1973): is a worldwide study by the Organisation for Economic Co-
operation and Development (OECD) in member and non-
means for learning to live together within and member nations intended to evaluate educational systems by
across diversity and difference, space and time, in measuring 15-year-old school pupils’ scholastic performance
on mathematics, science, and reading.
ways that don’t destroy environments and com-
munities – particularly in the face of those who References
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Rowman & Littlefield. Is it possible to translate human rights into
Jenkins, H., Shresthova, S., & Gamber-Thompson, L. (2016). By code? Joana Varon and her NGO Coding
Any Media Necessary: The new youth activism. New York: New
York University Press. Rights intend to do so. Through innovative
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I nformation is power. This oft-repeated phrase
is true, even if the way we share information
changes over time. It is this very concept that in-
York: Routledge.
Luke, C. (1990) Constructing the Child Viewer. New York: Praeger
spired a group of women to use their intelligence,
Press. passion and knowledge in the service of “translat-
The New London Group. (1996). A pedagogy of multiliteracies: ing human rights to code.”
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60-93. This is the leitmotif of Coding Rights, an or-
Pasquale, F. (2015). The Black Box Society: The secret algorithms that ganisation created in 2015 that describes itself as
control money and information: Harvard University Press.
Picciano. A. & Spring, J. (2012) The Great American Education-
a “think and do” tank. It focuses on strengthening
Industrial Complex. New York: Routledge. human rights in the digital realm.
Quan-Haase, A. (2016) Technology and Society: Social networks, How can human rights be strengthened on-
power, and inequality, 2nd ed. Toronto: Oxford University
Press. line? For Coding Rights, it can be done by con-
Share, J. (2009) Media Literacy is Elementary. 2nd Ed. New York: sidering the use and understanding of technology
Peter Lang. when shaping public policy. It can also be achieved
Viner, Katherine (2016) How technology disrupted the truth.
The Guardian June 16, 2016. Retrieved from: https://www. by denouncing companies who use technology to
theguardian.com/media/2016/jul/12/how-technology- violate digital privacy.
disrupted-the-truth
While this may sound like a mishmash of
Allan Luke’s books include: Critical Literacy, Schooling and Social ideas, one thing is clear: Coding Rights walks the
Justice (Routledge, 2018), Educational Policy, Narrative and Discourse walk, and their work extends beyond far publish-
(Routledge, 2019) and Bourdieu and Chinese Education (Routledge,
2019). His current work is available at https://www.reverbnation. ing statements. “We create apps, produce content,
com/allanluke and break down complex ideas so that they are ac-
Julian Sefton-Green’s books include: The Class: living and learning cessible to everyone,” Joana Varon, founding dir-
in the digital age (New York University Press, 2016), Learning
Identities, Education and Community: young lives in the cosmopolitan ector of Coding Rights, told IFEX.
city (Cambridge University Press 2016) and Learning beyond the Varon is a Brazilian researcher and activ-
School: international perspectives on the schooled society (Routledge,
2018)
ist, focused on technology, digital rights, and pri-
vacy. She’s also a lawyer, and holds a degree in
International Relations. In 2017, she was select-
ed, amongst 15 others, for a fellowship dedicated
to “building a more humane digital world” by the
Mozilla Foundation.
13 Media Development 4/2018Varon seeks to “reach people through ac- This is how Coding Rights was born - based
cessible, easy-to-understand mediums” and to dis- on the aim to “translate human rights into code.”
cuss “topics like surveillance and digital security.” Right from the start, Coding Rights’ work
For Varon, this presents “a constant challenge.” stood out as original and controversial. “Safer-
“We take a three-pronged approach to our Nudes”, for example, is an initiative that informs
work: The first is to research the state of technology, people about how they can take all the nude photo-
its implementation, and the effects it has on fun- graphs they like, while still safeguarding their
damental human rights. The other is to translate anonymity (if that’s what they want). The project
the findings of our research so that more people offers a guide - complete with concrete examples -
and other movements can understand it. We want on how to take safe nude photographs.
them to know that digital issues are cross-cutting “We would dare to say the vast majority of
and relate to almost all existing social movements us yearns to send and receive nudes all day long,
(environmental, gender equality, etc.). The third every day. We believe the privacy of your com-
aspect of our work occurs after we’ve conducted munications is a right, and that the decision to
our analysis, and after we’ve informed and mo- have them published or not should be exclusively
bilised people. At this point, we think of the type yours,” the project states.
of code we’d like to create that encompasses alter- This is the perspective that Coding Rights
nate values to the ones we currently see reflected takes with each new project. Another example
in technology,” said the researcher and activist. of their work is a newsletter on surveillance and
It’s a significant challenge, raising awareness digital security. The project started in 2015, and
about human rights in the digital age. it continues to run today. Its primary focus? How
“It’s a complicated issue. From the moment the use of big data can affect elections.
we created Coding Rights, we chose not to use the
typical images of eyes and cameras to represent Chupadatos – The data sucker
digital security. We wanted to make something Something sinister moves through the shadows of
that created more of a personal connection with the darkest nights - a being that terrorizes even
people, and we continue to do so,” says Varon. the most remote towns of Latin America. It’s a
She believes that things have changed “for macabre, mythological being who sucks the blood
the better” in Latin America over the past year; that out of farm animals. Known as the Chupa Cab-
people are more aware of issues related to person- ras, it’s been the worst nightmare of children and
al data, privacy, and the internet. The Cambridge adults alike for decades.
Using this name as inspiration, Varon and
Analytica case - in addition to other potential in- her team created Chupadatos, a virtual being who
fluences on the electoral results in countries like – instead of sucking blood – sucks data from all of
the United States - allowed people to “understand its victims (in other words: us).
that their data is valuable” and to “pay more atten- “Chupadatos is yet another initiative that al-
tion” to their online presence. lows us to tell stories and share them on a large
scale. It’s a very effective way to make the link
Translating to create understanding between gender and technology. It translates
The key concept that Varon works with is that of the problem and tells it in a way that people can
“translating” the complex mechanisms of digital understand. In this way, we’re using technology as
security and surveillance into “concrete actions, a tool to defend human rights,” Varon says.
where people can feel an impact.” The link between gender and privacy is also
“People often think that human rights and made in “Menstruapps”, a project that researched
digital rights don’t affect them directly, so we have fertility and menstruation apps. The initiative un-
to find innovative ways to discuss these topics,” covered that an enormous amount of data is col-
she said. lected from app users.
14 Media Development 4/2018“It’s detailed information about our bodies, tee rights by conceptualizing technology that is
sexual activity, and feelings. In most cases, the apps different from the paradigm we currently live in,”
also use very traditional language that conveys a Varon said.
pro-fertility, traditional family model. These are “The technology that we use nowadays,
all issues that we sought to raise awareness about even the internet itself, was developed under the
and change,” she said. principle of connectivity. While this is an import-
Other topics discussed by Chupadatos in- ant value, we realized that we can’t conceptualize
clude: public transport in Rio de Janeiro, dating it without relating it to other values, such as the
apps, apps for taking care of children, and mar- right to privacy and data protection,” she added.
keting that targets mothers. “We hope that people Coding Rights has developed projects relat-
become aware of this business model, and under- ed to these issues. One example is radar legislativo
stand the risks that come with it. These risks can (legislative radar).
include leaked data, or the inappropriate use of
data by the company that collects it,” the research- Allyship, courage, and inspiration
er explains. Coding Rights also likes to work with other or-
Currently, Coding Rights is working on ganisations who are strategic partners on the con-
“Safer Sisters”, a feminist digital campaign that tinent, and with whom they can develop innova-
shares advice, via GIFs, on how women can stay tive ideas. “We are always looking for partners to
safe online. develop ideas, and who can help share them with
“We love it when people read an entire more people,” said Varon.
guide on digital security and become well-versed “We like to work on hot button issues, such
in the risks. But we understand that not everyone as fake news, or the use of personal data in elec-
will read an entire guide. So, we like to share con- tions, but with a regional approach, and in a way
crete steps, and tips that only require one click for that applies to our geographic area,” Varon ex-
people to take action.” plains.
Coding Rights’ vision is clear. It sets out to Several IFEX members have worked with
approach pre-existing issues - such as surveillance, Coding Rights, including Asociación de Derechos
extortion, personal data misuse, and human rights Civiles (ADC), from Argentina, Fundación Karis-
violations - from new angles, using unique com- ma, from Colombia, and Derechos Digitales, from
munication platforms. Chile.
This is why Coding Rights is made up of a We asked representatives of these organi-
small team. There are only six full-time employ- sations about what it’s like to work with Coding
ees. Depending on the projects they’re developing, Rights:
they “may look for the ideal candidate to see the “We’ve worked with Coding Rights on mul-
project to fruition.” tiple occasions. I think the best way to describe the
“We try to build bridges - to simplify the work of Joana and Coding Rights is ‘courageous.’
discourse of privacy and surveillance and apply it They aren’t afraid to explore new perspectives or
to everyday scenarios,” Varon said. ways in which to discuss human rights and tech-
nology. And that, I think - in a community that
The future: Creating codes to guarantee is often far too self-referential - is very import-
human rights ant and inspiring,” said Vladimir Garay, Advocacy
For Varon, the future of Coding Rights lies in Director at Derechos Digitales.
honouring its name, and creating codes to de- “Coding Rights is one of the most interesting
velop technology based on “a different set of val- projects in the region when it comes to activism
ues.” Values that “defend human rights” and that and digital rights. They take a fresh approach on
are rooted in “feminist and egalitarian” thought. how to communicate complex issues. Their com-
“I visualize this as the possibility to guaran- munication style is straightforward and sprightly.
15 Media Development 4/2018They offer an interesting perspective on gender.
We worked together on Chupadatos, and another “Vulnerability” as
project that analysed government websites,” said
Carolina Botero, of Fundación Karisma. the key concept of
Working with Varon and Coding Rights is
“stimulating,” Botero added, noting that the or-
a communicative
ganisation “acts very quickly” and has “very fast”
reaction times.
ethics for the 21st
To Eduardo Ferreyra, public policy analyst
for ADC, Coding Rights “does very good work
century
regarding the use of personal data. They are very Hugo Aznar and Marcia Castillo-Martín
professional, but what makes them stand out the
most is how they disseminate information in ori- At a recent IAMCR Conference (Eugene,
ginal ways. They often use art as a means of shar- Oregon),1 the authors presented a paper
ing their findings.”
proposing that vulnerability could – or
Both ADC and Coding Rights are research-
ing how personal data is used by political parties should – be the key concept of what
during elections. they call the second generation of media
Coding Rights’ projects have gone viral, or communicative ethics. This second
and their impact continues to grow in the region generation began to appear during the last
and on the continent. It’s in the energy and dedi-
decade of the past century, but they propose
cation of groups like Coding Rights that we can
find hope for a freer, egalitarian and more tolerant that its development and dissemination are
Latin America. n just now one of the most crucial tasks for
the ethics of communication.
José Peralta is a Regional Editor for IFEX, a network of
B
organisations connected by a shared commitment to defend and
promote freedom of expression as a fundamental human right.
efore presenting this new generation, we will
Article reprinted with permission. go briefly over the past generation. This can
help us to understand better the task that we now
have to confront. Setting precedents aside, this
first generation was born during the beginning of
the 20th century as a consequence of a series of
events which occurred during its three first dec-
ades. These events are well known and we can
look back on them in a schematic way.
The first was political democratization: a
process which took place during the 19th century,
and was completed in the first decades of the new
century with universal suffrage, including the vote
for women. This gave unprecedented relevance to
electoral processes, and to mass parties and their
leaders, competing for people’s votes. Because of
all this, public opinion, and political communica-
tion and advertising became a matter of huge in-
terest.
The second was the First World War
and, closely related, the Soviet Revolution. Both
16 Media Development 4/2018placed at the top of the public agenda worries the challenges and tasks, and to be able to take efficient
questions of the impact of propaganda and mis- decisions in complex situations. All the more so in
information, and their influence for conducting a democracy in which public opinion plays a cen-
democratic societies in a globalized world. tral role. Consequently, journalism became crucial
The third was the appearance or, better for such a society. But, what kind of journalism?
still, the awareness of the appearance – because Instead of propaganda, editors’ ideology, ma-
this event was also taking place from the middle nipulation or the crude ignorance of news work-
of the 19th century as a consequence of the In- ers of that time, at least three things were essential
dustrial Revolution of what Graham Wallas and for the new emerging world and the press that it
Walter Lippmann after him called the “Great So- needed: i) to define the criteria of truth and objec-
ciety”. The Great Society was characterized by the tivity in journalism, in order to make the infor-
power of the big corporations, the influence of re- mation that flows in society more valid and useful;
mote and very complex effects, and what we now ii) to improve the professional qualifications of
call globalization. A world in which people’s lives journalists; and iii) to increase the responsibility
were affected by remote facts, quite beyond the lo- of media and journalists’ performance (Lippmann,
cal proximity that had dominated people’s experi- 1920).
ence until then. This made the information car- These became the subjects of the nascent
ried by the media crucial for understanding and study of journalism and of emerging media ethics.
managing this new, distant and complex world. Accordingly, the principles, criteria and norms
The last event was the consolidation of the for establishing journalistic truth, honesty and
industrial press, which sold millions of copies, responsibility were formulated in the first decades
earned huge quantities of money, and became ex- of the 20th century. These moral criteria tried to
tremely powerful. This was the first straight evi- assure the informative function of journalism, es-
dence of the nascent century of mass media, with sential for a democracy and well formed public
illustrated magazines, cinema, radio and TV fol- opinion. Norms to assure truthfulness, accuracy
lowing the press. All this also placed the question and objectivity; testing of information; verifica-
of the power and behaviour of mass media at the tion of facts and testimonies; attribution of in-
very centre of the concerns of the new century. formation and identification of the sources; fair
Walter Lippmann can be considered the methods of collecting information and materials;
most representative author of this crucial mo- separation of facts and opinions; distinction be-
ment because in his works of the 1920s he grasped tween news and advertisement or propaganda,
with great sagacity the problems related to these and so on, became the common content of the
changes and the giant challenges they posed to first codes of journalism ethics that appeared in
the naïve conceptions of democracy, public opin- those decades. These codes would be disseminated
ion and information of the two previous centur- all over the world during the rest of the century.
ies (Lippmann and Merz, 1920; Lippmann, 1920, This moral content and these codes of ethics
1922, 1927). For the first time, he sited journalism of journalism would shape what we have called the
and public opinion, and their relationship with first generation of communicative ethics. Nowa-
contemporary democracy, at the centre of public days these norms of journalism ethics are well es-
preoccupation and at the very heart of two nas- tablished. They are recognized by all, journalists
cent disciplines: political sciences and journalism and media outlets, and indeed by many educated
studies. people in our developed societies. So, these basic
journalistic norms are beyond doubt and we do
The crucial role of journalism and the prin- not need to work on them in regard to their sense,
ciple of truthfulness content and function.
Under these new conditions – Lippmann insisted Obviously, we do not want to say that the
– a society needs valid information to evaluate its ethical questions related to the information func-
17 Media Development 4/2018You can also read
