The ethical issue of publicly disparaging others online: a Reflection
This week, I looked at the risks companies go through to disparage their competitors whilst increasing their own identity. One which I found particularly fun was Taco Bell’s advert, and their included portrayal of McDonalds “old -news” breakfast menu. Luckily for Taco Bell, it worked in their favour as they generated a lot of interest, but imagine what would have happened if it hadnt! Im guessing McDonalds would have jumped on that immediately, promoting the idea that Taco Bells menu is disgusting whilst their own is more favourable!
But of course, there are those who sometimes mispredict the severity of a tweet or status, thus enduring the consequences of the public response. Take Justine Sacco’s tweet for example. For the life of me, I don’t understand how she could not predict that there would be such an uproar of responses. To be fair, she initially only had 200 followers, so probably didnt think that the tweet would retweeted and consequently end up on the news. This made me release that even if you think “oh, it wont happen to me…”, it certainly can!
In Andysug’s blog, he mentioned online-policing; something used to reduce the issue of offensive-aimed comments, i.e trolling. This helped me to understand why action needs to be taken, even though I couldnt help thinking about the growing population of online users, which as a result means an increase on the number of trolls. Moreover, what also makes it difficult for online-police, which Jess brought up in her comment, is freedom of speech. How are offensive comments supposed to be reduced if people are allowed to say what they want?
I’ve realised it’s the importance of a report button which helps control offensive comments. Id encourage anyone to use it if they ever feel that they need to.
References
Sugden, A. (2014). The Only Way Is Ethics. MY BLOG FOR UOSM2033- LIVING AND WORKING ON THE WEB
Taco Bell. (2014) Get with the Time| 2014 Taco Bell Breakfast Commercial. [Online video] Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clZBO_kBgUM [Accessed: 30th November 2014]
Vinganio, A. (2013) This is how a woman’s tweet became the world’s top story. Buzzfeed. [Online picture] www.buzzfeed.com/alisonvingiano/this-is-how-a-womans-offensive-tweet-became-the-worlds-top-s. [Accessed: 30th November 2014]
Jess’ comment on my blog
Mumby, F. (2014) What ethical isues in Business?! FREYA MUMBY
