Introduction to ethics in the age of digital communication

Abstract: Ethics, or moral philosophy, have existed throughout civil human history. Ethics can be described simplistically as the study of what is good and bad or good and evil. More relevant for contemporary societal discourses, are behavioural understandings of ethics, and ethical practice. It is integral for individuals operating in the fields of communications, design and technological development to grasp what ethics are, how they relate and apply to specific domains, where basic principles or similarities lie from context to context, and where there may be differences. This article serves as an introduction to ethics in the field of digital communication. It gives a brief overview of applied ethics as a practical sub-field of ethics and observes ethics in contemporary professional practice from practical, research, and theoretical perspectives.The article also discusses the ways in which the nature of ethics in the field of communication has been changing, and the impact of emerging technology on these changes.