Blog post 2

Beginning to grasp communication ethics has proven difficult considering there is conflicting definitions of what exactly communication ethics is. The book, I think, does a good job of creating a simple outline of the different definitions and explaining the main parts of communication ethics like the good. Communication ethics is clearly a difficult concept because in this time, we are such an interconnected world, but at the same time, we are still so different. When we are trying to establish the good that people are trying to protect and promote, we have so many things to consider such as religion and culture. Our world has become so small and connected that, I think, we forget that people have such different beliefs and we must remember this if we want to communicate ethically. Clearly, it is necessary to create some sort of basis for communication because there is no way one can keep in mind every person's idea of the good when everyone has such a different belief of what is truly good. As the book states, it is important to articulate what you personally believe to be good because then, a person can easily identify that and use your good to help them communicate effectively.

The second chapter was slightly more confusing for me to understand, but the concept of "ought" just further illustrates every person's view of what is "good". The book explains the ought to be tied to who we are and our identity and so, obviously, it varies deeply from person to person. To help understand the concept more, I looked into my own life and realized all the people I interact with on a daily basis and how different their beliefs, values and morals may be from mine. At the University, there are people from various religions, countries, cultures and ethnicities. Just by looking at the person, we may not be able to determine what good they want to promote and protect, so that is why communication ethics is so necessary to understand and learn because we are living in a world where people are more connected then ever for various reasons. Hopefully, this class will help my further understand the nuances of communication ethics, but I have already noticed the extreme importance there is to find common ground in communication ethics.