Imaginative Ethics: How we can teach ethics with a little more imagination

At the University of Texas at Austin, students are saturated in social media and fluent in the nuances of “meme culture.” However, many in this generation are progressively becoming more skeptical of the credibility of traditional news sources. In an increasingly turbulent media environment, students need the ethical tools to navigate the media landscape with understanding and a little imagination. Professor Scott Stroud’s Communication Ethics class is one of many classes at UT that incorporate the Ethics Flag, which aims to help students make real-life ethical decisions.

In his class, Professor Stroud draws students into the “expansive aspect of ethics” that pushes them to think of perspectives and arguments beyond their own.

By reading both canonical philosophy and case studies, students develop a grounded understanding of ethics to prepare them for careers in communication professions.

Professor Stroud argues that because Communication Studies is a practical field, it naturally lends itself to ethical and normative inquiry. The course is structured around preparing students to engage with ethical questions they may encounter in their daily lives and future careers in communication. When UT Austin introduced the Skills & Experience Flags requirements, Professor Stroud saw this course as a natural fit for the Ethics Flag’s goal to “expose [students] to ethical issues and to the process of applying ethical reasoning in real-life situations.”

According to Professor Stroud, one of the greatest benefits of discussing ethical issues in class is that students are already excited to talk about current ethical questions. Most of the students already have a set of ethical intuitions that they use to guide their decision-making. However, through this course, those intuitions will be grounded, honed, and challenged.

Professor Stroud uses theoretical readings in conjunction with case studies to direct the students’ enthusiasm and engage with ethics on a deeper level. The course begins with philosophy readings on ethics from some of the greats such as Aristotle, Jeremy Bentham, John Stuart Mill, and Immanuel Kant. It also includes readings from feminist theorists and nonwestern views on ethics such as those of Buddhism and Jainism. Although the Ethics Flag doesn’t require that students read philosophical works, Professor Stroud argues that these readings give the students the language to talk about ethics and ground their intuitions in theory. With this foundation of ethical theory, the students gain the tools to hone in on the central ethics questions in real-life situations.

Professor Stroud argues that “a key part of ethics is imagination.”

He engages the students’ imaginations — and encourages reflecting thinking and empathy — through a series of case studies on topics ranging from free speech to photo manipulation. “The core of ethics is the controversial issues… rarely is the first reaction (to those issues) the correct one.” In addition to discussing case studies in class, the students also write their own case study, which must address the ethical issues behind a “current dilemma in media use or practice.” The case studies force the students to pause and try to understand the perspectives of all the people involved in the case.

In an increasingly polarized and vitriolic political environment, Professor Stroud’s course encourages the students to have empathy and imagination when thinking of all possible perspectives on an ethical dilemma. This course not only gives students the tools to understand ethical arguments and analyze case studies, but encourages them to pause before labeling someone with opposing views. Instead of using labels and jumping to conclusions, Professor Stroud encourages to students to approach ethical dilemmas by thinking of the perspectives of all those involved with openness.

At the University of Texas at Austin, an institution tasked with being a “university of first class,” incorporating the Ethics Flag in courses across the disciplines gives students tools for confronting ethical dilemmas in their future careers, and at the same time, encourages students to strive to understand the perspectives of others with compassion and understanding. Courses like Professor Stroud’s Communication Ethics class foster an atmosphere of open dialogue on UT’s campus, where students can engage in informed and open discussions on ethical issues with their peers.

If you would like to know more about the Flags program at UT Austin, you can find this information here.

If you are a professor at UT, you can find resources to help teach the Ethics Flag using case studies here. We also provide resources and ideas to help you teach each of the other Flags here

In addition to our resources, some of the case studies Professor Stroud uses are posted for free online by the Media Ethics Initiative at UT Austin’s Center for Media Engagement.

By Abby Attia, Graduate Assistant for CSEF