In today's digital age, our feeds are flooded with contents meant to inspire, entertain, educate and inform the society. But have you stopped to think of the impact of these posts, stories or tweets on society? From influencers promoting product brands to fake news spreading like wildfire, it is clear that digital content has the power to shape our world - for better or for worse. Therefore, as digital content creators, we are all saddled with the responsibility of prioritising ethical considerations, ensuring contents promote positivity, respect, and inclusivity. For the purpose of this article, these ethical considerations will be explained exhaustively.
Digital contents shape our perceptions, attitudes, and beliefs. The way information is put forward really matters as it has the tendency of influencing an individual's consumption. Opinions are usually amplified on social media, though left for individuals to decide how they want to digest the information. But it is possible that the convincing nature of such information could go a long way in influencing the choice of the audience into accepting these opinions. Influencers and online personalities sway consumer choices and this is one advantage of digital content creation. Nevertheless, ethical considerations must not be undermined in the process of convincing the audience to accept some opinions.
In this case, the accuracy and truthfulness of these opinions must be considered. Plugging a product and promoting the brand is not wrong but as a digital content creator, you owe your audience the duty of checking the originality and authenticity of the product. You must ask yourself questions like, " is this a quality product I'm advertising?", "Can this product stand the test of time?". You have to answer these questions in the affirmative before putting brands forth on social media. Even in cases of information, you have to consider if you're putting up verified news on your page or you're busy spreading rumours. There's a difference between your opinion and news and you must clearly distinguish such to prevent misinformation. So, effective communication matters because misinformation and disinformation spread rapidly online and it is your place to ensure that these do not come from your feed.
Additionally, digital contents have a great role to play in expressing cultural norms and values. Digital content creators have a way of passing a perception about a certain culture, tradition and beliefs of people. Memes, trends, and viral content spread cultural phenomena, and could affect how people perceive some societal values and norms. Online representation of a culture or belief is a very delicate issue as it is considered as one of the most sensitive topics ever. So, because you don't want to disrespect anyone's beliefs, putting them on social platforms must be done with conscious ethical considerations.
Ethically speaking, representation really matters when it comes to opinions about people's culture or beliefs. Representation here implies the depiction or portrayal of individuals groups or cultures in digital content ensuring respect and inclusivity. As a digital content creator representation is crucial when showcasing people's beliefs, culture and traditions. This means whatever culture-based content you put forth must be authentic and must respect the people concerned wholly. Any information you have not verified in relation to one's culture must be excluded to prevent disrespect to one's culture and also prevent staining your brand as a content creator.
Also, avoid stereotypes or any cultural comparison that is conflicting. Cultures and traditions are unique just the way they are and do not have to be compared if the comparison will lead to feud amongst the audience. Your post should not create room for cultural conflict in the media, therefore, avoid discriminating one's culture or intentionally showing what makes one belief better than the other.
For this, make sure that each culture is well represented and ensure inclusivity in your post as much as possible. Let your content not be culture biassed, seeking to embrace one culture to the detriment of another, rather, it should be welcoming to all to create togetherness and unity in diversity in the social media family. There are more to these considerations and as a content creator, you can't afford to miss my next article as I will exhaustively elaborate on our social responsibilities as content creator in enhancing the mental well-being of our audience through our feeds, and other ethical considerations such as privacy and data protection, harm reduction ethics and accountability in digital content creation.
Anticipate Digital Content and Social Responsibility: Ethical Considerations II !!!