Research Focus Media Ethics and Information Technology
We live in a digital society that is in constant transformation. Shaping such a society requires asking questions about its underlying values and norms. The Ethics Centre’s research focus on Media Ethics and Information Technology within the department of Society, Culture and Technological Change addresses these value questions. It conducts research on the ethics of a digital society from an interdisciplinary perspective, incorporating insights from both Information Ethics and Media Ethics.
The research focus developed out of a Junior Research Group Media Ethics in an Interdisciplinary Perspective – Values and Social Cohesion in New Public Spaces (2013–2017) which was funded by the Excellence Initiative of the University of Tübingen. The Junior Research Group focused on the impact of digitalisation on the creation of new public spheres. It investigated how new forms of public communication shape societal values and norms. Thereby, it explored the meaning, significance and foundation of the concepts of solidarity and social cohesion in Media Ethics.
Core philosophical concepts concerning the ethics of a digital society examined within the research focus include data privacy, questions of global informational justice and development, and journalism ethics. Topics of investigation include the ethical and societal implications of surveillance technologies, of applications in the areas of Big Data and Artificial Intelligence, as well as of the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) such as social media. Further topics include learning with the help of digital media and growing up in a digital society, the internet and mental health, the export of information technologies and the global digital divide.
Current Projects
- Educational Materials for Teachers: Ethics of Digitalization and Artificial Intelligence
- IZEW-UNC: Scientific Cooperation and Partnership between the Universities of Tübingen and North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- Edilife: Ethics, Law and Security of Digital Afterlife
- Forum Privacy: Forum Privacy and Self-Determination in a Digital World
- Plattform Lernende Systeme: Germany’s Platform for Artificial Intelligence of the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF)
- SIKID: Children's security in a digital world
- A list of completed projects can be found in the archive section.
Selected Publications and Project Outcomes
- Burkhardt, Anne (2021): Migration und Medien: Anforderungen an eine integrative Kommunikationspraxis. Ein Studienheft für Kommunikationspraktiker:innen, herausgegeben im Kontext des BMBF-Projekt migsst (Migration und Sicherheit in der Stadt), https://www.migsst.de/onewebmedia/Studienbrief_Burkhardt_Medien_Kommunikation.pdf
- Burkhardt, Anne / Heesen, Jessica (2021): Aspekte einer guten Medienpraxis für städtische Quartiere der Vielfalt: Anforderungen aus ethischer Perspektive. Workingpaper im BMBF-Projekt migsst (Migration und Sicherheit in der Stadt), https://migsst.de/onewebmedia/migsst%20WP_7%20Aspekte%20einer%20guten%20Medienpraxis%20f%C3%BCr%20st%C3%A4dtische%20Quartiere.pdf
- Reinhardt, Karoline (2020), Digitaler Humanismus. Jenseits von Utopie und Dystopie, in: Berliner Debatte Initial, Themenschwerpunkt Digitale Dystopie, S.111-123.
- Hagendorff, Thilo (2017) Das Ende der Informationskontrolle. Zur Nutzung digitaler Medien jenseits von Privatheit und Datenschutz, Bielefeld: Transcript.
- Baur-Ahrens, Andreas (2017) ‘The power of cyberspace centralisation: analysing the example of data territorialisation’, in: Matthias Leese and Stef Wittendorp (eds) Security/Mobility. Politics of Movement, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 37–56.
- Heesen, Jessica (ed.) (2016) Handbuch Informations- und Medienethik, Stuttgart: J.B. Metzler.
- Heesen, Jessica (2016) ‘Big data for a fairer democracy?’, in: International Review for Information Ethics (IRIE) 25(5), 15–21.
- Heesen, Jessica (2012) ‘Computer and Information Ethics’, in: Ruth Chadwick (ed.): Encyclopedia of Applied Ethics, 2nd ed., Vol. 1, San Diego: Academic Press, 538–546.
Completed Projects
A list of completed research projects pursued by the Research Focus Media Ethics and Information Technology can be found in the archive section.