[arg_discuss] Topic of the Week July 20: Designer Responsibilitiesto the Public

[Kim Plowright]

(Routes is possibly an unusual example in that it had to comply with UK
Ofcom Guidelines, and the specific guidelines around viewer trust in the UK
http://www.independentproducerhandbook.co.uk/370/7a-channel4-viewer-trust-guidelines/7a-channel-4-viewer-trust-guidelines.html)


2009/7/20 Naomi Alderman <naomi.alderman at gmail.com>


> I'm reminded of this stunt, to highlight the ongoing plight of the victims

> of the Bhopal disaster:

>

> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Yes_Men#Dow_Chemical

>

> It's up to you whether or not you find The Yes Men's line convincing that

> what they did was nothing compared to what Dow Chemical did. However... I

> think it points up that the *purpose* of the ARG is probably relevant to

> the

> question. People might feel a lot better being duped that, eg, a company

> exists which is trialling an interesting cancer drug if the ARG is raising

> money for Cancer Research than they'd feel if that same ARG were

> advertising

> a new brand of chocolate bar ;-).

>

> - Naomi

>

> On Mon, Jul 20, 2009 at 8:46 PM, Brian Clark <bclark at gmdstudios.com>

> wrote:

>

> > >What if a person with Parkinson's came upon our site via Google and

> > >thought it was real? We decided there was an ethical problem there.

> >

> > Talk to us about why *that* was the ethical line for you. If it had been

> a

> > biotech investor that mistakenly thought it was real, would it have felt

> > like an ethical issue to you? What if it had been a job applicant? What

> > about an academic researcher? What about a direct marketer hoping to sell

> > office supplies to the fictional company?

> >

> > In general, I find the question of "ethical guidelines" dubious, at least

> > when it comes to the deception example: there will always be people who

> > don't take the time to determine if what they read is real or not. I

> worry

> > that those kind of people think press releases and The Weekly World News

> > and

> > Peter Pan are real as well.

> >

> > Safety (like your "call the police" example) -- even of those not in on

> the

> > fiction -- is a totally different kettle of worms and should be the

> subject

> > of design considerations.

> >

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> >

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