ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses how journalism ethics evolved as media became increasingly digital, assessing whether moral principles grounded in space, time, and culture metamorphose in technological autonomouspheres. In doing so, the prophecies of Nicholas Negroponte and theories of Jacques Ellul are evaluated, especially as they affect the public trust and practice of journalism. To ascertain the effect of digital ethics in autonomous systems, an overview of universal principles is explored with emphasis on Clifford G. Christians’ iconic “protonorm”: human dignity, truth-telling and non-violence. The Ellulian vision of technological determinism is upheld with moral principles in asynchronous systems homogenized according to algorithms of big-data consumerism rather than dimensions of culture or universals of ethics. The chapter ends affirming an ethics of duty as conceived by Christians to safeguard the public trust and restore journalism as Fourth Estate.
