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| 2. |
- Asai, Ryoko, 1977-, et al.
(författare)
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Do social media generate social capital?
- 2012
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Ingår i: ICT, society and human beings. - Lisbon : IADIS Press. - 9789728939762 ; , s. 133-136
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Do social media generate social capital beyond borders between the real and virtual spaces? If so, how do social media function in forming and maintaining social capital? This study is triggered by those simple questions. From the beginning of 2011, a huge number of people have seen political turmoil stimulated by use of social media and felt the inner stirrings of people’s cooperative network via social media. Thus, some people strongly stressed that social media has a great power to change authoritarian regimes from the global political issues perspective. On the other hand, we recognized how social media worked effectively from the local issues perspective, for example in the case of the massive disaster in Japan. Under the critical situation, where existing traditional media like phones, TV, radio and newspapers didn’t work, the Japanese got and exchanged information through social media and in fact some victims were rescued based on information via social media. Both cases, political changes and massive disasters, show information transaction process has been supported by thin trust, generalized reciprocity and loosely tied people’s network, regardless of geographical borders or real/virtual spaces. Therefore it seems that social media plays an important role in fostering a social network leading to social capital. This paper reconsiders characteristics of social capital and its role in improving people’s lives through social media. It also examines how social media influences social capital by giving a few examples of social media and social issues, more specifically, the political turmoil in Tunisia and big earthquake disasters in Japan.
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| 3. |
- Asai, Ryoko, 1977-, et al.
(författare)
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ICT supported crisis communication and dialog
- 2013
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Ingår i: The possibilities of ethical ICT. - Kolding : University of Southern Denmark. - 9788792646729 ; , s. 37-41
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- This study explores how people use social media under serious social conditions, and how social media affects people’s behavior after a disaster based on the case of the March 2011 disaster in Japan. In this critical situation, where existing traditional media like phones, television, radio and newspapers did not work well, the Japanese exchanged and received information through social media. In fact some victims were rescued based on information via social media. Corresponding to people’s need, social media provided various services to support people immediately after the disaster. Therefore it seems that social media plays an important role in fostering a social network leading to horizontal communication, critical thinking, dialog; supporting social capital. This study reconsiders characteristics of social capital and its role in improving people’s lives and supporting democratic communication as well as the difficulties in people bonding together through social media.
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| 4. |
- Asai, Ryoko, et al.
(författare)
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Regulation of potentially harmful contents on minors
- 2012
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Ingår i: Equity, integrity and beauty in information law and ethics. - Kerkyra, Greece : Ionian Academy.
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- In democratic societies, freedom of expression is the indispensable right and duty of citizens. Although there are a few exceptions, it is generally considered that governments should not intervene and regulate this right. Both in digital and analog environments, sexual and violent descriptions are usually regulated by self-censorship of participants. However, trying to protect minors from potentially harmful contents by controlling and regulating them is very difficult. The definition of what is “potentially harmful contents on minors” varies depending on the values and on the culture of each social group. Moreover, along with the rapid spread of mobile phones and smartphones, it becomes more difficult for parents and teachers to control children’s access to harmful contents; something that might have been easier regarding the use of personal computers. Access to the Internet provides huge opportunities not only of visiting websites but also of participating in online communication such as Social Networking Service (SNS). An incredible surge of SNS evokes some issues in considering juvenile access to SNS, categorized roughly into three types. One is the very old and new problem in accessing the Internet, which is how to shield minors from harmful contents. Second is how to block inappropriate contact with a pedophile. Third is cyber bullying. SNS is a very new medium and its market and technology are evolving drastically and are constantly changing. Thus the agent of taking the lead in making and enforcing rules or self-regulation is still absent. Additionally, SNS services utilize the function of social graph actively, and third parties can provide contents and applications using open API. In response to these situations, European Commission implemented Safer Social Networking Principle for the EU, and United States released the guideline for SNS users and worked on SNS companies and users to promote voluntary efforts for using SNS properly. In Japan, mobile contents companies built the Content Evaluation and Monitoring Association (EMA) as a voluntary reviewing entity. However those measures don’t include any severe legal penalty. Those remain self-regulation relying on voluntary activities of private sectors. On the other hand, self-regulation itself is regulated by laws, social norms, market conditions and technological architectures. In this paper we discuss the conditions of regulation and self-regulation, and we explore some ideas about what would be the best way to regulate SNS.
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| 5. |
- Asai, Ryoko, 1977-, et al.
(författare)
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Responsibility and Competence in Political Ethics
- 2014
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Ingår i: Proceedings International Political Science Association, 23rd World Congress of Political Science, 2014. - Montreal.
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- At present, our society is globalized, chaotic, changing, and also highly affected by individualization. That is, it is more difficult for out society to reach goals or conclusions collectively as one nation or one society. Under the situation, society needs political leaders to gather individual values, interests and opinions, and to take a lead in making collective decisions in the proper manner. Political leaders are required to have ability of making decisions and acting in the best way for society. Their responsibility is high even for future generations. According to Weber there are two categories of ethics pertaining to politics and to political leaders. One is the "ethic of ultimate ends" and the other is the "ethic of responsibility". "Ethic of responsibility" of political leaders is considered as a critical element. It is perceived as a kind of ability to consider possible social options and their impact, and also to take responsibility of their consequences in the future. In this context, it is very well compatible to the idea of ethical competence. It binds together philosophy and modern empirical research on ethical decision making, opening up for interventions like training and education for political leaders.
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| 6. |
- Asai, Ryoko, 1977-, et al.
(författare)
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Social movement and social media
- 2012
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Ingår i: Critique, democracy and philosophy in 21st century information society. ; , s. 76-77
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- How do social media affect the process of building a democratic society? Information and communication technology (ICT) made it possible for people to communicate beyond national borders and other obstacles. Social media in particular play an important role in creating a place where people communicate with each other, for example Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and so on. In other words, under these circumstances, social media function as the third place in addition to home and workplaces, which contributes not only to unite people in commu- nities but also to the resolution of various problems and crises. Therefore, the third place nurtures relationships and mutual trust under internet access conditions, and it is open for free discussions, and becomes a ground for democracy.In face-to-face communication, participants’ behavior is affected by social context cues, and users let their behavior adjust to particular communication manners. However, in online communicati- on, it is more difficult for participants to understand static and dynamic cues surrounding other participants compared to face-to-face communication. Because, in many cases, whereas social media makes it possible for users to communicate with others easily regardless of physical dis- tance, national boundaries and time difference, it limits the number of characters and the amount of data that they can post and use. However, participation in online communication, especially in social media, is seen as the key element in the recent trend toward democratization. In fact, millions of users send and receive a huge amount of information via social media in order to cultivate a relationship with others and strengthen mutual exchange beyond borders. Generally it is recognized that social media advance participation through exchanging information with minimal social context cues.However, communication through social media has some problems. Firstly, exchanged informa- tion via social media minimizes social context cues under severe restricted or censored internet access conditions; because simplified messages can be more understandable and impressive for other users in communicating. Therefore information tends to be extreme, and it could evoke a risk of group polarization. Secondly, in social media, information receivers gather fragmented information in borderless cyberspace, for any purpose. Following this they try to transform infor- mation into something they can understand, something closer to their own experience, or they try to perceive the feelings and experience of the senders of information. Through this process, users develop a sense of solidarity and share expectations and norms, which bring them together as one community. Therefore, social norms have a considerable influence on users in particular communities and advance self-stereotyping among them as solidarity and social identity are en- hanced. This situation carries the social risk of exclusion of others. Some people call Middle-east political change “Facebook revolution” or “twitter revolution” on the internet. Is this naming really pertinent? Indeed, social media has played an important role as “hub for information” and as the third place in political change. Still, social media has to contribute to the development of skills for dialog in order to achieve a really democratic society.
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| 7. |
- Asai, Ryoko, et al.
(författare)
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The paradoxical nature of privacy
- 2012
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Ingår i: Privacy in the social networked world.
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Privacy appears to be a very important issue today when ICT permeates more and more aspects of our life. Mainly this is understood as a risk of breaking the privacy of persons, and possibly the privacy of groups, organizations, corporations and states. It is therefore interesting to investigate the main definitions of privacy, try to grasp its nature and to discern its features, and to discuss the possible ways of suitable and needed activities. There are essentially two types if definitions. One is focused on the protection of information and on the rules that govern openness and protection. Moor (1997), defines privacy like “the expression of a core value, viz., the value of security” or “sometimes used to designate a situation in which people are protected from intrusion or observation by natural or physical circumstances.... In addition to natural privacy there is normative privacy. A normatively private situation is a situation protected by ethical, legal, or conventional norms.” A similar definition is given by Edmund Byrne (1998): Privacy as a “zone of inaccessibility”. A different approach to the definition of privacy is focused on the control of information, and the main example of this kind of definition is given by Charles Fried (1968): “Privacy is not simply an absence of information about us in the minds of others, rather it is the control we have over information about ourselves”. In the same wavelength we find the definition given by Quinn (2011): “Privacy is a social arrangement that allows individuals to have some level of control over who is able to gain access to their physical selves and their personal information”. Which of the two lines of definitions is more accurate and fruitful, regarding its power to guide our activities toward the achievement of desired goals? If we make an effort to describe the nature of privacy we can easily and rather fast come to the conclusion that privacy is not only something that has to be protected. Although this is important, underlined by both lines of definitions, it seems that privacy sometimes has to be diminished or invaded in order to satisfy important interests and values. One is to create a bond to another person, group or organization. To achieve this one has to give access to private information, or even to give up part or all limitations toward this special person or organization. It is a matter of trust between each other. The other situation, which is the most common one, is that a person, group or organization, which we may call a separate entity, has always another important interest added to the interest of protecting its own privacy: To break, diminish or invade the privacy of any other entity that is a prospective or actual partner in any sense. It is very important for any entity to acquire access to the information about any other entity that is of some interest. If we now go back to the definitions of privacy, and look upon them through the glasses of our observations of its nature we may have good arguments to maintain that a definition focused on the control of information is more plausible. Given the controversial nature of privacy (protect it and break it at the same time) and the clashes arising constantly between all entities in a social interaction, the focus cannot be on normative solutions which if they work are always limited to a certain situation, but on the ways skills, methods and tools we use to create, revise and apply policies, guidelines, rules and principles to manage the issues of privacy. ReferencesByrne, E. F. (1998). “Privacy”. Encyclopedia of Applied Ethics, 3, 649-659.Fried, C. (1968). “Privacy: A moral analysis”. Yale Law Journal, 77, 475-493.Moor, J. (1997). “Towards a theory of privacy in the information age”. Computer and Society, 27, 27-32.Quinn, M. J. (2011). Ethics for the Information Age. Boston: Pearson.
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| 8. |
- Asai, Ryoko, 1977-, et al.
(författare)
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The revival of natural and cultural identity through social media
- 2011
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Ingår i: The computational turn. - Münster : MV-Wissenschaft. - 9783869913551 ; , s. 329-331
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Social media has played an important role as hub for information in political change. It can contribute to the development och psychological and social preconditions for dialog and democracy.
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| 9. |
- Asai, Ryoko, 1977-, et al.
(författare)
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Virtue as ethical competence
- 2011
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Ingår i: EBEN Annual Conference 2011. - Antwerp : Universiteit Antwerpen.
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Organizations active in an environment of increasing internal and external diversity and change need the guidance of suitable moral values. This implies many challenges. However, focus on processes is unavoidable and necessary. Particularly, regarding ethical aspects this is the only possible way for the construction and applicationof right values. In achieving that, skills and processes are very helpful because they provide a good base for the promotion of personal and organizational ethical competence, a competence referring to the ability using the right ways to handle ethical issues and which is not constrained by normative aspects. Since it is not possible to create moral values once and for all, in the diverse and changing conditions of today, continuous moral value creation and interpretation is the only way. Consequently, the focus must be on the process itself, and on the skills and structures behind this process, i.e. on personal and organizational ethical competence. Ethical competence is therefore a virtue.
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| 10. |
- Coghill, Ken, et al.
(författare)
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Ethics, parliaments and members: learning to think ethically
- 2014
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Ingår i: Challenges of contemporay governance. - Montreal : The International Political Science Association.
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Parliamentary democracies are conceptualised as complex evolving socio-political systems in which the parliament is the apex institution through which the community determines the rules and standards applying to individuals, executive government, business, other organisations and relationships within the community and across its borders. As the apex institution, assessing the failings of the parliament provide an opportunity to examine the functioning of the system as a whole. A key factor affecting parliament’s reputation, effectiveness and legitimacy is ethical conduct by its elected members. Whilst members of the political Executive bear heavier responsibilities, all members of a parliament have a duty to behave in ways that enhance rather than detract from the parliament’s performance of its roles and its legitimacy. Compliance with accepted ethical standards of conduct relies on a culture of acceptance and compliance, detection of breaches and sanctions for wrong-doing. The realisation of the prospects of detection and of sanctions facilitates a culture of compliance. A culture of compliance reduces the transaction costs of social exchanges, leaving more resources available to the institution of parliament and its elected members to fulfil the roles of the institution. Accordingly, it is in the long-term interests of both the parliament and its members that individual members practice high levels of ethical competence in the conduct of their parliamentary responsibilities. The paper reports research findings in an international study of formal induction and further development programmes in representative parliaments. Information was collected from members of national parliaments and trainers through surveys (including an innovative measure of ethical competence) and via interviews. Approaches to training relating to ethical conduct were found to vary widely, with some parliamentary induction programmes giving it considerable attention whilst others eschewed the topic. The paper concludes with comments on further research into how elected office holders (such as members of parliament) acquire, develop and sustain ethical competence, including the effectiveness of learning techniques focused on ethical behaviour.
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