{"id":23,"date":"2022-11-25T15:22:01","date_gmt":"2022-11-25T20:22:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/speaking\/chapter\/chapter-3-ethics-in-public-speaking\/"},"modified":"2023-08-10T23:30:42","modified_gmt":"2023-08-11T03:30:42","slug":"chapter-3","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/speaking\/chapter\/chapter-3\/","title":{"raw":"Chapter 3: Ethics in Public Speaking","rendered":"Chapter 3: Ethics in Public Speaking"},"content":{"raw":"
\r\n

3.1 \u2013 Ethical Stances on Public Speaking<\/span><\/h2>\r\n
\r\n\r\nA public speaker, whether delivering a speech in a classroom, board room, civic meeting, or in any other venue, must uphold certain ethical standards. These standards will allow the audience to make informed choices, to view the speaker as a credible source of information, and to avoid repercussions of bad ethical choices.\r\n\r\nEthics<\/strong> refers to the branch of philosophy that involves determinations of what is right and moral. On a personal level, ethics are your own standard of what you should and should not do in the various situations or in all situations. Although ethics are based on personal decisions and values, they are also influenced by factors outside of you. We will look at various ways ethics, particularly ethics related to speech, have been thought about. Determine how you would explain your own ethical standard for communication. Along with being able to articulate what you would not do, you should have an appreciation for why behaving ethically is important to you.\r\n\r\nOne of \u201cright things\u201d and most important ways that we speak ethically is to use material from others correctly. Occasionally, in the news media, we hear about a political speaker who uses the words of other speakers without attribution or of scholars who use pages out of another scholar\u2019s work without consent or citation. Usually the discussion of plagiarism stays within the community where it occurred, but there is still damage done to the \u201cborrower\u2019s\u201d reputation as an ethical person and scholar.\r\n\r\nWhy does it matter if a speaker or writer commits plagiarism? Why and how do we judge a speaker as ethical? Why, for example, do we value originality and correct citation of sources in public life, as well as in the academic world, especially in the North American context? These are not new questions and some of the answers lie in age-old philosophies of communication.\r\n
\r\n

Legal Issues in Public Speaking<\/h3>\r\nThe Canadian Constitution guarantees freedom of expression, much like the more famous First Amendment in the United States. Thomas Emerson (1970), a Constitutional scholar and Yale Law Professor, asserted that freedom of expression is more than just a right; it is a necessity for having a free and democratic society.\r\n\r\nThere are a few limits on freedom of expression in a criminal sense. Threatening a person's life or impersonating a police officer is not legal, for example. People wishing to hold a large protest in a public place may need a permit, not because of limits on speech, but to protect the safety of so many participants and people who would otherwise use the space.\r\n\r\nAt the same time, people are responsible for what they say and write. If a person falsely claims that somebody else has done something unsavoury, they may find themselves the subject of a lawsuit for slander or libel.\u00a0The latter issue falls into the category of defamatory speech<\/strong>, which is a false statement that damages a person\u2019s character, fame or reputation.\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\nWith the Internet and social media, these issues become more complicated, of course. In the past, someone could express themselves only in limited ways: standing on a street corner, attending a public meeting, putting the words on paper and distributing them, or maybe getting on radio or television (if allowed or if wealthy enough).\r\n\r\nToday, almost anyone with a laptop, a webcam, an ISP, and technical know-how can be effective in getting a message to the masses. While most people use technology and the Internet for fun, profit, or self-expression, some use it for hurt\u2014bullying, defamation, even spreading terrorism.\r\n\r\nThe judicial system is trying to keep up with the challenges that the digital age brings to protecting free expression, while sheltering us from the negative consequences of some forms of free expression.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n
\r\n

3.2 \u2013 Credibility and Ethics<\/h2>\r\nWhen Aristotle used the term ethos<\/em> in the 5th century B.C.E. to describe one of the means of persuasion, he defined it as the \u201cwisdom, sagacity, and character of the rhetor.\"\u00a0Modern scholars of communication and persuasion speak more about \u201ccredibility\u201d as an attitude the audience has toward the speaker, based on both reality and perception, rather than an innate trait of the speaker. Audience members trust the speaker to varying degrees, based on the evidence and knowledge they have about the speaker and how that lines up with certain factors:\r\n