[kuliah tamu di Program MIK] tentang Konflik Kepentingan dan Tantangan Etisnya dari perspektif SC & Comm Ethics

Pada hari Rabu 2 November 2022 yg lalu, saya diundang oleh Dr. Daniel Susilo sebagai Kordinator Mata Kuliah Filsafat dan Etika Komunikasi pada program Magister Ilmu Komunikasi (MIK), FIKOM UMN untuk membagikan wawasan keilmuan saya terkait topik yg amat menarik dan relevan dengan studi disertasi saya, yaitu soal Konflik Kepentingan dan Tinjauan Etisnya. Audiens dari kuliah tamu secara daring adalah mahasiswa program MIK, Batch 3 semester 1, sejumlah 18 orang (yang hadir 15 orang saja pada malam itu).

Berikut tampilan cover salindia dari materi pemaparan yang saya sampaikan:

Dengan memerhatikan sejumlah arahan atau kisi-kisi (Silabus) perkuliahan yang diberikan mas Daniel, demikian saya memanggilnya, saya mengulas topik di atas dengan 3 langkah berikut ini: bertolak dari fenomena yg teramati, kemudian penegasan pisau analisis yg akan digunakan utk membedah fenomena tsb, dan akhirnya pemaparan hasil analisis serta rekomendasinya. Sederhana dan jelas bukan langkah2nya? 😀

Adapun, fenomena teramati yg masih sering terjadi terkait breach of ethics, khususnya academic ethics, tergambar pada skrinsyut2 berikut ini:

Sementara, untuk pisau analisisnya, saya membuat distingsi terlebih dahulu, baru menajamkannya dengan definisi operasional terkait focal concepts yg digunakan yaitu: Etika, Etika Komunikasi, Etika Strategic Communication dan Conflict of Interest itu sendiri.

Berikut sejumlah definisi operasional yg saya gunakan:
“Information ethics explores and evaluates: the development of moral values in the information field, the creation of new power structures in the information field, information myths, hidden contradictions and intentionalities in information theories and practices, the development of ethical conflicts in the information field.” (Capurro, 2005: 7)

“Strategic communication holds power to define issues, interactively create understanding, envision options for solutions, and implement policy at organizational and public policy levels. The ability to construct issues and policy creates a responsibility to communicate ethically. Ethics of strategic communication refers to that which is morally worthy in the communicative context. Right versus wrong communication, furthering an innate good, serving the greater good, and facilitating social discourse are all perspectives that can be used to define morally worthy communication.” (Bowen, 2018)

“Ethics govern and yet are distinct from law. That is, while laws encode values and customs that will be enforced by the power of the state, more generally ethics concern those values and beliefs (whether enforced by law or not) that a society or group or individual believe will most likely create goodness.” (Lipari, 2017)

“Communication ethics concerns the creation and evaluation of goodness in all aspects and manifestations of communicative interaction.” (Lipari, 2017)

“Moral dilemmas are a pervasive feature in organizational life, and the discipline of ethics offers principles, tools, and concepts to analyze them and reach a decision about what to do. A moral dilemma is typically a situation where the decision-maker must choose between two or more options that represent some moral requirement or duty.” (Kvalnes, 2019: 3)

Terkait pemaparan hasil dan rekomendasi, saya menjabarkannya ke dalam 6 slides berikut ini:
(1) Conflict of interests as a moral issue;
(2) Trolley Problem as a classic example of Ethical Dilemma;
(3) Contemporary cases of the “conflict of interest” (mengutip dari Plaisance, 2018: 10-11);
(4) The case of a fat man’s desire to feast on profiteroles (mengutip dari MacIntyre, 2016: 10);
(5) The case of gratification (mengutip dari Roberts, 2021); dan ditutup dengan
(6) “5 approaches to dealing with conflict of interests”

Rujukan:
Capurro, R. (2005). Information Ethics. Computer Society of India Communications, 7–10.
Floridi, L. (2013). The Ethics of Information. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Fuchs, C. (2023). Digital Ethics: Media, communication and society; volume five. Abingdon, Oxon; New York, NY: Routledge.
Ikonen, P., Luoma-aho, V., & Bowen, S. A. (2016). Transparency for Sponsored Content: Analysing Codes of Ethics in Public Relations, Marketing, Advertising and Journalism. International Journal of Strategic Communication, 11(2), 165-178. DOI: 10.1080/1553118X.2016.1252917
Kvalnes, Ø. (2019). Moral Reasoning at Work: Rethinking Ethics in Organizations. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Pivot.
Lipari, L. A. (2017). Communication Ethics. Oxford Research Encyclopedias. Published online: 27 February 2017. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228613.013.58.
MacIntyre, A. (2016). Ethics in the Conflicts of Modernity: An Essay on Desire, Practical Reasoning, and Narrative. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Plaisance, P. L. (2018). Defining the Field. In Patrick Lee Plaisance (ed.). Communication and Media Ethics (pp. 1-14). Boston/Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.
Roberts, J. (2021). Conflict of Interest. LibreText Social Sciences.
https://socialsci.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Communication/Intercultural_Communication/Book%3A_Writing_for_Strategic_Communication_Industries_(Roberts)/03%3A_Strategic_Communication_Ethics/3.04%3A_Conflict_of_Interest