Social media has amplified and accelerated the ethical challenges facing communicators, professional and otherwise, around the world. The work of ethical journalism, with a priority on truthful communication, provides a paradigm case for examining the broader challenges in the global social media network. The development of digital technologies and the associated expansion of the communication network have ethical difficulties for journalists associated with increased speed and volume of information, diminished place in the network and the transnational nature of information flow. These challenges are exacerbated by deliberate manipulation of social media that occurs in many countries, including internal suppression by authoritarian regimes and foreign influence operations to spread misinformation. In addition, the structural features of filtering and recommending algorithms of social media platforms pose ethical challenges for journalism and its role in promoting public discourse on social and political issues, although a number of studies have labeled aspects of the "filter bubble hypothesis".
Research in several countries, mainly in North America and Europe, has examined social media practices in journalism, including two issues central to social media ethics - surveillance and transparency - but ethical implications have rarely been explicitly discussed in the context of ethical theory. Since the 1980s and 1990s, scholarship has focused on normative theorizing in relation to journalism and has become more multicultural and global. Scholars have articulated a number of ethical frameworks that could deepen the analysis of the challenges of social media in the practice of journalism. However, the explicit implications of these frameworks for social media have become largely unaddressed. A major topic of discussion in media ethics theory has been the possibility of universal or common principles globally, including a broadening of the discussion of moral universals or common ground in media ethics beyond Western perspectives that have historically dominated scholarship.
To advance media ethics scholarship in the 21st century environment of globally networked communication, in which journalists work among a variety of other actors (well-intentioned, ill-conditioned, and automated), it is important for researchers to apply existing media ethics frameworks to social media practices. This application must address the challenges social media presents in crossing cultures, the frequent difficulties it poses to journalistic vetting practices worldwide, and the responsibility of journalists to combat misinformation from malicious actors.
It is also important for the advancement of media ethics scholarship that future normative theorizing in the field - whether developing new frameworks or remediating current ones - take on journalistic responsibilities in relation to social media in the context of human and non-human actors in the communication network. The evolving scholarly literature on the ethics of algorithms draws further attention from media ethics scholars for the ways in which it can offer perspectives that complement existing media ethics frameworks focused on human actors and organizations.