Relationship Between Autonomy And Freedom

Plaisance in this chapter examines concepts of autonomy and its relationship with freedom, and puts those explanations into media practice. Freedom, liberty, and autonomy are different concepts. Freedom and liberty are pretty similar which refer to one’s be free from restrain. While autonomy is a “self-rule”—it refers to a person who governs his or her own actions based on their own values. Therefore autonomy can bring up with more moral issues. All these three concepts are about freedom. But do we have free will? Research turn out to support that absolute free will is an illusion. Based on such research, it is necessary for us to look at implications of elements of moral life, and to find out the ethical obligations of autonomy. Even a more specific definition of autonomy is not always the highest good if placing too much significance on it. Colby and Damin’s study on “moral examplars”,as well as arguments of feminists, suggests that human development and individuation are sometime contradictory.

Autonomy is positive freedom, which is different from negative freedom arguing that people should be absence of external constraints on individual.

Positive freedom is people’s ability to cultivate human flourishing, to fulfill personal development, and to self-master. It brings up dilemma between to choice of “taking ownership of our reasons for doing things” and “ simply having the freedom to do them”. Plaincanse uses Kant’s idea of moral autonomy to help readers make sense of the dilemma. The importance of practitioner and citizens operating out of free will does not stop with an analysis of journalism. Public relations, the Web, and journalistic voice in new media are addressed as

well.
Chapter 7 identifies privacy as more often on the mind of subjects than of media practitioners, but is shown to be vital both to contemporary life and to responsible media practices. Privacy is important because it is closely associated with every individual in society. Based on this, we can understand privacy as the ability of an individual to seclude himself or herself and thereby express themselves selectively. Privacy is not absolute; it should be regarded as secondary right since the concept is “socially and culturally constructed”(p180). Therefore, privacy is not only important for an individual but also for enforcing moral standards.
Privacy attracts people’s attention in 19th to help people understand economical urban life. Philosophers have different opinions towards Plato openly dismisses the idea of privacy; while Aristotle emphasizes public-private dichotomy. After decades years of development of study on privacy, philosophers conclude that thinking about privacy contribute to comprehensive news than ever. There is a conflict between individual privacy and news transparency. Do journalist must get subjects’ permission to report their names or announce their pictures. However, it is a misunderstanding that privacy is absolute which gives people the idea that their private information should not be revealed unless they agree to. However, journalists should understand two technical elements of privacy: intrusion and disclosure, in order to weigh privacy rights against their responsibilities to serve public. Similarly, privacy in public relations also has a dilemma. It is significant for people work is public relationship to always be mindful of the “the responsibility of unethical exploitation of personal data”(p193). We should also pay attention on privacy in Cyberspace; for example, cookies may record our browsing history. People should have right to do things without fear of observation or unchecked data collection.
1 When one’s autonomous decision conflicts with beneficence, how can we balance it?

2 Does Internet privacy imply that all the information posted on to the Internet remains private and confidential? Does Internet privacy ascertain the privacy of every Internet user?