I’m a fan of the Potter Box Model of Reasoning – a moral analysis tool introduced by a professor of social ethics and expanded on by C.G. Christians (2013). By looking specifically at four characteristics of an issue, one at a time and in particular order, Christians argued that practitioners could understand any conflicting values and weigh them appropriately.  The first characteristic, the situation review, is located in the Design Prospectus.  This paper examines my Digital Signage project through the lenses of values, ethical principles, and loyalties, determining any dilemmas and guidelines towards approaching those dilemmas.

Identify Values

I’m a fan of the Potter Box Model of Reasoning – a moral analysis tool introduced by a professor of social ethics and expanded on by C.G. Christians (2013). By looking specifically at four characteristics of an issue, one at a time and in particular order, Christians argued that practitioners could understand any conflicting values and weigh them appropriately.  The first characteristic, the situation review, is located in the Design Prospectus.  This paper examines my Digital Signage project through the lenses of values, ethical principles, and loyalties, determining any dilemmas and guidelines towards approaching those dilemmas.

Any messages displayed on the digital signage should reflect one or more of the institution’s specific values.  These messages include implied messages, inferred through the choice of images displayed on the screens.

Values are the “fundamental beliefs that guide our behaviors and decision-making process” (Public Relations Society of America, 2000).  This particular institution’s goal is to create “engineers for others,” and values all of the traits that are included in that ideal: an exceptional understanding of math, physics, and engineering principles; applying that knowledge innovatively yet safely; using engineering to contribute to society’s long-term advancement (as opposed to individual gain) or environmental stewardship; loyalty to the Jesuit educational tradition (which includes curiosity and academic integrity over dogma); and communicating openly and treating people fairly (School of Engineering and Applied Science, n.d.). 

Expectations of the digital signage therefore include:

• Open, clear, truthful messages
• Promoting extra-curricular opportunities to learn or apply engineering knowledge and skill.
• Promoting other elements of campus which support understanding of society’s needs and/or environmental needs.
• Fair representation of the student body

Ethical Principles at Work

To ground the interpretation of the values, Christians (2013) insists on picking a general ethics law or rule that provides a guide for action, and using it as a lens to view the situation in question.  Christians himself would suggest a communal responsibility interpretation of Agenda Setting Theory, based on the Judeo-Christian understanding of agape.  The term, frequently used in the New Testament (written in a form of Greek) means “a form of love that is voluntarily self-sacrificial and gratuitous” (New World Encyclopedia, 2018).  This unjustified, non-romantic love is the basis for community, Christians writes (1993). 

Agenda Setting Theory posits that editors’ choices of which stories to cover shape how an audience thinks about the world (Griffin et al., 2019).  From a news standpoint, corporate ownership and monopolies “raise disturbing questions regarding who decides what is and is not reported and whose interest is served,” Christians writes (1993, p. 158).  In calling for a communitarian transformation of the media, he asked that they work with the community to encourage the public to make rational decisions.  In summing up a passage from Thomas Jefferson, Christians explains, “Assuming that humans are rational animals, the press advances society’s interests by feeding an individual’s capacity to reason and make decisions” (1993, p. 89).

Identifying Loyalties

The digital displays in question may not be hard news, but its messages include announcements that the university wants the community to hear.  Are those messages in the community’s best interests? If not, whose interests are most important to the sign’s message curator – the person paid by the school to add messages to a school-owned display? “In the pursuit of socially responsible media, clarity regarding ultimate loyalties is of paramount importance” (Christians, 2013, p. 5).  In this case, the curator could point to Our Values: “We communicate openly” (School of Engineering and Applied Science, n.d.) and argue that means truthfully, fairly.  In the end, the school’s Dean’s wishes must be respected, whatever the decision.

Conclusion

In today’s social climate, where authority figures are less trusted than in the past (Pew Research Center, 2022), it is likely that students already recognize that the digital screens are curated by the school, and not by a student-run system.  Judging by the amount of times students tell the front office staff, “I didn’t know,” students are already choosing to ignore email messages sent by the university.  By creating messages that can be visually absorbed at a glance, I am in many ways forcing messages onto our students, whether they choose to act on them or not.  It is only ethical to make those pervasive messages in those same students’ best interest. Ideally, the school’s interests and the students’ interests mesh. In the cases where university and school messages conflict, the signage is the property of the School of Engineering and Applied Science, and will reflect the values we wish to impart on our students.