We all make mistakes, and in the case of American Apparel celebrating the fourth of July, a big one was made. The social media manager posted an edited version of the Challenger space shuttle explosion, killing seven crew members in 1986.

Fortunately for the company, it was just an honest mistake made by the social media manager because they were born after the disaster, and truthfully if I was in their shoes I might have had made the same mistake. I will now consider Bowen’s ethical guidelines in relation to the image above.

The first ethical guideline is to “be fair and prudent,” and in this case, although an honest mistake, there was no care thought about before posting this photo, such as doing background research beforehand.

The second ethical guideline is to “avoid deception,” and in this situation, the social media manager did not purposely mean to deceive people on what the picture was.

The third ethical guideline is to “Maintain dignity and respect,” and unfortunately, the outcome of the situation did not maintain these standards mistake or not.

The fourth ethical guideline is to”eschew secrecy,” which does not apply to this blunder.

The fifth ethical guideline, “is it reversible.” applies to this issue as many people who were alive during the explosion were painfully reminded of it.

The sixth ethical guideline is to “be transparent” and does not apply to this specific situation.

The seventh ethical guideline is to “clearly identify,” which does not apply to this mistake as it was not meant to be personal speech or an opinion post.

The eight ethical guideline is to “rational. analysis” applies to this mistake because those born during the actual disaster assumed correctly what the picture was and became upset.

The ninth ethical guideline is to "emphasize clarity,” and in this case, the image was not clarified and researched beforehand, which caused the whole incident in the first place.

The tenth ethical guideline is to” disclose,” which does not apply here as it was just meant to celebrate the 4th of July.

The eleventh ethical guideline is to “verify sources and data,” which was not done in this situation as the social media manager did no background research.

The twelfth ethical guideline is to “establish responsibility,” which does not apply to this situation.

The thirteenth ethical guideline is to “examine intention.” In this case, the post was not made with any ill intention but unfortunately came out that way due to the image used.

The next guideline is to “encourage the good,” which the social media manager attempted to do by trying to cause community engagement during the holidays but unfortunately came out the wrong way.

The last guideline does not apply to this situation.

All in all, this was an unfortunate incident caused by a lack of knowledge of the situation. It is evident that the post did not meet most of the guidelines, but fortunately for American Apparel, the post was not made with any Ill intent.

#CommEthicsWeek5

References

Bowen, S. (2013). Using Classic Social Media Cases to Distill Ethical Guidelines for Digital Engagement. Journal of Mass Media Ethics, 28(2), 119–133. https://doi.org/10.1080/08900523.2013.793523

American Apparel sorry for using Challenger disaster photo. (2014, July 04). Retrieved October 06, 2020, from https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-american-apparel-challenger-20140703-story.html