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Bringing together expert rhetorical theorists and technologists, this book explores our current understanding of, and attitudes toward, ethos, credibility, and trust in today's changing technological landscape.
Recent advancements in technology, including the development of digital technologies, the growth of algorithmic machine learning and artifical intelligence, and the circulation of disinformation in social media, necessitate a reevaluation of ethos. To explore the rhetorical concept of ethos, which is the perceived character of a speaker, contributors theorize how ethos is enabled, constrained, and constituted through new communication technologies. In this edited collection, chapters address key philosophical questions concerning the rhetorical capacities of modern communicating machines such as ChatGPT, Midjourney, or other digital platforms. Through case studies, new theorizing, and critical inquiry, contributors contemplate the changing relationship between humans and technology in rhetoric and ethos, revealing contemporary tensions and insecurities regarding issues including authenticity and authorship.
This book will be of interest to students and scholars in the fields of Rhetoric, Communication Studies, Technology Studies, Digital Humanities, and Cultural Studies.
List of contents
Editors' Preface Aaron Hess and Jens Kjeldsen1.Introduction: Ethos and technology in contemporary society Aaron Hess and Jens KjeldsenPart I: Theorizing Ethos and Technology 2.Ethos+trust in a digital age Laura Gurak3.Large Language Models: Logos without Ethos David J. Gunkel4.Ethos in the machine - the rhetorical character of AI Jens KjeldsenPart II: Ethos through AI and Algorithms 5.The ethos construction of fact-checkers in an AI setting Mette Bengtsson, Sabina Schousboe and Anna Schjøtt6.Trust in automated decisions? Exploring human-technology interaction in the field clinical AIPrins Marcus Valiant Lantz and Sine Nørholm Just7.Ghosting the machine? Analyzing the anxieties about an AI ethos Aaron Hess8.An Avocado Armchair and Garfield the Antichrist: Ethos and "Deep Learning" for Text to Image AI Technologies E. Johanna Hartelius9.Algorithmic Ethôs: Sophistic Pedagogy and the Ethical Subjects of Social Media Jamie JelinekPart III: Ethos Among Online Audiences 10.Ethos and Pathos in Detecting Hate Speech Katarzyna Budzynska, Barbara Konat, Ewelina Gajewska, Konrad Kiljan, Yana Sviatsilnikava, Maciej Uberna, He Zhang and Adam Mickiewicz 11.Towards a Platform-Sensitive Understanding of Trust: Immigrants' Trust in Authorities during the COVID-19 Pandemic Maryam Alavi Nia 12.Eros and Ethos in Celebrity Deepfake Pornography Amber Davisson13.'We Have to Save the Children': Ethos, Digital Affordances, and the Call to Adventure in Reactionary Digital Politics Alan Finlayson and Robert TopinkaAfterwordCarolyn Miller
About the author
Aaron Hess is Associate Professor of Rhetoric and Communication in the College of Integrative Sciences and Arts at Arizona State University, USA.
Jens E. Kjeldsen is Professor of Rhetoric and Visual Communication in the Department of Information Science and Media Studies at the University of Bergen, Norway.
Summary
Ethos, Technology, and AI in Contemporary Society explores our current understanding of and attitudes toward ethos, credibility and trust in today’s changing technological landscape. The book will be of interest to students and scholars in the fields of Rhetoric, Communication Studies, Technology Studies, and many more.
