Experiencing Responsibility

Abstract

One central concept in media ethics – and in the field of applied ethics more broadly – is “responsibility”. This contribution asks how the term “responsibility” can be considered productively in the classroom. Since responsibility is always tied to agents, their actions, and the consequences of these actions, the agents involved in the spaces of production, representation, distribution, and consumption are identified. The phenomenological method of “lived experience”, on which I draw as a pedagogical framework, offers a particularly fruitful approach for engaging responsibility in action. The framework draws specific attention to the students’ viewing experience. These considerations are then discussed in the context of the short documentary 4.1 Miles (Daphne Matziaraki, GR/US 2016, 22′). The film, which addresses the refugee crisis on the Greek island of Lesbos, follows the captain of a coastguard ship and his crew.

Keywords

• pedagogy
• media ethics
• short film
• responsibility
• phenomenological method
• documentary