Gilbert Gottfried Insensitive Jokes

Social media is a platform that people use to share their thoughts, meet new people, and keep in touch with family and friends. When posting on social media, individuals sometimes make mistakes and post hurtful things without realizing the effect it may have on others.

In 2011, a 9.0 magnitude earthquake struck Japan and triggered a massive tsunami that killed thousands of people. This natural disaster also left thousands of people without a home. Gilbert Gottfried, an American stand-up comedian, and actor went to twitter and posted “Japan is really advanced. They don’t go to the beach. The beach comes to them”. While Gottfried posted this as a way of being funny, others thought this was insensitive and wrong of him. Gottfried’s actions cause him to lose his job.

Listed below are Bowen’s 15 ethical guidelines which will be used to examine Gottfried’s post.

1. Be fair and prudent: Gottfried should have thought about other people’s feelings when he decided to make this post.

2. Avoid deception: Gottfried’s post did not contain any deception.

3. Maintain dignity and respect: Gottfried’s post was not respectful and was very insensitive to the people of Japan.

4. Eschew Secrecy: This does not apply to Gottfried’s post.

5. Is it reversible?: Gottfried deleted the tweet an also issued a statement of apology but the tweet was already seen and saved by his follows. His actions cannot be reversible, but it could be a learning experience.

6. Be transparent: This does not apply to Gottfried’s post.

7. Clearly identify: This does not apply to Gottfried’s post.

8. Rational analysis: Gottfried’s post could be considered as he does not empathize with the people of Japan during this horrible time.

9. Emphasize clarity: This does not apply to Gottfried’s post.

10. Disclose transparency: This does not apply to Gottfried’s post.

11.Verify sources and data: This does not apply to Gottfried’s post.

12.Establish responsibility: Gottfried did apologize for his tweet.

13.Examine intentions: I believe that Gottfried’s intentions were to make his follows laugh but instead he hurt a lot of people.

14.Encourage the good: Gottfried’s post did not encourage any good, but it offended a lot of people.

15.Consistency build trust: Gottfried post does not represent his other tweets but it only takes one post to lose some supporters' trust.

After analyzing Gilbert Gottfried’s post with Bowen’s (2013), 15 ethical guidelines, it was clear that Gottfried did not put much thought into his post. While Gottfried was just trying to be funny, it was very offensive to the people of Japan. What Gottfried tweeted was wrong, but everybody makes mistakes. This should be a lesson to Gottfried to think before he tweets.

References

Bowen, S. A. (2013). Using classic social media cases to distill ethical guidelines for digital engagement. Journal of Mass Media Ethics, 28, 119–133.