When is communication unethical?

Depends. Ethics is battle between good and bad (poor) principles. Morals is the battle between good and bad behavior. So it depends of what type of communication you are speaking of and in what context that it applies.

IE...racist communication is bad ethically and morally.
Divine (higher power) communication is thought to be good ethically and morally.

Another example is:
--Just because a journalist can report something (that being his legal right under the 1st admendment) doesn't really mean that the journalist should report it.

Communication between an company insider giving someone inside information that can be used to speculate in the company's stock would be unethical and illegal (you can go to prison for that). Communication that involves plagiarism of someones work is also unethical and illegal. Any communication that involves a criminal conspiracy, say between a drug dealer and a drug user, or two people planning a holdup, is unethical and illegal. Secret communication between two or more members of a governing body concerning public business is also unethical and usually illegal. These are just a few examples.

when you are taping into someones phone line it is unethical, using a stolen cell phone. Sending emails like you are someone else

not only am i cop, also a former communications specialist. like above said, but also when:

using a two way radio your not licensed to have/operate
using un authorized equipment on a network/system
using chinese/korean knock offs of motorola
using devices not approved by the FCC (which is a federal crime if cought, and they can trace ANYTHING that transmits, so dont be fooled)
scanning/monitoring of the cell/pager band
modifying equipment to do other then whats its purpose is
illegally programming/selling of tweo way devices to the general public

theres more but sure you got the point.

when you try to convey a wrong message and try to manupulate others openion communication is unethical.

You've got some good pragmatic answers here - but I'm going to delve a little deeper into how our minds work. Why do I believe that's important? Because our minds at work determine our buying decisions in the marketplace.

I figure you placed this question in the Marketing and Advertising area on Yahoo Answers because you were looking for answers having to do with unethical communications when it comes to the business arena.

Obviously it's unethical when a business out and out lies to get people to buy a product or service. Dishonestly is clearly unethical. But there's a whole slippery slope of more subtle nuanced "behaviors" that are sometimes used by the person selling a product to get them to that point of saying "yes" that fall into the category of unethical because the person's natural defenses have been lowered.

If a friend is talking with us about a product or service chances are our defenses are lower because we have developed trust over time. But what I'm talking about is the situation where its an artificial lowering of defenses and a few days after the sale the person moans saying, "What was I thinking?" but by then they're stuck with a fat charge on a credit card and the three days to change your mind has passed.

Okay - let me break it down for you just a little bit...

One of the most appalling of these "tactics" IMHO is something known as "neuro linguistic programming" developed by a man named Richard Bandler, Ph.D. The best way I could describe NLP would be to call it subliminal selling or mind control or maybe we could call it a cross between the two. It can be used in personal relationships when you want someone to like you - which doesn't have to always be a bad thing if a person has good intentions - or it can be used in business when you want someone to buy from you.

It's a way of speaking to the subconscious of your prospective customer so the natural defenses are lowered. NLP primes people to buy, buy, buy no matter what - whether they need a product/service or not. It's like little messages slipped into the subconscious and the prospective customer keeps nodding their head yes, yes, yes until they pull out their credit card and buy. Some people are very suggestible to NLP messages and others are not. At it's worst it's almost hypnotic in nature - and so I believe it's unethical.

Because I believe it's unethical and slimy IMHO I won't use it in any aspect of my business. I won't use it in my own marketing and I don't recommend it to others I work with. Yech!

Hope this is helpful to you.

All the best,

Denise Michaels
Author, "Testosterone-free Marketing"
Get the book at: http://www.tfmbook.com
Visit me online at: http://www.mentoringwithdenise.com

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