Ethical responsibility in graphic design.

Every situation of human communication falls within the field of ethics. It can be ethical or unethical, but it cannot be a-ethical.

According to Jeorge Frascara in his book "User-centred graphic design", the basic principle of an ethical communication is the recognition of the Other (the receiver of the communication) as a person and not as an object.
Infact, recognizing the Other as a subject means that we recognize him/her as an independent, thinking person, with a specific way of understanding, evaluating and integrating experiences and information.

Summing up, in ethical communications, one communicates with someone about something; one does NOT communicate something to someone.
Ethical communication is the opposite of military communication, where a superior communicates something to an inferior – he trasmits an order that is received passively, and which is coded so as not to allow room for differing interpretations.

When we talk about ethical communication, we're unable to use the Shannon's popular terminology which define the poles of the communication chain as transmitter and receiver; it is more fitting to talk about producers and interpreters, in this way we allow room for context, history, expectations, goals, values, priorities, feelings, preferences and differences of intelligence.
Shannon's terminology describes a communication model where the receivers look up at the source of the message with passivity and reverence, and where communication becomes undirectional.
In ethical communications the producers has to speak a language that the audience can understand. If producers really want to communicate, they should remember that people can only understand things that relate to things that they already understand, using the language of the audience.
This is why the ideal form of human communication is dialogue.

John Frascara thinks that the ethical dimension in visual communication is something embedded in the engagment between the interpreter and the visual design.
A work of visual design proposes a mode of engagment, which might foster a more or less active participation of the interpreter in the construction of the message. These models of engagment can promote certain attitues and expectations, and influence the way people relate to other people.

Many codes of conduct published by professional societies of designer mention the notion of ethics, but in many case they only include ethical responsibilities to collegue and clients, and very rarely to the public. It is indispensable to relate to the public, and most important recognizing it as a group of individuals with different way of understanding, feeling and acting.
Imposition does not work in long term: that's why without partnership between the public and the message producer, the attitudes will not change.
When attitudes do not change, the need for repressive coomunications, legislation and enforcement constantly grows, quite likely leading finally to the collapse of the effort.

Ethical communication that recognize the complexity of people and the difficulties involved in generate attitude changes are the only promising approach when real changes are being sought.
In this situation, where relations become ethical, where the best talents of everyone concerned are pooled, where complex and ambitious projects become realizable, the designers can play a role as catalyst and contributors to a constantly developing conceptual and cultural environment.