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The use of computer technologies in oral
presentations forces people to ask questions not
only about copyright but also about issues of
privacy and censorship. As more and more
information becomes available on the Web, personal
privacy becomes compromised. And as more and more
information of every sort finds its home on a Web
site, it will be important to think about whether
this information should or should not be censored.
These issues are crucial for all technical
communicators. Chapter 20 of Oral Presentations
for Technical Communication discusses the
following topics:
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Privacy and Oral Presentations
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Censorship and Oral Presentations
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These exercises build on the ideas addressed
in Chapter 20:
1. Consider a topic discussed in Chapter
18--video taping of presentations. If you are
approached before a presentation and asked
permission to have your presentation taped, what
privacy issues should you consider?
2. Review the presentations you have given for
class so far, and ask yourself if you needed to
censor information in any of these presentations.
Why or why not?
Presentations
and Cyberspace. You can learn a lot more about
privacy and censorship by connecting to the Web
page for the Electronic
Privacy Information Center
and the site for Computer
Professionals for Social Responsibility.
Go to these two sites and connect to other links on
these sites. Create a short informative
presentation explaining some of the concepts you
learn and how these concepts may affect your work
as a communicator giving oral presentations.
Presentations and Teamwork. In your study
group, identify types of information in your field
of interest that you might be expected to censor in
an oral presentation. Discuss the possible reasons
for such censorship and whether you agree or
disagree with it. To facilitate the discussion, you
may wish to divide into two teams, with one team
agreeing and the other disagreeing.
Presentations and International
Communication. The concepts of privacy and
censorship change with cultures and countries.
Americans have a very high expectation of privacy;
citizens of other countries do not. Americans also
have a very open standard for free information,
while in other countries, information is regularly
censored. Go to the privacy Web sites listed under
"Presentations
and Cyberspace" and find out about differences
in privacy and censorship expectations in different
countries. How do you think these rights (or lack
of rights) affect each country's national policies
or views on privacy? How do these policies and
views differ from the privacy rights guaranteed
under United States' law? What do such differences
mean for what the presenter can do or say when
giving a presentation in these countries? Imagine
how you might work with these differences if you
were preparing a Web site for your presentation
that would be available to audiences from at least
one other country.
Presentations and Your Profession.
Identify a company in your planned profession that
maintains a Web site and collects information from
those who visit the site; arrange to talk with the
person responsible for deciding what information
the company will collect. Determine what their
policy is and what information they collect, why
they collect data, who has access to the data, how
long the company stores the information, and
whether they share the data with other companies.
In an oral presentation, report your findings to
your class; share your opinions about this data
collection and whether you believe it invades
people's privacy.
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