Call Me BIG PAPA: An Extension of Mason’s Information Ethics Framework to Big Data

Authors

Jacob Young, Bradley UniversityFollow
Tyler J. Smith, Bradley UniversityFollow
Shawn H. Zheng, Bradley UniversityFollow

Abstract

In 1986, Richard Mason proposed the PAPA framework to address four ethical issues society would likely face in the information age: privacy, accuracy, property, and accessibility. In this paper, we propose an extension to the PAPA framework by appending three additional issues relevant to information ethics in the big data era. First, we outline the four components of Mason’s original PAPA. Second, we briefly review the major technological changes that have occurred since Mason proposed his framework. Third, we outline concepts relevant to the big data context. Fourth, we propose and discuss our extension by appending three ethical issues related to behavioral surveillance, interpretation, and governance to Mason’s original PAPA framework, forming BIG PAPA. Lastly, we discuss how these issues impact practice and how they can inform future research.

Recommended Citation

Young, Jacob; Smith, Tyler J.; and Zheng, Shawn H. (2020) "Call Me BIG PAPA: An Extension of Mason’s Information Ethics Framework to Big Data," Journal of the Midwest Association for Information Systems (JMWAIS): Vol. 2020: Iss. 2, Article 3.
DOI: 10.17705/3jmwa.000059
Available at: https://aisel.aisnet.org/jmwais/vol2020/iss2/3

DOI

10.17705/3jmwa.000059