The virtue of curiosity in media ethics and news literacy

The virtue of curiosity in media ethics and news literacy 2 Any strategy to address our problems of digital fragmentation will need to take into account more systematically the role of curiosity in our online lives.Curiosity is an often-overlooked virtue that plays a critical role in media production, education and responsible consumption.This explication traces curiosity's pre-Aristotelian roots and treatments by Augustine and Aquinas, and draws on the claims of Nietzsche and others to argue for curiosity's place as a foundational virtue in the development of phronesis.It shows how moral psychology research underscores the value of curiosity, or 'need for cognition' and that, given social media fragmentation, media use trends and news literacy concerns, curiosity demands more systematic treatment in media ethics research.Use of the concept for media ethics scholarship is suggested, as are ways to cultivate curiosity among audiences and students.