Ethical media creation and consumption in the age of digital fast food: The case of Chinese micro-drama

Abstract

This article discusses micro-drama as an emerging entertainment form that deserves ethical interrogation. It adopts a virtue theory approach to explore the ethical dimensions of creating and consuming micro-dramas while also addressing wider concerns related to mobile entertainment content in its present form. Utilizing Aristotle’s theories on virtue and aesthetics, Confucius’s concept of self-cultivation, and contemporary media ethicists’ neo-Aristotelian frameworks, this study investigates the practices involved in the production and consumption of vertical short videos, using micro-drama as a case study. The goal is to initiate meaningful ethical discussions about entertainment in the era of digital fast food.