Stephen J. A. Ward

Philosophical Foundations for Global Journalism Ethics

This article proposes 3 principles and 3 imperatives as the philosophical foundations of a global journalism ethics. The central claim is that the globalization of news media requires a radical rethinking of the principles and standards of journalism ethics, through the adoption of a cosmopolitan attitude. The article explains how and why ethicists should construct a global journalism ethics, using a contractualist approach. It then formulates 3 claims or principles: the claims of credibility, justifiable consequence, and humanity. The claim of humanity is developed further by the formulation of 3 imperatives: to act as a global agent, to serve world citizens, and to enhance nonparochial understandings. The article concludes by considering some implications of a cosmopolitan attitude for the practice of journalism.

Media Ethics Beyond Borders : A Global Perspective

Introduction: Why Global Media Ethics? Section One: Universals, Theory, and Global Ethics Chapter 1: The Ethics of Universal Being/Clifford G. Christians Chapter 2: Connecting Care and Duty: How Neuroscience and Feminist Ethics can Contribute to Understanding Professional Moral Development/Lee Wilkins Chapter 3: A Theory of Patriotism for Global Journalism/Stephen J.A. Ward Chapter 4: Media Ethics: Towards a Framework for Media Producers and Media Consumers/Nick Couldry Section Two: Global, Local, and Critical Theory Chapter 5: Media Ethics and Human Dignity in the Postcolony/Herman Wasserman Chapter 6: Postcolonial Theory and Gobal Media Ethics: A Theoretical Intervention/Shakuntala Rao Chapter 7: Moral Philosophy as the Foundation of Normative Media Theory: Questioning African Ubuntuism as a Framework/Pieter J. Fourie Section Three: Applications and Case Studies Chapter 8: Negotiating Journalism Ethics in Zambia: Towards a Glocal Ethics/Fackson Banda Chapter 9: Journalistic Ethics and Responsibility in Relations to Freedom of Expression: An Islamic Perspective/Ali Mohamed Chapter 10: Media Ethics in Ethiopia/Gebremedhin Simon

Toward a Global Media Ethics: Theoretical Perspectives

Theoretical debates about global media ethics have been marked by disagreements about the nature, possibility, and desirability of a global ethics. This article attempts to address those disagreements by developing an “ethics of universal being” as the philosophical basis for a global media ethics, an ethics expressed by such universals as the sacredness of life, truth, and nonviolence. The article aims to explore various theoretical positions on global media ethics by providing an overview of the literature and seeking ways in which common ground may be found between these different positions. This approach is developed in two ways. First, it sets forward a theory of universals as “protonorms” rooted in the fully human. Second, it shows how this conception of protonorms takes account of two facts thought to make a global media ethics impossible—the fact that values change or are “invented” over time, and the fact that values are interpreted differently in different cultures. The article argues that universal values should be understood not as transcendent ideas but as protonorms embedded in particular contexts. In this view, the universal and the particular are intimately linked. Through this exploration of links between theoretical positions, the article provides a theoretical basis that can be developed further through discussion between scholars representing different traditions and for the application of the theory to practical media contexts by journalism practitioners.

ETHICAL FLOURISHING AS AIM OF GLOBAL MEDIA ETHICS

This paper proposes a new and comprehensive goal for global media ethics—the promotion of ethical flourishing across borders. The ideal of ethical flourishing underwrites more specific global principles and provides a target at which responsible global journalism can aim. A major task of global media ethics is to re-conceive journalism ethics around the idea of ethical flourishing. Promoting ethical flourishing is defined as the development of four levels of essential goods that together constitute the idea of the human good: individual goods, social goods, political goods, and ethical goods (or the goods of justice). These goods contribute to a life that has rational, social, political, and ethical dignity. The paper uses work in development theory and Sens “capacity” theory to identify basic capacities that cross borders and should be protected and promoted by global media.

Open Ethics: Towards a global media ethics of listening

This article explores the idea of listening as a promising approach to developing an open and global media ethics. Listening is conceptualized as part of open and dialogic ethics—an ethics that is open to all citizens, that uses dialogue to do ethics, and that attempts to cross borders. The article argues that listening is a distinct and appropriate way to do ethics amid global diversity, inequality, and conflict. After defining global media ethics, the articles first section explores the listening approach, showing how it does not seek full consensus, while rejecting ethical relativism. “Listening” is an approach designed to accommodate robust differences and “difficult” listening. The second section considers the place of dialogic, listening ethics in moral philosophy. The section argues that dialogic ethics, in a listening mode, has three major philosophical implications that, together, re-conceptualize and re-situate ethics for a global media world.

Radical Media Ethics

The digital media revolution has created a revolution in journalism ethics. Established principles are under scrutiny, new practices emerge, and a previous professional consensus on the aims and principles of responsible journalism has been shattered. Journalism ethics has to be re-invented for a global, digital media. The once cozy world of journalism ethics—a somewhat sleepy domain of agreed-upon codes of ethics too often presumed to be invariant—is becoming a faint memory from an earlier media era. We witness the end of a tidy, pre-digital journalism ethics for professionals and the birth of an untidy digital journalism ethics for everyone. Although the digital media revolution is much-discussed, the far-reaching consequences of this revolution for journalism ethics is less discussed, and not clearly understood. This article views the state of journalism ethics through the lens of this digital revolution. To get a sense of the depth of the ethical revolution, it compares pre-digital media ethics and the evolving digital media ethics. The article identifies the assumptions of the pre-digital approach to ethics, and describes the “fatal blow” that digital media delivered to this traditional framework. The article argues for a radical media ethics and outlines some features of the emerging ethics. It concludes with an agenda for digital journalism ethics. The guiding idea is that we need serious and systematic responses to the situation of journalism ethics today, and such changes should be radical—not piecemeal or conservative.

CENTER FOR JOURNALISM ETHICS, SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM AND MASS COMMUNICATION, UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON

The mission of the Center for Journalism Ethics at the University of WisconsinMadison is to advance the standards and responsible practices of democratic journalism through discussion, research, teaching, public outreach, and partnerships. The center aims to be a voice for journalistic integrity, a forum for informed debate, and an incubator for new ideas and practices. The center was founded in the fall of 2008 due in large part to a gift from Wisconsin editor James E. Burgess. The gift established an endowed chair in journalism ethics at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication. The mandate of the chair is to develop a center for journalism ethics. The decision to create an ethics center was prompted by serious concern about the future of quality journalism and responsible journalism practice in an interactive media world. Founders of the center recognized that journalism is buffeted by a media revolution of global proportions that is changing the nature of society, citizens’ media habits, and how journalism is practiced. Amid this disorientating change, journalists, students, and the public need new mechanisms to address the future of journalism in the public interest. The founders envisioned a new ethics center as one of those mechanisms.