Global Media Ethics Problems and Perspectives

Global Media Ethics
Problems and Perspectives

?The book pleads convincingly that news media outlets and practitioners should urgently reconsider their practices and norms in a world gone global and digitally convergent. The various contributions broach the topic from completely different perspectives to create a very stimulating and constructive framework to identify and face the new ethical challenges of journalism and the news media.?
François Heinderyckx,Université libre de Bruxelles

?News that crosses boundaries of culture and geography means rethinking media ethics. The demands of role, audience, digital transmission, and an industry under fierce economic pressure require the insightful approach to ethical thinking this volume provides. From theory to practice, this book has something for scholars and professionals alike.?
Lee Wilkins,Journal of Mass Media Ethics

Global Media Ethics is a cross-cultural exploration of the conceptual and practical issues facing media ethics in a global world. Focusing on the ethical concepts, principles, and questions in an era of major change, this unique textbook explores the aims and norms that should guide the publication of stories that impact across borders, and which affect a globally linked, pluralistic world.

Through case studies, analysis of emerging practices, and theoretical discussion, a team of leading journalism and communication experts investigate the impact of major global trends on responsible journalism and lead readers to better understand changes in media ethics. Chapters look at how these changes promote or inhibit responsible journalism, how such changes challenge existing standards, and how media ethics can develop to take account of global news media. In light of the fact that media journalism is now, and will increasingly become, multimedia in format and global in its scope and influence, the book argues that global media impact entails global responsibilities: It is therefore critical that media ethics rethinks its basic notions, standards, and practices from a more cosmopolitan perspective.

Notes on Contributors ix

Introduction: Media Ethics as Global 1
Stephen J. A. Ward

Part I Media Ethics Worldwide 11

1 Why Media Ethics Still Matters 13
Nick Couldry

2 Universals and Differences in Global Journalism Ethics 30
Thomas Hanitzsch, Patrick Lee Plaisance, and Elizabeth A. Skewes

3 The Role of the Journalist in Reporting International Conflicts 50
Howard Tumber

4 Global Journalism Networks: Funding and Ethical Hurdles 69
Brant Houston

Part II Media and Diverse Public Spheres 87

5 Contextual Ethics and Arab Mass Media 89
Ralph D. Berenger and Mustafa Taha

6 From Journalism Ethics to an Ethics of Citizenship: Evidence from Colombia 110
Hernando Rojas and Tim Macafee

7 Media Ethics in a New Democracy: South African Perspectives on Freedom, Dignity, and Citizenship 126
Herman Wasserman

8 Democratization by Boilerplate: National Media, International Norms, and Sovereign Nation Building in Postwar Liberia 146
Jo Ellen Fair

Part III Global Issues 169

9 The Role of Global Media in Telling the Climate Change Story 171
Sharon Dunwoody and Magda Konieczna

10 Ethics of Global Disaster Reporting: Journalistic Witnessing and Objectivity 191
Karin Wahl-Jorgensen and Mervi Pantti

11 Affective Expertise: The Journalism Ethics of Celebrity Sourcing 214
Katherine M. Bell

12 Global Media Ethics, Justice, and Indian Journalism 235
Shakuntala Rao

Part IV Theoretical Foundations 251

13 Global Media Ethics? Issues, Requirements, Challenges, Resolutions 253
Charles M. Ess

14 Global Ethics and the Problem of Relativism 272
Clifford G. Christians

15 Global Media Ethics: Utopian or Realistic? 295
Stephen J. A. Ward

Index 315

Stephen J. A. Ward is Director of the George S. Turnbull Center in Portland, Oregon. The center is the Portland base of the University of Oregon’s School of Journalism and Communication. Previously, he was the Burgess Chair of Journalism Ethics and Director of the Center for Journalism Ethics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Ward is the author of the award-winning The Invention of Journalism Ethics: The Path to Objectivity and Beyond (2005), Global Journalism Ethics (2010), and Ethics and the Media: An Introduction (2011); he is coeditor of Media Ethics Beyond Borders: A Global Perspective (2010).