Handbook of Global Media Ethics 1St Edition Stephen J A Ward Online Ebook Texxtbook Full Chapter PDF
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Stephen J. A. Ward Editor
Handbook
of Global
Media Ethics
Handbook of Global Media Ethics
Stephen J. A. Ward
Editor
This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
To my family, in memory and gratitude:
Harold and Macrena Ward, Ann, Norma,
and Shirley
Preface
vii
Contents
ix
x Contents
Part IV Introduction to Part IV: Global Issues for Global Media Introduction
29 Global Media Ethics and Human Rights: Roles,
Responsibilities, and Rehumanizing Journalism�������������������������������� 581
Rhonda A. W. Breit
30 Global Justice, Factual Reporting and Advocacy Journalism ���������� 601
Mark Pearson
31 Global Media Ethics: Perspectives from the Global South���������������� 619
Herman Wasserman
32 Going “Glocal”: Local Journalism and Global Ethics ���������������������� 635
Kristy Hess and Ian Richards
33 Compassion, Emotion and Objectivity in Global Reporting ������������ 655
Stephen Jukes
34 Reporting Disasters and Traumatic Events���������������������������������������� 677
Cait McMahon and Matthew Ricketson
35 Revisiting the Public Interest: Journalism
and the Global Immigration Crisis������������������������������������������������������ 695
Verica Rupar
36 Science Communication: The “Weight of Evidence”
Approach and Climate Change������������������������������������������������������������ 711
Johan Lidberg
xii Contents
37 Water Rights: Global Media Ethics and Sharing Resources ������������ 723
Beate Josephi and Jahnnabi Das
38 Literary Journalism and Global Media Ethics ���������������������������������� 743
Matthew Ricketson
39 Reporting Poverty���������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 763
Susan L. Stos
40 Truth, Reconciliation and Global Ethics �������������������������������������������� 783
Kerry McCallum and Lisa Waller
41 City Life and Social Change: Urban Journalism
and Global Media Ethics ���������������������������������������������������������������������� 803
Susan Forde
42 Global Media Ethics and the Covid-19 Pandemic������������������������������ 823
Catriona Bonfiglioli
Index���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 1433
About the Editors
Kathleen Bartzen Culver Kathleen Bartzen Culver is the James E. Burgess Chair
in Journalism Ethics and Associate Professor at the University of Wisconsin-
Madison School of Journalism & Mass Communication. She is also director of the
Center for Journalism Ethics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Long inter-
ested in the implications of digital media on journalism and public interest commu-
nication, Kathleen focuses on the ethical dimensions of social tools, technological
advances, and networked information. She combines these interests with a back-
ground in law and free expression. She also serves as visiting faculty for the Poynter
Institute for Media Studies and was the founding editor of MediaShift’s education
section.
xv
xvi About the Editors
Wendy Wyatt Wendy Wyatt is Vice Provost for Academic Affairs and Professor of
Media Ethics at the University of St. Thomas-Minnesota. Her research focuses on
issues of media and democracy, and she has particular interests in journalism ethics,
citizen responsibilities to the media, and media literacy. Wyatt is author or editor of
three books: The Ethics of Journalism: Individual, Cultural and Institutional
Influences, The Ethics of Reality TV: A Philosophical Examination, and Critical
Conversations: A Theory of Press Criticism. Her work has also appeared in such
journals as the Journal of Media Ethics, Journalism and Communication
Monographs, and the International Journal of Applied Philosophy, as well as in
several edited volumes
About the Authors
Peng Hwa Ang Ang Peng Hwa is a professor at the Wee Kim Wee School of
Communication and Information, Nanyang Technological University, teaching
media law and policy. A lawyer by training, his teaching and research interests com-
bine law and communication, touching on internet law and policy, censorship, and
the social impact of media. He was a member of the Working Group on Internet
Governance and a past president of the International Communication Association.
xvii
xviii About the Authors
been highly influential among scholars and students in the Arab Muslim region. He
received the Ben Badis Prestigious Award from the University of Mostaganem
(Algeria), where a chair on ethical communication is dedicated to his name. He has
received an Honorary Award from the universities of Algiers and Laghwat.
Additionally, he has published and co-authored more than twenty books on media
and value systems in Arabic and English.
Sandra Banjac Sandra Banjac is a research associate and PhD candidate in the
Department of Communication at the University of Vienna. Her research focuses on
journalistic role conceptions, audience expectations, journalism culture, and the
boundaries of journalism.
Leon Barkho Leon Barkho, PhD, is professor of media and communication sci-
ences at Sweden’s Jönköping University. He holds an MSc in applied linguistics and
a PhD in media and communication science. Previously, he held positions at Reuters
News Agency as bureau chief and at the Associated Press as staff writer. He is the
founder and editor of the Journal of Applied Journalism and Media Studies. He has
written numerous papers on discourse analysis, language, impartiality, translation
and media and communication studies. Barkho is the author of News from the BBC,
CNN and Aljazeera and editor of From Theory to Practice: How to Assess and
Apply Impartiality in News and Current Affairs and Towards a Praxis-Based Media
and Journalism Research. His most recent book, A Critique of Arab Media
Discourse, was published in Arabic by Arab Scientific Publishers Inc.
Rhonda A. W. Breit Rhonda Breit, LLB and PhD, is an academic leader, teacher,
and researcher, who specializes in the field of media law, ethics and journalism
education. In 2018, Breit joined the Provost Team at Aga Khan University (AKU)
in Nairobi, where she is leading strategic projects. Currently, she is coordinating the
launch of an Innovation Centre for Media Viability, which aims to accelerate and
incubate projects to strengthen media quality and sustainability across East Africa.
Breit joined AKU in 2014 as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs with the newly
formed Graduate School of Media and Communications. Between 2014 and 2018,
she led the recruitment of faculty and program development, including the accredi-
tation of the University’s new MA in Digital Journalism and Executive Master’s in
Media Leadership and Innovation.
Thomas Cooper Thomas Cooper, PhD, of Emerson College was a guest scholar at
Stanford, Berkeley, the East-West Center and the University of Hawaii during his
last sabbatical. Also, he was a guest scholar at Harvard, Yale, Cambridge and other
universities during a previous sabbatical. The Association for Responsible
Communication, which he founded, was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Prof.
Cooper has taught at Harvard. He was recently an ‘ethics expert’ at a United Nations
project in Vienna and Athens. A former assistant to Marshall McLuhan, he was a
consultant to the Elders Project which involved Nelson Mandela, Kofi Anan and
Jimmy Carter. Prof. Cooper is a playwright, a union musician, a poet with a black
belt, a blogger, and author of eight books and numerous academic and professional
articles and reviews.
Jahnnabi Das Jahnnabi Das, PhD, is a former journalist from Bangladesh, and
holds a PhD in environmental journalism. She is a research associate with the
Climate Justices Research Centre at the University of Technology Sydney, and
teaches environment and media at NYU’s Sydney Campus. Her book, Reporting
Climate Change in the Global North and South: Journalism in Australia and
Bangladesh, will appear soon.
About the Authors xxi
Esther Enkin Esther Enkin, now retired, was Ombudsperson for the Canadian
Broadcasting Corporation for 6 years. She has served as President of the
Organization of News Ombudsmen, an international forum with members on six
continents. She is also Vice-President of the Canadian Journalism Forum on
Violence and Trauma. In the course of her career, she held senior positions in news
management, including Executive Editor of CBC News. In her role as Executive
Editor of CBC News, she oversaw journalistic standards and practice on a daily
basis. Before becoming Ombudsperson, Esther led a comprehensive update of
CBC’s Journalistic Standards and Practices including new provisions for digital
publishing and social media.
Robert S. Fortner Robert Fortner has been actively writing in the field of com-
munication and media ethics for over 20 years. He has written, co-authored, edited
and contributed to over twenty-five books on this subject and others, including cul-
tural history of media, international communication and media theory, over that
time. He has taught at both American and foreign universities, conducting field
xxii About the Authors
research in more than twenty countries and completed work on media issues for the
BBC World Service, DW Radio, the Voice of America, CSIS, and the CIA. He has
learned much from people in the two-thirds world on what is valuable and ethical
and hopes that this shows in his scholarship. He welcomes new challenges and is
currently working on an infodemiology project examining the role of social media
in the COVID=19 pandemic.
Johan Lidberg Johan Lidberg is Associate Professor and Deputy Head of the
Journalism program and Director of the MA Journalism program at Monash
University, Melbourne, Australia. He teaches journalism, law and ethics and has
published extensively on international media coverage of climate change.
Robert G. Picard Prof. Robert G. Picard, PhD, is a senior research fellow at the
Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at University of Oxford, a fellow of the
Royal Society of Arts, and a fellow at the Information Society Project at Yale
University Law School. He has been a professor for four decades at universities in
Europe and the United States, has taught at both University of Oxford and Harvard
University, and has been editor of the Journal of Media Business Studies and The
Journal of Media Economics. Picard received his PhD from the University of
Missouri, Columbia, and had post-doctoral study and fellowships at University of
Pennsylvania, Harvard University, and University of Oxford.
About the Authors xxvii
Patrick Lee Plaisance Patrick Lee Plaisance, PhD, is the Don W. Davis Professor
in Ethics for the Bellisario College of Communications at Pennsylvania State
University. He is editor of the Journal of Media Ethics and author of Media Ethics:
Key Principles for Responsible Practice (3rd Ed.), Virtue in Media: The Moral
Psychology of Excellence in News and Public Relations. He also edited the
Handbook of Communication and Media Ethics. He has published more than two
dozen journal articles. His research focuses on application of ethics theory to media
practice, moral psychology in media, and media technology. He worked as a jour-
nalist at various US newspapers for nearly 15 years.
research are ethics, global media, South Asian journalism, and popular culture. She
is the editor/co-editor of four books including Media Ethics and Justice in the Age
of Globalization and Indian Journalism in a New Era. Prof. Rao has been a visiting
research professor at Tsinghua University in Beijing, Central University of
Venezuela in Caracas and Stockholm University in Sweden. She is the recipient of
State University of New York Chancellor’s award for excellence in scholarship.
Bo Shan Bo Shan, PhD, is Professor and Director of the Center for Studies of
Media Development, at Wuhan University, China. His research focuses on a variety
of topics, including intercultural communication, Chinese philosophy, comparative
journalism, history of communication theory. He is co-editor of The Ethics of
Intercultural Communication. His main publications include The Issues and
Possibilities of Intercultural Communication, The Nine Horizons of the Mind: The
Spiritual Space of Tang Junyi’s Philosophy, and Academic Imagination and
Educational Reflection on Journalism and Communication.
Molly Wright Steenson Molly Wright Steenson, PhD, is Senior Associate Dean
for Research in the College of Fine Arts and the K&L Gates Associate Professor of
Ethics & Computational Technologies and Associate Professor in the School of
Design at Carnegie Mellon University, with a courtesy appointment in the School of
Architecture. She is the author of Architectural Intelligence: How Designers and
Architects Created the Digital Landscape in 2017. It traces the history of AI’s
impact on design and architecture. She is also the co-editor of Bauhaus Futures
published in 2019. Steenson was previously an assistant professor in the School of
Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She
holds a PhD in Architecture from Princeton University.
Linda Steiner Linda Steiner, PhD, is Professor in the College of Journalism at the
University of Maryland and the editor of Journalism and Communication
Monographs. She has published over 100 book chapters and refereed journal arti-
cles, including about ethics and about sexual harassment in journalism. Her recent
co-edited books include Key Concepts in Critical-Cultural Studies, and Race, News,
and the City: Uncovering Baltimore; Journalism, Gender and Power, and Front
Pages, Front Lines: Media and the Fight for Women’s Suffrage. Steiner, a past presi-
dent of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication,
chaired an AEJMC task force on ethics. She worked for a weekly newspaper before
earning her PhD.
Ruth Tsuria Ruth Tsuria, PhD, is Assistant Professor in the Department for
Communication and the Arts at Seton Hall University. Her work has been awarded
and supported by various bodies, including The Digital Religion Research Award.
Her research is concerned with the intersection between digital technologies, femi-
nism and religion.
Anita Varma Anita Varma, PhD, is Assistant Director of Journalism & Media
Ethics as well as Social Sector Ethics in the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at
Santa Clara University, California. Her research focuses on the role of solidarity in
American journalism. In 2019, she received the inaugural Penn State Davis Ethics
Award for her dissertation titled Solidarity in Action: A Case Study of Journalistic
About the Authors xxxi
Humanizing Techniques in the San Francisco Homeless Project. She received her
PhD in Communication at Stanford University. Varma’s work has been published in
Journalism Studies, Journalism Practice, Journalism, and the refereed volume
Challenging Communication Research.
Brian Winston Brian Winston, PhD, is The Lincoln Professor at the University of
Lincoln. His primary areas of interest are freedom of speech, journalism history,
media technology, and documentary film. Winston was the founding director of the
Glasgow (University) Media Group whose pioneering studies of television news,
Bad News and More Bad News, have been re-issued as classics of media sociology.
His A Right to Offend was recognized with a Special Award for “increasing under-
standing of human rights” by the International Book Award on Human Rights,
Vienna. He has written 16 other books plus many articles and book chapters in mass
communications. Dr. Winston is ex-governor of the British Film Institute and has a
US Prime-Time Emmy for documentary script-writing.
Mary Lynn Young Mary Lynn Young, PhD, is Professor and co-founder and board
member of The Conversation Canada, a recently launched national non-profit jour-
nalism organization, and affiliate of The Conversation global network. She has held
a number of academic administrative positions at UBC, including Associate Dean,
Faculty of Arts (2011–2016), Director of the UBC School of Journalism
(2008–2011), and Acting Director (June-December 2007). She is co-author with
Candis Callison of Reckoning: Journalism’s Limits and Possibilities.
Stephen J. A. Ward
The section introduces the field of global media ethics by providing 10 chapters on
basics concepts and practical problems.
In the first chapter, “What is Global Media Ethics?” I paint in broad strokes a
portrait of global media ethics as an evolving discipline—its motivating questions,
its distinct concerns and methods, how the discipline is related to other forms of
ethics, and why we need a global media ethics.
Since our global world is linked by many forms of media, the chapter argues that
we need an accompanying global media ethics that challenges the use of media to
promote racism, xenophobia, extreme nationalism, and the denial of human rights.
The chapter also describes the types of research and writing that comprise global
media ethics and concludes with an outline of how a global media ethics can be
realized in practice.
Then, in Chaps. 2 and 3, I discuss whether global media ethics is utopian and
whether there are global political emotions.
In Chap. 4, Robert G. Picard, the noted Oxford expert on business ethics in
media, explores the challenge of maintaining morally sound business practices in a
global media sphere. In “Media Business Ethics, Corporate Social Responsibility,
and Governance,” Picard shows how digitalization and globalization increase ethi-
cal issues. The lack of internal accountability leads to loss of reputation and legal
jeopardy.
After discussing the concept of business ethics, Picard argues for the importance
of corporate citizenship and social responsibility. He also examines the extent to
which media firms globally conform to these norms. Picard clearly outlines how the
many issues of business ethics are also encountered in media businesses, including
deceptive advertising, poor sales practices, consumer fraud, data privacy violations,
employee relations, and employment discrimination.
Picard concludes by examining what media educators and companies can do to
promote and protect ethical behavior in media business practices.
2 I Introduction to Part I: Concepts and Problems
In the fifth chapter, “Do Journalists Share Universal Values?” Folker Hanusch
and Sandra Banjac of the University of Vienna confront the contested issue of uni-
versal values in global journalism. They draw upon a wealth of pertinent writings
such as key discussions in scholarship on universal journalism ethics, critical
debates about the desirability of a universal framework, and empirical studies on
ethics across journalism cultures. In particular, they use data from the Worlds of
Journalism Study (WJS), a global survey of more than 25,000 journalists from 67
countries.
The chapter highlights differences and similarities across countries when it
comes to journalists’ ethical orientations and justification of controversial practices.
The authors find that, although there is some consensus on universal ethical princi-
ples, there is also considerable variation across sociogeographical regions, indicat-
ing hybrid journalism cultures. Universal norms are shaped, in large part, by local
conditions.
Ari Heinonen, of Tampere University in Finland, maintains the focus on global
journalism values in Chap. 6, “Ignored but Not Forgotten: Global Issues in Ethical
Codes.” To what extent, he asks, are global values present in the ethical codes of
journalism? But why focus on codes? One reason is the belief that ethical codes
(codes of conduct) portray the self-understanding of the profession, thus defining
ideals and preferable practices for journalists.
Heinonen analyzes 90 ethical codes of journalism to reveal whether issues of
global nature, such as universalism, human rights, and peace, are mentioned or dis-
cussed. He finds that the global dimension is still quite rare in the codes but not
totally non-existent. This suggests that practitioners of journalism have not regarded
external obligations as part of their professional identity, at least on the level of ethi-
cal codes.
If codes generally lack a strong global dimension, what other mechanisms might
support responsible journalism in an era of fake news and unreliable sources? There
is the use of ombudsmen in newsrooms to ensure observance of ethical standards.
Esther Enkin, a former ombudsman for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation,
assesses the role and future of ombudsmen in Chap. 7, “The Role and Purpose of
Ombudsmen in a Global Media World.” Based on the experience of working practi-
tioners, Enkin examines the ombudsman’s dual function of acting as a representa-
tive of news consumers and acting as an upholder of journalistic standards. She
discusses how the role has changed in a world of social media and Twitter cam-
paigns and how ombudsmen might evolve to be more effective in this new context.
Enkin argues that journalists can help restore public trust in news media by having
an effective ombudsman in the newsroom.
In Chap. 8, another highly respected Canadian journalist discusses how a jour-
nalism forum based in Ontario is helping to improve reporting on mental illness and
suicide. In “A New Perspective on Ethical Reporting about Suicide,” Cliff Lonsdale,
president of the Canadian Journalism Forum on Violence and Trauma, describes
how his forum has led the development of revised recommendations for news
reporting about suicide, published in the Canada’s widely accepted journalist-to-
journalist guide, Mindset: Reporting on Mental Health, and its French counterpart.
I Introduction to Part I: Concepts and Problems 3
The new perspective takes into account a trend toward deeper reporting, focused on
social, policy, and systemic issues rather than reporting individual deaths. The new
perspective also places suicide contagion theory—which has dominated most guid-
ance for decades—into broader context, examining its appropriateness to in-depth
work advancing the public interest. The chapter tracks concerted efforts by the
forum to gain the understanding and acceptance of the Canadian suicide prevention
community for this work of improving reporting practices.
In the section’s remaining two chapters, three scholars return to the discussion of
broad trends and conceptual issues in global news media.
In Chap. 9, “Beyond the News and Opinion Dichotomy,” Belgian media scholar
François Heinderyckx develops an alternate conception of the traditional, and ques-
tionable, dualism in media ethics between fact and opinion. He argues that the news
and opinion dichotomy is misleading news producers and audiences in their under-
standing of the different types of content found in news media.
Instead, Heinderyckx says journalists (and scholars) should distinguish five cat-
egories of content grouped in three distinct aspirations: to report (the news based on
material facts and knowledge), to explain (interpretation based on analyses and edu-
cated guesses), and to comment (opinions tinged with inclinations, faith and ideol-
ogy, and values). This approach requires editors to enforce strictly the differences
between, on the one hand, the material and the epistemic (facts and knowledge) and,
on the other hand, the interpretation and opinions they may inspire.
Finally, in Chap. 10, Ruth Tsuria and Aya Yadlin-Segal, experts in the study of
religion and media, look at how digital media has led to diverse forms of digital
religion, in their “Digital Religion and Global Media: Flows, Communities, and
Radicalizations.” They recommend that scholars distinguish between organized
global religious communities, diasporic religious communities, and grassroots reli-
gious communities. The chapter highlights the importance of religion and digital
media in contemporary life, and the benefits of interdisciplinarity in the study
of both.
Chapter 1
What Is Global Media Ethics?
Stephen J. A. Ward
1.1 Introduction
The Handbook for Global Media Ethics is evidence of an emerging discipline in the
field of media ethics. The discipline is called “global media ethics,” a creative adap-
tation of ethical reasoning to the globalization of digital media. The very format for
the Handbook, a digital reference work by globally dispersed scholars, reflects the
digital media revolution.
The focus of this handbook is global ethics, not economics, technology, or other
aspects of global media. Also, it will focus on journalism ethics, and those areas of
media ethics, e.g., the use of social media, which affect journalism and its ethics. In
fact, I will often use “media,” “news media,” and “journalism” interchangeably for
stylistic variation. The handbook will not focus on professional media practices
such as public relations, advertising, or marketing. The technology and economics
of media will be of interest insofar as it raises issues for responsible journalism and
the public use of informational media, globally.
S. J. A. Ward (*)
UBC Graduate School of Journalism, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
To grasp the idea of global media ethics, one can peruse the topics examined in
this handbook. But this approach is not entirely satisfactory as an introduction to the
field. Reviewing the handbook’s varied content, we may feel more bemused than
enlightened. What, we may ask, binds together these diverse inquiries under the
rubric of global media ethics?
This chapter, and this introductory section, assists readers by providing a portrait
of this evolving discipline in broad strokes—its motivating questions, its distinct
concerns and methods, how the discipline is related to other forms of ethics, and
why we need a global media ethics.
The fundamental questions for global media ethics are: Why “go global” in
media ethics, and what does that mean? Later, I argue in some detail why media
ethics should go global. For now, I simply state the guiding motivation: Given our
global, media-linked world, one of the greatest tasks of moral theory is to transform
itself into a clear and influential global ethics that challenges the use of media to
promote racism, xenophobia, extreme nationalism, and the denial of human rights.
Since our global world is linked by many forms of media, we need an accompany-
ing global media ethics.
Defining global media ethics begins by explaining the notions of ethics and media
ethics that undergird the discipline.
1
Dworkin, Sovereign Virtue, 4.
2
Ward, Ethics and the Media, 16–51.
1 What Is Global Media Ethics? 7
principles describe external ethical facts that can be objectively known, the way that
true scientific statements describe the facts of nature.3 Whether ethical beliefs are
true or false is primary. Another view—the view that I endorse—is pragmatism. It
thinks ethical principles are practical proposals on how to act.4 Whether ethical
beliefs are socially fair and useful is primary. Ethics is about the rules we should
agree to follow so as to promote fair social cooperation. Ethical reasoning evaluates
proposals.
Whether we subscribe to realism, pragmatism, or some other theoretical view,
there is still the everyday task of applied ethics, of deciding what is best in concrete
situations. Applied ethics is less concerned about the meaning of good, right, and
virtue. It wants to know what things are good, right, or virtuous, and what ethical
principles should guide our actions. How do we promote these goods, rights, and
virtues in concrete situations where there is uncertainty over the best course of
action? Applied ethics debates the constantly evolving issues of life and society,
from abortion to ending the life of a terminally ill patient. In the field of media, for
example, practitioners constantly reinterpret and balance principles so as to respond
to new technology and new social conditions. Even the boundaries of applied ethics
change. In our time, ethics has come to include such issues as animal cruelty, vio-
lence against women, the environment, and the rights of gay and transgendered
individuals. Ethical reflection is normative, involving what ought to be. But it is
more than that. It is ever-evolving normative reason in social practice.
Ethics is not simply a set of rules, or static principles, perhaps imposed on us by
social pressure or religious tradition. It is something we, as autonomous individuals
and groups, “do.” Ethics is a reflective activity whereby we subject existing norms
to the scrutiny of evidence and logic. We can think of ethical rules as a revisable
outcome of something more primary—ethics as an activity, a dialogue prompted by
the need for common ground among different interests. By engaging in ethics, we
create a zone of normative discourse about what should be, a zone where norms are
fallible and evolving. In media ethics, ethics is a multidimensional activity for prac-
titioner and scholar. They question principles; revise and invent norms for new prac-
tices; debate the application of traditional principles to concrete situations; and
differ over the role of media in society. Ethicists and philosophically minded jour-
nalists reflect on how ethical and political thought—e.g., notions of justice, liberal
democracy, or utilitarian thinking—intersects with the values of journalism ethics.
3
See Shafer-Landau, Moral Realism.
4
See Putnam, Pragmatism.
8 S. J. A. Ward
Applied ethics includes the study of social practices, such as the principles of cor-
porate governance, the ethics of scientific research, and the responsibilities of pro-
fessional practice. The latter is called “professional ethics,”5 and it ranges from
business to medical ethics.
Media ethics, historically, has been a form of professional, applied ethics. Media
ethics is the responsible use of the freedom to publish. Media ethics seeks to say
what “responsible” means in general for professional media practice and what it
entails in concrete situations. Today, however, media ethics is being stretched to
include the practice of both professional practitioners and nonprofessional citizens
who create media content. Therefore, we need to revise and broaden our definition
of media ethics: Media ethics refers to the norms that should govern the responsible
use—by anyone—of media that provides information, analysis, discussion, or advo-
cacy about issues of public importance. Media ethics now applies to the use of
whatever communication technology is available, from the printing press to the
smart phone and social media.
Journalism ethics is applied ethics, a branch of media ethics. It is the study and
application of ethical norms that guide the social practice of journalism, in its many
technological and organizational forms. Put simply, journalism ethics asks what
journalists and news organizations should do, ethically, given their role in society.
Journalists have ethical duties to perform and norms to honor because, as human
beings, they fall under general ethical principles such as to tell the truth and to mini-
mize harm and because they have social power to frame the political agenda and
influence public opinion. With power comes responsibility.
Part of the study of journalism ethics is the study of frameworks of principles
which constitute the codes of journalism ethics, worldwide.6 The principles of jour-
nalism have included such familiar notions as impartiality (or objectivity), truth-
telling, minimizing harm, promise-keeping, accuracy, verifying information, and
serving a democratic public. Under these principles fall a large number of specific
norms and protocols for dealing with recurring situations, such as the use of decep-
tive techniques to obtain information. Applying the frameworks to evaluate specific
practices is a complex and holistic affair. Journalists have to balance principles that
conflict in a situation, e.g., the freedom to publish versus minimizing harm to
vulnerable sources. Reasoning in journalism ethics challenges journalists to reach a
“reflective equilibrium” among their intuitions and principles.7
The ethical issues for media and journalism can be large or “macro” dealing with
the media system as a whole. For example, we can ask how well media systems
inform the public, who owns the media, and how the news media cover minorities
5
See Dimock & Tucker, Applied Ethics & LaFollette, Ethics in Practice.
6
A collection of codes of journalism ethics is at: http://ethicnet.uta.fi/sweden/code_of_ethics_for_
the_press_radio_and_television
7
Rawls, Political Liberalism, 8.
1 What Is Global Media Ethics? 9
Given these definitions, we can describe global media ethics as the study and appli-
cation of the norms that should guide the responsible use of informational, public
media that is now global in content, reach, and impact. Its aim is to define
10 S. J. A. Ward
responsible use of the freedom to publish for media in a global world. Global media
ethics is not the empirical study of globalization as a complex phenomenon affect-
ing culture, economics, and communication. It is the analysis of the normative
implications of globalization on a news media whose original norms were created
for a non-global, non-digital news media.
Among global media ethics’ main tasks is the proposal of aims, principles, and
norms for global media practice, especially where media have global impact or deal
with global issues such as climate change, immigration, and terrorism. Typically,
the problems in view are global issues—issues that require the cooperation of many
nations, such as immigration, climate change, or famine. The primary content of
global ethics are global principles concerning such things as human rights, human
development, and global social justice. Yet, as noted, even these principles—as
important as they are—should not be regarded as fixed but as the outcome of past
inquiry and whose interpretations are open to revision and improvement. They are
the current basis for dialogue.
“Global media ethics” does not refer to something clear, singular, or established.
It does not refer to an established science with a consensus on methods, problems,
and aims. Neither is the content of global media ethics—its purported principles and
norms—a settled affair. There is no one, internationally accepted, code of global
media ethics.8 Global media ethics refers to studies and activities motivated by the
common conviction, mentioned earlier, that journalism and media ethics must “go
global” even if there is no wide consensus yet as to what the shape of such an ethic
should be. Journalists and other media practitioners need to undergo a global revo-
lution in their self-consciousness and in the way they practice their craft. A second
unifying feature of global media ethics is agreement on a set of basic questions that
define inquiry: (1) How should the aims and roles of journalism be redefined given
a global media? (2) What are the global principles for journalism? (3) How would
global aims and principles change practice, especially the coverage of global issues?
(4) By what methods would such an ethic be constructed and then endorsed by
many journalists?
Proponents of global media ethics typically do not regard their global principles
as simply an addition to existing principles found in codes of conduct. The impact
of global media ethics is thought to be more radical: the idea is that the global values
and principles will become the fundamental ethical basis for all other journalism-
norms. Specific rules and values in journalism will be ultimately justified and
understood by reference to global principles. Global media ethicists should show
how existing values such as informing citizens, serving the public, freedom of the
press, and the acting as watchdog on government are not only compatible with, but
promote, global values. For example, in my own globalism, I make the aim of jour-
nalism the affirmation of humanity through the promotion of human flourishing.
8
Individuals and organizations have begun to propose global media guidelines. I proposed a global
media ethics code in my Radical Media Ethics, at http://mediamorals.org/introducing-the-
ward-code-for-global-integrated-ethics/
1 What Is Global Media Ethics? 11
Human flourishing is defined as the development and exercise of our central capaci-
ties, regarded as basic human rights.9
Another way to understand global media ethics is to think of it as a project. It is
a work in progress, an aspiration that prompts different forms of thinking. Global
media ethics is an example of emergent ethics, where established ethical systems
are challenged by new values and practices. Global media ethics is a contested zone
where globalists advance rival ideas, while skeptics dismiss global ethics as a phi-
losopher’s dream that can never be realized.
Where does the project start from? What is the overall context for global thinking?
It starts from the digital media revolution that is transforming media, society, and
the public sphere. The revolution consists of three large factors: (1) the rise of digi-
tal media allowing citizens to publish and practice journalism, far from the profes-
sional newsrooms where journalism ethics began; (2) the rise of extreme populism
and intolerant groups empowered by technologies that spread misinformation, pol-
luting the public sphere; and (3) a global public sphere. All three factors create tur-
moil in media ethics.
First, accessible digital media means new forms of journalism and new practitio-
ners with varied values and aims. Citizens have access to publishing technology that
can “do” journalism in two ways: Citizens can regularly or randomly commit “acts
of journalism” by posting information on events or commenting on issues. Or, they
can use the techniques of journalism, e.g., dramatic narratives and images, to pro-
mote whatever cause they support. Many of these media workers lack knowledge of
media ethics; or care little for ethics; or assert that they work according to their own,
and different, values.
Today, there is barely a principle or aim that goes unquestioned. New forms of
journalism can be emotive and perspectival and openly partisan. Traditional con-
cepts, such as news objectivity and neutrality, are rejected. New areas of practice
call for new ethical norms, such as norms for participatory journalism—where citi-
zens are part of the news process. When the aims of journalism are raised, a plurality
of kinds of journalist are up for discussion. In addition to objective reporters, there
are online opinion journalists, fiercely partisan journalists, civic-minded engaged
journalists, citizen-inclusive “participatory” journalists, and social media journal-
ists. All have different aims. The newspaper editor, the blogger, the social media
convener, the broadcast journalist, the web site manager, the activist writer, and the
online partisan journalist all endorse and prioritize different sets of values and dif-
ferent aims for the practice of journalism. At times, practitioners struggle with the
ethical questions because they work with the concepts of professional journalism
9
Ward, Global Journalism Ethics.
12 S. J. A. Ward
ethics, an ethics constructed over a century ago for a different media era. To make
matters worse, this disagreement occurs at the worst possible time—when journal-
ists seek agreement on norms for new tools, from the ethics of social media to the
responsible use of technologies such as crowdsourcing, drones, and virtual reality.
The field of media and journalism ethics has never been more active, more
debated, and more fragmented. We lack a common framework for evaluating media
practice, which opens up space for dubious forms of practice to thrive. Journalism
ethics, in particular, is so fragmented that it resembles an archipelago of separate
islands of value, where journalists hold different and incommensurable interpreta-
tions of what journalism ought to be.
Second, responsible journalists now work in a toxic (and global) public sphere of
partisan media content, misinformation, hackers and trolls, political networks,
extreme populists, and far-right “journalism.” To counter these worldwide forces, it
is not sufficient that journalists define themselves in traditional terms, e.g., reporting
events and alleged facts in a neutral and balanced manner. A fundamental rethinking
of journalism’s primary aims is required.
Third, the globalization of news media questions the historically dominant view
that journalists are, first and foremost, patriotic to their nation. The duties of journal-
ism ethics are parochial—to the citizens of a nation. But in a global media world,
should journalism ethics stop at one’s border? If stories with serious impact cross
borders, what are the ethical norms for evaluating their publication? What are the
larger and different duties of global news media?
These powerful trends define the subject matter for global media ethics. They
create the problems (and opportunities) that motivate scholars and others to study
global media ethics. We witness the end of a tidy, pre-digital media ethics for pro-
fessionals, established a century ago, and the birth of an untidy digital media ethics
for professional and citizen.
The overall task for fragmented media ethics, if it is not to sink into oblivion or
irrelevance, is to reinvent itself and create a new common basis for evaluation and
understanding that cuts across borders, cultures, and forms of journalism. The task
breaks down into two daunting projects: the creation of a digital ethics that inte-
grates professional and citizen journalism and the creation of a global ethics that
crosses borders.
Global media ethics, as an evolving project, leaves plenty of room for different
approaches to inquiry.
Types of inquiry into global media and its ethics can be divided roughly into four
kinds, depending on the degree of normative and philosophical emphasis in the
studies: (1) empirical, (2) empirical-normative, (3) applied, and (4) meta-ethical, or
philosophical.
1 What Is Global Media Ethics? 13
The empirical category includes comparative studies of media cultures and sur-
veys of the attitudes, working conditions, and practices of journalists and other
media practitioners in different countries.10 Empirical-normative studies include
surveys and cross-culture comparisons from an ethical perspective, such as the nor-
mative similarities and differences among media practitioners.11
The third form of inquiry belongs explicitly to applied ethics. Media workers and
ethicists propose new values and practices for the daily operations of global news
media. Global media ethics means the construction of new principles, the critique of
existing principles, and the reinterpretation of norms for the guidance of global
media. For example, in journalism, are the parochial values of nationalism and
patriotism relevant to a global ethical perspective? What other principles are neces-
sary, and how might they be applied to the new problems of global media? How
should media cover global issues such as terrorism, far-right populists, racist and
hate speech, and so on?12
The fourth type of inquiry works at the meta-ethical (or philosophical) level.
Inquirers examine the theoretical foundations of global media ethics. Foundational
topics include global media ethics’ goals and basic principles, the existence of
media universals across cultures, and the challenge of ethical relativism. For
instance, Clifford G. Christians has argued that relativism is a major obstacle to the
construction of global ethics.13
10
See, for example, Weaver, The Global Journalist.
11
For research on the values of media cultures globally, see the Worlds of Journalism project which
engages scholars from around the world, at http://www.worldsofjournalism.org/
12
An example of an organization that is developing guidelines for global news media is the London-
based Ethical Journalism Network at https://ethicaljournalismnetwork.org/
13
Christians, “Global Ethics and the Problem of Relativism.”
14
On how to disrupt journalism ethics, and why, see my Disrupting Journalism Ethics.
14 S. J. A. Ward
The argument for global media ethics can be summarized in one short sentence:
Global power entails global responsibilities. It is therefore appropriate—some
would say urgent—to ask about the ethics of global media and to what extent it dif-
fers from the previous ethics of a non-global media rooted in individual nations and
regions of the world. The need for a global ethics is due not only to technological
innovation and new ownership patterns; it is due to changes in the world that jour-
nalism inhabits. Of primary importance is the fact that our media-connected world
brings together a plurality of different religions, traditions, ethnic groups, values,
and organizations with varying political agendas, social ideals, and conceptions of
the good. Media content deemed offensive by certain groups can spark not just
domestic unrest but global tension. As happened with the publication of the car-
toons of Mohammed by a Danish newspaper, news media (and other media) can
spark cultural tensions and violence that ripples across borders. In such a climate,
the role of media, and its ethics, must be re-examined.
A globally minded media is of great value because a biased and parochial media
can wreak havoc in a tightly linked global world. Unless reported properly, North
American readers may fail to understand the causes of violence in the Middle East
or of a drought in Africa. Jingoistic reports can portray the inhabitants of other
regions of the world as a threat. Reports may incite ethnic groups to attack each
other. In times of insecurity, a narrow-minded, patriotic news media can amplify the
views of leaders who stampede populations into war or the removal of civil rights
for minorities. We need a cosmopolitan media that reports issues in a way that
reflects this global plurality of views and helps groups understand each other better.
We need globally responsible media to help citizens understand the daunting
global problems of poverty, environmental degradation, and political instability.
However, one may ask: Why not apply existing principles of media ethics to the
problems raised by a globalization of media? The answer is: traditional media ethics
is insufficient because traditional media ethics was, and is, parochial, not global. For
traditional media ethics, the media owed responsibilities to a public within the bor-
ders of a nation. For traditional media ethics, journalists were first and foremost citi-
zens of specific countries who should be patriotic in serving their country’s national
1 What Is Global Media Ethics? 15
interest, not global citizens seeking to create global understandings or global jus-
tice. Therefore, we must reconceive media ethics as dealing with issues surrounding
transnational publics and global problems.15
What would change if media practitioners adopted moral globalism, i.e., made
global values their primary commitments, and took a global perspective on what
they do?16
This shift in ethical perspective would begin a cascade of reinterpretations of
primary ethical concepts and revisions of media codes of ethics while encouraging
better practices. First, globalism would give journalism a global goal such as sup-
porting human flourishing and human rights across borders and the opportunity to
develop basic human capacities. Media ethics would be grounded in a global thesis:
that the primary duty of a journalist is to support and promote the flourishing of the
global public, or humanity at large.
The second change would be in the self-consciousness of responsible journalists.
They would see themselves as citizens of the world, as agents of a global public
sphere. The goal of their collective actions is a well-informed, diverse, and tolerant
global “info-sphere” that challenges the distortions of tyrants, the abuse of human
rights, and the manipulation of information by special interests. The cosmopolitan
journalist is a transnational public communicator who seeks the trust and credence
of a global audience.
Also, practical principles would be reinterpreted. The ideal of objectivity in news
coverage takes on an international sense. Traditionally, news objectivity asks jour-
nalists to avoid bias toward groups within one’s own country. Global objectivity
would discourage allowing bias toward one’s country as a whole to distort reports
on international issues. The norms of accuracy and balance become enlarged to
include reports with international sources and cross-cultural perspectives. Global
media ethics also affects the principle of minimizing harm. It asks journalists to be
more conscious of how they frame major stories, how they set the international
news agenda, and how they can spark violence in tense societies.
Global media ethics would require practitioners to act so that principles of human
rights and social justice take precedence over personal interests and national inter-
ests, when they conflict. When my country embarks on an unjust war against another
country, I, as a journalist (or citizen), should say so. If I am a Canadian journalist
and I learn that Canada is engaged in trading practices that condemn citizens of an
15
For my detailed arguments on why we need a global media ethics, see Global Journalism Ethics,
Radical Media Ethics and Disrupting Journalism Ethics.
16
On moral globalism, see my “The Moral Priority of Globalism in a Digital World.”
16 S. J. A. Ward
African country to continuing, abject, poverty, I should not hesitate to report the
injustice.
A globally minded media would alter how journalists approach covering interna-
tional events such as a conference on climate change or a refugee crisis. With regard
to the climate conference, parochial journalists would tend to ask: What is in it for
our country? A global attitude would require that journalists take on the wider per-
spective of the global public good. What is the global problem concerning climate
change and how should all countries cooperative to reach a fair and effective agree-
ment? Globally minded journalists from the West would report the legitimate com-
plaints that developing nations have against the environmental policy of their own
country.
Finally, a global media ethics rethinks the value and role of patriotism. In a
global world, patriotism should play a decreasing role in ethical reasoning about
media issues. At best, nation-based forms of patriotism remain ethically permissible
if they do not conflict with the demands of a global ethical flourishing. Global jour-
nalism ethics requires that journalists commit themselves only to a moderate patrio-
tism, subjecting the easily inflamed emotion of love of country to rational and
ethical restraint. Therefore, a global ethics limits parochial attachments in journal-
ism by drawing a ring of broader ethical principles around them. When there is no
conflict with human rights or other global principles, journalists can report in ways
that support local and national communities. They can practice their craft parochially.
Section 7 of the handbook will feature writings on whether and to what degree the
ambitious goal of global media ethics can be realized in practice and in theory,
including the teaching of media and journalism.
Skeptics will note the obvious gulf between the ideal and the real: a gulf between
the news media that citizens require to be properly informed and the news media
that actually exist and a gulf between theorizing about a global ethic and imple-
menting the ethic in practice. The world seems more complex, and its problems are
more intractable, than in the heady days of my youth in the 1960s and 1970s, with
our over-positive interpretation of McLuhan’s “global village.”17 A similar naïve
enthusiasm greeted the rise of digital media at the turn of this century. It was her-
alded as a “democratization” of media. The more the world connected, the more we
would live in harmony. What could go wrong? At present, the ubiquity of deep
disagreement among peoples, and the use of media to deceive the public and recruit
extremists, seems to define life in a global world. Yet some understanding across
differences is crucial, and some globally minded media is needed, lest we devolve
into a global Hobbesian state of nature.
17
See McLuhan, Understanding Media.
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building up her navy. Had the colonies been thirteen islands, the sea
power of England would quickly have settled the question; but
instead of such a physical barrier they were separated only by local
jealousies which a common danger sufficiently overcame. To enter
deliberately on such a contest, to try to hold by force so extensive a
territory, with a large hostile population, so far from home, was to
renew the Seven Years’ War with France and Spain, and with the
Americans, against, instead of for, England. The Seven Years’ War
had been so heavy a burden that a wise government would have
known that the added weight could not be borne, and have seen it
was necessary to conciliate the colonists. The government of the day
was not wise, and a large element of England’s sea power was
sacrificed; but by mistake, not willfully; through arrogance, not
through weakness.
This steady keeping to a general line of policy was doubtless made
specially easy for successive English governments by the clear
indications of the country’s conditions. Singleness of purpose was to
some extent imposed. The firm maintenance of her sea power, the
haughty determination to make it felt, the wise state of preparation
in which its military element was kept, were yet more due to that
feature of her political institutions which practically gave the
government, during the period in question, into the hands of a class,
—a landed aristocracy. Such a class, whatever its defects otherwise,
readily takes up and carries on a sound political tradition, is
naturally proud of its country’s glory, and comparatively insensible
to the sufferings of the community by which that glory is maintained.
It readily lays on the pecuniary burden necessary for preparation and
for endurance of war. Being as a body rich, it feels those burdens
less. Not being commercial, the sources of its own wealth are not so
immediately endangered, and it does not share that political timidity
which characterizes those whose property is exposed and business
threatened,—the proverbial timidity of capital. Yet in England this
class was not insensible to anything that touched her trade for good
or ill. Both houses of Parliament vied in careful watchfulness, over its
extension and protection, and to the frequency of their inquiries a
naval historian attributes the increased efficiency of the executive
power in its management of the navy. Such a class also naturally
imbibes and keeps up a spirit of military honor, which is of the first
importance in ages when military institutions have not yet provided
the sufficient substitute in what is called esprit-de-corps. But
although full of class feeling and class prejudice, which made
themselves felt in the navy as well as elsewhere, their practical sense
left open the way of promotion to its highest honors to the more
humbly born; and every age saw admirals who had sprung from the
lowest of the people. In this the temper of the English upper class
differed markedly from that of the French. As late as 1789, at the
outbreak of the Revolution, the French Navy List still bore the name
of an official whose duty was to verify the proofs of noble birth on the
part of those intending to enter the naval school.
Since 1815, and especially in our own day, the government of
England has passed very much more into the hands of the people at
large. Whether her sea power will suffer therefrom remains to be
seen. Its broad basis still remains in a great trade, large mechanical
industries, and an extensive colonial system. Whether a democratic
government will have the foresight, the keen sensitiveness to
national position and credit, the willingness to ensure its prosperity
by adequate outpouring of money in times of peace, all of which are
necessary for military preparation, is yet an open question. Popular
governments are not generally favorable to military expenditure,
however necessary, and there are signs that England tends to drop
behind.
17. Results of the Seven Years’ War[44]
... The seamen and the navy of France were swept away by the
same current of thought and feeling which was carrying before it the
whole nation; and the government, tossed to and fro by every wave of
popular emotion, was at once too, weak and too ignorant of the
needs of the service to repress principles and to amend defects which
were fatal to its healthy life.
It is particularly instructive to dwell upon this phase of the
revolutionary convulsions of France, because the result in this
comparatively small, but still most important, part of the body politic
was so different from that which was found elsewhere. Whatever the
mistakes, the violence, the excesses of every kind, into which this
popular rising was betrayed, they were symptomatic of strength, not
of weakness,—deplorable accompaniments of a movement which,
with all its drawbacks, was marked by overwhelming force.
It was the inability to realize the might in this outburst of popular
feeling, long pent up, that caused the mistaken forecasts of many
statesmen of the day; who judged of the power and reach of the
movement by indications—such as the finances, the condition of the
army, the quality of the known leaders—ordinarily fairly accurate
tests of a country’s endurance, but which utterly misled those who
looked to them only and did not take into account the mighty
impulse of a whole nation stirred to its depths. Why, then, was the
result so different in the navy? Why was it so weak, not merely nor
chiefly in quantity, but in quality? and that, too, in days so nearly
succeeding the prosperous naval era of Louis XVI. Why should the
same throe which brought forth the magnificent armies of Napoleon
have caused the utter weakness of the sister service, not only amid
the disorders of the Republic, but also under the powerful
organization of the Empire?
The immediate reason was that, to a service of a very special
character, involving special exigencies, calling for special aptitudes,
and consequently demanding special knowledge of its requirements
in order to deal wisely with it, were applied the theories of men
wholly ignorant of those requirements,—men who did not even
believe that they existed. Entirely without experimental knowledge,
or any other kind of knowledge, of the conditions of sea life, they
were unable to realize the obstacles to those processes by which they
would build up their navy, and according to which they proposed to
handle it. This was true not only of the wild experiments of the early
days of the Republic; the reproach may fairly be addressed to the
great emperor himself, that he had scarcely any appreciation of the
factors conditioning efficiency at sea; nor did he seemingly ever
reach any such sense of them as would enable him to understand
why the French navy failed. “Disdaining,” says Jean Bon Saint-
André, the Revolutionary commissioner whose influence on naval
organization was unbounded, “disdaining, through calculation and
reflection, skillful evolutions, perhaps our seamen will think it more
fitting and useful to try those boarding actions in which the
Frenchman was always conqueror, and thus astonish Europe by new
prodigies of valor.”[62] “Courage and audacity,” says Captain
Chevalier, “had become in his eyes the only qualities necessary to our
officers.” “The English,” said Napoleon, “will become very small
when France shall have two or three admirals willing to die.”[63] So
commented, with pathetic yet submissive irony, the ill-fated admiral,
Villeneuve, upon whom fell the weight of the emperor’s discontent
with his navy: “Since his Majesty thinks that nothing but audacity
and resolve are needed to succeed in the naval officer’s calling, I shall
leave nothing to be desired.”[64]
... In truth men’s understandings, as well as their morale and
beliefs, were in a chaotic state. In the navy, as in society, the morale
suffered first. Insubordination and mutiny, insult and murder,
preceded the blundering measures which in the end destroyed the
fine personnel that the monarchy bequeathed to the French republic.
This insubordination broke out very soon after the affairs of the
Bastille and the forcing of the palace at Versailles; that is, very soon
after the powerlessness of the executive was felt. Singularly, yet
appropriately, the first victim was the most distinguished flag-officer
of the French navy.[65]
During the latter half of 1789 disturbances occurred in all the
seaport towns; in Havre, in Cherbourg, in Brest, in Rochefort, in
Toulon. Everywhere the town authorities meddled with the concerns
of the navy yards and of the fleet, discontented seamen and soldiers,
idle or punished, rushed to the town halls with complaints against
their officers. The latter, receiving no support from Paris, yielded
continually, and things naturally went from bad to worse.