Journalism, Ethics and Society

This book primarily arose from my teaching interests in media ethics since 1995, particularly researching the work of two opposing intellectual schools of thought pivotal to philosophy and media ethics. Within this framework the book assessed the philosophical and cultural context on which journalism is based and researched the relationship between ‘individualism’ (Liberal Philosophy) and ‘communitarianism’ that prioritises the ‘collective community’. This led to a central research question, namely what is the social purpose of journalism? To explore the question effectively chapter one ‘History and Context: News and Newspapers’ reflects on the cultural history of journalism. Chapter two ‘Journalism’ then explores the ‘social purpose’ and ‘meaning’ of journalism and offers a definition in relation to a discourse on ethics. Chapter three assesses the influence of liberalism for framing the philosophical context of news and journalism and focuses on the Liberal notion of ‘individualism’ and assessed how this impacts on the ethics of news. Chapter four places the previous discussion in the context of media ethics and responsibilities and assessed ‘communitarianism’ – as opposed to Liberalism – by introducing a discussion on the US based Public Journalism idea. The final chapter explores the two concepts that are pivotal to journalism ethics, namely ‘truth’ and ‘objectivity’. The book calls for audience research normally associated with media and cultural studies and absent in media ethics, to more clearly assess the cultural effects of news on society within an ethical framework.

The book is currently being translated into Arabic by the King Saud Translation Centre, King Saud University, Saudi Arabia.