Authors: Clifford Christians, P. Mark Fackler, John P. Ferre
ISBN-13: 9780195084320, ISBN-10: 0195084322
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Date Published: June 1993
Edition: 1st Edition
University of Illinois
University of Louisville
Wheaton College
Mass media ethics and the classical liberal ideal of the autonomous individual are historically linked and professionally dominantyet the authors of this work feel this is intrinsically flawed. They show how recent research in philosophy and social sciencetogether with a longer tradition in theological inquiryinsist that community, mutuality, and relationship are fundamental to a full concept of personhood. The authors argue that "persons-in-community" provides a more defensible grounding for journalists' professional moral decision-making in crucial areas such as truthtelling, privacy, organizational culture, and balanced coverage. With numerous examples drawn from life as well as from theory, this book will interest journalists, editors, and professionals in media management as well as students and scholars of media ethics, reporting, and media law.
1 | Introduction | 3 |
When Culture Suppresses | 7 | |
Perspective and World View | 10 | |
The Model's Four Elements | 12 | |
2 | Enlightenment Individualism | 18 |
The Eighteenth-Century Mind | 18 | |
Libertarian Press Theory | 25 | |
Academic Media Ethics | 32 | |
Deficiencies in Individual Autonomy | 41 | |
Normative Social Ethics | 44 | |
3 | Communitarian Ethics | 49 |
The Incredibility of Ethical Relativism | 54 | |
Mutuality | 61 | |
Types of Ethical Thinking | 75 | |
Epilogue | 83 | |
4 | Civic Transformation | 84 |
Patchwork or Fundamental Change? | 84 | |
Rethinking the Press's Mission | 86 | |
News: The Justice Story | 91 | |
News: The Making of Covenant | 98 | |
News: The Empowerment Story | 105 | |
News as Social Narrative | 113 | |
5 | Organizational Culture | 123 |
Two Models | 124 | |
Corporate Moral Agency | 128 | |
Organizational Discourse | 132 | |
The Humanized Workplace | 141 | |
Institutional Infrastructure | 156 | |
Conclusion | 163 | |
6 | Normative Pluralism | 164 |
The Technical Artifice | 167 | |
Purposive Nature | 173 | |
History as a Normed Process | 175 | |
World-View Pluralism | 185 | |
Conclusion | 194 | |
Notes | 197 | |
Bibliography | 235 | |
Index | 257 |