TOWARDS A GLOBAL JOURNALISM ETHICS VIA LOCAL NARRATIVES

Abstract

This article argues that a global media ethics can only be arrived at via a study of local contexts. Following the notion of a “critical dialogic ethics” suggested by Christians, it is argued that a global media ethics should be constructed not as an overarching framework or global social contract arrived at through rational deliberation of ethical concepts removed from historical contexts, everyday lived experience and embedded practices, but through critical dialogue and interaction with Others within those contexts. An ethnographic, cultural approach that seeks narrative accounts of local values and practices should go beyond accepting local values and practices as unalterable or essentialist. Such a global dialogic ethics would start with thick descriptions of contextual values and practices. This article offers a first step towards a description of such values and practices within two particular African contexts, South Africa and Namibia. The contextual understanding of normative concepts of “social responsibility” and “freedom” are explored in journalistic narratives. The article points to conflicting interpretations of these notions and highlighting the need for an approach to global media ethics that takes account of the complexity of African contexts.

Keywords:

• Africa
• ethics
• freedom
• global ethics
• Namibia
• social responsibility
• South Africa

Notes

1. These interviews formed part of a larger, comparative transnational study on political communication in new democracies, funded by the British Academy (LRG-45511), which covered: Southern Africa (Namibia, South Africa), East Asia (Taiwan, South Korea), Eastern Europe (Bulgaria, Poland) and Latin America (Brazil, Chile). Between eight and ten journalists were interviewed in each of these countries, in addition to interviews with politicians and intermediaries.