Muhammad Ayish - Explorations in Global Media Ethics

Explorations in Global Media Ethics

Studies of global media and journalism have repeatedly returned to discussions of ethics. This book highlights the difficulty that journalists encounter when establishing appropriate ethical practices and marks the pressing importance of global media ethics as a subject of current debate. A wide range of contributors both scholars and practitioners of journalism identify how changes in journalism practice, developments in new media technologies, legal regulations, and shifting patterns of ownership all play a role in creating ethical tensions for journalists, with some chapters in the book suggesting practical solutions to this pertinent issue. The growing need to faithfully represent other diverse cultural groups is also considered, with certain chapters discussing the impact that human rights, freedom and justice have upon journalistic decision making.

Explorations in Global Media Ethics recognizes that, with the escalation of globalization and a public striving for honest quality media, journalists around the world face an increasing pressure to comply with and simultaneously satisfy diverse ethical practices at both a local and a more global level. The book sympathises with the position of the journalist and calls for greater consideration of his ambiguous role.

This book was originally published as a special issue of Journalism Studies.

Muhammad Ayish is currently on leave as a media researcher and consultant in Ottawa, Canada. He holds a doctoral degree in International Communication and Public Diplomacy from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, USA (1986). He worked as Dean of the College of Communication at the University of Sharjah (20022008). He has authored/coauthored three books on Arab media; the most recent on Arab media industries was published by Polity Press, London. He has had over 60 articles published in international journals on Arab broadcasting, women and media, and political communication.

Shakuntala Rao is a Professor at the State University of New York, USA and has published extensively in Communication and interdisciplinary journals on South Asian journalism postcolonial theory, and media ethics. She received her PhD from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, USA.

Journalism Studies: Theory and Practice

Series editor: Bob Franklin, Cardiff School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies, UK

The journal Journalism Studies was established at the turn of the new millennium by Bob Franklin. It was launched in the context of a burgeoning interest in the scholarly study of journalism and an expansive global community of journalism scholars and researchers. The ambition was to provide a forum for the critical discussion and study of journalism as a subject of intellectual inquiry but also an arena of professional practice. Previously, the study of journalism in the UK and much of Europe was a fairly marginal branch of the larger disciplines of media, communication and cultural studies; only a handful of Universities offered degree programmes in the subject. Journalism Studies has flourished and succeeded in providing the intended public space for discussion of research on key issues within the field, to the point where in 2007 a sister journal, Journalism Practice, was launched to enable an enhanced focus on practice-based issues, as well as foregrounding studies of journalism education, training and professional concerns. Both journals are among the leading ranked journals within the field and publish six issues annually, in electronic and print formats. From the outset, the publication of themed issues has been a commitment for both journals. Their purpose is first, to focus on highly significant or neglected areas of the field; second, to facilitate discussion and analysis of important and topical policy issues; and third, to offer readers an especially high quality and closely focused set of essays, analyses and discussions.

The Journalism Studies: Theory and Practice book series draws on a wide range of these themed issues from both journals and thereby extends the critical and public forum provided by them. The Editor of the journals works closely with guest editors to ensure that the books achieve relevance for readers and the highest standards of research rigour and academic excellence. The series makes a significant contribution to the field of journalism studies by inviting distinguished scholars, academics and journalism practitioners to discuss and debate the central concerns within the field. It also reaches a wider readership of scholars, students and practitioners across the social sciences, humanities and communication arts, encouraging them to engage critically with, but also to interrogate, the specialist scholarly studies of journalism which this series provides.

Previously published titles:

Mapping the Magazine

Comparative Studies in Magazine Journalism

Edited by Tim Holmes

The Future of Newspapers

Edited by Bob Franklin

Language and Journalism

Edited by John Richardson

The Future of Journalism

Edited by Bob Franklin

New and forthcoming for 2012:

Exploration in Global Media Ethics

Edited by Muhammad Ayish and Shakuntala Rao

Foreign Correspondence

Edited by John Maxwell Hamilton and Regina G. Lawrence

How Journalism Uses History

Edited by Martin Conboy

Lifestyle Journalism

Edited by Folker Hanusch

Explorations in Global Media Ethics

Edited by

Muhammad Ayish and Shakuntala Rao

First published 2012

by Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada

by Routledge

711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

2012 Taylor & Francis

This book is a reproduction of Journalism Studies, volume 12, issue 6. The Publisher requests to those authors who may be citing this book to state, also, the bibliographical details of the special issue on which the book was based.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN13: 978-0-415-62285-1

Publishers Note

The publisher would like to make readers aware that the chapters in this book may be referred to as articles as they are identical to the articles published in the special issue. The publisher accepts responsibility for any inconsistencies that may have arisen in the course of preparing this volume for print.