Universal Principles of Media Ethics: South African and German Perspectives
The increasingly globalised nature of media and journalism has led to a review of ethical standards, mainly to find universal ethical values which are applicable in a world with countless different cultures. This article attempts to address this field of research in comparing South African and Ge...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | deu |
| Published: |
FU Berlin, University of Erfurt
2012-11-01
|
| Series: | Global Media Journal: German Edition |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.db-thueringen.de/servlets/DerivateServlet/Derivate-26499/GMJ4_Borgmann_final.pdf |
| Summary: | The increasingly globalised nature of media and journalism has led to a review of ethical
standards, mainly to find universal ethical values which are applicable in a world with countless
different cultures. This article attempts to address this field of research in comparing South African
and German approaches to the topic of media ethics. Firstly, it outlines theories of universal and
specific cultural ethical principles in journalism. Secondly, it shows how the conception of universal
ethical principles, so called protonorms, is interpreted differently in the two cultures and how
specific cultural values of media ethics are rated among the two cultural frameworks of Germany
and South Africa. An online survey conducted among German and South African journalism
students found significant differences in the ranking of media ethics principles as well as
similarities and differences in the interpretations of protonorms. The results support existing
normative theories of universal media ethics, such as the theory of protonorms, in contributing
explorative empirical data to this field of mainly theoretical research. |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 2196-4807 2196-4807 |