1st Edition
Global Pandemics and Media Ethics Issues and Perspectives
This topical volume illuminates ethical issues brought to the fore by the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on a broad range of case studies from different regions, it provides insights into the multiple and complex ways in which the pandemic has shaped media ethics.
The chapters employ a wide range of innovative theoretical and methodological approaches to dissect enduring and emerging ethical questions during the pandemic, providing lucid accounts of axiological dimensions in pandemic discourses, ethics of emotional mood, ethical challenges and dilemmas in news reporting, propaganda, misinformation, disinformation and Othering. While the case studies in this book are unique, the authors have extrapolated common strands from their analysis of ethical issues applicable to any other country or region during the pandemic, contributing unique perspectives on how media ethics are circumscribed by global health pandemics.
The book will appeal to researchers, academics and practitioners at all levels in the fields of media studies, journalism, communication, media sociology and public health, as well as general readers and policymakers who are keen to learn more about how global health crises illuminate critical ethical issues confronting the media.
PART I: OVERVIEW: THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES
Chapter 1. Introduction: Rethinking Media Ethics During Health Pandemics
Chapter 2. Axiological Dimensions in COVID-19 Pandemic Discourses. A comparative analysis of Germany, France and Romania
Chapter 3. Emotional Mood and Its Ethics in Crisis Communication
PART II: ETHICAL CHALLENGES
Chapter 4. Ethical challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic: Experiences of Journalists in Zimbabwe
Chapter 5. The Virus of ‘Blame’: How Television News Transposed Islamophobia onto the COVID-19 Pandemic in India
Chapter 6. Professional, Ethical Conflict or a Power Grab? The Case Study of Index during the 2020 COVID–19 Pandemic
Chapter 7. COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns and their implications on journalism ethics in South Africa and Zimbabwe
PART III: INFODEMICS
Chapter 8. COVID-19, the Global Pandemic and Japanese Media: Limitations of Agenda Setting by Mass Media and Misinformation in Social Media
Chapter 9. COVID-19 disinfodemic and journalism ethics in South Africa’s mainstream news media ecosystem
Chapter 10. Why we should overcome the "infodemic" account
Chapter 11. Information, state of alert and propaganda in Spain: Use of social media by Andalusian political parties during the COVID-19 pandemicContributors
Index
Glossary
Biography
Tendai Chari is a senior lecturer in media studies at the University of Venda, South Africa.
Martin N. Ndlela is a professor of media and communication at Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences, Norway.
This stunning book is a world-class anthology on personal responsibility and the collective good. Communication studies as a whole and media ethics specifically need a major transformation into the international. Global Pandemics and Media Ethics demonstrates decisively how world-level scholarship ought to be done. Instead of working parochially from the West to the world, every chapter is an authority on countries and regions from five continents. The research methodology in all three sections without exception is comprehensive and absolutely suited to the issues, with especially keen insight into the impact of digital technology. The book's thesis is innovative in contending that pandemic crises illuminate the crucial challenges for media ethics in cross-cultural and global terms. The recommendations in every chapter for ethical theory, for truth in journalism education and practice, and for public policy give this compelling book enduring significance. -Clifford Christians, Research Professor of Communications Emeritus, University of Illinois USA
Global Pandemics and Media Ethics: Issues and Perspectives is an important book in view of continuing debates around the Fourth Estate’s responsibility to report truthfully, credibly, and without bias; important factors that help shape public opinion. The volume fulfills an important function as it seeks to scrutinize the media’s role in the social and political polarization the world has seen during the Covid-19 pandemic while offering ways to counter these negative effects. The volume raises important questions regarding ethical issues and dilemmas the media encounters within an ever-changing and evolving press landscape. -Maha Bashri, Associate Professor, Department of Media and Creative Industries, United Arab Emirates University, UAE.
