Communication Ethics: Centrality, Trends, and Controversies

Abstract

The centrality of ethics, both theoretically and professionally, to the field of communication is demonstrated. Then 7 trends in communication ethics scholarship are illustrated: (a) the proliferation of books on media and journalism ethics; (b) stress both on individual ethics and on social or institutional ethics; (c) recognition of the interrelationship of freedom and responsibility; (d) scholarship on ethics in organizational communication contexts; (e) diverse feminist contributions to communication ethics; (f) scholarship from a feminist viewpoint on an “ethic of care”; and (g) applications of the ancient Greek tradition of virtue ethics to contemporary communication contexts. Finally, 6 controversies or challenges in the development of communication ethics are probed. (a) Can we develop a viable concept of the “self as an ethical agent in communication? (b) Can we develop a postmodern ethic or ethics of communication? (c) Can we legitimately search for some minimum transcultural ethical standards for communication? (d) Can we recognize the roles that diversity and marginalization play in developing communication ethics? (e) Can we develop a viable communication ethic for the internet and cyberspace? (f) Can some conception of “shame” be legitimate for communication ethics?