Discourse ethics and the media

The theoretical framework of discourse ethics, as developed chiefly by Jürgen Habermas, has significant capacity to contribute to debates around media ethics. By rooting themselves in what are seen as fundamentals of human communication, discourse ethics establish a procedural, social account of ethics which can account for both universal proto-norms and historic and culturally contingent variations. This article explores the approach's fundamental ideas and applies them to the media, seen as an important arena for discourse in modern democracies. Fruitful applications include the development of a refined normative notion of the role of journalism as enabling discourse, which provides a basis for critique. It creates an explicit yardstick against which particular media institutions, practices, sectors and landscapes can be judged for the extent to which they support and enable ideal communication, understood to satisfy norms of inclusivity, openness and justice. In addition, the discourse ethical framework allows the derivation of particular norms for media behaviour, and more descriptively, creates an opportunity to understand debates around media ethics, viewed during the time of the political transition in South Africa as highly charged and politicised discourses seeking to redefine media norms.