[Commlist] Call for Book Chapters:Global Pandemics and Media Ethics: Issues and Perspectives

*Global Pandemics and Media Ethics: Issues and Perspectives*

*Call for Book Chapters *

**

*Editors*

*Tendai Chari*(PhD), Senior Lecturer, University of Venda, South Africa

*Martin N. Ndlela (PhD), *Associate Professor*,* Inland Norway 
University of Applied Sciences, Norway & Northwestern University-Qatar

**

The mass media have an enormous responsibility to disseminate truthful, 
accurate and up-to- date information to the public during pandemics. 
Yet, pandemics pose serious ethical conundrums to the media in that 
their informational role can easily be undermined by their tilt towards 
sensational reporting and scare-mongering, thereby undermining public 
trust (Thomas & Senkpeni, 2020). Pandemics are in great measure 
evolving, highly unpredictable, and in most cases panic inducing. This 
makes the media’s capacity to disseminate balanced and credible 
information timely more compelling than ever. COVID 19 has reawakened 
the media to their ethical responsibilities by bringing to the fore 
unique ethical issues, challenges and dilemmas, and has also 
reincarnated ethical debates associated with reporting of previous 
pandemics such as negative stereotypes, stigmatization, protecting the 
confidentiality of sources, dealing with bereavement, privacy issues, 
thus underscoring the fact that pandemics are not just health crises, 
but information crises as well. While the media have played a positive 
role in helping shape positive public health behavior, and by extension 
promoting human security, there has been fear that media reporting of 
pandemics is fueling “infodemic” epitomized by fake news, conspiracy 
theories and apocalyptic prophecies, misinformation, disinformation, 
thus posing a threat to human security. In the age of social media 
networks whereby information spreads very fast, the deluge of 
information may make it difficult for citizens to separate reliable 
information from false information. Centralization of information about 
the pandemic by governments and international bodies and the concomitant 
over-dependence on ‘expert analysis’ have opened the floodgates for 
patriotic discourses and appeals for ‘collective action’ mantras which 
impinge on media independence. In addition, health protocols constrain 
the media from accessing critical information, thus predisposing 
journalists to politically correct ‘accredited’ sources while 
jettisoning unpalatable voices from the news agenda. As the media become 
more embedded in official narratives, journalism may be reduced to a 
public relations exercise, resulting in the proverbial echo chamber. 
Pandemics predispose the media to overt and covert influence and 
control, yet the ability to obtain and disseminate information without 
external interference are two fundamental tenets of media ethics 
(Hooker, Leask & King, 2012). As COVID 19 has demonstrated, nature of 
ethical dilemmas confronting the media during global pandemics, relating 
to both media content and the professional conduct of media 
practitioners are becoming more complex and have elicited diverse 
responses using different philosophical lenses in different contexts. As 
the contours of ethics shift during pandemics, it is necessary to 
critically reflect on existing ethical norms, issues, practices, 
challenges and dilemmas confronted by the media during global pandemics. 
This proposed edited volume explores ethical issues confronted by the 
media during global pandemics. The aim is to enhance the media’s 
capacity to report pandemics and similar emergence situations ethically 
by drawing lessons from the current and previous pandemics. What ethical 
challenges have confronted the media during health pandemics? What 
dilemmas have the media faced? To what extent have these impacted on the 
media’s role? What philosophical approaches can be used to address these 
challenges and dilemmas? What lessons can be drawn for reporting future 
pandemics? How can the media be better equipped to deal with ethical 
issues during pandemics?

We are looking for innovative original works which critically engage 
with different aspects of ethical issues in the context of global 
pandemics using different theoretical and methodological approaches.

Contributions can focus on, but are not limited to the following topics:

·Ethical Issues in the representation of pandemics

·News Sourcing and Ethics

·Fabrications, Falsehoods

·Confidentiality and protection of sources

·Privacy and the Public Interest

·Ethical Dilemmas

·Trauma reporting during pandemics

·Health protocols, government restrictions and journalism ethics

·Language and Reporting Pandemics

·Pandemics, Racism and Hate speech

·Sensationalism and propaganda

·Journalism ethics and “infodemics”

·Conspiracy theories, misinformation and fake news

·Ethnocentrism and Stereotyping

·Patriotic Journalism

·Social Media

·Medical remedies, Advertising

·Ethical philosophies, media and pandemics

·Media law and ethics during pandemics

*Articles should not be more than 7000*words, including references

*Important Dates*

Deadline for Accepted Abstracts: *30 November 2020*

Deadline for Full Papers: *31 March 2021*

Deadline for Submitting Revised Chapters: *30 May 2021*

Expected Date of Publication: *31 September 2021*

Targeted Publisher:*Palgrave Macmillan*

**

Interested contributors are invited to submit a 500-word proposal and a 
short biography by 30 November 2020, to Tendai Chari, 
(tendai.chari /at/ univen.ac.za) <mailto:(tendai.chari /at/ univen.ac.za)>*and *Martin 
Ndlela, (martin.ndlela /at/ inn.no) <mailto:(martin.ndlela /at/ inn.no)>.

Final chapters of approximately 5000-7000 words will be due by 31 March 
2021. Please note that all submissions will be peer-reviewed. Abstracts 
must clearly state the aim and objectives of the study, the theoretical 
and methodological approaches contemplated in the study.

**

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