[Commlist] The Ethical Nexus of Journalism and Politics -Call for Chapter Abstracts

  Toward Flourishing: The Ethical Nexus of Journalism and Politics

Call for Chapter Abstracts

We invite abstracts for chapters in an edited volume entitled “*Toward 
Flourishing: The Ethical Nexus of Journalism and Politics.” *The 
proposal will be submitted to high-caliber academic presses.**

**

The volume will focus on philosophical approaches to theory at the nexus 
of journalism, ethics and politics. The aim is to make a space for 
seeing things differently so theory can better inform the practice of 
journalism -- particularly its political function -- in the context of 
systematic disinformation, news avoidance, and political polarization in 
contemporary democracies.

Partly motivated by growing interest in new approaches to virtue ethics, 
this project is grounded in a broadly Aristotelian philosophical 
framework understood in contemporary terms and authors. From this 
perspective, we understand journalism to be a practice whose moral 
excellence consists of helping individuals and communities to know well 
in their roles as citizens and polities. Politics, in this framework, 
goes beyond political parties and procedural fairness. Rather, it is 
conceived as a kind of practical knowledge that we can act on jointly to 
achieve the common goods we all need to flourish in our families, 
practices, organizations, communities, schools and other institutions.

We seek to reframe and reinterpret journalism ethics theory as it 
relates to a politics of common goods. This perspective focuses on 
concrete, existing roles, relationships and activities, rather than on 
ideal types. Therefore, we welcome normative analyses of journalism as 
it is, or has been practiced, in a variety of places, times and cultures 
in respect to politics and common goods.

In an Aristotelian framework, concepts in journalism ethics are“thick 
concepts” that are intelligible within specific social, political and 
historical contexts. This means that we need to recover the meaning of 
some concepts in relation to their referents, or – where referents have 
changed or emerged – we may need to create new concepts. The standard 
for rethinking moral concepts, in neo-Aristotelian thought, is 
flourishing. Therefore, we are interested in proposals for historicizing 
and interrogating basic concepts in journalism ethics -- for example, 
“truth,” “freedom” and “public” – with an eye on flourishing in the 
context of today’s socio-politicalethos for journalism. Alternative 
theoretical approaches are welcome as long as they engage with broader 
themes in neo-Aristotelian thought (see examples below).

We are also interested in proposals addressing adjacent topics, such as: 
communication technologies, media systems, political cultures, sociology 
of knowledge, political philosophy, philosophy of language, and 
democratic processes. However, to be accepted, proposals must make 
strong theoretical contributions that are relevant to improving and 
strengthening journalistic practice as it relates to a politics of 
common goods.

We seek proposals from scholars from diverse geographic, political, 
cultural and disciplinary orientations. Comparative works are encouraged.

**

*Possible topics for proposals include, but are not limited, to:*

*Socio-political ethos of journalism*

●Analyses of specific socio-political contexts that support or hinderthe 
flourishing of journalism as a practice in respect to its political 
function (with a proposal for either strengthening or repairing the 
ethos as applicable). Contextual factorsinclude political cultures, 
media systems, professionalism, economic arrangements, newsroom 
socialization, and media consumption patterns. In other words, does 
journalism have the contexts it needs to flourish as a practice? If it 
does not, how can the context be improved to promote flourishing?

*The practice of journalism*

●Works that look at the variety of ways in which journalism itself 
promotes or hinders flourishing in different historical eras, cultures 
and media systems (with a proposal for either strengthening or repairing 
the practice as applicable).In other words, do we have the journalism we 
need to jointly pursue a politics of common goods?

*Conceptual reset*

●Systematic works to interrogate, clarify, and critique existing 
concepts in journalism ethics using flourishing as the standard.

●Systematic works to repair, expand, recover, appropriate or invent 
journalism ethics concepts using flourishing as the standard.

●Critiques and refinements of neo-Aristotelian approaches to ethics and 
politics as they apply to journalism.

●Non-Aristotelian theoretical works that engage with key Aristotelian 
themes, such as flourishing, virtue, traditions, exemplars, common 
goods, practical reasoning, public deliberation, and human or social 
development.

This volume builds on a recent workshop on the same topic, hosted by The 
Public Communication Department of the Universidad de Navarra 
<https://en.unav.edu/web/departamento-de-comunicacion-publica>and the 
Western Michigan University Center for the Study of Ethics in Society 
<https://wmich.edu/ethics>in Pamplona, Spain. Participation in the 
workshop is notrequired for submission to the volume.

To be considered, email submissions to both (sandra.borden /at/ wmich.edu) 
<mailto:(sandra.borden /at/ wmich.edu)>and (mcodina /at/ unav.es) 
<mailto:(mcodina /at/ unav.es)>consisting of:

●*An extended abstract of 750-1,200 words *summarizing a theoretical 
argument related to the concerns of this volume. Abstracts should 
include a clear and concise title; specify a theoretical framework in 
alignment with, or in conversation with, a neo-Aristotelian framework; 
state the framework’s relevance to a politics of common goods; offer 
specific proposals for strengthening or repairing journalistic practice 
and/or its ethos; and provide references (not included in the word count).

●*A shorter abstract of approximately 250 words *for the book proposal 
(no references).

●*A biosketch of approximately 100 words*for the book proposal.

●*A CV *(as a link or attachment).

**

*Submission deadline*: November 15,2024

*Notification date:***December 16, 2024

*For more information*, contact (sandra.borden /at/ wmich.edu) 
<mailto:(sandra.borden /at/ wmich.edu)>

*Sandra L. Borden*, director of the Center for the Study of Ethics in 
Society, Western Michigan University

*Mónica Codina*, director of the Department of Public Communication, 
Universidad de Navarra


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