ABSTRACT
The advent of capitalist modernity in its transnational mass-mediated digital forms has clearly inspired a critical discussion about the universal ethical virtues of media in modern history. At the heart of this discussion is the emergence of an ideological and epistemological formation of a hegemonic Western account of media ethics that is enshrined in Eurocentric philosophical values and is professed as the exclusive domain of European liberal tradition. Conversely, and afflicted by the doctrinal complicities of colonial and orientalist representations, the non-Western is presumed to be constrained by the imperatives of cultural irrationality, and therefore is unable to symbolize in universal reason. In order to analyse this intrinsic and complex interplay between universalization and localization in the global media ethical discourse, this chapter seeks to examine the foundation of universal ethical principles to illustrate its Eurocentric discursive character. Therefore, to disrupt and transform this prevailing narrative of media ethical ideology, this chapter argues it is insufficient to simply investigate its polemical Western site of production – additionally, one also has to seek its fundamental deconstruction and reproduction. More specifically, this chapter asserts that universal ethics must be shaped within the realm of cultural differences, yet never remain as the exclusive domain of Western cultural hegemony.
