Dissertation
Ethical discourse for journalism in a postcolonial/global South context: a study of newspaper journalists in Bangladesh
University of Iowa
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), University of Iowa
Spring 2024
DOI: 10.25820/etd.007511
Abstract
This dissertation advances a framework to understand how journalists in postcolonial countries engage in an ethical discourse for journalism, arguing that it draws on multiple and often contrasting discourses, and is shaped by two factors — the political and economic weight of the government and what has been theorized as postcolonial conditions/predicaments. It also seeks to extend the relatively recent but increasingly relevant scholarly conversations about reconceptualizing the role of the state and politics in journalism studies research and scholarship by studying their influence on journalists’ ethical reasoning and decision-making. To this end, this dissertation examines what newspaper journalists in Bangladesh, a country formerly under British colonial rule as part of the Indian subcontinent for nearly 200 years, say when they talk about journalism ethics, and what material conditions (e.g., cultural, economic, political, social) they identify as constraining ethical journalistic practices. Based on a critical discourse analysis of codes of conduct/ethics for journalists from Britain, the U.S., and Bangladesh, and a critical thematic analysis of in-depth interviews with 23 Bangladeshi newspaper journalists, it argues that journalists in Bangladesh often make choices that may seem to Western journalists and journalism scholars as antithetical to journalistic ethos and ethics but ultimately reflect their commitment to people’s right to know. The dissertation floats the idea of creative employment of self-censorship, offering an alternative lens to look at certain choices that journalists in postcolonial countries like Bangladesh make as they strive to keep people informed while carefully navigating conditions that, unlike in western democracies, do not allow the same degree of professional autonomy and freedom.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Ethical discourse for journalism in a postcolonial/global South context: a study of newspaper journalists in Bangladesh
- Creators
- Mir Ashfaquzzaman
- Contributors
- Sujatha Sosale (Advisor)Tom Oates (Committee Member)Tim Havens (Committee Member)Laura R. Graham (Committee Member)David Ryfe (Committee Member)
- Resource Type
- Dissertation
- Degree Awarded
- Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), University of Iowa
- Degree in
- Mass Communication
- Date degree season
- Spring 2024
- DOI
- 10.25820/etd.007511
- Publisher
- University of Iowa
- Number of pages
- x, 208 pages
- Copyright
- Copyright 2024 Mir Ashfaquzzaman
- Language
- English
- Date submitted
- 03/15/2024
- Description illustrations
- Illustrations, tables, graphs, charts
- Description bibliographic
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 172-189).
- Public Abstract (ETD)
This dissertation examines how journalists in a postcolonial country like Bangladesh engage in an ethical discourse for journalism. It specifically focuses on the ethical principles that they emphasize and the cultural, economic, political, and social conditions that they identify as constraining ethical journalistic practices. Based on analysis of journalistic codes of ethics and in-depth interviews, this dissertation shows that Bangladeshi journalists often make choices that may seem ethically questionable to Western journalists and journalism scholars but, when viewed in the context of the conditions that they work in, conditions that do not allow them the same degree of professional autonomy and freedom as in many western democracies, ultimately reflect their commitment to the people’s right to know. To this end, these journalists resort to what may be termed as a creative employment of self-censorship, to work around various constraints and restrictions imposed on the media and put as much information out in public as possible.
- Academic Unit
- School of Journalism and Mass Communication
- Record Identifier
- 9984647557402771
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