Colloquium 2005 Proposal, "Caring and the Media"
Jack Breslin, Iona College
Bastiaan Vanacker, University of Minnesota


The first part of the project consist of an overview of the pioneering feminist scholarship in the ethics of care from the seventies and eighties (Lawrence Blum, Nel Noddings, Carol Gilligan). The authors will not only discuss the main tenets of the ethics care but also discuss how it constituted an attack on Kantean ethics for its "male" emphasis on duty, rationality, personal autonomy and universalism. These feminist ethical theorists proposed the introduction of more female norms and values such as on understanding, agreement, compassion, love, responding to another person's needs and interpersonal relationships in the ethical canon. 

This ethics of care is especially important in the field of crime reporting and reporting on tragedy. From the early days of crime reporting, journalists have taken on more roles than simply disseminating information about a particular crime.  Stories have also focused on the key players involved in criminal activity, such as the accused, alleged victims, law enforcement and the judicial system.
In addition to describing the details of a particular crime, journalists have traditionally fulfilled such "care" functions as:

* profile the accused and their families,
* profile victims and survivors,
* seek justice for crime victims or the wrongfully accused,
* report and interpreted criminal trials and verdicts, 
* analyze statistics and trends in crime, 
* crusade for legislation and reform in the criminal justice system.
* support the healing process of crime victims and their families  (cathartic role)
* bringing communities together and provide a platform for sharing of grief

However, the authors argue that the ethics of care doctrine as it was introduced by the feminist scholars in the seventies and eighties poses some problems when trying to apply it to the field of journalism:
1. ethics of care is based on experiences from the private sphere, while journalism takes place in the public sphere.
2. ethics of care is based on interpersonal relationships, while in journalism interpersonal as well as institutional relationships (e.g. between journalist and media organization, profession, society,...) are crucial in the ethical decision making process.
3. ethics of care do not clarify how values associated with care (e.g. emotion) can be balanced with other traditional "male" journalistic values (independence)

The authors argue that these pitfalls can be avoided if the ethics of care would be approached from a Kantean perspective. They challenge the notion that Kant's ethics stands in direct opposition to a care ethic. Recent scholarship, including feminist scholarship, has shown that an ethic of care does not stand in direct opposition to Kant, but that Kant's categorical imperative in fact entails a care-based ethics. The authors argue that when introducing the ethics of care concept in journalism ethics; an ethics of care that has its roots in Kantean ethics rather than a rejection of Kantean ethics will be better tailored to the field of journalism because it avoids the pitfalls listed above and proposes a balanced approach between the traditional functions and the care-based function of the media outlined above. 

Preliminary bibliography

-----(ed.), (1995). Justice and Care: Essential Readings in Feminist Ethics. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

Blum, L.  "Gilligan and Kohlberg: Implications for Moral Theory" Ethics, Vol. 98, No. 3 (April, 1988)

Cote, W. and Simpson R. (2000).  Covering Violence: A Guide to Ethical Reporting About Victims and Trauma.   Columbia University Press: New York.

Gilbert, A. et al. (ed), (2002)  Covering Catastrophe: Broadcast Journalists Report September 11.  Bonus Books: Chicago.

Gilligan, C. (1982) In A Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women's Development. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.

Munzel, G. (1999) Kant's Conception of Moral Character: The "Critical" Link of Morality, Anthropology, and Reflective Judgment. University of Chicago Press: Chicago

Nagl-Docekal, Herta, "Feminist Ethics: How it Could Benefit from Kant's Moral Philosophy," Stephanie Morgenstern, trans., in Feminist Interpretations of Immanuel Kant Robin May Schott, ed. (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1997)

Noddings, N. (1984). Caring: A Feminine Approach to Ethics and  Moral Education. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Paley, J. "Virtues of autonomy: the Kantian ethics of care."  Nursing Philosophy, Vol.  3, no. 2 (July 2002)

Sedgwick, S  "Can Kant's Ethics Survive the Feminist Critique?"  Pacific Philosophical Quarterly, Vol. 71, no. 1 (March 1990)

Shell, S. (1996)  The Embodiment of Reason.  University of Chicago Press:  Chicago.