This volume is designed to revolutionize the field of communication by identifying a broad ethical theory which transcends the world of mass media practice to reveal a more humane and responsible code of values. The contributors defend the possibility of universal moral imperatives such as justice, reciprocity and human dignity.

Foreword - Seyla Benhabib INTRODUCTION PART ONE: FOUNDATIONS AND FRAMEWORK The Problem of Universals in Communication Ethics - Clifford Christians The Moral Dimension of Communicating - Antonio Pasquali Discourse Ethics and Its Relevance for Communication and Media Ethics - Edmund Arens Universal Values and Moral Development Theories - Deni Elliott PART TWO: PROTONORMS ACROSS CULTURES The Basic Norm of Truthfulness - Dietmar Mieth Its Ethical Justification and Universality The Arab-Islamic Heritage in Communication Ethics - Muhammad I Ayish and Haydar Badawi Sadig Ethics and the Discourse on Ethics in Post-Colonial India - Anantha Sudhaker Babbili Three Axiological Proposals for Communication Ethics in a Latin American Context - Gabriel Jaime Perez Communalistic Societies - Andrew A Moemeka Community and Self-Respect as African Values Emergent Values from American Indian Discourse - Cynthia-Lou Coleman PART THREE: APPLICATIONS Communication, Hope and Ethics - Pedro Gomes Communication Ethics in a Changing Chinese Society - Georgette Wang The Case of Taiwan Japanese Style Communication in a New Global Age - Hideo Takeichi Vagaries of Time and Place - Karol Jakubowicz Media Ethics in Poland Accepting the Other - Keyan Tomaselli and Arnold Shepperson On the Ethics of Intercultural Communication in Ethnographic Film Women, Welfare and the United States Media - Robin Andersen CONCLUSION An Ethics of Communication Worthy of Human Beings - Michael Traber