ETHICS SEARCH IN AFRICA AND THE POTENTIAL OF PERSONAL MORALS

Introduction One profound characteristic of the global discourse in the search for acceptable ethics for journalism practice is its imperativeness. There are a few contradistinctive arguments against the need for a functional ethical guide. Debates on the requisite standard of achievement have intensified as scholars struggle to assert perspectives that transcend geographic and cultural barriers. Well heard in these debates are those voices that proceed from the neoliberal epistemic structures. Their vantage positions brought about, among others, by their pioneering forays into media practice, financial strength and global influence have created preponderant positions which some opine as the archetype. But Pal and Dutta (2008, 2008b) discuss globalization from below with respect to the subaltern voices that are located at the receiving end of global inequalities and who are generally situated in Africa and other developing areas of the world. Scholars representing these subaltern voices of the global South have also evinced their ethical perspectives which they think should not be ignored. Therefore, it has been an epistemological contest between the mainstream neoliberal actors and their subaltern counterparts in an intellectual struggle that has remained unabated even as theoretical underpinning for global ethics remains inconclusive..