A media ethics of the future needs to be ecumenical, open, and global. This chapter explores the third feature, a global ethics for news media. It argues that media ethics needs to take a global approach to responsible journalism. Its aims, principles, and practices have to be altered to reflect the global nature of media. The emergence of multi-media communication is not unrelated to the rise of global news media. The same technology that allows media to be interactive across multiple platforms – satellites, digital computers, the Internet – allows media to be global in scope. The three features cited above are inseparable in reality. However, for purposes of analysis, we focus in this chapter on the theoretical and practical impact on ethics of the globalization of media.

The discussion begins by explaining why media ethics needs to “go global” and what is meant by global media ethics. Then, I argue that the best philosophical basis for a global ethics, in general and in media, is cosmopolitanism. I show how cosmopolitanism reinterprets the media’s aims and principles in terms of promoting a global human good. Cosmopolitanism would change how global events are covered and would alter how journalists think about patriotism. The chapter concludes by discussing how ethicists, citizens, and journalists can build a global media ethics, theoretically and practically.