Moral arguments for media reform: A study in the ethical universe of the World Association for Christian Communication

This thesis considers moral arguments for media reform developed by the World Association for Christian Communication (WACC) and asks whether some of the arguments and values might be useful for a North American media reform movement. Chapter one examines the core values of WACC - mutuality and equality - and discusses how they are similar to and different from the political theory of liberalism. The second chapter concerns WACC's four primary arguments for media reform - inclusion and access, diversity and community, democracy and reconciliation - and discusses what the arguments are aimed at. Chapter three considers two different American media reform movements - public journalism and radical democratic structural change - and their respective moral arguments. The final chapter addresses the ways in which WACC's approach may or may not be applicable to a secular, national media reform movement in the United States.