Global media ethics, the good life, and justice.

The article focuses on the theoretical challenges of global media ethics in addressing cross-cultural value conflicts, examining the tension between universalist and pluralist approaches. It discusses Clifford Christians's universalist project, which posits a foundational moral protonorm of "reverence for life" as a basis for deriving media ethics norms, alongside postcolonial and neo-Aristotelian critiques that emphasize cultural specificity and the pursuit of the good life. Using Jürgen Habermas's typology of practical reasoning—pragmatic-instrumental, ethical-evaluative, and moral-adjudicatory—the article proposes a division of labor among these discourses to clarify when understanding cultural differences or establishing generalizable norms is appropriate. It argues that while ethical-evaluative discourse aids mutual understanding of diverse values, moral-adjudicatory discourse is necessary for cooperative resolution of irreconcilable value conflicts through impartial, universally justifiable norms. This framework aims to reconcile competing approaches by specifying their complementary roles in global media ethics.