The Ethics of Engagement

Reviews / Votes

Wasserman's book is engaging and accessible...The Ethics of Engagement is a great book to read, with lots of food for thought for media companies, newsrooms, editors and journalists, academics and consumers of media. * Glenda Daniels, Wits University, Daily Maverick newspaper * Wasserman has written a wonderfully current, positive and important book, one that will be discussed and referred to for many years to come. * Andre Vlok, Herald * In this book of great relevance to the post-truth era, Wasserman masterfully revisits the important question of media ethics: If conflictual relations are part and parcel of society, and indeed, of democracy, how does the media provide for an ethics of representation informed by a careful negotiation and navigation of the delicate balancing act that does justice to the nuanced complexities of the sensibilities at stake? * Francis Nyamnjoh, Professor of Anthropology, University of Cape Town * This is a magnificent book, brilliant in depth and profound in analysis and problem resolution. It sets a new standard of international engagement with the resources of the South instructing the world. This dynamic alternative theory, the ethics of dialogic listening set in culture and structures, will revolutionize media education and as a normative framework for peace will transform the media's role in conflict worldwide. * Clifford Christians, Professor Emeritus of Communication, Journalism, and Media Studies, University of Illinois * Drawing examples from different countries, this book casts a critical eye over Africa's democratic journey and examines the link between media, conflict and democracy. It contends that the relationship between media and democracy in Africa is complex, giving rise to fundamental questions about the media's ability to perform democracy affirming roles prescribed by Western journalistic norms. The book offers a vital critique of the capacity of media to intervene ethically in conflicts, which inevitably arise out of transitions to democracy, and to foster democratic culture in the context of Africa's historical, structural and socio-economic realities. * Audrey Gadzekpo, Professor of Communication Studies, University of Ghana * In a book that grapples with tough and hard-hitting subjects, particularly the oft-perceived relationship between conflict, media and democracy, Herman Wasserman shows why he remains the to-go-to expert on media studies in the Global South with another brave yet refreshingly rigorous analysis on conflicts and how, despite obvious twists and turns, the media could positively contribute toward the path of democratization. * Bruce Mutsvairo, Professor of Journalism, Auburn University *