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Journalism and
Mass Communication
Volume 6, Number 4, April 2016 (Serial Number 55)
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Journalism and
Mass Communication
Volume 6, Number 4, April 2016 (Serial Number 55)
Contents
Mass media and Communication
An International Journalism Model of Professionalism in News Production:
The Concepts and the Measurements 169
Khalaf Tahat
Journalism Analysis
An Exploratory Study on Journalistic Professionalism and Journalism Education
in Contemporary China 187
Baohui Shao, Qingwen Dong
Film Studies
Psychological and Philosophical Readings of the Spectatorship of Bollywood and
Indian Tamil Film in Sri Lanka 201
Manoj Jinadasa
Society and Network Culture

Ethics of Information Technologies in Knowledge Society 213
Jacob Dahl Rendtorff
Cultural studies
The Consolidation of Youth Lifestyle in the 1960s: Swinging London Through
The Drapers’ Record Magazine 221
Maíra Zimmermann
The Buddhist Philosophical Perspective of Environmental Preservation and Management 226

R. Saman Rajapaksha, A.G. Amali Uthpala Nandasiri
Journalism and Mass Communication, April 2016, Vol. 6, No. 4, 169-186
doi: 10.17265/2160-6579/2016.04.001
D DAVID PUBLISHING
An International Journalism Model of Professionalism in News

Production: The Concepts and the Measurements
Khalaf Tahat
Yarmouk University, Irbid, Jordan

This study aimed to contribute in establishing an international journalism model of professionalism in the
production of the news. The main purpose is to explore the degree to which this model predicts the professional
values in the media content. In particular, this model was tested on the content of a leading news organization in the
Middle East, Al Jazeera, to identify whether or not Al Jazeera reflected professional values in news production or
other non-professional values. A total of 592 news stories—234 from AJE and 358 from AJA—published from
January 1, 2014, to April 30, 2014, were analyzed. The findings of this study indicate that Al Jazeera reflects
professional values to a substantial degree. The professional values were reflected highly and nearly two thirds of
the stories had professional values in the content. The chi square tests shows there are frequency/percentage
differences, but overall the patterns are similar, with no statistically significant differences in the AJA and AJE.
Scholarly implications, future studies and limitations were presented in this study.
Keywords: professionalism, international journalism, content analysis, Al Jazeera
Many leading world news organizations have targeted different audiences and designed specific content
that meets their outside audiences’ needs (Foote, 1995). For example, CNN, based in the U.S., has news
websites in nine different languages; the BBC, based in London, has news websites with 27 different languages;
Voice of America broadcasts in “40-50 languages” (Mody, 2012, p. 103) and Al Jazeera (AJ), based in Qatar,
has three news websites, one in English (AJE), the other in Arabic (AJA), and the third one in Turkish (CNN
news website, 2012; BBC Arabic website, 2012; Al Jazeera English website, 2012).
These international news websites are very clear in saying that they present their news production from
their audiences’ perspectives and with professional values. For example, CNN claims that the “CNN.com relies
heavily on CNN’s global team of over 4,000 news professionals”. Similarly, the BBC Arabic news website
mentions that the main mission of its website is to put Arab interests and needs at the center of its concerns
(BBC Arabic website, 2012).
This study is important because it establishes, for the first time, an international journalism model in the
production of the news to measure professionalism construct when the same news organization communicates
to two or more audiences that have different cultural, social, language, and interest backgrounds. Thus, this
study aims to contribute in overcoming the non-systematic ways of judging any news organization, by
developing a scientific way based on testing the professional values on the content of a news organization to
find out what professional values were more prevalent in news production.
Khalaf Tahat, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Mass Communication College, Yarmouk University.
170 AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNALISM MODEL OF PROFESSIONALISM
Another reason that makes this study important is the nature of Al Jazeera itself and the unknown model
that it uses in news production. Al Jazeera is one of the most controversial news organizations in the modern
history of the media. Different perspectives from scholars, politicians, media observers, official reports, and
commentaries revolve around AJ and its true goals in the international media system. The first perspective
views AJ as free, independent, objective and adopting Western professional values in news production
(Boyd-Barrett & Xie, 2008; El-Nawawy & Iskandar, 2003; Quinn & Walters, 2004); the second trend views AJ
as lacking objectivity, biased to the Arab and Muslim interests against the West, and supporting fundamentalist
groups in the Middle East in its daily reporting (Ajami, 2001; Campagna, 2001; Darwish, 2001, Lynch, 2005;
Negus, 2001; Wojcieszak, 2007; Zednik, 2002).
Statement of the Problem and the Purpose

The problem of this study is that in an era of global communication little is known, through systematic
study, about the role of professional values in news production when the same news organization
communicates to different audiences that have different interests, religious, and cultural backgrounds through
content in multiple languages.
The main purpose of this study is to test a new proposed professional model by applying it to the content
of a non-Western news organization as well as to explore the degree to which this model predicts the type of
media content patterns. In particular, this study examines how a leading news organization in the Middle East,
Al Jazeera, frames its news in two languages when it targets readers from different cultures. Thus, this model
was tested to identify whether or not AJ reflected professional values in news production or other
non-professional values.
This study came as a response to researchers’ calls to conduct more studies to explore the main trends of
news production and consumption in different areas in the world (Elareshi & Gunter, 2012). Also other
academics have urged that more studies should be conducted in order to arrive at a fuller understanding of
multilingual news coverage in global news production (Abudl-Mageed & Herring, 2008). Besides, this study
addresses the question that has arisen about whether or not AJ has an ideological balance in its news websites
(Abudl-Mageed & Herring, 2008). It also addresses the suggestion by Zeng and Tahat (2012) that future
research “compare the trends of coverage between the Arabic version and English version of the same news
organization” (p. 445).
To explore the problem presented in the introduction, the next sections are organized as follows. Section
two includes the literature review and discusses these concepts: professionalism in journalism from normative
theory perspectives, and the main professionalism values. The research questions are presented in the end of
section two. The study design, methodology and measures are explained in section three. The results are
presented in section four. And finally, discussion and conclusions about the results are offered in section five.
Literature Review
This section defines the meaning of the profession of journalism and discusses the roots of the
professionalism model. In particular, the professional values of journalism are described through normative
theories of the press.
Professionalism refers to “an organizing principle of an occupational cohort. The professional’s work is
based in a theoretical body of knowledge, shared values and norms, and common purpose” (Gade & Lowrey,
AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNALISM MODEL OF PROFESSIONALISM 171
2011, p. 30). As a profession, journalism is based upon the general value of upholding democracy through
providing citizens the information they need to self-govern (Kovach & Rosenstiel, 2007, p. 17). Furthermore, if
the basic logic of the profession in journalism lies in its mission to help people be good, informed citizens, then
that mission should reflect itself in content that allows the citizens to be more informed, more knowledgeable,
and give them many different ideas and perspectives (Kovach & Rosenstiel, 2007, pp. 15-32). Defining the
profession of journalism leads to a discussion the roots of professional values, in particular, normative theories,
namely, libertarian theory and social responsibility theory.
Libertarian and social responsibility theories. Normative theories of the press describe an ideal way for
media systems, addressing what the press should and should not do (Baran & Davis, 2006). Siebert (1956)
argued that libertarian theorists believe that all types of information should be made public. Under the
libertarian concepts, the media’s main purpose is to help discover truth and solve the political and
social problems in the society by presenting and providing all opinions as the basis for decisions (Siebert, 1956).
This theory also assumes a multiplicity of voices reaching the public. The libertarians assume that every
person has the same opportunity, if not the same ability of access to media. In this case, every person has the right
to express him/herself, if he/she has something to say, regardless whether the content is true or false (Siebert,
1956, p. 51). This theory also stresses the rejection of any kind of government monopolies over mass
communication; however, this assumption means that media is privately owned and competes in an open
market (Siebert, 1956, p. 52). The libertarians argue that “anyone, citizens or alien, who had the inclination,
should have the unrestricted opportunity to own and operate a unit of mass communication” (Siebert, 1956,
p. 52). Media in democratic societies are free of government control or intervention; the public provides
control only through the “self-righting process” and through the idea of “the market place of information”
(Siebert, 1956, p. 53).
As for the social responsibility theory, Ostini and Fung (2002) argued that “the core of this theory is based
on the notion that the media have a moral commitment to society to provide adequate information for citizens
to make informed decisions” (p. 42). The fact is that the faith in virtually “absolute freedom” and that “the
nature of man carried built-in correctives” (Peterson, 1956, p. 77) were diminished and new standards of press
performance began to link responsibility with freedom; therefore, codes of ethical behavior were formulated
(Peterson, 1956). This theory emphasized that if people are to remain free, they must live by reasons instead of
passively accepting what they see, hear, and feel. Therefore the more alert elements of the community must
goad them into the exercise of their reason. Without such goading, people are not likely to be moved to seek
truth. People’s aim is not to find truth but to satisfy their immediate needs and desires (Peterson, 1956, p. 100).
Thus, because man is not prone to use rationality, it becomes necessary for the press to report the “truth about
the facts” (Peterson, 1956).
Journalists, under these theories, have a freedom to say whatever they want without any constraints to
serve society (Merrill, 1974). Therefore, “truth is what journalists consider fit to call truth, just as news is what
they decide is news-nothing more and nothing less” (Merrill, 1974, p. 167). After reviewing the roots of
professionalism in normative theories, the following paragraphs briefly summarize the most important
professional values.
Professionalism main concepts. Professionalism in journalism is summarized as a “number of
discursively constructed ideal-typical values, journalists feel that these values give legitimacy and credibility to
what they do. The concepts, values and elements are said to be part of journalism’s ideology” (Deuze, 2005, p.
446). According to other scholars, these professional values include public service, fairness, independence,
allegiance to truth, journalistic autonomy, inclusivity, impartiality, objectivity (Gade, 2011; Hitchens, 2007;
Kovach & Rosentiel, 2007; Weaver et al., 2007), and journalists view their social responsibility functions as
being interpreters, watchdogs, disseminators, and populist mobilizers (Weaver et al., 2007).
Deuze (2005, p. 447) summarized that the professionalism values in journalism have been identified by
other journalism scholars (Beam, Weaver, & Bronlee, 2009; Golding & Elliott, 1979; Kovach & Rosenstiel,
2007; Merritt, 1995) and are grouped to five: public service, objectivity, autonomy, immediacy, and ethics
(Deuze, 2005, p. 447). The following paragraphs shed some light on specific professional values by focusing on
their definitions as professional concepts. In particular, objectivity, factuality, fairness, and public service are
discussed shortly (see Figure 1).
Objectivity. Schudson (2001) defined objectivity as a norm by which journalists separate facts from values
and report only the facts. Objective reporting should not be emotional in tone. Based on the objectivity concept,
the journalist should report “news” without commenting on it or slanting it. Assertions that refer to facts are
regarded as “objective” and, therefore, valid; whereas the judgments related to human affairs in which values
play a leading role are “subjective” (Ward, 2008, p. 19) (see Figure 3). Objectivity is a very important value to
journalists, because value judgments, inasmuch as they distort reality, are deemed bad. Instead, the right thing
for journalists is trying to be neutral, keeping equal distance from contending sources, because inserting one’s
opinions in a story is “risky” (Rich, 1997, p. 204). Objectivity means that journalists exclude themselves when
reporting on societal issues by setting aside their own ideas and opinions (Munoz-Torres, 2007). Hackett (1984)
also pointed out that objectivity suggests that facts can be separated from opinions or value judgments, and that
journalists can stand apart from the real-world events whose truth or meaning they transfer to the news
audience by means of neutral language and competent reporting techniques (p. 232). Furthermore, MacLean
(1981, p. 56) suggests that “When a story does not distinguish clearly between its author’s interpretations and
the facts being reported, it is a biased or slanted report”. Donsbach (2003) summarized the main elements of
objectivity in three things: first, separating facts from opinion; second, presenting an emotionally detached view
of the news; and third, striving for fairness and balance (p. 384). Stensaas (1986) said that for a news story to be
objective it should contain these elements: it includes only verifiable assertions, does not make claims to
significance, and avoids statements of prediction, value, advocacy, or inductive generalizations without clear
attribution to source (p. 53). According to the principle of balance, the goal of good reporting is to present
multiple, or even opposing, views about a topic, as if they were all equally valid, that is, without giving
privilege to any of them (Klaidman & Beauchamp, 1987, p. 46). This study used attribution as indicate of
objectivity in media content .
Factuality. It means that reporters should base their news stories on facts, as facts can be easily verified
(Reese, 1990; Condit & Selzer, 1985; Ryan, 2001) (see Figure 3). Journalists establish factuality in different
ways, first, by using credible sources who make statements that can be quoted as fact without further
investigation. Second, journalists also produce factuality through their peculiar means of making the accounts
of sources seem objective (Ericson, 1998). Facts are clearly attributed to official sources, often in
point-counterpoint format. These attributions make the journalists seem to be operating in a detached, impartial,
independent, fair, and balanced manner (Ericson, 1998, p. 86). News production is a perpetual process of
authorizing facts through sources (Ericson, 1998, p. 86). Altmeppen, Arnold, and Kcossler (2012) said that
impartiality in news is expected to be presented in a neutral way, without subjective evaluations and without
being mixed with comment (p. 338). Factuality will be measured by examining the extent to which the facts
(Who, what, when, and where) are present before the opinions in the news story.
Fairness. As for the concept of fairness, Simon, Fico, and Lacy (1989) defined fairness of source usage as
the inclusion of statements from sources representing all sides of a story; therefore, presenting or not the sides
of the event in the news story was used to measure fairness (see Figure 3).
Public service. The concept of public service is often coupled with references to journalism’s normative
roles in educating the public or community, in helping society function properly, in taking actions to benefit the
public, in serving a community generally or in serving various groups in a community (Beam et al., 2009).
News organizations with strong professional orientation are likely to be ones where public service is important.
And a news organization that is perceived to be market driven tends to get lower evaluations on its public
service commitments (Beam et al, 2009). Below are some related studies that had been conducted on some of
the above mentioned professional norms.
Fico and Cote (1999) analyzed the content of newspapers to examine how fair their news coverage of the
1996 presidential election was. Operationally, Fico and Cote defined story fairness as the presence of quoted or
paraphrased assertions by sources supporting both Clinton and Dole. The proportions of one-sided and
two-sided stories address the probability of readers’ exposure to individually fair or unfair story coverage, and
whether there is an equal chance of encountering “unfair” stories dominated by each candidate. Fico and Cote
found that the news coverage was imbalanced and favored Dole (62 percent) over Clinton (33 percent) and only
5 percent of the news coverage was balanced for both sides.
Also, Fico and Soffin (1995) examined 259 news stories for how many sources were cited on each side of
a controversy. They examined whether sources were cited in the headline, first paragraph, and/or graphics, and
whether both sides were cited within the first five paragraphs of the story. They found that around half of the
news stories were absolutely one-sided in their presentation of a controversy, and only seven percent of the
news stories were entirely balanced (p. 626). However, this study examined the value of fairness in AJ content
by examining whether or not AJE and AJA presented two sides of the news story. Also, the sourcing was used
in this study as a measure of professionalism. In this case, the more sources used in the news story the more
professional values in the story are. In another example, using judgments or interpretation statements in the
news story doesn’t match with the professionalism standards to be objective. Pan and Kosicki (1993) pointed
out that by using for example, “Iraqi dictator”, inside the story this means that a news report places Saddam
Hussein in the same category with Hitler, Noriega, Stalin, and other generally hated men in American culture.
Also, they mentioned that by designating the 1989 uprising in China as a “prodemocracy movement”, news
reports interpreted the meaning of the uprising and categorized it in the same general category that the
American Revolution might belong (p. 62). This study looked at the entire body of the news stories for
attribution usage to examine how objective the story was in AJE and AJA.
Altmeppen and his colleagues (2012) pointed out that free and independent press should be able to reflect
the diversity of a pluralistic society. Journalists are expected to present a wide range of issues, subjects, views
and opinions. The diverse groups of society must have access to the media, and journalists should have access to a
wide range of news sources (p. 337). This study examined to what extent each news story included wide range
of views from different perspectives and many sources. This counted the number of sources used in the story.
Overall, the professional model treats people as “citizens and helps them participate in civic activity”
(Rosen, 2000, p. 680). Journalism values direct journalists to the idea that journalists have kind of a democratic
mission of “public service” (Kovach & Rosenstiel, 2007). In other words, the main mission of journalism is to
give the people the information they need to be good citizens, so that they can participate in government and
democracy (Kovach & Rosenstiel, 2007). Lewis (2006) asserts the importance of informed citizenship by
“quality information that people should receive about politics and public affairs” (p. 304).
In sum, most studies in the literature widely discussed, conceptually, the main values of professionalism in
journalism (e.g., Deuze, 2005; Johnson & Kelly, 2003; Hitchens, 2007; Kovach & Rosentiel, 2007; Siebert,
1956, Peterson, 1956, Weaver, Beam, Brownlee, Voakes, & Wilhoit, 2007), but, empirically, few of them
tested these values of professionalism (e.g., Beam, Weaver, & Brownlee, 2009; Fico & Soffin, 1995; Johnson,
Slawski, & Bowman, 1972; Pan & Kosicki; 1993) (see Figure 2 about the related studies). Also, most studies in
the literature examined journalism professional values by focusing on journalists’ attitudes and their
perceptions, so this study adds to the body of literature of the journalism professionalism measurements by
examining professionalism through content analysis method. In other words, this study uses media contents as
indicators to measure the journalism professionalism in news production instead of depending on journalists’
perceptions. In addition, this study directly examines journalism professionalism in areas outside the U.S. and
Europe. Besides, most studies on professionalism focused, separately, on only one element of professional
values (e.g., fairness value, or objectivity value, etc.); however, this study uses four professional values together
and tests them in the same news content at the same time. Finally, the content of newspapers and television had
previously been researched, but there was no single study that paid attention to these professional values in
news websites. So, this study fills this gap in studying professional values in online media content. This study
examines professionalism in news production in the Middle East through analyzing the content of one of the
most controversial non-Western networks, Al Jazeera.
Based on the literature review this study asked these questions and posed three hypotheses, specifically:
RQ1a: To what extent was the professional model of news production apparent in AJA?
RQ1b: To what extent was the professional model of news production apparent in AJE?
RQ1c: Was there a significant difference between AJA and AJE in the extent to which the professional
model was apparent?
Methodology
Content analysis was used to test these this model. Berelson (1952) defines content analysis as a “research
technique for the objective, systematic, and quantitative description of manifest content of communication” (p.
489). Content analysis is used frequently in all areas of the media. The method is popular with mass media
researchers because it is an efficient way to investigate the content of the media (Wimmer & Dominick, 2011, p.
156). Content analysis helped to tell whether or not a news story reflected professional values such as
objectivity, fairness, and factuality.
Population, Sample, and Unit of Analysis
There are hundreds of news websites in the Arab world, the majority in the Arabic language and a few in
English. This study focused on the AJE and AJA versions of the news websites: AJE
(www.english.aljazeera.com) and AJA (www.aljazeera.net). These two news sites were selected for several
reasons. First, they are considered the most important news websites in the Middle East with the highest
readership among all news websites (Galal, Galander, & Auter, 2008). They are considered an influential
agenda setter in their respective geographic region. In addition, they represent a variety of Arab and non-Arab
world cultures and perspectives, as well as different political ideologies (El Nawawy & Powers, 2008; Galal,
Galander, & Auter, 2008).
The population of the study was defined as: All content that was published on the homepages of AJA and
AJE from January 1, 2014, until April 30, 2014. Al Jazeera websites had similar, but not identical, news
sections. Since the online content of the news websites continuously changes, and following Massey and Levy
(1999) in their study of the English-language online newspapers in Asia, both websites were accessed twice
within 24 hours.
The news story was the unit of analysis. The study focused on the text of the stories. Audio, opinions,
shows, photos, schedules, and trending topics were excluded from analysis.
Constructed week sampling was used, the sample was stratified by day of the week, and 50 percent of the
content of each day was randomly pulled by using interval systematic procedure. Constructed weeks have been
the most convincing response to the problem of systematic content variation in media content (Riffe, Lacy, &
Fico, 2005). Two constructed weeks were used to draw the sample of news stories collected in four months
from AJE and AJA news websites. One constructed week adequately predicts and represents the population,
and two constructed weeks works even better (Riffe et al., 2005, p. 98). In a constructed week sample, all
Sundays are identified and then the researcher randomly selects one Sunday, then a Monday, a Tuesday, etc.,
until all seven days of the week are represented equally (Riffe, Aust, & Lacy, 1993; Riffe, Lacy, & Drager,
1996).
There were 17 weeks of the time of the study [January 1 until April 30, 2014]. A computerized random
number generator (https://www.random.org/) was used to generate two random numbers between 1 [first week
of the study] and 17 [last week of the study]. For example, the computer generated these two numbers, 2 and 4
weeks, of the 17 weeks. This means that Sunday of 12th of January was the first Sunday in the sample and 26th
of January was the second Sunday. So, in this case the researcher looked at all the content of these two Sundays
which together had a total of 99 stories for the AJA (e.g., in AJA and in the first Sunday January 12th there
were 48 stories, and in the second Sunday of January 26th there were 51 stories). And the same procedure was
done for Mondays, Tuesdays, etc. until the coder went through the entire 14 days. Each story for each day was
assigned a number. Based on this procedure, the total number of the initial sample yielded 701 stories for AJA
and 464 stories for AJE. Fifty percent (50%) of the total number of each day was pulled through interval
systematic sample. In this study every 2nd [randomly] story was selected from each day list sample. A
systematic random sample of 358 stories from AJA news stories was selected, and the same sampling
procedure yielded 234 stories constituting the AJE sample. The goal of pulling 50 percent was to get a
substantial, reasonable sample size that had adequate power for the study.
Time Frame
As previously noted, the time frame of this analysis was from January 1, 2014, until April 30, 2014. Riffe
et al. (2005) suggested that in content analysis research there is no need to sample an entire year. The
four-month period means that the coder cannot generalize to the entire year, however, the time frame was long
enough to include numerous news events of international interest to reveal whether (and how) the news
organization communicates to its main two audiences (Arab world and the West). Also, since this study
discussed how a news organization communicates to multiple cultures through different products, it was not a
time-sensitive question. Thus, the four-month period was used as the time frame for this study. This time frame
witnessed many important events that most news organizations would pay attention to during their daily
coverage.
Construct, Dimensions of Measurements, and Data Analysis
The study suggested a professional model in news production could be used by news organizations. The
following paragraphs address this model in terms of its conceptual definition and operational definition.
Objectivity means that journalists exclude themselves when reporting on society issues by setting aside
their own ideas and opinions (Munoz-Torres, 2007). Attributing statements to sources is a key element of the
objective ritual. Journalists use attributions to indicate their objectivity (to account for the value-laden
statements and opinions in the content and make clear where these views come from). This variable was coded
as: 0 = no attribution in story, 1 = partial attribution, 2 = full attribution. To determine when to code no
attribution or partial attribution or full attribution, the process of coding depended on the situations of
presenting none, or some or all facts/ideas/opinions in the story with attribution. For example, partial attribution
is when attribution is used in some cases, but some facts/ideas/opinions are presented without attribution. Also,
full attribution is used when all facts/ideas/opinions are presented with attributions. Finally, when the
ideas/opinions in the story has no attributions at all, then it was coded as no attribution. The frequencies and
percentages were calculated, and used to decide how to interpret this measure (no attribution to full attribution).
This means that the more attributions used in the story, the more it is objective, the more it reflects professional
values (see Figure 4).
Fairness is defined as presenting both sides of the event in the news story (Simon et al., 1989). “The side”
refers to the attributed sources in the news story. In this study, a dichotomous measure was developed to
measure the fairness variable. If both sides of the story had been told in the story it would be coded as 1, and if
the story did not present the two sides it would be coded as 0. Also, any story that has more than two sides it
was also coded as 1. Frequencies and percentages were used to interpret when to say the story was fair in its
reporting or not (see Figure 4).
As for the sourcing variable, the term “source” refers to all people and inanimate sources that are used in
the news story and directly or indirectly quoted in the title, headline, lead, or the main text of the story. Sources
include those who are paraphrased and those who provide actualities. They are identified through attribution
that include the words “said”, “say”, “told”, “informed”, “announced”, “urged”, etc. In other words, the source
must have a speaking part in the story (Foote & Gade, 2006). To measure the degree to which the news story
cited sources directly or indirectly (human or inanimate sources); four categories were designed to measure this
variable: if the news story did not cite any sources it was coded as zero sources = 0; if it cited only one source
then it was coded as 1, if it cited two sources it was coded as 2, and if it had more than 2 sources it was coded
as 3. What’s most important was that a story (typically) has more than one source, representing some effort to
confirm information or provide a different perspective or additional information. The more sources cited, the
more professional the news story was considered to be. Frequencies and percentages were used to interpret the
data in this variable (see Figure 4).
Finally, the professional news is a “factual presentation” of events deemed newsworthy (Condit & Selzer,
1985; Hackett, 1984). Factuality should be based on facts, which are phenomena that can be observed and
demonstrated as the basis of the story. If the Who, What, When, and Where are present before the story
provides an interpretation of these facts, then the story is more fact-based. However, because Why and How
concepts are often interpretive and provided by sources, they would not be coded in the story. The other four
elements describe everything basic and important to readers of a news story. The who question defines who are
the people involved? What defines as what happened or happens? Where means where did/does this event take
place? When defines as when in time did/does this take place? Factuality was measured by examining the
extent to which the facts (Who, what, when, and where) are present before the opinions in the news story. To
measure this variable: 0 = opinion present before any facts (who, what, when, where) presented; 1 = opinion
presented before all facts presented; and 2 = all facts presented BEFORE an opinion was presented. Opinion is
a viewpoint, statement, or judgment about a matter/event normally regarded to be subjective because opinion
rests on grounds not enough to produce absolute certainty, and opinion is the result of interpretation of facts or
emotion. Frequencies and percentages were used to interpret the data. This way the higher measures reflected
greater factuality, or that the basic facts were present before opinions, which should reflect that the story was
fact-based (see Figure 4).
This way, the researcher developed an index to measure the professionalism model that was aggregated
from the values allocated to the criterion variables of professionalism where each dimension of professionalism
has its own values. The highest value meant that the story reflected more professional values and vice versa. So,
each story was coded based on the aforementioned four measures of professionalism: objectivity, fairness,
factuality, and finally, the use of sources. The index of professionalism ranged from 0 points, corresponding to
a lowest level of professionalism, to 8 points, corresponding to the highest level of professionalism. After
presenting all of the variables related to professionalism in journalism, the researcher would be able to judge
the degree to which the news story reflects the elements of the professionalism values.
To explain in more details, let us say, hypothetically, that coding of a news story showed these values: 2
on the objectivity measure, 1 on fairness, 2 on factuality, and 2 on the use of sources. In this case, all values
were summed up and this yielded 7 points on the index [0-8]. The point of 7 could be explained in this way: a 7
reflected a story that included a high level of professionalism. The same analysis was done for both AJA and
AJE (see Figure 5). To answer these RQs the researcher summed the measures to each variable in the model
and assessed whether the sum of the measures reflected a low, medium or high presence of the measures. Chi
square tests were used to determine whether there were significant differences on the variable measures by
language version of the web site (AJA and AJE), and whether the total model scores differed by web site. Also
the researcher ran chi square tests on the model index scores to test for differences by web site in the overall
model. In this test, the average of each index in AJE and AJA was used and the significant level was set at 0.05
to determine the significant differences between AJA and AJE.
Professional Model
sources Fairness Factuality Objectivity
Figure 1. Professional concepts.

Related studies
Ericson, 98;Stensaas, Fico & Cote, 99; Fico & Condit & Selzer, 85;
86. Hackett, 84. Deuze, 05; Donsachach,
Soffin, 95. 03; Ward, 08.
Figure 2. Related studies.
Conceptual Definitions
People or inanimate News story 4

where the information Journalist setting aside
Presenting basis facts
comes from. his ideas and opinons
two sides of (who, when, and not using adjectives
the story. where, and in the stories.
what).
Figure 3. Conceptual definitions.
Operational Definitions
0= story does
0 = no source not present the 0 = opinion 0 = no attribution, 1
1= one source two sides of the present before any facts = partial attribution,
sotry, 1 = presented.; 1 = opinion 2 =, full attribution .
2= two sources presents the two presented before all
3= three and more. sides facts, 2 = all facts
presented BEFORE an
opinion is presented
Figure 4. Operational definitions.
Professional index
0-2 Low 3-5 Medium 6-8 High
Figure 5. Professional index.

Inter-coder Reliability
The two websites of Al Jazeera were written in two different languages; in Arabic and in English. The
inter-coder reliability was calculated for both languages. Two other coders, one of them speak Arabic professionally,
helped the author of this research. The author of this study spent 9 to 11 hours with graduate students,
separately, to train them on how the codebook worked. When an approximate percentage of agreement on
coding decisions reached 80 percent, then the additional coders each coded independently, 24 stories in English
and 35 in Arabic (about 10 percent of each sample). Inter-coder reliability was calculated using Cohen’s kappa,
which calculates expected agreement between two coders (Riffe et al., 2005, p. 151). Cohen’s kappa
coefficients range from 0 to 1, with a calculated value of 0.75 or above acceptable (Wimmer & Dominick, 2011,
p. 175). The intercoder reliability for the Arabic stories ranged from 0.76 to 1.0, and for the English stories
from 0.82 to 1.0. The Cohen’s Kappa coefficients for the Arabic and English stories are shown in Table 1.
Table 1
Intercoder Reliability Results for Arabic and English Stories
Variables Cohen’s Kappa for AJA Cohen’s Kappa for AJE
Objectivity 0.76 0.82
Fairness 0.94 1.00
Sourcing citation 1.00 1.00
Factuality 0.79 0.86
Results
This study examined the professional values that are more prevalent in the content in AJA and AJE when
they communicate to their audiences that have different cultural, language, and interest backgrounds. A total of
592 news stories—234 from AJE and 358 from AJA—published from January 1, 2014, to April 30, 2014, were
analyzed. The number of stories published varied by month, ranging from 90 stories in April to 221 stories in March.
Research Question 1 (a)
Research Question 1(a) in this study asked to what extent the professional model of news production is
apparent in AJA.
The professional values were reflected in high level in AJA stories. The mean of professional values for
AJA stories on the professional index was 5.98 out of 8 points (SD = 1.48), placing it 0.02 of a point short of
the high level of 6 to 8. The data in Table 2 indicated that about two thirds (n = 233, 65.1 percent) of the
published stories in AJA reflected a high level of professional values, over a quarter (n = 119, 33.2 percent) of
the sample reflected a moderate level of professional values and few stories (n = 6, 1.7 percent) reflected a low
level of professional values in their coverage. By examining the variables that comprise the professional model
(objectivity, fairness, sourcing, and factuality), the data show that AJA tended to embed professional values at
somewhat differing levels in its news production.
The first value to be discussed in the professional model is objectivity. Nearly half (n = 169, 47.2 percent)
of the stories in AJA included full attribution, about equally likely to include partial attribution (n = 168, 46.9
percent), and few stories (n = 21, 5.9 percent) seldom included no attribution. Also, the data about the fairness
value showed that AJA tended to reflect this value in its coverage to a high degree. The vast majority of the
stories (n = 265, 74 percent) in AJA presented two sides of the event in the story, and about a quarter (n = 93,
26 percent) of the published stories did not present two sides of the event. As for the sourcing use value, the
overwhelming majority (n = 315, 87.9 percent) had two or more sources, just over a tenth (n = 41, 11. 5 percent)
had one source, and very few stories (n = 2, 0.6 percent) did not cite any sources. Factuality is the last value in
the professional model. The AJA tended to be a fact-based news website. Over half (n = 206, 57.5 percent) of
the analyzed stories presented all facts before an opinion was presented, but in more than a quarter (n = 96, 26.8
percent) of these stories an opinion was presented before any facts, and about a sixth (n = 56, 15.6 percent) of
the published stories presented opinion before all facts were presented.
Table 2
The Professional Index Values in AJA and AJE
AJA (N = 358) AJE (N = 234) AJA & AJE (N = 592)
The professional Index frequency percent frequency percent Total percent
Low values (0-2) 6 1.7% 16 6.4% 21 3.5%
Middle values (3-5) 119 33.2% 73 31.2% 192 32.4%
High values (6-8) 233 65.1% 146 62.4% 379 64%
M (0-8) 5.98 5.88 5.93
Total 358 100 234 100 592 100%
Notes. X2 = 5.991, df =2, p. = 0.060. M of professional index in AJA = 5.97, SD = 1.48, in AJE M = 5.87, SD = 1.75.
Research Question 1 (b)

Research Question 1(b) in this study asked to what extent the professional model of news production is
apparent in AJE. The professional values were reflected in high level in AJE stories. The mean of professional
values for AJE stories on the professional index was 5.88 out of 8 points (SD = 1.75), placing it 0.12 of a point
short of the high level of 6 to 8. The data indicated a little less than two third (n = 146, 62.4 percent) of the
published stories in AJE reflected a high level of professional values, about a third (n = 73, 31.2 percent)
reflected a moderate level of professional values and few stories (n = 16, 6.4 percent) reflected a low level of
professional values in their coverage. Frequencies and percentages for each of the four individual professional
values show that AJE, like AJA, tended to embed these professional values in the production of its news,
though at somewhat differing levels. For the objectivity value, nearly over half (n = 124, 53 percent) of the
stories had full attribution, about two fifths (n = 101, 43.2 percent) included partial attribution, and very few
stories included no attribution (n = 9, 3.8 percent). Also, the data show that AJE tended to be fair in its
coverage.
Fairness is the second value in the professional model. The data show that large majority (n = 166, 70.9
percent) of the stories in AJE tended to present two sides of the event, and less than a third (n = 68, 29.1
percent) of the published stories did not present two sides of the event. As for the sourcing use value, AJE
provided its readers with whatever from multiple sources. The majority (n = 156, 66.7 percent) of the published
stories cited three or more different sources, around a fifth (n = 47, 20.1 percent) provided two different sources,
just over a tenth (n = 26, 11.1 percent) had only one source, and very few stories (n = 5, 2.1 percent) had no
sources. The last professional concept is factuality, and over half (n = 124, 53 percent) of the analyzed stories
presented all facts before an opinion, but in more than a quarter (n = 69, 29.5 percent) of these stories an
opinion was presented before any facts, and about a sixth (n = 41, 17.5 percent) of the published stories
presented opinion before all facts were presented.
Research Question 1 (c)
Research question 1(c) asked if there is a significant difference between AJA and AJE in the extent to
which the professional model is apparent. As the data analysis shows in Table 3, at a broad level there were no
significant differences between the two sites in terms of employing professional values in news production (X2
= 5.991, df = 2, p = 0.060). Both sites, as data in Table 3 show that there are frequency/percentage differences,
but overall the patterns are similar, with no statistically significant differences. The professional values were
reflected highly and nearly two thirds (n = 379, 64 percent for both sites together) of the stories had
professional values in the content (n = 233, 65.1 percent for AJA, and n = 146, 62.4 percent for AJE), and about
a third (n =192, 32.4 percent for both sites) employed a medium amount of professional values (n = 119, 33.2
percent for AJA, and n = 73, 31.2 percent for AJE). Only a small percentage of stories on the two sites (n = 21,
3.5 percent) reflected a low amount of professional values in the published news stories (n = 6, 1.7 percent for
AJA, and n = 16, 6.4 percent for AJE). Also the means for the professional value index were nearly the same:
5.98 for AJA and 5.88 for AJE.
Another way to examine the differences in the professional model is to look at the Chi square test of each
value between the AJA and AJE. As the results displayed, the four variables of the professional model had
frequency/percentage differences, but overall the patterns are similar, with no statistically significant
differences. There is no significant difference in using objectivity values between AJA and AJE were identified
(X2 = 2.537, df = 2, p = 0.281). As for the fairness value, the analysis of data in revealed that there was no
significant difference in presence of the fairness value between AJA and AJE (X2 = 0.0679, df = 1, p. = 0.410).
In addition, there was no significant difference between AJA and AJE in terms of the sources they cited and
provided in their published stories (X2 = 6.317, df = 3, p = 0.150).
Table 3
Factuality Value in AJA and AJE
AJA (N = 358) AJE (N = 234) AJA & AJE (N = 592)
Factuality Frequency Percent Frequency Percent Total percent
Opinion present before ANY facts presented. 96 26.8% 69 29.5% 165 27.9%
Opinion presented before ALL facts presented 56 15.6% 41 17.5% 97 16.4%
all facts presented BEFORE an opinion is presented 206 57.5% 124 53% 330 55.7%
Total 358 100 234 100 592 100
Notes. X2 = 1.193, df =2, p = 0.551.
Finally, as for the factuality value, the data in Table 3 indicated that there was no significant difference
between AJA and AJE in terms of employing the factuality value in their published stories (X2 = 1.193, df = 2,
p = 0.551).
In short, the indices reveal a story mean of 5.88 and 5.98. Both approaching, but falling slightly below the
“high” range of professionalism. The measures reveal more specifics on where the stories fell short of high
professionalism: nearly half the stories were not fully attributed; about one-quarter of the stories lacked balance,
presenting one side only of an issue, and about one-quarter of the stories reported opinions before core facts.
The chi square tests show there are frequency/percentage differences, but overall the patterns are similar, with
no statistically significant differences in the AJA and AJE.
Discussion and Conclusion

The findings of this study indicated that Al Jazeera tended to reflect professional values to a substantial
degree in its production of the news—just under the high level on the professional model index established for
this study. There are many potential explanations that might clarify why Al Jazeera’s content is more likely to
embed professional values than marketing or cultural values in the production of the news.
Political Liberalization and Modernizing the Media Environment
The first point that explains the level of professionalism in AJ is related to the nature of the political and
economic incubator environment for Al Jazeera. Media is the face of a democracy (Krimsky, 1997). For a
media organization to be able to perform its democratic mission, it needs an incubator environment that
accommodates freedom of expression. Professionalism is rarely spread in countries or societies where media
are run and controlled by governments (Shoemaker & Reese, 1996) such as in China, Russia, and the Middle
East countries. So, what makes Qatar an exception from other countries in the Middle East?
Al Jazeera was launched in 1996 as a sign of openness and as part of moving to democracy and political
liberalization ideology (Bahry, 2001). In fact, the former Emir undertook wide-ranging reforms to prepare the
genuine environment to accommodate and facilitate Al Jazeera’s role in shaping and directing the Arab
awareness. For example, the Ministry of the Information was cancelled; this eventually meant no censorship
on media content anymore. Qatar government hired the most well-trained and professional staff from Arabic
BBC to enable AJ to achieve its organizational goals. On the political level, despite the Arab decision of
boycotting normalization with Israel, Doha agreed to open Israeli trade representative office in September 1996;
this move helped AJ to move freely to achieve its objectivity and fairness when presenting the two sides on the
historical Arab-Israeli conflict. Further, approving the permanent constitution that provides the real press
freedom and political reform, establishing the Central Municipal Council and electing its members, giving
women the right to run for election and voting are also aspects of liberalizing Qatar. Moreover, hosting foreign
branches of Western and American universities in Qatar are also part of the Qatari liberalization and openness
move. These kinds of moves at different levels have contributed to creating a solid and fertile basis for enabling
AJ to operate in a relatively freer environment which reflects directly on producing content with professional
values.
The results of this study that Al Jazeera employs more professional values in its news production also
consistent with what other scholars found about the role of AJ in promoting democracy in the region of the
world with the most dictatorships, adopting professional and Western journalism values in reporting, and
expanding the margins of freedom of expression and speech among Arab audience (e.g., Quinn & Walters).
Al Jazeera’s Mission, Vision, and Values
Second, AJ’s main mission and its organizational values match the core assumption of the professional
model. Al Jazeera on the top of its organization agenda insists to uphold these professional values in doing its
reports. For example, in its Arabic version and under “About” icon, AJ identifies itself as Arabic media service
affiliation with global orientation and adopts the motto of “Opinion and the Other Opinion”, the motto reflects a
desire for pluralism, and inclusion of global views that transcend the Arab region. Also, AJE in its Vision,
Mission and Values icon on its website identifies its main purpose to “maintain credibility through impartial,
accurate and comprehensive representation of the story” (Al Jazeera English website, 2014). Thus, the main
goal of AJ is to be an objective network and produce more professional content to its audience and this main
goal matches with the findings of other scholars (e.g., Boyd-Barrett & Xie, 2008; El-Nawawy & Iskandar, 2003;
Quinn & Walters, 2004; Zeng & Tahat, 2012) who found that AJ is free, independent, objective and adopting
Western professional values in news production. The top editorial leaders in both AJE and AJA have insisted
that Al Jazeera has a completely independent editorial policy from the Qatari government, which has nothing to
do with the content (Attard, 2012).
Al Jazeera and its Media Practices
The third possible explanation of why AJ has more likely adopted professional values in the production of
the news is related to the nature of Al Jazeera’s practices. Sometimes it is not enough to claim that a news
organization seeks to adhere to the professional values if its actions on the ground don’t match its words. Many
possible evidences can be shown here to prove how AJ’s practices reflect its tendency to uphold the
professional values in news production.
First, it may be that Al Jazeera doesn’t care about other governments’ desires, but gives priority to tell its
readers story with facts. If professional values are not a priority on Al Jazeera’s agenda, then it will report the
way Qatar’s neighbors want. However, Al Jazeera has never stopped criticizing other Arab governments, and
has broken all types of taboos in its daily coverage (Abudl-Mageed & Herring, 2008; Bahry, 2001; Lynch, 2005;
Quinn & Walters, 2004). Al Jazeera coverage of the Arab world forced many Arab governments to shut down
Al Jazeera bureaus (Seib, 2011), and excluded it from being a member of the Arab States Broadcasting Union
(Miles, 2005). The findings of this study correspond with the third attribute of profession in Beam, Weaver and
Brownlee’s (2009) study: When a news organization “put public service interests ahead of economic gain” (p.
279). Second, it may be that Al Jazeera upholds its long-term philosophy of maintaining “the right to speak up”
(Al Jazeera English website, 2014) by allowing people to express their opinion freely, encouraging debates,
viewpoints and counter viewpoints. Al Jazeera seeks to express a diversity of views, from both within and
outside the Arab world. Al Jazeera has given voices to ordinary people in the street to express their grievances
and ambitions. Many guest speakers from different schools of thought were interviewed, and many Arab
opposition representatives have also been given the chances to debate and present their opinions, ideas and
thoughts freely on the most pressing issues in the Arab world. These kinds of actions enable AJ to perform its
main role in promoting democracy and expanding the margins of freedom in the region. The names of its most
famous talk shows reflect its core professional mission stated in its slogan “Opinion, and the other opinion”:
e.g., More Than One Opinion, The Opposite Direction, Open Dialogue, No Limits (Lynch, 2005). By focusing
on the common interests of the public and providing different perspectives on these issues that impact on the
society and the public life, AJ in this role is consistent with the logic of the concept of public service, which is
considered one of the most important professional values in libertarian and social responsibility theories.
Finally, it may be that Al Jazeera was the first Arab and Muslim news organization that allows Israelis to
appear in its airtime news bulletins and conducts live interviews with them (Boyd-Barrett & Xie, 2008).
Allowing Israelis to presents their opinions matches with the logic of fairness value in professionalism.
Al Jazeera and its Well-Trained Staff
Al Jazeera’s Western-professional and well-trained journalists are the fourth factor that might explain why
AJ upholds professional values in the production of the news. The Al Jazeera network founders decided to hire
120 of these Western-professional and well-trained journalists in its team (Bahry, 2001; El-Nawawy &
Iskandar, 2003; Lynch, 2005). Al Jazeera has strong professional values that make it more objective (Fahmy &
Al Emad, 2011). Al Jazeera inherited the BBC network’s editorial “spirit, freedom, style, and adapted Western
journalistic values” (El Nawawy, 2003; Scott, 2003). Having a well-qualified and well-trained staff will help
AJ to achieve its organizational goals of producing well-balanced and more professional values content.
Conclusion
This study has intended to contribute in establishing an international journalism model in the production of
the news to find out which news values are more prevalent in non-Western newsroom when the same news
organization communicates to two or more audiences that have different cultural, social, language, and interest
backgrounds. The study came up with these importation conclusions:
Al Jazeera, at the larger level (both AJA and AJE) attempts to provide professional news coverage that
reflects more professional values in the production of news. Most of these values are consistent with the logic
of both the libertarian and the social responsibility theories in Western journalism. Al Jazeera has a tendency to
be objective, fair, and present more perspectives on the same issue from different sources. While the
professional model in journalism has grown and thrived especially in democratic societies, Al Jazeera, by
adopting professional values in reporting, has to be treated in a completely different way. Al Jazeera emerged
in a very complicated geopolitical context, where freedom of expression is the last priority in the agenda of the
Middle Eastern governments.
Scholarly and Practical Implications
This study is contributing conceptually and hopefully laying the groundwork for future studies. For the
first time, this study tested different related concepts together that comprise large construct “professionalism”
in the relationship between media content and media creator. Most studies done before this study tested
professionalism by using and examining only one variable such as objectivity or fairness and balance, etc.
However, this study established a professional model comprising multiple variables that could be tested
together to judge whether or not the news content reflects more or less professional values or other values.
Further, this study contributes in overcoming personal impressions and non systematic ways of judging
any news organization, by developing a scientific approach based on testing the content of any news
organization through applying this professional model; researchers or observers will be able to judge/interpret
what values were more prevalent in news production.
Limitations
As with all research, this study does have some shortcomings. First of all, the study focused on the content
drawn from one influential global news producer with the highest readership. Other websites may display
different features and follow different patterns when reporting on different issues. Another limitation is related
to the time frame of the study. The study analyzed Al Jazeera coverage from January 1, 2014-April 30, 2014.
Therefore, the coverage may reflect media reaction to unique events during the period, such as Arab Spring.
Future studies can expand the time to include more weeks from different months of the year. Therefore, the
generalizability of this sample is limited to the extent to the four months from where the sample was drawn.
Another limitation is related to using content analysis as an indicator of the influence of professional values
without directly seeking the perspectives of Al Jazeera journalists about how they think about or apply these values.
Future Studies
This research suggests several directions for future investigations. Comparison studies are beneficial and
necessary in this field. The focus of this study was on how the same news organization uses different contents
to communicate to different audiences. This model could be used to measure different media contents that also
target the same audience (French or Arabic or Persians, etc.) by different news organizations (e.g., CNN, BBC,
Al Jazeera, etc.).
Finally, this model could expand cooperation between scholars, academics, and graduate students in
journalism and mass communication colleges around the world. First, they might use this model on media
content that published in the same language. Second, this type of cooperation between scholars and researchers
from different journalism schools in the globe could help to overcome the language barriers in studying media
content. In this point, hypothetically, four researchers from four countries could shape a research team to
analyze, for example, four websites produced by BBC that communicates with four different audiences (e.g.,
French BBC, Arabic BBC, English BBC, and Persian BBC). In this example, a researcher from France could
apply this model by analyzing the French BBC content, a researcher from Jordan could apply the same coding
system on the Arabic BBC content, an Iranian researcher might apply the analysis on the Persian BBC content,
and a Canadian researcher might also apply the same procedures on the English version of the BBC to find out
the extent to which these professional values are prevalent in media content produced by the same news
organization.
References
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doi: 10.17265/2160-6579/2016.04.002
D DAVID PUBLISHING
An Exploratory Study on Journalistic Professionalism and

Journalism Education in Contemporary China
Baohui Shao
Hebei University, Hebei Province, China
Qingwen Dong
University of the Pacific, Stockton, CA, USA
Journalism education and the journalism industry have boomed in the past twenty years in China, however,
journalism school graduates are not highly welcomed by media organizations. In order to examine issues and
challenges facing journalism education, this study conducted an in-depth interview with practicing journalists and
journalism educators through a lens of journalistic professionalism. This paper finds that their perceptions are
focusing on expertise, commitment, responsibility but eschewing journalistic autonomy deliberately with respect to
journalistic professionalism and concentrating on rigid journalism knowledge without “professional” or practical
ability with respect to journalism education. Limitation and suggestions for future research are also provided.
Keywords: Chinese journalistic professionalism, journalism education, journalism education challenges
Introduction
Journalism education is usually regarded as a crucial component of the profession of journalism (Harless,
1990; Johnstone et al., 1976; Weaver et al., 2003; Windahl & Rosengren, 1978), which can improve the level of
journalistic professionalism among journalists (Wilensky, 1964; Wu & Ding, 2007; Zhang, 2011). Ideally,
journalistic professionalism is good to consolidate journalists‟ credibility and social prestige (Deuze, 2004; Wu,
2009) and can lead journalists to “the best practices of journalism” (Mustafa, 2010).
Journalistic professionalism has emerged in the western countries in the 19th century (O‟Boyle, 1968),
particularly nurtured in America (Dennis & Merrill, 2006; Guo, 1999). In fact, it has been a concept central to
American journalists since the late 19th century (Beam, 1990; Wu et al., 1996). To some extent, journalistic
professionalism has been widely transported around the world both through the power of US and British
international news agencies (Waisbord, 2013) as well as their innumerable institutional links, training programs
and educational curricula provided to many other parts of the world (Golding, 1977). In China, the concept of
journalistic professionalism has also been accepted widely by both journalism scholars (Guo, 1999; Lu & Pan,
2002; Yang, 2013) and working journalists (Lin, 2008; Xiang, 2010).
On the other hand, journalism education plays an important role in cultivating potential professional
journalists. There were two styles of cultivating potential journalists developed through history: One was the
college-model, and the other was the apprentice-model (Qiu, 1998; Wu, 2002). Even in journalism education
Baohui Shao, Associate Professor, School of Journalism & Communication, Hebei University.
Qingwen Dong, Professor & Chair, Department of Communication, University of the Pacific.
188 AN EXPLORATORY STUDY ON JOURNALISTIC PROFESSIONALISM
nowadays, there are indeed two competing models between “preparing students for the industry and the study
of general knowledge pertinent to higher education” (Zhou & Zhong, 2006). Definitely the aims of both are
undoubtedly similar to develop graduates with the professional ability to meet the demands of society,
especially news media.
Journalism education and the journalism industry have boomed in recent decades in China. According to
the Department of Higher Education of Chinese Education Ministry, 661 universities or colleges were able to
afford journalism courses in 2005, up from only 66 in 1994 (He, 2005). By the end of 2011, the number of
journalism schools reached 975 and nearly 200,000 undergraduates majored in journalism in universities (Wu
& Wang, 2012). It can be estimated that tens of thousands of graduates would get their journalism degrees each
year. However, the total number of journalists with a press card granted by the government was only 180,000 in
November 2006 (Zhou, 2007). Obviously, the supply of journalism graduates exceeded the demands of the
news media. On the contrary, graduates with journalism degrees are not highly welcomed by news
organizations, which prefer graduates with other majors (Zhang, 2011; Wu & Ding, 2007; Liu, 2001), including
literature, history, philosophy, politics, law, economy, and sociology (Chen, 2006). Therefore, it is worth
observing journalism education through a lens of journalistic professionalism, which is still in the forming
process in China (Wu & Ding, 2007; Lu & Pan, 2002).
The purpose of this study is to provide a better understanding of the problems of Chinese journalism
education from the perspective of journalistic professionalism.
Literature Review
Journalistic professionalism thrived in liberal capitalism (Clement & Chan, 2007) and liberal ideology
(Wu, 2009), especially connecting to a democratic market society in its inception (Schudson, 1978).
Journalistic professionalism was first advocated for in the 19th century and was widely accepted by journalists
as “the excellences to which journalists aspire” in America (Weaver & Wilhoit, 1996). To some extent,
journalistic professionalism has been used as “a „common language‟ and ideological commitment within the
subculture of journalists in various countries,” including China (Lee et al., 1997).
Indeed, many scholars and commentators argued that for most of the twentieth century, journalism could
or could not be considered a profession (Dennis & Merrill, 2006; Weaver et al., 2007). The better choice for the
inquiry, however, might be concluded by Weaver and Wilhoit (1986) that journalism “is of a profession but not
in one”. It is true that many of the investigations of journalistic professionalism have halted at this point
(Schudson & Andson, 2009).
Journalistic professionalism can be studied through three levels: an individual level, an organizational
level, and an industrial level (Qian, 1998; Beam, 1990; Weaver et al., 2007). It should be noted that there are
fewer investigations at an organizational level except Beam‟s (1990). At an industrial level, Wilensky (1964)
suggested an evaluation model to define professionalization of journalism, consisting of five successive stages:
(1) it begins to pursue an area of work as a full-time occupation; (2) it establishes a training school; (3) a
professional association is formed; (4) representatives of the occupation agitate politically to win legal support
for the right to control their work; and (5) the professional association promulgates formal codes of ethics.
American sociologists, Johnstone, Slawski and Bowman (1976) concluded that journalism in the United States
could be considered a profession. According to these five stages of journalism becoming established and
accepted as a profession, it can be said that journalism has become a profession in China as well.
AN EXPLORATORY STUDY ON JOURNALISTIC PROFESSIONALISM 189
At an individual level, it is generally accepted that professional-orientated journalists should desire a job
that uses their professional skills and knowledge, that contributes an essential service, and that permits free
expression, but they should not place much emphasis on the salary, security, and prestige (McLeod & Hawley,
1964). Nayman (1973) synthesized four basic attributes of journalistic professionalism that are essential to a
profession: expertise, autonomy, commitment, and responsibility. Specifically, journalistic expertise means
specialized knowledge and skills for the profession; journalistic autonomy allows journalists to utilize their
judgment without outside interference; journalistic commitment indicates journalists devoting their lifetime to
the profession; and journalistic responsibility refers to journalists‟ fiduciary relationship to society (Nayman,
1973; Lo, 1995).
Definitely a rudimentary form of journalistic professionalism has been found to bud in China (Pan & Chan,
2003). According to Lu and Pan (2002), journalistic professionalism has become a key matter of concern for
Chinese journalists and educators. Yang (2013) even asserted that the Chinese media reform has been affected
not only by the ideological liberalization but also by the western concept of journalistic professionalism.
However, it is worth noting that the concept was academically introduced into Mainland China in the late 1990s
(Guo, 1999).
Even though there was a remarkable lack of consensus about journalistic professionalism (Beam, 1990;
Wu, 2009), Guo (1999) as a Chinese scholar outlined journalistic professionalism that incorporated two points:
objective journalism and the specific status and function of journalists. Li (2004) explained journalistic
professionalism as serving the public with accurate, comprehensive, objective and balanced information. More
importantly, the majority of the local Chinese scholars were interested in adapting this concept for the Chinese
context. For example in China, journalistic professionalism should be spread by reflecting the Chinese
Community Party‟s and the Chinese People‟s views and interests first and foremost (Hou & Zhao, 2003; Wu,
2006). However, there were also oppositions that journalistic professionalism could not be available in a
Chinese context because of journalism‟s lack of both journalistic freedom and public service motivation (Rui,
2010; 2012). Different opinions about journalistic professionalism proved that different journalistic ideologies
coexisted in contemporary China.
From the perspective of the phenomenological approach, professionalism is used and defined in everyday
life as members of an occupation in a specific social context (Freidson, 1994; Dingwall, 1976; Qian, 1998). The
approach rejects a strict and formal definition of a profession as an artifact (Freidson, 1994), but studies the
way members of an occupation put the term in everyday usage (Dingwall, 1976). Apparently, the
phenomenological approach is the least-formalized tradition and it is not an objectified, idealized description of
a social phenomenon (Beam, 1990). Therefore, though journalistic professionalism might become a point of
reference for China‟s journalists in which they view their craft (Pan et al., 2008), there can be different
perceptions on journalistic professionalism among working journalists as well as journalism educators in
China.
Chinese journalism education and research began in 1918 when the Institute of Journalism of Peking
University was founded. Journalism education in China has a history of nearly 100 years by far. Before the
foundation of the People‟s Republic of China in 1949, journalism education was influenced greatly by the
United States (Li, 2003; Liu, 2001; Ni, 2000). The Department of Journalism of Yenching University in Beijing
was funded by the American Christian church; the Department of Journalism of St. John University in
Shanghai was established by American professor F.L. Hawks Pott; Xu Baohuang, “the founder of Chinese
journalism education” at Peking University, graduated with degrees in journalism and economics from the
University of Michigan in the United States (Fang, 1998). It should be noted that journalism education in
universities established strong connections with the journalism industry, for example, Shao Piaoping—the chief
editor of Jing Pao—was employed as teaching staff at the Institute of Journalism of Peking University.
After 1949, Chinese journalism education began to copy the former Soviet model, emphasizing first the
correct political attitudes that the news media should be the propaganda tool of the communist party and
government (Li, 2003; Liu, 2001; Mao & Pan, 2014). The main courses included Marxist-Leninist theories,
newspaper‟s mass work, public propaganda (Ding, 1997) as well as the Soviet journalism history and theory (Li
& Liu, 2005). Despite experiencing several reforms later on, journalism education had been influenced strongly
by the former Soviet model (Li, 2003) and still kept the ideology of “throat and tongue” journalism (Liu, 2001).
Majority journalism schools were practice-oriented and based on journalistic skills training (Wu, 2002) and key
journalism courses were composed of three parts: journalism history, journalism theory, and journalism
practice (Zhang, 2011). Undoubtedly, journalism education has cultivated a large number of journalistic talents
and met the basic demands of journalism development in China, especially for the recent decades of the reform
and opening policy (Li, 2003).
Journalism education however, has faced a certain amount of criticism and required a fundamental reform,
especially in today‟s information era. Besides its over-expansion, in general, Chinese journalism education was
criticized for its shortage of teaching staff, lack of facilities, rigid curriculum system, and weaknesses of
internship (e.g., Gao, 2013; Liu, 2014; Zhang, 2010; Wu & Wang, 2012; Wang & Li, 2005; Wu & Ding, 2007).
More importantly, Zhang (2011) pointed out the problem that has existed for a long time in journalism
education which is a lack of journalistic professionalism.
Lu and Yu‟s survey (2003) of Shanghai journalists found that journalism education was valued much
lower among practicing journalists. Similarly, Wu and Ding‟s (2007) survey of journalists in the Zhejiang
province concluded that the journalists gave relatively negative evaluations to journalism education. Only
30.2% of respondents accepted that journalism education is necessary in order to become a professional
journalist.
To some extent, journalism research in China remains not only severely underdeveloped but also relatively
isolated from the global context as a “closed-off model” (Pan et al., 2008). Specific theoretical frameworks and
scientific methodology in relevant researches were often neglected. Also, there was a lacking of a specific
concern for journalism education from the perspective of journalistic professionalism. Hence, the perception of
journalistic journalism among Chinese journalists is still vague and the problem of journalism education from
the perspective of journalistic professionalism is not clear. Based on the review of literature, the study proposed
the following two research questions:
(1) What are the perceptions of journalistic professionalism among Chinese journalists and journalism
educators?
(2) What is the assessment of Chinese journalism education from the perspective of journalistic
professionalism?
Methodology
This study applied in-depth interviews to get a deep understanding of the respondents‟ perceptions on
journalistic professionalism and problems of contemporary Chinese journalism education in universities.
The qualitative interview was defined as an interview with the purpose of gathering descriptions of the
life-world of the respondents with respect to interpretation of the meaning of the described phenomena (Kvale,
1996). The advantage of an in-depth interview is that it can be conducted with “smaller samples,” but yield “the
wealth of details” and “more accurate responses on sensitive issues” (Wimmer & Dominick, 2000), in order to
“deeply explore the respondent‟s feelings and perspectives on a subject” (Guion et al., 2011).
In fact, the face-to-face interview has long been the dominant interview technique in qualitative research
in social sciences. In the past two decades, telephone interviewing has become more and more common
(Opdenakker, 2006). However, with advancements of new information and communications technologies, new
interviewing techniques were introduced to the field of qualitative research, for example, interview via email or
e-mail interviews, MSN messenger interviews, and chat boxes interviews (Bampton & Cowton, 2002;
Opdenakker, 2006).
Scope
Generally, journalistic professionalism can be expected to be more prominent among newspaper
journalists. Also, graduates with journalism degrees usually are expected to work for newspapers. Hence, the
interviewees of journalists for this study were purposefully chosen from daily newspapers.
There are many differences between various districts in China due to its large territory. For example, there
is a huge cultural discrepancy between northern and southern China, and there are huge economic gaps between
the east, the middle, and the west in the country. This has resulted in the fact that the journalism industry is
developing at different rates in different areas, and varies even in the same area (Guo, 2010). The journalism
industry and journalists are disproportionally concentrated in the most developed cities in the coastal provinces,
highlighted by Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou (Chen et al., 1998; Lin, 2010). In this study, Beijing, the
capital and the administrative, cultural and education center of China, was chosen to stand for China on the
whole to some degree.
There are four types of newspapers in China: party newspapers, metropolitan newspapers (including
evening newspapers), industry papers, and life-service newspapers. For this study, metropolitan
newspapers were more appropriate because these newspapers are circulated not through the administrative
system but through the local press market and show a relatively high level of commercialization of print media
in China.
Currently, Beijing has seven metropolitan newspapers owned by three different media groups. According
to their ownership and representative, three Metropolitan newspapers were purposefully chosen in Beijing.
They are Beijing Evening, Beijing Youth Daily, and the Beijing News. Beijing Evening, first published in 1958,
has the largest circulation in Beijing. It is also one of the four largest evening newspapers in China and the
oldest metropolitan newspaper. Beijing Youth Daily has the largest subscription in Beijing and is China‟s
second biggest newspaper group (after the Guangzhou Daily), which was first allowed to list its business
operations in Hong Kong‟s market in 2004 as “part of a broad set of reforms aimed at commercializing China‟s
media industry”. However, the Beijing News, first published in 2003, is the first Chinese newspaper co-founded
by media groups from different regions (Guangming Daily [Beijing) and Nanfang Daily Group [Guangzhou])
in China and China‟s first mainstream newspaper that adopted the shareholding system. The regulatory
authority of the Beijing News was changed in 2011 and is now being supervised by the Publicity Department of
the Beijing Municipal Committee.
In addition, Beijing consists of the largest number of universities, including the most well-known
universities in China such as Beijing University and Tsinghua University. For this study, based on the
reputation of journalism schools in Beijing, the researcher contacted two universities: Renmin University of
China (along the lines of the colleges of arts) and Tsinghua University (along the lines of the colleges of
science). The School of Journalism at Renmin University of China, formally established in 1985 on the basis of
the preceding Department of Journalism, has since developed into a nationally-acclaimed institution of teaching
and research in journalism (http://rjc.ruc.edu.cn/en/21487.html); while the School of Journalism and
Communication at Tsinghua University, founded in 2002, has already become one of the most prestigious top
five Journalism schools in China (http://www.tsjc.tsinghua.edu.cn/publish/jcen/346/index.html).
Subject
In order to collect reliable data during the interviews, the journalists were required to have at least two
years of professional experience and have different majors in universities. At best, half of those without
journalism degrees, and vice versa. Hence, the journalists selected were expected to have a reasonable
knowledge base with respect to the particular phenomena in terms of journalistic professionalism and
journalism education. As for journalism educators, they were required to have professional experience of
teaching journalism courses at relatively famous universities for more than 10 years, focusing on the topic of
journalistic professionalism. Hence, the journalism educators were expected to know more about journalism
education, journalistic professionalism as well as the local journalism industry.
There were eight respondents purposefully selected and interviewed for the study: six journalists and two
journalism educators. Specifically, two journalists from each newspaper, among whom there were five male
journalists and one female journalist. Five had university degrees, two of whom were pursuing their masters
degrees as part-time post-graduate students, and two having obtained their masters degrees previously. More
importantly, three were journalism graduates and three majored other subjects, such as economics, mechanics,
and the arts (film). It is worth noting that one of them had the experience of studying abroad in France as well.
The two journalism educators were from the School of Journalism and Communication, Tsinghua
University and the School of Journalism, Renmin University of China. They were both professors who earned
journalism Ph.D. degrees. In addition, one of them had the experience of studying abroad in Canada as a
visiting scholar.
Procedure
The interviews were conducted in October of 2013. The journalism educators were interviewed in their
school offices separately and the journalists were interviewed in their newsrooms except one in a café nearby.
The steps of in-depth interviewing were in a sequence that follows: Firstly, the journalists who had been
contacted through the acquaintances in advance, were contacted by telephone to make appointments for
face-to-face interviews; while the scholars were contacted directly by the researcher himself; secondly, the
purpose of the study and the interview guide were explained to the respondents before conducting interviews;
thirdly, the interviews were taped (with the respondents‟ agreements), and the time spent was ranking from 50
minutes to a little more than two hours; fourthly, all the respondents‟ contact information was collected (with
permission) to provide opportunities for further consultations at the end of the interview, along with a warm
thanks for their contribution to the study; finally, the interviews were transcribed as soon as possible. It should
be noted that there were two journalists interviewed in pair because the interviewees from the same
organizations asked to be interviewed together. All the transcripts were analyzed using the categorization
analyzing technique suggested by Kvale (1996).
Results
The results indicated that the journalists‟ and educators‟ perceptions of journalistic professionalism are
somewhat similar to the concept translated from the western countries, focusing on journalistic expertise,
commitment, and responsibility but eschewing journalistic autonomy. In addition, it was found that Chinese
journalism education could not meet the demands of the journalism industry due to its rigid journalism
knowledge without “professional” or practical ability.
Journalistic Professionalism
In the new media era, citizen journalism and digital platforms have debilitated journalism as a profession
(Waisbord, 2013; Witschge & Nygren, 2009; Kur & Essien, 2014). On the one hand, the notion that “everyone
could be a reporter” has come true: Through the Internet, anyone can be a “news reporter” via blogging,
tweeting, or simply by using Facebook. On the other hand, many news websites have actually allowed the
audience to respond, comment, and submit their own news in text, audio and video. This has caused the
existence of “boundary lines” between “insider and outsider,” “professional and non-professional,” “journalist
and blogger” within journalism to gradually be obscured (Schudson & Anderson, 2009). To some extent, this
fact has given rise to kind of an identity crisis for journalists worldwide.
The respondents all agreed that journalism is a profession, even in an era of “everyone could be a reporter”
and journalism practitioners should be professionals. They totally denied that anyone who is nearest to the
news-spot or is spending much more time there would be a journalist because the journalistic job is not as easy
as sending a message or a photo through social media. One journalist from Beijing Youth Daily explained the
clear difference between a citizen journalist and a professional journalist:
Journalism still needs a professionally-trained team: first, a journalist knows which facts to choose; second, he knows
how to present the facts; and third, he knows how to present the facts in an objective and fair style.
The perception of journalistic professionalism among the journalists focused on journalistic expertise,
commitment and responsibility. Specifically, they emphasized that a profession-oriented journalist should
master enough knowledge in a specific field and excellent communication skills, devoting to journalism and
regarding journalistic ethics as a bottom line. One journalist from Beijing Evening stated the ideal professional
journalists as such:
He has enough knowledge about a certain field and can have a clear understanding of relevant rules, issues, and the
people in the field, and he has his basic judgment. Also, he can present certain things with journalistic methods. To be
simple, he can understand clearly and can express clearly. Then he should be a professional journalist.
One journalist from the Beijing News gave an explanation to the “bottom line” of ethics, he said:
There is a rule. You can‟t abuse your “power”. For example, taking benefits from news resources or even
blackmailing someone [is unacceptable]. Also, you can‟t do paid coverage … this is the rule and you shouldn‟t touch this
bottom line. As a professional journalist, it is a must to keep it.
The journalists all agreed that journalists should be committed to journalism. Despite the fact that the
salary was not high, they all loved journalism. A journalist told a story that his wife often complained that he
could not accompany her even on her birthdays. Another one observed that many young journalists stayed
single because they devoted themselves to their jobs. One journalist from Beijing Youth Daily shared his
opinions:
…It‟s his (a journalist) choice to do journalism, at least, he should be interested in journalism and respect journalism.
This is very important. If he has no interests, only does typing words, it really has little significance…
Another journalist from Beijing Youth Daily stated the responsibility of a journalist is at a high level:
There is a motto in Southern Weekend [a famous weekly newspaper in China], “Understand China in the newspaper”.
I appreciate it. As a journalist, especially a political journalist, I think he can help the readers understand China in the rapid
social transformation; he helps the reader understand how to face the transformation. What is the transformation? What
does it mean? What is the responsibility of the government? What is the responsibility of a citizen? I think it is (political)
journalists‟ responsibility to present clearly. It isn‟t just a presentation of a piece of news.
However, nearly all the journalists mentioned less about journalistic autonomy, which is reiterated by an
educator as “the premise of journalistic professionalism”. Indeed, it is a written rule for the Party to control
news media in China. One journalism educator explained:
If journalism lacks autonomy, at least relative autonomy, it is a luxury to talk about journalistic professionalism.
Obviously, in contemporary China, it is impossible for the news media to be independent of the Party or the
government…so under the existing media system, it is available to only discuss about journalistic practice, focusing on the
techniques.
Obviously, journalistic professionalism is not just transplanted from one country to another, especially
countries with different political, economic, and social settings. Despite the fact that China usually shows its
own “Chinese characteristics”, one journalism educator expressed the vision optimistically:
Journalistic professionalism is a western concept and based on the premise of journalistic freedom. But China has a
different situation. You can‟t explain journalism in China by using only a journalistic professionalism perspective.
Nonetheless, (journalistic) professionalism can to some extent change the ideology of Chinese journalists. It functions kind
of “reconstructing and improving”.
Hence, the results answered the first research question with the respondents‟ understanding of journalistic
professionalism as well as its premise and possible future in China.
Journalism Education
Journalists or educators, with or without journalism degrees, nearly all disagreed that journalism education
could cultivate eligible talents to meet the industry‟s demands. Actually, several extreme cases emerged
recently that news organizations had recruited a batch of new staff without journalism certificates (Liu, 2001).
One journalist without a journalism degree from the Beijing News even claimed, “Looking at those who can do
journalism better, nearly none of them majored in journalism”. Another journalist without a journalism degree
from Beijing Youth Daily explained:
There is a voice from our society that journalism education at the university level, especially at a masters level, is not
that necessary. If a person likes writing, and thinks deeply, he can become a good journalist by practice. Of course, this is
somewhat extreme, but journalism education cannot meet the public expectation. It‟s a fact.
One journalism educator shared this point by saying:

For a journalist, it‟s absolutely important for a potential journalist to know about society and understand the society
well, to learn the skills to interview and communicate…there‟s no need [for all above] to get a higher certificate…if he has
a high-school diploma, then no problem, he can do the report because it‟s straightforward…journalists can also be trained
on the job, it‟s not that difficult.
Specifically, the three journalists with journalism degrees tended to show their disappointments on
journalism education. One from Beijing Youth Daily pointed out:
Based on my experience, I think undergraduates with other majors [without journalism degrees] would be more
appropriate to become journalists. This is because journalism requires a comprehensive quality. Whether you have
curiosity, insight, and a tenacious fighting spirit, it doesn‟t depend on your journalism certificate; and whether you can do
journalism professionally, it doesn‟t depend on your journalism certificate, either.
On the other hand, the three journalists without journalism degrees tended to show confidence in their
ability to do journalism well. They claimed “Accumulation of journalistic knowledge and practice is extremely
important” and “Techniques belong to journalism but the idea is beyond journalism”. One journalist without a
journalism degree shared his personal experience:
To be honest, I was ever feeling inferior because I didn‟t major in journalism. But after some time, I realized learning
is an acquired process. Also there is a training program in the newspaper organization. Understanding organizational
culture and its standards of value, I feel that I have made some progress gradually. I think I can do journalism well, even
better than others [who have journalism degrees]. Now I am a senior journalist, the organization has awarded me that title.
As to advantages of journalism graduates, the respondents acknowledged that journalism school students
can begin their work quickly at the first however. One educator emphasized that journalism education could,
theoretically, provide journalist students with “a set of (journalistic) professional principles and a set of
professional techniques”. In fact, as one journalist with an economics degree said, journalism students could put
themselves in the best place via the written test of recruitment provided by news organizations because the
journalism students know the 5W1H (who, when, where, what, why and how) for news writing.
However, when mentioning disadvantages of the journalism education, the standardized model was
criticized by the journalists, saying that the advantage at the beginning might become a big constraint later on.
One journalist with a journalism degree clarified:
…I majored in journalism, but I only understand some superficial rules about journalism. For example, feature is
longer than news. But there is something important beyond journalism education…journalism education has become a
fixed model and it constrains students in how to observe and present the world.
A journalist without a journalism degree stated further:

…when, where, who, you must introduce these facts first, then he said, she said and so on, to some extent, it has made
the writing style somehow dull, but journalistic job does need more creativity.
Besides, the journalists pointed out that there is actually no specific profession in journalism education
such as politics and economy. A journalist, based on her own experience, said, he could not get certain
knowledge in a particular field in his journalism major and on the contrary, techniques of interviewing and
news writing he got from journalism education can be learned quickly from journalistic practice. Another
journalist with a journalism degree shared his experience that he felt lucky that he got his second degree in law
by himself when he was studying at the university. More importantly, it can be very difficult to learn particular
knowledge deeply on the job. One journalist with a journalism degree gave more explanation:
If one (a journalist) studied journalism at a university, he might feel he knows everything, but his knowledge was
superficial, not deep. When he is working for a daily, the pace of life is increasing, he‟ll be busy pursuing news reporting,
and then he can‟t have time or a quiet attitude to learn more. This is a big problem. Of course it‟s much better he could
learn more when he was a (journalism) student.
Furthermore, the respondents thought that journalism graduates lacked practical ability that is important
for journalists. Generally, it can be credited to the gap between journalism education and journalism practice.
Just as one journalist pointed out, practical requirements are “much higher than (journalism) textbooks”. The
journalists with journalism degrees and educators listed a few key problems with journalism schools. For
example, many journalism educators lacked journalistic practice, who became a journalism teacher once he
received his master or Doctoral degree; journalism textbooks were also separated from journalistic practice,
which still provided cases which happened decades ago; journalism students lacked practical opportunities in
universities and through internships which often become formalistic.
The respondents did not agree on whether a journalist needs a higher degree, for example, a master‟s
degree. Four journalists and one educator objected strongly, while the other two journalists and educator
supported this idea. The supporting reasons were that if one person pursues a higher degree with the aim of
improving himself, then he can get more from the studying process. One journalism educator stated:
Usually, if one obtains a higher education and more knowledge, one would understand things more deeply and he
would be trained professionally more easily.
It should be noted that higher education in China has become popularized education since the late 1990s.
However, many young people wanted a higher degree with the aims not to improve themselves with knowledge
but to create opportunities of finding better jobs. In fact, one journalist respondent reported that there have been
fewer and fewer undergraduates but more and more graduates in the newspaper he was serving for.
Additionally, another journalist showed his worries about journalists who had higher degrees:
Maybe the higher degree one person has, the more idealistic he would be. His opinions might become extremely
contradictive to the reality. He thinks the world should be “white is white” and “black is black”. But the world is somewhat
grey, and we are living in this grey world…we know that only knowledge from textbooks is superficial. They would all
face this problem.
The two journalism educators did not agree on cultivating journalism students with regard to journalistic
professionalism, which reflected the arguments on journalism education worldwide. One insisted:
There seems to be no causal correlation between formal journalism education and journalistic professionalism. It
doesn‟t necessarily mean one has received journalism education or more education then he can have his level of
professionalism improved. You can only say he can get more knowledge about journalism history, journalism theory and
journalism practice.
The other showed his optimistic attitude, however, by saying:

Theoretically, if one journalist has received a higher education, he should get at least two kinds of advantages: one is
that his expressing ability would be improved, [on] presenting events or opinions; the other is he would understand the
concept of journalistic professionalism…But in the context of China, it might highlight the contradiction of attribute of
media (mouthpiece of the Party and government) and pursuit of journalistic professionalism.
Hence, the results provided adequate answers to the second research question as well. However, it should
be noted that the respondents focused on the existing journalism education in China and their opinions were
somewhat general and sweeping. To be optimistic, according to the educators, with the transformation of the
journalistic model and even the media system, journalism education can be expected to improve the level of
journalistic professionalism among journalists in China.
Discussion
The results indicated that both the Chinese journalists and journalism educators agreed that journalism
should be a profession even in an era of “everyone can be a reporter”, and journalism practitioners should be
professionals. They emphasized journalistic expertise, commitment, and responsibility as the core elements of
journalistic professionalism in their everyday usage. Specifically, they highlighted expert knowledge in a
particular field beyond journalism, excellent interpersonal communication skills, devoting oneself to the
profession, and regarding journalistic ethics as a bottom line. However, the Chinese journalists and educators
alike kept somewhat realistic attitudes and avoided discussing more about journalistic autonomy because of the
fact that there was a written rule for the governing party to rein in news media in the country. Nonetheless, it
could be concluded that the Chinese journalists and educators held somewhat similar perceptions with respect
to the concept translated from western counties.
The findings also indicated that the Chinese journalists and educators almost agreed that contemporary
journalism education was not that satisfying. They only acknowledged that journalism graduates might start
their work quickly at the onset. On the contrary, they pointed out that rigid journalism knowledge could limit
the creativity of graduates in their journalistic practice later on; additionally that there was no profession in
journalism education beyond surface skill-training; and journalism school graduates usually lacked practical
ability. Furthermore, they tended to disagree that journalists should pursue higher degrees. However, the
educators had different opinions on the function of journalism education in terms of journalistic
professionalism.
The implication of the study was that journalistic professionalism and professional journalism education in
China are still in the midst of professionalization of journalism. On the one hand, the spread of journalistic
professionalism would be more dependent on media systems in the country, and that the concept had been
adapted with “Chinese characteristics,” focusing on journalistic expertise, commitment, and responsibility, but
eschewing journalistic autonomy. On the other hand, most respondents agreed that Chinese journalism
education could not meet the demands of the journalism industry. To some extent, Chinese journalism was in
crisis and needed an urgent reform, professionally. However, journalism education reform would be a
systematic and complicated project due to a specific context.
The limitation of the study was the relatively narrow scope of only metropolitan newspapers in Beijing.
Besides, the study was limited to the low number of the respondents. Therefore, future researchers should carry
out relevant studies by applying more respondents within a broader scope, for example, a questionnaire
approach, in order to get abundant data and establish an agreement on the reform of improving Chinese
journalism education.
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doi: 10.17265/2160-6579/2016.04.003
D DAVID PUBLISHING
Psychological and Philosophical Readings of the Spectatorship

of Bollywood and Indian Tamil Film in Sri Lanka
Manoj Jinadasa
University of Kelaniya, Kelaniya, Sri Lanka

The objective of this study is to explore the psychic, moral, ethical and logical significances in the spectatorship of
Bollywood and Tamil film in the Sri Lanka. Bollywood and Tamil film has been taking a very popular cultural
performance in Sri Lanka. The original Indian spectatorship of these film traditions has been diverted by the
cultural and political psychology of Sri Lanka. Hence, this local orientation of the Indian cinema remains a quite
metamorphosis and deconstruction in its appreciation and screening in terms of the social, cultural and political
features that deeply-rooted in Sri Lankan history, culture and geographical limitations. For this study, several film
texts, which include typical Bollywood and Tamil film characteristic features were used and observed on how they
have been absorbed in the Sri Lankan cultural society. And on the other hand, some audience surveys specific to
different film appreciation contexts were conducted. They included urban slums, semi-rural Muslim societies, north
and east areas of Tamil villages, Colombo urban society, Tamil state areas and Kandyan Sinhala rural villages. In
the textual analysis of the film content, implicit psychological narrations and their social and aesthetic interpretations
were revealed in the analytical explanations. Using the audience surveys, many different opinions that can be
traditionally filtered in the screening and appreciation of these film traditions specific to their living cultural settings
were also identified. In conclusion, perception in Sinhala film has been considerably designed by the experience of
Bollywood and Tamil film spectatorship is deducted by this study. Hence, not only this social trend affected to the
appreciation of film in local general audience but also in all the facets of film production (script writing, shooting,
acting, dialoguing, music and choreography and screening) has also significantly being influenced by the
Bollywood and Tamil film. As a result of this evolution of local film culture, most recent trend in Sinhala film noir
is also being followed by the early subjective consequences of Bollywood and Tamil film culture in Sri Lanka.
Keywords: technical terms, psychological and philosophical reading, Bollywood and Tamil Film, film culture,
spectatorship
Introduction
Perception of a live visual medium can be interpreted differently in terms of variety of subjectivities. But,
Psychology and Philosophy have contributed many tools and techniques in the objective analysis of a particular
text (Rodowick, 2010; Persson, 2003; Buckland, 2004; Metz, 1974). In this context, Film Spectatorship is the
fact that takes much concern as Sri Lankan audience used to appreciate and enjoy Indian Hindi and Tamil film
with their cultural and regional milieu.
Manoj Jinadasa, MSSc, Senior Lecturer, Department of Mass Communication, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of
Kelaniya.
202 PSYCHOLOGICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL READINGS
Bollywood is one of the major popular cinema industry as well as narration depicting agendas of general
subjectivism of Indian politics and cultural economy. But, the appreciation and taste of the Bollywood film has
taking a global attention. One of the significant aspect for such overwhelming interest is the understanding of
the general emotions and morals of the secular behaviors of the human being.
Therefore, when it comes to the local audiences of Sri Lanka, association of Bollywood and Tamil films in
their appreciation, it takes some interesting traits and characteristics in the rural mass, urban and semi-urban
and remote rural places.
Basically, participatory observation and textual analysis as well as field survey were used to gather and
analysis the real social data associated with this phenomena.
Bollywood Film
India continues to be the largest film-producing country in the world with an annual output of over 700
films. A few years ago the figure was as high as 900. And nearly 90 percent of these films belong to what
critics term the popular cinema as opposed to the artistic cinema as exemplified in the works of such auteurs as
Satyajit Ray, MrinalSen and Adoor Gopalkrishnan. Popular cinema is still a dominant force in India providing
a useful site for the negotiation of cultural meaning and values and inviting the vast mass of movie-goers to
participate in the ongoing conversation of cultural modernities(Gunarathna & Dissanayaka, 2003, p. 202). The
popular cinema of India can be understood most productively within the discursive boundaries of cultural
modernity.
Ashis Nandy observes that popular cinema provides the vast mass of movie-goers with the cultural
categories with which to make sense of their lives. Popular cinema in India has to be understood in relation to
the dynamics of modernization as they impinge on the cultural consciousness of Indian people (Gunarathna &
Dissanayaka, 2003, p. 204).
From its inception Indian cinema drew upon the epics Ramayana and Mahabaratha, which were an
animating force of classical poetry, drama, artand sculpture. This influence can be explored in terms of
thematics, narrativity, ideology and communication (Gunarathna &and Dissanayaka, 2003, p. 205). Although,
as I shall indicate later, Indian cinema was hugely influenced by Hollywood, the art of narration with its endless
circularities, digressions and detours, and plots within plots remained characteristically Indian. In their
deployment of humor, music, dance, the structure of the narratives, the informing melodramatic imagination,
the folk dramas of India have clearly had a deep impact on the makers of popular commercial cinema
(Gunarathna & Dissanayaka, 2003, p. 208).
However, Hindi films, though comprising approximately 20 percent of total production, are the ones that
circulate nationally and internationally, dominate the discourse about Indian cinema, and are regarded as the
standard or archetype to follow or oppose. Outside India, the category ―popular Indian cinema‖ tends to denote
Hindi films produced in Bombay. The distinctive features of popular Hindi cinema—song and dance,
melodrama, lavish production values, emphasis upon stars and spectacle—are common to films made in the
southern Indian industries as well. Cinema in India encompasses a great deal more diversity and has a longer
history than the Bombay film industry. Even as a British colony, India was the third largest producer of films in
the world (Ganthi, 2004, p. 3).
The influence of Hollywood on the makers of popular cinema in India is both deep and pervasive. Indian
filmmakers were greatly impressed by Hollywood films and actors and actresses, and sought to adapt the codes
PSYCHOLOGICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL READINGS 203
and conventions of Hollywood cinema to suit local tastes, sensibilities and conventions. Indian film directors
found the technical resources that their Hollywood counterparts had at their disposal most attractive and sought
to imitate them and create an Indian world of magic and make believe (Gunarathna & Dissanayaka, 2003, p.
208).
Makers of popular films in India also sought to adopt pathways that differed significantly from some of
the conventions and preferred modalities of presentation valorized by Hollywood filmmakers. One of the
fundamental tenets of Hollywood filmmaking, for example, is the need to cover up the artifice, the
constructedness of firm articulations of narrative. All aspects of film production were perceived as being
ancillary to the projection of a realistic and psychologically convincing narrative. As a result, camera angles
were largely at eye level; lighting was unobtrusive; framing was aimed at focusing attention on the central
action of a given sequence; cuts were made at logical junctures in the unfolding of the narrative: these devices
served to foster an illusion of reality and to promote ready identification of audiences with characters appearing
on the screen (Gunarathna & Dissanayaka, 2003, p. 209).
During the past two decades with the growing exposure of Indian audiences to MTV disseminated through
national and international channels, Indian filmmakers have seen in it a rich resource for stylistic innovation.
The pace of the films, the quick cutting, newer forms of presenting dance sequences, and the camera angles that
one now sees in Indian films are a direct result of MTV. Mani Ratnam’s films or box-office hits like
SatyaorKuchKuchHotaHaibear testimony to this new trend. One reason for the mass appeal of cinema has
always been the clever mixture of entertainment and technology (Gunarathna & Dissanayaka, 2003, p. 210).
The work of Ashis Nandy is extremely important in this regard. He was one of the earliest among
contemporary intellectuals in India to recognize the importance of popular cinema as a window that opens onto
the wider culture. Nandy is a leading intellectual who has written illuminatingly on such topics as nationalism,
modernity, selfhood, science, development, and rationality (Gunarathna & Dissanayaka, 2003, p. 211).
At the same time we need to examine the various ingredients that go to form Indian popular cinema as a
way of assessing their aesthetic significance. Indian popular cinema is a total cinema that is guided by a poetics
of excess, in which narrative, spectacle, humor, action, song and dance combine in a loose union to present a
cinematic experience whose very constructedness is foregrounded (Gunarathna & Dissanayaka, 2003, p. 219).
Indian Tamil Film

The Tamil film industry begins about the same time as Hindi and Bengali cinema in the second decade of
the twentieth century. Although it is less known and acknowledged, it is rapidly emerging as a key player
within Indian cinema. To date however, relatively little has been written on Tamil cinema. Since its beginning
in the silent era, Tamil cinema has grown into a multimillion dollar industry. Located in the Chennai district of
Kodambakkam, Tamil Nadu’s cinema city, it produces 150-200 feature films annually. It is often referred to as
Kollywood, an amalgam of the words Kodambakkam and Hollywood. Tamil cinema has a long history
comparable to other Indian language cinemas. Describing the significance of cinema in Tamil society, Baskaran
(1996, p. ii) points out that ―over the seventy-nine years of its existence, Tamil cinema has grown to become
the most domineering influence in the cultural and political life in Tamil Nadu‖. It would be both impossible
and an injustice to outline the entire history of Tamil cinema in this brief introductory chapter. However, the
two well known Tamil film historians Theodore Baskaranand Randor Guy have written widely on this topic. In
Baskaran’s (1981, 1996) The Message Bearers: Nationalist Politics and the Entertainment Media in South
India 1880–1945 and The Eye of the Serpent: An Introduction to Tamil Cinema, and Guy’s (1997) Starlight
Starbright – Early Tamil Cinema, the only English publications available on the history of Tamil cinema, the
authors offer an excellent account of the arrival of cinema to the Madras Presidency at the turn of the twentieth
century; the early pioneers of the film industry who were instrumental in setting up production companies and
studios; biographies of directors, producers, and actors; and synopses of major films over the years. Though
there are other works on the history of Tamil cinema, these are mostly written in Tamil and have not been
translated into other languages (Velayutham, 2008, p. 2). Between the 1970s and the 1990s, Tamil cinema was
reinvigorated by the arrival of new and young talents as the stars of earlier decades faded away or entered
retirement. These three decades saw the entry of the second generation of actors like Kamal Hassan, Rajini
Kant, Vijaykanth, Saritha, Sri Devi and so forth in lead roles and major directors such as K. Balachander,
Bharatiraja, BaluMahendra, K. Bhagyaraj, T. Rajender and Mani Ratnam (Thoraval, 2000, pp. 318-343). A
popular genre that emerged during this period is what Sundar Kaali (2000, p. 170) terms Neo-nativity films that
were ―characterised by an ideological investment centred on the rurality of its plot-events and roles‖. Thus, the
rustic hero, the village and its social milieu became the preferred site for numerous films produced in this
period. Since the 1990s, with the liberalisation of the Indian economy and the rise of an Indian middle class,
Tamil cinema has shifted its orientation towards tapping into the sensibilities and taste cultures of this new film
audience. The representation of modernity, progress, affluence and global consumerism is its major
preoccupation (see Krishnan in this volume). For instance, the urban space and ―the city‖ now serve as the
primary backdrop for most films. Films are centred mainly on themes such as romance (teenagers, college
youths, and young adults); institutional and bureaucratic inadequacies (hospitals, the police and politicians
being the primary target); and the underworld (gangster flicks). In a sense, films are a lot more sensual, intense
and explosive in their visual form and this is coupled with a high turnover of new and young actors within the
film industry. In 2006, the Tamil film industry celebrated its 75th anniversary and it continues to flourish as a
reputable site of cinematic production in India (Velayutham, 2008, p. 2).
When Vasudewan (2010) write on the contemporary trend in Tamil Cinema applied in Sri Lanka reference
to Voice, Space, Form: The Symbolic and Territorial Itinerary of Mani Rathnam’s Roja (1992) he has made the
following criticism:
The linguistic tension between Tamilnadu and the Hindi-speaking northern states has varied in intensity.
At the turn of the 1990s, the importance of a distinct Tamil identity was complicated by the emergence of an
extremist and separatist movement from with—in the Tamil minority of neighbouring Sri Lanka. The ruling
Party of Tamilnadu at that time, the DMK, was supportive of the movement and averse to undertaking any
action against Sri Lankan Tamil separatists working out of Tamilnadu; and the Indian government, led by Rajiv
Gandhi, conciliated this sentiment. However, it was subsequently involved in a pact with the Sri Lankan
government by which an Indian Peace Keeping Force was deployed in an unsuccessful bid to mob the violence.
This alienated the Sri Lankan Tamil extremists from be Indian state and led to an extremist group assassinating
Rajiv Gandhi in 1990. Subsequent Tamil regimes have distanced themselves from Tamil extremism in Sri
Lanka.
It is widely acknowledged that ―Indian‖ cinema is not a homogeneous or singular entity and any attempt to
approach this cinema from a ―national‖ perspective is problematic (Rajadhyaksha & Willemen, 1994; see also
Devadas & Velayutham in this volume). Indian cinema as a text and form is multifarious but far too often
adheres to a predictable narrative and fairly standard genre conventions. In their book Indian Popular Cinema,
Gokulsing and Dissanayake (1998) point out that the ―Indian-ness‖ of Indian cinema can be best understood by
closely examining the genres and themes that are pervasive and unique to this industry (Pendakur, 2003).
There are several significant genres in Indian popular cinema and they include mythologicals, devotional,
historical, romance, stunt (action), social, family dramas and a combination of these. Indian films are mostly
melodramatic, have circular narratives, are formulaic, accompanied by music, song, and dance sequences, fight
scenes, exaggerated humour and are three hours long (Gokulsing & Dissanayake, 1998, pp. 23-33, 91-102).
These readily identifiable characteristics of Indian cinema—almost always from the vantage point of Hindi
films—indicate that there are certainly common elements that cut across all the Indian language cinemas
(Velayutham, 2008, p. 5).
Tamil cinema echoes a distinctly Tamil identity while Hindi cinema (Bollywood) is often regarded as
emphasising a pan-Indian identity. The tendencies of separatism and linguistic nationalism asserted by the
Tamils in South India are also a salient feature of the Tamil film industry (Velayutham, 2008, p. 7).
Indeed, Tamil cinema, like the other language cinemas of India, always tells a simple story with fanfare,
melodrama and predictability. It is deeply moralising, self-righteous, and parochial and upholds the social order;
it also seeks to entertain as well as maintain the dominant values of a Hindu Tamil society. But it often always
―only‖ speaks to a Tamil audience. Tamil cinema for a Tamil audience speaks volumes about being Tamil.
Where Bollywood nominally transcends such particularistic identities, depicting mostly generic characters, Tamil
cinema employs Tamil-Indian identities both as a matter of fact and strategically (Velayutham, 2008, p. 8).
Tamil cinema pervades every aspect of Tamil society and everyday life. As a form of popular culture, it
provides not only entertainment to the masses but also an array of existential and ontological points of
reference, from cultural identity to the production of norms, values and beliefs, and dissemination of dominant
values. In this sense, the subjects addressed by Tamil cinema say as much about Tamil society, its people and
culture as they do about Tamil films.
Much of Tamil cinema’s preoccupation has been in the generation of entrenched ideas of Tamil culture,
tradition and ethno-linguistic nationalism. Its primary audience are Tamils. With an estimated population of 64
million Tamils in Tamil Nadu alone, and movies dubbed or made in other Indian languages (frequently into
Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada and Hindi), it can be argued that the Tamil film industry is steadfastly committed
to the local Indian market. Outside India, the Tamil-speaking population numbers around 8 million. Unlike the
trends in Bollywood cinema since the late 1990s, where explicit connections are made to the Indian diaspora
(largely Hindi speaking), catering to their sensibilities and cultural consumption, Tamil cinema has yet to
discover the economic potential of its global audience. Tamil cinema remains very much a medium that caters
exclusively to the Tamil population in India. In particular, Tamil cinema is highly significant in the
reproduction of culture, tradition and identity in the context of the diaspora (Velayutham, 2008, p. 173).
Both Santosh Sivan’s The Terrorist (1999) and Mani Ratnam’s Kannathil Muthamittal (2002) changed the
representation of diasporic Tamil subjects. The Terrorist, a multi-award winning art film, was inspired by the
death of Rajiv Gandhi in 1992 by a suicide bomber. It is an emotive and psychologically intense story of a
pregnant, militant woman on a suicide mission, who has to choose between life and death. Although the film
does not name names or places, it is not difficult to surmise that the woman is a Sri Lankan Tamil Tiger soldier.
In Kannathil Muthamittal, another movie that uses the Sri Lankan ethnic conflict as its backdrop, a young Sri
Lankan Tamil girl, Amudha, is abandoned by her mother and adopted by an Indian Tamil couple. When the
news of her adoption is revealed, Amudha is eager to learn more about her biological parents. The rest of the
movie takes the audience to Sri Lanka, set against the backdrop of high tension and suicide bombs. Here were
two movies that highlighted for the first time some of the predicaments and impacts of the Sri Lankan conflict
on women and children. Moreover, they deal with a diasporic community that hardly gets a mention in cinema
(Velayutham, 2008, p. 175).
The population of the state of Tamil Nadu remains the single largest market for Tamil films. For these
audiences, films depicting diasporic Tamils appear to be less attractive. For them, Tamil cinema is about
Tamils for Tamils in India. Even the second largest Tamil community outside India residing in Sri Lanka, as we
have seen, is rarely represented in Tamil cinema (Velayutham, 2008, p. 178).
Nonetheless, it is worth noting that the Sri Lankan Tamil cinema and more recently emerging Malaysian
Tamil cinema have provided some interesting offerings. According to Jeyaraj (1999), Tamil cinema in Sri
Lanka has yet to grow beyond its nascent stage. One of the reasons for this, Jeyaraj argues, is that: Sri Lankan
Tamils have been a constructive component of Sinhala cinema right from its inception ... The pre-1983 period
saw a large number of Tamils become part and parcel of the Sinhala film industry as producers, directors,
cinematographers, music directors, sound directors, technicians and musicians. In fact, the owners of some of
the major studios and theatres were Tamils. But with the post-1983 developments in the island, the Tamil
presence in Sinhala cinema has become virtually non-existent (Velayutham, 2008, p. 180).
The Sinhala film industry largely financed and regulated by the Sri Lankan government has had variable
successes. With Sri Lankan Tamils relying exclusively on South Indian Tamil films and the flourishing Sinhala
film industry, the production of Tamil films in Sri Lanka was unviable as a business venture. The first Sri
Lankan Tamil movie was Samuthayam (1962) an adaptation of C. N. Annadurai’s Velaikkari. This however,
was shot on 16 mm film, and was produced and directed by a Sinhalese, Henry Chandrawansa. The first Sri
Lankan Tamil film in standard 35 mm was Thottakkari (1962). A film based on a plantation worker and
directed by M. P. S. Krishnakumar. Among some of the noteworthy Sri Lankan Tamil films are Kuthuvilakku,
Ponmaniand Vadakkattru. The first two dealt with the practice of dowry and the third with the tensions between
migratory and indigenous fishermen and was shot against the backdrop of Neduntheevu Island in the
north-west of Sri Lanka.
Sri Lankan Tamil Films

South Indian producer S. M. Nayagam played an important role in the development of the first Sri Lankan
film. In 1945, Nayagam founded a company named Chitrakala Movietone and constructed a studio in Madurai,
India for the purpose of making a Sinhala film. After considering several options, he decided to build the film
around the historical love story of Saliya and Asokamala and held a contest to find a suitable screenplay; the
winner was budding artist Shanthi Kumar. Due to disagreements however this project fell through and
Nayagam broke a deal with dramatist B. A. W. Jayamanne to film his popular play Kadawunu Poronduwa.
However, though that there is a growing film trend of historical Buddhist religious legends and stories in
local film production. Hindi Bollywood and Kollywood cinema has been a popular aspect of Sri Lankan
audience since the beginning of Indian film traditions. But, in the real audience the way how cinema has been
associated has made some interesting differences in almost every parts of the localities.
According to D.B.S Jayaraj (1999) in his paper Sri Lankan Tamil Cinema and the Search for a Distinct
Identity stress about an identical Sri Lankan Tamil film genre developed in the post-Independent period as a
result of co-existence of Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim ethnicities. As he says:
One of the positive aspects of the Sri Lankan Tamil film scene has been its ethnic diversity. The cruel ethnic divide
was not reflected here. Sinhalese, Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamils of Indian origin, Muslims—they have all been involved in its
development. Almost every film has reflected the ethnic diversity of the country—in the form of the cast, technicians and
musicians. In the context of cinema, Sri Lankan Tamils comprise indigenous Tamils, Tamils of recent Indian origin and
Tamil-speaking Muslims.
In that respect, the first Sri Lankan Tamil film was Samuthayam (Society), an adaptation of C.N.
Annadurai’s Velaikkari. This film, however, was in 16 mm and in technicolor. While the producer of the first
Sinhala film was a Tamil, the producer of the first Sri Lankan Tamil film was a Sinhalese, Henry
Chandrawansa. He was its director too. Samuthayam was initially planned as a 35-mm film but later the
producer reverted to 16 mm because of financial difficulties.
Tamil films have not been a vehicle of social and political change in Sri Lanka unlike in Tamil Nadu,
where all Chief Ministers from C.N. Annadurai, who came to power in 1967, have been involved in cinema at
some time or the other. It is noted that Indian Tamil cinema has had a limited Sri Lankan Tamil connection.
However, there has been a long line of Sri Lankan Tamils involved in Indian cinema in various capacities.
Two prominent persons among them, who are active at present, are award-winning
director-cum-cinematographer Balu Mahendra and producer-director V.C. Kuganathan.
Thirdly, several well-known personalities of Indian Tamil cinema have had some kind of connection with
Sri Lanka: M.G. Ramachandran was born at Madulkelle in Kandy; comedian Chandra Babu spent his early
years in Colombo as a student of St. Joseph’s College, Maradana; actress Sujatha, whose father taught in Sri
Lanka, spent her childhood in Galle; Radhika, daughter of M.R. Radha, also grew up in Wennappuwa from
where her mother hails.
Sri Lankan Tamils have been a constructive component of Sinhala cinema right from its inception. The
first Sinhala film, Kadawuna Poronduva, was produced by a Tamil, S.M. Nayagam. The pre-1983 period saw a
large number of Tamils become part and parcel of the Sinhala film industry as producers, directors,
cinematographers, music directors, sound directors, technicians and musicians. In fact, the owners of some of
the major studios and theatres were Tamils. But with the post-1983 developments in the island, the Tamil
presence in Sinhala cinema has become virtually non-existent.
The first Sri Lankan film in Tamil – as opposed to a Sri Lankan Tamil film—was named Kusumalatha,
which was screened on December 29, 1951. It was not a film made originally in Tamil; it was a Sinhala film,
Sangavunu Pilithura starring Eddie Jayamanne and Rukmani Devi, dubbed into Tamil. The voice-overs were
supplied by Indian Tamil artists. So, this movie cannot be considered to be an authentic Sri Lankan Tamil film.
Three Tamil movies, however, stand out as having reflected Sri Lankan Tamil life in a realistic manner.
They are Kuthuvilakku, Ponmani and Vadakkattru (North Wind).
However, as Jayaraj pointed out collapse of Sri Lankan Tamil Film was to mainly for three reasons:
(1) Open Economy paving the way for joint Indo-Sri Lankan productions. When prominent Indian stars
came to Sri Lanka and began shooting in familiar spots, the novelty of offering to filmgoers Sri Lankan locations
on screen was appropriated by these films. So, indigenous films lost a primary attraction.
(2) The second was the arrival of television and the video cassette. Indian Tamil movies could be now
viewed sitting in one’s drawing room. The state, on the other hand, did not encourage the local industry by
offering incentives. The adverse impact felt by Tamil films from Tamil Nadu and Sinhala films as a result of
television and the video cassette was felt even more acutely by Sri Lankan Tamil cinema.
(3) The third and most important factor that affected Sri Lankan Tamil cinema was the ethnic violence of
1983 and the continuing escalation of the conflict. Sri Lankan Tamil society itself was torn asunder and uprooted
by the ongoing conflict. This led to a moratorium on all meaningful cultural activity. Internal displacement and
migration to other places became the reality of life for Sri Lankan Tamils.
Nearly more than hundred productions of Sri Lankan Tamil cinema were made possible in the
post-independent period. Spectatorship for the Sri Lankan Sinhala and Tamil films was serially decreased by the
widely expansion of Indian Tamil films and Indian Hindi films.
Sri Lankan Film Spectatorship of Bollywood and Indian Tamil Films

Basically, almost all the parts of Sri Lanka, including rural, urban and semi-urban sectors have been
engulfed with the Indian popular cinema, But Tamil cinema has been limited only to a small number of audience
in comparison with the Hindi film audience. From the very beginning of the Indian popularcinema, Sri Lankan
film spectators have been attracted by the Indian musical and commercial film industries. After the open
economy, existing Sinhala film culture was undervalued by the foreign film industries. In this Indian Hindi Film
has been taking as a significant demand. Indian Hindi Film was instrumental in the origin and growing stage of
Sinhala Cinema along with its narration and art. Musical narration and the immense association of Indian oriental
music and Indian dancing were two major characteristics of the Indian cinema, which primarily affected towards
the local film industries of the Sinhala Film ordnance. This is well visible in the Kadaunuporonduwa, which is
the landmark of the Sinhala film history in 1945. Many Sinhala Film scripts and productions were influenced and
based on the Indian popular musical and theatrical film contents and narrations.
On the Contrary, when it comes to the Sri Lankan local Tamil film tradition, it was not in such an exposure
from Indian Tamil film in the early stages of the Sri Lankan Tamil film origin and Development. But the time past,
the character of the Sri Lankan Tamil film genre was being limited by many social and political changes that
deeply rooted in the local economic and political transformation associated with the western dominant influence
towards local industries. As a result of this, Sri Lankan Tamil film culture was replaced by the most and widely
circulated Indian Tamil Film industries.
In other words, Sinhala film culture was replaced by the widely popular and romantic Bollywood film. And
national Tamil film culture was also deserted by the Indian Tamil film. There are number of reasons for this
changing transformation in the local film spectatorship that fundamentally absorbed in to the film culture of Sri
Lanka in the recent decades mostly after the open economic change in 1978.
By the mid-80s, Indian Tamil film was produced in video film cassette and it circulated among every social
strata. In this, Indian Tamil film was widely appreciated up to the middle class of a variety of social strata
including rural mountains, urban, semi urban and some of the prestigious classes. This Indian Tamil films were
exceptionally popular by the extreme heroic and fighting stories and narrations.
Meanwhile, Indian Hindi film was also widely expanded among local middle class from 1960. However,
with the modern development of technological and artistic application of the American Hollywood film
industries, which was the base for the Bollywood, Hindi film copies were highly spread among each and every
social strata with out any limitation by the end of the 90s. In the early stages of the high expansion of Indian Hindi
film, it was made in Compact Dick (CD). And by the mid-2000, they were highly produced by the modern new
media technologies. DVD and Online Internet based film copies are two major social and audience centered
media that both Indian Tamil and Hindi film distributed among its fan.
On the Other hand, despite of the fact that Bollywood film has been much popular among rural and lower
middle class of the urban sectors via the media of CD, DVD, and TV contents, Some of the major film halls in
Colombo such as Bambalapitiya Majesties City Film hall, Liberty hall of the Kollupitiya and Savoy of
Wellawatta are reserved for the Bollywood films for spectators of the middle class of Colombo. These Colombo
audience are used to go for the first-hand Bollywood films in these respectable halls. And also these film halls
screen the most updated film simultaneously with the film screening of the Indian Film halls.
In addition, Bollywood films are telecasted in many Sri Lankan TV channels, there are another specific
television channels for Indian Hindi and Tamil films. For example VarnamTV (Earlier VettriTV) is fully devoted
to telecast Indian Tamil films. Many Television spectators have been used to watch TV for Indian popular Hindi
and Tamil films.
Recent Sinhala commercial film productions such as Sikuruhate, King Hanthar, Ko Mark No mark are
highly influenced by the genre of Indian Commercial film. But these Sinhala film productions are not rich like the
Indian Commercial films as they are limited by the local technology and the use of film techniques with the
modern film art.
However, though Sinhala film has not been developed to a slandered level of Bollywood, Sinhala film has
been exposed by the Indian popular film industry from the inception of local film tradition up to modern
commercial and certain classical film productions. One of the recently interesting landmark in the Sinhala film is
the use of indian actors and actresses for the local films. For example, one Indian bolllywood actress was invited
to act for the character of Paba of the film of KusaPaba. And another film Siddhartha was much popular as the
main character, who is Siddhartha was played by a new Indian Nepalease young handsome male and for the
character of Dewadaththa, who is the chief opponent of the story of the Siddartha was played by a popular TV
reality actor in India.
And also another significant aspect of the association of Bollywood in the Sri Lankan Film culture is the use
of local location for Indian Bollywood excellent productions. For example some of the acts of Water and Mid
Night Children of Deepa Mehtha were shoot in the Sri Lankan locations with some of the local actors and
supporters.
Some Bollywood films were produced based on the Sri Lankan North Eastern LTTE problem. For example
some of the local incidents and stories were narrated in the recently made films of Madras Café, and Chennai
Express. Both these two films were stunned by the involvement for their main characters by two Indian Stars;
John Ebraham in Madras Café and Shah Rukh Kahn in Chennai Express.
In comparison, more or less Indian popular Hindi and Tamil films were basically instrumental in the
inception and develop of the Sinhala film industry and film art than the European and Hollywood film sectors and
industries. Film producers, Actors have been taking their experiences and training in India and Film studios were
also in India in the origin of Sinhala Film. Indian popular actors and actress were the role model for Sri Lankan
film industries form the origin up to modern time’s local film productions except some 21st century experimental
film production made by recent local film producers. For example, Ashoka Hadagama, Vimukthi Jayasundara,
Prasanna Vitanage, Prasanna Jayakodi are some of the modern Sri Lankan experimental film directors exceeding
from traditional Indian film traditions.
Albeit more audiences are interested in both Hindi and Tamil films, Teens and youth people are
highly engaged in the Indian popular Hindi films, But in the Tamil films it shows a relative minimal audience
attraction.
Sri Lankan young generation have been long attracted by the Indian popular films. This can be discussed in
a broad perspective:
First, as Indian Hindi films focuses on the worldliness and secularism in a very sensational and romantic
way, film story and narration is produced by regional local concepts of heroism and conflict of a binary
opposition in proponent and opponent. This is one of the significant aspect that Indian Hindi film and Tamil film
receive much spectatorship among Sri Lankan audience.
Second, use of Indian oriental music and variety of dancing forms in the formation and establishment of
Indian film genre is also significant for the much popular audience towards the Bollywood and Tamil films.
Third, the regional culture and society is much concentrated in the script and direction of the film text
reasons for the long lasted audience towards Indian popular film and particularly for the Indian Tamil films.
Forth, historical and cultural proximity is the fact that Sri Lankan spectator takes a broad affection with
Indian cinema. Communication systems and their styles, cooperation in social dialogues, ethnicity and social
harmony are some of the salient aspects of this bondage.
Fifth, Creativity and the fashionable use of performance in choreography and musical soundness that makes
a nice blending of classical and folk traditions has been one of the serious effect on growing attraction on the
Indian Bollywood film and Tamil film.
And the final point is the timely updating on the technological and scientific development of the material use
in the film production and complete direction. Young generation and all the other strata of the society see a
difference and social change in the use of newly developed narration and editing systems in the Indian Bollywood
films and Tamil films.
Conclusions
This study concludes that Indian Bollywood and Tamil film has made a strong audience and spectatorship in
Sri Lanka for fundamentally its cultural and historical relations with the Sri Lankan Mass consciousness and
psychology. Narration and cinematic formation of the Bollywood film has affected towards the immense
audience and spectatorship. Despite of the fact that differences between Tamil and Hindi film genres, they both
contributed to develop the film culture and aesthetic appreciation in the local cinematic societies.
Though Sri Lankan Sinhala and Tamil film tradition remains a specific and local cultural disposition,
from the origin and expansion of the Sri Lankan film production, creation and its technical aspect of
creative development and also the public spectatorship have been largely affected by the Indian Commercial film
genre.
The fact that the Indian Tamil Film noir, which is full of the devastation cultural nature of the south Indian
politics and crime has been a significant psychological reason to get a much attention from the teen and youth
generation towards Tamil films. But the Sri Lankan Tamil film, which had hold a substantial difference from
Indian Tamil was much concentrated and focused on the local Sri Lankan Cultural creations and behavior. Sri
Lankan Tamil Film drew the attention on the significance of the harmony of local ethnicities and the breath and
wealth of the diversity of a variety of cultures of Sinhala Buddhist, Tamil Hindu and Islam Muslim. However, as
a result of the ill effects of Open Economy from 1978, and the high cinemaorder from the foreign film Industries
barred the development of a local Sri Lankan Tamil film genre. On the other hand, this economic and social
openness made the possibility to circulate and draw much popular towards Indian Bollywood and Indian Tamil
film among local audience.
On the contrary, while Bollywood and Indian Tamil film has made a significant popular and circulation
among Sri Lankan teen and youth generations, contemporary experimental film production of the modern times
from mid 90s have been severely abandoned by the teen and youth audiences. Hence, modern teen and youth
audience are heavily hallucinated and opiated by the romantic relationships and dreamy world that deeply
narrated in the Indian commercial and political film.
Although there was a solid relationship and inspiration with Indian Hindi and Tamil film on the Sri
Lankan Sinhala and Tamil films in their origin and development, at present in the contemporary experimental
Sinhala film production have no further nurturing substantially from Bollywood and Indian Tamil. On the
one hand present film productions have taking much nourishment from European film genres, on the other
hand there is an emerging trend of the local historical and Buddhist religious film tradition. For example
Abha, Mahindagamanaya, SiriDaladaGamanaya, SiriParakum, SriSiddarthaGauthama, AlokoUdapadhi are
some of them, which have not taking much exposure from modern Bollywood and Tamil films as the previous
times.
In this juncture, Indian Hindi and Tamil film, on the one hand make a sound circulation among its interested
spectators covering each and every social strata, and on the other hand these film traditions make a persistent
psychological power for eradicating practical social and political challenges that deeply rooted in the south Asian
developing societies. This has been more realistic as these film cultures produce a highly mythical and unrealistic
fantasy amidst increasing economic and political failures in the target societies of Indian Hindi and Tamil films.
This contradictory has made a another third social mind that lead to forget the real world social, economic and
political issues of the lives of the poverty embedded, media illiterated spectators. Instead of developing the social
literacy through the art and appreciation of cinema in the south Asian region, particularly Indian cinema has made
a concrete myth and hallucination among its spectators through the commercial and musical application in the
fantasy forms of cinema narration. This situation has been much negatively affected among Sri Lankan spectators
as their literacy of cinema and media has been comparatively minimal with the language literacy, So that the
Indian Hindi and Tamil film has made a significant popular and attraction in the local spectators in almost all the
social strata in the Sri Lanka.
This substantial influence of the Indian cinema has created the modern religious, historical and dreamy
Sinhala film series, which is significantly affected to low the standard and quality of the art and appreciation of
the local film spectators. However, on one hand after the decade of 90s modern youth experimental film
producers create new philosophical reading with the use of local social and cultural issues in their new cinema
using European film styles and narrations, on the other hand, some people invest for religious and historical film
productions focused on the Indian film audiences for the maximum economic advantages. Hence, this widely
popular local religious and historical film directly target on the spectators of Indian Hindi and Tamil film, who
have long been practiced the very fantastic and dreamy world that can be enjoyable in the emotional and
subjective feelings of the inner mind. In other words, this local Sinhala religious and historical film production
replaced the mass mind and mass consciousness of the tamed Sri Lankan audience of the Indian Hindi and Tamil
film for long time.
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D DAVID PUBLISHING
Ethics of Information Technologies in Knowledge Society
Jacob Dahl Rendtorff

Roskilde University, Roskilde, Denmark
How should we define the ethics of information technology? It is not a new field of study in the sense that it
requires an entirely new ethical thinking. Rather, it is a field where we can try to use our traditional philosophical
notions and apply them to this field of computer technology, information science, and knowledge society in order to
define responsibility and accountability. Although relations of causalities may be blurred and complex because of
the auto-poetic development of computers and information systems we may still have to face the fact that human
beings are fundamentally responsible behind the responsibilities of the computers. So we can say that the concept
of reliability and accountability is related to human responsibility in the field of Internet technology. Indeed, issues
of hacking, viruses and intervention in computers also pose the problems of responsibility and violation of property
and copyrights and here we face similar issues as when we talk about physical property rights although what
happens is going on in cyberspace. Also we face fundamental problems about transparency, power and democracy
of society as the result of the information revolution in knowledge. This shows how it becomes more and more
difficult for governments and organizations to hide information and that information is becoming more and more
public. We can also talk about the present development as a technology-driven information revolution in
knowledge society. The information overload is a result of this revolution that is expressed in the Internet and that
changes the relation of human beings to society where human beings need to access information technology and
tools in order to be able to live and work in society.
Keywords: ethics, information technologies, communication, knowlegde, society, social responsibility, business
ethics
Introduction
In this paper the author will present the major ethical issues that we experience on the Internet. Here we
can say that information technology ethics or computer ethics is a development of ethical theory that also
involve social ethics, political ethics and business ethics. We can distinguish between what is right and wrong
in itself and what is legally permitted and what is ethically sound but not legally permitted.
The ethics of information technology relates to fundamental issues of society and this is indicated by what
Richard de George calls fundamental themes of information technologies. He distinguishes between: “The
myth of amoral computing and information technology”, “The lure of the technological imperative”, the
“Danger of the hidden superstructure”, and the “acceptance of technological inertia” (De George, 2003). These
themes relate to the fact that we have to deal with the ethics of information technology and also that we have
the possibility to handle these issues and present important solutions to the problems of the ethics of
information technologies. So we can say that the concept of reliability and accountability is related to human
Jacob Dahl Rendtorff, Ph.D., Senior Associate Professor, Department of Social Sciences and Business, Roskilde University.
214 ETHICS OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES IN KNOWLEDGE SOCIETY
responsibility in the field of Internet technology. Indeed, issues of hacking, viruses and intervention in
computers also poses problems of responsibility and violation of property and copyrights and here we face
similar issues as when we talk about physical property rights although what happens is going on in cyberspace.
Ethical Theories and Principles

When we talk about ethical theory and ethical principles we can focus on the link between Internet
technology, information technology and the economic market. Accordingly, we can propose ethical theory and
principles as related to a modern Internet economy where information technology becomes the center of the
Internet economy (Rendtorff & Kemp, 2000; Kemp, Rendtorff, & Mattsson, 2000; Rendtorff, 2009, 2014a,
2014b, 2015).
The most important ethical principles that should be respected to foster the good life of the customer, we
argue, are the four ethical principles of autonomy, dignity, integrity and vulnerability as the basis for fair
treatment of stakeholders. These principles can be applied with great success to understand the ethical concerns
of Internet, as the author have proposed elsewhere together with Peter Kemp (Rendtorff & Kemp, 2000;
Rendtorff, 2009) autonomy is an ideal of self-determination and self-legislation. Dignity should not be reduced
to autonomy and refers to basic principles of human rights. Integrity accounts for the inviolability of the human
being. Although originally a virtue of uncorrupted character, expressing uprightness, honesty and good
intentions, it has, like dignity, been universalized as a quality of the person as such. Vulnerability concerns
integrity as a basic principle for respect for and protection of human and non-human life. It expresses the
condition of all life as able to be hurt, wounded and killed. The idea of the protection of vulnerability can
therefore create a bridge between moral strangers in a pluralistic society, and respect for vulnerability should be
essential to strategic decisions in corporations and policy making in the modern welfare state.
The Ethical Challenge of the Internet

The Problem of Searching on the Web
The Internet is a new type of technological creation that expresses the essence of technology. The Internet
is not a technology that is useful for a particular purpose (Dreyfus, 2001). It is a technology that is the
culmination of the idea of technology as making everything as flexible as it is possible: The Internet is the
perfect technology that gives us access to every other kind of technology. What characterizes the Internet
technology is the lack of bodily engagement and the fact that Internet users transcend their bodily relations to
the world. They live in the electronic world that is nowhere and not where our bodies are. Cyberspace is a place
of knowledge beyond the human body that we research in order to get knowledge. Like real Platonians we
leave our physical world and enter into the world of ideas. When we enter into cyberspace we realize the vision
of Plato and Socrates that we die in our bodies and enter into the space of ideas (Dreyfus, 2001, 2004; Mattéi,
2013). In contrast to this Nietzsche argues that human beings are bodily beings and the Platonic vision of the
world is bound to fail, because we become sub-humans that have no relation to our bodily intuitions when we
leave our local, vulnerable, situated, bodily self and enter into cyberspace.
When we talk about the ethical challenge of the Internet we can formulate it as the challenge of perfect
information and artificial intelligence and we can include the problem of the loss of our bodily relation with the
world (Dreyfus, 2001, 2004; Mattéi, 2013). There is an element of absence in the presence of information
technology. The body is the source of our feeling of being in touch with reality (Dreyfus, 2001, 2004; Mattéi,
ETHICS OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES IN KNOWLEDGE SOCIETY 215
2013). With the constant engagement with the Internet we lose our connection with the reality of things and
human beings. Since the meaningful life presupposes real duty and devotion and real risk the anonymity and
security of the Internet lead us to a life without meaning.
Information is organized by the help of hyperlink (Dreyfus, 2001). The relation between class and
elements is no longer the organizing principle but rather mutual relations between different elements.
Hyperlinks make a connection between each data place. Having database with hyperlinks the author can go
across a large number of information and jump between different kinds of information.
It becomes difficult to use the concepts of data retrieval for information retrieval in a deep sense. Data
retrieval searches for specific data based on names or numbers while information retrieval goes much deeper
(Dreyfus, 2001, 2004; Mattéi, 2013). Data retrieval is a direct search for a specific answer with correctness as
criteria of success while information retrieval is a search for knowledge about a specific topic and meaning and
use of this topic and here the extension of the about of available information is a problem because the author do
not have the time to search all this information.
There is a fallacy of abundance, as suggested by Hubert Dreyfus, is that we have to face when we make a
search on the Internet. That is the problem that the fact that we may find good documents on the Internet we
think that the Internet works very well, but what about all the documents and information that is not revealed to
us (Dreyfus, 2001). In earlier search machines the revealed documents were listed according to the relation
between words and documents, but researcher state that this gives only 10% probability that the real useful
documents will be revealed (Dreyfus, 2001).
The danger is that it is difficult to find documents with real relevance in cyberspace. The relevance of
documents disappears because we do not have real human beings to evaluate the relevance of specific
documents. In our real world life is organized for us as bodily incarnated active human beings and not of
computers that are not bodily incarnated beings. Human beings that leave their bodily understanding will have
much more difficulties using web crawlers to get information (Dreyfus, 2001, 2004; Mattéi, 2013).
The Challenge of Distant Learning
With the increased focus on distant learning on the Internet in our times we can say that we have reached a
situation of hyper-learning where everybody can come to learn about everything everywhere. In schools and
universities we experience a lot of focus on e-learning as a new method of learning in our times (Dreyfus,
2001). We also have many Internet systems developed at schools in order to connect teachers with the parents
and the pupils in the schools. There is however, a problem with e-learning, it is not enough to give pure facts to
pupils they also need to learn the meaning and the context of application of what they learn, so it is difficult to
make initial stages of a learning process fundamentally based on e-learning. So we cannot have distant learning
without human presence. Maybe tele-presence can solve the problem but it is still important to remember the
importance of bodily incarnation for learning of practical wisdom.
Un-bodily Tele-presence and Distant Reality
The idea is that the social network creates a new form of human interdependence and relation that goes
beyond the present social relations. We have experienced that the Internet is everywhere. And we will see that
the Internet appears as an invisible ocean where everybody swims and that we cannot live without (Dreyfus,
2001, 2004; Mattéi, 2013). The metaphor of the network expresses how the Internet makes everybody
connected in a new and important way. The problem is how does this affect our concept of reality and our
relation to the outer space and what do we lose when we only relate to each other by the means of technology?
We experience the world as a distant spectator in this context. However, there is a problem because if an
experience of reality in order to be real needs to have the aspect of engaged action then the experience of the
world of the Internet is not real in the sense of bodily engaged phenomenology. It is rather the same experience
as someone who experiences the world as the captain of a spaceship or as the experience that we have of the
world in interactive robot control. With interactive robot control we have immediate contact with reality. Here
we are in immediate contact with the things that we manipulate.
Merleau-Ponty argues that human beings have a need to have a fundamental grip of the world so that we
feel that we experience things in their unity so that we have visibility and unity and encounter with the world
where I exist in the unity with the world (Dreyfus, 2001). Interaction between human beings and machines
would according to this point of view never be the same as the interaction between human beings with the close
bodily encounter. Human bodily presence in the perspective of phenomenology remains a primordial relation
that cannot be replaced by the relation between human beings with the mediation of machines that is proposed
by cyberspace.
Nihilism and Information Highway: Anonymity and Engagement in Cyberspace
The Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard said that modern times were characterized by a distant
reflection and curiosity where everything was annihilated and where nothing had real importance (Dreyfus,
2001, 2004). Nietzsche called the spirit of modern time’s nihilism. Kierkegaard was very critical in front of the
press that he considered made the genuine relation to Christianity impossible. Why? (Dreyfus, 2001, 2004).
Kierkegaard criticized the audience or the spectator of the modern democracy and the reader of the press by the
fact that they were passive. They had not a real engagement. It was an audience that was passively participating
in the activities of society and therefore they were not to be considered as congregation, a society, a corporation
or a community rather they were isolated elements of mass-society. Kierkegaard saw the press as the
demoralization of human beings because everything could be criticized endlessly and therefore nobody would
act (Dreyfus, 2001, 2004).
The problem for Kierkegaard is that there is no deep relation to the world left. What people then do is that
they engage aesthetically in the world. He calls this the aesthetical sphere of existence where the life of surfing
on the net has become a life-form for the net-surfer. The net-surfer is always looking for interesting sites at the
net, but this happens in a cool and detached way. The net-surfer is always ready to go on to another website that
seems to be more interesting. Life has become a life of being an anonymous spectator at distance without any
engagement in the world that the individual encounters on the Internet (Dreyfus, 2001, 2004).
In this sense we can say that the net-surfer experiences a change of identity at the Internet. What happens
is a change of identity where we experience ourselves as floating, emergent, decentralized, polycentric, flexible and
always in movement. We can say that the Internet is an experiment of construction of the post-modern subject.
This is for example the case what happens when we see the construction of human subjectivity in
chat-rooms and in the social Medias of face book, u-tube and twitter. Here we see the construction of human
beings with many faces and identities and identity is constructed by the self-exposure on the website with small
details from daily life. We experience exposure society on the Internet with the emergence of exposure as
important for the construction of individuality. We can say that the web is a producer of an idea of an authentic
individuality that goes beyond the individuality of the bodily life of the self (Dreyfus, 2001, 2004).
However, according to the existentialist philosophy of Kierkegaard this exposure of the self on the Internet
remains an inauthentic form of existence, because there is no deepness of the self. Kierkegaard argues that the
aesthetic form of existence remains a form of existence that is inauthentic and impossible to live. It is
impossible to make a distinction between what is trivial and what is important so this kind of life would lead to
despair for the one who searches a meaning in the life on cyberspace. The life of the cyberspace surfer would
lead to a life of inauthentic anonymity and lack of engagement and this would ultimately lead to despair
according to Kierkegaard.
At another level Kierkegaard speaks about the ethical form of existence. At this level the self has a stable
identity and the self engages in action. Information is not used for play and surf but for serious purposes
(Dreyfus, 2001, 2004). At this level the collection of information can have a serious purpose when it is not an
end in itself. We would according to Kierkegaard argue that the use of the Internet for many good purposes, e.g.,
interests groups, political groups, groups wanting to save the world etc. would contribute to give the Internet
important purposes for human lives. Accordingly, one has to use the Internet in a way that gives life importance
and engages the individual for this importance. It is the choice between good and evil on the Internet that makes
the individual capable of engaging in meaningful activities by using the Internet. According to Kierkegaard
ethical action is determined by decision of an ethical choice and this is important for engagement.
However, it is not enough to choose ethically. Kierkegaard argues that we have to go beyond the ethical
state towards an unconditional obligation or demand that moves us from the ethical towards the religious sphere
of existence. At this state we go beyond the hyper-flexibility of the aesthetical state and the unbound freedom at
the ethical state towards the feeling of obligation and commitment to fundamental values and it is this
fundamental commitment that can save us from nihilism and the aesthetic attitude in relation to the World Wide
Web.
Facebook, Cyberspace and the Meaning of Life
A very good example of our existential problems of the Internet following the thoughts of Kierkegaard is
the development of face-book as an example of how human existence is changing with World Wide Web is the
emergence of facebook as the place of human self-fulfillment. The problem is whether facebook is a new figure
of ideality, belief and reason like rational systems of reason or religion or whether the exploitation of
knowledge at facebook reminds us about our finitude and our limits? In fact, it seems like facebook becomes
real life where we want to present us in an ideal Platonic sense, far from our bodily reality. But here we see the
problem of the Internet.
Maybe we experience the limits of our existence with facebook where we have to face that human beings
are not created to capture and navigate in all that information that is provided by digital media. In fact facebook
reminds us about our finitude. We are finite human beings that meet our own limits at facebook. We experience
a strong challenge to our finite existence when we face the infinite at facebook. But facing the infinite at
facebook, the question becomes a challenge to our finite existence and we face the limits of our existence as a
digital human being. Accordingly, We are in danger in loosing ourselves. We think that facebook provides us
with perfection without our active intervention, but there is no meaning in facebook. It is a way for us to
capture eternity through our infinite exposure, but we forget that life is in our finite existence outside the many
“likes” at facebook. But this is an idealization of our bodily corporeal existence, where authenticity, as
suggested by Sartre is “not to be what you are, and to be what you are not”.
Ethical Issues of Information Technologies

What are then the concrete ethical issues that we face when we deal with the Internet? What is an ethical
relation to cyberspace? How can we become conscious and responsible users of Internet technology without
losing ourselves? Have we already moved from aesthetics to ethics with all the possibilities of cyberspace 2.0,
i.e., social media and new possibilities of networking and communication? Or are we moving more quickly
towards the nihilism of aesthetical relations of cyberspace! We need to develop ethical principles for dealing
with information technologies. At least we are confronted with the need for more ethical decision making! Here
we can mention the following subfields when it comes to ethical problems on the Internet:
Marketing, Privacy and Protection of Personal Information
In the digital network society the problem of protection of privacy is becoming more urgent. In marketing
for example, collection of information about customers is very important in order to understand the wants and
needs of consumers (Rendtorff, 2009). This makes it easier to respond to the preferences, shopping and buying
behavior of customers. This issue is to which extent will imply a violation of privacy and to which degree
corporations are required to protect privacy of customers and consumers. So discussion of privacy is one of the
most important challenges that we are confronted with when we deal with business and information technology.
It relates to the way we understand our conception of human beings in the modern digital world.
The right to privacy is justified by reference to the protection of the human person and to the protection of
basic ethical principles in relation to the human person, e.g., the protection of the autonomy, dignity, integrity
and vulnerability of the human person (Rendtorff, 2009). We can say that privacy constitutes a personal sphere
around the human person that needs to be protected.
So in general we can say that information technology due to the many possibilities of revealing, collecting
and storing information pose new challenges to the concept of privacy. In the information age there has been a
change of the concept of privacy which is challenged by the many developments of modern society.
We can say that the ethical principles of protection of autonomy, dignity, integrity and vulnerability of
human beings constitute a concept by which we can make an interpretation and definition of the concept of
privacy in relation to employees and communication privacy.
Employees and Communication Privacy
One major issue is the rights of employees to communication privacy and the question whether a
corporation has to intervene in the activities of the employee with surveillance of their activities on the Internet
(De George, 2003). The question is the question of the rights and limits of surveillance of the Internet activities
of employees by the corporation. Here we can mention privacy and surveillance issues in relation to both e-mail
communications on the Internet by employees and surveillance of employees in relation to the Internet. The
other issue is the right to surveillance of employee use of the Internet and whether the corporation has the right
to intervene in this context. Furthermore, there is an issue of the corporation’s right to keep records about the
employees and their activities on the Internet and more generally the rights of organizations to intervene in
employee privacy by keeping records.
New, Old and Intellectual Property
We can further mention issues of different kinds of property on the Internet. As we know the Internet
challenge different kinds of property conceptions and we have to face the discussions about the scope and
limits of property rights on the Internet. In this context we can see how the possibility of uploading,
downloading and putting different kinds of material, i.e., music, books, films software programs for download
and upload constitutes important problems of copyright. Here, the tradition of copy-left see the possibility of
new kinds of sharing of material while many corporations, i.e., from the music and film industry consider these
issues as issues that challenge the possibility of earning money of film-makers, music players, writers etc. The
discussion about pirating and down-loading of information technology material in developing countries
represent an important example of this kind of challenges of piracy.
Ethical Issues on the Internet
What kind of ethical issues can we generally mention in relation to the Internet? We have already
mentioned the problem of weak-leak and how this problem challenges our conception of democracy. But we
can mention further issues of governance and control of the Internet. Who has really the right to govern the
Internet? States? The international community? And what about issues of censorship on the internet? (De
George, 2003). Here, we can mention the conceptions of protection of domain names and the problems of
security and encryption of the Internet and security matters relating to banking and other businesses on the
Internet. There are also issues of anonymity and secrecy and the problem of spamming and fake messages that
includes potential fraud. Furthermore we can mention all the problems of the limits of censorship in relation to
the Internet, for example in connection with children’s access to pornography.
Information Technology and Society: Business, the Digital Divide and the Changing Nature of Work
There is furthermore a problem of the general impact of information technology on society (De George,
2003). What are the risks for society as a whole with so much dependency on computers and Internet
technology and how do we deal with this risk? Furthermore, there is the issue of the possible legal regulation of
the Internet in the process of globalization with different actors seeking to control the Internet. Indeed, as the
dependency on the Internet is becoming bigger we can observe the emergence of issues of justice on the
Internet. How do different sectors and people in society relate to the emergent digital divide between social
classes, ages, and populations in the developing and the developed world? How can we say that these issues
have an impact on how we organize our societies? The digital divide is not only an issue of access to computer
technology but it is also a question of how we relate to the computer and understand what happens on the
computer as long as we continuously perceive that everything becomes digitalized. Finally, when society with
computer changes the nature of work there are profound ethical issues concerning work-life balance and the
relation between employees and their corporation that emerge. In times of globalization we also see new kinds
of outsourcing due to digital possibilities where employees employed in developing countries for very little
salary serve corporations in the developed world in order to minimize costs and make management more
efficient. Here, we need social responsibility and basic ethical principles in order to ensure social justice so that
we avoid a digital divide of global society.
Conclusion
We started by proposing the ethical principles of respect for autonomy, dignity, integrity and vulnerability
on a phenomenological basis as the foundation for dealing with the ethical challenges of the Internet. Then we
looked at some of the philosophical dimensions of the Internet in this phenomenological and ethical perspective.
We have seen how the Internet expresses a new world that is a challenge to the bodily incarnated life-world.
The new world is nearly a Platonic world of ideas that challenge our bodily unity with the spatial—temporal
daily world. But it is also a postmodern world of simulacra and without deepness and substantiality. It is a
world where the individual might be lost and end up in nihilism and veil of aesthetics that takes away our
experience of the real world. It may be a world that takes away our relation to the real life. This maybe the case
for e-learning, but it may also be the case for the social Medias that create a world of self-construction and
self-exposure through the life-world with no relation to the real world. So the only possible solution is to move
from the aesthetic towards the ethical and “religious” engaged commitment of the self in relation to the World
Wide Web. Engagement is the key to avoid the challenge of nihilism that is also the challenge of the Internet.
This kind of engagement may be considered as a right foundation for developing an ethics of the Internet. And
this was this ethics that we proposed in relation to different issues of the work of corporations on the Internet.
In particular issues of privacy, power and also related to governance and globalization. On this basis we made
the move from ethics to corporate social responsibility and social responsiveness and finally we discussed our
case example about ethics in the bank-Internet encounter as phenomenological illustration of the problems of
ethics in the phenomenological relation to the Internet.
References
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Dreyfus, H. L. (2001). On the Internet. London: Routledge.
Dreyfus, H. L. (2004). Kierkegaard on the Internet: Anonymity vrs. Commitment in the present age. Retrieved from
http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~hdreyfus/html/paper_kierkegaard.html
Kemp, P., Rendtorff, J., & Mattson, N. J. (2000). Bioethics and biolaw. Copenhagen: Rhodos International Science and Art
Publishers.
Mattéi, J. F. (2013). La puissance du simulacra: Dans les pas de Platon (The power of the simulacra: In the footsteps of Plato).
Paris: François Bourin Editeur.
Rendtorff, J. D. (2009). Responsibility, ethics and legitimacy of corporations. Copenhagen: Copenhagen Business School Press.
Rendtorff, J. D. (2014a). Risk management, banality of evil and moral blindness in organizations and corporations. In C. Luetge
& J. Jauernig (Eds.), Business ethics and risk management (pp. 45-71).
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Netherlands: Springer.
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doi: 10.17265/2160-6579/2016.04.005
D DAVID PUBLISHING
The Consolidation of Youth Lifestyle in the 1960s: Swinging

London Through The Drapers’ Record Magazine
Maíra Zimmermann
Armando Alvares Penteado Foundation (FAAP), São Paulo, Brazil

This paper discusses how consumerism boosted youth lifestyle in the 1960s—mainly through modern magazines
(particularly in Britain) and built a territorial symbolic identity through fashion. In the 1960s, the consolidation of
youth culture becomes an international phenomenon. With the development of ready-to-wear, adolescents begin to
be target as a consumer market. The music and fashion industries unite to create and advertise youth lifestyle. The
fashion shifts from Paris to London. Magazine articles and publicity set the latest trends. The method applied is
research in primary source—the British journal The Drapers’ Record—aiming to recognize fashion transformation
and juvenilization in this period of time. The magazine shows ads and fashion editorials (mainly feminine), articles
and news about fashion trend. There is also a brands guide for shoppers and retailers. The magazines used in the
research are from 1964 to 1967, July and August issues, when the fall-winter trends are shown. From 1964 on, we
notice the orientation towards a juvenile market and style, but these trends will only fully materialize through 1967.
It leads to the conclusion that between 1965 and 1967 fashion juvenilization developed, reached its peak and global
range.
Keywords: youth culture, 1960s, trend, media
Introduction: Consolidation of Youth Culture in the 1960s

In the 1960s, the consolidation of youth culture becomes an international phenomenon. With the
development of ready-to-wear, adolescents begin to be targeted as a consumer market. The fashion center shifts
from glamorous Paris, focused on couture, to hip London, based on King’s Road and Carnaby Street’s boutiques.
The music and fashion industries unite to create and disseminate youth lifestyle, along with young designers and
traders displaying the cultural effervescence of the moment on the streets: the Swinging London.
Youth subcultures use appearance as a way of contestation, processing part of the social and cultural
revolution, which began in the 50s and broke out in the 60s. The democratization of ready-to-wear, with its
driving force of rising consumption over the growing youth culture, is influenced by street fashion, thus Paris
loses its hegemony, sharing space with designers from other countries. As a result of this process, fashion
becomes an international phenomenon. Thereby, advertising agencies and fashion editors introduce this new
aesthetic in magazines.
Purpose and Method: Analysis Through The Drapers’ Record Magazine

This paper discusses how consumerism boosted youth lifestyle, and built a territorial symbolic identity
Maíra Zimmermann, Lecturer in Fashion and Design, Armando AlvaresPenteado Foundation (FAAP).
222 THE CONSOLIDATION OF YOUTH LIFESTYLE IN THE 1960S
through fashion. The importance of systematizing fashion trends can be noticed since the 19th century. The
weekly British journal The Drapers’ Record (which was first published in 1887 and is still active), was used as
primary source for understanding this process. Its content introduced textile and clothing store industries to the
British retail sector.
The magazine shows ads, fashion editorials, mainly female, articles and news about fashion trend. Most
pictures are black and white. There is also a brands guide for shoppers and retailers, organized into categories
such as: jeans, dresses, suits, maternity clothing, women, girls, men and boys clothing. The magazines used in the
research are from 1964 to 1967, July and August issues, when the fall-winter trends are shown.
Most ads found in the magazines are by synthetic fabric and knitwear manufacturers. Orlon and Courtelle
acrylic fibers are frequent advertisers. Ads for hats, lingerie, bedlinen, children and teenagers uniforms can also
be found. After 1964, we notice the orientation towards a young market and style, but these trends will fully
materialize through 1967.
Making the Young British Style

British youth fashion in the 1950’s was heavily influenced by North America: College, Western and
Rock’n’roll styles. In the 60’s, however, the Continental style can already be noticed in trend analysis. According
to an article from 1964, young people are leaving behind North American style for French influences. The mod
style—inspired by French and Italian fashion—is the latest trend.
This style has particular subdivisions such as the Faces, the Stylists—the largest group—and the Tickets.
The French influence can be seen in the berets collection launched by hats brand Kangol: “As seen in Paris. Paris
has set the trend—the beret is in!”—says the ad. However, the North American influence is still there, with lots of
denim pieces on the market: in July 1964 Blue Bell Apparel launched denim shorts and jeans.
Drapers’ Record ads also begins to show the mod style. The mod subculture started in the end of the 1950’s
as a style adopted by a few young working class people. In the 60’s, the media starts calling it a trendsetter. This
fashionable look could now be found ready to wear at British stores. Duke Sportswear’s fall collection ad shows
a young model smiling, hands on hips and head slightly cocked. A look that clearly reflects the mod trend: long
neck sweater and a woolen pleated skirt. She also has a mod style haircut: long bob with bangs.
Successful designer, Mary Quant is an example of young style consolidation. In November 1955, Quant and
her husband Plunket Greene teamed up with a friend, Archie McNair, to open Quant’s first shop, Bazaar, on
King’s Road. In 1962, Quant signed a lingerie and clothing licensing deal with J.C. Penney and expanded her
business on to the United States. In 1963, she founded the Mary Quant Ginger Group Wholesale Clothing Design
and Manufacture Company.
In 1965 she teamed up with Courtelle to promote the sales of wool and hand knitting. In a colorful booklet
inserted in Drapers’ Record, the company shows 27 easy-to-make patterns designed by Mary Quant. “The most
exciting trend-setter in the fashion world today”—says the booklet. It also points out that the looks were created
with Hand knitting Courtelle, and that “it’s economical, easy to work with and produces knitted and crochet
fashions that are so soft, yet keep their shape and vibrant colors through wash and wear”.
We may say that Mary Quant advertised not only a style but also a graphic language that communicated with
young people through appeal and attractive shapes and forms. By the time Quant teamed up with Courtelle, in
1965 she was already famous and her name had already been associated with the daisy logo. At that time,
however, the daisy was drawn in irregular lines with a red outline. In 1966 the Courtelle patterns drawn by Mary
THE CONSOLIDATION OF YOUTH LIFESTYLE IN THE 1960S 223
Quant were still being published. The visual identity adopted by the brand changes though. The daisy logo is
modernized and now has a regular schematic shape, with a black center and white petals.
This floral pattern became a trend and could be found in some other products, here are two examples:
(1) In 1965, Sunarama House launches the BriNylon floral patterned tights, called Daisy Lace.
(2) In 1967, an article called “Flower show” introduces the readers to a “showerproof coat for high summer
from a group of ten canvas styles in bright colors”, by Cordoba. The coat in the ad picture shows patters clearly
inspired by Mary Quants daisies, which goes to show the visual identity penetration developed by the designer’s
brand.
The article entitled “Paris no longer the oracle” reveals that fashion trends are coming from different
centers. London is definitely included in the scene, as well as the United States and Italy. However, the Space
Age style created by André Courrèges and Pierre Cardin, keeps Paris as the most important fashion trendsetter.
According to the article, despite Paris innovations, London was very active too. It is also interesting to observe
that at this time, traveling starts to be part of the designers’ way of life and that allows them to get in touch with
different styles and influences. The North American influence in sports style and casual clothing is noticed as
well as the presence of a “pop fashion” brought by the young. The article finally says: “The result is that Paris is
no longer the oracle it used to be”.
British clothing manufacturer Slimma Group is mentioned as being the first manufacturer to introduce
young styled trouser suits, tunics, tiers, pajama pants and stocking keyed to match outfits. In fact, Slimma
presents clothing and publicity aimed at a young public, with skirts slightly above the knees and slack style pants.
Although still wearing a conservative skirt, the model in the ads shows juvenile hairstyle, make up and attitude.
Fashion Juvenilization Through Drapers’ Record

Drapers’ Record covers between 1964 and 1965 show how fast fashion styles got younger.
In 64, we found more conservative styles:
 One cover shows: Daydream sheets advertised by a woman lying alone in her bed, under yellow sheets
matching her ruffled sleeved nightgown. The atmosphere is romantic and intimate, there are flowers in her
bedroom, a cup of tea on the nightstand and a book on the bed. The ad seems to suggest the connection between
the intimate space of a home and a “feminine essence”. The cover reads: “This is the look of Daydream.
Calculated to appeal to a woman’s heart”.
 Other covers from 64 also show conservative looks: elegant women wearing overcoats, Chanel style
tailleurs and hats.
Despite the more conservative covers, in August of 1964 the youth style starts to show its penetration:
Patons yarns creates an ad showing a young model in a casual pose (she wears her hair tied up in a headband,
bangs, make up with eyeliner and voluminous eyelashes, an orange turtleneck blouse, a tone on tone wool V neck
sweater, and white trousers, a very young and fresh look).
Trough 1965 the covers get even younger: In July, we see a couple posing as if they are moving around in a
field (by Paton yarns), another cover shows a model with her head held high: She is wearing a black and white
sweater and white trousers and boots, behind her there is a man watching her, he is wearing something from Mars
maybe, a white hood, bringing to mind the Space Age style (by acrylic fiber Orlon).
In July 66, a black and white cover shows a very elegant model in an overcoat, carrying a suitcase showing
“Miss Smith” blue logo. Despite an overall elegant and conservative look, her attitude suggests movement as if
224 THE CONSOLIDATION OF YOUTH LIFESTYLE IN THE 1960S
she is climbing stairs, her makeup and long bob hair with bangs are very “up-to-date”. In July 67, “Miss Smith”
coats and suits brand adopt a more modern look, that can also be seen in the bold typography. The covers start to
show life, color and movement.
Between 1965 and 1967 fashion juvenilization reached its peak. Synthetic fiber manufacturer Orlon
invested in young and bold ads. In the following ads, we can see: a very happy Jean Shrimpton interacting with
her partner and also Space Age looks, again Jean Shrimpton showing a very bold knee, and a model showing an
ironic “baby style” with a huge ribbon in her hair. There are also colorful advertorials with lots of pictures taken
in places such as Turkey and Greece.
The magazine articles keep referring to the young fashion that is now more popular than ever. In a Drapers’
article from July 1965 we can read “Paris woos the Young”, also Mary Quant continues to offer Courtelle wool
pattern deals, the mod look can be seen in clothing ads, such as Stella knitwear, which presents “A new look at a
classic style” and, after 1966, the skirts get shorter and shorter. Some brands stand out for being exclusively
young fashion brands, such as stockhouse Raysil. The cool ads appeal to the In girl: “Raysil girls lead the young
set, Raysil girls all the fun get”, showing outfits like a collarless blazer with a godet mini skirt and a psychedelic
tight mini turtleneck dress with floral pattern.
After July 1966 and trough 1967, geometric shapes and psychedelic multicolor floral patterns start to appear
in articles and ads. Since then, more and more brands focus specifically on young people: in July 1966, Vogue
magazine and Hayfiel Wool launch a campaign with outfits designed by the yarn brand to be published in
Vogue’s knitting book; one of the leading models is the super young model Twiggy. Ads of color tights and
articles on comfortable casual wear also appear in the magazine.
Still in 1966 it was possible to find several ads with bright colored clothes, such as: Orlon’s pink dress, worn
by a model photographed in Greece, and also colorful fabrics, like the Dacron’s intense floral patterns. But it is in
1967 that we have the peak of the bold young style, based on psychedelic Swinging London’s and hippie North
American style. In July 1967, even Vantona’s bedlinen follows the “exotic” trend, showing a blonde model,
wearing straight hair with bangs, strong eyeliner and doll eyelashes (a style widely advertised by Twiggy), the
model is under a bright blue bedspread with green spots. In a systematic way, we found:
 different patterns: multicolor, geometric, stripes and circles, floral, organic, paisley;
 bold clothes: stomach showing crochet dresses, miniskirts and mini dresses, shorts, jeans, trapezium
dresses;
 perky accessories such as pantyhose, boots, doll and flat shoes and juvenile hair and makeup: geometric
haircuts, eyes with strong eyeliner and doll eyelashes.
Conclusion
The invasion of all these multicolor and often disposable products that made up the young style and
appealed so much to young people, is not only an indicator of fashion changes but also of a cultural and social
revolution that society went through after the end of World War II. Historian Eric Hobsbawn refers to these
changes in his book The Age of Extremes. The systematic implementation of the young style by the industry may
be verified through image analyses of a primary source, a magazine, that reveals to the researcher the importance
of fashion not only as an indicator of taste changes but also as part of the transformation and making of cultural
history.
THE CONSOLIDATION OF YOUTH LIFESTYLE IN THE 1960S 225
References1
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Morin, E. ([1962] 1975). Cultura de massas no século XX: o espírito do tempo (Mass culturein the twentieth century: The spirit of
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1
Researched archives: Archive Blythe House—Archive of Art and Design—Victoria & Albert Museum (V&A). The Wookmark
Archive (London College of Fashion): The Drapers’ Record—British textiles, women’s wear & drapery news (1964-1967); Mary
Quant Collection (garment and examples of make-up from the 1960’s)
doi: 10.17265/2160-6579/2016.04.006
D DAVID PUBLISHING
The Buddhist Philosophical Perspective of Environmental

Preservation and Management
R. Saman Rajapaksha, A.G. Amali Uthpala Nandasiri

University of Kelaniya, Kelaniya, Sri Lanka

At present we face a lot of environmental issues at both national and global levels. At the same time we will have to
face severe environmental issues in the future. This is evident in forming the elements of earth, air, and water which
reflect the human influence on organic and inorganic life. So, it is timely significant to pay attention on
environmental preservation and management. The main purpose of this study is to explore how the Buddhist
teaching could be used for environmental preservation and management. Accordingly, this study introduces a
suitable long term environmental preservation model. The other objectives of this study are to learn Buddhism for
environmental preservation and management, to create a new model which combines man and environment
together, to compare Buddhist thinking and modern man’s thinking regarding environmental preservation and
management through the above and, to motivate man to preserve environment in through both direct and indirect
ways. This study was based on the question whether the Buddhist philosophical teaching could be utilized to solve
today’s environmental issues? The hypothesis was that the Buddhist philosophical teaching could be utilized for
environmental preservation and management. For this purpose, the teachings of Buddha, related to environmental
preservation as found in “Suttapițaka” and “Vinayapițaka” were studied. In order to address these conditions we
have subjected randomly collected information for interpretation and comparative analysis in qualitative research
methodology. The content that has been analyzed is compared with the ethical code related to the patterns of human
behavior and its relation to conservation. This has also given way to building some models related to the Buddhist
teaching of environmental preservation. The objective of Buddhist philosophy is to generate sensitivity in the mind,
of human beings and persuade them to preserve organic and inorganic environment, based on the view “Man is a
creation of the environment”. The Buddhist philosophical process of environmental preservation includes
preserving flora and fauna, water, air, soil as well as garbage disposal. These elements, along with ethics, can be
used in effective environment preservation. This new model of environmental preservation directs human beings
towards sustainable development with a realistic vision. The Buddhist teaching on environment civilizes man’s
physical and spiritual behaviors, with a view to lead human beings towards environmental preservation with a
realistic perspective.
Keywords: environmental preservation, models, Buddhist teaching
Introduction
Man himself is a creation of environment. But the environment is not a creation of man. Various activities
R. Saman Rajapaksha, B.A., M.Phil., Department of Mass Communication, University of Kelaniya.

A.G. Amali Uthpala Nandasiri, B.A., Department of Mass Communication, University of Kelaniya.
THE BUDDHIST PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVE OF ENVIRONMENTAL PRESERVATION 227
of man influence on the existence of the environment. At the same time, the environment too controls man’s
physical and spiritual behavior in various ways. Therefore it could be seen that there’s an interrelationship
between man and the environment. But that has been collapsed due to various political, economical and social
influences.
Environment includes the things in the surrounding moreover; the physical and chemical surrounding is
included in the environment (Soratha, 1999, p. 564). Some cultural and aesthetic factors which cause the
qualitative development of an individual’s life are analyzed under the environment (Gamlath, 2009, p. 783).
According to Merium Webster Dictionary the environment means the collection of all the conditions and
causes that influence on a living being’s life and development1.
Environmental issues are created due to the evolving of technical tendencies such as industrialization and
urbanization which happened due to the development of industrial technical and communicational development
that took place as a result of world’s gradual evolution.
Destruction of the naturalism of the environment, air, water, sound and soil pollution, destruction of
animals and deterioration of natural resources have become present environmental issues. Man is taking various
approaches in order to control these issues and preserve the environment. But is the transitional involvement of
man enough to control or irradiates this rapid environmental destruction? This has become a bring issue today.
Therefore it is a responsibility of every social being to involve in preserving the environment taking new
approaches.
This research focused on “How the Buddhist teaching could be used in order to solve modern
environmental issues”, created in national and global levels. Accordingly establishing a new suitable format to
preserve the environment using Buddhist philosophical teaching is also done in this research.
The Buddhist Philosophical Perspective of Environmental Preservation

The Buddhist teaching is established on the concept that “Man is a part of the environment”. The
environment serves a great deal in helping man to achieve various worldly objectives and finally reach
“Nibbāna”, which is the ultimate goal of transcendental life. Environment helps man to gain spiritual purity by
having self control over his mind body and verbal behavior. Man’s spirituality is nourished by the balanced
existence of all the environmental factors. The functioning of the environment is important for a person who is
involved in order to achieve transcendental objectives. Therefore the Buddhism philosophically defines the
environment, its existence, environment pollution and environmental preservation.
The Lord Buddha has emphasized it is an important the need of protecting the environment as it is an
important factor in man’s existence. The Buddhist philosophical perspective of environment preservation could
be identified under two categories.
(1) Teaching of environment pollution and its results.
(2) Teaching of environment preservation and its importance.
The Lord Buddha identified the environment as a dear friend. He always motivated his followers to protect
the environment. He made his followers understand the reality of the relationship between environment and
man. When the action of man is unethical, the system of the environment becomes imbalanced. The Lord
Buddha preached that the results which take place due to that bring bad effect to the man in return
1
Retrieved from https://www.merriam-webster.com.
228 THE BUDDHIST PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVE OF ENVIRONMENTAL PRESERVATION
(Ańguttaranikāyo 2, 2006, p. 140). Adhammika Sūtta analyses the environmental pollution man’s contribution
to it and the way that the man gets its results in return.
“Dependent Origination” (Paticca Samuppāda) explains that the existence of man which is embedded
with the environment happens due to causality. Being a member of the environment the actions of man’s
imprudent behavior damages the environment. The man is susceptible to get repercussions of his all misdeeds.
It is the man, who could prevent the factors that cause environment pollution. By doing that environment will
be preserved. The things that happen due to various causes, when the causes are changed causes become
stopped (Hētūpaticca Sambhūtaṃ -Hētūbhańganiruńjati). The main objective of Buddhist philosophy is to
work according to this philosophical perspective and preserve the environment. Thus the causality in
Adhammika Sūtta could be stated in Figure 1.
Leaders being unrighteous
Officers being unrighteous
Priest’s and householder’s to be unrighteous
People in a colony being unrighteous
Rising of Moon and Sun being uncongenial
Rising of Planet being uncongenial
Dawn of Day and night being uncongenial
Month and half of month being uncongenial
Seasons being uncongenial
Air being provoked
God’s being provoked
Lack of delightful rain
Ripping Crops being uncongenial
When eating those crops, various deficiencies such as short life time, discolored complexion and physical
disorders could be appeared in people’s life along
Figure 1. The cause and effect of environmental pollution in relation to Adhammika Sūtta.
The processing and the way how it proceeds is given above. When man thinks that him-self and
environment is bound together, it provides protection to both of them.
The Lord Buddha explained the behavior of man and his physical and mental nature by using similes
which are based on the environment. He also showed that there’s a similarity in every way between man and
the environment through that.
Thripițaka is consisted of these types of preaching’s. For example; Rukkha Sūtta of Ańguttara Nikāya
could be cited (Ańguttaranikāyo 2, 2006, p. 214). It analyses the fertility, infertility unwholesome attitudes and
wholesome attitudes of the people. Moreover, this Sūtta exemplifies human interrelationship and nature of the
man. This Sūtta says about four varieties of trees (see Figure 2).
Figure 2. The four varieties of trees explain in Rukkha Sūtta.
Through the analysis of four varieties of trees the Lord Buddha enumerates the four groups of people in
the society. Some other Sūttas also reveal that there are four varieties of bulls in the world (Ańguttaranikāyo 2,
2006, p. 210).
(1) Being rude one’s own bulls and not being rude to other bulls.
(2) Being rude to other bulls rather them being rude to one’s own.
(3) Being rude one’s own bulls and other as well.
(4) Not being rude to one’s own bulls and other as well.
The Lord Buddha described the nature of the four varieties of the people in society by comparing aforesaid
four kinds of bulls. In the same way in Mūsika Sūtta in the Ańguttara Nikāya also endorses that the four
varieties of mice are used to describe four groups of people who have those qualities (Ańguttaranikāyo 2, 2006,
p. 208). In the same way, Lord Buddha sharply revealed the physical and mental behavior of men using four
varieties of clouds (Ańguttaranikāyo 2, 2006, p. 196), pots (Ańguttaranikāyo 2, 2006, p. 200), reservoirs
(Ańguttaranikāyo 2, 2006, p. 204) and mangoes (Ańguttaranikāyo 2, 2006, p. 206).
A Bhikkhū should make sure that his behavior does not cause inconvenience to others. This was explained
through a beautiful simile of a flower and a bee that comes to take honey. Just the Lord Buddha preached that
as the bee doesn’t harm or crimple the flower and takes honey, a Bhikkhū who acts according to Ariyā conduct
should not harm his audience (Khuddakanikāyo, 2006, p. 36). Moreover, the Lord Buddha admired the silence.
He illustrated the importance of the silence of a certain man by giving more and more information. The silence
can be taken as a criterion to measure the temperaments of a person’s behavior. Accordingly, by taking a little
stream and a big rivers’ flow as example and showing the difference the Lord Buddha preached that the deep
silence is most meaningful (Khuddakanikāyo, 2006, p. 222).
Furthermore, the Lord Buddha took the sea as an example to bring forth the well disciplined behavior and
character of the Bhikkhū. This example can be seen Uposatha Sutta in Udānapāliya. The Lord Buddha
elucidated the value of well disciplined behavior of the Bhikkhū by taking the sea into his account. And also,
the Lord Buddha emphasized that some features of the sea can be recurrent in the Buddhist dispensation
(Bhikkhū Sasana) (Khuddakanikāyo, 2006, p. 230).
The Lord Buddha emphasized that the environmental factors, psychological and sociological of man go
parallel (Go hand in hand). Through this he motivated man to preserve the environment. Moreover, by using
environment related factors in Dhamma preaching the Lord Buddha established a good attitude towards
preserving the ever in human.
As the environment is a friend of man, it is his duty to protect its beauty. The Lord Buddha preached that
protecting the environment will cause the existence of man. Admiring the beauty of the environment is a factor
of environment preservation.
The Lord Buddha preached that “Great hermitages” are beautiful. They attract the mind. Man acts with
lust. They do not love the forest. But the Arahatta Bhikkhū, Who have no attachment towards anything
therefore he loves the environment (Khuddakanikāyo, 2006, p. 46). The aesthetic beauty which emerges from
Buddhist philosophy is bound with the beauty of the environment. The jungle, which is consisting of treats,
vegetation and animals, is a soothing environment to Arahatta Bhikkhū. The great personalities those who
wanted to untie all the bonds of samsāra, usually they find out calm places to meditate in order to being away
from desires. (Objectives) through the experiences of forest life.
The Arahatta Bhikkhū’s, those who are detached from the worldly comforts felt the wonder of the nature.
They expressed their paean of joy (Udāna) with the most aesthetic qualities in the forest. When we refer Thera
Gāthā ana Thēri Gāthā wean find out Ven Mahākassapa’s paean of joy. It is as followers (Khuddakanikāyo,
2006, p. 244). A Similar appreciation of nature could be identified through Rev. Kāludāyi’s (Khuddakanjkāyo,
2006, p. 152).
All these great sayings depict the beauty of the environment. Accordingly, the philosophical and aesthetic
analysis of the Buddhist perspective can be cited as the the principles of environmental preservation.
Though the Lord Buddha preached “Dhamma” in order to build up a relationship between environment
and audience, all the preaching’s connected with the environment are common to all human beings. Therefore,
the Buddhist philosophical perspective about environmental preservation is established by giving prominence
to entire human race. The Buddhist perspective of environmental preservation is not only related to Buddhist
audience.
The Model That Depicts the Buddhist Perspective Utilized Environmental Preservation
The main objective of this research is to establish a format that depicts the Buddhist teaching about
environment. This format is established on the basis of the teaching of Lord Buddha such as:
(1) Teaching of water.
(2) Teaching of trees.
(3) Teaching of being away from killing animals.
(4) Teaching of silence.
This format discusses the Buddhist philosophical perspective used in environmental preservation. The
functioning of this new format could be described as follows:
The functioning of this format can be presented in two steps.
(1) The environment getting polluted due to the conflict between man’s social activities and the environment.
(2) Environment preservation and conducting man’s social activities according to Buddhist perspectives.
Figure 3. The model of Buddhist philosophical perspective of environmental preservation and management.
First Step
The Man engages themselves in social activities individually as a group. Those social activities are, eating,
dress designing, cultivating, building houses doing a job, entertaining them, implementing development
programs using machines and technical equipments.
There is always a conflict between the social activities of man and the environment. It is because most of
the activities of man harm the existence of the environment. This conflict is depicted through the side arrows in
the given diagram.
The environment gets polluted due to conflict between man’s social activities and the environment.
Moreover service issues like wasting of resources can cause deterioration of society. The environmental
problems induce to collapse the wall between social activities and environment. At the same time this will
cause a severe destruction to nature and functioning environmental factors become unstable due to the
imbalance of the environment. The First step of the diagram shows the conflict and resulted of man’s activities
and environment, since the origin of the civilization of man.
Second Step
This reveals the way that how the environmental preservation takes place and how to conduct and mold
the social activities of man according to the Buddhist perspective.
(1) The teaching of protecting purity of water.
(2) The teaching of preserving trees.
(3) The teaching of protecting the life of entire animal race.
(4) The teaching of recycling and Management.
It is obvious that the Lord Buddha has paid considerable attention in great deal above factor. It will
provide an opportunity to present the problems like environment pollution, deterioration of natural resources by
using the Buddhist philosophical teaching about environmental management which is depicted in the diagram.
But the man’s social activities should be conducted according to the Buddhist perspective the Lord Buddha has
confirmed the protection of water, air, soil, animals, and trees by leading the man towards a philosophical
perspective. Moreover, man has been motivated according to Buddhist philosophical perspective for the tasks
such as waste being away, recycling them. The Buddhist perspective of pressuring environmental factors such
as water, trees, and animals could be depicted as follows.
The Teaching of Protecting Purity of Water
As a mother nourishes a child, the rain nourishes both active and lazy men (Saṃyuttanikāyo 1, 2006, p.
28). Water is the life of all the animals. Water is needed for the existence of trees. Therefore, The Lord Buddha
preached that it is necessary to protect water. Water soothes the mind and body of every person. Thus the
tiredness is prevented. It gives coldness and happiness. Water helps man in various ways. The Lord Buddha
analyzed this in Pjjota Sutta in Saṃyuttanikāya.
Water is essential for all the man’s activities. When man uses polluted water, he becomes sick. Water
gives advantages to all animals. Therefore, there is a great use of water (Ańguttaranikāyo 1, 2006, p. 72), so
that one should not put human waste or spit into water (Pācittiyapāli 1, 2006, p. 554). When the water circle is
polluted it affects the social existence of man. Therefore, the Lord Buddha motivated his followers (Audience)
to protect the purity of water. He said that the residence should not be built near the water sources because if
will paces the way to add all the waste materials into the water (Cullavaggapāli 2, 2006, p. 364).
Water makes the interconnection with human life. Man’s daily activities are delayed when he does not get
enough water the water management cause the physical well-being of man as well (Ańguttaranikāyo 1, 2006, p.
248). “Oh Bhikku, when the seeds are cultivated in a paddy field which is fertile, not scattered as it was not
harmed by sun and wind and has extracted the essence needed, the seeds grow and spread very well due to the
heavy rain”.
The man, who depends on agriculture for his existence, should use water when needed. He should use only
the necessary amount, without any over use. The Lord Buddha has preached that the farmer who cultivate
paddy also should provide water to the paddy field when necessary and remove them at the correct time
(Ańguttaranikāyo 1, 2006, p. 426).
The present man has become a victim of spreading and non-spreading diseases due to the use of impure
water. For example people of the north central province and many other places, are subjected to kidney diseases
and some other people become victims of the diseases such as diarrhea and cholera as they use polluted water.
Business of selling bottled drinking water is functioning at present. Therefore, water is a service that has to be
paid a lot of money. But many people of the world can’t even get pure water even by paying money. We hear
about those who die with thirst or drinking impure or polluted.
Water has become a rapidly wasting resource. Therefore water management should be done. For that the
teaching in Buddhism about water management could be used. The Lord Buddha said as water gets wasting, it
should be used with care. The Lord Buddha gave a prominent value to water in order to prevent it being wasted
and to preserve its purity. The Lord Buddha guided his followers (audience) to purity water and preserves the
religious quality of water.
Accordingly, number of teaching in Buddhism could be seen in Buddhist literature and those teachings
motivate people to understand the dire need of water and the dire need of preserving its purity.
The Teaching of Preserving Trees
“The one, who lives according to the Dhamma, is protected by the Dhamma” (Dhammo have rakkhati
dhammacārin) (Khuddakanjkāyo, 2006, p. 100). Buddhism is adapted according to nature. While rejecting the
ideology of the creation of man and his existence, the Lord Buddha has said that the functioning of the entire
environment including man happens according to the law of nature.
Here, the Lord Buddha defined nature and its law as “Dhamma”. Therefore, The Lord Buddha motivated
man to protect trees which is a marvelous gift of nature. He said that “Mūla Bhīja” (roots which grow as ginger)
“Skandha Bhīja” (Branches that grow as Banyan), “Palu Bhīja Puruk” such as on sugar cane and bamboo and
conducive factors should not be destroyed (Dīghanikāyo 1, 2006, p. 112). The above is a basic analysis of
protecting trees depicted in Buddhist philosophical perspective. This teaching could be utilized in preserving
the existence of plants and grown trees.
The Lord Buddha prevented man from destroying trees and motivated to grow trees. He admired growing
trees as a valuable social activity which gains merit. The Lord Buddha said that planting flowers and trees,
forest planting, building ponds, Keeping pot water which is called “pinthāliya” for travelers, hermitage cause to
increase ones merits (Saṃyuttanikāyo 1, 2006, p. 60). This shows the attitude towards protecting trees in
Buddhism. Above details show the Buddhist attitude towards the preserving of the environment. Those who are
like to get rid of worldly attachments the forest is the most favorable place. The environment with trees
nourishes the spirituality of man. It is gives mental comfort (Khuddakanikāyo, 2006, p. 46). Thus the mental
stress and unrest will occur no more. Only good thoughts will come to the mind. Therefore, the forest is an
institute of psychiatry which could manage.
Therefore, the Lord Buddha preached that it is not worth adding excreted matters, garbage and left overs
to the water not be done (Pācittiyapāli 2, 2006, p. 154). He preached so, in order to protect the purity of the
environment. An important incident from “Milinda Pañña” could be identified in reaction to the attitude of
Buddhism on preservation of trees (Sumangala, 1970).
“A flowering tree bear nuts and flowers”. It causes the existence of plants. The flower gives beauty and the
nut gives taste. The tree gives shade those who come under it, without thinking whether they are friends or
enemies. It gives shade equally. It doesn’t make any difference to anybody. Even though a person comes to
destroy a tree it itself gives shade to the person. This is the behavior of tree. On the other hand there are other
uses of it also thus the existence of tree is embedded with the existence of man. Destruction of tree means the
destruction of man himself.
The Teaching of Protecting the Life of Entire Animal Race.
Being away from killing animals is one of the basic precepts that the Lord Buddha has preached. The Lord
Buddha always admired not killing animals, leaving armourment, being ashamed of harming other and treating
all the animals with a kind heart (Dīghanikāyo 1, 2006, p. 110). Therefore, He said that we should spread
loving kindness (Maithree) towards all the living beings (Khuddakanikāyo, 2006, pp. 44-46).
The Lord Buddha spreader the qualities of “Maithree” and kindness towards all the animals those who are
weak, strong, tall, fat, thin, small, big, visible and invisible, born and to be born. Through that the right to live
of every living being is ensured.
Buddhism is not established with the sole objective of protecting the rights of man. A man cannot be away
from the ethical teaching of Buddhism. None of the ethical teaching is designed only to give advantages to man.
The well-being of all the living beings is ensured through Buddhism. Thus, when the man does not kill animals,
all the animals get an opportunity to live.
The Lord Buddha made step to detach not only the ordinary man, but also the ruler of the state
(Dīghanikāyo 3, 2006, pp. 102-104). It is the inviolable responsibility to save the life of animals and birds.
Respecting one’s life is an accepted social ethic. The involvement of the ruler and the administration are
necessary to preserve the environment. The virtuousness or the bad qualities of the ruler influence on the
existence of animals and the whole system of environment.
One should not kill or harm animals by comparing himself or those animals. Just like an individual doesn’t
like to be killed or suffered, all the other animals don’t like it too. This wide analysis is depicted in
Veludvāreyya Sutta (Saṃyuttanikāyo 5(2), 2006, p. 156). “Householder’, what are the disciplines that should
be practiced by comparing yourself? There, the person thinks. I like to live. I don’t like to be killed. I hate
sadness. I love comfort. If someone kills me, who have all their wishes, I do not like it. The thing which I don’t
like will be the same with others. Therefore one should not kill animals. Thus the bodily features of man
become controlled due to the control of mind. He who purifies his physical and verbal behavior too”.
The Lord Buddha saved animals from death and he explained by spreading loving kindness towards
others could save himself from the harms done by others. It is clearly stated in the Ahi Sūtta in Ańguttara
Nikāya (Ańguttaranikāyo 2, 2006, pp. 134-136). Therefore the Lord Buddha motivated man to look at the
environment with coving kind in his mind and to think that “man all beings live well and may their fear will be
disappeared”.
Accordingly, many teachings could be identified in Buddhism which nourishes the human society with a
great thought of respecting the life of the others around him. This precept could be cited as a “shiksā” that
should be practiced by everybody in this society, which is full of conflicts and inconvenient due to power and
wealth.
The Teaching of Recycling and Management
The Lord Buddha showed that there should be a specific method to dump waste into the environment.
None should use the environment in an unnecessary way. Man must look at the environment in a simple way
just as he looks at his own life. There is a deep philosophical perspective of recycling and waste management in
order to prevent environment pollution in Cullavaggapāliya (Cullavaggapāli 2, 2006, pp. 560-562).
One day the queens in King Udēni’s kingdom offered five hundred pieces of Shawls to Ānanada Thēro.
When the king got knows this, he has gone to Ānanda Thēro and asked that, what he is going to do to all those
pieces of shawls. The answer given by Ānanda Thēro depicts the Buddhist philosophical foundation in
preserving the environment.
Ānanda Thero has said that he is going to sew robes with those pieces of shawls. He has said that those
will be given to the Bhikkhū who has got old robes and with those old robes, pillow cases will be made and
with the old pillow cases carpets rags to wipe dust will be made and the old rags will be used to mend the clay
walls by chopping them with clay.
This analysis reveals the Buddhist attitude towards recycling and dumping waste we should not spoil the
environment (With the use of the Buddhist environment management principles this shows).
There is a special teaching about resource management and environment preservation (Ańguttaranikāyo 2,
2006, p. 478). We should not allow any of the resources of the environment to be wasted. They should be
mended and taken into use. The preservative method in the Buddhism is as follows.
(1) The resources ended should be earned.
(2) The decaying resources should not be mended.
(3) Resources should be used while understanding the limit of the need.
(4) Economic resources should be used in an ethical way with virtuous leadership.
This analysis is of great importance in recycling and management of environmental resources. This shows
the need of man’s preservation use of resources. Thus when the man adapts himself according to above
practices the existence of the environment and man will be ensured.
Conclusions
The traditional involvement of man is not enough to prevent or irradiates the rapid environmental
destruction. Various approaches should be adapted to preserve the environment. The Buddhist Philosophical
teachings could be used to preserve environment while avoiding the environmental issues created at present in
global and national levels. This study introduced a new format which is suitable to preserve the environment.
That format is based on the Buddhist philosophical teachings presented on environmental preservation. Thus,
the preaching on environment of the Lord Buddha which was done due to various necessities could be utilized
in motivating the modern man to preserve the environment.
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Journalism and Mass Communication

Article · April 2016

Amali Uthpala Nandasiri Saman Rajapaksha

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Aims and Scope:

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Editorial Board Members:

Society and Network Culture

The Buddhist Philosophical Perspective of Environmental Preservation and Management 226

An International Journalism Model of Professionalism in News

Keywords: professionalism, international journalism, content analysis, Al Jazeera

Statement of the Problem and the Purpose

sources Fairness Factuality Objectivity

Figure 1. Professional concepts.

Figure 2. Related studies.

People or inanimate News story 4

Figure 3. Conceptual definitions.

Figure 4. Operational definitions.

0-2 Low 3-5 Medium 6-8 High

Figure 5. Professional index.

Research Question 1 (b)

Discussion and Conclusion

An Exploratory Study on Journalistic Professionalism and

Keywords: Chinese journalistic professionalism, journalism education, journalism education challenges

One journalism educator shared this point by saying:

A journalist without a journalism degree stated further:

The other showed his optimistic attitude, however, by saying:

Psychological and Philosophical Readings of the Spectatorship

Indian Tamil Film

Sri Lankan Tamil Films

Sri Lankan Film Spectatorship of Bollywood and Indian Tamil Films

Ethics of Information Technologies in Knowledge Society

Jacob Dahl Rendtorff

Ethical Theories and Principles

The Ethical Challenge of the Internet

Ethical Issues of Information Technologies

The Consolidation of Youth Lifestyle in the 1960s: Swinging

Keywords: youth culture, 1960s, trend, media

Introduction: Consolidation of Youth Culture in the 1960s

Purpose and Method: Analysis Through The Drapers’ Record Magazine

Making the Young British Style

Fashion Juvenilization Through Drapers’ Record

The Buddhist Philosophical Perspective of Environmental

R. Saman Rajapaksha, A.G. Amali Uthpala Nandasiri

Keywords: environmental preservation, models, Buddhist teaching

R. Saman Rajapaksha, B.A., M.Phil., Department of Mass Communication, University of Kelaniya.

The Buddhist Philosophical Perspective of Environmental Preservation

Leaders being unrighteous

Officers being unrighteous

Priest’s and householder’s to be unrighteous

People in a colony being unrighteous

Rising of Moon and Sun being uncongenial

Rising of Planet being uncongenial

Dawn of Day and night being uncongenial

Month and half of month being uncongenial

Seasons being uncongenial