Mass media ethics and the classical liberal ideal of the autonomous individual are historically linked and professionally dominant--yet the authors of this work feel this is intrinsically flawed. They show how recent research in philosophy and social science--together with a longer tradition in theological inquiry--insist that community, mutuality, and relationship are fundamental to a full concept of personhood. The authors argue that "persons-in-community" provides a more defensible grounding for journalists' professional moral decision-making in crucial areas such as truthtelling, privacy,...

In the twentieth century Marxism challenged laissez-faire economics, psychoanalysis reinterpreted the processes of thought, and evolution discredited the idea of creation. These changes profoundly affected American Protestantism. Ferre examines the belief system that underlies what middle-class Protestants chose to read.