Dr. Sandra L. Borden is a professor in the School of Communication at Western Michigan University, where she also directs the Center for the Study of Ethics in Society and coaches the Ethics Bowl team. Her work has been published numerous scholarly journals, and her books are the award-winning Journalism as Practice: MacIntyre, Virtue Ethics and the Press, Ethics and Entertainment: Essays on Media Culture and Media Morality (co-edited with Howard Good, Making Hard Choices in Journalism Ethics (with David Boeyink, Ethics and Error in Medicine (co-edited with Fritz Allhoff), and The Routledge Companion to Media and Poverty. @WMU_Ethics
1) To what ethical standard should political communication be held? Where should political communication ethics be grounded?
Political communication should be ordered to the common good; that is to say, to the conditions needed for all to have worthwhile lives and for the chance for all to contribute to a society characterized by such conditions. The ethical standard is one of moral excellence, what some political philosophy traditions call civic virtue. Politics – and thus political communication – is not an elective pursuit. It is fundamental to being authentically human. So setting the terms of the conversation, recruiting citizens to your cause, appealing to their values, shaping social relationships conducive to those values, and so on, are all weighty moral matters in this perspective.
2) Why should someone in political communication behave ethically?
We have become cynical about politics, for good reason. But politics is, in fact, a high calling. Politics concerns how we live well together by creating conditions for all to flourish, both as individuals and as members of communities. And we know that communication is vital for doing politics well. It’s how we deliberate together about the common good. It’s how we identify possible solutions to common problems and possible projects for achieving things that we can only do together. For this, political communicators need to help citizens see that the common good does not pit their self-interest as a person against their self-interest as a community member. These are two sides of the same coin.
3) Can you give an example of ethical political communication? What can people point to and say “do more of that?”
I am a former journalist, and my research focuses on journalism ethics. One way for journalism to contribute to the common good - that is, to be political - is to provide resources for deliberation, including venues for exchanging ideas and clarifying values. Our current media environment, with its echo chambers and misinformation, works against such deliberation and undermines the moral bonds among citizens.
Research has shown that the steep decline in local news has actually contributed to political polarization. An example of ethical political communication I appreciated was the decision in 2019 by The Desert Sun to stop running national op-eds for a month in response to this research. And what they found was that traffic to the opinion section doubled. This reminded me of when I was an editorial page editor at a small Gannett paper in Tennessee. I sold the publisher on publishing more letters to the editor. The more letters we published, the more letters we got. Having a robust local discussion of public issues in local news spaces, rather than relying on national syndicated columns, is a simple, but powerful, idea. However, I should note that this is hard to accomplish in the strapped local newsrooms that remain. We have lots of local news deserts and are adding more ever year.
4) Can you give an example of an ethical challenge or question you or political communication professionals in your field have faced or are likely to face?
Sticking with journalism ethics, I’m dismayed at the extent to which horse-race coverage continues to dominate political news. For example, the coverage on President Biden’s infrastructure bills has emphasized the political infighting and the price tag, rather than the substance of the proposed policies. These include major expansions to the social safety net and measures to reduce the harms of climate change. Here is an opportunity to facilitate a robust conversation about what we value, what we need for all to thrive in our society, what the role of the government should be in promoting the common good. And instead we have endless headlines about political “setbacks” and politicians’ Twitter barbs.
5) What advice about ethics do you have for people studying political communication or starting their careers in the field?
Develop a clear sense of what you think the purpose of politics is. Morally speaking, it has to be about more than winning. How can you honor the contributions of those who make our shared life better? I’m thinking here of how we change the conversation about “who matters” in our society. I think the pandemic has shown us how “essential workers” – who often are not valued in our consumer-driven culture – actually are those who make our lives livable. How can you help people to have hard conversations about their differences so they can reason together about common purposes and share a sense of belonging? Figure out the ends first, and let them guide your actions.