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Journalism plays a crucial role in democratic societies, but the ability of journalists to perform that role is jeopardised by a profound crisis of trust in the profession. One response often employed by press councils is to refresh their code of ethics, but what purpose do such codes serve and can they make any difference to how journalists actually behave or relate to the public? Drawing on Jonathan Wolff’s idea of ‘engaged philosophy’, we outline the problems to which codes may be an answer and provide a taxonomy of the purposes they may then fulfil. We lay out four possible roles for codes and argue they can all make a worthwhile contribution to raising press standards and justifying higher levels of public trust. We substantiate our discussion by examining the codes of ethics of press councils in twelve European countries, along with the IMPRESS and IPSO codes in the UK, to determine which of these functions they are explicitly intended to serve. We conclude that there is scope to make greater use of codes to improve the ethical culture in newsrooms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores geo-historical perspectives that influenced journalism. Topics discussed are the link of African journalism to Engligtenment ideals, the effect of the representation of empire on perceptions of the role of Great Britain in the world and its subjugated territories and their people, the U.S. dominance of the news media and its role in global media imperialism, and the divergent norms and journalism practices around the world.

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including the Popular News Discouse conference held in January 2012 in Zurich, Switzerland, newspaper coverage of public health in Great Britain in the 19th century, and campaigning journalism.

An introduction is presented in which the editors discuss various reports within the issue on topics including ethnocentric news values in diasporic media in Great Britain, the state of British news coverage of Nigeria and an interview with British novelist and biographer Tim Jeal.

The article focuses on the issues of the journals in the newspapers and tabloids, and their historical forms. The selection of language plays an essential part in the creation of an imaginable national community within the pages of the daily reading materials. To give a broader context to the language of the national community as constructed, they also integrate the popular version of history into the language to ensure that the national community's representation will not be the one to be suspended in a constant present, but one which comes with all the collections of the historic past.