This thesis addresses the objective of formulating a moral-philosophically credible media ethics by encompassing two main dimensions: the examination of existing media-ethical models and the integration of sustainable arguments through utilizing eco-religious epistemology to overcome identified challenges. By incorporating eco-critical perspectives within the Media ecology tradition, which studies media as environments, the thesis proposes a creative intersection between established media theories and a theological tradition that tackles profound questions about humanity's place in the world. The initial section of the thesis analyzes moral-philosophical concepts within the media ethics frameworks proposed by three ethicists; Susanne Wigorts Yngvesson; Clifford G. Christians and Sandra L. Borden. While all three endorse universal values, they offer distinct frameworks for both understanding the ontology of universals and how these are contextualized in the journalistic community. Christians' moral epistemological theories,particularly regarding the ethics of being and Proto-norms have generated significant controversy and scholarly debate on the necessity and intellectual credibility of defending universal values in media ethics. Critical perspectives from this discourse are presented and evaluated as a complement to the analysis of Christians' media-ethical model. In exploring sustainable moral-philosophical arguments, the thesis suggests that moral claims can exhibit both universal and contextual characteristics. It suggests that a media-ethical model should integrate universal values with a communitarian perspective on journalists'moral responsibility. However, understanding the interplay between the contextual and universal dimensions of ethical values requires engaging in critical moral-philosophical theory. In addition, critical perspectives on technology and ideas of space and time need to be addressed in new ways. Thus, eco-religious epistemology, as advocated by ethicist and theologian Whitney Bauman, is proposed as a creative means to understand moral-philosophical questions regarding space/time, contextualism/universalism, and technology within media ethics.

This thesis uses a philosophical discussion to explore the tensions that result in the meeting between universal claims and particular contexts regarding human rights and how these tensions can be mediated by exploring the right to religious freedom. In order to do this, two approaches will be studied, one liberal and one postcolonial, represented by Martha Nussbaum and Saba Mahmood respectively. In comparing the approaches of Nussbaum and Mahmood, their arguments and positions become clearer, but also the nuances of the debate between universalism and contextualism. The right to religious freedom, with its many tensions between theory and practice, has been useful in exploring what values are at stake when we talk about human rights in general and how we can think about the apparent tension between universalism and contextual sensitivity. The thesis thus shows that there are more similarities between these two approaches than it may first seem and that they are not incompatible. This is argued to provide insight into possible ways of mediating human rights between theory and practice. / Denna uppsats utgår från en filosofisk diskussion kring spänningen mellan universella anspråk och specifika sammanhang när det kommer till mänskliga rättigheter och hur dessa spänningar kan medlas utifrån en undersökning av religionsfriheten. För att åstadkomma studeras två inriktningar, den ena liberal och den andra postkolonial. Dessa inriktningar representeras av Martha Nussbaum respektive Saba Mahmood. I och med en jämförande analys mellan dessa två inriktningar är förhoppningen att deras likheter och skillnader blir tydligare, samt att nyanserna inom debatten mellan universalism och kontextualism blir tydligare. Det finns många spänningar mellan teori och praktik när det kommer till rätten till religionsfrihet och just denna rättighet är på så sätt användbar för att utforska spänningen mellan universalism och kontextualism när det kommer till mänskliga rättigheter. Denna uppsats visar därmed att det finns flera likheter mellan dessa inriktningar och att de därför inte kan anses vara oförenliga med varandra. Detta för med sig en insikt i möjligheter till att medla mänskliga rättigheter mellan teori och praktik.

By comparative analysis of Swedish cultural policy (including art policy, heritage policy and Church policy) during the Riksdag periods of 1970-73, 1991-94, 1994-98 and 1998-2002 the relationship between cultural policy and the concept of the nation as a homogenous cultural community (defined by either an ethnic or a state-framed concept) is explored. Neoinstitutional analysis of cultural policy as an organisational field is combined with analysis of how the nation is conceived as an imagined community, and what values it strives to uphold to show how these values and concepts are institutionalised in its cultural policy and how this supports the legitimacy of the State as a nation-state. In the early seventies, when a general cultural policy was first established in Sweden, most of its fields were already institutionalised and bound by strong path dependencies, binding art policy to protecting universal aesthetic values within the state-framed nation and heritage policy to ethnic particularism while Church policy stood between universalism and ethnic particularism (which infected the relationship between Church and State). These contradictions were managed by strong borders between the fields. In the early seventies these were overlaid with a general cultural policy focused on universal civil values within the state-framed nation. Since then the conflict between Church and State has been defused and the norms of heritage policy have become closer to those of cultural policy at large by the claim that cultural heritage should be used to uphold civil values (e.g. democracy and tolerance). In the late nineties cultural policy has again become less integrated by new government initiatives with specific goals. Civil universal values remain dominant while concepts of the nation are increasingly multi-ethnic. / Genom jämförande analys av svensk statlig kulturpolitik (inklusive konstpolitik, kulturarvspolitik och religionspolitik) under riksdagsperioderna 1970-73, 1991-94, 1994-98 and 1998-2002 undersöks relationen mellan kulturpolitiken och föreställningen om nationen som en homogen kulturell gemenskap som i vissa fall tänks inkludera dess innevånare och i andra fall en etnisk grupp. Nyinstitutionell analys av kulturpolitik som organisatoriskt fält kombineras med analys av hur nationen konceptualiseras som en föreställd gemenskap och vilka värderingar den upprätthåller för att visa hur dessa värden och koncept institutionaliseras i statens kulturpolitik och hur denna bidrar till att upprätthålla nationalstatens legitimitet. När en enhetlig kulturpolitik etablerades i Sverige i början av 1970-talet var de flesta av de ingående fälten redan låsta i sedan länge etablerade stigberoenden som band konstpolitiken till upprätthållandet av estetiska värden inom ramarna för en med utgångspunkt i staten definierad nation samtidigt som kulturarvspolitiken bundits vid etniskt partikularistiska nationskoncept och kyrkopolitiken slets mellan universalism och etnisk partikularism (vilket komplicerade kyrka-stat-relationen). Motsättningar hanterades genom kraftiga institutionella gränser mellan fälten. Till dessa fogades en övergripande kulturpolitik baserad på universella civila värden inom ramarna för den statsdefinierade nationen. Sedan dess har konflikten mellan kyrka och stat lösts upp och kulturarvspolitiken integrerats i den generella kulturpolitiken bl.a. genom organisatoriska reformer. I slutet av 1990-talet tycks trenden mot en allt mer integrerad kulturpolitik dock ha vänt bl.a. genom direkta men begränsade regeringsinitiativ. Den domineras fortfarande av universella civila värden, men också av alltmer mångetniska föreställningar om nationen.