The Future of Ethics Panel in Denver
The Media Ethics Division cordially invites all members to attend a special panel in Denver on Thursday Aug. 5 at 3:15 – 4:45, The Future of Media Ethics in Journalism, Public Relations, Entertainment, and Advertising. The real highlight of this forward-looking panel will be the respondent comments from ethics visionaries Clifford Christians and Tom Cooper. Christian’s 2008 book on this topic, An ethics trajectory: Visions of media past, present and yet to come will provide a springboard and reference for further-reaching discussion on applied ethics
This discussion will feature Tom Bivins (representing advertising expertise), Shannon A. Bowen (Joint Editor of the journal Ethical Space), Patrick Plaisance (a prominent journalism/ media ethics scholar), and an as-yet-to-be-named entertainment scholar, (who will tackle the ethics of press agentry). Moderator Lee Wilkins, Editor of the Journal of Mass Media Ethics, will pose challenging questions for the panel.
Debating the future ethical standards and dilemmas of public relations, advertising, journalism, and entertainment, will, no doubt, include much discussion about the speed of information and access, the lack of gatekeepers, and projections of the future ethical challenges of the field posed by new technologies and new modes of news gathering. We encourage you to attend what promises to be a remarkably insightful and memorable panel of the Media Ethics Division.
News from the Mid-winter Meeting
This is a fantastic year to submit a competitive paper to MED! At the mid-winter planning meeting in Jacksonville, we nabbed one of the sought-after high density research sessions (Wed., Aug. 4, 11:45-1:15), in which eight to 10 papers will be presented in an informal, conversational style. These sessions are fantastic for generating new ideas on your research and for helping graduate students learn to present in a low-stress environment. Because of the higher number of papers that we can accept this year, it’s a great time to submit a competitive paper. We ask that you please encourage your graduate students to submit to MED, as well. As always, we are looking for paper reviewers. If interested, please contact our Research Chair, Kati Tusinski Berg at kati.berg@marquette.edu.
Your MED officers did a lot of horse-trading and session wrangling in Jacksonville. We have an exciting panel program awaiting you in Denver. In fact, we will be offering an enormous menu of sessions that MED members can attend – so many that we’ll encourage you to pick and choose wisely! In addition to this the high density research session, we have 10 co-sponsored panels across varying interests, a scholar-2-scholar (poster) session, our traditional research sessions, and a teaching ethics preconference.
Our members (business) meeting is Thurs., Aug 5, 6:45pm-8:15 followed by our Inaugural Offsite Social at 8:30. More details on that will follow, but please mark your calendar now! Check the AEJMC website for more details about the panels we are planning and the location of our Offsite Social.
Special Small Programs call for Denver AEJMC: Social justice journalism in the classroom.
We teach techniques and technology, law and theory, but how should we handle questions of social justice? Advocacy for the poor and powerless is nothing new to journalism. Muckrakers and crusaders through the decades have lived by the motto: “afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted.” Many of us teach students about America's strong tradition of the alternative press that still thrives today. Additionally, many colleges and universities have social justice as part of their mission.
But what should this mean to journalism educators? How does a commitment to social justice square with journalists’ ideals of fairness, accuracy, impartiality and truth? Here’s a chance to explore. SPIG invites critical essays, qualitative papers, and quantitative research on the issues and questions involved in pursuing justice through the journalism classroom.
We already have a slot reserved for this research panel during the Denver convention – 5 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 5. This is in addition to our regular research showcase at the scholar-2-scholar session.
Submit your papers through the standard All Academic on-line process by April 1. (Details available at: http://aejmc.org/_10call.php) Make sure you use the phrase “social justice” somewhere in the title.
If you have any questions, please contact either of us:
John Jenks (jjenks@dom.edu)
Teresa Housel (housel@hope.edu)
