The Colorado Colloquium on Media Ethics & Economics:
Competing Imperatives and Duties
September 15-17, 2008
Estes Park, Colorado
As part of a decade-long series aimed at enhancing scholarship in applied media ethics, a consortium of Colorado universities will host the colloquium – the ninth in the Colloquia 2000 series – to bring together scholars exploring the intersection of media ethics and media economics.
Ten research fellows will be selected from the proposal competition to develop scholarship on media ethics theory application to commercial media systems. Single-authored proposals are welcome, but selected fellows will be paired to produce a total of five papers. Fellows will be selected in part with the aim of creating teams to combine disciplines and/or pair junior scholars with senior scholars. Once selected, teams will develop a draft paper that will be presented at the colloquium. Team members then will refine their work into a co-authored manuscript that will be given priority consideration for publication in the Journal of Mass Media Ethics. The deadline for proposals is April 15.
Selected fellows will receive an honorarium and support to cover transportation, accommodations and meals. They will stay at the colloquium site, the YMCA of the Rockies, a premier mountain resort in Estes Park. At 9,000 feet above sea level, Estes Park is the scenic gateway to Rocky Mountain National Park, 90 minutes from Denver International Airport.
Proposals should focus on questions involving media ethics theory and economic structure. The colloquium encourages proposals that explore the increasingly competing imperatives of media economics and the ethical dimensions of media practice. Proposals may focus on one or more media sectors such as journalism, advertising, public relations, community media and new communication technologies, and may address issues such as profitability, public service, media capitalization, social justice, corporate responsibility, and notions of harm, accountability and control. The colloquium is most interested in proposals with a macro-level focus on applied moral philosophy – for example, innovative efforts to explore intersections of business or economic theory with ethical theory, in the context of media performance – and is less interested in case studies or more prescriptive “media reform” advocacy.
During the colloquium, fellows will present their work to, and solicit feedback from, each other and the senior scholars who form the colloquium series steering committee. Students and faculty from the hosting universities – the University of Colorado, Colorado State University, the University of Northern Colorado and Denver University – also will be invited to attend a public session.
Proposals should include the following:
- A 500-word abstract for an envisioned original paper
- A curriculum vitae
- Indication, if any, of a desired team membership
- Notification of whether you have applied for or participated in previous colloquia in the series (for data-collection purposes; this will not affect decisions for fellowships).
E-mail proposals by midnight April 15 to:
Patrick Lee Plaisance
patrick.plaisance@colostate.edu
Department of Journalism & Technical Communication
Colorado State University
New graduate certificate in media ethics offered at the University of Oregon
A new graduate certificate program in Media Ethics will be offered beginning in the fall of 2006 at the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication. The certificate will be offered initially to students enrolled or planning to enroll in graduate studies in any program at the university. The program will consist of 28 credits of coursewok in various areas of communication ethics, including but not limited to: Mass media ethics, philosophy of communication, persuasion and ethics, photographic ethics, visual truth, advertising ethics, and communication research ethics. The bulk of the coursework will be taken within the School of Journalism and Communication, with required outside coursework in areas such as Philosophy, Business, and Political Science. For students enrolled in the masters and doctoral programs in the School of Journalism and Communication, the certificate will be an enhancement to their existing degree program with some courses counting toward both the degree and the certificate.
For information on the new certificate program, contact:
Tom Bivins
School of Journalism and Communication
1275 University of Oregon
Eugene, OR, 97403
email: tbivins@uoregon.edu
phone: 541-346-3740
