By Allan R. Andrews
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WASHINGTON — A media-ethics movement in journalism education has received a New Year blessing.
The executive council of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication has given a green light to the rapidly growing Media Ethics Interest Group of AEJMC — which should turn the 219-member group into the organization's newest division.
Without dissent, and without much questioning, according to council member Wayne Wanta, an associate professor of journalism at the University of Oregon, the AEJMC executive council in early December approved the Media Ethics Interest Group's petition for divisional status.
The full AEJMC membership will vote on the group's petition to become the Media Ethics Division, the 17th division in the organization, at the annual convention in New Orleans in August.
Outgoing group president Michelle Johnson, a journalism professor at Westfield State College in Massachusetts, said division status should give researchers in the area of media ethics legitimacy and stability.
"It will allow us to enter into research partnerships and provide research awards," Johnson said.
She also noted that being a division would give researchers in media ethics more slots on the program at the AEJMC annual convention. "This year in Baltimore we had far more people wanting to make presentations than we had slots for," Johnson said.
A decision was made at the Baltimore convention in August to pursue divisional status even though the interest group was but one year old. Ordinarily, Johnson noted, interest groups exist for at least three years before deciding to seek division status in the 3,300-member journalism educators association.
Wanta agreed. "The council saw that this group really had its act together," he said. "They were organized and focused, and they already have more members than several other divisions in AEJMC. I think among council members, we were all impressed."
Wanta and Johnson agree that the mood of contemporary journalism, spurred by a rash of questionable ethics cases in 1998, has helped the lightning growth of the Media Ethics Interest Group.
"To a degree," Johnson said, "we got lucky." She quickly noted it was not the kind of luck journalists particularly like to see, but she said her committee was extremely interested in the interaction between academic and professional journalists, who often express distrust of one another's perspectives.
"Our entire culture is changing," Johnson said. "We're seeing much more interest in ethics."
Wanta noted that next year's AEJMC convention would devote its full-member sessions to questions of accountability and credibility in the media.
In mid-December, the American Society of Newspaper Editors released the initial findings of its massive credibility survey that showed newspaper readers and editors don't always agree on what's credible. The study challenges journalists to address lapses in credibility with readers.
Wanta said several ASNE members with interest in the issue of credibility will address the AEJMC convention at New Orleans, with its theme of "Crafting Media Credibility and Accountability."
Every division of AEJMC makes an annual report to the organization of its activities, and one of the areas included in the reports concerns professional ethics, Wanta noted. He said that when the membership votes the Media Ethics Division in, it will be the first time the AEJMC has had an entire division devoted to such interests.
Allan R. Andrews can be contacted at allan.andrews@reporters.net.
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