WASHINGTON - It has been a bad
year for the ethics of journalists, but that seems to have made
it a good year for academic specialists and journalism educators
interested in ethics, religion and the media.
The ethical problems associated with stories written for or produced
for The New Republic, The Boston Globe, The Cincinnati Enquirer,
CNN and Time magazine highlighted a poor ethical performance by
columnists and news-gatherers in 1998.
But in its methodical way, the academic world of journalism appears
to be reacting to the bevy of bad news with burgeoning interest
and increasing research plans in media ethics and the relation
of religion and the media.
The Media Ethics Interest Group of the Association for Education
in Journalism and Mass Communication, the nation's largest group
of journalism educators, has decided to apply for divisional status
two years ahead of schedule.
Normally in the structure of such organizations, interest groups
develop slowly and become divisions of the parent organization
only after they have accumulated strong numbers that can influence
the membership.
Interest in media ethics caught
fire last year. Then at the AEJMC convention in Baltimore in August
of this year, more than 240 members signed a petition requesting
that the Media Ethics Interest Group be granted division status,
according to a report from the group's chairwoman, Michelle Johnson
of Westfield State College in Massachusetts.
Writing in the interest group's newsletter distributed this month,
Johnson told her colleagues, "We are now in a good position
to apply for division status because we are the largest and fastest
growing AEJMC interest group."
Johnson said of the media-ethics group, "The resurgence in
interest in ethics in journalism education, scholarship and the
profession indicates there is both a need and a desire for more
research and teaching in this area. We want to fill that need."
AEJMC's executive committee will vote on the media-ethics petition
for divisional status in December. If the committee approves the
application, the vote goes to the members at the AEJMC annual
convention in New Orleans in 1999.
Although not quite ready to apply for divisional status, the related
Religion and Media Interest Group published its first newsletter
this fall. Like the media-ethics group, it has seen a burst of
interest in the past year.
The two-year old religion-and-media
group saw its membership increase by more than 35% in the past
year. Such academic interest groups are considered successful
if they can add a half-dozen or so members each year. Almost 40
new members had joined the Religion and Media Interest Group by
the time of the 1998 convention.
Jack Ortizano of the Franciscan College of Steubenville, Ohio,
the outgoing head of the Religion and Media Interest Group, issued
a declaration in the group's first newsletter defending journalists'
interest in religion.
"The success of the Religion and Media Interest Group
confirmed my belief that, stereotypes to the contrary, religion
and media are not oppositional," Ortizano wrote.
"Those of us who have worked in the media know that the press
is not a conspiracy to undermine religion in America," he
said.
Noting the nature of journalists
to question powerful institutions and to avoid overt religious
evangelizing within the profession, Ortizano wrote, "Nevertheless,
our newsrooms function as part of their communities and, therefore,
generally are supportive of local religious groups and their activities."
In the inaugural newsletter, Religion Matters, Judith Buddenbaum
of Colorado State University, Ortizano's successor as head of
the religion-and-media group, wrote to her colleagues, "I
no longer feel like a voice crying in the wilderness. The public
and members of our profession increasingly agree that understanding
the interplay between religion and the media is as important as
understanding the relationships between media and
politics or science."
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