dinner meetings  ·  sfi conference  ·  past events

Student Faculty Industry Conference 2002
The Ethical Roles and Responsibilities of the Media
April 5 -7, 2002
Callaway Gardens Pine Mountain, Georgia

Journalism is at a crossroads. Increasingly, the profession seems overwhelmed by the sheer size of the media, by hidebound habits, by infotainment, by the quest for sensation and gossip, by the imperatives of the stock market or by a pursuit of ever-fragmenting audiences.

One way for journalism to regain its center is to reflect on what makes it unique--its basic purpose and core standards. Even in a new era, journalism has one responsibility other forms of communication and entertainment do not: to provide citizens with the information they need to navigate the society. That does not mean abandoning the entertaining or the profitable.

But does it imply a commitment to fairness and completeness in offering information about democratic institutions and in organizing that information so that people can make smart decisions about their lives?