I’m teaching two courses this summer. In this, the first session, it’s JOUR 4500, Media and Ethics for Journalism. In second session I’m adapting that course for MC 5010 – a special topics course on media and ethics for strategic communication.
That means that I have to throw a few knuckleballs when it comes to things like prior restraint, libel, and the First Amendment. Should be interesting.
The news is getting a bit of a salvo of missiles these days. The government would like the media to be more like PR people and cover positive stuff. Businesses would like the media to be more like PR people and support their initiatives.
The media would like to have the time to report on the salient stories of the day, but is largely too busy serving the 24/7 news cycle of instant gratification – updated web story, video report, expanded piece from the one that aired, extra material from the story that printed…
And yet, mainstream media contributes hugely to social media, a channel through which more and more people are accessing news content. It’s hard for any institution to change.
That’s among the reasons why there’s a management discipline dedicated to change management. News does seem to be changing. I wonder what it’s changing into?
