Professional Concerns
Media Self-regulation in Chile: Media Ethics Council Case
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Francisca Greene
In recent years Chile has emerged in a number of partnerships promoting journalistic self-regulation. Print and visual media have been organized to create ethics boards that help to do their job well. At the same time, various media have created their program guidelines or style manuals that have been made public. This research aims to explore the reasons that led to the creation of the principal and first self-regulatory body in Chile: the Consejo de Ética de los Medios, when and why it was inspired and the idea that the promoters had when they created it.
Re-defining the Journalistic Professionalism in China Mainland: A Study on China News Award Recommendation Letters from 2003 to 2017
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Songlei Li
Theoretically, news award symbolizes the establishment of journalistic professional standards by acknowledging and promoting exemplary practices, which also serve as an important indicator of the level of professionalization. In mainland China, the most renowned journalism prize is China News Award, which was approved by the Central Propaganda Department in 1991 and sponsored by China Journalists Association annually. The finalist for China News Award, however, is nominated and recommended only by the news academia and news industries. These recommendations in application forms including (1) introduction of news work, (2) process of news gathering and presenting, (3) social value and (4) why we like it, signify the status of China’s journalistic professionalization in the context of Chinese political and economic system. Previous correlational studies often focused on Newspaper Commentary on Chinese journalists’ Day, obituaries and departure reports of traditional media reporters, analyzing the nostalgia for the golden age, especially the lost news ideal. This study, examines how mainland China’s news academia and industries use recommendations to strive for and exemplify journalistic standards and ideals to negotiate a new definition of journalism between professionalism and mouthpiece press theory. Specifically, based on the publicity and accessibility of research data, this study analyzes recommendation letters for China News Award from 2003 to 2017 with a focus on four aspects of journalistic professionalization: (1) image of the ideal journalist, especially the characteristics of the ideal journalist; (2) journalists’ definitions of occupational virtues an ideals; (3) public responsibility and (4) boundary drawing between “good” and “bad” journalism.
Hits and Misses: Applying Media Production Frameworks to Social Media Forms
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Kristine Mirrer
Dissection of mass media formats has been used as a means to interpret and understand individual media works. Application of these observations has provided frameworks for the creation of new works, as well. This paper explores this application of accepted media standards to social media works. Consideration is given to multi-platform production and its relationship to social media delivery and questions whether existing media production standards are applicable to multiple media streams and diverse media audiences.
Media Literacy Education: Taking a Fresh Look in the Twenty-first Century Democratic Society
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Sam Nkana
The definition of media literacy has evolved over the years, but continues to purvey the notion of the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, and create media in a variety of forms. Becoming media literate individuals no longer focuses heavily on primary and secondary school students, but has now expanded to include college students, parents, teachers, and professionals in all fields of human endeavors. The National Association For Media Literacy Education (NAMLE) created core principles to further emphasize the importance of media literacy education, emphasizing the following: 1. Media Literacy Education requires active inquiry and critical thinking about the messages we receive and create. 2. Media Literacy Education expands the concept of literacy to include all forms of media (i.e., reading and writing). 3. Media Literacy Education develops informed, reflective and engaged participants essential for a democratic society. Len Masterman, pioneering media educator in England and author of the seminal text, Teaching the Media, affirms NAMLE by stating, “media education is essentially active and participatory.” With this understanding, I explore how United States schools could place more emphasis on media education, more so now that social media has become a mainstay in our society, and fake news is carving a foothold in the news media. Fake news as we’ve come to understand it, is any information that is deliberately meant to be wholly or largely false. These problems, which I believe will get worse, should forge the need for educators to rethink media literacy with greater urgency.
