Capturing the lively discussions, presentations, and other events that make up the daily activities of the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University.
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Do we need more editorial control on the Web? In this brief clip, the Chairman, President, and CEO of Seagate Technology, Stephen Luczo, argues that we do. He also cautions that digital media channels sometimes unwittingly lend a gloss of credibility to stories that don't deserve it. Luczo sees this as a symptom of a broader breakdown between responsibility, accountability, and consequences in the online world.
Luczo's remarks are part of the video series "Internet Ethics: Views from Silicon Valley." Responding to them is Chad Raphael, Chair of the Communications Department and Associate Professor at Santa Clara University.
Representatives from news media outlets from the entrepreneurial to the massive are visiting Santa Clara University today for a Roundtable on Digital Journalism Ethics sponsored by the Ethics Center. The focus of this third annual event is journalism in the public square.
Keynote speaker Todd Gitlin, political writer, sociologist, and cultural commentator from Columbia University, kicks off the procedings with his presentation, "Who Can Deliver the Journalism We Need in the Digital Public Square?”
Other participants include Sue Gardner, Executive Director, Wikimedia Foundation;Henry Holzman, Chief Knowledge Officer, MIT Media Lab; and Richard Gingras, Head, News & Social Products at Google.
Image by Mike Licht, available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial license on Flickr.
The decision by a New York paper to publish the names and addresses of gun owners along with a map of their locations sparked a lively discussion by the Center's Emerging Issues Group. The group meets weekly to talk about the ethical issues behind the news. You can hear a podcast of the conversation here.
A panel of experts focuses on the ethical issues that arise for journalists when religion is so prominent in the current presidential election, Thursday, Oct. 4, 3:45 - 5:30 p.m., in Bannan 142 (Note location change). Participants include expert journalists, a visiting group of masters’ students from Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg in Germany, and SCU faculty.
According to the Society of Professional Journalists’ Code of Ethics, American journalists “believe that public enlightenment is the forerunner of justice and the foundation of democracy. The duty of the journalist is to further those ends by seeking truth and providing a fair and comprehensive account of events and issues,” thus creating an informed public square.
Questions we will discuss: Should journalists incorporate cultural values in their coverage of the general election? Which values (and whose) should get prominence? Do journalists have a responsibility to reach beyond campaign platforms in order to provide the facts and perspectives that might stimulate broader discussion of issues such as contraception, same-sex marriage and immigration? What responsibility do journalists have, if any, to highlight “truthfulness” or the lack thereof? How should they define “truth” in this context? What is journalists’ responsibility to address stereotypes and fears regarding minority religions such as Islam, Mormonism, or Catholicism?
Participants include:
Gerardo Fernandez, Editor, Aliana Metropolitan News
Josh Richman, Bay Area News Group
Shirin Sadeghi, blogger and former producer for the BBC and Al Jazeera
Peter Erlenwein, sociopsychologist, journalist and author
Steven Saum, Editor, Santa Clara magazine
Ingrid Stapf, Assistant Professor, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg
Students from Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg interdisciplinary masters program
Sally Lehrman, Knight-Ridder Professor of Communication, Santa Clara University
Paul Soukup, S.J., Associate Professor of Communication, Santa Clara University
Katharine Heintz, Media Analyst and Lecturer, Santa Clara University
Students from Santa Clara University, Introduction to Journalism and Media and Advocacy courses
The migration of news organizations to the online world, including the world of social media, has raised a host of new ethical issues for journalists. Leaders in the online news field reflect on those issues in a series of videos from the Center's recent Executive Roundtable on Digital Journalism Ethics. The meeting also produced a set of "Unavoidable Dilemmas for Digital Journalists."
