“History’s first draft? Journalism, PR and the problems of truth-telling.”
This one-day annual conference of the Institute of Communication Ethics will examine some of the big moral questions facing all professionals and practitioners in communications:
- How close to the truth is modern journalism; is it really the first draft of history?
- What are the pressures (commercial, proprietorial and so on) against veracity?
- What lessons can historians learn about research methods from journalists – and vice versa?
- How is history represented in the media – and what use is journalism to the study of history?
- Is the growth of PR-dominated “churnalism” further eroding journalistic claims to “objectivity”?
- Is lying ever acceptable to communication professionals?
- When journalists tell “stories” are these not always more fiction than fact?
- Is embedding of all sorts (with the military, parliament, business and so on) endemic and dangerous?
Papers on these and other related issues are invited. Abstracts of 200 words should be sent to Prof Richard Lance Keeble at rkeeble@lincoln.ac.uk by 1 September 2010.
Those selected will be published in a special issue of the quarterly journal, Ethical Space: The International Journal of Communication Ethics (published by the Institute of Communication Ethics). Leading figures from the communications industry and academia will also give keynote addresses.
The conference will take place in Central London on Friday 29 October 2010 from 10 am to 4 pm.
The cost of £25 (free to students) should be payable to the Institute of Communication Ethics.