Photo by: Charles Ng
More than 600 people, including students, faculty, staff and the larger Denver community, attended the three-day School of Communication Summit 2004 last week at the Cable Center.
The conference kicked off with a banquet and the Hathorne keynote address by ABC White House correspondent Ann Compton. Compton spoke about the challenges of covering presidents and their families.
She gave a riveting account of President Bush’s actions during the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11. She was the only TV network pool reporter aboard Air Force One as the president and his staff faced the dreaded “doomsday” scenario of America under attack.
Thursday morning, Compton had breakfast with students from the Ethics and Responsibility in Mass Communications class and Robert and Barbara Hathorne, whose $500,000 gift has made the annual summits possible. Students questioned Compton about ethical dilemmas that she runs into daily.
Compton said that the ethical line is drawn between what is acceptable and not acceptable when what is reported affects a person’s job or reputation. For example, Bush’s daughter, Jenna, was caught using a fake I.D. twice. The first time Jenna was caught, Compton said ABC didn’t cover it. But the second instance warranted coverage.
Compton said the Clinton/Lewinski scandal was the only dark period in her career as White House reporter because of its sordid nature and because she found it appalling that Lewinski was rewarded for her scandalous behavior. But she also said the media played a big part in fanning the fire because “reporters love a good chase and the thrill of the hunt.”
Concurrent panel discussions on ethics in personal communication and in media practices began at 9 a.m. Denver Post Critic-at-large Kyle MacMillan, who moderated a panel on the use of information reporters collect, cited a 2001 survey that showed that 46 percent of Americans distrust the media. The same study showed that car salesmen and life insurance salesmen were both more trusted than journalists. And then he asked what the ramifications of this statistic were.
This topic was discussed by panelists Tamara Banks of WB2 News, Stacey Farb, news reporter from KNRC Radio, John Haile, former editor of the Orlando Sentinel and 7News investigative reporter Tony Kovaleski.
Banks said that this survey’s results as well as the results of other more recent polls were a backlash from the fabrication of stories by journalists such as Jayson Blair of The New York Times. She said that it is important for journalists to question what they are doing every day.
“Every newsroom in America should’ve had conversations after the Jayson Blair affair,” she said.
At another panel, panelists discussed how technology has changed the media. At the panel “Ethics in the Digital Age,” panelists Stephen Keating, business editor of the Denver Post, Laura Ruel, director of the Estlow International Center for Journalism and New Media, Aquinas Woodworth, director of NextScribe, Carl Raschke, professor and chair of DU’s Religious Studies Department and moderator Jeff Rutenbeck, director of Digital Media Studies discussed whether new technology “makes us better people,” or if it “makes us have to be better people.”
However, Ruel said that ethics should drive technology and not the other way around. Adobe Photoshop gives computer users ability to manipulate photos with ease, she said. How a journalist utilizes this opportunity is where ethics come into play.
Raschke examined the digital divide and concluded that economics and education put some individuals at a greater disadvantage in their quest for information online.
Other panels during the morning session included a discussion of the alternative press, the ethics of advocacy and public service as ethical work.
Fran Dickson, chair of the Department of Human Communications, introduced the lunch plenary and academic keynote address. The address was given by Michael Hyde, ethics professor from Wake Forest University.
Hyde spoke about each individual’s responsibility to lead an ethical life – not just on the surface or for the benefit of others, but on the inside as well. He expressed his concern with the hypocritical way the media excessively covered and criticized Janet Jackson’s exposure at the Super Bowl, while no one complained about the sexually explicit ads during the telecast.
“Children also saw the ads about a four-hour erection,” said Hyde. “Why didn’t anyone mention that?”
Ethics should not merely be discussed, he said.
“You have to get your people out in the field,” Hyde said. “Take it into businesses. Do something that is going to work.”
Following the lunch, participants selected from concurrent panels, including a videoconference panel with veteran White House correspondent Helen Thomas, who has reported from the White House for 44 years. Moderating the discussion was Steve Scully, senior executive producer and political editor for C-SPAN. Also included in the discussion were students from the University of Purdue and various guests in the studio.
Karen Tumulty, senior White House correspondent for Time magazine, Thomas and students discussed how television influenced the Nixon, Ford and Clinton administrations.
Other panels explored the ethics of reality television programs and the crafting of an ethical culture in Denver’s city government
Friday was business development day aimed at the larger Denver community and a discussion of ethical issues in the business world.
The day kicked off with a breakfast and panel discussion. The panel, “Use it or Lose it: Reputation Equals Corporate Trust,” consisted of Chairman of Frontier Airlines Sam Addoms, President and COO of Adelphia Communications Ron Cooper, President and CEO of Western Industrial contractors Barbara Grogan and Wake Forest University Professor Michael Hyde and President and CEO of Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce Joe Blake, who was the moderator.
The panel discussed the importance of ethics in the business world and how to instill ethical business practices in the work place. The panelists discussed the uphill battle businesspeople face in establishing their ethical credibility in a society rocked by corporate scandals.
Cooper shared his experience with rebuilding Adelphia Communications after the business declared bankruptcy and the founders were indicted for looting the company.
The three-day event ended with two sessions, “Sarbanes-Oxley-Does it Work?” and “Journalism Ethics: Do They Make This Stuff Up?”
