430 MTSU COLLEGE OF MASS COMMUNICATION ADDS ETHICIST-IN-RESIDENCE

Esteemed Educator Plans Busy Year of Public, Media, Class Discussions

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 17, 2006
EDITORIAL CONTACT: Gina E. Fann, 615-898-5385

(MURFREESBORO)—A nationally renowned educator will join MTSU’s College of Mass Communication this fall to spearhead a yearlong national conversation on what’s right, what’s wrong and what must change about media ethics.
Dr. Thomas Cooper, a professor of visual and media arts at Boston’s Emerson College, will be the new Ethicist-in-Residence at MTSU for the 2006-2007 academic year, teaching courses, giving public lectures and conducting interactive workshops with local media outlets on journalistic values.
He’ll also be responsible for coordinating a national conference on media ethics and assisting with a poll to “get the pulse of the public on the topic.”
“It is an extraordinary opportunity, and there are endless opportunities here,” Cooper said of the coming academic year.
“There are areas where we can be serving the public as well as education. I want to know our priorities in the ethical field and what steps can be taken to raise consciousness. I want to learn from my colleagues, the public and media professionals about their ethical concerns.”
Cooper, the author or co-author of five published books and more than 100 articles and reviews and the co-publisher of Media Ethics magazine, has taught at Emerson, the nation’s only four-year college devoted almost exclusively to the study of communications and the performing arts, since 1983.
He served as an assistant to Marshall McLuhan and assisted speechwriters in the White House; co-produced some of the first audio spacebridges between U.S. and Soviet communications professionals; and was founding director of the Association for Responsible Communication, which was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in 1988.
His tenure as ethicist-in-residence at MTSU is funded by a $120,000 grant from the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation in Oklahoma City.
The grant prompted a national search for a high-profile media scholar to discuss the challenging ethical demands of the profession with students, the public and local media, and Cooper fit the bill perfectly.
“Tom Cooper is a scholar-teacher of high caliber,” said Dr. Anantha Babbili, dean of the College of Mass Communication.
“He has a track record spanning more than two decades of focusing on journalism and media ethics. He has engaged seminal scholars and outstanding journalists in important conversations on how to improve on professional conduct in our field. He makes ethics come alive for students and professionals.
“I am hoping our students and faculty, as well as the newsrooms of Tennessee, will benefit from his tenure at MTSU.”
One of the largest programs in the nation, the MTSU College of Mass Communication offers degree concentrations in 14 major areas—ranging from journalism to digital media and media management to recording industry management—and is accredited by the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.

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