086 NAVIGATE THE ‘NEW PROPAGANDA’ WITH MTSU ETHICS LECTURE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Sept. 26, 2006
EDITORIAL CONTACT: Gina E. Fann, 615-898-5385

Media Expert to Offer Tips, Guidance at Oct. 5 Event

(MURFREESBORO)—How do we make sense of the blurry lines between news, information, persuasion, entertainment and advertising?
Dr. Jay Black, Poynter Jamison Chair in Media Ethics, emeritus, at the University of South Florida—St. Petersburg and former director of the Program for Ethics in Education and Community, will offer some guidelines in a special guest lecture Thursday, Oct. 5, at Middle Tennessee State University.
Sponsored by Ethics and Excellence at the College of Mass Communication, Black’s lecture is scheduled from 6 until 7:45 p.m. in Room 104 of the Bragg Mass Communication Building. Seating will be limited, so organizers are encouraging attendees to arrive early.
“Much of what passes for news is laden with what Dr. Black calls ‘the new propaganda’ generated by special interest groups,” said Dr. Thomas Cooper, ethicist-in-residence at MTSU.
“He will initially describe and analyze the new and often-deceptive media mosaic, making note of relevant semantic and ethical dilemmas, and then outline possible remedies for media consumers and practitioners.”
Black, editor of the Journal of Mass Media Ethics since 1984 and author or co-author of 10 books on media and society, media issues and media ethics, has presented some 500 academic and public papers, seminars and workshops and has been an expert witness in two dozen media ethics cases.
“My fundamental argument is that propaganda is inevitable, that it is not just what the ‘bad guys’ do, that contemporary society relishes propaganda [and] that media cater to our closed-mindedness as willing recipients of propaganda,” Black explained.
“If we’re not careful and sophisticated consumers and producers of media fare, there can be serious repercussions for public opinion, community building and self-governance.”
In 1997, the Freedom Forum named Black as co-winner of the national journalism professor of the year award. He holds a doctorate in journalism and sociology from the University of Missouri, a master’s degree in journalism and English from Ohio University and a bachelor’s in English from Miami (Ohio) University. Black also worked as a reporter and copy editor at four newspapers in Ohio and Missouri.
For more information about the lecture, e-mail Cooper at twcooper@comcast.net.

###