That’s Infotainment! Is Soft Journalism Undermining Journalistic Integrity?
Tuesday, March 6, 7:30, Holt 170
If a news organization serves the market well, does it also serve
the public well? Increased competition for viewers has caused news organizations to pursue stories about crime, celebrities, lifestyles, even paranormal phenomena at the expense of public affairs reporting on breaking events, major political figures, in short, stories that are in the public interest. Has this served to diminish journalistic credibility? Does our present, market-driven news industry enhance or diminish the public’s interest in the news? As crime rates fell throughout the 1990’s, polls consistently revealed that people believed crime was getting worse. This coincided with an increase in crime stories in the media. How does the change in emphasis from hard to soft news stories affect public discourse and political decision-making? Is hard journalism soon to be a thing of the past?
Marcel Daguerre, Philosophy Department
Morris Brown, Jr., Department of Journalism
Tony Graybosch, Philosophy Department
The Free Market: Liberated but Not Wild
Wednesday, March 28, 7:30 PM, PAC 134
Fred Foldvary, Department of Economics, Santa Clara University
Does the free market recognize ethics? Fred Foldvary not only resoundingly answers “yes,” but also contends that libertarianism is the most ethically sound of all the available moral theories. In his defense of libertarianism, Dr. Foldvary argues that the concept of voluntary human action implies an ethic which determines which acts are voluntary, and so within the market and therefore permitted, and which acts are involuntary, and so outside the market and therefore prohibited. But the same ethical rules that determine the meaning of the market also provide ethical guidance for governance and policy. Thus, he concludes, ethics both determines and requires a free market. As an example, pollution invades and trespasses into others' property, and in a pure market, the polluter would have to compensate the victims. So there would be relatively little pollution in a truly free market. Foldvary suggests that an error that critics of markets make is to assume that today's outcomes are caused by markets, when in fact there is also heavy government intervention in the economy.
Poverty, for example, could be iatrogenic, caused by the very government that then seeks to alleviate it. In his talk, Foldvary presents a bold defense of libertarianism and critique of big government on exclusively ethical grounds.
Fred E. Foldvary received his B.A. in economics from the University of California at Berkeley, and his M.A. and Ph.D. in economics from George Mason University. He has taught economics at the Latvian University of Agriculture, Virginia Tech, John F. Kennedy University, California State University at Hayward, the University of California at Berkeley Extension, and Santa Clara University. Foldvary is the author of The Soul of Liberty, Public Goods and Private Communities, Dictionary of Free Market Economics. He edited and contributed to Beyond Neoclassical Economics and, with Dan Klein, The Half-Life of Policy Rationales. Foldvary's areas of research include public finance, governance, ethical philosophy, and land economics.
Protecting Confidential Sources: How Free Should a Free Press Be?
Wednesday, April 25, 7:30, PAC 134
From Watergate and the Pentagon Papers to Iran-Contra and Abu Ghraib, journalists have used information from confidential sources to reveal information of great public import. Many have used such sources to expose unethical behavior by corporations, government, and even professional athletes. As a consequence, some journalists are so committed to protecting their sources, they are willing to spend time in jail to do so. But some argue there should be strong limits on the use and protection of confidential sources. For example, there are no uniform journalistic policies on what kind of information justifies the use of confidential sources. What if national security is at stake? Then there is the matter of what motives sources have; how dependable are one’s sources and what ends might they wish to achieve by informing a journalist? Finally, are there ever grounds for breaking a confidential agreement? What if a journalist learns that a source is breaking the law by revealing certain information? What if the journalist learns of a sinister ulterior motive by the source?
Aaron Quinn, Department of Journalism
Tim Crews, Publisher, Sacramento Valley Mirror
David Little, Editor, Chico Enterprise Record
Media Monopolies: Are You Getting All the News That’s Fit to Print?
Wednesday, May 2, 7:30, PAC 134
By some accounts, six companies now control 90% of America’s news diet. Is this a problem? What are the effects of the concentration of media ownership? How can choices made at the top levels of media conglomerates affect the news we see and hear, and the ways we see and hear it? Does the existence of the internet and the emergence of citizen journalists online mitigate the concerns about media consolidation among traditional news sources? Two years after the invasion of Iraq, 56% of Americans still believed that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction before the war. Sixty percent believed that Iraq had provided assistance to Al-Qaida. Both claims had been long discredited. Did a lack of news media alternatives play a role in the persistence of both beliefs? What is the future of the fourth estate?
Matt Blake, Department of Journalism
Ron Hirschbein, Philosophy Department
Evan Tuchinsky, Editor, Chico News and Review