Event focuses on future of media

An all-day conference on the future of media institutions and its relationship to democracy brought scholars from around the country to the University campus on Saturday.

The conference, titled "Media & Democracy 2000," gave scholars an opportunity to air concerns, debate alternatives and offer solutions to the questions that exist in the field of media and communications.

"This conference is a good way for us to identify directions that make sense for Michigan to explore, in light of what other universities are doing," said Vincent Price, chair of the communication studies department. "This is really an agenda-setting meeting for us, a way to find out what to do, and what to do different."

Saturday's conference was sponsored both by the Department of Communication Studies and the Howard R. Marsh Center for Journalistic Performance.

MALLORY S.E. FLOYD/Daily Panelist Henry Jenkins and Communication Studies Chair Vincent Price speak at the Media and Democracy 2000 Conference on Saturday.

The current trend of media industry mergers and the resulting concentration of power in fewer hands was a cause for concern to some of the visiting scholars.

"Where is the serious academic research of telecommunications major mergers?" asked American University communications Prof. Patricia Aufderheide. "How many minority owners are there of radio and television stations?"

Topics brought up at the conference included the different agendas of the various actors in the media and communications field, and the uneasy symbiosis between communication academia, industry and the public.

Jane Brown, a professor of journalism and mass communication at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, spoke of the relationship between academic research and industry grants and possible conflicts of interests.

"We have to be very careful about preserving our intellectual integrity," Brown said.

Reaction to the discussion was positive, with audience members saying they found the conference informative and thought provoking.

"I've wondered about the interface of academia and the industry," said Jayne Hamilton, a writer from Bloomfield Hills. "It's disconcerting to hear that we're not that close to a solution on some of these problems, and it's horrible news that students are getting these great educations, and then they go into the work arena and have to conform to the current state of the media journalism."

University of Texas at Austin College of Communication Dean Ellen Wartella also spoke about the new direction that academics in communications are heading toward.

"Universities today are being held accountable in ways that they have never been held accountable before," Wartella said.

Other communication academics voiced concerns with emerging media technology and its consequences for democracy. Nolan Bowie, a communications professor at Temple University, said he wants more public discourse on communications policy. He noted the lack of commentary in the mainstream media on the debate and subsequent passage of the 1996 Telecommunications Bill.

"This bill was debated in academic journals, instead of in the public," Bowie said. "We need to concentrate on technology, and what technology can and should do."

Brown said she remembered being a professional intern at The Detroit News in 1980 and how it made her realize that being a professor was much more to her liking.

"It's hard work being a journalist," Brown said. "I'd rather teach it than do it."

Some of the University's communications scholars said they found the conference to be highly informational.

"It's really interesting to see what other professionals from around the country are thinking about and what questions are being raised," Price said.

11-18-97