John Calhoun Merrill

Twilight of press freedom : the rise of people's journalism

Contents: E.E. Dennis, Foreword. Preface. Introduction: A New Spirit of Community. The Sunrise of Freedom. Freedom From Freedom. Order Out of Chaos. The Communitarian Alternative. Anticipating Community. Rise of Public Journalism. Talking Public Journalism. Practicing Public Journalism. The Waning of Press Autonomy. Epilogue: A Brief View Into the Future.

Social stability and harmony: A new mission for the press?

The world appears to be ready for a new journalism paradigm— one that stresses order and social harmony. Western media dominance is still a fact of life as the 21st century dawns. But the social form, pulling ever more complex populations toward order, cooperation, and a need for authority, is thrusting media systems into a new and more harmonious communitarianism. The harbinger of such a drift away from the older libertarianism is found even in the US where public journalism is being heralded by many as an antidote to harmful effects of 18th Century Enlightenment liberalism that is accused of pushing journalism increasingly toward social irresponsibility and even chaos.

Do We Teach Ethics--Or Do We Teach ABOUT Ethics?.

I he April issue of Journalism Educator underscores and to some extent dramatizes the growing popularity of the teaching of ethics in American journalism and communications educational programs.’ Until fairly recently, ethics was generally glossed over or dealt with in tangential and unsystematic ways: An obvious ethical problem here (e.g., Should journalists accept gifts or junkets?) and an ethical dilemma there (e.g., What does a journalist do when faced with a felt obligation to tell the truth and also with a felt obligation to refrain from causing grief or psychic harm to a person or to hold back information for national security or some other reason?). Now that full-blown courses in journalistic ethics are with us, perhaps stimulated by the explosive 1960’s and the Watergate furor a little later, we face many problems and responsibilities not really very bothersome previously. Just how do we teach ethics? Do we really reach ethics (or what journalists ought to do), or do we teach about ethics? Do we try to instill certain ethical standards or principles in students-or do we simply present them with a variety of alternative ethical solutions, leaving

Communication and Culture

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IMPACT ON THE WAY OF LIFE edited by Liam Bannon, Ursula Barry and Olav Hoist (Dublin, Ireland: Tycooly International Publishing/New York: Unipub, 1982---price not given, paper) BASIC ISSUES IN MASS COMMUNICATION: A DEBATE by Everette E. Dennis and John C. Merrill (New York: Macmillan, 1984---price not given) THE NEW COMMUNICATIONS by Frederick Williams (Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth, 1984---0

Message Energits: Propellents and Stimulants of Communication

15.95, paper) EDUCATION IN THE MICROELECTRONICS ERA by John Maddison (Milton Keynes, England: The Open University Press, 1983---about

The Imperative of Freedom: A Philosophy of Journalistic Autonomy

10.00, paper) PUTTING DELL ON THE MAP: A HISTORY OF THE DELL PAPERBACKS by William H. Lyles (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1983---

Journalism ethics : philosophical foundations for news media

27.95)

Global journalism : topical issues and media systems

Energy units in the communications and in the end is devoured by its own stream, conforming with various prininertia.) ciples of entropy as explicated by WienThe higher the ratio of energits in a er and others, explode, tremble, vimessage, the more dynamic it is, the brate, shrink, and even disappear in a more explosive, the more impelling. context of friction, expansion, and dissiThe higher the ratio of energits, the pation.2 These units are not the Same more viable and the more versatile it is. as “bits” or “binary ,units” as underThe highly energized message has the stood by the information theorist or cornpotential of wider reception and projecmunications engineer. Rather they are tion. Explosive, viable and well-formed