CIAO DATE: 10/2008
January 2005
Technological advances, audience behavior, and industry economics are changing the landscape for traditional journalism in the United States. Digital technologies now allow anyone to publish and allow for greater user control over the content received. Audiences are more fragmented in terms of pure numbers, ethnicity, and viewing or reading habits. Moreover, the consequences of these technological and audience behavioral shifts raise significant economic questions for traditional business models in journalism.
Amid these changes, journalism is a profession under constant strain and tension. As a result, during a time when successful new styles of journalism are emerging in the United States and abroad, we have seen executives blur the business with the profession, journalists violate the basic tenets of their craft, and journalistic enterprises falter. It comes as no surprise,then, that ethical and management issues have become more visible and more contentious. News media that serve as a watchdog over other powerful societal institutions are now being called upon to exhibit greater transparency and accountability in their own affairs.
This context was the backdrop for the Eighth Annual Aspen Institute Conference on Journalism and Society, convened by the Communications and Society Program at the Aspen Institute Aspen Meadows campus in Aspen, Colorado, July 16-18, 2004. The Conference on Journalism and Society is a unique forum for leaders at the highest levels of American journalism and media to address new trends in the news business and the rising level of concern over how these trends are affecting the quality of journalism. This year, 24 leading media executives, journalists, and consultants came to Aspen to examine the policies and practices that enable ethical entanglements to occur and to explore strategies by which news organizations can strengthen the public's confidence in the integrity of their journalism.
The conference came in the middle of a challenging year for American journalism-a year that provided constant reminders that technological, economic, and social forces have conspired to raise the level of public accountability expected of journalism.
Resource link: Journalism, Transparency and the Public Interest [PDF] - 736K