ICA Media Ethics Conference

Geekgasmic! And not just because I'm in it! :)

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Media Ethics Preconference

Sponsored by the ICA Philosophy of Communication Division. Cosponsored by the ICA Journalism Studies and Mass Communication Divisions, and by New York University’s Department of Culture and Communication and the Council for Media and Culture

Thursday, May 21, 8:30 – 17:00

The preconference will bring together communication scholars, media theorists, journalists, and practitioners to collectively consider the question of media ethics. Ethics has recently emerged as a central concern in the humanities and social sciences, as well as in various subsets of media and communication studies. An increasing number of scholars are now involved in issues directly pertaining to the relation of media and ethics while drawing on various philosophical traditions. While ethical issues have accompanied the development of media studies from its inception and, agreement on a broad conceptual framework for media ethics is still to be established and a broad dialogue between theoretical perspectives on ethics and contemporary media practitioners yet to be achieved. The preconference will provide a platform for such an attempt.

8:30-9:00 Breakfast and registration

9:00-10:30 Opening plenary: Perspectives on Media Ethics: Ronald Arnett, Lilie Chouliaraki, Clifford Christians

10:30-10:45 Coffee Break

10:45-12:00 SESSION 1: Media and Morality
• ‘Local Cosmopolitanism’: Media Ethics for Diasporic Youth – Ingrid Volkmer & Esther Chin
• Political Discourse Cultures and Transcultural Media Ethics: Media and Morality in European Political Communication – Andreas Hepp, Michael Brüggemann, Katharina Kleinen-von Königslöw, Swantje Lingenberg & Johanna Möller
• The New Visibility of Body Horror on the Internet: Ethical Stakes and Implications – Kari Andén Papadopoulos
• Children Watching Children: How Filipino Children Represent and Receive News Images of Suffering – Jonathan Corpus Ong

10:45-12:00 SESSION 2: Accountability
• Distinct Responsibilities: Why the Responsibility of Media and Journalism Isn’t the Same – Klaus-Dieter Altmeppen
• Metacoverage as an Accountability System? A Framing Model of Election News – Paul D’Angelo & Frank Esser
• Covering the Duke Lacrosse Case: Professional Perspectives on Journalism Ethics – Glen Feighery
• Arguing for Accountability: Toward a Cross-Cultural Discourse Ethics – Steven F. Rafferty

12:00-13:15 SESSION 3: Audience Involvement and Participation
• Structural and Individual Horizons in Politics of Pity: Mediatised Advocacy for Asylum Seekers – Karina Horsti
• Politics of Disrespect, Ethics of Care: Towards a Normative Framework of Mediated Multiculturalism? – Mirca Madianou
• Emotional Ethics: Media Ethics Through the Lens of Critical Emotion Studies – Brent Malin
• Media Ethics as Field Strategies: What Do Audiences Do With Ethics? – Tim Markham

12:00-13:15 SESSION 4: Objectivity, Truth, Rationality
• A Definition of Journalistic Objectivity as a Performance – Sandrine Boudana
• Narrative Virtue in Times of Moral Uncertainty – Nick Couldry
• Objectivity and Truth: Anatomy of an Endless Misunderstanding – Juan Ramón Muñoz-Tores
• Rituals of Rationality? Lessons from the Mohammed Cartoons Affair – Risto Kunelius

13:15-14:15 Lunch Break

14:15-15:40 SESSION 5: Media, Event, Otherness
• Badiou’s Ethics and the Documentary Enterprise – Garnet Butchart
• Television and the Cognitive Distance From the Poor: Emmanuel Levinas’ Humanism of the Other: Reduction of the Self to the Other –Jae-Hong Kim
• Media Witnessing and Shared Humanity – Amit Pinchevski & Paul Frosh
• The Virtue (-Based) Ethics of Interruption – Piotr Szpunar

14:15-15:40 SESSION 6: Emerging Trends in Journalistic Ethics
• “Everyone’s A Journalist” – Or Are They? Exploring the Ethics of Communicative Practices by Citizen Media – Anne-Katrin Arnold& Lokman Tsui
• Journalism Ethics in Perspective: Desirability and Feasibility of a Separate Code of Conduct for Online Journalism – Christel van de Burgt, Klaus Schönbach and Richard van der Wurff
• Talking to/About Itself: Ethics and News Media Self-Coverage – Stephanie Craft
• The Possible Self-Defeating Quality of the Idea(l) of “The Average Citizen” – Gitte Meyer

15:30-16:15 SESSION 7: Market, Law, Politics
• Hatim El-Hibri – Ethics, Dangerous Media, and the Case of Fitna
• Tina Tomazic – Covert Advertising in the Context of Media Ethics
• Tai-li Wang – Challenge the Myth of Product Placements: The Impacts of Product Placements on News Credibility in TV News Programs
• Bruce A. Williams & Michael X. Delli Carpini – Real Ethical Concerns And Fake News: The Challenge of the New Media Environment

15:30-16:15 SESSION 8: Cosmopolitanism and the Global
• Universal Ethics: New Approaches, New Principles – Clifford G. Christians & Stephen J. A. Ward
• Discourse Ethics and Transcultural Deliberations Analytical Dimensions of “Pathologies of Communication” – Thomas Haeussler
• Global or “Glocal” Media Ethics? – Shakuntala Rao & Herman Wasserman
• Journalism for a World of Strangers: A Cosmopolitan Approach - Wendy N. Wyatt

16:45-17:00 Coffee Break

17:00-18:00 Closing Plenary: Daniel Dayan

Tale of a Celebrity Photo

Sonia Livingstone argues that fans are the most active of audiences. From camping out for premieres to writing elaborate fanfiction to even getting jailed for stabbing the rivals of their idols (see Steffi Graf fan stabbing Monica Seles), fandom exhibits the color and diversity of the act of audiencing. It's cultural studies' weapon against conservative notions of media audiences as infantilized, disengaged and vulnerable dupes.

Let me present my own anecdote as part of our evidence.

Last Christmas, my mom and I were shopping for gifts for my brother at Topman in Rockwell when Jake Cuenca enters the store. My mom apparently is a big "fan" and tells me that she wants to say hi. I carry on rifling through their collection of plaid shirts as I say a silent prayer for her to keep her mouth shut. Jake Cuenca apparently wanted to check out the plaid shirts himself and walks toward us.

Dialogue begins.
Mom: "Hi, Jake."
Jake: (surprised) "Oh. Hi po. Merry Christmas!" (takes off his sunglasses)
Mom: "Merry Christmas, I'm Susan. I'm a fan."

Jake extends his hand for a polite greeting and says thank you. I'm also sure that Cougar! alarm bells started ringing in his head. But the real embarrassment is just about to begin.

Mom: "This is my son, Jon. Jon, this is Jake Cuenca. He's a star in ABS-CBN."
Jake: (turns to me) "Oh. Hi."
Jon: (turns red) "Hi. Yes ma, I know who he is."
Mom: "Huh? You know him?"
Jon: "Yes! I know OF him."
Mom: (turns to Jake) "Oh. He normally doesn't know local celebrities eh. I'm surprised he knows you."
Jake: "Ah ganun po ba?"
Mom: "Oo. Nasa UK kasi siya the past years."
Jon: "But I worked in GMA also. And back then, he was already the star of some of our shows."
Mom: (turns to Jake) "Huh? Nag-GMA ka ba?"
Jake: "Opo. Recent lang po ako sa ABS."
Mom: "Ah ganun ba? Can we have our photo taken?"
(Jake agrees)

Nanggulo na nga, nanginsulto pa. Indeed fans are the most unpredictable and embarrassing of audiences.

Can you say (Day)Dream Job?!

Today I was forced to do bedrest by my doctor (After two days of toofrequent bathroom trips, my test results say it's e coli food poisoning. Eww. Was that oversharing?).

Now, I'm not really used to doing nothing. In fact, my doctor even joked that I still attend an important party as it might be a better cure for chatty old me than being cooped up alone. But anyway, what I did to spend the afternoon was download a bunch of Anderson Cooper 360 video podcasts.

Among my recent faves were of course his interview with Barack Obama and a fun segment with his lightsmen dancing to Beyonce's "Single Ladies" (to Anderson's trademark snickering and half-meant tsk-tsking). I superlove the show. I think it's relevant and fresh and critical. The "Keeping Them Honest" segment, where they verify a politician's statement or promise by digging up other sources, is bold and brash journalism. I like it so much that I have even sent submissions for his "Beat 360" challenge and "The Shot" just to get the AC360 t-shirt they flash on the show.

The show is also visually exciting. From the what of representation (those snazzy touch-screens!) to the who of representation (Andy's at his hunkiest when an annoying politician causes his brow to furrow), it totally delivers. AC360 is the poster program of what Martin Bell (1998) calls a journalism of attachment, and I hope we get our own equivalent in local tv.

Anyway, I got so into it that I Googled job openings on CNN and found these:
1. Producer, Anderson Cooper 360, New York. Minimum 5 years work experience in news television industry. Applicant must be editorially mature with solid knowledge of national and international news. Must have exceptional writing skills, and the drive and determination to create a visually exciting newscast.
2. Summer Interns, Anderson Cooper 360, Washington, DC. Unpaid. Student visas accepted. Internship Description: Anderson Cooper 360 does not shy away from strong opinions, provocative stories and challenging issues. Regular features include Anderson’s take on the world of media and the news, with in-depth coverage of justice, politics, health and pop culture, all from contributors who are as engaged, and engaging, as Anderson. March 26, 2009 deadline!

I'd totally apply, but I neither have 5 years news experience nor am I an undergrad! But my (day)dream remains to host a Media Conference with AC as plenary speaker! I'd plan it like couples plan weddings! Complete with photo booth, open bar, and waltz!

25 Random Things

(Cross-posted from Facebook)

1. I look Chinese, my dad is Chinese, my titas are superChinese, but I can’t speak a word of Chinese. Not a word. And I feel bad when I have to apologize that I can’t speak Chinese, say, to a waiter or to a fellow student recruiting me to a Chinese society. We used to live in Fairview, and my parents couldn’t find a Chinese grade school that was nearby. So there.

2. From grade school to college, my friends’ and my fave pastime was listing teachers’ mispronunciations and grammar gaffes. My all-time fave: an English teacher’s insistence that the correct S-V agreement is “Some of the marbles IS on the table” because “some” is “collective” and therefore singular.

3. I was a perfect student in appearance only. I used to pay a fellow classmate to do my arts and crafts projects. And I’ve participated in various and ingenious kinds of “cooperative learning.”

4. I think I had my first boycrush in the 6th Grade. Heehee. But I had no memorable crushes in high school coz my classmates were kinda all nerdy with their Magic Cards.

5. My favorite word in the English dictionary is REPRESENTATION. In Tagalog, it’s gotta be CHIMAY, or chims.

6. As a student, I used to give tikoy (a Chinese New Year cake) to the teachers whom I thought may not give me an “A”. My friend Joey teased me mercilessly about this.

7. I took figure skating classes as a teen. And my coach said I was graceful and had good form.

8. I know gymnastics—its history, its stars, its politics, its judging system. I used to be part of a gymnastics tape trading club, and I have accumulated over 500 VHS tapes of gymnastics meets from the 70s to the 00s. I know the names of all the skills and can calculate routine start values.

9. A few years ago, I met this guy who was a former gymnast. And he took me to my first gymnastics class. I had a crush on him and wanted to impress him. The day ended with me crashing on the parallel bars and having two big bruises in my upper arms. I swear that was why we didn’t end up boyfriends.

10. During our Comm Roast, I won the Boy Abunda Award for biggest gossip.

11. I realize this list is becoming very gay.

12. Is it just me or are weddings and engagements bittersweet? I sometimes feel like I’m losing a friend when I see them get hitched.

13. My brother does not look like me. At all. I used to wonder whether I (or he) was adopted until I saw our birth certificates. But yeah, I know the Chinese can fake documents (cf Beijing gymnastics controversy).

14. I sometimes miss corporate life. I miss my cube, with the special furniture Tet picked out for me. I miss the people—way nicer than academics. And I miss seeing celebrities. Haha.

15. Yeah, I know she’s J, but I loved Angel Locsin. I still remember when I was introduced to her, and she was so nice and chatty. And I was superaffected when she moved to ABS.

16. To get my creatives team to work overtime, I used to buy them Bread Talk.

17. I was looking forward to working with Roger Silverstone when he died three months before I arrived at LSE.

18. I am fixated with tanning. My self-esteem is low when I’m pale. Curiously, I’ve developed my best tans in Europe than in Islands Philippines. Jet agrees with me that the sun is different there from here. There I am able to tan golden-brown as opposed to here when I burn and turn red-pink.

19. But no one has agreed with me yet that the sky is bluer in England than anywhere else in the world.

20. I think Montreal has the highest ratio of beautiful people per square meter than all the cities I’ve been to. I look forward to visiting again.

21. One of my proudest moments: My LSE classmate from Los Angeles was working on her dissertation on the Make Poverty History humanitarian ads. She needed someone to identify all the celebrities in the ad. And of all of us there, she picked the chinky-eyed Filipino to help her with this entertainment-geek task.

22. One of my most shameful moments: My UK supervisors were here in the Philippines. And taking a break from our fieldwork in Los Banos, we stopped to buy fruit from a fruit stand along the highway. Mirca pointed to a citrus-y fruit and asked me what it was. I said that it was calamansi, and Danny corrected me and said that it was a dalandan. I also failed to identify a chico and didn’t know what a mangosteen was.

23. Mirca asked me what I knew about Siargao as well, and I said, “Isn’t that up north?”

24. They also asked me when EDSA was built, what a yema ball is made of, why all cabs are tuned to Energy FM, why Filipinos like old songs, whether I’ve flown on chartered plane (“the best way to see the islands!”), what the choi in “kung hei fat choi” and Choi Garden means, etc. And with how I answered (or not), they now know I’m a ditzy geek.

25. I think hospitality is the most important virtue of all. More than honesty or justice or courage or even wisdom. In all that I do, with all the people I meet, I try to be as welcoming and open and caring as I can be. And I’d like to think I host dinners and parties and events pretty well