Upcoming and past meetings, events, lectures, resources, and seminars related to media ethics are shared here. The announcements that follow are based on information supplied by the organizations involved or other sponsors. If you wish to have announcements of future meetings published in Media Ethics, please contact the editor at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
“Fake news” research in progress
Earlier this fall, scholars were selected by the Page Center to study the current state of "fake news." Those scholars contributed blog posts that preview their work and discuss expectations of their research. You can read all of the posts on the Page Center's website .
Resources for Teaching Ethics
A growing list of case studies suitable for use in media and communication ethics courses can be found at the Media Ethics Initiative website. The Media Ethics Initiative is based in the Center for Media Engagement in the Moody College of Communication at the University of Texas Austin.
The Media Ecology Association International Conference on “ Media Ethics: Human Ecology in a Connected World”
The MEAI conference will take place at the University of Toronto, June 27-30, 2019. Bringing together leading scholars, experimentalists, and experts from all over the world and different disciplines, the conference welcomes scholarly works that entice important ethical discussions and challenges that face humanity in a connected world. The conference threads include, but not
limited to: AI; data ethics, privacy, and surveillance; cyber security and data protection; misinformation, net Neutrality, digital inclusion; digital citizenship, social and political engagement; individual expression, wellbeing sustainability and prosperity in the media environment. Papers, abstracts, and panel proposal submissions are also welcome from the broad array of disciplines focusing on the study of media as environments, technology and techniques, modes of information, and symbolic codes of communication that constitute media ecology.
The Call-for-Papers has been recently extended. The final deadline is January 15, 2019. More details: http://mediaethics.ca/Call-for-Papers
Announcement of “Education for Justice” Program:
The branch of the UN (see first link below) with which I have been working over the past two years has completed curriculum in ethics/integrity and social justice/diversity at the university level to be available for use worldwide in ways that can be adopted regionally and customized for local use. Similar curricular development within UNODC is ongoing for ethics and integrity instruction at the high school and grade school levels. I wish to share with you an update and sample of our work below. Naturally if you know of any colleagues worldwide who might be interested in studying, adopting, or publicizing these modules or who express interest in other aspects of the project presented at the link below, please feel free to forward. Thanks for your leadership and your support for ethics and social justice. Tom Cooper
We are happy to announce that the Education for Justice (E4J) initiative has completed the development of a series of 14 University Modules on Integrity & Ethics . The Modules are available here , and can be used by lecturers anywhere as a basis for teaching on integrity and ethics. They contain ideas for class exercises, open source reference materials, and other pedagogical tools.
To promote usage and continuous improvement of the Modules, in the coming months (Aug 2018-June 2019) we will hold the following activities:
1. Regional workshops: A series of regional workshops for university lecturers will be held to enhance their capacity to teach the Modules and integrate them into their courses. E4J held the first lecturer workshop in Europe in August 2018 and aims to hold additional workshops in Latin America (in Oct 2018), Africa, and Asia-Pacific. Please let us know if you have colleagues from those regions who might wish to participate in such a workshop.
2. Participation in international conferences: To raise awareness about the Modules and enhance the network of academics benefiting from them, E4J plans to participate in relevant high-profile international conferences. For example, E4J will participate in the International Legal Ethics Conference VIII ( ILEC 2018) in a session dedicated to the Modules. Please let us know of any such conferences where we can present the Modules.
3. Impact assessment: UNODC is not only concerned with increasing the number of lecturers teaching the Modules, but also seeks to ensure that the Modules are of high quality. To this end, E4J is in the process of designing a study that would help us understand the Modules’ impact on students and inform our efforts to improve and promote the Modules. We will share more details about the impact assessment once the study design is finalized.
4. E4J Champions Programme: Lecturers who are teaching or would like to teach the Modules can henceforth apply for a UNODC sponsorship of up to 1,000 USD to support one of the following activities:
a. Module localization: The sponsorship will support lecturers in adapting the Modules to their specific local, educational and disciplinary contexts, to ensure that the Modules can be easily and effectively taught at their university/department. Such “localization” process would entail different things in different places, depending on what would make the Modules locally useful and attractive. While in some places this would mean enhancing the Modules with local case studies and relevant exercises, in other places it would mean adding local materials to the reading lists, and yet in other places this would require translating the Modules to a local language. Applicants would take on themselves to mobilize colleagues to assist with the localization process, essentially leading a local focus group that adapts the Modules to the relevant contexts. The sponsorship recipients will receive guidance from UNODC and will be required to report on their progress, outcome and student feedback.
b. Mentorship: The sponsorship will support lecturers who wish to travel to/spend time at another university in order to mentor/coach less experienced lecturers on how to teach on the basis of the E4J Modules.
c. Academic publications: The sponsorship will cover expenses that relate to the publication of a paper or essay about integrity and ethics education which refers to the E4J Modules.
