Hosted by the College of Communication\u2019s Divison of Emerging Media, the conference, \u201cJournalism and the Search for Truth in the Age of Social Media\u201c, took place on April 24-25, 2017, at Boston University.<\/p>\n
As the journalism profession struggles to respond to social media\u2019s proliferating role, fresh social scientific and philosophical perspectives are required to comprehend news in relationship to the pursuit of truth. Such perspectives will allow insight into the limits and potential of news creation. Moreover, they will yield a firmer grasp of professional journalism\u2019s role as the public consumes and responds to news.<\/p>\n
Social media-based production and consumption of news poses not only unprecedented challenges to journalism\u2019s gatekeeper role in society but also to democratic processes themselves. Social media\u2019s effects reverberate around the world, altering events on a global scale. Although there is a constantly changing kaleidoscope of particular manifestations of these challenges, questions of credibility and truthfulness as represented through information outlets have recently gained renewed prominence.<\/p>\n
Social media-based production and consumption of news poses not only unprecedented challenges to journalism\u2019s gatekeeper role in society but also to democratic processes themselves.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
This was an issue foreseen by\u00a0<\/span>James E. Katz<\/a>\u2019s 1998 article, \u201cStruggle in cyberspace: Fact and friction on the World Wide Web<\/a>.\u201d Of course in the intervening years, this struggle has broadened well beyond the World Wide Web to encompass an array of rapidly evolving digital outlets and technologies. Indeed, the struggle has become a pivotal dimension concerning how people come to grips with their reality.<\/p>\n
Consequently, a sense of crisis has gripped many quarters as the authority of democratic processes and institutions have been questioned. One response has been calls for action that are now reverberating throughout boardrooms, college campuses, and legislatures. In response, steps are already being taken by media giants, but to unknown effect and with virtually no transparency or accountability. Moreover, such steps have been greeted by telling criticism on philosophical, ideological and oligopolistic grounds.<\/p>\n
To pursue a clearer understanding of the scope and implications of this dramatic struggle between fact and fiction, which now goes to the heart of the journalistic enterprise, Boston University will hold interconnected sessions April 24-25, 2017.<\/p>\n
During these sessions, social media\u2019s interaction with journalism and democracy will be analyzed from philosophical, ethical, practical and political perspectives. Experts from these fields will examine the current situation and consider likely future trajectories. Drawing on such an array of specialties, and by taking a cross-cutting approach, the event co-sponsors anticipate that new insights will be gained into the high-pressure world of journalism and its responsibilities. Discussions will be aimed at laying the conceptual groundwork for recommendations and action at the professional, procedural and policy levels.<\/p>\n
Practitioners and subject-matter experts will give brief papers on selected topics which will then be followed by interrogative discussion. The the talks are organized into panels. In each panel there will be a brief presentation by the paper author followed by an extended commentary from among panelists.<\/p>\n
Audiences, both attending in-person and participating via live-streaming sessions, will have an opportunity to raise questions and contribute viewpoints. Ample time is also scheduled for informal discussion so that discrete ideas can be explored in depth and serendipitous interpersonal connections can be forged. Following the conference, selected papers will be published online and in special issues of peer-reviewed journals so that the ideas developed and expressed during the conference can receive wide circulation. Some talks and interview excerpts will also be posted online to further the event\u2019s impact.<\/p>\n