The Journalism Research & Education Section invites submissions for its open sessions at the IAMCR that will be held from June 25-29 at the Dublin City University in Ireland. The theme of the conference is “Crises, ‘Creative Destruction’ and the Global Power and Communication Orders.”
Wars, terrorism, threats to stability and natural disasters have also lead to greater security and surveillance measures worldwide. Many sceptics perceive the current era as the ‘arc of instability,’ where the rate of destruction of journalism is far outpacing the ability of creative minds of journalists and educators, particularly in its civic functions.
Secular and cyclical economic forces have combined to dismantle the professional and educational models that have for decades supported independent, public-minded journalism for large general audiences. Newspapers are closing locally, nationally and internationally. Journalists are heading for dole queues. Other media platforms are transforming, leaving many old trains behind.
Journalism itself isn’t in crisis, but the business of journalism definitely is. It is only through an open and empathetic style of communication that engenders the public’s trust is the most effective. Public suspicions of both journalism during crisis remains very high and alarming increasing for a variety of reasons, including access to more sources of conflicting information, a reduction in the use of scientific reasoning in decision making, and political infighting(Reynolds & Quinn, 2012) .
