The framers of the U.S. Constitution envisioned the news media as a balance to government power through the creation of an informed electorate upon which democracy relies. What happens, however, when challenging the government conflicts with the economic and political interests of the major corporations that now own most of the media in the United States? For example, what if accurate reporting is not as profitable as distorted reporting? What if millions of dollars can be saved by mostly reporting what the government says? What if news stories that avoid fundamental questions yield higher audience ratings than more challenging and controversial coverage? What if news corporations have other business interests (such as large military contracts or patriotic entertainment movies) that create conflicts of interest with respect to honestly covering foreign policy and wars? In short, when do the business and ideological interests of the media conflict with the public interest that our media claim to serve?

These are some of the troubling questions that will be raised by Professor Joshua Meyrowitz’s lecture/presentation on media coverage of U.S. wars with Iraq. Professor Meyrowitz will address the general power of the news media to shape public perceptions of the world and the U.S. role in it. Using numerous video clips and examples of newspaper stories, Dr. Meyrowitz will assess the quality of news reporting about Saddam Hussein and Iraq from 1990 to the present. This is a special lecture in Professor Meyrowitz's CMN 455—Introduction to Mass Communication. Guests are invited so that students can benefit from hearing a variety of viewpoints on a controversial topic, and there will be an open discussion after the presentation for those who can stay.

“Most Americans must rely on the news to inform them about non-local places, people, and events,” says Professor Meyrowitz. “And in democracies such as ours, most citizens tend to believe the general picture of the world presented by the news media. This gives the media an awesome responsibility to report accurately and fully.” Professor Meyrowitz will describe both good and bad reporting, offer strategies for critical consumption of news, suggest reliable sources of information, and outline promising and troubling trends in U.S. journalism.