2008 Woodie Awards
College of Mass Communications reflect on contributions of Cooper
Christin Pepple
Issue date: 7/18/07 Section: News
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Most memorably, while Cooper was at MTSU, was his contribution to arranging the Media Ethics Summit in May along with the College of Mass Communications administration.
40 leaders of various national press congregated in Murfreesboro for three days to hold a conference on ethical media issues and discuss what could be done about these issues on the national level.
"Some of the greatest ethical brains in the country convened in Murfreesboro to discuss these issues," said Anantha Babbili, dean of the College of Mass Communications. "Things like this put MTSU on the world map by going beyond our missions to educate just our students. This better serves the democracy in which we live."
One of the many things that Cooper did while at MTSU the past year was to look at the last 20 years of research in media ethics concerning public opinion polls. He said that most people were concerned with honesty in the media and the sensationalism and distortion of the facts that has happened as a result of media bias.
"The first concern people have is privacy," Cooper said. "There are a lot of major privacy issues especially on the internet and when you walk out your front door, satellites can read the headline from the newspaper you are reading and people do not like that."
"Excess is the second concern people have. Excess in violence, sexuality, foul language, advertisement, news coverage, crime sensation and celebrity worship," Cooper said.
Cooper's research hit its climax in May when all the members of the national press gathered to discuss what could be done about ethical problems and Cooper went to Washington D.C. to meet with representatives from such groups as the FCC who make laws that govern the media.
"One of my purposes is to increase education," Cooper said. "There are no courses in high school and grade school that teach children about the media. You think there would be courses that would help them understand considering that the average household consumes eight hours of television a day and four years of advertising in a lifetime. We have to think how this contaminates their lifestyles."
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