EAST LANSING, Mich. – The School of Journalism at Michigan State University, through a bequest from the Grant W. Howell Trust, is presenting a symposium on Oct. 17 in Washington, D.C., to examine opinion and bias in the news.

Partnering with the Newseum, the Poynter Institute and the National Press Club, the School of Journalism’s daylong event includes three panel discussions:

• Stealth messages: Do hidden agendas seep into media coverage?
• News media or noisemakers: Who is a journalist?
• What you see and what you think: Reflecting on the power of images

More than a dozen journalists from media outlets including CNN, the Chicago Tribune and USA Today will be participating in the panels. MSU alumni Karen Brown Dunlap, a 1971 journalism graduate, president of the Poynter Institute; and Susan Goldberg, a 1984 journalism graduate, executive editor of the San Jose Mercury News, will be panelists. The keynote luncheon address will be presented by Sam Donaldson of “ABC News.”

The symposium is timely for both professional and student journalists, said Jane Briggs-Bunting, director of the School of Journalism at MSU.

“Objectivity and accuracy are critical to the credibility for the media,” Briggs-Bunting said. “We will be having a frank discussion about the areas where media bias exists, how it can sneak into stories and images, and the challenges in today’s world where everyone has the ability to publish online.”

A group of 16 journalism scholars from MSU will attend the event, which will be held at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. A live webcast will be available through a link at http://jrn.msu.edu

The symposium is free and open to the public, with a luncheon between panels and a reception at the conclusion of the symposium.

Grant Howell was the former editor of The Daily Tribune in Royal Oak. He died Oct. 14, 2004.  His trust made this gift to the School of Journalism to promote and further the cause of unbiased, factual journalism in both print and electronic media.

Howell had become increasingly concerned by what he viewed as the use of “propaganda and unverifiable facts in print and broadcast media.” With his gift to the School of Journalism, he stipulated a seminar be held on the topic.

As a 1996 inductee of the Michigan Journalism Hall of Fame, Howell was widely known and respected as a tough, demanding editor who required integrity of his staff in its diligent search for accurate information.

In a manuscript he was writing, Howell stated: “I made my living as a newspaper reporter, then editor, dedicated to a belief that each of us is sustained by a social order for which information is the key. Information is critical to the mutual understanding required for joint decisions. Now the ‘Information Age is upon us. Too often, that information is compressed by time, not thought. I worry!”

The Michigan State University School of Journalism (www.jrn.msu.edu) in the College of Communication Arts & Sciences (www.cas.msu.edu) is one of the oldest, largest and most highly regarded journalism programs in the nation. The first journalism course was taught at MSU in 1910 and since 1949 the School of Journalism has been continuously reaccredited.

One of the largest in the nation, the College was also the first of its kind in the United States, and has served more than 35,000 undergraduate and graduate students since 1955. The College features 16 degree programs from five departments that consistently receive top rankings for research and teaching excellence: Advertising, Public Relations, and Retailing, Audiology and Speech Sciences, Communication, Telecommunication, Information Studies and Media and the School of Journalism.