The media has succeeded religion and the educational institutions as the primary educator of the public.

That’s something journalists need to realize in an age of corporatization and celebrity worship, said William May, a professor emeritus of ethics at Southern Methodist University.

May spoke about media ethics at the 14th annual Phi Beta Kappa fall lecture, held at 7:30 Thursday in the Buzzard Hall Auditorium.

“Ethics” is a difficult term to define, May said. When asked to do so for a group of opthamologists, he described ethics as a corrective lens, differentiating between “the way it is” and “the way it ought to be.”

May explained that if a group of cardiologists posed the same question, he would define ethics as having one’s heart in the right place and possessing the resolution to follow through accordingly. Had a group of proctologists inquired similarly, he would describe ethics as “a pursuit

of ends.”

From the birth of Western civilization until about the 17th century, May said, religion served as the the public’s source of learning and information. What that means in basic terms, is that the church and synagogue are where people built “an organized interpretation of the world and themselves and the intellectual means for the mastery of the world.”

That role eventually shifted to “the academy” or educational institutions, particularly universities, a trend that May said continued until the 20th century. Since then, media professionals and celebrities have become the public’s main source of information about the world around them.

The shift to media as the profession of learning has impacted its predecessors, the academy and the church, May said. Now, rather than cultivating impacting voices from its student body, a university will try to gain credibility and notice by inviting celebrity lecturers and playing up star

athletes.

Similarly, television news is a part of television culture, along with sitcoms, soap operas and particularly advertising, May said.

All of that becomes the institution of fact delivery to the public. Sandwiching news between talk shows and sitcoms brings the elements of celebrity and

propaganda into the newscast, May said.

The world has taken notice, May said, suggesting that the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 occurring during the day was no accident.

“(Terrorists were) hijacking not only planes, but the media,” May said.

Journalists need to trace their purpose back the the First Amendment of the Constitution, May said, to realign themselves with their purpose – to inform the public and stimulate the free debate that keeps democracy alive.