PLATFORM

The most pronounced of these changes include: 1) communication technology that is exponentially increasing in its sophistication; 2) a corresponding globalization of society and its institutions; and 3) a pervading multiculturalism and diversity of peoples within virtually all social environments.

Our mission will be: 1) to examine and to seek to understand these changes within the context of our core values and beliefs, to vigorously deliberate among ourselves their ramifications and--with a unified voice--to advocate mass communication policy based on our research and analysis; and 2) to assure optimal preparation of tomorrow's generation of journalism professionals and mass communication scholars to assume their responsibilities within a world that will be considerably different from our own.

Our efforts must be premised upon an essential paradigm that recognizes and protects an unfettered press as a requisite social institution to assure a free and democratic society; equally important, our policy recommendations and educational efforts must be based upon a fundamental ideology that respects and safeguards individual human rights. Inasmuch as we must ensure and promulgate our traditional values and beliefs as absolute, i.e., not to be reconciled as relative to societal changes, we should consider ourselves to be both social engineers and ideologues.

As a professional body, we do not "represent" our journalism schools and programs; neither should we identify primarily with our educational institutions, nor the media. Rather, our charge, i.e., our responsibility and primary loyalty, is to: 1) journalism as a concept and mass communication as an area of study; 2) journalism's role as a highly "professionalized" occupation that the First Amendment nevertheless precludes from becoming an exclusive "profession"; and 3) the press as a social institution that is dedicated to assuring citizen access and expression within this professionalized context. Thus, AEJMC must remain independent of, and free to criticize, our educational institutions and their programs, the media and government policy.

Journalism and the role and function of the journalist will inevitably and irrevocably be redefined, and we as mass communication scholars must not relegate the direction of these changes to corporate M.B.A.s seeking maximum profits nor to computer engineers seeking a marketing advantage.

Specifically, I propose in my platform:

• Formalization of a mission statement and strategic plan.

Despite some excellent long-range planning in recent years and a constitution that explicitly declares the purpose and function of this body, AEJMC has neither a mission statement nor a strategic plan. It needs both.
• Diffusion to appropriate lay audiences of members' research and other information about AEJMC.

Ironically, other communication-related organizations are better communicating their members' research to lay audiences through the mass media, even though "distribution to the public of reports based on such activity" is a mandate of AEJMC's constitution. Scholars representing AEJMC can provide insights to lay publics about contemporary issues ranging from Ebonics to Beavis and Butt-head to the V-Chip. We must disseminate our knowledge to these publics.
• Performance of additional oversight activities to assure educational excellence.

Our colleges and universities have an obligation to accommodate a broad range of students, yet we as journalism and mass communication professors must take ultimate responsibility for the education of our own students.
• Continue to abide by the spirit of Standards Two and Twelve of the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications and pro-actively increase representation of diverse peoples within our professional community.

This continuing effort is for two reasons: 1) it is the right thing to do; and, 2) if we as a community of educated elite cannot successfully embrace diversity, our admonishments to others are hypocritical--indeed, the prognosis would appear dim for society at large. AEJMC needs to address diversity, not only in colleges and universities, but pro-actively in high schools and grade schools where diverse students can be exposed to journalism careers.
• Enthusiastically embrace technology.

Communication technology must not only be examined and applied, but enthusiastically embraced. As a professional association, AEJMC must seek to better use this technology--ranging from greater application of the WWW to continued exploration of the use of CD-ROMs for our journals. Of critical importance, we as scholars within AEJMC must readily avail ourselves when opportunities exist to provide input for policy-making. Nevertheless, as a tool, technology must serve us as journalists and society at large, rather than vice versa. Technological proficiency will never replace knowledge; students must be made to understand that expertise in PageMaker and QuarkXPress does not translate into layout excellence; homophones are not interchangeable, even though students' spell-checking software may not distinguish between "their" and "there."
• Seek professional relationships with like organizations, but maintain our separate identity and our unique mission.

AEJMC must never be co-opted or subsumed by any other organization. Nevertheless, close professional relationships among associations with similar goals must be maintained and enhanced, including those at international sites. We as a larger community of scholars can accomplish much more when we work together.
• Continue the divisional structure of AEJMC.

AEJMC members have collective concerns; nevertheless, their particular interests and some of their professional priorities may differ. The divisional structure serves collective and individual members' needs well.
• Ensure literacy professionally, and encourage it in society at large.

Journalists and journalism educators must encourage literacy in society at large, and they must safeguard our language's precision when applied professionally. Seldom can a day go by when I don't see a gross grammatical error in the media. Some students in my writing class, who ostensibly have come from highly ranked educational systems, report that they hadn't been taught grammar since the seventh grade; many students do not know a gerund from a participle.