University News

WIU's Journalism Day is March 25

March 16, 2015

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MACOMB, IL - Western Illinois University's Spring 2015 Journalism Day will be held Wednesday, March 25 in the University Union.

The keynote speaker for this year's event is Kyu Ho Youm, the former president of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication and the Jonathan Marshall First Amendment chair at the University of Oregon's School of Journalism and Communication. His speech is titled, "The First Amendment is Only for a Free Press in America?: New York Times v. Sullivan's Impact on Ethical Journalism" from 11 a.m.-noon in the University Union's Sandburg Theatre.

This year's keynote address is aligned with the University's theme of "Ethics: A Foundation for Personal Growth and Social Responsibility." Because 2014 was the 50th anniversary of the New York Times v. Sullivan, Youm will examine the case's legal and ethical impact on American journalism.

Youm's research has appeared in major U.S. and international journalism and law journals, and his articles have been cited by American and international courts, including the Supreme Court of Great Britain and the High Court of Australia in ruling on freedom of expression. He has also won a number of top paper awards at academic conventions, has received fellowships from several media-related institutes, has been chosen for research grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and has served on the editorial boards of dozens of scholarly journals.

Youm also writes a chapter for the media law text "Communication and the Law" and is the communication law and policy editor of the "International Encyclopedia of Communication." He often contributes opinion columns and book reviews to newspapers and trade magazines, and he lectures on press freedom and media law, as well as sitting on scholarly and professional panels.

A native of South Korea, Youm received his bachelor's degree in Seoul and his master's and doctoral degrees from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale. He also holds master of law degrees from the Yale Law School and Oxford University.

This year's Journalism Day is sponsored by the University Theme Committee, the WIU Visiting Lectures Committee and the departments of broadcasting and English and journalism.

For more information, contact Journalism Day Coordinator Yong Tang, assistant professor of journalism and media law, at (309) 298-1217 or email y-tang@wiu.edu.

Posted By: University Communications (U-Communications@wiu.edu)
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