Ethical quality of metaphor in stock market news media reporting

Date: 

Thursday, October 19, 2017, 9:30am to 10:30am

Location: 

RCC Conference Room, 26 Trowbridge St., Cambridge MA
Michael O'Mara ShimekMore than 30 years of research in Cognitive Linguistics has demonstrated metaphor to be central in influencing perception, attitudes and behavior in news media consumers. In reporting on the stock market, and particularly in times of crisis, there are numerous ethical considerations involved. This talk explores the concept of “ethical quality” in the use of metaphor towards bringing the use of metaphor as a communicative tool into closer conversation with common journalism ideals and industry standards for excellence such as “truth,” “fairness” and “accuracy” and proposes a four-tiered model in which ethical quality is explored in terms of interpretation reliability and cognitive efficiency. The model differentiates between ethical excellence, ethical sensitization, ethical compliance and unethical uses of metaphor.
 
Speaker: Michael O'Mara Shimek, Lecturer in the Writing Program at Boston University, member of the Institute for Ethics in Communication and Organizations (IECO).
 
Sponsor: RCC