Trust and the Media

The media is our primary source of information for what to believe about the world and whom to trust. We rely on it not to spread misinformation or disinformation. Yet, apparently, trust in the media itself is plumbing new depths. Journalists boast a dismal ranking in the 2003 MORI poll of trusted professions.
So what institutional conditions are necessary to promote a trustworthy media? There is a dilemma here. To restore trust, we might advocate increased scrutiny and accountability, such as one now finds in other professions and in public life. On the other hand, more accountability and scrutiny may undermine freedom, and so actually jeopardise the very trust it was meant to restore.
Undoubtedly, regimes of accountability must not undermine the freedom that the media requires. But exactly what kind of freedom does it need? Is it freedom of expression, analogous to what we expect for an individual? Or is it something slightly different—freedom from government interference? These are philosophical questions, which have real practical implications for the way in which the media is treated.
Ultimately, the kind of freedom appropriate to the media will depend upon what role it is thought to play in society. Are journalists and broadcasters impartial seekers after truth, servants of democracy, or are they more like businesses, purveying a distinctive kind of good—fact-based entertainment and personal interest stories? The more one inclines to the first approach, the more wary one might become about increased burdens of accountability.

Management Education's Unanswered Questions

Managers want the status of professionals, but not all managers want the constraints that go along with professions. Why? For more than 100 years, business education at the top universities has been searching for its soul. HBS professor Rakesh Khurana, author of a new book, says business school education is at a turning point. Key concepts include:
Is management a profession? After more than a century of business education, it remains an open question.
The founders of today's top business schools envisioned a world in which managers served the best interests of society, not narrow self-interests.
Management education is closely linked with the prevailing winds of society.
Elite business schools today are at a crossroads, especially since the rise of business education in China and India.