The George Clooney film "Good Night, and Good Luck" has racked up six Oscar nominations for its portrayal of journalist Edward R. Murrow and his reporting during the McCarthy era.
Tufts' Communications and Media Studies Department is generating a buzz of its own with its own big-time tribute to Murrow, a symposium that will be moderated by Ted Koppel, former anchorman for ABC's "Nightline."
"It's a very high-profile event for Tufts," Communications and Media Studies Program Director Julie Dobrow said. "I think it will raise some very provocative questions and help us to think about Murrow's role both historically and in terms of what his legacy will be."
The panel, titled "What Would Murrow See Now? The U.S. Press and the World," will take place on Apr. 3 and will focus on Murrow's work as an international correspondent.
"Good Night, and Good Luck," highlights Murrow's role surrounding the McCarthy hearings, but Dobrow said that the panel hoped to explore Murrow's equally important role in the international arena.
Murrow made some of the first trans-continental news broadcasts in radio history, reporting from the thick of the action during some of the most chaotic events of World War II, including Germany's annexation of Austria and the height of the London Blitz.
Regarded by many as broadcasting's greatest journalist, Murrow's on-the-spot reporting is widely regarded as having changed the shape of international journalism.
"We're posing the question, how are things [in international journalism] different than they were in Murrow's day?" Dobrow said. "In the wake of Sept. 11, what's changed about how American journalism covers international issues?"
Koppel will moderate a panel discussion on this topic. Panelists will include former NBC News President Neal Shapiro (LA '80) - who is currently co-teaching an Experimental College course called "News From the Inside Out" with journalist Phil Primack (LA '70) - and Crocker Snow, longtime Boston Globe journalist and current director of the Edward R. Murrow Center at the Tufts' Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.
Other panelists will include Louise Lief, deputy director of the International Reporting Project at Johns Hopkins University, and Keith Richburg, foreign editor of the Washington Post.
An alumni connection brought Koppel into the event. "One of our alums, David Burke (A '57) was the president of ABC News and CBS News," Dobrow said. "We talked to David, and he said, 'Let me call Ted Koppel,' and [Koppel] happily agreed to do it."
Murrow and Tufts have a long history.
In 1965, then-Fletcher School Dean Edmund A. Gullion coined the term "public diplomacy" to cope with the implications of in increasingly internationalized media, whose progress was spurred by Murrow's work.
"'Public Diplomacy,'" according to the Fletcher School Web site, "deals with the influence of public attitudes on the formation and execution of foreign policies." The Edward R. Murrow Center for Public Diplomacy was established in 1965 to house Murrow's professional papers and promote research and dialogue on public diplomacy and its newly expanding role in the international community. It was inaugurated by then-Vice President Hubert Humphrey.
While Murrow's history has long been part of Tufts, a recent donation of additional Murrow documents and the prominence of "Good Night, and Good Luck," prompted the CMS department to develop this new event to honor Murrow and explore his legacy, Dobrow said.
