Syracuse University's Newhouse School of Communications is expected to announce later today the launch of the Mirror Awards to recognize excellence in media business reporting. They're open to anyone who conducts reporting, commentary or criticism of the media industries, including television, newspapers, magazines, radio, advertising, public relations and, of course, the Internet. The first awards will be given sometime next year. We spoke with Dean David M. Rubin about the awards, the state of journalism, how blogs and the various journalism scandals have affected the media — and how the Newhouse School teaches the subjects.

mediabistro.com: What is the idea behind the Mirror Awards?

Rubin: With the awards, we hope to highlight the best media coverage of media. There are plenty of journalism awards covering legal issues, the economy, government — all professions — but we were surprised to see there are not a lot of awards that honor the coverage of media. The idea is to hold up a mirror to the media and honor it that way. We're also doing it to give our school a bit more national visibility. We're known in the Northeast, obviously, and in the major media centers, but we're looking to broaden that.

mediabistro.com: What are your thoughts on the state of the media, 2006? What encourages you?

Rubin: There is such a wide array of media sources available, more so than any other time in history. If you want to be an informed person, you can do it with a computer and a broadband connection. And that's encouraging, because it breaks the monopoly of information. Another very encouraging sign is that we are seeing the reconsideration of big media, the bigness of big media — such as Time Warner's synergies, whether it really pays off. It's different from a decade ago.

mediabistro.com: What discourages you?

Rubin: I'm distressed by Wall Street's pressure [on media companies] to perform at financial levels and over shorter and shorter periods of time that are just untenable. It's the kind of pressure that leads Knight Ridder to sell its newspapers, and I'm not sure that we're better off.

mediabistro.com: How do you think blogs have affected journalism at-large, and the Syracuse program specifically?

Rubin: The question isn't 'What are we teaching students about blogging?' It's 'What are students teaching us?' We discuss blogging in the very first freshman class, the first day. Many of our students come in with blogging experience, if they're not bloggers themselves. We discuss particularly how you have a chance to be noticed because you blog — it doesn't mean you will be noticed. But if you have style, or write well, or have something unique to say, you have a chance.

mediabistro.com: What types of media do you consume daily?

Rubin: The New York Times, in print, The Wall Street Journal, in print and online, Syracuse Post Standard, NPR's Morning Edition and All Things Considered. If I get home in time I'll watch the CBS evening news — I'm warming up for Katie. Then later I watch MSNBC's Keith Olbermann — he's the best writer in broadcasting, very, very entertaining.

mediabistro.com: What about blogs?

Rubin: No. People will send me things and point me to them, but I just don't have enough time.

mediabistro.com: So no RSS feeds for you?

Rubin: No.

mediabistro.com: What do you think of the recent journalism scandals — like Wired News and the Reuters photographer flap — rehashing the black marks left by Jayson Blair? And what do you teach students about plagiarism in journalism?

Rubin: We teach the Jayson Blair case the first day. We also teach the The New Republic case, the USA Today case — all within the first few months they are on campus. We want them to understand plagiarism. After Jayson Blair happened, we realized discussing it in class was not enough. We require students to attend a collection of non-credit lectures on plagiarism, outside of their regular courses. Every student is required to go.

mediabistro.com: What is the Newhouse family's involvement in the awards?

Rubin: We discussed the idea with them, and they supported us, but they didn't want the Newhouse name attached as big owners of media and, potentially, owners of publications that might receive awards. There needed to be a firewall there.

It's not our intent that only big names will be in the running for the awards. We hope that everyone will compete.

[Dylan Stableford is mediabistro.com's managing editor of media news; dylan AT mediabistro.com]