(Credit: Ethics.journalism.wisc.edu, screenshot)

“Who is Shaping the News?” Are journalists, corporations, or media owners deciding what gets reported and how?

Those quesions will be addressed this Friday, April 5 at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s annual journalism ethics conference, according to the Wisconsin State Journal.

Panels at the conference will tackle topics including media ethics.  One session will discuss if brand journalism — content provided by companies — is “journalism or marketing? Or both?” (For more on brand journalism, check out The Globe and Mail’s recent report on the topic.)

Also at the conference, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter Mark Johnson will be given the Anthony Shadid Award for Journalism Ethics because of his reporting in a series titled “Uniquely Human: The Science of Gender.”

Johnson is quoted by the University of Wisconsin-Madison as commenting that “Ethics aren’t something that you are supposed to do, but just something you do. It’s just a part of doing our job.” The award is given to “Wisconsin journalists who work in the public interest despite many obstacles,” according to the university’s website.

The free event starts at 8:45 CT this morning at Wisconsin’s Institute for Discovery.   But, for those who couldn’t make it to Madison, the university’s journalism school is going to run a live stream of the event.