Benjamin Burns

Ben Burns is a Communication Professor and Director of the Journalism Program at Wayne State University. Before joining Wayne State he spent 30 years in the newspaper business, holding such posts as Executive Editor of The Detroit News when it was the sixth largest daily in the country and Editor & Publisher of The Macomb Daily and the Daily Tribune in Royal Oak, suburbs of Detroit, MI. Earlier he was Editor & Publisher of Times Graphics Inc., a New Jersey, group which owned two dailies and five weeklies and published 25 other newspapers; Editor of the Colorado Springs Sun, Managing Editor of the Lansing State Journal and Night City Editor of the Miami Herald. He started his career at UPI in Lansing, MI. and was News Editor of three Paddock Publications in the northwest Chicago suburbs. He has judged numerous journalism writing contests and twice served as a Pulitzer juror.

He has B.A. and M.A. degrees from Michigan State University and graduated from the Executive Business Program at the University of Michigan. In 1972 he was awarded a Ford Foundation grant through the American Political Science Association to study Congress. He ghost wrote envirionmental articles for Presidential candidate George McGovern and did the final editing on Arizona Rep. Morris K. Udall’s book, “Education of a Congressman.” In 2002 he was selected as a Fellow of the American Society of Newspaper Editors Institute for Excellence and studied media convergence at the News Center in Tampa, FL.

He is the co-author with Dawn Phillips Hertz, former counsel to the Michigan Press Association, of Michigan Media Law, A Newsroom Guide (McGraw-Hill) and has written articles on newspaper management and media ethics. He is frequently quoted in the media on ethical questions and has written op editorial page pieces for The Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press on media ethics. He writes a weekly human interest column for GrossePointeToday.com

In 1990 he was named the top publisher in Adams Group Newspapers. In 1995 a magazine article his students researched on an unsolved murder won a Renaissance award from the International Association of Business Communicators. The murderer was caught in 2002 and convicted. In 2000 he was inducted into the Memphis High School Athletic Hall of Fame. He had been named first team all-state in basketball by the Detroit Times in 1958. Burns founded the Journalism Institute for Minorities at Wayne State University in 1984 which has sent more than 200 graduates to prestigious newspapers and television stations across the country.

In April 2001 he was inducted into the Michigan Journalism Hall of Fame. In May 2001 he was given an award from the Rosa Parks Foundation for his work on their behalf which resulted in them being able to award 500 scholarships totaling more than $1 million in the past decade. In May 2001 he was presented the first Benjamin J. Burns award for his contributions to diversity in the media by the Public Benefits Corporation Board. In April 2006 he was inducted into the Michigan State News Alumni Hall of Fame. His primary research interests are in media management, media ethics, writing and the future of journalism. He teaches Professional Issues in Media Management, Feature Writing, Online Journalism and Photography.

During his distinguished career in journalism, Professor Burns served as Executive Editor and Chief Administrative Editor of The Detroit News – the nation’s sixth largest newspaper.  He has headed WSU’s Journalism Program since 1993 and has published a newsroom guide to Michigan media law.

Detroit Chapter Society of Professional Journalists President Award, April 2010

Society of Professional Journalists, Detroit Chapter, Career Achievement Award 2007.

Michigan State News Alumni Hall of Fame, April 28, 2006.

Outstanding Achievement Award, Rosa Parks Foundation, for role in helping raise money to fund 500 scholarships over previous decade, June 21, 2001.

Michigan Journalism Hall of Fame, April 19, 2001.

New York Institute of Photography, April 30, 2003

Executive Business Program, University of Michigan, 1986  

M.A., Michigan State University, 1967

B.A., Michigan State University, 1963               

journalism, media management, newspaper editing and publishing, media law

 Book:

• Co-Authored:   Michigan Media Law,  McGraw-Hill, Fall 1998, 2nd edition December 2000, McGraw-Hill.  Third edition scheduled for Fall 2010.

Chapters:

• Authored:  Union Violence in Newspaper Strikes and Corporate Union Campaigns, separate chapters for books published by the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania Industrial Research Unit,  1999-2000.
• Foreward, "Stewards of the State:  The Governors of Michigan,"  The Detroit News and The Historical Society of Michigan, 1987.

Academic Journals:

• Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, review of “Breaking the News: the story of the JFK Assasination and its Aftermath,” by Hugh Aynsworth, summer 2004.
• Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, review of “Arrogance,” by Bernard Goldberg, summer 2003
• Jorunalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, review of “A Crisis of Coverage in the Age of Corporate Jornalism by Eugene Roberts.
• Journalism and Mass Communications Quarterly, Spring 2003, review of “Coloring the News,” by William McGoun.
• Journalism Quarterly, Summer 1998, review of Governing the News by Timothy E. Cook
• Journalism Quarterly, Summer 1995, review of The Press Gang by Mark Wahlgreen Summers.

Recently taught courses:

• Com 2250 - South End Workshop
• Com 4010 - Special Topics:  Online Journalism
• Com 5250 - Issues in Media Management 
• Com 5260 - Professional Writing Workshop
• Com 5310 - Investigative Reporting
• Com 5460 - Magazine Writing
• Com 6190 - Media Internship

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