2007 Conference on Interdisciplinary Studies in Information Privacy and Security May 22, 2007 Rutgers University, New Brunswick

Lea Stewart

Title: Whistle-blowing then and Now

Due to a variety of highly publicized incidents, whistle blowing became a topic of immense public concern in the early 1980s, and scholars in a variety of disciplines responded with critical analyses of organizational responses to whistle blowers, case studies of important whistle blowing cases, and prescriptions for alleviating the need for whistle blowing.  Almost three decades later, however, and with considerable legislative and media attention, the state-of –the-art of our knowledge of the reasons for and ways to prevent whistle blowing has not progressed and individual whistle blowers continue to be maligned, slandered, and usually fired.  As we move into an age of increasing electronic communication, concern for individual privacy, and technological advances, it is important to reconsider the role of the whistle blower as a voice for bringing organizational information to the public.

Lea P. Stewart is a Professor in the Department of Communication at Rutgers University and Director of the Center for Communication and Health Issues (CHI).  Her work examines how personal discourse contributes to the cultural consensus surrounding issues of social concern within society and, most particularly, ethical issues raised in public and personal discourse.  Her extensive grant experience includes serving as principal or co-principal investigator on almost $8 million of projects funded by the U.S. Department of Education, U.S. Department of Justice, NJ Higher Education Consortium for Alcohol and Other Drug Prevention and Education, and National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), among others.  She has received Rutgers’ highest recognition for both teaching (Warren I. Susman Award for Excellence in Teaching, 2003) and research (Board of Trustees’ Award for Excellence in Research, 2007).