CCJIG invites panel proposals for 2008 AEJMC-due Oct 15

September 15, 2007

The Civic and Citizen Journalism Interest Group (CCJIG) invites panel proposals for the 2008 AEJMC conference in Chicago. We need your input to create another meaningful and engaging lineup.

Panel proposals should be sent to Co-Vice Chair Mary Beth Callie via email word attachment, at mcallie@regis.edu by October 15.

In the past, CCJIG panels have focused on: citizen media, blogging, civic mapping, community conversations, newsroom projects, legal and ethical issues in civic or citizen journalism, using polls, focus groups and other methods in civic reporting; civic and citizen journalism in a multicultural environment, civic and citizen journalism and new technologies, history/philosophy of civic journalism, and teaching civic and citizen journalism.

Some general directions that emerged from the 2007 conference include:

(1) Defining "civic journalism" and "citizen journalism"--meanings and missions
(2) Evaluating the state and parameters of the field
(3) Teaching civic and citizen journalism
(4) How the changing economics of the newspaper industry are playing a role in development of the citizen journalism movement

I hope that the above ideas will stimulate your thinking. Panel proposals should consist of the following:
Type (i.e., PF&R, Teaching, Research)

Tentative Title

Possible Moderator

Possible Panelists (limit to three so we can work on linking with other interest groups and divisions)

Brief Description

Possible Panel Co-sponsors (divisions or interest groups)

Please follow this format as closely as possible. Consistency is important as proposals will be compiled into a document with those from other divisions and interest groups for programming consideration. Be aware that most panel proposals are revised or expanded to include presenters from another division or interest group. Look for timely topics, and try to keep your pitch relatively general and adaptable.

An example of a previous proposal is available at http://www.has.vcu.edu/civic-journalism/Sample_Panel_Proposal.doc
(Note that this will take you to a download of a Word document.)

Proposals should be e-mailed as Word attachments to:
mailto:mcallie@regis.edu

Thanks for your time and consideration. I look forward to receiving your proposals.

Sincerely,

Mary Beth Callie, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Department of Communication
Regis University, Denver

Project has students subbing for ailing editor/publisher

Good friend Jock Lauterer (founder and emeritus leader of CCJIG's AEJMC colleague group COMJIG) sends along this information, and link, to a project from one of his classes that he calls a "community journalism emergency rapid response" (a.k.a. "the Bucket Brigade") in which students traveled to the little town of Spring Hope an hour east of Chapel Hill to provide content for the beleaguered Spring Hope Enterprise while its veteran editor-publisher, Ken Ripley is recuperating from double-hip replacement this fall.

Story and photos about the project are available at:

http://weblogs.jomc.unc.edu:16080/bluehighways/

Upcoming Citizen Media Seminars

News of two upcoming citizen media events has reached us, courtesy of our friends at J-Lab.

A Citizen Media Workshop will be held on Oct. 2 in Washington D.C. in conjunction with the APME convention there, and a Citizen Journalism Workshop will take place as part of the Online News Association convention in Toronto, Canada on Oct. 17.

Both are daylong, one-day events. Registration details are available on the J-Lab Web site, http://www.j-lab.org/

CCJIG 2007-2008 goals established

Officers of the Civic and Citizen Journalism Interest Group have settled upon the following goals for the group in the 2007-2008 year. Commentary is both welcome and invited; use the "add a comment" feature below to weigh in with your thoughts.

These goals grew from discussion among officers at the recent AEJMC convention in Washington and were elaborated upon through a series of e-mail discussions over the past month since the convention ended.

Goal No. 1: Continue the conversation defining civic/public and citizen journalism, their meanings and missions. This blog will be a primary tool for meeting this goal, as will the group's programming at the 2008 convention in Chicago. Look here on the blog regularly for information and commentary about the state of the craft, examples of civic/citizen projects in action, and discussion of CCJIG's organizational mission and roles. The latter will be increasingly important as the group approaches the 2008 convention, when it will need to submit its three-year renewal petition.

Goal No. 2: Enhance the pedagogy of civic and citizen journalism instruction. The blog and convention program also will be tools for this, along with a project to create a compendium of teaching ideas and examples that will be overseen by Teaching Chair Glenn Scott.

Goal No. 3: Enhance the visibility of of civic and citizen journalism scholarship. Research co-chairs Burton St. John and Sue Ellen Christian will be working on a project to update the scholarly resources section of the CCJIG Web site to highlight important recent research, especially by interest group officers and members. CCJIG officers also expressed interest in some sort of special research project to align with the 20th anniversary (in 2010) of James Batten's 1990 address that was a bellwether moment in the citizen journalism movement. Look for further discussion of those plans here on the blog as well.

Goal No. 4: Formally adopt a set of bylaws. This is a piece of unfinished administrative business that the group will address before the triennial renewal next year.

As noted above, comments are welcome. Please weigh in with your thoughts and ideas