Statement of Purpose for Renewal Petition -- Please Comment

Defining a focus for CCJIG is an issue I have tried to pursue during my time as chair of CCJIG, for a very practical reason: in Chicago this summer the interest group must submit its triennial renewal petition. To this end, throughout the year I have sought ideas and input from the membership that reflect on the nature of civic/public journalism, its connections with citizen/participatory journalism, and what types of activities the interest group should be pursuing, to help create a statement required in the renewal petition that establishes the unique niche or purpose an interest group serves. (See blog entries on this topic in November and January archives.)

The responses didn’t exactly come in overwhelming numbers but the ones that were submitted were thoughtful, well-stated and helpful in reaching the statement of purpose that follows. So were prior annual reports and renewal petitions. With ideas from these various sources, what follows is an edited (shortened) draft statement of purpose to be included in the CCJIG renewal petition to be submitted this summer. The rest of the longer statement, replaced by ellipses below, describes and discusses CCJIG’s role in the association vis-à-vis other groups such as ComTech, Newspaper and COMJIG. The full version will be published in the CCJIG pre-convention newsletter due out in early July; it is omitted here simply to avoid having an overly long posting.

Further comments are welcome; the final draft must be submitted before the beginning of the convention. My goal is actually to get it sent to South Carolina by the second week of July, well in advance of the actual convention start.

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"CCJIG’s unique purpose is its exclusive focus on the role and purposes of audience-involved journalism in the contemporary media mix. This includes teaching about, fostering research into, and conducting PF&R activities related to the creation, purposes and impacts of professional and citizen-driven participatory journalism practices, including the role these practices play in building communities and encouraging civic engagement.

"Because this is a broad area, the activities of other CCJIG units do touch on it. Examination of audience-centric content creation such as YouTube videos and blogs certainly could fall within the teaching, research or PF&R missions of numerous other groups within the association. The particular niche CCJIG fills is an exclusive focus on the journalistic aspects of these presentations. …

"… This focus on audience-centric journalism presentations is supported and enhanced by the group’s traditional mission and focus on the relationship of journalism and civic engagement, which date to its days as the Civic Journalism Interest Group. As it was explained in an earlier renewal petition (2002), “Civic journalism is about engaging the public in interactive journalism and in the development of democratic institutions. This focus cuts across all the endeavors of AEJMC but is foremost in no other association entity.”

"With this as a foundation – and the subsequent extension in recent years to include the role that participatory journalism contributes to this process – CCJIG clearly can be seen as filling a unique and significant role within the structure of AEJMC."

Covering Race

I've been working on a service-learning project with students by focusing on covering race and ethnicity in our community. As part of my curriculum, I've sought to integrate learning on personal and societal biases about race and ethnicity. As such, I've drawn upon Peggy McIntosh's exercise on unpacking the backpack of white privilege as well as used the "Authentic Voices" text that showcases some of the top reporting and writing on race and ethnicity. Students have also enjoyed taking the demonstration tests available at Project Implicit, an online project that seeks to gauge participants' internal biases. I'm particularly interested in ways to help students identify their internal biases and how these may seep into or influence their reporting and writing in covering local communities.

Any one with thoughts or teaching ideas on this front, please post!
Thanks!

Sue Ellen Christian

Rochester (NY) paper relaunches Web site with participatory journalism focus

When this blog was started, one of its purposes was to highlight interesting and innovative citizen and civic journalism projects from around the industry. My hometown paper, the Rochester (N.Y.) Democrat and Chronicle has just launched an ambitious one. I'm not sure if the approach is truly unique; the software that drives it is from a third-party vendor and has an off-the-shelf, template-y feel to it -- so it's possible that similar software is driving similar projects at other papers out there. But what's interesting is being able to watch this one from launch and see how it develops. (Full disclosure: this newspaper is my former full-time employer and still brings me back for temporary fill-in work on the copy desk when they have a need and my schedule allows for it. And I'm a registered user and have done a little blogging and forum posting since this started not long ago.) Here are some observations on this foray into a ramped-up form of parcipatory journalism at one mid-sized metro:

The Rochester (N.Y.) Democrat and Chronicle, has recently completed a re-launch of its Web site in a way that highlights reader contributions in the form of blogs, forum postings and directly-submitted content. The Gannett-owned Democrat and Chronicle has a print circulation of about 170,000.

The redesigned home page actually emphasizes these contributions over the traditional news, with links immediately below the main flag devoted to portions of the site for reader-generated and custom content outnumbering the links to the traditonal news departments such as business, sports, news and opinion. Also prominent atop the home page are the log-in screen for registered users and links to a reader-generated calendar -- all of it above the traditonal news postings.

In fact, the only traditional news placed "above the scroll" (as one editor described it) is a rotating carousel of top-story photos with links to the full story, and about a half dozen "top story" headlines. Overall, that news package occupying perhaps half the space above the scroll and another set of links near the bottom of the page organized by department (news, sports, business, top world/nation headlines) are the only place for traditional news postings anywhere on the page. Combined, they might occupy about 10 percent of the total page area. The rest of the space is dominated by links to custom content and especially places for reader content to be both viewed and contributed. Some of the contributions are later reverse-published, or used for content in the print publication.

Audience members are invited to register, and when they do a personal profile page is created for them with a place to list interests and personal data, a personal blog as well as a social network utility for connecting with other users and posting messages to those pages (a la the Facebook "Wall"). Readers' blog entries are highlighted on the site's front page, with automatic updating that keeps the four or five most recent postings out there for prominent display with clickable links to the actual entry. Readers also can comment on each other's blogs and also submit photos and articles, with the most recent highlighted on the front page similar to the blog updates. More than 50 themed forums allow readers to establish discussions on topics of their own choice. After about a week of operation, more than 250 discussion threads had been established with nearly 2,000 postings in them.

The week the new site was launched, the paper held a citizen journalism workshop for more than three dozen community members -- who turned out on a snowy March morning to learn more about the project and also receive a quick course in journalistic practice and ethics from former USA Today editor Adell Crowe. At the session, Democrat and Chronicle Editor Karen Magnuson said the goal was to promote democratic conversation about issues of community concern.

The relaunch of the paper's main site is Gannett Rochester's latest effort in the field of encouraging reader contribution and comment. Earlier, it had established RocMoms, with content of special interest for women; RocMen, a parallel site for men; and RocLoop (aka "The Loop") for area college students, which is produced by student interns overseen by professional staff.

Online News Assn. organizing social network

The Online News Association is pursuing a couple of initiatives that civic/citizen journalism educators might be interested in knowing about.

One of them is an online network, akin to LinkedIn, that ONA has set up using an interim site on Ning, the free social-networking site.

It can be accessed at:
http://onlinejournalists.ning.com/

According to Jody Brannon of ONA, here’s how the educators can use it.

"From the main page, under GROUPS, you’ll find various categories, especially Teaching Online Journalism. This will be our online clubhouse, so to speak, where we’ll be able to contribute and organize our efforts. To start, I’ve created four discussions, related to syllabi, research, experts and student groups. Each of those arenas has two leaders so far, but we can certainly tap into the expertise around the academic and professional communities. Maybe that’s you?"

Jody also notes that a conference call to update everyone on efforts is planned for 4 p.m. Wednesday Feb. 27. I didn't want to post the phone number and access code here in public, but anyone from CCJIG who wants to take part may e-mail me and I'll forward Jody's e-mail with the information.

Two articles of interest in latest AJR

Two articles in the current edition of American Journalism Review focus on some of the positive things occuring with interactive, participatory journalism.

The lead article in the Drop Cap section of the magazine, titled "Joining the Conversation: Newspapers are establishing blogs to talk to readers about their concerns" explores the use of editors' blogs or transparency blogs

The article notes that "Once more likely to circle the wagons than engage in conversation, newspapers have moved in recent years to become more transparent, and top editors like [Raliegh News & Observer's John] Drescher are increasingly reaching out to readers via blogs."

The full article can be found at:
http://www.ajr.org/Article.asp?id=4464

In the same issue, Carl Sessions Stepp's regular book column discusses a new offering from Northwestern University's Michele Weldon titled Everyman News: The Changing American Front Page (published by University of Missouri Press). According to Stepp, the book "argues that a content revolution is taking place in plain sight that will transform media and could help save newspapers." He further quotes from the book that this revolution, is a "revived journalistic reverence for the individual" and "the concurrent explosion in marketing of the stories of ordinary people."

The full review by Stepp can be found at:
http://www.ajr.org/Article.asp?id=4463

CCJIG chair now a published author!

I hope no one will be offended if the IG chair/blog administrator indulges in a moment of self-promotion here. But this seemed like a good venue to announce that I've had a new book published. Here's a look at the cover, and links to the publisher's site and Amazon site for it.

Jack

Publisher's Web site link:

http://www.pearsonhighered.com/educator/academic/product/0,3110,0205548733,00.html

Amazon Link:

http://www.amazon.com/Applied-Mass-Communication-Theory-Practitioners/dp/0205548733

Defining the Interest Group's mission

Note: This was originally posted in November, and is being re-posted for a new round of comments -- because, sadly, it received NO comments when originally sent out.

About a year ago, an article in the CCJIG newsletter explored the role and goals of the interest group by asking current and former leaders to offer their thoughts on three questions about the practices of civic and citizen journalism.

(Use this link to reach a PDF file of the newsletter with the article: http://www.has.vcu.edu/civic-journalism/newsletter/07winter.pdf )

The article was part of an ongoing effort by CCJIG to come to a clear articulation of the interest group's purposes, goals and mission. This conversation has been going on for some time, especially in conversations during annual meetings during AEJMC conventions. But closure has been hard to find.

The question has some urgency at the present time, however, because interest groups within AEJMC must petition for renewal every three years, and CCJIG is due to undergo this process in Chicago next summer. The question of CCJIG's unique focus in contrast with other divisions and interest groups within AEJMC is sure to be raised as part of that review.

Such an important question as defining the interest group's identity should be answered by the membership at large, and this blog offers the perfect outlet for doing so. So please take part in this vital conversation by answering one or more of the following questions with a comment on this blog entry.

QUESTION 1: In your view, what is the key characteristic that separates civic journalism from other types of journalism?

QUESTION 2: How do civic journalism and citizen/participatory journalism relate to one another? (For instance, are they one-and-the-same? Distinct but overlapping practices or wholly separate practices? Are they variants on a theme, in which case: what's the theme? Are they complementary practices that serve a common goal; in which case, what's the goal?)

QUESTION 3: How can the nature of this relationship of the two practices as described in answers to Question 2 guide the mission and activities of the division?

Getting a conversation among IG members and other interested parties at this time is vital for the ongoing success of this group. Please don't ignore the opportunity to get involved!