AEJMC Preconvention Opportunity: Journalism Schools as News Providers

AEJMC Preconvention Conference

Journalism Schools as News Providers:
Challenges and Opportunities
Date: Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Time: 3:00 to 8:00 p.m.

Cost: $39 (Includes networking reception, limited to 100 participants)

Produced by: Baruch College's Department of Journalism and the Writing Professions and Kennesaw State University’s Center for Sustainable Journalism in collaboration with the Civic and Citizen Journalism Interest Group.

Register Now at the AEJMC Conference Site: https://www.applyweb.com/public/register?s=aejmc7

As newspapers shrink, journalism schools are filling gaps in news coverage through student journalism. There are clear benefits to the students, schools and public, along with challenges. In perhaps the most widely publicized legal confrontation for a journalism school, state prosecutors subpoenaed records related to Medill’s investigation of a 31-year-old murder conviction. What kinds of journalism are schools producing for the public? What are the challenges, risks and best practices? How might your school be involved and what precautions can your school take? This four-hour pre-conference will include case studies and experts in Pro-Am journalism, journalism education and media law from journalism schools and departments nationwide and includes a networking reception. Here is our line-up of confirmed speakers:

Panel One: What Is Changing and Why
1. Joshua Benton, Director of the Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard University — Moderator
2. Karen Dunlap, President and Managing Director of the Poynter Institute
3. Lynda Kraxberger, Professor and Chair of Convergence Journalism, Missouri School of Journalism
4. Nicholas Lemann , Dean, Columbia Graduate School of Journalism
5. Geneva Overholser, Director of the School of Journalism at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism

Panel Two: Grappling with Legal Risks and Other Challenges
1. Geanne Rosenberg, Founding Chair, Department of Journalism and the Writing Professions, City University of New York’s Baruch College and Associate Professor of Law and Ethics, City University of New York’s Graduate School of Journalism — Moderator
2. David Ardia, Co-founder and Director of the Citizen Media Law Project at Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society
3. George Freeman, Assistant General Counsel and Newsroom Lawyer, The New York Times Company.
4. Jane Kirtley, Silha Professor of Media Ethics and Law, School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Minnesota
5. Rose Ann Robertson, Associate Dean, School of Communication, American University
6. Steven D. Zansberg, Media Lawyer and Partner, Levine Sullivan Koch & Schulz, L.L.P.

Panel Three: Innovative Approaches to Community Journalism
1. Steve Shepard, Founding Dean, City University of New York’s Graduate School of Journalism – Moderator
2. Joe Bergantino, Director and Senior Investigative Reporter of the New England Center for Investigative Reporting at Boston University.
3. Lydia Chavez Professor, Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism
4. Richard Jones Editor for New York University’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute’s The Local: East Village Project
5. Leonard Witt, Robert D. Fowler Distinguished Chair in Communication at Kennesaw State University
6. Executive Producer, Reese Felts Newsroom, UNC-Chapel Hill’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication

Preconference Co-Directors: Geanne Rosenberg and Leonard Witt
Preconference Advisors:
1. Susan King, Vice President, External Affairs, Director of Journalism Initiative, Special initiatives and Strategy, Carnegie Corporation of New York
2. Eric Newton, Vice President for Journalism Program, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation

This event would not be possible without the generous support of the Harnisch Family Philanthropies.

For further information, please call Professor Geanne Rosenberg at (646) 312-3969.

Sign up for this session on the AEJMC Conference Registration form at:

https://www.applyweb.com/public/register?s=aejmc7

"Newspapers have served the interests of investors at the expense of readers"

James O'Shea, formerly a top editor of the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times, is a gingery advocate of public interest journalism. Mr. O'Shea edits Chicago News Cooperative which, in only five months of operation, has found a regular client in The New York Times, for which it produces two weekly pages.

Does Chicago News Cooperative represent a sustainable business model for America’s beleaguered news industry? I Q&A'ed with Mr. O’Shea via instant messenger on the sidelines of the 11th International Symposium on Online Journalism at which he had unveiled, as revenues of his venture, journalistic services, philanthropy, ads, and a $2-a-week fee from reader-members of the cooperative. In our conversation, Mr. O’Shea elaborated on that business model and on the redemptive value of public interest journalism for emerging news operations.

Nikhil Moro: Jim, congratulations on Chicago News Cooperative’s stupendous success. How does it feel to be only five months old but have two weekly pages published in The New York Times?

James O’Shea: It feels great, although I would feel better if I had all of the funding in hand to implement the website we are developing. The New York Times will be only one element of the cooperative. The Times is our first customer and a great one. It is a legacy media institution that is quite interested in experimentation while adhering to the high standards it has always pursued.

Moro: Can you name some of the “high standards” by which you measure good journalism?

O’Shea: Sure. The Times is a rigorously edited newspaper. The Chicago copy is originated in Chicago and edited here but then it is copy edited in New York. We share values such as accuracy, original reporting and balance in our stories. I always say that we report, we don't just repeat. Times editors examine our copy with the same rigor that they apply to their own writers.

Moro: What does “cooperative” mean? We don't seem to hear the old industrial revolution term much in American businesses. Can you give an example of the finest public interest journalism produced by Chicago News Cooperative?

O’Shea: By cooperative, we mean a news organization in which readers join us in developing ways to cover the news and finance the costs of news gathering through a $2 a week membership fee. It gives readers a sense of ownership in the news. Public interest journalism focuses on holding public officials and civic and commercial institutions in the community accountable.

One of the best examples I can think of is coverage of the death penalty when I was running the newsroom at the Chicago Tribune. Our reporters examined whether the death penalty was fairly applied -- that is did a poor, black man living in Illinois have a better chance of being sentenced to death for a crime than a more affluent white man? Our reporting suggested that the answer to that question was “Yes” and the stories we wrote prompted the then Republican governor of Illinois to slap a moratorium on executions in the state until reforms were undertaken. That is an excellent example of public interest journalism, the kind that gives voice to those who can't afford a megaphone.

One of our first stories at the CNC was a piece in which we reported on the huge profits being logged by the company that paid the city to take over Chicago’s parking meter franchise. It is a secretive process and we showed how the company that got the contract was making lots of money off it and raised questions about whether citizens of Chicago would have been better off keeping the franchise.

Moro: Didn't Mencken or Dunne, or some other muckraker, say that journalism must comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable? In that role, journalism would be, in itself, a function of public service.

O’Shea: Yes, I agree.

Moro: What are your plans for community journalism in the Chicago area?

O’Shea: As we develop our website, we are looking for opportunities to partner with community journalism practitioners in the city. We would like to develop profiles of all major schools in the city and I believe that we could help community journalists in this area and that they could help us.

Moro: As an expert in the newspaper industry, whose decline is the subject of your forthcoming book, would you say that Chicago News Cooperative represents a business model that could provide a future for the news industry?

O’Shea: Over the last 30 years, I think the newspaper industry spent entirely too much effort serving the interests of its advertisers and investors at the expense of readers. We must reconnect with readers and EARN their respect. This is an effort to do that. If it works, and I wouldn't be expending so much of my time and effort on the coop if I didn't think it would work, then the coop model could become a strong element of the future of journalism. We desperately need journalists and journalism is this country. This is an effort to figure out how we can finance the kind of journalism that the nation and the nation's journalists need more than ever.

Moro: How many journalists does Chicago News Cooperative employ? How much copy do you produce a week? Is your partnership with WTTW a convergence of staff, or more?

O’Shea: Currently, we have about a dozen journalists working with us. We produce about 8,000 words a week. Our partnership with WTTW is getting better by the day. We recently hired a joint reporter. CNC pays half his salary and WTTW pays half. He works for both of us, using the raw material of journalism that we produce as a base to extend his reporting and create broadcast journalism and video content for WTTW and our website. This is much better than a print reporting simply handing over his story to a broadcast outlet and then talking about it on air. We have a partnership that I hope will simply improve with time.

Moro: Dan Gillmor is optimistic about the news industry perhaps because, as he quipped at ISOJ a few days ago, “It doesn't cost us anything to try anything new any more.” Would you agree?

O’Shea: I agree with Dan. I am an optimist. So is Peter Osnos, the co-founder of Chicago News Cooperative who played a huge role in getting this organization off the ground. When I got into journalism, you had to be a wealthy person like Sam Zell to start a newspaper. We just started a news organization in Chicago with next to nothing.

Moro: How has your experience of editing the LA Times and the Chicago Tribune helped you run a news coop?

O’Shea: My experiences in Chicago and LA taught me to stay focused on what you are trying to do and don't get distracted by criticism and all of the people who like to take shots at you. I also learned the value of great journalism and picking people you can trust. There is no substitute for good people.

Moro: Why and when did you get into journalism?

O’Shea: I became a journalist in 1967 when I was in the U.S. Army. Basically I got into journalism in the Army to get out of the infantry. After the Army, I returned to journalism school at the University of Missouri and got my master's degree. I then went to work at The Des Moines Register in 1971, my first job on a daily.

Moro: Can you say anything about your forthcoming book?

O’Shea: I am working on a narrative about the collapse of the Times Mirror Tribune merger as a microcosm of what happened to the American newspaper. It is an epic tale.

Moro: O.K., I wish you the very best, Jim. And I hope that Chicago News Cooperative will pioneer a new business model for the news industry.

O’Shea: Thank you, Nikhil.

CCJIG Research Paper Call for 2010 Annual Conference

The Civic and Citizen Journalism Interest Group (CCJIG) invites research paper submissions for the 2010 convention of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication to be held in Denver on August 4 – 7.

Papers must be submitted by 11:59 p.m. on April 1, 2010, in accordance with all requirements of AEJMC and its uniform paper call and electronic submission process. Authors should ensure that their papers do not contain indentifying references. For a detailed explanation, please see “submitting a clean paper” under the uniform paper call on the AEJMC website.

Papers submitted will be eligible for separate faculty and student top paper awards of $151. Because of the separate competition for students, graduate students should be careful to identify themselves as such in the submission process. Papers co-authored with faculty members do not qualify for the student competition.

CCJIG is interested in research that examines the emergence, practice, sustenance and/or teaching of civic/citizen journalism. Authors are urged to submit papers that generally conform to this group’s interests. Papers that examine the use of blogs, for instance, do not automatically meet the group’s interests.

Suggested paper topics include: Citizen/civic journalism in political campaigns, citizen media, civic mapping, community conversations, newsroom projects, legal and ethical issues in civic/citizen journalism, crowdsourcing versus traditional "gatekeeper" journalism, civic/citizen journalism in a multicultural environment, civic/citizen journalism and new technologies, history/philosophy of civic/citizen journalism, the changing newspaper industry economy and its effect on the development of civic/citizen journalism movements, media convergence and civic/citizen journalism, the missions and meanings of "civic journalism" and/or "citizen journalism," teaching civic/citizen journalism, and use of polls, focus groups and other methods in civic reporting.

Special call: CCJIG is also looking for 2010 conference papers that explore and examine the intersections of community journalism, civic, and citizen journalism. One possible area of inquiry, for instance, would be to explore relationships between professional staff members of news organizations and their ‘citizen’ contributors. Papers might explore the differences (or similarities) in tasks, content, attitudes, or training as well as theories, ethical issues, history, and/or other applications that help to explain practices.

CCJIG welcomes submissions for the special call from all AEJMC members.

Please direct any questions to CCJIG Research Chair Glenn Scott (gscott3@elon.edu).

CCJIG at 15: Past, Present, Future

See CCJIG at 15: Past, Present, Future

Hot Topics in Journalism and Mass Communication, January 2010

Mary Beth Callie
CCJIG chair

Special SPIG call for Denver AEJMC: Social justice journalism in the classroom.

We teach techniques and technology, law and theory, but how should we handle questions of social justice?

Advocacy for the poor and powerless is nothing new to journalism. Muckrakers and crusaders through the decades have lived by the motto: “afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted.” Many of us teach students about America's strong tradition of the alternative press that still thrives today. Additionally, many colleges and universities have social justice as part of their mission.

But what should this mean to journalism educators? How does a commitment to social justice square with journalists’ ideals of fairness, accuracy, impartiality and truth? Here’s a chance to explore. SPIG invites critical essays, qualitative papers, and quantitative research on the issues and questions involved in pursuing justice through the journalism classroom.

We already have a slot reserved for this research panel during the Denver convention – 5 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 5. This is in addition to our regular research showcase at the scholar-to-scholar session.

Submit your papers through the standard All Academic on-line process by April 1. (Details available at: http://aejmc.org/_10call.php) Make sure you use the phrase “social justice” somewhere in the title.

If you have any questions, please contact either of us:

Research Co-Chairs

John Jenks (jjenks@dom.edu)
Teresa Housel (housel@hope.edu)

New book examines 'Public Journalism 2.0'

Co-editors Jack Rosenberry (St. John Fisher College) and Burton St. John III (Old Dominion University) have published the edited volume Public Journalism 2.0: The Promise and Reality of a Citizen-Engaged Press (2010, Routledge).

Across 13 chapters, the book examines both the roots and contemporary dynamics of civic and citizen journalism and posits how public journalism can inform future journalistic endeavors.

In addition to a provocative "state of the practice" piece by Buzz Merritt -- an instrumental founder of the public journalism movement -- the book features original research, case studies and essays by scholars such as Joyce Nip, David Ryfe, Serena Carpenter, Donica Mensing, Sue Robinson and Aaron Barlow. The volume also features interviews with Tanni Haas, Lewis Friedland and Jan Schaffer.

This book can serve as a resource for classes in contemporary journalism practice and theory, especially for exploring how professionals and amateurs can effectively work together to develop a more relevant and citizen-engaged press.

Each chapter also features a summary area that offers, for pedagogical use, key theoretical and practical implications and reflection questions. As summarized by Routledge: "This collection establishes how public journalism principles and practices offers journalists, scholars, and citizens insights into how digital technology and other contemporary practices can increase civic engagement and improve public life."

Big day in Civic Journalism history

(Disclosure: The author of this post is also a co-author of the work discussed in it.)

On this day in journalism history, Feb. 9, 1990: Knight-Ridder Corp. CEO Jim Batten offers his views on newspapers and community as he is presented with the William Allen White Award by the University of Kansas and the William Allen White Foundation.

* * *

If there is a signalizing moment in the early history of the civic or public journalism movement, Batten’s address deserves consideration for the honor because of the prominence of the person offering the ideas (CEO of a major, well-respected news organization) and the timing, a couple of years into the experimentation that later came to be identified as public journalism.

Batten’s address was published by KU as a booklet, but copies of it have been relatively hard to come by – until now. Partly in honor of its 20th anniversary, the address been re-published (with permission of KU and the White Foundation) in a new book by CCJIG officers Jack Rosenberry and Burton St. John III, titled Public Journalism 2.0: The Promise and Reality of a Citizen Engaged Press (Routledge, 2010).

On the one hand, there was no “kick off” moment for the public journalism movement, which grew organically from various experiments – not coincidentally, many of them within Knight-Ridder. But as Rosenberry and St. John write in introducing Batten’s speech as a chapter of the work:

One must be careful about oversubscribing significance to isolated events. For example, it would be inaccurate to say that the environmental movement began with the publication of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring or that the push for African-American civil rights began with Rosa Parks’ refusal to sit at the back of the bus. Yet these happenings are seen as signal events that inspired people and helped to spread isolated and episodic initiatives into coordinated causes that touched upon concerns of the wider population.

There certainly is no direct line from the post-1988-election experiments in improved civic coverage that were among the first public journalism experiments to Batten’s speech in 1990 to the 600-plus public journalism projects identified by Sandy Nichols and Lew Friedland a few years later. But his talk was without question a blaze along the trail.

While by no means a history, Rosenberry and St. John’s book explores some of public journalism’s past as a way to inform the present evolution of participatory journalism and offer ideas for how it might enhance civic engagement. The title, in fact, is meant as a word play on “2.0” being computer lingo for an upgrade from the original version of a work and the 20th anniversary of the 1990 Batten speech. Along with Batten’s piece, the book consists of a series of contributions by journalism scholars including (in alphabetical order) Aaron Barlow, Serena Carpenter, Cathy DeShano, Lewis A. Friedland, Tanni Haas, Kirsten Johnson, Suzanne McBride, Donica Mensing, Davis “Buzz” Merritt, Kim Nakho, Joyce Nip, Sue Robinson, David Ryfe and Jan Schaffer.