Wednesday, October 15, 2008
The panel pitch deadline is upon us
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Journalism comes full circle with civic/citizen movement
In Boston, arguably, was America’s earliest journalism practiced. In Boston lived the earliest printer-editors, two Benjamins and two Franklins: Benjamin Harris’ quirky, chatty Publick Occurrences Both Foreign and Domestick (1690), of which only one issue was ever published, was a veritable coffeehouse in newsprint. James/Ben Franklin’s wry New-England Courant (1721-23) frequently offered Ben’s pseudonymous byline, “Silence Dogood.”
The early printers were citizens first, community activists second, and editors if at all. They weren't J-school trained in any nuance of reporting, pagination or ethics (why, Ben Franklin published his own letters as if sent by readers).
Their work was not to be measured by Siebert’s theories or Hutchins’ norms.
But in all of American journalism’s history – the Revolution, the penny decades, the Civil War, Pulitzer/Hearst, the muckrakers/Progressives, the age of broadcasting – if successful editors had a common denominator, it was a finger on the readers' pulse.
A function of that finger on the pulse is the reporter’s craving to connect to an audience, to decide the news, to influence public opinion. It's the craving that makes journalism; the rest is literature.
Any surprise there’s a reflection of democracy in journalism?
But does journalism’s quid pro quo with democracy offer a frame to decipher the newspaper industry’s current travails? Perhaps institutionalization shields the journalist from the reader’s pulse? Perhaps pulse journalism can by itself guarantee profits? Or trump sound economics? – even if the one really a subset of the other? If news and advertising are the two sides of a piece of toast which side is buttered? Ah, that last was a joke.
From small-town Lansing State Journal to venerated New York Times, the urban newspaper's holy grail lies in finding a structural cure for falling circulations (ibuprofen won't cure a Migraine).
Can civic/citizen journalism offer that grail?
Look at the expectations. From the Times to CNN, America’s loftiest media organizations are welcoming the obscurest iReporter, the lowliest blogger, for his or her proactive journalism, a phenomenon which J.D. Lasica has classified in some detail. They are clearly trying to touch communities – in a reflection of David Perry’s call to use journalism to enhance social capital, or Buzz Merritt’s cry for a public journalism.
Perry's and Merritt's work, of course, is too famous to elaborate here.
As is Philip Meyer's call for newspapers to focus on a "leadership audience." Or Leonard Witt's pitch for a “representative” journalism, the idea of using not organizational but communal resources to subsidize the cost of journalism. And Jeff Jarvis' now ancient postulate: “Don't give the people control of media, and you will lose.”
Clearly, scholars and journalists alike are feeling a sharp excitement. Inevitably, it seems, America's legacy media must accept that a YouTubization – allowing the collective intelligence of the “former audience” (to use Dan Gillmor's gravid lexicon) to distill the news – is the sexy new way to keep news accurate, cheap and exciting.
Has journalism come full circle from the era of Harris and the Franklins, or what?
Nikhil Moro, Ph.D.
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Invitation to join AEJMC panel proposal
"Have you been noticing how mainstream, independent and citizen journalists have been starting to run into more problems with law enforcement? For example, during the St. Paul Republican National Convention, police actively investigated, detained and/or arrested journalists as diverse as an AP photographer, three members of indymedia outlet Democracy Now and citizen journalists from the group Eyewitness Video.
"I am putting together a panel proposal tentatively called 'Law Enforcement and Journalists: Security versus Rights' for next year's AEJMC conference which runs Aug 5-8 in Boston. If you're researching the tensions between law enforcement and the press please feel free to email me (bsaintjo@odu.edu) by October 7. Please provide a short synopsis of your proposed presentation. As a board member of the Civic and Citizen Journalism Group, which would sponsor this panel, I am especially interested in seeing suggested panel items that touch upon what these evolving tensions mean for journalism's assertions of its perceived rights in society today, and what implications the developments may hold for journalism's assertions in the future. -- Dr. Burton St. John III."
Nikhil Moro, Ph.D.
Saturday, September 6, 2008
Call for panel proposals for 2009 AEJMC convention in Boston (due by Oct. 15)
The Civic & Citizen Journalism Interest Group (CCJIG) invites proposals for engaging panels for the 2009 AEJMC convention in Boston.
Please email your panel proposal to Co-Vice Chair Mary Beth Callie
Past panels have focused on blogging, civic mapping, community conversations, newsroom projects, legal/ethical issues in civic or citizen journalism, using Internet polling, focus groups and other methods in civic reporting, practicing civic and citizen journalism in a multicultural environment, using new technologies, the history/philosophy of civic journalism, and teaching civic and citizen journalism.
The 2008 convention in Chicago continued to hone the direction of the field. Panel proposals for 2009 may address, but are not limited to, the following broad themes:
1. Citizen/civic journalism in the 2008 presidential campaigns
2. Media convergence as a catalyst of citizen journalism
3. Emerging models in practice, sustenance, and teaching of civic/citizen journalism
4. Collective intelligence (crowdsourcing) vs. information gateways ( traditional gatekeeper role of press).
In general, address topics which are relevant to current discussions in journalism, politics, technology, democracy, or philosophy. Panels addressing issues of cultural and racial diversity are encouraged.
Your panel proposal should mention the following components in order: Type (i.e., PF&R, Teaching, Research), a tentative title, a possible moderator, the possible panelists (limit to three so we can work on linking with other interest groups and divisions), a brief description of the panel, and possible co-sponsors (divisions or interest groups). Please follow this format as closely as possible.
Selected proposals are compiled into a single document, with proposals from other divisions and interest groups, in order to be considered for c0-sponsorship and scheduling. Many will later be revised or expanded as part of the joint planning process.
A sample proposal is available at http://www.has.vcu.edu/civic-journalism/Sample_Panel_Proposal.doc
We look forward to your proposals!
Mary Beth Callie, Ph.D.
mcallie@regis.edu
Co-Vice Chair, Civic & Citizen Journalism Interest Group
Friday, September 5, 2008
Transformation, emergence and norms: The promise of another great year
What a year it promises to be! An engaging, and in many ways historic, presidential campaign is upon us. Emerging technologies have gone beyond "disrupting" newsrooms/studios to set norms for journalism practice/assessment. Convergence, of technologies and of skills, is the great new catalyst. Models of sustaining civic and citizen journalism are evolving as quickly as ever. The mass media's buffeting by gales of transformation continues, in business models and in consumer patronage. Journalism programs are increasingly using classrooms to address the pedagogy/practice of civic and citizen journalism. The collective intelligence is taking on traditional gatekeeping roles like never before.
Clearly, our field is growing in several directions all at an unprecedented pace. It is as relevant to democracy, to the media industries, as ever. And, as Sue Ellen Christian's bibliography evidenced, the scholars are catching up. More books, more research, more deliberation. Folks, we have a movement going!
In a day or two CCJIG will publish, on this blog and in other forums, our annual call for panel proposals. Please send your proposal in. Let's plan a stimulating agenda for Boston in 2009, as we did for Chicago in 2008.
As I take charge I would like to express deep gratitude to Jack Rosenberry, the outgoing head, for his captaincy in 2007-08. Jack's eye for detail might make him something of a legend if a history of our group is ever written. I'd like to also acknowledge the other outgoing officers for their enthusiastic service.
Let's keep the conversation going!
Nikhil Moro, Ph.D.
Chair, Civic & Citizen Journalism Interest Group, 2008-09
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Pre-Con Videos Available Online
http://biverson.blip.tv/#1230293
This presentation was made Tuesday Aug. 5 at Columbia College, and includes three very interesting and informative panels featuring leading scholars in the fields of civic and citizen journalism.
Many thanks once again go to Barbara Iverson, Suzanne McBride and all of the folks at Columbia for their warm welcome and outstanding assistance in making their campus and facilities available to us, and for producing this video.
Monday, August 11, 2008
CCJIG Meeting Report -- Chicago Convention
Minutes for the CCJIG Annual Members’ Meeting
Date: Thursday, August 7, 2008
During AEJMC annual convention in Chicago, Ill.
7:45 p.m.-meeting called to order by Jack Rosenberry, outgoing chair
People in attendance: Jack Rosenberry, Kirsten Johnson, Glenn Scott, Burton St. John, Jeff South, Len Witt, Jeanette Foreman, Clyde Bentley, Mary Beth Callie, Jeff Neely, Andrea Breemer Frantz, Sue Ellen Christian, Cheryl Gibbs. Each gave a brief introduction of himself/herself.
Election of officers
Nikhil Moro, Central Michigan: Chair
Mary Beth Callie, Regis: Vice-Chair
Glenn Scott, Elon/Burton St. John, Old Dominion: Research
Jeff South, Virginia Commonwealth: Teaching/Webmaster
Clyde Bentley, Missouri: PF&R
Kirsten Johnson, Elizabethtown: Secretary
Need to send out a call for a co vice-chair
Announcements:
Renewal Petition-yes, we’ve been renewed
$4,600 in our account
2008 accomplishments included good slate of convention programming, approval of bylaws and construction of bibliography
New Business:
Dues will remain at $10.00
-Len-motion, Andrea-second
Motion approved
This year there were no top paper awards given due to notification about them inadvertently being left out of the paper call. Incoming research chairs were asked to make sure that next year’s call includes information about a top paper award given to both a faculty and graduate student paper. Motion to increase the top paper awards for each category to $150 was approved. Winner of the top graduate student paper also gets complimentary conference registration from AEJMC.
Motion to bring back the plaques given to paper winners and former chairs was approved. All future chairs will receive plaques, and a plaque will be given to Jack for his service this year.
Panel ideas: Not too early to start thinking about these!
New Initiatives:
Clean up the bibliography
Joint venture between the Community and Civic and Citizen Journalism interest groups to disseminate research to industry, as discussed by the two groups together before the formal members’ meetings started. How we do this will be an ongoing discussion on the blog.
Teaching ideas posted on a Web site
General Discussion “For the Good of the Order”:
Membership seems to be holding steady. It stands at 107, up 15% over three years
Is there a way to post the papers that were presented at the conference online or link to them?
How can we promote the division more effectively? New member breakfasts—hand out a pamphlet? Link from pjnet?
Think about putting our call for papers on the graduate student listserv.
Participate in the mid-winter event?
Think about a special 2010 event
8:50-p.m. Meeting adjourned.
Submitted by Kirsten Johnson, Secretary