CIVIC and CITIZEN
Journalism http://aejmc.net/civic
INTEREST GROUP NEWS www.has.vcu.edu/civic-journalism FALL 2011
What's in a name?
CCJIG members eye name change after convention
Is the name Civic and Citizen mission:
Journalism no longer relevant? "The Civic and Citizen
At the CCJIG member’s meet- Journalism Interest Group of
ing in St. Louis in August there AEJMC is a group of teachers,
was talk of a possible name scholars, professionals and stu-
change for our interest group. dents who are dedicated to the
Following a discussion of why the advancement of journalism that
number of quality papers submit- promotes civic and citizen engage-
ted to our interest group was so ment, and research and teaching
low, several people at the meeting about these traditions. It is rooted
pointed out that it may be because in the traditions of civic or public
of our name. Some newer mem- KIRSTEN A. JOHNSON, PH.D. journalism as developed in the
bers to the group pointed out that CCJIG Chair 1990s and has expanded to encom-
the current name may not reso- pass participatory, audience-
nate with those in graduate school nalism, news blogging, and user involved practices of journalism.
or newly minted Ph.D.s. generated (created) news content. The purpose of the Civic and
The Civic Journalism Interest As we discussed possible
Group (as it was first known) was names, we were unable to settle See NAME, page 4
founded in 1994, during a time on one that seemed to capture the
when a good deal of research was
being conducted about this area.
essence of what our interest group
has become, and with technology
INSIDE
During this time many of the first changing so rapidly it is hard to
leaders of the organization were tell how our field will be shaped Overview of AEJMC 2011,
involved in research on civic jour- by these changes in the years to
nalism, a movement that emerged come. page 2
in the late 1980s. In 2005 the cur- Upon reflecting on a possible Call for panels for AEJMC
rent name of the group, Civic and name, I was drawn to look through
Citizen Journalism, was adopted. the CCJIG reports filed over the 2012 convention, page 3
Now, research in this field has last few years to see where we
narrowed and shifted to research have come from and where we Listing of 2011-2012 CCJIG
on news content created by citi- hope to be in the future. In my
officers, page 3
zens and posted online. There are journey through these archives I
many different names for this stumbled upon the preamble to Future of journalism is entre-
phenomenon that were discussed the new constitution and bylaws
at the meeting including: partici- adopted in 2007-2008. This seems preneurial, page 4
patory journalism, citizen jour- to summarize the ever-evolving
2 CIVIC AND CITIZEN JOURNALISM INTEREST GROUP -- Fall 2011
Rekindling a passion for research
CCJIG scholars address 'transformation'issues
in AEJMC research and sessions
Previous conferences focused these sites. Several papers
on teaching and PF&R activities. attempted to address this gap by
The conference in St. Louis analyzing how non-monetary
attempted to rekindle the passion motivation drives content contri-
for research in civic and citizen butions, citizen photojournalists
journalism activities. The and their particular motivations,
research sessions in St. Louis and relationships between moti-
addressed many lingering issues. vations and role conceptions.
It was evident that citizen jour- More conceptual topics were
nalism research is flourishing also discussed in tackling the
and striving to address relevant complex phenomenon of citizen
issues in the contemporary jour- journalism. Papers looked at DEBORAH CHUNG, PH.D.
nalism climate. external conditions, internal Past CCJIG Chair
Research papers touched on dynamics and also economical,
key issues that have arisen as political and historical perspec- ises of a new, better journalism
journalism has undergone sort of tives to more appropriately by connecting back with the very
a makeover in recent years address citizen journalism activi- audiences we serve and making
through the emergence of various ties. journalism more compelling and
information communication tech- Participating scholars also meaningful… together. But we’re
nologies. Several scholars dis- underscored the traditional prac- still figuring this out. While the
cussed the link that technology tices and culture of journalism, a research sessions have answered
makes, or the pivotal role that it focus on objectivity, facts, credi- interesting questions, they have
plays, in facilitating potentially bility, authority, autonomy and also raised additional critical
more democratic, involved and control. issues in civic and citizen journal-
engaged conversations as news They pointed out that often istic activities.
consumers/prosumers within these practices get in the way of Further research is needed to
society. For example, many community engagement, innova- better understand this complex
papers examined blogging, or tion and participation. After all, phenomenon.
microblogging activities of citizen citizen journalism is a complex However, it appears that
journalism. In particular, Twitter phenomenon that consists of cul- many are in consensus that we
was a popular discussion topic. tural, political, and economical are witnessing an exciting period
An area that was given prime nuances. in history related to the transfor-
attention was motivations of citi- Figuring out the complex rela- mation of journalism in a partici-
zen journalists. While research tionships among these variables patory culture that allows citi-
describing citizen journalism may be key to better understand- zens to take center stage and
sites abound, little has been done ing how citizen journalism works. become more agentic news con-
to examine the individuals who Most importantly, papers sumers in their information seek-
actually contribute content to highlighted the hopes and prom- ing and sharing processes.
Lewis, Holton take top CCJIG paper honors
Two researchers were honored by the Civic and Participation."
Citizen Journalism Interest Group with top papers The top student paper in CCJIG went to Avery
at the 2011 AEJMC Convention in St. Louis. Holton, the University of Texas-Austin, for “Case of
The top faculty paper award for the group went the UT Shooter: Citizens working around, with, and
to Seth Lewis, University of Minnesota, for his for traditional news media."
work, “News Innovation and the Negotiation of
CIVIC AND CITIZEN JOURNALISM INTEREST GROUP -- Fall 2011 3
Call for CCJIG panels CCJIG OFFICERS
2011-12
Deadline for proposals: October 15
g2o
Kirsten Johnson,
ca1
The Civic & Citizen
Elizabethtown College,
hi 20
Journalism Interest Group
(CCJIG) invites panel proposals Chair; johnsonka@etown.
for the 2012 AEJMC convention
C
to be held in Chicago from Aug. edu
9-12.
Please email your panel pro- Jeremy Littau, Lehigh
posal to Co-Vice Chair Jeremy
Littau at jjl409@lehigh.edu as a phy. Panels addressing issues of
University, Co-vice Chair,
Word attachment by Oct. 15. cultural and racial diversity are jeremy.littau@lehigh.edu
Past panels have focused on blog- encouraged.
ging discourse, credibility of citi- Your panel proposal should Melissa Tully, The University
zen journalism practices, citizen mention the following compo-
contributions and politics, user nents in order: Type (i.e., PF&R, of Iowa, Co-vice Chair,
collaborative activities, commu- Teaching, Research), a tentative
melissa-tully@uiowa.edu
nity conversations in hyperlocal title, a possible moderator, the
media, newsroom projects, prac- possible panelists (limit to three Glenn Scott, Elon University,
ticing civic and citizen journal- so we can work on linking with
ism in a multicultural environ- other interest groups and divi- PF&R Chair; gscott3@elon.
ment, and teaching civic and cit- sions), a brief description of the
izen journalism. Panel proposals panel, possible co-sponsors (divi- edu
for 2012 may address, but are not sions or interest groups), and
limited to, the following broad contact information. Also pro- Sue Ellen Christian,
themes: vide speaker demographic and Western Michigan,
1. Defining who citizen jour- funding estimates (see sample
nalists are, and the roles they proposal). Teaching Chair, sueellen.
serve in their communi- Selected proposals are com-
ties. Defining what is and is not piled into a single document, christian@wmich.edu
citizen journalism. with proposals from other divi-
2. The use of mobile technolo- sions and interest groups, in Burton St. John, Old
gy as a newsgathering and order to be considered for co- Dominion, Research Chair,
reporting tool in civic and/or citi- sponsorship and scheduling.
zen journalism. Many will later be revised or bstaintjo@odu.edu
3. Global trends in citizen expanded as part of the joint
journalism for the purpose of planning process. Jeff South, Virginia
social change, civic engagement, For a sample proposal see
or broad-based activism. http://aejmc.net/civic/wp-content/ Commonwealth University,
4. Emerging models and best uploads/2011/09/Sample_Panel_ Webmaster; jcsouth@vcu.
practices in teaching of civic/citi- Proposal.doc#more-142.
zen journalism. We look forward to your propos- edu
5. Research techniques used als!
by civic/citizen journalism schol- Contact Jeremy Littau, Liz Viall, Eastern Illinois
ars. jjl409@lehigh.edu,Co-Vice Chair,
Civic & Citizen Journalism University, Newsletter
In general, address topics that Interest Group, with questions. Editor, ekviall@eiu.edu
are relevant to current discus- This call is also posted on the
sions in journalism, politics, tech- CCJIG website.
nology, democracy, or philoso-
4 CIVIC AND CITIZEN JOURNALISM INTEREST GROUP -- Fall 2011
The J-future is small - think entrepreneurial start-up
In a post-session conversation more ongoing basis rather than
By Jack Rosenberry someone asked whether Boraks writing and editing his stories for
CCJIG chair 2007-08 should be considered a journalist? several days to meet a once-a-
A highlight of CCJIG pro- Citizen journalist? Citizen who IS week deadline. And he doesn't
gramming most years is the J-Lab a journalist? But probably the have the expense of printing and
Luncheon, and this year in St. most logical way to view it is that mailing the product.
Louis was no exception. he's a publisher, plain and simple. But the journalism is the
One of the featured speakers His operation is virtually identi- same. And so is the business side,
was Lisa Williams of Placeblogger, cal in the scope and style of its with support from local business
who compared current large insti- coverage to any small-town week- as advertisers and readers as
tutions (think: big metro daily ly printed newspaper, led by an "subscribers"/supporters. During
newspapers) to the Titanic, and editor/publisher with a variety of his talk, Boraks said he doesn't
said that when you're coming responsibilities to the operation have formal subscriptions but
upon the iceberg you're better off and the readership; Boraks just does ask for and does receive vol-
in a kayak (think: small, entre- does it without printing his work untary contributions, and said he
preneurial organization). on paper and stuffing it in the might some day investigate a pay
In another terrific analogy, mail to readers. wall. Disclosure: A version of this
she compared the current media The main difference is that story appeared as a post on the
landscape to the high-tech indus- Boraks is able to publish on a author's personal blog.
try of the late 1980s, which was
dominated by large, centralized
institutions that clung to outdat-
Name change From Page 1
ed technologies and ways of work- Citizen Journalism Interest bers need to have a formal vote on
ing, and eventually went out of Group is to promote and enhance the specific names. In an email
business. (One of those was the teaching of such journalism; from Jennifer McGill, Executive
Digital Equipment Corp., which support and critique of research Director at AEJMC, she points
she called "the Knight-Ridder of related to it; and to nurture and out, “Normally the hardest part is
its time," drawing a laugh from expand the discipline of civic and coming up with just what name
the audience.) citizen journalism education and best reflects what you do.” She
As companies such as DEC scholarship." also said that any AEJMC groups
disappeared, smaller startups This statement is useful who may be impacted by the name
such as Google came on the scene because it can help frame a con- change, and any groups that have
using technology in innovative versation around a new name. overlapping interests with ours,
ways to better serve customer What is clear to me after reading need to be alerted to the discus-
needs. "The future is small," she this statement is that citizen sions.
said, meaning many smaller orga- engagement in the journalistic Once a formal name has been
nizations will collectively make process appears to be a corner- approved by members in a formal
bigger impacts than the large stone of the group. This state- vote, then the AEJMC board
central ones that are now fading ment also helped me to better needs to be notified and they
away. That applies to technology,
understand the relationship review the name. According to
and needs to apply to journalism
between civic and citizen journal- McGill, the name changes take
as well, she said.
Also on the J-Lab Luncehon ism—namely that citizen journal- effect on October 1, so the earliest
panel was David Boraks of ism grew out of civic journalism we could possibly change CCJIG’s
DavidsonNews.net, an online and that is why the two concepts name would be Oct. 1, 2012.
community news site in North are both in the group’s name. So, where should we go from
Carolina. He discussed how he In terms of the process for a here? In the next few weeks you
started off with a journalistic name change, according to should see a survey that will
mindset, but quickly learned that AEJMC headquarters the first gauge whether or not members
success required a business mind- step in the process is to come up would like to see the name
set. The operation now employs with some possible names and changed. I’d encourage everyone
three people, including one who is have a discussion among the to participate as we explore the
editor of a companion site in a members. After name choices possibility of a name change.
neighboring town. have been narrowed down mem-