Call for Papers: AEJMC Conference 2018

As a local/hyperlocal digital news researcher, the line "local newspapers are closing, digital news startups offer the promise of an uncertain but bright future..." or some such variation usually features in my writing. Recent closure of The Gothamist and DNAInfo has heightened the uncertain more than the bright future part. 

Current crises plaguing the industry-- technological advances, lack of revenue, growing mistrust, audience fragmentation and maybe more-- call for more  research in local and community news that not only studies the direction in which local journalism is headed but also maybe help pave this path for community/local newspapers and websites. 

Community Journalism Interest Group provides the perfect platform for submission, discussion and publication of issues and research that concerns and interests both, practitioners and scholars. With this in mind, please find below COMJIG's research paper call for 2018, as part of AEJMC's Uniform Paper Call. 


COMJIG CALL FOR PAPERS

The Community Journalism Interest Group invites scholarly submissions from faculty and graduate students for paper and poster sessions to be presented at the 2018 AEJMC national conference in Washington D.C. The papers should advance theory and/or practice in community/local journalism and can use a variety of methods and approaches. The deadline for paper submissions is April 1, 2018. 

Scope: The concept of community has expanded to more than just a group defined by physical proximity. In the digital age, communities also are defined by the strength of social relationships amongst individuals and the interests that bring them together, irrespective of their geographic location. COMJIG encourages submissions that address this diversity within and about communities and the role journalism plays in reporting about as well as informing these communities. Research topics may include, but are not restricted to:

• How and if news organizations—print and digital-- fulfill a community’s critical information needs

• How news organizations build audiences within their communities with or without use of technologies such as social media

• Audience engagement with local/community news

• How community newspapers thrive or struggle to survive in present times and changes, if any, in community journalistic practices in the digital age

• How journalism entrepreneurs juggle advertising with community news reporting

• The effects of the closure of community news outlets—print and online— on communities, specifically those in news deserts

• Conceptual ideas that push the meaning and our understanding of community in new directions

Awards: The Group awards top papers in the faculty and student categories. The authors of these papers will be invited to publish their manuscripts to COMJIG’s official, peer-reviewed publication, Community Journalism. Others also are encouraged to send  their work to the journal for consideration.

Submission guidelines:

Format: Paper submissions should include a 100 to 150-word abstract and should not exceed 8000 words, including references, tables and notes. All papers should conform to APA style, Sixth edition. Papers must be typed in 12-point font using Times New Roman and paper text must be double-line spaced with 1-inch margins around each page. The pages should be continuously numbered. Tables or figures can be included within or at the end of the paper. References should An author can submit more than one paper to COMJIG but no more than two manuscripts. All submissions will be subjected to a blind peer review. 

Author Identification: All authors and co-authors should include their information when registering on the online system. It is the author’s responsibility to ensure that no identifying information is included anywhere in the paper or the properties section of the pdf document or it will be disqualified from the conference. Thus, authors are encouraged to submit early to fully check their submissions in the system for self-identifying information and any other technical glitches so they can resubmit their manuscripts, if necessary, before the system closes on deadline. Please follow the directions provided in “submitting a clean paper” section under the uniform paper call on the AEJMC website. 

Student Submissions: Graduate students are encouraged to submit papers to the group. Student authors should clearly mark their papers by including the phrase “STUDENT SUBMISSION” on the title page to be considered for the student paper competition. These papers should be authored by students only and not include any faculty co-authors.

Uploading Manuscripts: The papers should be submitted to COMJIG via a link on the AEJMC website. Please see the AEJMC’s paper competition uniform call for more information.

Presentation Requirement: For the manuscript to be considered for presentation in the panel or poster session at the conference, at least one of the authors must attend in person to talk about the research. An exception may be made for papers with ONLY student authors; if the graduate students are unable to attend, then they must arrange for someone else to present the research on their behalf.

Questions, Concerns, Clarifications? Please contact COMJIG Research Committee Chair Monica Chadha, Walter Cronkite School of Journalism & Mass Communication, ASU, at monica.chadha(AT)asu(DOT)edu.

I really hope you will consider sharing your research with other like-minded scholars who are interested in the same issues as you through COMJIG!