AEJMC's COMJIG announces paper call for August 2020 conference

AEJMC's Community Journalism Interest Group invites scholarly submissions from faculty and graduate students for paper and poster sessions to be presented at the 2020 AEJMC national conference in San Francisco, California, USA. 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, 2020. 

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(s) journalism plays in reporting about as well as informing these communities. COMIG also encourages submissions that provide action-oriented insight into trends and issues facing community journalism outlets that would be of use to practitioners in community journalism industries.

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

·       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

·       How news organizations create and engage with communities through innovative practices

·       Conceptual ideas that push the meaning and our understanding of community

in new directions

·       Conceptual ideas that explore the meaning and interpretation of “local news”

in a global era

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. References must be provided. Tables or figures can be included within or at the end of the paper. 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 Christina Smith, assistant professor of communication at Georgia College and State University, at christina.smith1@gcsu.edu.