The International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors (ISWNE) and the Huck Boyd National Center for Community Media at Kansas State University are seeking proposals for papers that provide insight and guidance on general issues and/or everyday problems that confront community newspapers and their newsrooms, with particular reference to weekly general-interest publications with circulations under 10,000.
This competition is an extension of the Center’s former “Newspapers and Community-Building Symposium,” co-sponsored for 20 years by the National Newspaper Association (NNA) and its foundation. The competition’s ultimate goal is to engage academicians and community newspaper journalists in productive “conversations about community journalism.”
Proposals will first be peer-reviewed by faculty with expertise in community journalism. Final selection of the papers to be written will be made by a panel of working and retired community journalists who will evaluate the proposals on the basis of their potential value to newsrooms.
Completed papers will undergo a final academic peer review
prior to publication in an issue of ISWNE’s Grassroots
Editor. The schedule has been set up to ensure publication of all accepted
papers by January 2023 or sooner.
Proposals from graduate students are especially encouraged, as are proposals with an international focus, or reflecting an international perspective on community papers’ newsrooms.
One paper will be selected by the community journalists panel for presentation at the 2022 ISWNE conference scheduled July 20-24 in Lexington, KY. ISWNE and the ISWNE Foundation will provide the author with a complimentary conference registration as well as a partial subsidy for travel. The paper’s author will be expected to make whatever arrangements are necessary to attend this conference.
A second place paper will also be selected and the authors of both top papers will receive complimentary one-year memberships in ISWNE.
Focus: Papers should deal with topics relevant to the newsrooms of community weeklies, particularly those with small staffs and circulations under 10,000. The papers should provide useful guidance on general issues and/or everyday problems that such newsrooms may face.
Examples could include legal, political, or ethical issues; alternative print/digital integration models; or surveys to determine successful techniques for staff recruitment/retention, for boosting online presence or to elicit “best practices” for special editions. Roundups of how states handle Sunshine Law violations or how papers train young reporters to be alert for such violations would also be of interest. So would explorations of new ways to convey information to a local audience (e.g., podcasts) and how to monetize them. These, of course, are only some of the many areas on which research could focus.
Most successful proposals will deal with applied research, although theoretical papers that provide the basis for further applied research are also acceptable, as are general research topics that establish a clear connection to newsroom issues.
Guidelines for Developing Proposals: Proposals should be limited to a maximum of two pages. These proposals should explain clearly and concisely how the final papers will be of practical use to community weekly newsrooms. They should note any prior work on which they will build or which they will assess critically.
Proposals will be evaluated on the relevance and importance of the topic and on its value to newsrooms. Other criteria include originality, clarity of the writing, appropriateness of the methodology to be used, the likelihood that valid conclusions will be reached and the choice of materials that will be used to document the paper’s conclusions/support its recommendations.
Suggested Length for the Paper: 2,500 to 6,000 words.
Logistics for submission: Proposals should be submitted electronically to Huck Boyd Center Director Emerita Gloria Freeland at gfreela@ksu.edu. The proposal itself should contain nothing that would identify the author. It must be accompanied by a separate title page containing full author contact information (name, e-address, mailing address, university and/or professional affiliation and phone number). These two items must be emailed by Nov. 2, 2021.
Other Dates:
· Authors of accepted proposals will be notified by Nov. 29, 2021.
· Completed papers are due to gfreela@ksu.edu no later than Mar. 15, 2022.
· The author of the paper selected for presentation at the 2021 ISWNE conference will be notified by Apr. 15, 2022; peer review comments will be provided as soon as possible. This author is expected to attend the ISWNE conference in Lexington, KY.
· Changes suggested by the second peer review will be sent to all other authors by July 30, 2022 for use in preparing the final version of their papers.
· Final versions of the papers should be sent electronically to Chad Stebbins at stebbins-c@mssu.edu by Sept. 15, 2022.
ISWNE was founded in 1955 to promote high standards of editorial writing, facilitate the exchange of ideas and foster freedom of the press in all nations. It aims to help members of the weekly press improve their editorial writing and news reporting and to encourage strong, independent editorial voices. Chad Stebbins has been ISWNE’s executive director since 1999.
The mission of the Huck Boyd National Center for Community Media, established in 1990, is to serve and strengthen local newspapers, radio stations, online media and other outlets that play a key role in the survival and revitalization of small towns in the United States. Gloria Freeland was the Center’s director from 1998 until her retirement in 2020.
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