International weekly editors' group offers COMJIG members access to its Hotline, hoping to start a working relationship

Beginning a cooperative relationship that could pay substantial dividends, the International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors has agreed to give COMJIG members access to the ISWNE Hotline, where some of the more thoughtful and dedicated weekly editors in the English-speaking world discuss editorial policies, ethical issues, management questions and just about anything that means something to editors of weekly papers.

The ISWNE Board of Directors voted at the group’s annual conference last week to give Hotline access to COMJIG members who request it, on a trial basis, with a review in January. The idea was proposed by David Gordon of the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, who is an ISWNE director and COMJIG member; and the undersigned, secretary of COMJIG and director of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, based at the University of Kentucky. COMJIG members who want Hotline access should email me at Al.Cross@uky.edu. I manage the list-serve with COMJIG member Chad Stebbins of Missouri Southern State University, who is director of its Institute of International Studies and executive director of ISWNE.

We think the Hotline can be a good source of research ideas and class discussion topics, and give academics interested in community journalism regular glimpses into the life of weekly newspapers, most of which are independently owned. Examples of recent Hotline topics include coverage of elections, suicides and vandalism; political endorsements, use of accident photos, policies on letters and obituaries, valuations of weeklies, competing with other papers, starting a paper from scratch, relationships with broadcast and cable operations, staffing questions, employer-employee relationships, Postal Service problems and adapting to the digital age, which as you might guess covers a wide range of questions. The ethical questions have also included a discussion of the circumstances in which an editor or reporter should speak up at a public meeting. This is a rich trove of information and insights that COMJIG members should find useful in teaching, research and service.

We hope this will be the first step in a mutually beneficial relationship. COMJIG members could be invited presenters at ISWNE conferences, and ISWNE members could be panelists at COMJIG programs, possibly with travel support from AEJMC. Some or all COMJIG officers might receive ex-officio memberships in ISWNE. The ISWNE quarterly, Grassroots Editor, could become a refereed publication, or at least have one issue per year that is refereed mainly by COMJIG members. The weekly editors could get ahead of the curve through COMJIG research on digital media, and suggest topics for research. ISWNE members could review and contribute to syllabi of journalism classes, especially on weekly newspaper management, instruction in which may be spotty but could be more important at a time of creative destruction and a plethora of community journalism start-ups. We could have a continuing dialogue toward a theory of community journalism. These are just ideas right now, but illustrate the potential of the relationship. The ISWNE board agreed that representatives of the two groups should discuss these and other ideas.

A productive relationship should boost the membership of both groups, which are relatively small. ISWNE has about 250 members, COMJIG about 100. ISWNE doesn’t just want to increase its membership, but to increase awareness of the organization among journalism students (for whom a discounted membership fee might be arranged) and faculty. Likewise, COMJIG could be a source of useful research for weekly editors, who operate in a segment of the industry that is little researched. Those of us who are service-oriented would gain connections within the industry. ISWNE showed its interest and good faith by giving me travel support to attend its board meeting.

Journalism academics increasingly realize that community journalism is the most vibrant and diverse segment of journalism, and it deserves more attention. As Humphrey Bogart told Claude Rains, “This could be the beginning of a beautiful relationship.”

Community Journalism Syllabus Exchange

We have started the community journalism syllabus exchange at our Yahoo group, with the first contribution by Bill Reader of Ohio University. His syllabus covers a course specifically on community journalism.

You will find it in the "File" area of the Yahoo group .

Please contribute your syllabi. As a member of the Yahoo group, you can post them yourself and we'll see that you've done that. (To do so, you needed to create a Yahoo log on when we sent you the invitation. Some of you are getting this message because we enrolled you but you never responded to that initial message asking you to create a log on.)

If you can't post them, send them to teaching chair Andrea Frantz frantza@rmu.edu  or COMJIG head Joe Marren marrenjj@buffalostate.edu  for posting.

Sked for Chi-town

John Hatcher and I spent the weekend in Louisville putting some of the finishing touches on COMJIG's Chicago sked (yeah, I know, tough gig but somebody had to do it, right?) We think that we have an interesting lineup of scholarly panels so make sure to pack your thinkin' cap for next August.

Just a reminder that this will be the 100th aniversary for AEJMC back in its founding city so things are a bit different this time around. We're on a Thursday to Sunday sked instead of the traditional Wednesday-Saturday rotation. But anyone in the Windy City on Wednesday, Aug. 8, won't be disappointed or left looking for something to do (are there things to do in that toddling town?) that day because COMJIG is part of a group presenting a pre-conference session from 1 to 5 p.m. titled "Legal Issues for J-Schools as News Producers: Challenges & Opportunities."

The conference formally opens on Thursday, Aug. 9, and we have two afternoon panels:
1.) A PF&R panel with our buds from CCJIG at 3:15 titled "African Media, the Arab Spring & Democratization: The 'un-seen' and 'un-mentioned' Social Side of the News Revolution."
2.) That's immediately followed with another PF&R session at 5 (so walk quickly between the rooms) with a co-sponsored session with the good folks from GLBT on "The Tragedy of Today's GLBT Journalism."

Friday, Aug. 10, is a busy day. Unfortunately, however, the sked gods hiccuped when we were going about our biz because there is a dark cloud coverng our silver lining. We have four sessions but two of them conflict. Blame it on the Bossa Nova, blame it on the sheer madness of the chip auction (any excuse in a storm is a good excuse I always say), but we'll just have to endure. First, the good news:
1.) Our scholar-to-scholar session is from 1:30 to 3 p.m.
2.) We're cosponsoring a 3:15 p.m. research session with our ol' reliables from CCJIG on "Mobile Me, Mobile We: Building and Bridging Communities With Media."
3. & 4.) Here's where things get sticky and we'll have to make the best of it. We have a conflict from 5 to 6:30 p.m. We're co-sponosring a PF&R session with SPIG on "Social Media & the Ethnic Press in Chicago" AND involved in a high-density research session with CTECH at the same time. And there's another problem. We'll really have to help the research chair find, cultivate and nurture some quality research papers. So start spreading the news. (Yeah, I know, I know, it's Chicago and I'm quoting "New York, New York," but Frankie sang about both towns so I think I have a loophole here.

Although New York (and maybe Chicago) are cities that never sleep, maybe you should get some sleep because Saturday, Aug. 11, will be a busy day.
1.) It can start as late as 12:15 with the traditional J-Lab lunch with friends from the Council of affiliates and CCJIG, but then it gets busy as the afternoon and evening wear on.
2.) At 3:30 p.m. we're working with Media Management on a merger of essentially two panels: "Starting Startups in the Business of Journalism" and "Changing the News: Exploring a Connective Journalism."
3.) Our biz meeting is at 7 p.m. on-site and our executive meeting will follow somewhere on- or off-site.

Our formal presentations end Saturday, but remember that the conference continues through Sunday, Aug. 12.

On a personal note, I've told anyone who will listen, friends and foes alike, that last year in Albuquerque I plunked two chips into teh container in teh middle of the room. This year, two prople tied my mark, though they didn't break it. I swear the container was much, much, much wider this year. When the first person swished in his two chips a woman sitting near me leaned over and asked, "Didn't you get two chips in last year?" Ahhhh, fame endures though the good that men do is oft interred with their bones but they remember the chips you sink.

See you in August!

What's the word?

Community journalists may be wondering what the Project for Excellence in Journalism will say when PEJ on Monday unveils what it terms "groundbreaking research that paints a new, more nuanced portrait than captured before of how people learn about their community." That quote comes from PEJ Director Tom Rosenstiel. He says the research is groundbreaking because of a paradigm shift in methodology of data collection. Instead of the traditional method of simply asking people where they got their news about their community, the researchers took a path less traveled. It wasn't exactly a "Eureka!" moment, but the new approach instead asked people to say where they got their info in 16 different areas, from the all-important weather report (according to Paul Simon, we get all the news we need on the weather report) to where is a good place to eat (that's right, restaurant reviews).

The research of the sublime to the mundane was done with help from Pew's Internet and American Life Project and the Knight Foundation.

"The results paint an entirely different picture of local news than we have seen before, one that pinpoints the role of the newspapers more completely versus television, the internet and even volunteer newsletters and word of mouth," Rosenstiel said. "We can see a whole ecosystem of local news and information. This should help different media understand and communicate their role."

The report can be found here on Monday.

C-SPAN Video Archives as a Resource for Teaching Community Journalism

I was searching through the wonderful C-SPAN video archives today looking for resources on community journalism. While I wasn't able to find a great deal directly related to this topic, here a number of interesting programs I came across that may be useful in classes on community journalism. All are available as streaming programming from C-SPAN:

• Pulitzer's Gold
  Roy Harris, Jr. talks about his book Pulitzer's Gold: Behind the Prize for Public Service Journalism. The focus is on the future of community and public service journalism. Harris is joined by Pulitzer Prize winning reporters Elizabeth Mehren and Sacha Pfeiffer. (Originally broadcast 8/27/09)


• Journalism and New Media
  A panel of journalists and media executives look at how news organizations are using multimedia. (Originally broadcast 4/14/08)


• Civic Journalism in Practice
  Tom Still of the Wisconsin State Journal talks about the practice of civic journalism and how it affects the community. (Originally broadcast 12/27/97)


• Connecticut Post
  Brief talk with Robert Laska, publisher of the Connecticut Post. (Originally broadcast 4/18/97)


• Distinguished Writing Award Winners
  A panel of ASNE Distinguished Writing Award Winners talk about encouraging good writing in the newsroom, including theme, narrative and story. (Originally broadcast 4/11/97)


• Political and Community Reporting - 1
  Jan Schaffer of the Pew Center for Civic Journalism talks about the meaning of civic journalism. (Originally broadcast 12/9/96) (As of today, the audio and video on this clip is bad)


• Political and Community Reporting- 2
  Editors of daily newspapers talk about the definition of and merits of civic journalism. Among the speakers is Michael Gartner, editor of the Ames Daily Tribune at the time, and former editor of the Des Moines Register and the president of NBC News. Gartner is interesting in his strong opposition to civic journalism and the Pew Center for Civic Journalism. Other speakers include Jennie Buckner of the Charlotte Observer, Edward Fouhy of the Pew Center for Civic Journalism, Craig Klugman of the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, and Steven A. Smith of the Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph. (Originally broadcast on 12/9/96)


• News Media and the Public
  Broadcast of a forum of newspaper editors discussing "Journalism Values: Who Are We?" James Fallows of the Atlantic is among those featured. (Originally broadcast 4/17/96)