Civic and Citizen Journalism 2012 Abstracts
Cynics and Skeptics: Evaluating the Credibility of Mainstream and Citizen Journalists • D. Jasun Carr; Matthew Barnidge, University of Wisconsin – Madison; ByungGu Lee, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Stephanie Jean Tsang; Joshua Villanueva • With the increase in citizen-generated news, the need to understand how individual predispositions interact with this shift in source becomes increasingly important to understand. This study begins to explore this question, with a focus placed on the perceived credibility of a citizen journalist and his mainstream counterpart. Our results indicate that media skepticism is purely dispositional, applied uniformly to both media outlets, while political cynicism interacts with message source to influence perceptions of credibility.
Whose news? Whose values? Citizen journalism and journalistic values through the lens of content creators and consumers • Avery Holton, University of Texas – Austin; Mark Coddington, University of Texas at Austin; Homero Gil de Zuniga, University of Texas – Austin • As user-generated content and citizen-driven forms of journalism have risen to prominence alongside professional media production, they have presented a challenge to traditional journalistic values and processes. This study examines that challenge from the perspective of the creators and consumers of citizen-driven news content, exploring their perceptions of citizen journalism and the professional tenets of good journalism.
The relationship between citizen journalism and development communication • Tyler Jones, University of Alabama; Wilson Lowrey • This study examine the conditions in which a citizen journalism site may be more or less likely to adopt aspects of development communication, a field that applies communication to socioeconomic betterment. As a participatory media form, citizen journalism overlaps with certain aspects of development theory, and certain conditions in the U.S. suggest development communication may be increasingly relevant.
Crowdfunding for Civic Journalism: An Analysis of Story Content and Publication on Spot.Us • Marianne McCarthy, California State University, Northridge • Crowdfunding is becoming a popular means of financing independent projects. For journalism, crowdfunding allows online community members to contribute to the financing of story ideas that interest them. This study analyzed 113 articles on the website Spot.Us for content, donations and publication placement. The research determined that journalism produced there did not conform to traditional news topics, focused mainly on local and regional stories, attracted mostly non-commercial funding, and were disseminated through non-traditional media outlets.
In their own words: Teens find a voice in their communities through working with youth news websites • Jeffrey Neely, University of North Carolina Wilmington • This study examines the experiences, motivations and challenges of youth who participate in producing original news content online. Within a general conceptual framework of community building, the researcher applies the constant comparative method of grounded theory to derive emergent themes relating to teens’ experiences in generating news in their own words. Specifically, the researcher conducted 24 semi-structured in-depth interviews with youth news producers and the adult advisors who work with them.
Citizen Journalism 3.0: A Case Study of the Twin Cities Daily Planet • Mary Lou Nemanic, Pennsylvania State University-Altoona • Despite the popularity of citizen journalism, there have been few micro-studies that examine the structures and practices of online participatory journalism news sites. This paper provides a case study of the nonprofit the Twin Cities Daily Planet, based on in-depth interviews with the staff and some of its contributors, and examines how the roles of journalists have changed now that collaborative journalism has become so widespread.
New Institutionalism and a Business Model for “Social Journalism” • Mark Poepsel, Loyola University New Orleans • Finding a sustainable model for participatory journalism matters for democratic participation the world over, and it matters for a certain type of social cohesion built around the shared discourse of an informed electorate. This paper outlines the emergence of a form of journalism called “social journalism” in which information gathering and dissemination are conducted as parts of an ongoing conversation rather than as more of a one-way “lecture and listen”.
The New Storytellers for Community Reclamation: Emerging News Non-Profits • Sue Robinson, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Magda Konieczna, University of Wisconsin-Madison • This essay begins a scholarly response to the questions: Who are the new non-profit journalists? What do they aim to accomplish? Textually analyzing the mission statements of the non-profit news organizations, the researchers qualitatively approach these questions. A descriptive typology categorizes the myriad groups in America as of 2012, offering a snapshot of this burgeoning industry. The evidence shows that these groups aim to re-connect citizens with news about public affairs through a rebuilding of trust and also to create a new kind of relationship borne of mutual understanding and agency in information co-production.
Twitter as “a Journalistic Substitute”? Examining #wiunion Tweeters’ Behavior and Self-Perception • Aaron Veenstra, Southern Illinois University Carbondale; Narayanan Iyer; Fawaz Alajmi, Southern Illinois University Carbondale; Rajvee Subramanian, Southern Illinois University; Chang Sup Park • Twitter has been cited as a key factor behind a number of recent protest movements. Through interviews with heavy users of the #wiunion hashtag, this study examines the motivations and perceptions behind its usage during the 2011 Wisconsin labor protests. Findings suggest these users see a blurred boundary between citizen journalism and activism, but that their Twitter behavior is driven in part by distrust of traditional news sources and a desire to present an alternative.
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