Community Journalism 2012 Abstract
Faculty
Making Hyperlocal News: An Exploration of the News Values and Perceived Roles of Journalists Working in Local, Independently Owned Online News •Michael Horning, Bowling Green State University • Popular media reports have observed a new phenomenon called hyperlocal news. This research uses a survey method to explore this emerging form of local media. It first explores the demographic characteristics of hyperlocal news sites. Next it reports on the perceived roles and values of hyperlocal journalists. Findings show most hyperlocal sites are not as “hyper” local as media suggest and that they are less diverse and fairly traditional in their approaches to journalism.
“Letters from home” Intimacy in the Norwegian community press • John Hatcher, University of Minnesota Duluth • By many indicators, Norwegian newspaper readership habits are some of the highest in the world (Ostbye, 2010). While the larger, regional newspapers have seen declines, the last forty years have witnessed an explosion of local, community newspapers that parallels the decentralizaton of the Norwegian government (Host, 1999). In a 2010 visit to Norway, journalists from local newspapers across the country were interviewed to explore the role they see for themselves in a culture where the community newspaper has such value. The findings suggest the community situation in Norway appears to be a collective vision of the community, discouraging actions that would draw attention to the individual. Journalists, it would appear, are expected to understand the boundaries of a community.
Student Experiences in Community Journalism: A Case Study of Two Universities • Lisa Paulin-Cid • Students at a large public university and a smaller HBCU have been collaborating on a community newspaper project to serve a marginalized area of a local city. Through interviews, researchers found that despite some similarities, students from large and small programs get different things out of the experience. Additionally, students felt community journalism was very different from working for the campus newspaper, indicating value in expanding curricula to provide more experiential learning in community journalism.
Youth connection: Promoting community ties and positive values in scholastic and non-scholastic online youth-generated news • Jeffrey Neely, University of North Carolina Wilmington • This study conducts a qualitative content analysis of 14 youth news websites to derive themes within a broader theoretical context of community attachment. The results show that while some content on these sites references specific community concerns of interest to a general local audience, the real value of these platforms is that they provide a resource for building positive interpersonal ties and promoting constructive personal values among members of the community, particularly youth.
Fighting spirit: Competing hyperlocal sites outmatch legacy newspaper’s efforts • Barbara Selvin, Stony Brook University • A competitive market for community news drives online hyperlocal sites to produce full community reports regardless of ownership structure, this case study finds. Corporately owned and independent hyperlocal sites in Riverhead, NY, produced timely news reports on a range of issues and events while a regional legacy newspaper’s hyperlocal effort trailed in both breadth and timeliness.
If You Build It, Will they Come? An Exploratory Study of Community Reactions to an Open S ource Media Project in Greensburg, Kansas • Samuel Mwangi, Kansas State University; Steve Smethers, Kansas State University; Bonnie Bressers, Kansas State University • This exploratory study seeks to ascertain whether community engagement behaviors among residents of Kiowa County, Kansas, and their attitudes about the new community information portal affect their intentions to contribute content. Results indicate that while most residents are engaged and have a favorable view of this citizen journalism project, technology-based communication hubs pose unique challenges beyond civic engagement that creators of information hubs should consider.
Undocumented Workers and Immigration Reform: Thematic vs. Episodic Coverage in a Rural Kansas Community Daily • Michael Fuhlhage, Auburn University • This qualitative historical case study examines how the Garden City Telegram, a small community daily newspaper, diverged from an episodic, conflict-driven frame for the debate over 1980s and 1990s immigration reform. Qualitative textual analysis of opinion pieces, locally originated articles, and wire stories in the Telegram found it promoted community dialogue by including Latino leaders in the conversation. It emphasized thematic coverage that explored the reasons for immigrants’ presence and contributions to life in southwest Kansas.
Student
Conversation Starters: A Study of Interactivity on Community Press-Supported Facebook Pages • Michael Clay Carey, Ohio University • Using Sheizaf Rafaeli’s three-level approach to online interactivity as a foundation, this study examines possible relationships between some basic elements on the social networking website Facebook and the propensity of readers to engage in interactivity on Facebook pages maintained by community newspapers. Ten community newspapers were analyzed because personal familiarity and engagement tend to be more common among their readers. This content analysis suggests connections between interactivity and the phrasing and subjects of Facebook posts
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