Community Journalism 2013 Abstracts
A Plain Circle: Imagined Amish and Mennonite Community in the National Edition of The Budget • Michael Clay Carey, Ohio University • This study describes the ways in which one community newspaper attempts to connect a broad, diverse population bound by a common ideal, in this case religious faith. The subject of the research is the national edition of The Budget, a weekly newspaper mailed to Amish and Mennonite readers all over the world. Writers for the national edition are unpaid volunteers who are largely free to write about whatever they like. They pass along local information about the weather, church visits, people who have fallen ill, marriages, and other aspects of community life. This qualitative study of The Budget explores the portrayals of Anabaptist life in those dispatches and how those portrayals unite readers. Using textual analysis, it explores common themes, ideals, and values expressed in letters, and how those expressions help create an “imagined community” (Anderson, 1983) among Budget readers. It builds upon past research that examines the ways in which niche publications with national followings connect with readers.
The New Community Influence: iHigh Producers, Their Communities, and Content Decisions • Sarah Cavanah, University of Minnesota; Julie Jones, Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication • A new form of news producers is emerging in U.S. communities. Although these producers are not journalists in the traditional, professional sense, their content serves a public good for the geographical communities they live and work within. Community journalism scholarship indicates community size and complexity influence the amount of pressure on journalists and how they choose and present content. This work updates that scholarship. Specifically, community producers for iHigh (a commercial web site used to cover youth-related events) were interviewed in-depth to assess how they worked, what pressure they felt from the community, and how they considered the work. Findings mirror traditional notions of the relationship between communities and the journalists covering the community, but with some variations significant for the digital platforms and communities.
A Rural Drought in a National Flood: Washington State Residents’ Assessments of Local News • Doug Hindman; Michael Beam, Washington State University • A surfeit of national-level outlets creates the illusion of an abundance of news even as the number of local outlets declines. This study is a report of state and national surveys assessing local news by rural and non-rural residents of Washington state. The findings point to a lack of locally relevant content, not a lack of skills or interest among rural Washingtonians. Implications for rural Washington state citizens’ political knowledge and civic participation are discussed.
Community journalists and relationships with sources and local organizations • Richard Johnson, Arizona State University • Because of the more intimate setting of a smaller community, many community journalists face ethical challenges in balancing source relationships with traditional qualities of objectivity and detachment. Using qualitative, semi-structured interviews, grounded theory, and constant comparative analysis, this study examines the ways in which community journalism professionals manage their personal relationships with sources and community organizations. The study also sought to explain the differences in relationship management between small weekly newspapers and larger community dailies. The interviews suggested community journalists are aware of conflicts of interest and as such try to exhibit professionalism and limit emotional responses to relationship formation. Community journalism professionals interviewed in the study examine individual situations closely with management. Newspaper size did not seem to be a major indicator of community involvement practices. Instead, a journalist’s training and background and a newspaper’s leadership and demographics weighed equally in responses.”
Patch.com’s online community journalism; Professionalism, localism, and the journalistic field • Burton St. John, Old Dominion University; Kirsten Johnson; Seungahn Nah, University of Kentucky • Patch.com, an online community journalism site, declares that its editors will “report the facts as objectively as possible” and that, “while true impartiality is impossible,” Patch wants its editors to be “ever mindful to write, report and edit in a fair, balanced way.” With this statement, Patch indicates that traditional, major metro professional journalistic attributes are important for their approach to community journalism. In contrast, scholars have observed that community journalists focus more on facilitating a sense of community connection among their readers (Hatcher 2012; Lauterer, 2006; Reader, 2012). This study, through a thematic analysis of news on its sites, shows how Patch exhibits the major metro professional journalistic field markers of objectivity, impartiality, and balance while maintaining it is a community journalism outlet. In the case of Patch.com, this raises some significant concerns about online community journalism’s ability to imagine, and engage, wider communities of interest.
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