The Convergence Newsletter
From Newsplex at the University of South Carolina
Vol. II No. 4 (Oct. 7, 2004)
Exploring the Meaning
of Media Convergence
The purpose of this newsletter is to provide an editorially neutral forum for
discussion of the theoretical and professional meaning of media convergence.
We welcome articles on any topic directly related to media convergence, including academic research or information about convergence experiences in your newsroom. We also welcome information about conferences, publications and related links.
Holly Fisher
Editor
convergence-editor@mailbox.sc.edu
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Feature Articles
The RNC, the Motorola V, and Me: One Moblogger’s
Cingular Experience
Convergence for a Healthier Lifestyle?
Moblog Will Showcase
Digital Revolution Conference
New Textbooks Focus on Convergence
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Conference Information
Fall College Media Convention
Third Annual BloggerCon
2004 Online News Association
Conference
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Announcements/News
Call for Papers
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---------------Feature Articles
Editor’s Note: Ifra
Newsplex at the University of South Carolina teamed up with Cingular Wireless,
putting journalism students in Boston and New York to cover the Democratic and
Republication National Conventions. Using camera phones, students covered a
multitude of aspects of the conventions and their photos and text were posted
on a mobile weblog--or moblog--that received hundreds of hits and offered
journalistic depth overlooked by much of the mainstream media. The following
article comes from Susan Witty, a copy editor at Barron’s who completed her master’s
degree from Columbia University in May. She helped cover the Republican
National Convention for the Election Connection moblog. For previous
Convergence Newsletter articles on the Wireless Election Connection, visit http://www.jour.sc.edu/news/convergence/index.html.
The RNC, the Motorola V,
and Me: One Moblogger’s Cingular Experience
By Susan Witty
As zero hour for the
Republican National Convention in New York City approached, I became
increasingly anxious. The city's dailies had ratcheted up the fear factor by
constantly replaying the possibility of violent protest disruptions and
terrorist attacks. Not only was I beginning to be concerned about life and
limb, I was about to enter totally unfamiliar territory.
Though during my more than 20
years in magazine journalism I had mastered writing and editing on a computer,
I was about to attempt reporting on the upcoming convention by sending in
photos and text messages to a Web site via a Motorola V-400 camera phone
supplied by Cingular Wireless. The closer I came to having to perform in this moblog
arena, the more nervous I became.
But participating in this
phase of the "multiskilled journalist/converged newsroom" experiment
was an assignment for which I had volunteered. As part of a team of eight
"digital reporters" chosen from Columbia University and Berkeley's
graduate schools of journalism to cover the Republican convention for
Cingular's Wireless Election Connection site (http://wec.textamerica.com/), I would be
pioneering in a new form of journalism. The opportunity to be both in the
forefront and increase my skills was a powerful motivator.
I've constantly pushed myself
to undertake new challenges; joining the Peace Corps in its earliest years and
tackling a master's degree in my later years are two examples. But, in this
instance, I was the oldest member of the team by several decades. I was worried
I might not be able to keep step with much younger team members, who had more
cell phone smarts as well as the energy of youth. It would be a stretch. Would
I be limber enough to make it?
As things turned out, the
whirlwind five days were self-confidence affirming and energizing. In this
nasty-ad election year, the impetus behind the Cingular site to entice young
people into the voting booth was one of the more noble. I was proud to be part
of the historic effort being mounted by a variety of peer-to-peer and adult
groups to awaken this sleeping giant of around 40 million 18-29 year olds for
the good of democracy. And I applaud the contributions the Wireless Election
Connection moblog made to the coverage of the Republican convention in New
York. In fact, while the bulk of the TV networks scaled back to only three hours
each in a fit of ennui, and the mightier Fox happily stayed on Republican
message, the moblog, in its way, provided some of the most comprehensive and
balanced reportage around.
I have questions about the
ultimate goals of the multiskilled journalist/converged newsroom concept. But
first, the good news based on my experience on the ground.
Outside
The Box
The Wireless Election
Connection's national reach was a plus, and the breadth of its content in
several instances outdid that of the nation's traditional media. According to
my strictly anecdotal post-convention survey, the largest protest gathering in
response to a convention—an historic event in which an estimated half a million
anti-Bush and other demonstrators marched past Madison Square Garden—was only
sparsely reported, if at all, by news outlets outside New York.
On Aug. 29, a day before the
convention opened, our four Berkeley colleagues had not yet arrived. But we New
York City-based reporters and the Newsplex support team managed to post a slew
of images and comments from the two-mile long, six-hour march that trumped our
more conventional news brethren.
In the same vein, on the
convention's third day, some of us (me included) captured images and quotes
from a large anti-Bush-administration labor rally. To my knowledge this event,
certainly germane to the presidential election, wasn't covered anywhere else
with the possible exception of union newsletters.
Also unusual was our
particularly energetic attention to the man and woman on the street around
town. From shoeshine stand entrepreneur, to bike patrol police officer, to gem
cutter, to radio reporter, to schoolteacher, the variety of the people with
whom I briefly engaged was, for me, the greatest pleasure of the whole
endeavor.
When
Size Matters
Because of the currently
cumbersome and time-consuming nature of text messaging, the Cingular-supplied
equipment largely limited what we could communicate in writing. On the other
hand, the camera phone proved its merits in notable ways.
The phone's size enabled me
to get in on the action unobtrusively. I got a dynamic shot of Katherine Harris
at a LifetimeTV/Rock the Vote party because I could intrude my camera's eye into
the hive of fans and large camera photographers swarming the controversial
former Florida secretary of state without elbowing anyone aside or conking them
over the head.
In addition, the
featherweight phone's extreme portability made it easy to discover and document
stories on the fly. Traveling light, I could be here, there and everywhere—and
conduct interviews without attracting a host of onlookers. Freed to be exceptionally
mobile, on the way to a big story I was forever running into little stories.
For example, having stumbled
on the site of a luncheon honoring former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, I
spotted a small group of racially diverse teenagers hovering outside the
entrance to the event's tony restaurant. It turned out the kids were covering
the convention as part of an organization called Children's PressLine, which
trains teens to be journalists. I photographed and had a brief chat with
14-year-old reporter Laurence James. Our conversation was cut short when he and
his cohorts were waved in to take a look at the luncheon's happenings.
Though my photo of James was
far from a world-beater, introducing Children's PressLine on the Election
Connection moblog was gratifying. The accretion on the Wireless Election
Connection's moblog of unanticipated items like this one, along with the usual
suspects, made for a colorful patchwork quilt of convention-related material,
which, in my estimation, was the Web site's major forte.
Thinking
Pink
My favorite among the site's
features was its links. Expertly employed by the Newsplex newsresourcer, these
story expanders added heft to otherwise sleight captions. My postings,
including one of two young female delegates from Colorado who'd recently
participated in a community-service cleanup in New York's Chinatown, and
another of four pink-clad members of the women's peace organization Code Pink
heading to a nighttime rally, were greatly enhanced by these embedded referrals.
In the first case, the link
providing information about Manhattan's Chinatown was a creative choice. In the
second, the link to Code Pink's Web site was fortuitous. The very night I
posted my photo of the four Code Pinkers, Code Pink co-founder Gail Murphy
foiled the city's $76 million security network and crashed the convention floor
to admonish Vice President Dick Cheney during his John Kerry-bashing speech. I
only hope that some young news junkie surfing Cingular's site came upon my
entry and the Code Pink link and was, as a result, better able to put Murphy's
action in context.
As fate would have it, Code
Pink played a leading role in my most infuriating convention reporting failure.
On the convention's final night, I received one of the coveted hall passes.
President Bush was in mid-speech when I heard a distant commotion. I was
standing inside the convention hall in a crowded aisle, deep into text messaging
a longish caption. Suddenly the commotion that had sounded far off only a
second ago was in front of my nose. Security personnel rushed by me, hustling
out another Code Pink protestor. The group was gone before I could gather my
wits.
If I hadn't been so intently
focused on the cell phone keypad, I would have gotten a photo of Jodie Evans of
Code Pink being frog-marched out wearing a slip with anti-Bush messages written
all over it. On Saturday, the photo I could have published two days earlier
appeared in the New York Times. Thumbs down on text messaging as a reporting
tool!
Druthers
Aside from yearning for an
alternative to text messaging, I wish there had been a structured hands-on
training session for use of the camera phone before we had to hit the ground
running. The competency I gained learning-by-doing never reached mastery. Time constraints
made consulting the manual difficult. My knowledge of the full range of the
phone's capabilities remained incomplete, and, sadly hampered the quality of my
output.
I have nothing but gratitude
for the Newsplex personnel--the bureau chief, the newsflow editor, the newsresourcer
and the storybuilders--who, just a wireless call away, quickly came to the
rescue in techno, logistical and copy clarity emergencies. However, the
ever-changing cast of storybuilders, some with more experience than others,
left something to be desired. A couple of times, copy I thought pertinent was
deleted from my captions. On one occasion Katherine Harris' name was changed to
Kathleen Harris. On another, a storybuilder overrode my description of what a protestor
in a photo was hawking and substituted the word "posters" for
"newspapers." The fact that I had seen the subject close up on the
streets of New York, and the storybuilder was in South Carolina seemed not to
matter. But, hey, these are the small potatoes.
The
Big Questions
Instant publishing, national
reach, no watch-your-step newsroom atmosphere--for a reporter, Cingular's
Wireless Election Connection moblog had a good deal going for it. But it also
had its limitations. Was it blogging in the writerly sense? No. Was it a
substitute for pieces of substance? No. Its emphasis on speed and quantity of
input kept the material skating on the surface. As one of its practitioners
noted, "This isn't a format for depth or context."
In a speech to graduating
Columbia University journalism students this past spring, Washington Post
veteran reporter Walter Pincus observed: "Today in Washington we work in a
PR society. News and truth are not the same. The function of news is to signal
an event. Truth's is to shine a light on it, so people can react
wisely." Did the news bites
we collected for the moblog shine Truth's light on the Republican National
Convention in New York City? What we created was mainly a picture show. It was
comprehensive--we showed a lot, but in the main, the telling was left to other’s
Web sites. Is this Internet-based model the wave of the future that the
multi-skilled journalist/converged newsroom would have journalism ride?
I don't think quick,
on-the-surface news is the best the next generation of news purveyors can buy. While
Newsplex's home-base functions--the support staff of newsresourcers and
storybuilders--don't give me pause, I'm far from convinced that devoting energy
to creating one-man-band journalists out in the field is good for journalists
or journalism.
More
Is Less
When I started at the New
York Times Magazine, there still were
printers setting type who worked in the Times building, journeymen from a different
class that I, as a copy desk editor, had the opportunity to get to know and interact
with. I was at the Times when these craftsmen were replaced forever by cold
type, and the job of typesetting and correcting typos was passed on to editors
working on computers.
In time, no doubt, the whole
kit and caboodle of editorial duties will be transferred to computer software,
and fewer people will be needed to press the keys. It's inevitable. Today, in
practically every field, the unrelenting drive is to eliminate people, or to
give fewer people more to do, in order to bring down costs. The tools are there
to do it and are being refined to do it more extensively. Taking aim at
reporters with these tools will kill something of value to journalists.
I'm no Luddite. I benefit by
many a machine. But the sword of technological advance has ever been
double-edged. I suspect that as soon as technology perfects a way for single
journalists to handle every news- gathering task, the result will not only
yield so-called productivity gains, but also more over-burdened, more quickly
burned-out journalists. I also suspect that one-man-band journalists will lose
valuable breadth of vision when they lose the benefit of on-the-ground
colleagues with their own highly developed expertise.
It will be a unique
"backpack journalist" who can expertly execute all the special skills
of the trade (audio, video, still photographs and writing) each requiring
intense focus. In my view, it's unrealistic to think you can combine all these
functions in one person without compromising quality. Most importantly, I don't
believe paring down the workforce is good for our economy or our country.
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Editor’s Note: This
article is taken from a report written by an ad-hoc convergence committee at
the College of Mass Communications & Information Studies at the University
of South Carolina. This article suggests an important topic for those studying
convergence and its uses.
Convergence for a Healthier Lifestyle?
By Jennifer Arns, Opportunities
to Use Convergence Practices and Research to Leverage Scarce Public Health
Resources
The Institute of Medicine’s
report The Future of Public Health and the U.S. Department of Health and Human
Service’s Healthy People in Healthy Communities action plan provide a vision of
public health that includes many partners working together to provide a group
of essential public health services
(http://www.apha.org/ppp/science/10ES.htm#mobilize).
At least three of these
services appear to be particularly fertile ground for convergent journalism,
and each brings to mind a number of ways that convergence could play an
important role in creating the conditions that help all people to live healthy
and productive lives.
==”Inform, educate, and
empower people about health issues: This service involves social marketing and
targeted media public communication; providing accessible health information
resources at community levels; active collaboration with personal health care providers
to reinforce health promotion messages and programs; and joint health education
programs with schools, churches, and worksites.”
The “social marketing
activities” suggested in the first of these service category are under way, and
the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control http://www.scdhec.gov/omh/other_health_issues.html
points to several examples, including its “Good Health Depends On You” promotion
campaign and the IMARA magazine (aimed at educating women of color about AIDS
and other health topics). Similar activities could be launched using multimedia
technology and their effectiveness strengthened through research on target
audience perceptions. Faculty-led focus groups and community “design-build”
workshops resulting in co-produced marketing/information products would
accomplish both ends. If this model proved to be successful, it could be shared
with other public health groups.
==”Mobilize community
partnerships and action to identify and solve health problems: This service involves convening and
facilitating community groups and associations, including those not typically
considered to be health-related, in undertaking defined preventive, screening,
rehabilitation, and support programs; and skilled coalition-building ability in
order to draw upon the full range of potential human and material resources in
the cause of community health.”
This service category could
be furthered through a national series of investigative articles or multimedia
productions that capture best practices or success stories. These, in turn,
could be made available to Public Health Departments and Advocacy Groups
interested in forming coalitions.
==”Link people to needed personal
health services and assure the provision of health care when otherwise
unavailable: This service (often
referred to as “outreach” or “enabling” services) includes assuring effective
entry for socially disadvantaged people into a coordinated system of clinical
care; culturally and linguistically appropriate materials and staff to assure
linkage to services for special population groups; ongoing “care management”;
transportation services; targeted health information to high risk population
groups; and technical assistance for effective worksite health promotion/disease
prevention programs.”
South Carolina health
statistics reveal that racial and ethnic minority infants in South Carolina are
more than twice as likely to die before their first birthday as Caucasian
babies; and in the year 2000, African Americans were over nine times more
likely to be reported as having HIV/AIDS than were Caucasians (http://www.scdhec.gov/omh/disparities.htm).
As a group, these numbers are
not out of line with national statistics, and targeting health information to
high-risk populations and those that work with them is a priority at both the
local and national level. A convergence research agenda aimed at improving our
understanding of the risk perceptions associated with information seeking
within high risk populations was begun by Elfreda Chatman (see Elfreda A.
Chatman: The Impoverished Life-World of Outsiders. Journal of American Society
for Information Science (3): 193-206 (1996) and http://www.ala.org/ala/lrrt/tributetochatman/tributedrelfreda.htm
). Its continuance lies within the interests of convergence scholars.
Moving beyond these essential
services, The National Rural Health Association’s (RHA) June 2004 report Rural
Public Health http://www.nrharural.org/dc/policybriefs/public_hlth.pdf
has put ward an additional policy recommendation that falls within the convergence
sphere of interest--strengthening communication systems and technological
capacities within the rural public health system in order to manage public
health emergencies, conduct surveillance, and receive and send up-to-date
public health information. Communication systems also have a role to play in
fostering public awareness of the risk behaviors that lead to chronic disease
and encouraging personal preventive practices.
According to the recent data
collected by the Pew Internet and American Life Project http://www.pewinternet.org/index.asp,
a small percentage of senior citizens in the United States (about 22%) are now
taking advantage of the availability of health information in electronic format
on the Internet. This number is
expected to grow considerably as younger Internet users age and become heavier
consumers of health-related services.
Moreover, if trends continue,
senior citizens in rural areas, which are typically affected by public health
manpower shortages will be even more likely to seek health-related information
on the Internet than their urban and suburban counterparts. In this situation,
good quality electronic information could be a key to leveraging scarce public
health resources in rural areas. However, before this can happen, two things
must occur.
First, public health
personnel need to develop the skills required to produce interesting, accurate
and engaging electronic products. Secondly, specific efforts need to be made to
improve rural Internet access, whether in the home or through community
organizations such as public libraries, to high-risk groups that are both less
likely to use the Internet and more likely to need public health
information.
The first of these points can
be initially approached through convergence-minded training programs,
institutes and partnerships. The second requires convergence research and
experimentation.
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Moblog Will Showcase
Digital Revolution Conference
Journalism educators from around the country will
gather at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, S.C., USA, for an
annual convergence conference this month. The Digital Revolution: The Impact of
Digital Media and Information Technologies is set for Oct. 14-16.
While the main thrust of the conference is to provide
a scholarly examination of the attributes and implications of the digital
revolution, conference organizers have added a new techno-twist--a conference
moblog (mobile weblog).
Additional moblog training at Ifra Newsplex was made
available to the first 15 conference participants who signed up. They will
spend the morning of Oct. 14 at Newsplex learning how to put together a moblog
using camera-equipped cell phones and a Text America moblog site. Throughout
the conference, those 15 trainees will document the event through photos,
captions and short essays posted on the site at http://uscconvergence.textamerica.com.
Anyone not able to attend this year’s conference can
check in on the sessions via the moblog, which also will have links to
speakers’ Web pages, presentations and papers. Visit the moblog starting Oct.
14 and then let us know what you think by e-mailing convergence-editor@mailbox.sc.edu.
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New Textbooks Focus on Convergence
In the August
issue of The Convergence Newsletter (http://www.jour.sc.edu/news/convergence/issue13.html),
we highlighted new books about convergence. Since then, we’ve received additional
information on more books with a convergence theme.
===Dr. Claudette
Guzan Artwick, an associate professor in the Department of Journalism and Mass
Communications at Washington and Lee University, has published a textbook on
working in digital media. “Reporting and Producing for Digital Media,” is the
newest addition to Blackwell Publishing’s Media and Technology Series.
This book
integrates sound journalistic perspective with the skills needed to research,
report, write, and present news in a world of digital and converging media. Featured topics in this volume include: functions of
the press in a digital society; case studies illustrating core journalistic
values; legal and ethical issues specific to the Internet; examples and
exercises of interactive techniques that set digital storytelling apart;
strategies from print and broadcast media that are appropriate for the Web and
those that aren’t; framing stories and storytelling tools for the Web; working
with photographs, shooting and editing digital video, creating still images
from digital video, and planning Flash presentations; working and competing in
convergent media.
For more details or to order
this book, visit http://store.blackwell-professional.com/0813806283.html
===Dr. Ralph D.
Berenger, assistant professor of
journalism and mass communication at the American
University in Cairo, has extended the call for chapters deadline for his
upcoming book, tentatively titled “Cybermedia Go to War--Role of
Non-traditional Media in the 2003 Iraq War and its Aftermath.” This text is a
companion book to “Global Media Go the War,” the first
scholarly examination of how the news and entertainment media behaved in the
run-up and prosecution of the 2003 Iraq War. Authors were asked to write for a
general readership rather than for an academic audience. Chapters reported on
studies by 34 authors on global print, broadcast and digital media. Working
professional journalists and senior media scholars such as Cees Hamerlink, John
C. Merrill, Kaarle Nordenstreng and Yahya Kamalipour contributed to the
comprehensive work. (Spokane: Marquette Books, 2004, www.marquettebooks.org).
Berenger also
will edit “Cybermedia Go to War.” While
traditional media often snare the attention of academics, there is growing
evidence that non-traditional media in the 2003 Iraq War played a significant
role in informing global publics about the event and its aftermath. No other
war in history was covered so completely by so many different types of media.
He is seeking 25-30 chapters between 3,500 and 5,000 words
that succinctly describe research into computer-based behavior during the
2002-2004 prewar, war and postwar period by senders and receivers of
information. International research is particularly encouraged. Successful
chapters will be written for a college audience and will be based on some
acceptable methodology, communications theory or professional practice.
Topics could include, but are
not limited to:
*What impact did hackers and
crackers have on news flows during the period under study?
*How effective were Weblogs
during this time, and how do bloggers move from the narrowcast of the Internet,
to the broadcast of mass media?
*What effect did war documentaries such as “Fahrenheit 9/11” and “Control
Room” have on audiences or public
policy?
*What evidence is there the
computer was used to mobilize antiwar protest or support?
*What new media will be used
to report and cover future wars? Are we entering an era of virtual reality here
media provide the experience of war without pain and blood?
*What should college students
be taught about the nexus of war and computers; or what impact instantaneous
online news has audiences, if anything?
*Photography on the Internet.
How did shocking photographs contribute to the war debate?
*Is there ground for hope
that increased new media use will result in behavioral changes of bellicose
nations? Are there examples from elsewhere around the world?
Those interested in writing a
chapter should send a 75-word biographical sketch, abstract or outline of your
proposed chapter before Oct. 15, 2004 (new extended deadline) to Dr. Ralph D.
Berenger at berenger@aucegypt.edu. Original
final chapters are due Dec. 15, 2004, for publication Aug. 1, 2005. Authors are
responsible for securing permission to reprint Web pages, artwork, photographs
and cartoons, according to international copyright conventions. Permission must
accompany press-ready reproductions of the work.
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---------------Conferences
Fall College Media Convention
Nov. 4-7, 2004
Nashville, Tennessee, USA
http://www.collegemedia.org/news/79914.html
Convergence and online journalism are just two of the
many topics that will be addressed at the Fall College Media Convention,
sponsored by the College Media Advisors.
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Third Annual BloggerCon
Nov. 6, 2004
Stanford Law School
Palo Alto, California, USA
http://www.bloggercon.org/iii/register
Join other bloggers to discuss the role blogs and
citizen journalism played in the Presidential election. There also will be
sessions on blogging in education, science, the arts and daily life. BloggerCon
is a user's conference about technology and a forum for the use of technology.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
2004 Online News
Association Conference
Nov. 12-13, 2004
Hollywood, California, USA
http://www.journalists.org/2004conference/
Digital journalists will
gather for the 5th Annual Online News Association Conference and Awards
Banquet. Two full days of panel discussions and keynote speeches focused on the
best practices for digital news will culminate with an elegant banquet and the
announcement of the 5th Annual Online Journalism Awards.
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---------------Announcements/News
Call for Papers
The 2005 annual meeting of the Michigan Academy of
Science, Arts, and Letters will be March 4-5 at Eastern Michigan University in
Ypsilanti, Mich. Programming will include communication topics.
Send submission form and two copies of each abstract
to the chair of the appropriate section by Nov. 11, 2004. Contact information
for section chairs is available at http://www.umich.edu/~michacad/2005chairlist.html.
Authors of papers accepted for presentation will be
notified by section chairs and the Academy office in December. Presenters must register
upon acceptance to be placed on the program.
(Note: Proposals for presentations by undergraduate students should be sent
directly to the Academy office by Nov. 11 with registration fee of $40 attached.)
Abstracts of all papers presented at the Academy
meetings are published in the spring issue of the Academy's quarterly journal,
the “Michigan Academician.” Articles submitted for the other three issues of
this multidisciplinary journal undergo peer review.
For more information, visit http://www.umich.edu/~michacad/.
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---------------Copyright and Redistribution
The Convergence Newsletter is Copyright © 2004 by the University of South Carolina, College of Mass Communications and Information Studies. All rights reserved.
The Convergence Newsletter is free and published by The Center for Mass Communications Research at the University of South Carolina, College of Mass Communications and Information Studies. It may be redistributed in any form--print or electronic--without edits or deletion of any content.
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---------------Submission Guidelines/Deadline Schedule
The Convergence Newsletter welcomes articles of all sorts addressing the subject of convergence in journalism and media. We also accept news briefs, calls for papers and conference announcements. Our audience is both academics and professionals, and the publication style is APA 7th edition. Feature articles should be 750 to 1,500 words; other articles should be 250 to 750 words; announcements and conference submissions should be 200 words. All articles should be submitted to The Convergence Newsletter Editor at convergence-editor@mailbox.sc.edu. Please include your name, affiliation and contact information with your submission.
The Convergence Newsletter is published the first week of each month (except January). Articles should be submitted at least 10 days prior to the publication date. Any questions should be sent to convergence-editor@mailbox.sc.edu.
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