Convergence Newsletter
From Newsplex at the
Vol. V No. 1 (July 2007)
Commenting on Convergence
By Melissa McGill, editor of The Convergence Newsletter
It’s been a busy month for us at The Convergence Newsletter. Newsplex hosted several convergence
workshops and we’re excited by the number of submissions coming in for
USC’s Convergence and Society Conference taking place this October.
I stayed busy with a three-week-long Media
and Politics Maymester class taught by Charles Bierbauer, Dean of USC’s
One thing that emerged from these experiences was how important
convergence and new media are to all areas of communication. During our
afternoon at CNN, Political Director Sam Feist offered this advice: “Commit
yourselves to journalism. The platforms, they're flexible." The message, not the method by which it is
communicated, is what is most important.
With
that in mind, this issue features an article from Will Folks, a
Melissa McGill is working toward a Master of Mass Communications
at the
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Feature Articles
Crashing the
Fourth Estate’s Party
Convergence
at AEJMC
Special Issue of International Journal on Media Management
NewNewsNebraska
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Conference Information and Calls for Papers
AEJMC
Convergence and Society: Media Ownership, Control, and
Consolidation
Online Fundamentals for Newsroom Leaders
Call for Papers—Special Issue of International Journal on Media
Management
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---------------Feature Articles
Crashing The Fourth Estate’s Party
By Will Folks, founding editor of
FITSNews.com
Earlier
this year, NBC Nightly News editor
Brian Williams echoed the frustration felt by many in the mainstream media as a
result of the “rise of the blogs,” i.e. that budding movement of citizen-driven
“journalists” nobody seems to know what to do with just yet.
“All of my life, developing credentials to cover my field
of work, and now I’m up against a guy named Vinny in an efficiency apartment in
the
Last December, an assistant editor at The Wall
Street Journal put it more succinctly, saying that blogs were “written by
fools and read by idiots.”
As the
founding editor of FITSNews.com – a political blog here in
Well, I
don’t think I’m a journalist. Not most days, anyway. And having worked with real journalists on a daily basis for
four years as a gubernatorial press secretary, I can appreciate their
frustration at having to compete with a new method of mass communication that
doesn’t always play by the rules.
Having
said that, bloggers do play a key role in the ever-expanding “marketplace of ideas,”
– a role which traditional journalists would be wise to understand before
categorically dismissing.
First of
all, while blogs are certainly the latest craze to hit our information-hungry
society, it’s important not to overstate their significance.
In the
political arena, blogs still serve predominantly as aggregators and critics of
mainstream news coverage, with much of their “original content” piggybacking
off of content provided by traditional news outlets. Usually, bloggers are
fiercely partisan, overtly partial to a specific candidate or issue, and yes,
not especially talented or insightful – all reasons why most of them receive
only a handful of visitors a day.
But to
paint all of the Fourth Estate’s unwelcome party guests with the same brush of
indifference would be a big mistake. Many blogs do publish informative,
well-documented treatises on newsworthy items. Opinions which are first formed
and given voice in the blogosphere often become integral components of
conventional political wisdom.
Mainstream
media outlets have also recognized the growing influence of blogs by
incorporating them into their own information arsenals. From the Washington Post to the Hilton Head Island Packet, reporters,
columnists and editors everywhere are using corporate-sponsored blogs to
supplement their news outlets’ traditional coverage in an effort to better
compete in an evolving marketplace.
So, just
as bloggers are sometimes journalists, journalists are also sometimes bloggers.
Simply
put, access to reliable information and the ability to form compelling
arguments based on that information are two forces which cannot – and should
not – be confined. No matter what the mode or medium of communication, proven
facts and persuasive opinions invariably rise to the top, just as stories that
prove baseless or opinions lacking in merit invariably wind up on the
bottom.
Sure, we
should take anything we see or read these days with an ocean of salt, and
admittedly blogs are more likely to include factual errors and misstatements
than reports from more established media. But the fact that blogs are forcing
people to “trust but verify” a little bit more as they take in their daily dose
of information is a healthy thing, just as the more opinions we are exposed to
on a given subject, the more informed our views on that subject will ultimately
be.
The
bottom line is that as long as journalists, bloggers and the people who read
and react to their work continue to think for themselves, there’s plenty of
room at the party for everybody.
Mr. Folks is founding editor of www.fitsnews.com, one of
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Convergence at AEJMC Annual Convention
By
Got convergence? We do! Kicking things off with an all-day convergence seminar, the
AEJMC Annual Convention lets you network with educators, students and
practitioners from around the globe.
This year, we’re taking over the nation’s capital with
special keynote speaker - top television journalist, Bill Moyers; a first-hand look at the presidency and politics with
former White House correspondent, Helen
Thomas, and a special Hot Topics panel,
“Chaos and Carnage at Virginia Tech: The Challenges and Responsibilities of
Covering a Crisis.”
The AEJMC Annual Convention
Wednesday
All-day Convergence
Seminar
Part I: From the Industry: Practicing Convergence, with special guests: Greg Brock, senior editor, New York Times; James Brady, executive editor,
Washingtonpost.com; and Steven Petranik,
24/7-news editor, Honolulu Advertiser.
Part II: From the
Academy: Teaching Convergence
*Stuck in a 20th
*Producing Traditional Journalists
Who Can Function in a Chaotic Media Environment
Part III: Experience From On-Campus: Multimedia Reporting
Experiences and lessons from campus multimedia reporting.
Panelists will share their experience of teaching and practicing media
convergence. This session will include take-home lessons that participants can
incorporate into other classes, such as writing, editing, photo and broadcast.
Part IV: Finding Balance: Teaching Software vs. Critical Thinking
How should we balance the teaching of new technology with
critical and creative thinking? This Socrates Café style roundtable will be a
spirited discussion on the impact of new media in our classrooms. How do we
prepare our students for technological change and adoption when the software
release we may be teaching today is obsolete by the time students graduate?
Part V: Resources for Teaching Multimedia Skills
Presenters will share their valuable experiences of
teaching multimedia using available resources: “Pocket Journalism,”
Soundslides, “10 Steps to Better Interactive Graphics,” blogging and Flash.
Attendees will receive handouts to take home the skills they will need to teach
their own students.
Thursday
*Convergence in the
Classroom: A Survey of How Mass Communication Academics Are Confronting a New
Paradigm
*Caution: Media Convergence Zone Ahead: How to
construct a student news blog centered on community reporting
*Using Blogs for Community
Learning: The intersection of Web 2.0 and convergence education
*From Convergence to Emergence: Opportunities
and Challenges in Teaching Journalism and Mass Communication Beyond Our Comfort
Zones
Friday
*Preparing Journalists for the 21st
Century
Saturday
*Teaching Media History in an Age
of Convergence
*Maintaining Quality in the Face
of New Media Pressures
Sunday
*The Growing Role of Teams and
Collaboration in Online News Media Practice
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Call for Papers: Special Issue – Beyond
Interactive: Media Management in the Era of Participatory and Personal Media
A 2008
issue of The International Journal on
Media Management (JMM) will be dedicated to the management challenges
traditional and new media organizations face responding to the growth in
participatory and personal media.
The issue
will focus on theoretically based research that addresses the market and
management issues associated with on-demand media and consumer-created
content. Research focusing on any media
sector is welcome, as is work based in any appropriate methodology. Empirical research is particularly encouraged.
Topics of
particular interest in the theme issue would include, but are not limited to:
*Strategic management and competitive positioning of media
products based on on-demand or consumer-created-content models
*Challenges of forecasting demand for on-demand media and
the implications of demand uncertainty for financial and production models
*Challenges of forecasting both supply and demand for
participatory media and implications of supply and demand uncertainty for
content management
*Effective business models for media products based on
on-demand distribution or consumer-created-content
*Consumer utility, uses and gratification, and
gratification opportunities in relationship to on-demand and consumer-created
content
*Structural, cultural and leadership issues in media
organizations using on-demand or consumer-created-content business models
*New product-development processes used by media
organizations in the development of on-demand or consumer-created-content
products
*The place of on-demand or consumer-created content in
media product portfolios
*Branding and brand management of on-demand or
consumer-created-content media products
*Quality control of audience generated content
*Copyright and payment issues
*Use of audience-generated content as a public relations,
marketing and branding tool
*Other related topics are welcome. If you
have questions about a possible topic, please contact Dr. Ann Hollifield at
706-542-4966; or annholli@uga.edu
Submitted
papers should be no longer than 5,000 words, excluding tables and figures. Please submit manuscripts by email to Dr. Ann
Hollifield (annholli@uga.edu). The deadline for manuscripts to be considered
for this issue is September 1, 2007.
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NewsNetNebraska at the University
of Nebraska-Lincoln
NewsNetNebraska is
produced by students in the
Working
together in one of America's first converged newsrooms, broadcast and print
student journalists at UNL develop story ideas, interview sources, take
photographs and shoot video as they produce regular, updated content for
NewsNetNebraska. Students also produce video and audio podcasts for the Web
page.
NewsNetNebraska
produces its own Web page with primary content focused on the latest breaking
news, sports and weather information.
Redweek magazine, Star City News and other student oriented CoJMC
publications also contribute to the NewsNetNebraska Web page.
Throughout
the school year, the NewsNetNebraska Web page attracts roughly 1,000 unique
visitors a day. Articles published on
NewsNetNebraska have drawn visitor feedback from the
The goal
is to teach students real world convergence skills as they create an online
publication that can be updated whenever news dictates. NewsNetNebraska is
produced throughout each fall and spring semester at UNL.
This
year, NewsNetNebraska was honored with the Eric Sevareid Award for "Best
Web site" by the Northwest
Broadcast News Association. It's the fourth consecutive year that
NewsNetNebraska has received the recognition. NBNA represents radio and television
journalists working in
Professor
Jerry Renaud said the Sevareid Award underscored the growing "professional
competence" of CoJMC students who contribute to NewsNetNebraska. "It
shows our students are on the cutting edge of what's happening in the news
industry as far as convergence is concerned."
Associate
professor Barney McCoy added, "The students who contribute to NewsNetNebraska
work hard producing solid content for the Web page. They're learning skills
that will make them more productive in the journalism jobs they hold after
graduating from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln."
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---------------Conferences
and Calls for Papers
AEJMC
http://www.aejmc.org/_events/convention/program/index.php
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Convergence
and Society: Media Ownership, Control, and Consolidation
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Online
Fundamentals for Newsroom Leaders
Poynter
Deadline:
http://www.poynter.org/seminar/seminar_view.asp?int_seminarID=4269
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Call for Papers—Special Issue of International Journal on Media
Management
Deadline September
1, 2007
http://www.jmm.bwl.uni-muenchen.de/
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---------------Publisher
and Editorial Staff
The Convergence Newsletter is free and published by The
College of Mass Communications and Information Studies at the
Executive
Editor
Augie
Grant, Ph.D.
Editor
Melissa McGill
convergence-news@mailbox.sc.edu
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---------------Copyright
and Redistribution
The Convergence Newsletter is Copyright © 2007 by the
This
newsletter 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 provides an editorially neutral
forum for discussion of the theoretical and professional meaning of media
convergence. We welcome 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
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Newsletter editor at convergence-editor@mailbox.sc.edu. Please
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The Convergence Newsletter is published the first week of
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to the publication date. Any questions should be sent to convergence-editor@mailbox.sc.edu.
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