Civic Journalism 2004 Abstracts
Civic Journalism Interest Group
Exploring Polyphony in Community Radio Stations: A Case Study of an Appalachian Community Media Arts Center • Chike Anyaegbunam and Rajesh Guar, University of Kentucky • Proponents of community radio argue that such stations often practice participatory journalism and can contribute significantly to strengthening civic engagement and democracy. This paper presents and analyzes the philosophy and practices of Appaishop, an Appalachian community media center and radio station, as it strives to provide a forum for the community to engage in the deliberation of their problems and solutions, celebrate their strengths and culture, and confront economic policies, and political practices that constrain self governance and sustainable development in the region.
Community Journalism Can Transform African Communities • Robert C Moore and Tamara L Gillis, Elizabethtown College • Changes in the media of sub-Saharan Africa allow for citizen empowerment and social interaction due to the integration of community journalism and community media as process and mechanism. Citizens have the opportunity to engage in a partnership with media that allows them to share in decision-making concerning issues that affect their future. Community journalism and community media are able to make a difference in the lives of people in Africa.
Public Journalism: Using New Institutionalism as a Theoretical Tool to Explore the Rise and Spread of the Movement • Sandra L Nichols, Carmichael, CA • Although studies show that public journalism has experienced widespread effects since its emergence in the late 1980s, it has not as yet developed full institutional status, wherein new civic routines and practices are accepted and adopted as natural and reasonable by journalism professionals. This study offers new institutionalism as a theoretical tool to explain the rise of the movement, its diffusion through the journalistic field, and forces constraining its ability to achieve full institutionalization.
Double Crossing Democracy? The Civic Vision vs. Vertical Integration in the Debate Over the Cross-Ownership Ban • Ronald Rodgers, Ohio University • The ongoing cross-ownership debate hinges on two distinct positions — one that regards dispersed ownership of the media as fundamental to democracy, and another that views the media through the lens of a commodity metaphor. This paper looks at the cross-ownership debate and concludes that a commodified media may well create community, but one of consumers grounded in consumerist values, not in the values of civic commonality as the source of an interstitial community.
Deliberative communities online: Towards a model of civic journalism based on the blog • Lori Cooke Scott, York University and Ryerson University • This essay examines the citizen-run “weblog” to conceptualize a fully participatory democratic mediated public sphere. The author argues that the content, conventions, structure and practices of “blogging” lend themselves to applications of meaningful participatory journalism. It is suggested that news organizations can encourage a rejuvenation of citizenship by educating, facilitating and integrating blogs into their news coverage and the local community, as well as by advocating for protection of the “blogosphere” as a space for open deliberation.
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