Community journalism is locally-oriented, professional news coverage that typically focuses on city neighborhoods, individual suburbs or small towns, rather than metropolitan, state, national or world news.
If it covers wider topics, community journalism concentrates on the effect they have on local readers. Community newspapers, often but not always publish weekly, and also tend to cover subjects larger news media do not. Some examples of topics are students on the honor roll at the local high school, school sports, crimes such as vandalism, zoning issues and other details of community life. However, such "hyperlocal" articles are sometimes dismissed as "chicken dinner" stories.
Leo Lerner, founder of Chicago's erstwhile Lerner Newspapers, used to say, "A fistfight on Clark Street is more important to our readers than a war in Europe."[1]
An increasing number of community newspapers are now owned by large media organizations, although many rural papers are still "mom and pop" operations.
Most community journalists are professionally trained reporters and editors. Some specialized training programs in community journalism have recently emerged at established undergraduate and graduate journalism programs. Community journalism should not be confused with the work of citizen journalists, who are often unpaid amateurs, or with civic journalism, although many community newspapers practice that.
At the "Emerging Mind of Community Journalism" conference in Anniston, Ala., in 2006, participants created a list characterizing community journalism: community journalism is intimate, caring, and personal; it reflects the community and tells its stories; and it embraces a leadership role.[2]
If you want more of a definition, I'm afraid it's like when someone asked Louie Armstrong for a definition of jazz. The great Satchmo is reputed to have replied something like this: 'Man, if you have to ask, it won't do me any good to try to explain.' You know community journalism when you see it; it is the heartbeat of American journalism, journalism in its natural state."
—Jock Lauterer
Figures
In 1995, there were the following community papers:
In the United States, about 97% of newspapers are classified as "community" newspapers, with circulations below 50,000. Others in the field say the circulation limit should be 30,000. However, in her book Saving Community Journalism, Penny Abernathy argues that most newspapers under 100,000 should consider themselves community newspapers because their reason for being is service to a community or a group of communities.
History
Community journalism got its name from a Montana editor, Ken Byerly, early in his tenure as a professor of journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill in 1957-71. Although the term is relatively new, community journalism has been around since the founding fathers. He used the term as a new name for a course that had been titled "Editing the Country Weekly" because it didn't fit the suburban newspapers that had developed in the 1950s. He chose community journalism because it fit both the weeklies and small dailies of the day.[3]
The journalism debate
Not everyone agrees on the principles or practices of community journalism. Traditionally, journalists advocate avoiding any real or perceived conflict of interests, which can be anything from refraining from joining community groups, to not pledging money to a candidate they support. Community journalism, however, encourages the coverage of news that hits close to home, even for the journalist covering the story.
Some philosophers encourage professional journalists to remain independent, whereas others insist on committing to local and generalized communities as a prerequisite for true citizenship. Some say community involvement is fine for editors and publishers, but not for the reporters who have the ability to "shape" the news. Critics say this involvement is a risk for anyone involved in producing the news.[4]
Clifford Christians, co-author of Good News Social Ethics and the Press, urges journalists to realize that their publics may gravitate toward self-interest, and therefore the journalists should report stories that lessen the isolationism that comes from reading wider, world-based stories.[5] A fundamental flaw in community journalism is the stubborn resistance to change and a compulsion to shape the system to maintain community standards.
Loyalty to a community is the inevitable price of acceptance, and the fee is creating sharp conflicts with allegiance to the truth. Through community journalism, attitudes about necessary information change from the need for a broad range of information (pluralism) to a reliance on information necessary to maintain community values and fortify the status quo (reinforcement).
Sooner or later group importance could transcend the value of distributing accurate information both internally to members of the group, and externally about the community or group.[6]
Others think the switch toward community journalism is a natural reaction to our out-of-touch mega media. J. Herbert Altschull, writer of "A Crisis of Conscience: Is Community Journalism the Answer?" sees community journalism as a natural outgrowth from concerns of the media's slippage in credibility and influence.[7]
Organizations
The International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors, which has 260 members in seven countries (U.S., Canada, U.K., Ireland, Japan, Australia, New Zealand), encourages and promotes independent editorial comment, news content, and leadership in community newspapers throughout the world. Its purpose is to help those involved in the community press improve standards of editorial writing and news reporting and to encourage strong, independent editorial voices.
Examples
Portland, ME
A publication devoted solely to state education reform was created by Maine Sunday Telegram/Portland Press Herald Editor, Lou Ureneck and Maine Council of Churches, Sarah Campbell. Their primary objective was to create study circles to dispense information to the public on the different perspectives on education:
To prepare one for a job
To teach lifelong learning
To develop good citizens
To teach the basics
This newspaper, as with many community journalism publications, has sole control over editorial content. The content itself is very important and relevant to Maine communities and revolves around "core value" choices, as determined by the community. The community journalist reporters were required to give readers a background on each perspective and to "write an expository rather than conventional he-said/she-said style."
The publication ran more than 100inches of factual reporting on education in Maine, as well as op-ed pieces promoting one of the four perspectives, and summary reports on the opposing viewpoint. The newspaper was received well, and, as a result, roughly 700 community members took part in the reader roundtables.
Virginia
The Virginian Pilot is a second example of a community newspaper. This publication sought to "show how the community works or could work" and to "portray democracy in the fullest sense of the word, whether in a council chamber or a cul-de-sac."
Known as the Public Life Team, they meet with panels of citizens regularly to "tap their thoughts and dreams for the regions' future." Additionally, they have changed the perception of criminal sentencing from a polarized issue to one that rehabilitation advocates were in favor of. Finally, they opened a line of communication between various community members for the Hall Place neighborhood. "The Pilot got black and white residents to talk freely about the plan." Without the assistance of the Pilot, the community would not have come to the conclusion that it "ought to be what was good for the city as a whole."
This publication in particular has paved way for other community journalists, mainly due to its experimental nature and eagerness to give reporters the opportunity to brainstorm ideas together. Overall, the Pilot wants to improve the tone of public discourse in the Virginian community.
London, United Kingdom
Fitzrovia News is an example from a central London neighbourhood. Residents and volunteers produce a quarterly printed newspaper delivered free to all residential addresses and local businesses in the district of Fitzrovia. The paper which also has a website and social media network covers issues of concern to residents and small businesses. Originally called The Tower it is perhaps the United Kingdom's oldest community newspaper.
Community blogging
There is a growing number of community blogs coming to the surface. These local bloggers and community members (many who have no journalism background) join together to write about and advocate for their community in an online forum.[8] These blogs serve as watchdogs to hold the public and other media outlets accountable for their actions. According to a Zogby International survey, 70% of Americans say journalism is important to maintaining community quality of life, and 67% say the traditional media are out of touch with what citizens want from their news.[9] One more Journalist community was developed by Team Media services (TMS), Hyderabad (India) based Telug News Agency by name "Crime Reporter's Community" [10]
Community blogs also provide a service to organizations that encourage civic engagement. It give them a birds-eye-view of the happenings of the communities they affect without interjecting themselves into any one community.[11]
Emergence of mobile news
According to the "State of the News Media: An Annual Report on American Journalism", nearly half of all American adults (47%) report that they get at least some local news and information on their cell phone or tablet computer. They are interested in obtaining news that is practical and in real time and fall under the demographic of higher socioeconomic status, younger, newer residents, reside in non-rural areas, and parent minor children.
Mobile news is important because participants "feel they can have an impact on their communities, more likely to use a variety of media platforms, feel more plugged into the media environment than they did a few years ago, and are more likely to use social media."
Citizens can not only read news from their local community, with tablets and smart phones, they can also share and post links to stories, comment, or contribute themselves.
Survey
The Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism and Internet & American Life Project partnered with the Knight Foundation to conduct a national survey from January 12–25, 2011. They polled 2,251 adults over the age of 18 in both English and Spanish to "explore the role that cell phones and tablet computers play in people's patterns of consuming and contributing to community information.
Results
84% of adult Americans own a cell phone and 47% of that population access local news and information on mobile devices, as it serves an immediate need.
However, those polled stated that topics like crime, community events, schools and education, and politics and cultural events are a fraction of topics sought after. In other words, citizens have not reached the point where they use mobile devices as a primary source to acquire community journalism-related subjects.
Purpose
Community newspapers throw most of their weight behind supplying local coverage and making national and international news stories relate by finding a significant local angle. They embrace their civil role by promoting the general welfare of the community. The finest community newspapers recognize and accept this covenant with their towns: that they are key stakeholders and players in the forces that help build and celebrate their communities.[3] Community journalism is a serious effort to return to the reputation journalism once had, and to restore the role of the press to its original purpose—that is, to serve as a breeding place for ideas and opinions.[12]
At their best, community newspapers affirm a sense of community through their publications. It emphasizes connectedness and "us-ness." It's covering school plays across four columns with pictures of the students large enough to see their faces. It's showing the community members that they, as individuals, matter.
Measurement
Through a qualitative and quantitative content analysis of scholarship on community and news media, community news media should (a) facilitate the process of negotiating and making meaning about community and (b) reveal or ensure understanding of community structure.[2]
Community journalism would ideally reveal, or make individuals aware of, spaces, institutions, resources, events, and ideas that may be shared, and encourage such sharing. The practice should also facilitate the process of negotiating and making meaning about a community.[11]
It is suggested that news media outlets do not choose to either practice community journalism exclusively or disregard it. Rather, media outlets generally engage in some degree of community journalism, as measured by the types of practices they follow and the intensity with which they follow them. A summated scale of multiple ordinal-level items would be an appropriate measure of community journalism.[2] This is because community journalism is on a scale on which data is shown simply in order of magnitude since there is no standard of measurement of differences.
In addition, numerous studies in this analysis suggest that any scale measure of community journalism should accommodate the impact of the community's power structure on news decisions and should address the need for inclusion of less powerful voices.
Criteria
One way to measure the degree to which news outlets reveal community structure is the following list: Media outlet content provides
Communities with contact information for community leaders, officials, experts, and community organizations.
Information from community leaders, officials, experts, and community organizations that is usable and relevant to community members.
Information on community services and institutions.
Information so that communities understand how to use services and institutions.
Information on clubs and organizations.
Information that helps communities understand how to get involved with local or relevant clubs and organizations.
Information that helps communities take advantage of local or relevant events and festivities.[13]
1 2 "Community blogging: The new wave of citizen journalism." National Civic Review; Winter2008, Vol. 97 Issue 4, p27, 6p
↑ Altschull, Herbert J. "A Crisis of Conscience: Is Community Journalism the Answer?" Journal of Mass Media Ethics (1996). Print.
↑ Lowrey, Wilson, Amanda Brozana, and Jenn B. Mackay. "Toward a Measure of Community Journalism." Mass Communication & Society 11.3 (2008)pg 297. Print.
Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the "news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree of accuracy. The word, a noun, applies to the occupation, the methods of gathering information, and the organizing literary styles.
The news media or news industry are forms of mass media that focus on delivering news to the general public. These include news agencies, newspapers, news magazines, news channels etc.
Citizen journalism, also known as collaborative media, participatory journalism, democratic journalism, guerrilla journalism or street journalism, is based upon members of the community playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing, and disseminating news and information. Courtney C. Radsch defines citizen journalism "as an alternative and activist form of news gathering and reporting that functions outside mainstream media institutions, often as a response to shortcomings in the professional journalistic field, that uses similar journalistic practices but is driven by different objectives and ideals and relies on alternative sources of legitimacy than traditional or mainstream journalism". Jay Rosen offers a simpler definition: "When the people formerly known as the audience employ the press tools they have in their possession to inform one another." The underlying principle of citizen journalism is that ordinary people, not professional journalists, can be the main creators and distributors of news. Citizen journalism should not be confused with community journalism or civic journalism, both of which are practiced by professional journalists; collaborative journalism, which is the practice of professional and non-professional journalists working together; and social journalism, which denotes a digital publication with a hybrid of professional and non-professional journalism.
Alternative media are media sources that differ from established or dominant types of media in terms of their content, production, or distribution. Sometimes the term independent media is used as a synonym, indicating independence from large media corporations, but generally independent media is used to describe a different meaning around freedom of the press and independence from government control. Alternative media does not refer to a specific format and may be inclusive of print, audio, film/video, online/digital and street art, among others. Some examples include the counter-culture zines of the 1960s, ethnic and indigenous media such as the First People's television network in Canada, and more recently online open publishing journalism sites such as Indymedia.
In journalism, a source is a person, publication, or knowledge of other record or document that gives timely information. Outside journalism, sources are sometimes known as "news sources". Examples of sources include but are not limited to official records, publications or broadcasts, officials in government or business, organizations or corporations, witnesses of crime, accidents or other events, and people involved with or affected by a news event or issue.
Journalistic ethics and standards comprise principles of ethics and good practice applicable to journalists. This subset of media ethics is known as journalism's professional "code of ethics" and the "canons of journalism". The basic codes and canons commonly appear in statements by professional journalism associations and individual print, broadcast, and online news organizations.
Broadcast journalism is the field of news and journals which are broadcast by electronic methods instead of the older methods, such as printed newspapers and posters. It works on radio, television and the World Wide Web. Such media disperse pictures, visual text and sounds.
Media ethics is the subdivision dealing with the specific ethical principles and standards of media, including broadcast media, film, theatre, the arts, print media and the internet. The field covers many varied and highly controversial topics, ranging from war journalism to Benetton ad campaigns.
Civic journalism is the idea of integrating journalism into the democratic process. The media not only informs the public, but it also works towards engaging citizens and creating public debate. The civic journalism movement is an attempt to abandon the notion that journalists and their audiences are spectators in political and social processes. In its place, the civic journalism movement seeks to treat readers and community members as participants.
Gatekeeping is the process through which information is filtered for dissemination, whether for publication, broadcasting, the Internet, or some other mode of communication. The academic theory of gatekeeping may be found in multiple fields of study, including communication studies, journalism, political science, and sociology. Gatekeeping originally focused on the mass media with its few-to-many dynamic. Currently, the gatekeeping theory also addresses face-to-face communication and the many-to-many dynamic inherent on the Internet. Social psychologist Kurt Lewin first instituted Gatekeeping theory in 1943. Gatekeeping occurs at all levels of the media structure—from a reporter deciding which sources are presented in a headline story to editors choosing which stories are printed or covered. Including, but not limited to, media outlet owner and advertisers.
Democratic media is a form of media organization that strives to have the principles of democracy underlying not only the production of content, but also the organization of the entire project. Civic media is another term with similar concept and therefore can be used interchangeably in many contexts. The mission of the defunct Center for Civic Media of MIT is to design, create, deploy, and assess tools and processes that support and foster civic participation and the flow of information between and within communities, working at the intersection of participatory media and civic engagement.
Digital journalism, also known as netizen journalism or online journalism, is a contemporary form of journalism where editorial content is distributed via the Internet, as opposed to publishing via print or broadcast. What constitutes digital journalism is debated by scholars; however, the primary product of journalism, which is news and features on current affairs, is presented solely or in combination as text, audio, video, or some interactive forms like storytelling stories or newsgames, and disseminated through digital media technology.
Interactive journalism is a new type of journalism that allows consumers to directly contribute to the story. Through Web 2.0 technology, reporters can develop a conversation with the audience. The digital age has changed how people collect information. News from print newspapers, once the only source for news, have seen declines in circulation as people get news on the Internet.
Political journalism is a broad branch of journalism that includes coverage of all aspects of politics and political science, although the term usually refers specifically to coverage of civil governments and political power.
Mediated deliberation is a form of deliberation that is achieved through the media which acts as a mediator between the mass public and elected officials. The communication professionals of the media relay information, values, and diverse points of view to the public in order for effective public deliberation to occur. Benjamin Page proposes mediated deliberation be a "division of labor" with the idea of using the media to deliver information between the elected officials and the public because modern problems make it impossible to rely on the elected officials to deliberate for the public. The role of the media is to encourage discussion amongst the citizens to keep them engaged with their elected officials.
Collaborative journalism is a growing practice in the field of journalism. One definition is "a cooperative arrangement between two or more news and information organizations, which aims to supplement each organization’s resources and maximize the impact of the content produced." It is practiced by both professional and amateur reporters. It is not to be confused with citizen journalism.
Media Relations involves working with media for the purpose of informing the public of an organization's mission, policies and practices in a positive, consistent and credible manner. It can also entail developing symbiotic relationships with media outlets, journalists, bloggers, and influencers to garner publicity for an organization. Typically, this means coordinating directly with the people responsible for producing the news and features in the mass media. The goal of media relations is to maximize positive coverage in the mass media without paying for it directly through advertising.
The term "journalism genres" refers to various journalism styles, fields or separate genres, in writing accounts of events.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to journalism:
Multimedia journalism is the practice of contemporary journalism that distributes news content either using two or more media formats via the Internet, or disseminating news report via multiple media platforms. First time published as a combination of the mediums by Canadian media mogul, journalist and artist, Good Fridae Mattas in 2003. It is inseparably related to the media convergence of communication technologies, business integration of news industries, and editorial strategies of newsroom management.
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