[Air-L] Internet, Mobile Media, and Journalism: Technologies of News in the 21st Century, AoIR pre-conference

[Holly Kruse]

A reminder that the deadline for submissions to the Internet, Mobile
Media, and Journalism: Technologies of News in the 21st Century
pre-conference workshop/seminar is Monday, August 27th (the deadline
was extended). The pre-conference will take place on Thursday, October
18th.

Thanks,

Holly

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http://ir13.aoir.org/2012/07/pre-conference-workshop-the-internet-mobile-media-and-journalism-technologies-of-news-in-the-21st-century/

The Internet, Mobile Media, and Journalism: Technologies of News in
the 21st Century

Over the past several years, journalism has undergone profound changes
as people seeking information increasingly turned to the internet and
mobile apps for news and commentary. Some traditional news outlets,
like the New York Times and the Times of London, have instituted
paywalls to recoup lost sales revenue. Others, like the Christian
Science Monitor, stopped publishing print editions altogether and now
exist only online. Many journalists working in print media lost their
jobs, while reporting done by “citizen journalists” using platforms
like blogs, YouTube, and Twitter, became increasingly central to the
dissemination of news.

 A recent poll of prominent U.S. journalists who work for traditional
national news media conducted by the Atlantic and the National Journal
found that a majority of these journalists believe that journalism has
been hurt more than helped by Internet.  Is this in fact the case?
What is the state of reporting in the digital age, an age in which,
for instance, bloggers writing from embattled neighborhoods in Syria
give information that is picked up by mainstream news outlets whose
reporters can’t reach these locations? Or, conversely, what is the
state of reporting when bloggers from less “newsworthy” locations,
like inner city neighborhoods, write about experiences that don’t fit
traditional news narratives but now have an opportunity to at least
try to broadcast their stories via the web?

 Questions that participants in this pre-conference seminar might
address in their papers and papers-in-progress include:

    How have traditional news media responded to new media – for
instance, by offering news on a “third screen” or entering into
ventures with new media companies – and how effective have these
forays been?

    What constitutes a citizen journalist, and what effects are
citizen journalists having as sources of information for the public
and for more established media outlets? How has the internet affected
reporting and its practices?

    What is the role of the online news audience in the creation and
dissemination of news when compared to the audience of print news?

    What effect have the internet and mobile media had on reporting on
breaking news and on crisis communication?

    How has in-depth investigative reporting been affected by the
emergence of the internet and mobile media as crucial sources of news?

    What opportunities has the internet afforded writers, including
those in marginalized social and economic groups, that they wouldn’t
have had in traditional media?

    How have print and broadcast media covered the development of
digital news media?

    Has the content of news changed as digital and mobile media as
sources of news grown more popular?

    Who are the gatekeepers in the new news environment, and what role
do online gatekeepers play?

    What are the social and cultural implications – locally,
regionally, nationally, and globally – for the declining popularity of
print news media and the growth of digital news media?

 Participants in this pre-conference seminar are invited to
investigate these questions and interrogate mainstream understandings
of the nature of digital and print news sources and their audiences,
and the relations between and among them.

 This pre-conference will be a half-day seminar and workshop in which
each participant will present his/her current research on a relevant
topic, and each presentation will be followed by discussion. If you
are interested in participating, please submit a working paper or
paper proposal of approximately 200-500 words to Holly Kruse at
hkruse at rsu.edu by August 20th.  Submissions will be reviewed, and
those accepted to the seminar will be notified by August 27th.