Friday, June 13, 2008

June 2008 Issue Now Available

It is illuminating and important to highlight what convergence means for those in the media business, and also for those who teach tomorrow's media practitioners. Those are considerations we regularly take up at The Convergence Newsletter.

But we should keep in mind that media exist to serve audiences, and so the effects of convergence upon these audiences is no trivial matter.

June's newsletter is another in our ongoing series of special theme issues. This month's focus is on communities, and how they are impacted by convergence. We include in our analysis communities both physical and otherwise, for when we talk about "communities" in the same context as "convergence," the intangible are in fact as real as their material counterparts.

Click here to read the June issue of The Convergence Newsletter.

Recent and archived issues of The Convergence Newsletter

June 2008: Community Embraces a Converged Journalism-Sourcing Project

Paul Niwa may have hit upon sometime rather big. The Emerson College professor devised a unique project to create a new model of compiling sources for journalists, using the "snowballing" method of sources referring sources. Niwa and his students created a visual, Web-based schema displaying the sources and their degrees of interconnectivity.

And then something funny happened. Niwa discovered community members began to use the project not for its original journalistic function, but for a host of other purposes serving community concerns.

Niwa's piece reminds us that the Web remains, as always, organic and unpredictable.

Read the full article here.

Recent and archived issues of The Convergence Newsletter

June 2008: Radio and Newspaper Converge in one of Iowa’s Smallest Markets

The effects of convergence, it might be argued, can be felt more acutely in smaller communities. In the case of Iowa Falls, Iowa, changes were in store when the town's newspaper and a major radio station came under the same roof.

Cliff Brockman of Wartburg College tells us how the convergence has been a miniature boon to the town — better news coverage and new jobs followed the merger, Brockman reports.

Read the full article here.

Recent and archived issues of The Convergence Newsletter

June 2008: Knight Foundation Looks Online to Connect with Innovators

In the tradition of our recent interview with National Public Radio, this month we contacted Marc Fest, vice president of communications at the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, to ask about Knight's recently created position of online community manager.

We asked Fest why Knight decided to create the position, and what they hope to get out of it. Fest's observations and insights remind us how much stands to be gained, not only by nonprofits like Knight but also by those in the for-profit arena, by plugging into the ever-growing online community.

Click here to read the full interview.

Recent and archived issues of The Convergence Newsletter

June 2008: Conferences and Calls for Papers

Read the conference schedule from June's issue here.

Recent and archived issues of The Convergence Newsletter