Even as convergence reaches beyond the traditional newsroom and outside the traditional audience bound by geography, reporters must consider who is being missed in the process. Amanda Sturgill of Elon University explains an exercise she conducts with journalism students to highlight the need for a well-considered, multichannel approach to include overlooked and under-served populations in reporting the news. Join the conversation below or on Facebook or Google+.
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
May 2012: How to reach all of your readers
Thursday, May 24, 2012
May 2012: A new definition of convergence must include business
Digital convergence has reached beyond news departments into the business office, suggests Augie Grant, The Convergence Newsletter's founding editor. As a result, journalists must learn the basics of business to thrive in the changing environment. Read his analysis in the May edition of the newsletter, then join the conversation below or on Facebook or Google+.
Recent and archived issues of The Convergence Newsletter
April 2012: Yes, blogging is journalism
Blogging is journalism, writes West Virginia University's Bob Britten in the April edition of The Convergence Newsletter. And students will benefit from learning how to use the tool in their reporting, explains Britten.
"I'm not interested in teaching a class about technology, but I am
interested in teaching a class about using social media's connective,
network-based nature to become effective mass communicators who can
interact with readers." Read the article, then join the conversation below.
Recent and archived issues of The Convergence Newsletter
March 2012: Measuring the value of editing to online readers
Cringing at online news copy?
"The editors who provided the anonymous last pair of eyes on hastily
written stories in years gone by aren't there at the levels they used to
be – if they are there at all," writes Fred Vultee of Wayne State University.
Vultee reports on an American Copy Editors Society-sponsored study
of how readers assessed edited and unedited news stories for
professionalism, organization, writing, and value in The Convergence Newsletter. The work is timely as
online news sites increasingly ask readers to pay for access. Read the article, then join the conversation below.
Recent and archived issues of The Convergence Newsletter
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
February 2012: The effect of our words on others
One description of research is a conversation – with the participants in research, with other researchers, and with professionals who apply the research. In this issue, the featured researchers look in very different ways at the meaning and effect of words on others. Both have important implications for how journalists operate in a world where understanding the conversation is critical. Read the latest edition of The Convergence Newsletter, then join the conversation here or on the newsletter's Facebook or Google+ pages.
Recent and archived issues of The Convergence Newsletter.
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
February 2012: Don't touch my news website video
Barbara Selvin of Stony Brook University sparked an extensive, sometimes heated, and occasionally international discussion of the use of video on news websites. The debate hits several important issues: experimentation versus productivity, timeliness versus production value, specialization versus cross-training. Read her article in the current edition of The Convergence Newsletter, then join the conversation on the newsletter's Facebook or Google+ pages.
Recent and archived issues of The Convergence Newsletter
Monday, February 27, 2012
February 2012: How comments influence reader perceptions of online news
In online journalism, news is now more than the staff-written news story but a whole package with multiple elements. At the University of Alabama, doctoral student Yan Yan is investigating how, or if, user comments affect people's immediate perceptions of news. Looking beyond positive and negative comments, she included rational and emotional appeals for a four-by-four study design that yields interesting insights.
Read about her work in the February edition of The Convergence Newsletter, then join the conversation here or on the newsletter's Facebook or Google+ pages.
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
December 2011: A worthwhile look back before moving ahead
The December edition of The Convergence Newsletter offers a pair of articles worth reviewing before you surge ahead into the new year, a new project, a new semester, or all three. Read about two of the research projects that make up part of the fabric of the grand experiment of convergence. Then join the conversation with comments below or at our Facebook or Google+ pages.
Recent and archived issues of The Convergence Newsletter
Thursday, December 22, 2011
December 2011: Digital Natives vs. Digital Immigrants
In the new edition of The Convergence Newsletter, Michael Scott Sheerin and Moses Shumow of Florida International University in Miami examine the assumption that age equals fluency with digital tools and social media – in other words, that digital natives coming into classrooms now are fluent in digital technology and social media. In their article, they also look at what factors might better indicate digital fluency.
Recent and archived issues of The Convergence Newsletter
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
December 2011: Is some media research threatened?
In the latest edition of The Convergence Newsletter, an article by Jake Batsell and Camille Kraeplin not only continues their significant research into the evolving nature of convergence, but also includes an observation that signals potential concern for researchers: "Our difficulty soliciting responses suggests that, in an age of information overload, email surveys are becoming a less effective mechanism for conducting newsroom research."
They found that many large and midsize TV stations and groups have adopted "no survey" policies. Others begged off, citing an increasingly burdensome workload. Such surveys have, in the past decade, become an important method of gathering significant information about changes in the field. Are you finding the same problems?
We'd like to hear from you, problems or no, about your views on this and whether you think it could be a significant problem for some research. Post your comments below, or email us at convedit@mailbox.sc.edu. Then join the conversation at our Facebook or Google+ page. We'd like to compile your views in a future issue.
Recent and archived issues of The Convergence Newsletter
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
December 2011: Converging with the former audience
A decade ago, convergence often meant partnerships between television stations and newspapers. In the latest phase of their longitudinal study, Jake Batsell and Camille Kraeplin of Southern Methodist University look at the state of those partnerships and what has developed in their place. Read their report in the December edition of The Convergence Newsletter, then join the conversation at our Facebook or Google+ page.
Recent and archived issues of The Convergence Newsletter
Thursday, December 8, 2011
November 2011: Rob Curley shows how to make digital pay
In a Skype video call to the 10th Annual Convergence and Society Conference, Rob Curley explained his strategy for doing hyperlocal and "Big J" journalism that wins readers and awards and generating the revenue to pay for it in the process. Read a recap of Curley's lively presentation at the conference in the latest edition of The Convergence Newsletter. Then join the conversation at Facebook.
Recent and archived issues of The Convergence Newsletter
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
November 2011: Case study examines newspaper use of community writers
Having residents write about their own city seems a great way for a local newspaper to cover its community – especially when the writers work for free. Until the writers and the newspaper run into a controversial issue. Writing in the latest edition of The Convergence Newsletter, Robert "Ted" Gutsche Jr. uses a case study to explore the challenges and the pitfalls one Midwestern newspaper encountered. Then join the conversation at Facebook.
Recent and archived issues of The Convergence Newsletter
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
November 2011: Storify the news
How can you train students to handle social media adeptly? Storify it, says Kelly Fincham of Hofstra. "Social media plays a huge role in journalism today, so much so that entry-level journalists are expected to work with new sources of content in ways that were unimaginable when I went into journalism in the early 1980s," she writes in the latest edition of The Convergence Newsletter. Read her account from the 10th Annual Convergence and Society Conference of how she has transformed her teaching and is helping students "make sense of it all." Then join the conversation at Facebook.
Recent and archived issues of The Convergence Newsletter.
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
October 2011: Thinking on your feet
For the astute professional, the stream of new media creates unprecedented access to audiences. That requires an awareness of new media and a willingness to adopt different practices. Read how two professions are changing in the new edition of The Convergence Newsletter, http://sc.edu/cmcis/news/convergence/v8no7.html. Then join the conversation on Facebook.
Recent and archived issues of The Convergence Newsletter
Friday, October 21, 2011
October 2011: We're all publishers now
Doug Fisher explores how public relations practitioners in government and education are adopting a publishing mindset. Instead of reacting to news stories, they are learning to set the agenda by pre-empting bad news or sending messages directly through their own channels. Read the article in the new edition of The Convergence Newsletter, and join the conversation on Facebook.
Recent and archived issues of The Convergence Newsletter
Thursday, October 20, 2011
October 2011: A hundred comments in a half-hour
Blogging has become "the first draft of journalism" and a channel to stronger relationships with readers, according to sports writers adapting to their expanded roles. Learn how pros covering leagues from the NFL to minor league hockey have integrated blogging into the routine. Read Brian Moritz's research in the new edition of The Convergence Newsletter. Then join the conversation on Facebook.
Monday, October 3, 2011
September 2011: Utah's Experiment in Team Teaching
Kimberley Mangun and Daren Brabham collaborated at Utah to team teach a course in beat reporting and multimedia with a focus on diversity reporting. Explore their results in the new edition of The Convergence Newsletter in their article, Converging Beat Reporting, Diversity and Multimedia: An Experiment in Team Teaching.
Recent and archived issues of The Convergence Newsletter
Friday, September 30, 2011
September 2011: Update on TCU's converged student newsroom
At Texas Christian University, Assistant Professor Aaron Chimbel helps students navigate the demands of combining four news operations -- newspaper, television, webcasts and magazine -- into one news website. How do you coordinate coverage? Who has the final say? And can you hold a meeting for 50 reporters and editors? In an update to his 2010 article, Chimbel reports on TCU's progress in Starting a Converged Campus News Website in the new edition of The Convergence Newsletter.
Recent and archived issues of The Convergence Newsletter
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
September 2011: When students take the lead
To learn news convergence, students eventually must take the lead and experience the challenges of working in a converged newsroom. In the process, they figure out how to overcome technical obstacles, negotiate through staff conflicts, and provide readers rich, multimedia content on deadline.
This month, Aaron Chimbel explains how his students at Texas Christian University's Schieffer School of Journalism have managed the practical aspects of merging newspaper, magazine and broadcast operations into a single news site, TCU360.com, and he reports on the early results.
Kimberley Mangun and Daren Brabham analyze the lessons they and their students at the University of Utah learned from a collaborative project with reporting and Web design classes.
Read the full September issue.
Recent and archived issues of The Convergence Newsletter
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