September 2012: Nonprofit news sites face a different set of challenges

As the Great Recession accelerated the decline of traditional news operations in the U.S. and some other countries, the number of nonprofit news ventures has increased to fill the reporting void. In a new article, two veterans of nonprofit startups explore the different set of challenges nonprofits face. Read the article, then join the discussion below or at The Convergence Newsletter's Google+ or Facebook pages. 

Recent and archived issues of The Convergence Newsletter

Agenda Set for 11th Annual Convergence Conference

The agenda for the 11^th Annual Convergence and Society Conference features two days of research and panels exploring the conference themes: advancing business journalism and convergence. The conference opens with an evening reception Wednesday, Sept. 26, then continues with two full days of sessions Sept. 27 and 28.

In addition to a full set of panels exploring the latest research, practices, and teaching issues related to convergent journalism, the conference features five sessions addressing business journalism. Keynote speaker Linda O’Bryon, co-creator of PBS’s “Nightly Business Report” and president of South Carolina ETV, will address the increasing importance of business journalism. Other speakers addressing topics related to business journalism include the University of North Carolina’s Chris Roush and Reynolds Business Professor Pam Luecke from Washington and Lee University. Veteran journalists Gabriella Stern, global news editor at Dow Jones/Wall Street Journal, and investigative reporter Mary Fricker will discuss lessons for students and educators after the 2008 financial crisis.

Conference registration is open. Complete details and registration information can be found on the conference website. For more information or answers to questions about the conference, contact Co-Chair Augie Grant, augie@sc.edu.

Read recent and archived issues of The Convergence Newsletter

August 2012: In Convergence, Experience is Still the Best Teacher

A pair of news professionals demonstrate that experience is still the best teacher – for the instructor and the student -- in the latest edition of The Convergence Newsletter. 

Rob Wells explains the role of convergence in meeting the demands of the Dow Jones and Wall Street Journal audiences and how he used that field experience to prepare students as a Reynolds visiting professor in business journalism. 

Chris Harper of Temple University tells how the journalism department uses an urban reporting project to prepare students for the changing demands of the newsroom and to broaden their perspectives by sending students to undercovered, underserved Philadelphia neighborhoods.

Read their accounts, then join the conversation at our Facebook and Google+ pages. 

Recent and archived issues of The Convergence Newsletter

August 2012: Teaching Multimedia Journalism, Street By Street

In the latest edition of The Convergence Newsletter, Chris Harper of Temple University relates how the journalism department uses an urban reporting project to prepare students for the changing demands of the newsroom and to broaden their perspectives by sending students to undercovered, underserved Philadelphia neighborhoods. Read his story in the August edition. Then join the conversation at our Facebook or Google+ pages.

 
Recent and archived issues of The Convergence Newsletter

August 2012: A case study in convergence at the Wall Street Journal

Dow Jones’ coverage of the Discovery Communications hostage drama in 2010 marked a new era of cooperation in one editor's five-year journey to harmonize breaking news coverage for the Dow Jones Newswires, WSJ.com, and The Wall Street Journal print editions in Washington. It also provides broader lessons for editors and reporters harassed to satisfy competing demands in the modern newsroom and for academics trying to prepare students for this chaos

Rob Wells, formerly of The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg Business News, and the Associated Press, explains how convergence played a key role during a Washington-area hostage crisis for reporters and editors trying to feed the Dow Jones Newswire, WSJ.com, and The Wall Street Journal's print editions. Wells uses that invaluable field experience to prepare students for the demands of the newsroom. 

Read his account and the invaluable lessons he learned -- and now teaches students -- in the latest edition of The Convergence Newsletter. Then join the conversation at our Facebook or Google+ pages.

Recent and archived issues of The Convergence Newsletter

June 2012: A case study of emergency news and participatory journalism

When an emergency happens, journalists are likely to find the community already has started a digital conversation. As Carrie Brown-Smith of the University of Memphis found, non-journalists quickly create Twitter hashtags to report, share, and discuss emergency information.

Her findings provide useful insights into how news media can embrace participatory journalism and respond to the community's concerns.  Read her report in the latest edition of The Convergence Newsletter.

 Recent and archived issues of The Convergence Newsletter

May 2012: How to reach all of your readers

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+.

Recent and archived issues of The Convergence Newsletter

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

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.

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

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.

Recent and archived issues of The Convergence Newsletter

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.