Participatory journalism paper published in #ISOJ Journal
My paper examining participatory journalism in the context of the approaches of John Dewey and Walter Lippmann has been published. “The Active Recipient: Participatory Journalism Through the Lens of the Dewey-Lippmann Debate” is included in the second issue of the #ISOJ Journal, the official research journal of the International Symposium on Online Journalism. The journal is published as an e-book, currently available on Amazon’s Kindle store. Other formats will be added so that the e-book edition can be downloaded for a variety of devices, such as iPhones, iPads, Nook and other e-readers. A print on demand version is also available in paperback. To give you a flavour of the paper, here’s the abstract: Professional news outlets are providing numerous opportunities for the public to contribute. This study draws on the perspectives of Walter Lippmann and John Dewey to examine how journalists view participatory journalism. Based on interviews with journalists from two dozen newspaper websites, as well as a consideration of those sites, we suggest that news professionals view the user as an active recipient of the news. As active recipients, users are framed … Continue reading
Tenure and promotion at UBC
I am very pleased to share the news that I have been granted tenure and promotion to associate professor at the University of British Columbia. The decision follows a comprehensive, multi-level review of my teaching, research and service at the UBC. I would like to extend a heartfelt thank all to my colleagues at the Graduate School of Journalism, at UBC and the global community of scholars for their support, encouragement and friendship.
Paper on BBC Action Network e-democracy project published
My paper on the BBC Action Network has been published in the eJournal of eDemocracy & Open Government. It looks how the BBC tried to encourage civic engagement through its Action Network project, originally known as iCan. In the paper, I argue that the initiative suffered from a “fundamental tension between the BBC’s desire to empower grassroots civic action and the corporation’s historical and entrenched obligations as an impartial public service broadcaster governed by a paternalistic and elitist Reithian ethos”. I suggest that rather than hosting e-participation platforms, broadcasters and other public institutions should embrace Web 2.0 approaches that enable citizens to engage on different levels and at different times, depending on contexts. I hope the paper will be of interest to journalists, academic and public policy makers involved in issues of the media, e-democracy and participatory culture. It is available as a free PDF download, under a Creative Commons license The paper is part of a special issue of JeDem on sustainable e-participation.
New Journalist chapter available to download
Publisher Emond Montgomery has graciously posted my chapter, “New Challenges for Journalism in the 21st Century”, from The New Journalist: Roles, Skills, and Critical Thinking as a free download. It is the first chapter in the book, discussing how the professional of journalism has changed, both in terms of practical skills and the mindset: The start of the 21st century has been marked by media industries facing profound change in their structure and business models, the nature of their content, and their relationship with audiences. Journalism and the journalist as a media professional are at the centre of a transformation that is challenging norms and routines that have remained, until now, highly consistent. The chapter explores how convergence, multimedia and participation are changing the practice of journalism, and raising questions about what is journalism. I place the shift taking place in journalism within the context of research into new literacies – from a physical-industrial mindset to a cyberspatial-post-industrial mindset: Seen through the lens of new literacies research, digital media is more participatory, collaborative and distributed, and less finalised, individualised and … Continue reading
