The AEJMC conference is fast approaching! The conference officially runs August 4-8, and PJIG has a pre-conference August 3. There’s a lot going on this year, so we’ve collected all the PJIG sessions into this email for you. Looking forward to seeing you there!
Please remember that the conference schedule is in central time. If you’re registered for the conference, you’ll receive details about the virtual platform soon.
Tuesday August 3, 1:30-3 CST
Preconference Workshop Session
Engaged Journalism Exchange: Toward an Antiracist Journalism Education
Moderating/Presiding
- Daniela Gerson, California State-Northridge
- Jacob Nelson, Arizona State
- Andrea Wenzel, Temple
Panelists
- Diamond Hardiman, Media 2070/Free Press News Voices
- Alissa Richardson, Southern California
- Sue Robinson, Wisconsin
- Fernanda Santos, Arizona State
Around the U.S., news organizations have been reckoning with the structural racism that undergirds their newsrooms and the larger industry. At the same time, a number of scholars have been researching how racism and whiteness influence the field’s norms and practices. In this Engaged Journalism Exchange preconference, we will explore where efforts seeking to push toward antiracist journalism have the potential to collide—in journalism education classrooms and beyond.
In a series of lightning presentations and breakout discussions, we will explore how journalism educators have been bringing best practices for inclusive and antiracist journalism into the classroom, and discuss how curricula may be adapted to question harmful norms and practices, and to build competencies needed for more inclusive journalism.
This Engaged Journalism Exchange (https://medium.com/engaged-journalism-bridging-research-and-practice) preconference aims to connect journalism educators, researchers and practicing journalists. It is supported by the Agora Journalism Center/Gather, the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University, Temple University’s Klein College, the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University, and AEJMC’s Participatory Journalism Interest Group.
Please RSVP here: https://bit.ly/EJE-preconference-RSVP
Wednesday August 4, 1 to 2:30 p.m. CST
Refereed Paper Session
Engaging Publics via Participatory Journalism on Social Media
Moderating/Presiding
- Mark Coddington, Washington and Lee
Understanding Social Media in Journalism Practice: A Typology (Top Paper Award)
- Muhammad Fahad Humayun
- Patrick Ferrucci, Colorado-Boulder
Working Together? Contributing and Adopting Citizen Visuals from the Lens of Social Media Usage, Perception, and Visual Attributes (Second Place Paper Award)
- Deborah Chung, Kentucky
- Hyun Ju Jeong, Kentucky
- Yung Soo Kim, Kentucky
Reacting to Black Lives Matter: Facebook Engagement with News Coverage During the Summer 2020 Protests
- Jennifer Cox, Salisbury
Discussant
- Mark Coddington, Washington and Lee
Wednesday August 4, 5-6:30 p.m. CST
Internships and Careers and Participatory Journalism Interest Groups
PF&R Panel Session
Winners and Losers: Teaching Business and Economics Reporting to Student Reporters Covering Sports, Entertainment and Any Other Beat
Moderating/Presiding
- Jennifer Brannock Cox, Salisbury
Panelists
- Tony DeMars, Texas A&M Commerce
- Melissa Wall, California State, Northridge
- Chris Roush, Quinnipiac
- Connie Ford Mitchell, Maryland
How do we attract diverse talent to journalism and help them learn valuable reporting skills –that help them land an internship or job -while guiding them to report on topics they care about? This panel looks at unique ways to engage these students. Community journalism works best when reporters and residents work together to better understand local issues and their impact on the people who live with them. College students can benefit from building a relationship with community members by engaging them in the reporting process. Panelists will describe their experiences incorporating participatory journalism practices into their classes, offering helpful hints and guidance for others who want to do the same. Business and economics reporting pays well and offers many jobs while other parts of journalism are seeing declines. Yet too many students still prefer to write about sports, fashion or entertainment while viewing business reporting as either daunting or boring. This panel will explore teaching methods to make business reporting interesting and exciting to students studying and reporting in other genres. And the business reporting skillsets are vital to the sports and entertainment beats and are a way to expand diversity and inclusion in business and economics reporting –a sector of journalism that is influential and pays well but lacks diversity.
Thursday August 5, 11-12:30 a.m. CST
Research Panel Session
For vs. About: Challenging Journalists’ Perceptions of Audiences and Communities
Moderating/Presiding
- Jacob Nelson, Arizona State
Panelists
- Candis Callison, British Columbia
- Anita Varma, Texas at Austin
- Andrea Wenzel, Temple
- Miya Williams Fayne, California State-Fullerton
As journalists seek to build trust with historically marginalized communities, a common stumbling block is the refrain from residents that previous coverage has been about their communities (and predominantly negative), but not with or for their communities. This panel will highlight a range of perspectives on how journalists’ view their perceived audiences and communities and how these perceptions shape their efforts to build relationships with them. It will highlight recent research on perceptions of audiences, and explore models for redefining relationships such as community-centered journalism, solidarity journalism, and systems journalism.
Thursday, August 5, 7-8:30 p.m. CST
Refereed Paper Session
Constructing Journalism with Audiences: Challenges and Opportunities in Participatory Journalism
Moderating/Presiding
- Antoine Haywood, Pennsylvania
I Did My Best to Show Their Pain: Participatory Genres of Photojournalistic Witnessing
- Kenzie Burchell, Toronto Scarborough
- Stephanie Fielding, Toronto Scarborough
“I Think We Are Truly Ignored” –An Assessment of How Small Town Media Serves the Information Needs of BIPOC Residents
- Letrell Crittenden, Thomas Jefferson
- Andrea Wenzel, Temple
“When You’re Out Here On Your Own”: Journalists, Harassment and News Organization Responses
- Avery Holton, Utah
- Valérie Bélair-Gagnon, Minnesota
- Diana Bossio, Swinburne University
- Logan Molyneux, Temple
Discussant
- Antoine Haywood, Pennsylvania
Thursday, August 5, 8:45 to 10:15 p.m. CST
Members meeting
We’ll hand out first- and second-place paper awards, as well as our dissertation award. We’ll also choose officers for next year, and discuss strategy for increasing interest and submissions going forward. Please join us!
Friday August 6, 5-6:30 p.m. CST
Participatory Journalism Interest Group and Scholastic Journalism Division
Research Panel Session
Community Media, Engaged Journalism, and the Future of Local Information Access
Moderating/Presiding
- Antoine Haywood, Pennsylvania
Panelists
- Mike Wassenaar, President & CEO, Alliance for Community
- Alicia Bell, Media 2070 Director, Free Press
- Ernesto Aguilar, Executive Director, National Federation of Community Broadcasters
This panel discusses the contemporary contours of community media advocacy work in the U.S. The panelists leading this conversation are experienced community organizers who have extensive backgrounds in community radio, local access television, participatory journalism, and public interest media policy advocacy. This discussion promotes ongoing conversations and future research collaborations that help reimagine, build, and sustain local storytelling networks.
Participatory Journalism Interest Group 