[AEJMC Newspaper Division list] New name for Newspaper Division?

[Bob Stepno]

If we're keeping "Newspaper Division" as the title, I don't think
"newspaper" needs to be the last word in the subtitle, unless it has the
word "online" in front of it. For people who take "paper" literally, it
might sound like we're still lashing ourselves to the tail of the
dinosaur... A lot of pro/am "newspapering" is being done by online-only
organizations like OhMyNews.com, tpmmuckraker.com, NewHavenIndependent.com,
etc.

The subhead could be where we get to use the sexy newer word "media."  I
probably buried the lead in my last post, a slight variation on this
head/subhead...

"Newspaper Division:
Focused on the reporting, editing, business, culture and significance of
traditional, alternative and online news media."

... which still has plenty of room for improvement.
Note on some of those terms: Does any other division focus as much on
reporting and editing or the "culture" of tne newsroom? Perhaps we should
state our interest and stake our claims explicitly.

cheers,

Bob Stepno
mild-mannered division web editor
http://aejmc.net/newspaper

http://stepno.com http://stepno.com/blog http://www.radford.edu/comm



On 7/18/08 10:13 AM, "Clyde Bentley" <bentleycl at missouri.edu> wrote:
>
> Is it possible to address our identity concerns in the subtext that usually
> follows a name on a Web page or stationary?  We are in the land of colonated
> titles, after all:
>
> Newspaper Division
> Addressing the full range of issues, technologies and media employed by
> 21st Century newspapers
>
> Clyde
>
>
> *
> – – –
> Clyde Bentley
> *Missouri School of Journalism
>
>
> Wilson Lowrey7/17/08 3:52 PM
>
> Thanks so much, Susan for raising this issue. I've really enjoyed
> reading these thoughtful posts. At this point I'm open to a couple of
> possibilities:
>
> (1) Keeping the present name but supplementing it with outreach efforts
> to help AEJMC members and students better understand the division's
> inclusiveness. Bill Reader suggested something similar in an earlier
> post. And I agree with him that we shouldn't so quickly dismiss the
> valuable cultural capital and public legitimacy of newspapers.
> (2) Changing the name to something simple and rooted in the division's
> conceptual focus – the News Division or the Journalism Division, or some
> such. However, if the Division were to pursue this approach, I think
> we'd need to discuss the plans with RTVJ, Community J and Civic J, etc.
> Probably any name change will lead to bruised toes, but if it's done in
> an open manner – if we at least invite others to speak their mind, even
> at our meeting -- maybe we could minimize the fallout. And it would only
> be fair.
>
> I don't think it's a good idea to incorporate some other technological
> platform into the name – Newspapers and Online News, for example. We'd
> still be tying ourselves to the caprice of changing technologies and
> changing labels for these technologies (and to the latest industry
> interpretation of what the problem is). And we'll soon be having this
> conversation all over again. I remember working on a Sunday Perspective
> section front in the early '90s (seems like yesterday) that focused on
> the then new phenomenon of the Internet. Thinking ourselves 'with it,'
> we went with an arthed like "Surfing the Internet" – at that time, a
> cutting-edge term. I don't remember the last time I heard someone
> actually say, "well, I think I'll go surf the Internet."
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
> _______________________________________________
> News-list mailing list
> News-list at aejmc.net
> http://aejmc.net/mailman/listinfo/news-list_aejmc.net
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> News-list mailing list
> News-list at aejmc.net
> http://aejmc.net/mailman/listinfo/news-list_aejmc.net
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://aejmc.net/pipermail/news-list_aejmc.net/attachments/20080718/fac81a67/attachment.html