Blogs, Twitter, and breaking news : the produsage of citizen journalism

Debates over the role and relevance of what has been described as citizen journalism have existed at least since the late 1990s; positions have ranged from the fulsome dismissal of such bottom-up journalism activities (and indeed, almost all user-led content creation) as being part of a new "cult ofthe amateur" (Keen, 2007) to nearly equally simplistic perspectives which predicted citizen journalists would replace the mainstream journalism industry within a short timeframe. A more considered, more realistic perspective would take a somewhat more moderate view. Aided by circumstances including the long-term financial crisis enveloping journalism industries in many developed nations, the creeping corporatization and politicization of journalistic activities in democratic and non-democratic countries alike, and the largely unmet challenge of new, Internet-based media fonns, citizen journalism (as well as other parajournalistic media, including TV comedy such as The Daily Show) has been able to make credible inroads into what used to be the domain of journalism proper.

Australian journalism studies after ���Journalism���: breaking down the disciplinary boundaries (for good)

This paper argues that if journalism is to remain a relevant and dynamic academic discipline, it must urgently reconsider the constrained, heavily-policed boundaries traditionally placed around it (particularly in Australia). A simple way of achieving this is to redefine its primary object of study: away from specific, rigid, professional inputs, towards an ever-growing range of media outputs. Such a shift may allow the discipline to freely re-assess its pedagogical and epistemological relationships to contemporary newsmaking practices (or, the ���new��� news).

The digital transformation of 21st century news journalism

This presentation will deal with the transformations that have occurred in news journalism worldwide in the early 21st century. I will argue that they have been the most significant changes to the profession for 100 years, and the challenges facing the news media industry in responding to them are substantial, as are those facing journalism education. It will develop this argument in relation to the crisis of the newspaper business model, and why social media, blogging and citizen journalism have not filled the gap left by the withdrawal of resources from traditional journalism. It will also draw upon Wikileaks as a case study in debates about computational and data-driven journalism, and whether large-scale "leaks" of electronic documents may be the future of investigative journalism.

WikiLeaks, journalism and the consequences of chaos

This article considers the impact of the WikiLeaks organisation in relation to debates around the defence of national security and free speech, global media citizenship and the emerging dynamics of the global public sphere. Building on the author���s previous work on political communication, journalism and ���cultural chaos���, it explores the implications of WikiLeaks for emerging conceptions and definitions of journalism, and for the changing structure of media���politics power relations at the global level, against the background of three trends: democratisation, declining deference and digitalisation.

Et tu, George? Campaign journalism and the politics of compromise

There is a category of film about journalism in which journalism is not the star, but the supporting player, and journalists not the protagonists but the Greek chorus, commenting on and also changing the realities they report. In such films the news media are a structuring presence driving the plot, shaping the narrative, constructing what we might think of as a pseudo-reality. Like Daniel Boorstin���s notion of the pseudo-event (introduced in his still-relevant book The Image, 1962), this pseudo-reality is so-named because it would not exist were it not for the demands of the news media���s hunger for stories, and knowledge of the damage they can do with those stories, on the calculations and actions of the key actors. Pseudo-realities form as responses to what political actors think journalists and their organisations need and want, or as efforts to shape journalistic accounts in ways favourable to themselves. Films about politics often feature pseudorealities of this kind, in which the events and actions driving the plot have only a tenuous relationship with important things going on in the everyday world beyond the political arena. Everything we see is about image, perception, appearance.

Fashion meets journalism : mapping and evaluating Australian fashion media

This study demonstrates how to study fashion journalism from the point of view, that it is its own field of journalism, akin to other journalism beats such as politics, sports and health. There is scope here for comment on the co-evolution of fashion and journalism, leading to ���fashion journalism��� developing as a distinct field of study in its own right. This research contributes more generally to the field of media and cultural studies, by developing the threepart producer/text/reader model, which is the standard ���media studies��� analytical framework. The study of fashion media from a cultural studies perspective acknowledges that cultural studies has pioneered the formal study of both journalism and fashion, for instance in studies of women���s magazines; but it has not brought the two areas together sufficiently. What little work has been done, however, has allowed theorists to explore how magazines promote feminism and form culture, which acts as a step in concreting fashion���s importance theoretically. This thesis has contributed to cultural studies by showing the relationship between the corporate industry, of both fashion and media (producer), and the active audience (reader) can be rethought and brought up to date for the more interactive era of the 21st century.

Hybridized writing for scientific literacy : pedagogy and evidence

Disengagement of students in science and the scientific literacy of young adults are interrelated international concerns. One way to address these concerns is to engage students imaginatively in activities designed to improve their scientific literacy. Our ongoing program of research has focused on the effects of a sequence of activities that require students to transform scientific information on important issues for their communities from government websites into narrative text suitable for a lay reader. These hybridized stories we call BioStories. Students upload their stories for peer review to a dedicated website. Peer reviews are intended to help students refine their stories. Reviewing BioStories also gives students access to a wider range of scientific topics and writing styles. We have conducted separate studies with students from Grade 6, Grade 9 and Grade 12, involving case study and quasi-experimental designs. The results from the 6th grade study support the argument that writing the sequence of stories helped the students become more familiar with the scientific issue, develop a deeper understanding of related biological concepts, and improve their interest in science. Unlike the Grade 6 study, it was not possible to include a control group for the study conducted across eight 9th grade classes. Nevertheless, these results suggest that hybridized writing developed more positive attitudes toward science and science learning, particularly in terms of the students��� interest and enjoyment. In the most recent case study with Grade 12 students, we found that pride, strength, determination, interest and alertness were among the positive emotions most strongly elicited by the writing project. Furthermore, the students expressed enhanced feelings of self-efficacy in successfully writing hybridized scientific narratives in science. In this chapter, we describe the pedagogy of hybridized writing in science, overview the evidence to support this approach, and identify future developments.

A chance for diversity? Australian online journalism

Australia���s mainstream media landscape has long been recognised as highly limited ��� media ownership in the country has traditionally been concentrated in the hands of a very few, and (except for Sydney and Melbourne) it is common for major Australian cities to be served by only one local newspaper, usually produced by Rupert Murdoch���s News Ltd. This can be seen also to affect the quality and diversity of Australian journalism; additionally, the global decline of newspaper publishers��� revenues and overall adverse economic conditions exert further pressure on journalistic operations in the country. At the same time, and possibly in response to the increasing stresses on industrial journalism in the country and the implications they have for the quality of journalistic products, a vibrant and dynamic ecosystem of Australian industrial and citizen journalism publications has emerged online. Existing media organisations have built strong news brands online, while citizen journalists and political bloggers have given voice to issues, concerns, and opinions hitherto underrepresented in Australian mainstream journalism; of particular interest, however, is the increasing level of engagement and interaction between the two. While such interaction has been characterised by deep animosity at times (especially also in the context of the Australian federal election in November 2007), Australia has also seen the emergence and establishment of a number of new, intermediary online publications which act as spaces for public debate and analysis ��� from the public intellectualism of Online Opinion through the muckraking of Crikey to the progressive politics of New Matilda. The rise of social media as spaces for the discussion of news and politics further changes the media environment, potentially leading both to renewed conflict between professional and citizen journalists and to a greater level of engagement between journalists and audiences. Overall, then, such online developments offer a chance for a greater diversity of opinion and representation in Australian journalism, but also remain under a cloud from uncertain long-term business models and funding arrangements. This chapter outlines current trends in Australian online journalism, and speculates about their effect on the Australian news media landscape.

Notes towards the scientific study of public communication on Twitter

Twitter is now well-established as an important platform for real-time public communication. Twitter research continues to lag behind these developments, with many studies remaining focused on individual case studies and utilizing home-grown, idiosyncratic, non-repeatable, and non-verifiable research methodologies. While the development of a full-blown ���science of Twitter��� may remain illusory, it is nonetheless necessary to move beyond such individual scholarship and toward the development of more comprehensive, transferable, and rigorous tools and methods for the study of Twitter on a large scale and in close to real time.

New discursive configurations of journalism : Narratives in Rio de Janeiro's favelas [Novas configura����es discursivas no jornalismo: narrativas digitais nas favelas do Rio de Janeiro]

Oprincipal objetivo desse artigo �� apresentar os resultados parciais de uma pesquisa em andamento sobre o processo de produ����o de conte��do do portal Viva Favela, um dos projetos sociais realizados pela organiza����o n��ogovernamental Viva Rio. Partindo de uma abordagem conceitual que discute os modos pelos quais a m��dia alternativa e o jornalismo p��blico/jornalismo c��vico criam as condi����es de possibilidade para que uma determinada pr��tica jornal��stica d�� ���voz��� e ���empodere��� (empower) moradores de periferias e favelas brasileiras, estamos realizando um estudo das rotinas produtivas do Viva Favela e seus ���correspondentes comunit��rios���. O conceito sobre voice, de Jo Tacchi, oferece-nos um embasamento te��rico adequado para refletirmos sobre o que vem sendo denominado, nos Estados Unidos, de digital storytelling ��� as narrativas digitais produzidas com as tecnologias de informa����o e comunica����o para ���contar est��rias��� 1, que s��o criativamente apropriadas, no Brasil, por moradores das favelas e periferias das regi��es metropolitanas.

Does teaching sequence matter when teaching high school chemistry with scientific visualisations?

Five Canadian high school Chemistry classes in one school, taught by three different teachers, studied the concepts of dynamic chemical equilibria and Le Chatelier���s Principle. Some students received traditional teacher-led explanations of the concept first and used an interactive scientific visualisation second, while others worked with the visualisation first and received the teacher-led explanation second. Students completed a test of their conceptual understanding of the relevant concepts prior to instruction, after the first instructional session and at the end of instruction. Data on students��� academic achievement (highest, middle or lowest third of the class on the mid-term exam) and gender were also collected to explore the relationship between these factors, conceptual development and instructional sequencing. Results show, within this context at least, that teaching sequence is not important in terms of students��� conceptual learning gains.

Happenings and sensational journalism [O acontecimento e o sensacional no jornalismo]

EM artigo anteriormente publicado (AGUIAR, 2008a), conclu��mos que as cr��ticas elaboradas por certos autores (SOUSA, 2000; KURTZ, 1993; MARSHALL, 2003; MARCONDES FILHO, 1988), ao classificarem um determinado modo de jornalismo como sensacionalista, parecem querer opor uma imagin��ria constitui����o democr��tica do espa��o p��blico e da cultura leg��tima a uma suposta disfun����o narcotizante do entretenimento, que promoveria o conformismo social e refor��aria as normas sociais. O jornalismo sensacionalista, nesse entendimento, veicularia apenas a ampla trivialidade e o excesso de divers��o estaria ���matando��� os ideais iluministas da sociedade moderna, tal como aposta Postman (1986). Entretanto, pode-se ver nestas cr��ticas aquilo que Edgar Morin define, ao estudar cultura de lazer, como a m�� impress��o causada pelo divertimento e pela evas��o aos ���moralistas dessa confedera����o helv��tica do esp��rito que s��o as letras e a universidade��� (MORIN, 2002).

Non-rhetorical journalism? A case study of Absudo [Jornalismo (n��o) ret��rico? Um estudo de caso sobre o Abusado]

Resumo: A proposta do artigo �� discutir a possibilidade de um jornalismo n��o-ret��rico, pelo vi��s do acontecer po��tico, no romance-reportagem Abusado: o dono do morro Dona Marta, do jornalista Caco Barcellos. Retoma, nesse empreendimento, a reflex��o do fil��sofo Michel Foucault sobre a constru����o discursiva da figura do delinquente. Com isso, a constru����o biogr��fica do traficante M��rcio Amaro de Oliveira aparece como imagem-quest��o, anunciadora de novas perguntas e inquieta����es sobre a realidade da favela da Santa Marta, ao inv��s de uma simples constru����o discursiva sobre o real.