Youth publications, generation Y and hopes for the future of newspapers

If readership projections are correct, newspapers in the United States will become niche players by 2010. That is, in about half a decade fewer than half of American adults will read a daily newspaper. This will produce major problems in attracting advertising, the lifeblood of the newspaper business. The biggest decline in readership has occurred among Generation Y - people born between 1977 and 1995. They do not read newspapers to the extent their parents did. They get their news elsewhere, mainly online. As part of a process to attract readers, many of America's major publishers launched a series of youth-focused newspapers in the 18 months to March 2004. The aim was to try to get the elusive 18-24-year-old demographic into the habit of daily reading, hoping that over time they would migrate to more traditional outlets. This paper explores the background to these youth-focused publications, describes the main players and issues involved, and provides a case study of a youth-focused pioneer, the Tribune Company s Red Eye, which is published in Chicago.

A complex connection : community newspapers and tiers of social capital

At a time when newspaper circulations across the globe are plummeting, there is increasing interest in the concept of `local over global' and research linking small newspapers with the `strength of community'. There has been a myriad of definitions on social capital including Coleman, Bourdieu and Putnam which focus on the value of the strength of relationships formed by individuals and groups within communities. While newspaper circulation has been linked to community social capital, little attention has been paid to the way social capital works within the news organisation from those who produce news and information to those who read it. Given the complexity and multiplicity of the sociology of news production, this paper examines the role of organisational social capital in this process and argues Ronald Burt's theory of 'structural holes' (1997) may be an appropriate theoretical lens through which to consider this.

‘The Snowtown we know and love’ : small newspapers and heinous crimes

This paper examines the role of small newspapers in Australia when bizarre and shocking crimes are committed locally. These crimes often attract intense media attention that casts a net of shame across entire townships through their representation as places of fascination and fear in the public imagination. We take a practice approach in the tradition of Pierre Bourdieu to explore the complex editorial considerations, news judgements and community responsibilities small newspapers must negotiate when covering these stories for local audiences. This study focuses on three towns in regional Australia that have been represented in metropolitan and international news media as ‘dead zones' after shocking crimes: Bowral in NSW, Snowtown in South Australia and Moe in Victoria.

Crowdsourcing motivations in a not-for-profit GLAM context : the Australian newspapers digitisation program

Crowdsourcing in recent times has become popular among not-for-profits as a means of eliciting members of the public to contribute to activities that would normally have been carried out by staff or by contracting external expertise. The GLAM (galleries, libraries, archives, museums) sector does have a history of involving online volunteers (e.g. reviewing books). Extending that tradition, some GLAM institutions are engaging in crowdsourcing projects to enhance and enrich their collections. But what motivates the public to participate in these crowdsourcing activities? Understanding the unique motivations of participants is needed to establish a motivational framework for GLAM organisations in their not-for-profit context. We present findings from a study of the motivational factors affecting participation in the Australian Newspapers Digitisation Program (ANDP) by the National Library of Australia (NLA). Based on motivational theories and frameworks the study shows that the participants are motivated by a complex framework of personal, collective and external factors. Participants were highly intrinsically motivated, but valued altruistic and community motivations as well. Community and external factors played a vital role in their continued involvement. The paper concludes with a conceptual framework of the motivational factors for crowdsourcing participants in a GLAM context based on the motivational dynamics observed in the ANDP case.

Geo-social journalism: reorienting the study of small commercial newspapers in a digital environment

This paper begins by problematizing the use of “community” to define and theorize small commercial media outlets that have geography as their primary characteristic—particularly hyper local and small traditional newspapers connected to larger media organizations in digital space. We then extend the concept of “geo-social news” to outline “geo-social journalism” as a specific form of news work currently grouped under the “community media” umbrella. Geo-social is a concept for exploring how small commercial newspapers change as media technologies evolve. It offers a framework for understanding how these news outlets and audiences connect via the notion of “sense of place”. It can also be used as a lens for theorizing their role in social flows and movements and as nodes in the global media network. The practice of “geo-social journalism”, meanwhile, has two dimensions. Firstly, journalists must engage with the land (environment/agriculture/industry), populations, histories and cultures of the places they report news. Secondly, it involves connections and understandings of the shifting constellations of global and national systems, issues and relationships of the digital era. Finally, this paper argues that by its very nature, “geo-social journalism” eschews theoretical universalizing and instead demands fine-grained analyses of the specific dynamic of each “geo-social” publication, its setting and the practices which shape it and it in turn shapes.

Transcultural adaption and validation of the Spanish version of the Bipolar Depression Rating Scale (BDRS-S)

The Bipolar Depression Rating Scale (BDRS) arguably better captures symptoms in bipolar depression especially depressive mixed states than traditional unipolar depression rating scales. The psychometric properties of the Spanish adapted version, BDRS-S, are reported.

Where memory failed, journalism prevailed: Anzac Day in three Victorian country newspapers 1916-1925

This article explores how three Victorian country newspapers shaped and reinforced the collective memory of Anzac Day in its first decade, from 1916 to 1925. It draws on a sample of 300 articles, and looks to scholarship on journalism and memory to generate understandings of these newspapers' important role as co-creators and protectors of Anzac Day commemoration. The sample provides evidence that Anzac Day coverage was thematically consistent from the start. The analysis highlights journalists' roles as patriotic cheerleaders for a new, national identity; as collaborators with other social institutions in establishing the commemoration tradition; and as boundary riders, who patrolled less than acceptable Anzac Day behaviour. This role is most striking when communities failed to mark Anzac Day in the early days, as this article reveals.

Friend or foe? Regional newspapers and the power of Facebook

This paper examines how some regional newspapers in Australia are engaging with the social media juggernaut Facebook and the effects of this on their relationships with audiences in a digital world. We highlight how terms such as ‘friend’ and ‘community’ mask complex power struggles taking place across these two media platforms. On the one hand, Facebook can facilitate public conversation and widen the options for journalists to access information but, on the other, it has become a competitor for advertising revenue as news outlets struggle to find a business model for online spaces. We suggest that newspapers and journalists are facing challenges in navigating the complexities of a platform that crosses public/private domains at a time when the very nature of ‘private’ and ‘public’ is being contested. The paper adopts a ‘pooled case comparison’ approach to research, drawing on data from two separate Australian studies that examine regional newspapers in a digital landscape. The research draws on interviews with journalists and editors in Australia across three states and on focus groups and interviews with newspaper readers in Victoria.