News research becomes part of a common pool that feeds Web, TV and print publications
Links
Citizen journalism
CJ history
Course syllabus
Report A: Market research
The "Report A" assignment is described on the class syllabus. What you need to know that is not evident on the syllabus follows.
Background
News Central is a working newsroom. Our audience is the Tech community. One important aspect of what we are doing is that we are encouraging input from the Tech community. Any good beat reporter is constantly nurturing sources and "working" the community s/he covers. Blogging technology allows us to constantly solicit and entertain input from our audience. Carried to further levels, this becomes something of an exercise in citizen journalism.
Citizen journalism as it is enabled by blogging and other Web technologies, has both enthusiasts and detractors in the journalism community. In this regard it enjoys the same kind of notoriety as most other revolutionary practices have achieved at their introduction.
For this report, you ...
First job is to school yourself in the citizen journalism controversy. You will do this by studying Chapter 1 in Ryan and Tankard and the two CJ documents linked on this page's sidebar to gain a deeper understanding and appreciation of how Web-based citizen journalism is currently being practiced by some U.S. new operations.
In your textbook, pay particular attention to the discussion of partisanship, objectivity and pressures on the media as well as the discussion of "public" journalism.
For a truly grounded understanding of citizen journalism, you should follow links in the two documents mentioned above, especially studying the CJ Web sites (that is, study the sites, wander around in them) described in the Citizen Journalism document.
Having studied those CJ examples you engage in some market research on the Tech campus. You are trying to answer this question: "What kind of Web-based news and information utility would best serve the Tech community?" This question has at least two prongs: First, you want to know what kind of news and information people want. Second, you want to know how they would like it delivered (downloadable news feed, blog, podcast, e-mail, Web site).
You are going to interview at least three people (students, staff, faculty, merchants around campus) from outside Mass Communications to get your answers. In answering this question You want to find out
- what kinds of information would they like to have that they do not now have easy access to
- what kinds of news stories and information about Tech interest them enough that they might want to engage in an online discussion about the stories
You will then write a 600-700 word, third-person report in which you summarize your findings. You will report both what other people told you and what you saw in the CJ Web sites you visited that interested you.
This report is due Week 3.