[AEJMC Newspaper Division list] New name for Newspaper Division?
Edward C. Pease
ted.pease at usu.edu
Thu Jul 17 11:57:45 CDT 2008
Dear Newspaper Division:
I feel Susan Keith's pain over the possible renaming (rebranding?) of
the Newspaper Division, as we all struggle with how to define what
"newspaper" people now do in the brave new world where print is
dwindling and "news" doesn't mean what it used to.
I'm a former Newspaper Division head and longtime member, as well as
a longtime newspaperman. That is a term that reminds me of this from
an editor in the 1990s: "Being a reporter is like being a cowboy on a
dinosaur ranch."
It may be that the newspaper is an obsolete term like
"daguerreotype," but what "newspaper" means for me still stands for a
lot--newsgathering, sense-making, watchdoggery and all the rest (even
if fewer and fewer of Americans write and read).
As painful as it would be, changing the name of the Newspaper
Division makes sense in many ways, for the reasons Susan suggests.
But if we're going to do it, expanding the name to enumerate delivery
systems such as "online" is just clutter. What we who teach and study
newspapers and news is news--not the paper or online or text-
messaging or other parts.
When the Association for Education in Journalism (AEJ) debated its
name-change to become more inclusive, the argument was similarly
commonsensical: the field was evolving beyond just the "journalism"
part. At the time, however, I thought expanding AEJ to AEJMC was an
idea in need of an edit--adding "mass communication" to "journalism"
was like calling ourselves the Association of Apples and Other Fruit.
Redundant. But how could we delete the "journalism" part of the name?
it's fundamental.
Similarly, the Newspaper Division is fundamentally about news and, as
Susan says, not just about papers. The news business is converging,
after all, to incorporate lots of delivery systems. So perhaps
instead of redundant add-ons about online and new media, perhaps we
should talk to our broadcast colleagues and create an even bigger 600-
pound gorilla within AEJMC, the News Division. Inclusivity is not
only good, but essential to what we do.
Yrs in curmudgeondom,
Ted Pease
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Edward C. Pease, Ph.D
Professor & Graduate Coordinator
Book Review Editor, Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly
Department of Journalism & Communication
Utah State University
Logan, Utah 84322-4605
435-797-3293; 435-797-3973 FAX; 435-760-1707 (cell)
www.usu.edu/journalism/faculty/pease
Subscribe (free!) to TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM (http://
tedsword.blogspot.com/) at ted.pease at usu.edu See also.... http://
askdrted.blogspot.com/ . . . http://peezpix.blogspot.com/ . . .
http://newshounds1.blogspot.com/
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"Words are sacred. They deserve respect. If you can get the right
ones in the right order, you can nudge the world a little." --Tom
Stoppard
On Jul 17, 2008, at 9:16 AM, Susan Keith wrote:
> Dear Newspaper Division colleagues,
>
> I'm writing to ask you to consider an issue that the division's
> executive
> committee will be discussing next month in Chicago: whether the
> Newspaper
> Division of AEJMC should consider changing its name.
>
> In the July issue of our division newsletter, LeadTime, I argued
> that -- in
> keeping with AEJMC's focus this year on the future of our field -- our
> division should expand its name to clearly indicate that it
> embraces the
> study of online and other types of journalism practiced by newspaper
> companies. If you are away from the location where you receive your
> mailed
> copy, you can download a PDF of the newsletter from
> http://aejmc.net/newspaper/leadtime/leadtime_july_2008.pdf But I will
> briefly recap my reasons for suggesting a name change here:
>
> 1. "Newspaper" no longer accurately describes the full range of
> products
> that traditional print journalism outlets are producing.
>
> 2. "Newspaper" no longer accurately describes the full range of
> journalistic
> work that our division members study. At the Chicago convention, we
> will
> hear research presentations on newspaper online interactivity, copy
> editors'
> roles in the "digital revolution," online citizen journalism and
> reporters'
> blogs.
>
> 3. Giving the division a name that accurately reflects the breadth
> of our
> interests might help us stem a decline in membership. Although the
> Newspaper
> Division remains the largest in AEJMC (by just 20 members),
> membership has
> fallen 13.3 percent since 2004, from 684 to 593. It's impossible to
> say for
> sure what caused the decline, but it's possible that some AEJMC
> members are
> not joining our division or renewing membership in it because they
> think all
> we are concerned with is what some view as a dying medium. (I don't
> share
> that view, but it is out there.)
>
> 4. Giving the division a name that accurately reflects the breadth
> of our
> interests might help us stem a decline over the past few years in
> paper
> submissions. Again, it's impossible to say for sure why our
> submissions have
> been down, but it may be that scholars studying such topics as
> online news
> sites, for example, have perceived our division as being focused
> only on
> news printed on paper.
>
> 5. Expanding our division's name to something like "Newspaper and
> Online
> Journalism Division" or "Newspaper and Newer Media Division" -- or
> some
> better name members suggest -- would let us offer a division home
> to the
> scholars who study online and newer media journalism. Some of those
> people
> are now affiliated with AEJMC's Communication Technology Division.
> But for
> others, whose work is focused more on *journalism* than
> *technology,* that
> division may not seem like the perfect fit.
>
> 6. Expanding our division's name might help us better weather any
> internal
> reorganization that grows out of adopting the AEJMC Strategic Plan,
> which
> members will be asked to vote on in Chicago. (You can read more
> about it,
> from my perspective, here:
> http://aejmc.net/newspaper/leadtime/leadtime_march2008.pdf.)
>
> A few of you have already responded to my print column explaining
> why you do
> or do not support a name change. I will be sharing your opinions
> with the
> membership via this list (unless you asked me not to). I hope that
> this note
> in your e-mail box will prompt more of you to respond and share your
> opinions about whether changing the division's name is a good idea
> and, if
> so, what the new name should be.
>
> You can share your thoughts by sending a note to the Newspaper
> Division
> e-mail list at news-list at aejmc.net I hope you'll share your opinions
> publically, but if you'd rather send them just to me, you may do so at
> susank at scils.rutgers.edu.
>
> I look forward to hearing from you!
>
> Susan Keith, Ph.D.
> 2007-2008 AEJMC Newspaper Division head
> Assistant professor
> Department of Journalism and Media Studies
> School of Communication, Information and Library Studies
> Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey
> 4 Huntington Street
> New Brunswick, NJ 08901
> (732) 932-7500, ext. 8235
> susank at scils.rutgers.edu
> www.scils.rutgers.edu/~susank
> Office: CILS 106
>
>
>
>
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> News-list at aejmc.net
> http://aejmc.net/mailman/listinfo/news-list_aejmc.net
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