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<TITLE>Re: [AEJMC Newspaper Division list] New name for Newspaper Division?</TITLE>
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<FONT FACE="Calibri, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:11pt'>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:<BR>
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Newspaper Division <BR>
Addressing the full range of issues, technologies and media employed by 21st Century newspapers<BR>
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Clyde<BR>
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– – – <BR>
Clyde Bentley<BR>
</B></SPAN><SPAN STYLE='font-size:7.5pt'>Missouri School of Journalism<BR>
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Wilson Lowrey7/17/08 3:52 PM<BR>
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</SPAN></FONT><BLOCKQUOTE><FONT FACE="Courier New"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:12pt'>Thanks so much, Susan for raising this issue. I’ve really enjoyed<BR>
reading these thoughtful posts. At this point I’m open to a couple of<BR>
possibilities: <BR>
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(1) Keeping the present name but supplementing it with outreach efforts<BR>
to help AEJMC members and students better understand the division’s<BR>
inclusiveness. Bill Reader suggested something similar in an earlier<BR>
post. And I agree with him that we shouldn’t so quickly dismiss the<BR>
valuable cultural capital and public legitimacy of newspapers. <BR>
(2) Changing the name to something simple and rooted in the division’s<BR>
conceptual focus – the News Division or the Journalism Division, or some<BR>
such. However, if the Division were to pursue this approach, I think<BR>
we'd need to discuss the plans with RTVJ, Community J and Civic J, etc.<BR>
Probably any name change will lead to bruised toes, but if it’s done in<BR>
an open manner – if we at least invite others to speak their mind, even<BR>
at our meeting -- maybe we could minimize the fallout. And it would only<BR>
be fair.<BR>
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I don’t think it’s a good idea to incorporate some other technological<BR>
platform into the name – Newspapers and Online News, for example. We’d<BR>
still be tying ourselves to the caprice of changing technologies and<BR>
changing labels for these technologies (and to the latest industry<BR>
interpretation of what the problem is). And we’ll soon be having this<BR>
conversation all over again. I remember working on a Sunday Perspective<BR>
section front in the early ‘90s (seems like yesterday) that focused on<BR>
the then new phenomenon of the Internet. Thinking ourselves ‘with it,’<BR>
we went with an arthed like “Surfing the Internet” – at that time, a<BR>
cutting-edge term. I don’t remember the last time I heard someone<BR>
actually say, “well, I think I’ll go surf the Internet.”<BR>
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