2013 Newspapers and Community-Building Symposium seeks proposals

Feb 1, 2013

MANHATTAN, KS—The Huck Boyd National Center for Community Media at Kansas State University and the National Newspaper Association and the NNAF have issued a call for proposals for the 19th annual Newspapers and Community-Building Symposium, which will be hosted by NNA at its 127th annual convention and Trade Show Sept. 12-15, in Phoenix.
The purpose of the symposium is to bring journalism educators and newspaper owners and publishers together in a forum that encourages discussion about current research that is relevant to community newspapers with less than 50,000 circulation or that are considered niche publications.
 NNA is particularly interested in the importance of community newspapers in relation to civic engagement, especially when it comes to citizens participating in local elections and holding local government accountable. Newspapers are fundamental to informing citizens and, therefore, fundamental to the future of our democracy.
Some possible topic areas: how well are citizen journalists doing over the long term; are online experiments like Patch.com paying overtime; what is being done to get the texting generation to be as well informed as the newspaper-reading generation; what do high readership numbers of college newspapers have to say about the myth that young people won’t read papers; what are citizens willing to pay for good journalism; what happens when the blogs get it wrong; and others.
E-mail a title page (with the title of your proposal, your name, e-mail address, mailing address, including university or professional affiliation, and phone) and accompanying one-page proposal with only the title and proposal. The text must be double-spaced on 8½- by 11-inch paper.
Please indicate that it is a proposal for the “Newspapers and Community-Building Symposium.” Nine proposals and three alternates will be selected. The proposals will be evaluated in a blind review.
E-mail your one-page proposal with separate title page in MSWord document or PDF format to Gloria Freeland at gfreela@ksu.edu. If you have questions, e-mail or call her at 785-532-0721.
Proposals are due March 11, 2013. Completed papers are due July 8, 2013.