UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN

Equipping the community media newsroom

Martin Wolske, Brant Houston, Colin Rhinesmith, and Pam Dempsey

GSLIS Research Showcase, April 8, 2011

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Background of grant funded by Office of Vice Chancellor for Public Engagement•Foundation – Findings from a Knight Commission's report:

• Maximize the availability of relevant and credible information to all Americans and their communities;

• Strengthen the capacity of individuals to engage with information; and• Promote individual engagement with information and the public life of the

community.•Project will leverage past public engagement efforts of the Community Informatics Initiative (e.g., LIS451 projects, YCI curriculum, CI Club) and Journalism (esp., the CU Citizen Access project), and their various partners:

• Equip four public computing centers in north Champaign and East St. Louis to serve as community media newsroom hubs;

• Develop an analog to CU-CitizenAccess.org website for Metro East;• Measure impact and sustainability of tailored programs at pilot sites.

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Shared Interests: Journalism and Community Informatics•Providing information/news that can be contributed and used by citizens

•Visualizing information through maps, tag clouds, and social network analysis

•Hearing citizens and letting them speak, especially in under-served areas

•How new technology can help these efforts•Effective and high impact story-telling through multi-media

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CU-CitizenAccess.org

• launched in 2009 as a grant-funded news and social network site focused on social and economic issues in Central Illinois

•content is generated from staff, journalism students, collaborations with local media, and community contributions

•community work includes weekly computer labs/workshops and multimedia storytelling classes at Dorsey Homes

•next steps include developing neighborhood media centers and building a corps group of citizen journalists

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Key Steps

•SPRING: LIS451 is setting up public computing centers at Salt & Light in Dobbins Downs, North Champaign and East St. Louis Park District Community Center;

•SPRING/SUMMER: Adapt tools from CU-CitizenAccess.org for MetroEastDigital.org website based on tailored programs;

•SUMMER: Multidisciplinary Community Informatics Studio course will review literature on citizen journalism and community media, visit existing programs, and create tailored programs for pilot sites;

•FALL/WINTER: Perform evaluation on impact and sustainability of programming.

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Potential Evaluation Metrics for Impact and Sustainability•Fetterman’s Empowerment Evaluation;•Establishing the mission; Taking stock; Planning for the future•Quantity and quality of content placed online; •Quantity and quality of news stories by community;•Online traffic to news stories by community;•Number and types of responses to the needs and issues of the selected neighborhoods by the communities at large;

•The amount of involvement and online collaboration between the Champaign and East St. Louis neighborhoods engagement between faculty and students with marginalized and underserved neighborhoods.