Next month, Toronto hosts the annual conference for the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication . This is a big group, about 3,500 members, mostly Americans, and they've taken over some downtown Toronto hotels for this event.
As part of the pre-conference hoopla, the Canadian Newspaper Association and the Public Journalism Network has organized an afternoon-long workshop which I'll be moderating. We'll be talking about blogging and how it can inform ideas about participatory and public journalism with some pretty influential journalist-bloggers, including, I'm told, Dan Gillmor, Jeff Jarvis, and Rebecca MacKinnon. Apparently, Jay Rosen is among those who plans to attend. I hope he does because I'd like to hear more about this subject from him.
Here's the blurb from the PJNet site:
Exploring the Fusion Power of Public and Participatory Journalism
August 3, 2004, Toronto, Precedes AEJMC Convention
Participatory journalism tools in the form of weblogs and other electronic communications are changing the face of mass media, but are complementary to public journalism. These are powerful tools as Howard Dean’s campaign proved by using weblogs and MeetUp to get 170,000 people nationwide to sign up for face-to-face meetings. The Daily Kos, a citizen run weblog, has 1.5 million unique visitors a month. These are just two of many impressive examples. Learn how we can borrow from or incorporate these tools to improve the state of journalism.
Walk Away Knowing:
- What journalists can put to use now
- What questions researchers should be asking
- What journalism professors should be teaching
- How citizens around the world can practice participatory journalism
- How to begin building information communities.
Canadians interested in this event (and you don't have to be a journalist to attend and participate) can download a form and register through the CNA.
The registration includes dinner and cocktail social!
Jay Rosen writes to say that he will, in fact be there, and will be making a presentation. The conference brochure does not list Gillmor as a panelist but the organizers up here at this end in Toronto are telling me he'll be here.