Teaching Panel Session: “Taming the Trolls: Preparing Students to Deal with Harassment and Abuse Online”
Moderating/Presiding:
Mark Coddington, Washington and Lee
Panelists:
Michelle Ferrier, founder, TrollBusters, Ohio
Linda Steiner, Maryland
Chelsea Reynolds, California State-Fullerton
Jennifer M. Grygiel, Syracuse
Rhonda Gibson, North Carolina at Chapel Hill
In a political environment that is increasingly polarized and vitriolic and a media environment that is increasingly participatory, online harassment and abuse of journalists and communication professionals have become a substantial problem. Women, people of color, LGBTQ people, and other marginalized groups, in particular, have been met with relentless threats, insults, and violent and hateful language online, especially if they merely speak publicly or engage in journalism on any number of political or cultural issues. This panel will look at how we address these phenomena in the classroom — how we prepare our students to both deals with abuse and harassment as future communication professionals, and to combat online hatred and cruelty more fundamentally as engaged citizens. Speakers will look at how to teach these issues from a variety of perspectives, offering practical advice and research-based context.
Refereed Research Paper Session: “Conversation and Community to Strengthen Journalism and Empower Audiences”
Moderating/Presiding:
Jeremy Littau, Lehigh
Can Journalists Make a Difference? How Journalists’ Involvement in Comment Sections Affects Perceived Journalistic Quality
Nina Springer and Ina Innermann, LMU Munich
Citizen Engagement with Live Blogs: Passive Consumption Rather than Participation
Mirjana Pantic, Pace University
Co-Constructing Journalistic Knowledge with the Audience: A Case Study of Sustained Reciprocity*
Neta Kligler-Vilenchik and Ori Tenenboim, Texas at Austin
“I Love Weather More Than Anybody”: A Digital Ethnography of The Weather Channel’s Online Fan Community
Jeremy Shermak and Kelsey Whipple, Texas at Austin
Discussant:
Lona D. Cobb, Winston-Salem State
* Top Paper Award
Refereed Paper Research Session: “Participatory Journalism Past and Present”
Moderating/Presiding:
Mi Jahng, Wayne State
Citizen Journalism Scholarship Revisited: A Meta-Analytic Approach
Young Eun Moon, Meredith Morgoch, and Seungahn Nah, Oregon
Engaged Journalism in Rural Communities
Andrea Wenzel and Sam Ford, Temple
Open-Source Media Project: Community Attitudes After Five-Year Organizational Evolution
Bonnie Bressers and Samuel Mwangi, Kansas State
David Bondy Valdovinos Kaye, Queensland University of Technology, and Steven Smethers, Kansas State
To Share Is to Receive: News as Social Currency on Social Media
Edson Tandoc, Alice Huang, Andrew Duffy, Rich Ling, and Nuri Kim, Nanyang Technological University Singapore
Discussant:
You Li, Eastern Michigan