Citizen Media@SPJ Morning Workshop Thursday, Oct. 4, 2007 Hyatt Regency • Washington, D.C.

Co-sponsored by SPJ and J-Lab to examine emerging models,
successes and challenges of citizen journalism.

To register, go the the SPJ Convention registration page and click
"Citizen Media @ SPJ" under the Half Day Training Workshops heading.
$25 registration fee to SPJ.

Hyatt Regency Washington on Capitol Hill, Washington, D.C.

More than 500 CitMedia sites now pepper the hyperlocal newscape. More come online every day. They fill in the news gaps, watchdog local journalists and train future reporters. Now, legacy newpapers are staking out their claims on this turf. Learn what this means for the future of news.

Agenda:

    9:00 - 9:30 a.m.   Welcome/Overview; Citizen Media: Fad or the Future of News?
          What does the latest research on citizen media tell us?
              • Jan Schaffer, Executive Director, J-Lab: The Institute for Interactive Journalism,
                 University of Maryland, College Park

    9:30 - 10:20 a.m.   CitMedia Ventures as Learning Laboratories
          J-schools are embedding students to cover local communities and publishing
          their work in new online local publications.
              • Barb Iverson, CreatingCommunityConnections.org -- Columbia College of
                 Chicago embeds students in Chicago's neighborhoods.
              • Clyde Bentley, MyMissourian.com -- University of Missouri journalism
                 students assign stories to citizen journalists and reverse publish the content in
                 a weekly newspaper.

    10:20 - 10:30 a.m.   BREAK

    10:30 - 11:20 a.m.   Filling in the Gaps
          Former journalists and non-journalists who are paying attention in their
          communities are filling in the gaps by covering local issues and
          watchdogging local public decisions.
              • Geoff Dougherty, ChiTownDailyNews.org, Founder and Editor
              • Rob Goodspeed, RethinkCollegePark.net, DCist.org, Founder

    11:30 a.m. - 12:15 p.m.   The View from Mainstream Media
              • Rob Curley, Vice President for Product Development at
                 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive, describes the strategy
                 and thinking behind The Post's new launch of LoudounExtra.com
                 in Loudoun County, one of the nation's fastest growing counties.

Sponsored by J-Lab: The Institute for Interactive Journalism
Philip Merrill College of Journalism, University of Maryland
Supported by the Ethics & Excellence in Journalism Foundation

To register, go the the SPJ Convention registration page and click
"Citizen Media @ SPJ" under the Half Day Training Workshops heading.
$25 registration fee to SPJ.