A comparison of audio comments and written comments: student and instructor preferences and instructor feedback patterns

The present study analyzes the role of religion reporting with the journalistic field. Personnel cuts within newsrooms and the development of “religion reporters” operating from religious institutions necessitate a re-exploration of the changing field. At stake is the coverage of religion, a topic particularly pertinent to residents in the United States, nearly 77% of which identify as religious to some degree. Simultaneously, the majority of the United States tends to think journalists cover religion poorly. Through the lens of field theory, this study analyzes 20 interviews with U.S.-based religion reporters who work for both mainstream and religious publications.

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Covering religion: Field insurgency in United States religion reporting

Since body-worn cameras (BWCs) were catapulted into mainstream discourse, they have diffused rapidly across police agencies in the United States. Research followed swiftly, providing a wealth of information about how the police and citizens make sense of these technologies. Moreover, we have learned how these technologies have impacted important policing outcomes, such as citizen complaints and the use of coercive force during citizen encounters. However, despite the growing body of research, very little is known about how police stakeholders make sense of the implementation of BWCs and about their decision-making throughout the implementation process. Therefore, this research examines the decision to implement BWCs in one mid-sized municipal police department in the United States through the lens of Rogers (2003) Diffusion of Innovations theoretical framework. We rely on semi-structured interviews and observations with 17 stakeholders to address this question. Our findings show that BWC technology generally posed little uncertainty for stakeholders in terms of what it could offer conceptually. However, because the agency was an early adopter, decision-makers were confronted with significant uncertainty about practical matters such as the financial and logistical costs of implementing the technology, in addition to policy creation. These findings have important implications for scholars and practitioners. 

The Pennybridge pioneers: understanding internal stakeholder perceptions of body-worn camera implementation

Recent scholarship has argued for media organizations’ need to radically innovate to ensure their survival in the future. This study deploys the innovative learning culture (ILC) framework to qualitatively study innovation and learning in a legacy public service media organization. While innovation and learning are linked, the learning processes of professional journalists have received only little attention. Through an analysis of a development network operating in a public service media organization, we identify characteristics of ILC in the network and how those characteristics manifest in practice, as well as examine contextual factors that shape ILC. Our findings indicate that innovation and learning processes in the network are shaped by journalistic practice, technology and platforms, and organizational strategy. Importantly, the organization’s technological environment is seen to encourage mimicry in learning and innovation processes, leading to exploitative rather than explorative innovation. The study contributes theoretically to ILC by providing an organizationally situated understanding of the framework that accounts for institutional tendencies in media innovation. 

Practical, Not Radical: Examining Innovative Learning Culture in a Public Service Media Organization

ABSTRACT Since body-worn cameras (BWCs) were catapulted into mainstream discourse, they have diffused rapidly across police agencies in the United States. Research followed swiftly, providing a wealth of information about how the police and citizens make sense of these technologies. Moreover, we have learned how these technologies have impacted important policing outcomes, such as citizen complaints and the use of coercive force during citizen encounters. However, despite the growing body of research, very little is known about how police stakeholders make sense of the implementation of BWCs and about their decision-making throughout the implementation process. Therefore, this research examines the decision to implement BWCs in one mid-sized municipal police department in the United States through the lens of Rogers (2003) Diffusion of Innovations theoretical framework. We rely on semi-structured interviews and observations with 17 stakeholders to address this question. Our findings show that BWC technology generally posed little uncertainty for stakeholders in terms of what it could offer conceptually. However, because the agency was an early adopter, decision-makers were confronted with significant uncertainty about practical matters such as the financial and logistical costs of implementing the technology, in addition to policy creation. These findings have important implications for scholars and practitioners.

This study examined journalists’ use of technology, their gender identity, and how they rate themselves as adopters of innovations. Through the lens of diffusion of innovations, this study conducted telephone interviews with 68 U.S.-based digital journalists and applied an explanatory mixed-method research design in order to examine journalists’ adoption of digital journalism technologies. Men and women did not significantly differ in their uses of most technologies and shared equivalence in terms of adoption ratings; however, men did use DSLR and video cameras more than women, while women used nonlinear video editing software significantly more than men. In addition, while men felt significantly less supported by their employers to learn new innovations, this did not lessen their self-evaluation as adopters of innovations. Men also showed significantly more personal agency in choosing stories to cover.

Diffusion of innovations in digital journalism: Technology, roles, and gender in modern newsrooms

Due to existing demographic trends, language minority students comprise an increasing proportion of students in the Southwest and in urban areas For these language minority students, the lack of strong writing skills impedes academic performance at the university level and then later in the workplace To test writing attitudes, a study involved students enrolled in two sections of freshman English composition in a large Southwestern university Students in both classes were administered a preand post-test attitude survey to determine their attitudes about writing The control sections received traditional written comments on their written drafts The treatment section received very little written response but lengthy one-on-one counseling via cassette-taped comments on their written drafts to coach them and assist them through the revision stages of the writing process Direction t-test comparisons did not indicate a significant difference in the preand post-test essays for the two sections However, the analysis of preand post-test attitude surveys did indicate a statistically significant difference in attitude toward writing, with the treatment group demonstrating a more positive attitude than the control group Notably, Hispanics in the experimental classes seemed to respond even more enthusiastically to the taped feedback than the Anglo students

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Linda Holman

Papers

Diffusion of innovations in digital journalism: Technology, roles, and gender in modern newsrooms

Coaching Writing in Multicultural Classrooms with Oral Commentary.