Foundations of Community Journalism

Foundations of Community Journalism is the first and only book to focus on how to understand and conduct research in this ever-increasing field. With chapters written by established journalism scholars and teachers, this book provides students and researchers with an understanding of the multiple methods applied to the study of community journalism, such as historical, social-scientific, cultural/critical, and interdisciplinary approaches. It explains what community journalism is as a research concept and offers a range of different methods and theories that can be applied to community journalism research. Although there are numerous "how-to" community journalism manuals for students and newspaper editors, none focuses on how to conduct research into community journalism. The body of knowledge in Foundations of Community Journalism would take readers months, perhaps years, of independent work to gather, making this book a "must-have" volume and reference tool for anybody who is interested in the relationships between journalism and communities.

Bill Reader (M.A. & B.A.; The Pennsylvania State University) is a tenured Associate Professor in the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University. He has been teaching journalism at the collegiate level since 1997, and was a working journalist (reporter, photographer, copy editor, and opinion-page editor) from 1992 to 2000. He is the author of several studies of journalism ethics and practice published in top peer-reviewed journals, as well as a co-authored book about journalism ethics and several chapters for academic books. He was the founding research chair of the Community Journalism Interest Group of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC), and has served as secretary, vice-chair, and chair of that group. Reader also is an academic partner and steering-committee member of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues and an active member of the International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors. He is a member of the editorial board of Newspaper Research Journal and served as guest editor of a special issue of the journal focused on community newspapers.

John A. Hatcher (Ph.D. & M.A., Syracuse University; B.A., Humboldt State University) is an Assistant Professor of Journalism at the University of Minnesota Duluth and has taught journalism at the collegiate level since 2001. He studied mass communication and political communication at Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and The Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. He has written about the sociology of news and community journalism for academic and professional publications and has published numerous articles on community journalism in peer-reviewed journals. He has 15 years of experience as a newspaper reporter, editor, and columnist. From 2000 to 2003 he was Education Director of the Center for Community Journalism, where he worked as a consultant for community newspapers and wrote extensively about the community press for the Poynter Institute for Media Studies and the National Newspaper Association. Hatcher was a founding member of the Community Journalism Interest Group of Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC), and has served as secretary and membership chair of that group. He also is a member of the Minnesota Newspaper Association Education Committee.