Master’s Project 1

Overview

Students in the Anniston (Ala.) City School District are failing to perform at adequate levels. At every grade level in all seven schools within the district, students failed to match or surpass state averages in reading and math in 2006 (Great Schools, 1998-2007). Several studies, including a recent study conducted by the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory (2002), have linked parental involvement to children’s success in school (Dearing, Kreider, Simpkins & Weiss, 2006; Jeynes, 2005; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2005).But it is clear from low attendance statistics at mandatory parent-teacher conferences at Anniston middle and high schools – 32 percent and 8 percent, respectively, (Anniston City School District, 2007) parents are not getting involved.

Thorson argued, “News is a critical channel through which people link with their civic environment” (2005, p. 204). She believed media members have a responsibility to their communities. Thorson also argued the job of the newspaper is to provide useful information in easily processed ways that can evoke positive change for the betterment of its community. Not only is it socially responsible to act in this way, but newspapers with civically active audiences attract more readers, bringing in more revenue (Janowitz, 1967). Janowitz found newspaper readership and community involvement linked in a symbiotic relationship; one often doesn’t exist without the other, making community journalism vital to the success of a community.

With goals of community journalism and parental involvement in mind, two Web site prototypes aimed at Anniston school parents were created. One site featured organization-contributed content. The other featured community-contributed content. Three focus groups comprised of Anniston school parents gathered to test which site they felt would be most effective at getting parents involved.

Community journalism

By definition, “Community journalism is intimate, caring and personal, it reflects the community and tells its stories, and it embraces a leadership role” (Lowrey, Brozana, & Mackay, 2008). To embrace the community journalism approach defined by Lowrey, Brozana, and Mackay, The Anniston (Ala.) Star should endeavor to produce packages encouraging parental involvement. The Anniston School District could provide information about events on its Web site, but it does not (Anniston City Schools, 2008). The newspaper could step in the direction of community leadership by writing articles and editorials criticizing the district for its shortcomings and praising its successes. But, according to Lowrey, Brozana, and Mackay (2008), this limited involvement will not fulfill the newspaper management’s obligation to community leadership.

Altschull (1996) argued community journalism and participatory journalism go hand-in-hand. Altschull wrote the press has too much faith in its own objectivity, and it should allow members of the public to play a bigger role in deciding what items are newsworthy. He argued the press should get involved with the public to help them mediate issues, rather than concentrating solely on the profitability of the newspaper.

Many of the ideas produced by community journalism researchers have conceptual roots in civic and public journalism movements, and in fact the terms have been difficult to distinguish. According to Parisi (1997), “civic journalists acknowledge that news is narrative, an overall telling of events that inevitably invokes particular social values…” (p. 673). Parisi believed civic journalists need to encourage action among community leaders. This is similar to Hodges’ (1996) belief that community journalists should take an active role in the community. Hodges used the terms “civic,” “public,” and “community journalism” interchangeably regarding ways to repair fractured communities.

Getting journalists at The Star more involved with the public could raise the quality of its reporters’ performances.Glasser and Craft (1996) said a commitment to public journalism should obligate reporters to take responsibility for their actions:

If indeed the press plays an important role in creating and maintaining the conditions for self-governance, as journalists claim whenever they raise the banner of public journalism, the press needs to assume responsibility for – and invited commentary on – the quality of its performance and the integrity of its practices (p. 152).

Taking a leadership role through the implementation of school Web sites could also further the newspaper’s commitment to civic journalism. The Pew Center for Civic Journalism (2008) suggested civic journalism is “an obligation to public life – an obligation that goes beyond just telling the news or unloading the facts.” As it relates to schools, Hentoff (2003) said community newspapers must be actively involved in schools, and must engage students to help them understand and embrace their freedoms. By assuming a leadership role, The Anniston Star could make a leap toward healing its broken schools for the sake of its community.

Lauterer (2006) wrote community journalism should focus on hyperlocal coverage. Newspaper readers don’t look to their hometown newspapers for national news; they want to know what is happening on their streets and in their schools. Using Web pages to create a specialized focus on Anniston schools would satisfy Lauterer’s hyperlocal standards for community journalism.

Deuze (1999) argued newspaper Web pages offer greater chances for interactivity and personalization through comment sections, Web chats, and e-mail. The Star could capitalize on this notion by creating Web pages geared specifically toward an audience of Anniston school parents. Journalistically, Deuze’s research found the main advantage to online community journalism is “…such direct contact actually results in more story ideas, faster correction of factual mistakes, and sometimes access to story sources otherwise too time costly to find” (p. 378).

Lapham (1995) said newspaper Web sites should endeavor to keep the community informed of events. According to Lapham, newspaper Web sites should inform audiences of regular happenings, offering features such as school lunch menus, to help the community keep up-to-date with their neighbors; keeping Web readers informed could help bolster community spirit.

To practice good community journalism, Hentoff (2003) suggested newspapers start in the schools. Hentoff said newspapers must be actively involved in schools, and must engage students to help them understand and embrace their freedoms. By assuming a leadership role, The Anniston Star could make a leap toward healing its broken schools for the sake of its community.

Theory

Lowrey, Brozana & Mackay (2008, p. 4) wrote:

The media should help reveal and make understandable the community’s structure by informing residents of facilities, spaces and events and how to use them, thus encouraging serendipitous interactivity and negotiation in the community – which should facilitate the process of working toward shared meaning.

Thus, they argued, it is not enough to tell the news; a newspaper must lead residents to participate in the creation and telling of the news. Lowrey, Brozana,andMackay said community journalism is an ongoing process that must be fostered by the local newspaper. The provisionof community journalism, they said, can bring content that is more diverse and able to bring the community together as a whole.

Similarly, in their outline of communication infrastructure theory, Kim and Ball-Rokeach, 2006, p. 177) wrote, “Without any resources for constructing stories about the local community and sharing them with others, it is impossible to build a community.” Kim and Ball-Rokeach believed a community can only thrive if it has a platform for sharing stories. I am constructing my project with these theoretical frameworks in mind.

For its own good, both financially and in keeping up community ties, the newspaper has a responsibility to serve as a storytelling mechanism for a community (Janowitz, 1967). The Anniston Star does a lot to reach out to readers using the print edition of the newspaper, but it can expand its community storytelling opportunities for the Web. Kim and Ball-Rokeach (2006) said large news organizations cannot facilitate community involvement the way a community newspaper, such as The Star, can. In studying community newspapers, Kim and Ball-Rokeach found hyperlocal coverage and community platforms are likely to promote heightened involvement.

By offering Web sites through which community members can tell their school stories, The Star can promote community involvement and create lasting partnerships with schools and parents. This can be profitable for the newspaper. Brown (2003) found two-thirds of 246 newspaper publishers interviewed in a nationwide sample said their Web editions were profitable, and that requiring Web readers to register on the site, as The Star does, helps newspaper managers obtain data that aids them in selling online advertisements.

However, an Associated Press Managing Editors' National Credibility roundtable found it would not be sensible to allow community members to run amok with these Web sites (Pitts, 2005), asnewspaper readers are somewhat skeptical about the credibility of online writers – such as bloggers – who post comments or stories to their own Web sites. In contrast, online content from traditional news sources tends to rank relatively high in terms of perceived credibility (e.g., Finberg, 2002). However, findings on the credibility of citizen news content are mixed. Johnson & Kaye (1998) found users of blogs believed them to be less accurate than other mediums, but that blog readers were willing to overlook inaccuracies, because they favor the format in which blogs are written. Kelleher & Miller (2006) found readers feel the conversational tones of blogs make them seem trustworthy.

To maintain that credibility, reporters and citizens could blend their work. But to what extent they should combine their stories remains to be seen. Through five research questions, this study will seek to determine whether Anniston School System’s parents find the top-down approach, bottom-up approach, a blend of the two, or neither, to be best for the newspaper implement.The top-down, or organization-contributed, site features content produced by reporters and photographers at The Star. The bottom-up, or community-contributed, site features content and photographs contributed by parent specialists – specially appointed liaisons in the Anniston City School District.

According to both Lowrey, Brozana & Mackay (2008) and Kim & Ball-Rokeach (2006), community journalists should work to facilitate storytelling by citizens. Janowitz (1967) also said community newspapers should be a place for community members to tell their stories, and Lapham (1995) found the Internet is an effective platform for storytelling. But before citizens can use the Web to tell stories about their communities, they must be able to navigate a site.

RQ1: Which site did users find most usable?

Finberg (2002) found users believe online news to be credible, but Pitts (2005) found users were unsure about the credibility of citizen bloggers. This paper will examine whether participants found the stories told by reporters or by parent specialists to be more believable.

RQ2: Which site did users perceive to be more credible?

Deuze (1999) found the Internet allows users to participate through offerings, such as blogs, Web chats and messaging. The top-down site offered users participatory features, including the ability to post comments and submit Web bulletins, and to participate in blogs. The bottom-up site also offered these features, in addition to a function allowing readers to submit photos and stories. These sites were also laid out a bit differently, as the top-down site contained a lead story at the top, while the bottom-up site featured a photo gallery at the top. The organization-contributed site also had a more formal tone, while the community-contributed site was more laid back.

RQ3: Which site did users find more involving?

Lauterer (2006) wrote community newspapers should take a hyperlocal approach to news reporting. Lowrey, Brozana, and Mackay (2008) took this notion a step farther, arguing newspaper officials should encourage readers to tell their own stories. This paper will investigate whether participants found the organization-contributed content or the community-contributed content to be the most informative.

RQ4: Did users think organization-contributed content or community-contributed content was the most informative?

Sites that were perceived as high in usability, credibility, involvement, and information on the previous four research questions should lead to increased parental involvement. Lapham (1995) found informed readers were often involved in their communities. I will examine whether there is a correlation between the first four qualities and parental involvement.

RQ5: Do parents think either site would be likely to encourage parental involvement in schools?

Method

Two Web site prototypes were created with the aim of strengthening relations between parents, administrators, and The Star to increase parental involvement in local schools. One site featured a top-down approach, where most of the content is newspaper-produced, and the other a bottom-up approach, with all of the content being community contributed.

For the top-down approach, articles from The Star regarding school events or issues were featured, along with a section containing faux blog topics that promote upcoming events or solicit items or volunteers for school projects, a school bulletin board, to which anyone would be able to submit items, and posted pictures taken by newspaper staff. The bottom-up approach featured the same items, but were written or contributed by school community members. The researcher helped contributors by gathering these stories, but did not interfere with the production of news or writing. As this study was conducted during the summer while students and teachers were not in school, content contributors contributed stories and photographs based on events in May, prior to the completion of the school year.

The tone of the organization-contributed site was formal, as its layout was very similar to the current layout of The Star. The site featuring community-contributed content was more relaxed, with a photo gallery welcoming visitors, as opposed to a news story. This contrast in tone and format was made to distinguish the sites from one another as participants viewed them.

Two navigable Web sites were created using Adobe Dreamweaver software. The Web sites were not published online. Participants viewed the Web sites as file folders installed on each computer. The computers were Macintosh laptops, which were provided by the researcher. The first group viewed the sites at the Anniston Public Library. The second and third groups viewed the sites at Anniston Middle School. These sites were chosen, because they were familiar to participants and within close proximity to where most of them live. The sites were constructed based on a variety of community journalism Web sites studied by the researcher. Newspaper Web sites, such as The Northwest Voice (2008) and MyMissourian.com (2008) provided opportunities for readers to contribute photographs and stories. The sites also offered interactive features, such as highly focused blogs and comment sections. Other Web sites, such as The Washington Post’sLoudoun Extra (2008) and the Des Moines Register’s (2008) community pages, offered top-down tastes of community journalism. These sites were hyperlocal. Although the content was written and photographed by journalists, community members could participate on community blogs and comment sections.

The researcher controlled for the number of stories, photos, and interactive features placed on each site, so they will be similar in number. The sites varied in content. Three separate focus groups were conducted. One group viewed both Web sites, one group viewed only the top-down site, and one group viewed only the bottom-up site. Exposure to both sites allowed for responses to a direct comparison of the sites. Exposure to only one site offers a more valid test, in the sense that users would only see one site and would not have the direct comparison to shape their observations.During the focus groups viewing both Web sites, the researcher noted whether parents recognized the differences in content without prompting.

To test the usability and effectiveness of these Web sites, a focus group research method was selected based on the many advantages outlined by Morgan (1997). He wrote: “The main advantage that focus groups offer is the opportunity to observe a large amount of interaction on a topic in a limited period of time” (p. 19). Focus groups allowed participants to get involved with the Web pages, prompted focused discussion, and provided enough qualitative data for my pilot study (Wimmer & Dominick, 2006, p. 126).

Focus groups consisted of parents from the Anniston School District. The researcher attempted to recruit eight participants per group for this quasi-experiment. Participants were volunteers. Actual recruiting fell short of the goal of eight per group. Three participants from Anniston High School, three from Anniston Middle School, and three from Anniston’s five elementary schools participated in the focus groups. Volunteers were selected with the help of parent specialists at each of the schools.