Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

The Kiowa County Media Center was set up as a community media that would focus solely on citizen-produced news content. But challenges such as technophobia, citizen’s lack of time to contribute content, and an aging population meant the media center had to reinvent itself and evolve beyond its citizen-journalism mission if it hoped to survive. Four main findings from this study offer key lessons for other community media facing challenges.

Keywords

community media organizational learning alternative media survey research open-source media

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Abernathy

P. M.

(2016). The rise of a new media baron and the emerging threat of news deserts. Center for Innovation and Sustainability in Local Media, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill.

Abernathy

P. M.

(2023). News deserts: A research agenda for addressing disparities in the United States. Media and Communication, 11(3), 290–292.

Anderson

S. E.

Gansneder

B. M.

(1995). Using electronic mail surveys and computer-monitored data for studying computer-mediated communication systems. Social Science Computer Review, 13(1), 33–46.

Barthel

Holcomb

Mahone

Mitchell

(2016, November 3). Civic engagement strongly tied to local news habits. Pew Research Center. http://www.journalism.org/2016/11/03/civic-engagement-strongly-tied-to-local-news-habits

Bowman

Willis

(2003). We media: How audiences are shaping the future of news. The Media Center at the American Press Institute. https://archive.org/details/ShayneBowmanChrisWillis

Bressers

Smethers

J. S.

Mwangi

S. C.

(2015). Community journalism and civic engagement in mediated sports: A case study of the open-source media project in Greensburg, KS. Journalism Practice, 9(3), 433–451.

Bucay

Elliott

Kamin

Park

(2017, May 8). America’s growing news deserts. Columbia Journalism Review. https://www.cjr.org/local_news/american-news-deserts-donuts-local.php

Cangelosi

V. E.

Dill

W. R.

(1965). Organizational learning: Observations toward a theory. Administrative Science Quarterly, 10(2), 175–203.

Corbin

Strauss

(2014). Basics of qualitative research: Techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory. Sage.

10.

Dillman

D. A.

(1978). Mail and telephone surveys: The total design method (Vol. 19). Wiley.

11.

Dodgson

(1993). Organizational learning: A review of some literatures. Organization Studies, 14(3), 375–394.

12.

Fiedler

(2011, November 3). What happens when a community loses its newspaper? CommonWealth. https://commonwealthbeacon.org/arts-and-culture/003-what-happens-when-a-community-loses-its-newspaper/

13.

Fiol

C. M.

Lyles

M. A.

(1985). Organizational learning. Academy of Management Review, 10(4), 803–813.

14.

Gerson

Chen

N. T. N.

Wenzel

Ball-Rokeach

Parks

(2016). From Audience to Reporter: Recruiting and training community members at a participatory news site serving a multiethnic city. Journalism Practice, 11(2–3), 336–354. https://doi.org/10.1080/17512786.2016.1216800

15.

Howley

(2005). Community media—People, places, and communication technologies. Cambridge University Press.

16.

Huber

G. P.

(1991). Organizational learning: The contributing processes and the literatures. Organization Science, 2(1), 88–115.

17.

Karlekar

K. D.

Radsch

(2012). Adapting concepts of media freedom to a changing media environment: Incorporating new media and citizen journalism into the Freedom of the Press Index. ESSACHESS Journal for Communication Studies, 5(1), 13–22.

18.

Kim

D. H.

(1997). The link between individual and organizational learning. In Klein

D. A.

(Eds.), The strategic management of intellectual capital (pp. 41–62). Academic Press.

19.

Kiowa County Media Center. (2021, Nov. 17). About. https://www.kwksmedia.org/about

20.

Levitt

March

J. G

. (1988). Organizational learning. Annual Review of Sociology, 14(1), 319–338.

21.

Mathews

(2022). Life in a news desert: The perceived impact of a newspaper closure on community members. Journalism, 23(6), 1250–1265.

22.

Mwangi

Smethers

Bressers

(2014). If you build it, will they come? An exploratory study of community reactions to an open-source media project in Greensburg, Kansas. Community Journalism, 3(1), 72–86.

23.

Mwangi

S. C.

Bressers

Smethers

(2018). Applying the leadership traits approach to volunteer-based community media. Online Journal of Communication and Media Technologies, 8(1)

24.

Robinson

(2018). A racial reckoning of a progressive ideology in public discourse. International Journal of Communication, 12, 19.

25.

Rothenbuhler

E. W.

Mullen

L. J.

DeLaurell

Ryu

C. R.

(1996). Communication, community attachment, and involvement. Journalism and Mass Communications Quarterly, 73, 445–466.

26.

Senge

P. M.

(1990). The fifth discipline: The art and practice of the learning organization. Broadway Business.

27.

Smethers

J. S.

Bressers

Mwangi

S. C.

(2017). Friendships sustain volunteer newspaper for 21 years. Newspaper Research Journal, 38(3), 379–391.

28.

Stamm

K. R.

(1985). Newspaper use and community ties: Toward a dynamic theory. Ablex.

29.

Stites

(2011, December 8). Layoffs and cutbacks lead to a new world of news deserts. Nieman Lab. http://www.niemanlab.org/2011/12/tom-stites-layoffs-and-cutbacks-lead-to-a-new-world-of-news-deserts/

30.

Tacchi

. (2003). Promise of citizens' media: Lessons from community radio in Australia and South Africa. Economic and Political Weekly, 2183–2187.

31.

Tse

A. C.

(1998). Comparing response rate, response speed and response quality of two methods of sending questionnaires: E-mail vs. mail. International Journal of Market Research, 40(4), 1–12.

32.

Weber

M. S.

Mathews

(2024). Explicating local: An audience-based framing of local community and local news. Digital Journalism, 12(1), 28–47. https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2022.2142629

33.

Weick

K. E.

(1991). The nontraditional quality of organizational learning. Organization Science, 2(1), 116–124.

34.

Wenzel

A. D.

Crittenden

(2021). Reimagining local journalism: A community-centered Intervention. Journalism Studies, 22(15), 2023–2041. https://doi.org/10.1080/1461670X.2021.1942148

Open-source media project: Community attitudes after 5-year organizational evolution

Abstract

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References