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Friday, November 11
1 4 : 3 0 – 1 6 : 0 0
IIC PS
Poster session
PS 072
How Does a Multilingual and Volunteer-Based Online MagazineWork? The Case of Cafébabel
L. Ahva
1
1
University of Tampere, School of Communication- Media and Theatre, Tampereen yliopisto, Finland
A lot of journalistic work is currently being done in a sporadic, participatory and part-time fashion. Journalistic platforms emerge and dissolve rapidly. Is
it even possible to practice non-institutional and networked journalism in a durable manner? To understand the dynamics of sustainability, it is fruitful to
focus on such journalistic endeavors that have been able to consolidate their practices and evolve into viable journalistic organizations but that are not yet
considered as mainstream. This paper will focus on one such case, Cafébabel
(http://www.cafebabel.co.uk/), which is a European online magazine turning
15 this year. It is a multilingual and participatory publication run by a small editorial staff and a vast network of volunteer contributors – journalism is
thus mostly practiced ‘elsewhere’of the newsroom. The Cafébabel initiative arises from the idea of generating a youthful European public sphere, a forum
where Europe could be comprehended and discussed through the everyday angles and the viewpoints of young Europeans, the ‘eurogeneration’. Cafébabel
has its headquarters in Paris, France, where a team of 12 salaried staff members manage the background association as well as coordinate the publication
of articles in the magazine, which has six language versions. The material to the magazine is provided by altogether 20 local city teams across Europe as
well as individual volunteers. It is estimated that about 3 000 articles are published each year, which means that 1 500 volunteer authors, photographers,
illustrators and translators take part in the journalistic practice of Cafébabel yearly. The organization is nonprofit, funded by the EU bodies as well as private
foundations. Cafébabel has slowly been stabilized and recognized – the publication has been awarded by the European Press Club, for example. What are
the underlying practices that make networked journalism possible at Cafébabel? This presentation is based on 14 individual interviews and a collection
of 10 written ‘practice stories’by the members of the practice community – editors, managers and volunteers – of Cafébabel. Additionally, it will draw on
observations and photographs from the central editorial office in Paris as well as the hub of the city team in Brussels. By drawing on practice theory (Schatzki
et al. 2001), the material is deconstructed into the basic elements of practice: activities, material objects and meanings (Shove et al. 2012). In other words,
the analysis asks: what is done by editors and volunteers; what objects are being used; and what meanings are attached to this way of practicing journalism
at Cafébabel? The paper concludes that emotional labour, online tools, project mentality, mobility and questions of ownership make up the nodes around
which journalistic practice becomes possible, but also constantly challenged. References: Schatzki, Theodore S., Karin Knorr Cetina, and Eike von Savigny
(eds.) 2001. The Practice Turn in Contemporary Theory, 50–63. London: Routledge. Shove, Elizabeth, Mika Pantzar, and Matt Wattson. 2012. The Dynamics
of Social Practice: Everyday Life and how it Changes. Los Angeles: Sage.
PS 073
Aspects of Mobile News Production
G. Drula
1
1
University of Bucharest, of Journalism, Bucharest, Romania
Mobile technology brings changes in news publishing and in gathering information, but also in the users' preferences. Users interact differently with the in‑
formation from mobile devices, and access them more frequently. Mobile journalism as main trend in the recent journalism refers to the journalists' work,
and to the stages of the news production process. In the production process of mobile news, journalists manage the content and the structure of the news.
Production process of mobile news is related to actors that participate to this process (both journalists, and users), and to the online media product.The mo‑
bile news site, as result of news production process, is characterized by many aspects. This study shows the particularities of news production for mobile
devices depending on different features of mobile news sites. This study analyzes the mobile news production in the case of 29 mobile sites in the Roma‑
nian online media (all mobile news sites). The mobile sites are grouped according to the main subject of the site, and also to the type of media channel.
The mobile sites groups help to analyze the relation between the news production and categories of sites. Unlike the approaches taken by other authors
mentioned above, which showing insight into the production of mobile news from the perspective of journalists or users, this paper shows the particulari‑
ties of the production of mobile news, referring to the media product that is the mobile site and its features. To determine the specifics of news production
for mobile devices are applied a methodological framework that consists of the content analysis method and the correlation method of analysis. As research
object is considered the mobile news site in Romanian virtual space. In the content analysis method, the coding scheme identifies values for the variable
that characterize the mobile sites and influence the production process of news. Features are related to type of multimedia content (topics and format),
layout & design of the user interface, interactivity, forms of user participation, and structure. All data collected are analyzed through the correlation method
of analysis. The conclusions show good practices and demonstrate the specificity and particularities of the process of news production in connection with
their distribution on different mobile news sites. Thus, findings show that the most important features of a mobile news site used to increase the number
of visitors are the number of news items on the homepage and the way of reading the news, especially using a mobile application. Also, it was noticed that
there are several differences noted for the production of news for TV sites or online publications. Also, the use of mobile applications can assure the users'
fidelity towards the news sites on mobile devices. This aspect is related to the fact that mobile news is preferred to be accessed in a personalized way.