Who really runs your city? A Richmond Times-Dispatch investigative report used social network analysis software -- as well as more than 50 interviews -- to try to answer that question.

The special nature of the "They Run Richmond" news report required a sidebar on sidebar explaining the techniques used. The results included nine stories focused on Richmond's small, tightly knit group of leaders, including one that concludes that minority influence is not real power, and -- in the paper's online edition, a multimedia map (see note below) of the city's power network.

The reporters collected information about community leaders' participation in arts organizations, civic groups and corporate board memberships, as well as a database of local political campaign contributions.

Aaron Kessler, a freelance investigative reporter, used the paper's data and software called UCINET to generate the social network graphic, which, one story notes, looks "something like a collection of spider webs or a smashed windshield."


10:29:30 PM  #  

The Newspaper Division of AEJMC has chosen its officers for the coming year, with
Wilson Lowrey of the Deptartment of Journalism at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa stepping up to division head from his previous position as vice head and program chairman.

Kathleen Wickham of the Department of Journalism, University of Mississippi, was named new vice head and program chair to succeed him. Lowrey follows outgoing division head Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez of the University of Texas, Austin.

The other incoming officers, chosen at the AEJMC 2005 Convention in San Antonio last week, make a nearly-complete Southern State sweep of the division leadership:

• Professional Freedom and Responsibility Chair Lorraine E. Branham, director, School of Journalism University of Texas at Austin; PF&R Co-chair Erna Smith, Department of Journalism, San Francisco State University.
  
  
• Research Chair Frank Fee, School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Research Co-chair Dan Shaver, Nicholson School of Communication, University of Central Florida, Orlando.
  
  
• Teaching Standards Chair Laura Castaneda, School of Journalism, USC Annenburg, Los Angeles; Teaching Standards Co-chair Ann Auman, School of Communications, University of Hawaii at Manoa.

Continuing in their roles from the past year are the division's webmaster, Bob Stepno of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and "Leadtime" newsletter editor Steve Collins, Nicholson School of Communication, University of Central Florida, Orlando.

Contact information for individual officers has been added to the division home page.

7:01:22 PM  #