News Audience Research Paper Award Description. In an effort to encourage more research and discussion on the audience for news, AEJMC President Paula Poindexter has created the News Audience Research Paper Award to be presented at the 2014 AEJMC conference in Montreal. Accepted AEJMC papers that have researched some aspect of the news audience are automatically eligible to be reviewed by a specially appointed committee for this new award. Cash prizes in the amount of $500, $300, and $100 will be given to the first, second, and third place winners at the AEJMC business meeting. There is no separate submission process for this award. Papers on this topic should be submitted to whatever division or interest group is the best fit for the paper. After the review process has been completed by each group, accepted papers will then go through a separate review process for this award.
Eligibility. Research papers eligible for this award should use audience-focused methodologies to provide insight about news audience engagement, attitudes, uses and gratifications, avoidances, socialization, etc. They may focus on news audiences in general, news audiences by platform, content or mobile device, news audiences defined by race, ethnicity, gender, generation, ideology, or other social characteristic. Audience-focused research methods include but are not limited to surveys, secondary analysis, focus groups, depth interviews, experiments, and participant observation. New models and theories to provide insight into the audience for news are encouraged. Although not required, authors are urged to include “news audience” in their conference paper key words to make accepted AEJMC papers easier to identify for peer review. Poindexter will work with the AEJMC executive director, the head of the Council of Divisions, and research chairs of all divisions, interest groups, and commissions to ensure that accepted papers on the news audience are reviewed for the News Audience Research Paper Award.
Background. This new AEJMC award complements Poindexter’s presidential initiative on future news audience engagement that includes the creation of the inaugural National News Engagement Day to be held Tuesday, October 7, 2014. The award will also help strengthen one component of AEJMC’s mission: contributing to an informed society. The most recent Pew Research Center biennial news consumption survey is a reminder of why the time is right for an award that puts the focus on the audience for news. The report called 29% of young people “newsless,” because on a typical day they did not get news from traditional news platforms, cell phones or social networks. Poindexter’s book Millennials, News, and Social Media: Is News Engagement a Thing of the Past? found evidence that news engagement may be endangered. The majority of both Baby Boomers and Millennials did not find keeping up with news enjoyable and they did not depend on news to help with daily life.
Questions about the News Audience Research Paper Award can be directed to Paula Poindexter at paula.poindexter@austin.utexas.edu.