Thursday, December 4, 2008

Vote on name

We've had some wonderful discussion on the name voting. Thank you for all of your comments.
Here are some early results on name voting, which include responses emailed just to me and responses replied to the entire list. We still have about 4-5 ballots outstanding.
Journalism Modifier:
Interactive=1
Multimedia=2
Convergent/ce=4
Integrated=4
Innovative/Innovation=13
Journal/Review/Research/No accompaniment
Review=1
Research=4
None=5
Journal=15
--------------------------------------
I'll wait another day before sending an email out with final results. Here are my initial thoughts:
--while we have a lot of divergent views, it seems like some form of Innovation/Innovative has bubbled up to the top. And, my sense is that as the discussions have flourished, some of those originally wanting convergence or integrated seemed amenable to some form of Innovation.
Because there is a blog and domain name: http://www.innovationjournalism.org
my first instinct would be to go with "Journalism Innovation" in the title, reversing the name to reduce confusion and allow for the www.journalisminnovation.org domain name. Thoughts?
As for me, you might remember I tentatively gave the beast the title of Journal of Convergent Journalism months ago. While I like Convergent--and Multimedia and Integrated also have strong appeal--Innovation is sounding pretty good.
--The vast majority wanted either Research or Journalism in the title, with most preferring the latter. But, those concerned about including such a title--especially for P&T reasons--might be OK with including the Journal moniker in a subhead.
I'll wait to get some of the final votes in and then we'll probably do a quick runoff, most likely deciding on
--the form of innovation/innovative
--order (innovative/innovation before or after Journalism)
--whether to put Journal in the title or subhead.
Thanks again for such vigorous, and yet awfully polite debate.
Bob

3 comments:

R2Mercer said...

It sounds like high school speech and debate, but I ran all the suggested names through the online dictionary just to try them on for size.

Of course my wife, the former state editor, projecting into the future, says what we are doing is just Journalism.

The industry has always required constant innovation using converging multimedia. Text with photos, sound with video. So...we are not really doing anything new. We are just continuing the same old exploration of technology, but at a much faster pace.

Meanwhile, here's those definitions:

in⋅te⋅grat⋅ed   [in-ti-grey-tid] Show IPA Pronunciation
–adjective
1. combining or coordinating separate elements so as to provide a harmonious, interrelated whole: an integrated plot; an integrated course of study.
2. organized or structured so that constituent units function cooperatively: an integrated economy.
3. having, including, or serving members of different racial, religious, and ethnic groups as equals: an integrated school. Compare segregated.
4. Sociology. of or pertaining to a group or society whose members interact on the basis of commonly held norms or values.
5. Psychology. characterized by integration.


in⋅no⋅va⋅tion   [in-uh-vey-shuhn] Show IPA Pronunciation
–noun
1. something new or different introduced: numerous innovations in the high-school curriculum.
2. the act of innovating; introduction of new things or methods.


in⋅no⋅va⋅tive   [in-uh-vey-tiv] Show IPA Pronunciation
–adjective
tending to innovate or characterized by innovation.
Origin:
1600–10; innovate + -ive


in⋅ter⋅ac⋅tive   [in-ter-ak-tiv] Show IPA Pronunciation
–adjective
1. acting one upon or with the other.
2. of or pertaining to a two-way system of electronic communications, as by means of television or computer: interactive communications between families using two-way cable television.
3. (of a computer program or system) interacting with a human user, often in a conversational way, to obtain data or commands and to give immediate results or updated information: For many years airline reservations have been handled by interactive computer systems.


mul⋅ti⋅me⋅di⋅a   [muhl-tee-mee-dee-uh, muhl-tahy-] Show IPA Pronunciation
–noun (used with a singular verb)
1. the combined use of several media, as sound and full-motion video in computer applications.
–adjective
2. of, pertaining to, or involving the use of multimedia.
3. having or offering the use of various communications or promotional media: a multimedia corporation that owns TV stations and newspapers.


con⋅verge   [kuhn-vurj] Show IPA Pronunciation
verb, -verged, -verg⋅ing.
–verb (used without object)
1. to tend to meet in a point or line; incline toward each other, as lines that are not parallel.
2. to tend to a common result, conclusion, etc.
3. Mathematics.
a. (of a sequence) to have values eventually arbitrarily close to some number; to have a finite limit.
b. (of an infinite series) to have a finite sum; to have a sequence of partial sums that converges.
c. (of an improper integral) to have a finite value.
d. (of a net) to be residually in every neighborhood of some point.
–verb (used with object)
4. to cause to converge.


con⋅ver⋅gent   [kuhn-vur-juhnt] Show IPA Pronunciation
–adjective
characterized by convergence; tending to come together; merging.


con⋅ver⋅gence   [kuhn-vur-juhns] Show IPA Pronunciation
–noun
1. an act or instance of converging.
2. a convergent state or quality.
3. the degree or point at which lines, objects, etc., converge.
4. Ophthalmology. a coordinated turning of the eyes to bear upon a near point.
5. Physics.
a. the contraction of a vector field.
b. a measure of this.
6. Meteorology. a net flow of air into a given region. Compare divergence (def. 2).
7. Biology. similarity of form or structure caused by environment rather than heredity.

Ralph Braseth said...

I believe a run-off might be a good idea. I think other folks have shown their idea to be better than mine. I'm going to change my vote I think.

Ralph Braseth

Mindy McAdams said...

Well-known scholarly journals include Journalism (Sage) and Journalism Studies (Routledge). I don't think the lack of the word "journal" hurts either of them at all.

I would like to argue strongly against the word "convergence" and all variations thereon. It is by now an old and creaky term, well past its shelf life, and indelibly associated with poor management decisions that have damaged many newspapers. (The only term more dated and quaint is "new media.")

We need a title that promises to remain flexible, unlike one containing a word such as "multimedia" or "multiplatform."

So, my votes:

1) Innovation

2) no additional name -- but Journal, if we must

3) Journalism Innovation -- or, Journal of Journalism Innovation