Journalists, media executives and academics from North America, South America, Asia, Africa, and Europe will take part in the 12th International Symposium on Online Journalism (ISOJ), April 1–2, 2011, at the University of Texas at Austin.

The annual event has been organized since 1999 by Professor Rosental C. Alves, the Knight Chair in International Journalism and director of the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas at UT Austin.

The ISOJ will feature keynote addresses from executives of NPR, CNN.com, and Patch Media, and panel presentations from members of leading media organizations, including BBC News, The Daily, The New York Times, Washington Post, and Mexico’s Grupo Reforma.

Presentations will focus on many aspects of online journalism, including innovations in the industry, economic models, technology and design, social media, nonprofit journalism models, and community engagement with the news.

Other panels will focus on academic research, featuring professors and graduate students. The ISOJ generated a record 50 submissions of academic papers from a variety of universities and countries. Twenty-two academic papers were accepted for presentation, confirming the growth of ISOJ’s reputation as a world-class conference.

The ISOJ receives generous support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, The Dallas Morning News, and UT’s College of Communication. It is a program of the Knight Chair in Journalism, the UNESCO Chair in Communication at the University of Texas at Austin, and the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas at the University of Texas at Austin.

“We have a great lineup of first-class speakers from around the country and around the world who will touch on some of the most important issues related to the evolution of journalism in this digital era,” Alves says.
“We will learn from diverse topics such as the project to transform NPR from a radio network into a digital, multimedia enterprise and how the first newspaper produced for the iPad has been designed. We’ll learn about the global operations of CNN.com and the local efforts of Patch Media and other companies.”

A live stream of the event will be accessible from the Symposium website.

Registration is now available online at http://online.journalism.utexas.edu.

The ISOJ will begin Friday, April 1, with a keynote address by Vivian Schiller, president and CEO of NPR. The keynote speaker Friday afternoon is Meredith Artley, vice president and managing editor of CNN.com.

Panels on Friday dealing with the industry perspective will examine “Paywalls: Charging for news content. Does it work?” “Designing for iPad and other mobile devices.” Research panels Friday will cover “Examining news innovations” and “All about the Tweet and More.”

On Saturday, April 2, the morning keynote speaker is author and consultant Madanmohan Rao, of Bangalore, India. In the afternoon, Warren Webster, president of Patch Media, will deliver the keynote address.

Panels on Saturday featuring industry members will explore “Nonprofit journalism online: Is the model sustainable?” and “Engaging the communities with the news.” Research panels Saturday are “Nuts and Bolts of Online Journalism” and “Beyond the Conversation, Beyond Engagement.

For academic researchers, the ISOJ has become one of the most competitive and prestigious international conferences in the field of online journalism. The submissions are selected in a blind review process by judges from different universities and countries.

Scholars who will present their research come from 19 universities in Canada, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and the United States. One of the 22 papers will be recognized as the top research paper.
See more information about the academic papers here.

Abstracts of the papers are located here.

Full papers will be available for download on the website beginning April 1.

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12th International Symposium
on Online Journalism

A program of the Knight Chair in Journalism,
the UNESCO Chair in Communication
and the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas
at The University of Texas at Austin
April 1-2, 2011

Activities will take place at the ATT Executive Education & Conference Center (1900 University Ave. Online registration at http://online.journalism.utexas.edu.
Thanks to the generous support of John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, The Dallas Morning News and UT College of Communication

FRIDAY, APRIL 1

7:30–8:30 a.m. Registration and breakfast

8:30–8:45 a.m. Opening Session
• Rosental Calmon Alves, Knight Chair in Journalism and UNESCO Chair in Communication, School of Journalism, UT Austin – Symposium Chair
• Glenn Frankel, director, UT School of Journalism
• Amy Schmitz Weiss, assistant professor, San Diego State University – Symposium Research Chair

8:45–9:30 a.m. Keynote Address: Make New Friends but Keep the Old: How NPR is Growing Audiences and Engagement in Digital News.
Vivian Schiller, president and CEO, NPR

9:30–10:45 a.m. Paywalls: Charging for news content. Does it work?
Chair: Tim Lott, vice president/audience strategy, The Austin American Statesman
• Jim Gerber, director of content partnerships, Google
• Mark Medici, director of audience development, The Dallas Morning News
• Jorge Meléndez, new media director, Grupo Reforma, Mexico
• Eivind Thomsen, Schibsted Media Group, Norway

10:45–11:00 a.m. Coffee Break

11:00–¬12:15 p.m. Designing for iPad and other mobile devices:
Chair: Renita Coleman, UT School of Journalism
• Paul Brannan, emerging platforms editor, BBC News
• Filipe Fortes, Chief Technology Officer, Treesaver
• John Kilpatrick, executive creative director, The Daily
12:15–1:30 p.m. Lunch at Tejas

1:30—2:00 p.m. Keynote Address: Beyond breaking news
• Meredith Artley, vice president and managing editor, CNN.com

2:00–3:30 p.m. Research Panel: Examining news innovations
Chair: Amy Schmitz Weiss, San Diego State University (Symposium research chair)
• Tanja Aitamurto, University of Tampere, Finland, and Seth Lewis, University of Minnesota
• Jake Batsell, Southern Methodist University
• Mark Berkey-Gerard, Rowan University
• Timothy Currie, University of King’s College
• Carla Patrao and Antonio Dias Figueiredo, University of Coimbra, Portugal
• Nikki Usher, University of Southern California, Annenberg School for Communication

3:30–3:45 p.m. Coffee Break

3:45–5:15 p.m. Research Panel: All about the Tweet and more
Chair: Cindy Royal, Texas State University
• Dale Blasingame, Texas State University, San Marcos
• Carrie Brown, University of Memphis, and others
• Marcus Messner, Virginia Commonwealth University, and others
• Elvira García de Torres (Universidad CEU Cardenal Herrera, Spain) and others

SATURDAY, APRIL 2

9:00–9:30 a.m.
Keynote Address: "Redefining Asia, Redefining Media"
• Madanmohan Rao, editor of The Asia Pacific Internet Handbook, India

9:30—10:45 a.m. Nonprofit journalism online: Is the model sustainable?
Chair: Paula Poindexter, University of Texas at Austin
• Lisa Frazier, President & CEO, The Bay Citizen
• Gustavo Gorriti, founder director, IDL-Reporteros, Peru
• John Thornton, chairman of the board, Texas Tribune

10:45–11:00 a.m. Coffee Break

11:00 a.m.–12:30 p.m. Research Panel: Beyond news routines, Beyond news consumption
Chair: Tom Johnson, University of Texas at Austin
• Hsiang Iris Chyi and Monica Chadha, University of Texas at Austin
• Ahmed El Gody, Orebro University, Sweden
• Angela Lee, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania
• Ingrid Bachmann and Summer Harlow, University of Texas at Austin
• Jonathan Groves, Drury University, and Carrie Brown, University of Memphis
• Brian Baresch, University of Texas at Austin, and others

12:30 – 1:30 p.m. Lunch at Tejas

1:30—2:00 pm Keynote address: Building a Platform for Neighborhood News and Information
Warren Webster, president of Patch Media

2:00 – 3:30 p.m. Engaging communities with the news
Chair: Jim Brady, consultant (former editor of TBD.com and WashingtonPost.com)
• Espen Egil Hansen, editor in chief, VG Multimedia, Norway
• Mitch Gelman, vice president, Clarity Digital Media - Examiner.com,
• Jennifer Preston, staff writer (former social media editor), The New York Times
• Amanda Zamora, social media and engagement editor, The Washington Post

3:30–3:45 p.m. Coffee Break

3:45–5:30 p.m. Research Panel: Beyond the conversation, Beyond engagement
Chair: Chris Kabwato, School of Journalism and Media Studies, Rhodes University, South Africa.
• C.W. Anderson, College of Staten Island (CUNY)
• Alfred Hermida, UBC Grad. School of Journalism (Canada), and others
• William Moner, University of Texas at Austin
• Seth Lewis, University of Minnesota
• Juliana Colussi Ribeiro, Complutense University of Madrid
• Larissa Williams, University of Texas at Austin, and others