More than 200 journalists, media executives and academics from throughout the world participated in the 12th International Symposium on Online Journalism (ISOJ) April 1–2, 2011, at the University of Texas at Austin. Participants from North America, South America, Asia, Africa and Europe discussed successes and challenges in using digital technology to cover news and engage audiences while sustaining online news operations.

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

The symposium began Friday with the announcement by Alves and symposium research chair Amy Schmitz Weiss that ISOJ has launched an academic journal, #ISOJ, which is published as an ebook that is accessible here in several formats.

“The ISOJ has evolved throughout the years. First it became international. Then we added a research component so the new journal #ISOJ is a natural continuation of that evolution,” Alves said.

“The research this year was extremely high caliber and reflected global perspectives on online journalism,” said Schmitz Weiss, assistant professor at the School of Journalism & Media Studies at San Diego State University. “The 20 papers presented this year were selected from 50 papers—a record for the ISOJ.”

For a chronological summary of the ISOJ panels, see this Knight Center News story.