Introducing the Open Journal of Citizen Media!

Hi, dear community,
First of all, thank you so much for all your suggestions and votes that helped us choose the journal’s name!
And the winner is…
Open Journal of Citizen Media!
The original suggestion, by Solana, won with 33 votes. We decided to incorporate the word Open, contained in Luis Henrique’s second most voted suggestion (23 votes), to emphasize the journal’s innovative and accessible approach. What do you guys think? 🙂
Janet raised an interesting question about the name in the comments section:
“I like the simplicity too – just that citizen media has been around since there was cavepainting. Assuming our concern is online? Perhaps worth incorporating? But anyways I don’t have a simple solution, sorry”
Elisa and I discussed this and we came to the conclusion that we can leave this open, as the emphasis wouldn’t be necessarily online citizen media. Due to developments in the field, most articles would focus on online forms of citizen media, but we’d like to think that projects that fit the description of citizen media by Clemencia Rodriguez would be welcome too:

“Referring to ‘citizens’ media’ implies first that a collectivity is enacting its citizenship by actively intervening and transforming the established mediascape; second, that these media are contesting social codes, legitimized identities, and institutionalized social relations; and third, that these communication practices are empowering the community involved, to the point where these transformations and changes are possible.” (Rodriguez, 2001, p. 20)

So, offline projects or online-offline initiatives would be welcome too. We’ll try to make this clear in the call for papers and on the site, so thanks for raising this, Janet!
Thanks to Jeremy, the website is in the works right now and we are looking for people who would like to work on its layout. If webdesign is your thing and you’d like to help, just let us know!
We hope to have more news for you soon!
Feel free to write to us with any feedback, ideas and constructive criticism 🙂
Hugs,
Débora and Elisa

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