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Community Journalism
Community journalism is locally oriented, professional news coverage that typically focuses on city neighborhoods, individual suburbs or small towns, rather than metropolitan, state, national or world news. If it covers wider topics, community journalism concentrates on the effect they have on local readers. Community newspapers, often but not always publish weekly, and also tend to cover subjects larger news media do not. Some examples of topics are students on the honor roll at the local high school, school sports, crimes such as vandalism, zoning issues and other details of community life. Sometimes dismissed as "chicken dinner" stories, such "hyper local" coverage often plays a vital role in building and maintaining neighborhoods. Leo Lerner, founder of Chicago's erstwhile Lerner Newspapers, used to say, "A fistfight on Clark Street is more important to our readers than a war in Europe." An increasing number of community newspapers are now owned by large media organizations, although many rural papers are still "mom and pop" operations. Community journalists are typically trained professional reporters and editors. Some specialized training programs have recently emerged at established undergraduate and graduate journalism programs. Community journalism should not be confused with the work of citizen journalists, who are often unpaid amateurs, or with civic journalism, although many community newspapers practice that. At the Emerging Mind of Community Journalism conference, participants created a list characterizing community journalism: community journalism is intimate, caring, and personal; it reflects the community and tells its stories; and it embraces a leadership role. If you want more of a definition, Im afraid its like when someone asked Louie Armstrong for a definition of jazz. The great Satchmo is reputed to have replied something like this: Man, if you have to ask, it wont do me any good to try to explain. You know community journalism when you see it; it is the heartbeat of American journalism, journalism in its natural state. Jock Lauterer

Community journalism in US
In the United States, about 97% of newspapers are classified as "community newspapers, with circulation below 50,000. Their combined circulation, nearly 109 million, is triple that of the combined circulation of the country's large daily newspapers. As of 1995, there was the following community papers: 124 Alternatives, 192 Black, 160 Ethnic, 43 Gay and Lesbian, 132 Hispanic 106 Jewish, 134 Military, 155 Parenting, 128 Religious, 132 Senior citizens

History:
Community journalism got its name from a Montana editor, Ken Byerly, while he was a professor of journalism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 1957-71. Although the term is relatively new, Community journalism has been around since the founding fathers. He gave it its name because the concept had been referred to as Hometown Newspapers, which didnt fit the suburban newspapers in that time. He chose community journalism because it fit both the weeklies and small dailies of the day.

Issue of acceptability and debate in journalistic circles:

Not everyone agrees on the implementation of community journalism into the news system. Traditionally, journalists advocate avoiding any real or perceived conflict of interests, which can

be anything from refraining from joining community groups, to not pledging money to a candidate they support. Community journalism, however, encourages the coverage of news that hits close to home, even for the journalist covering the story. Some philosophers encourage professional journalists to remain independent, whereas others insist on committing to local and generalized communities as a prerequisite for true citizenship. Some say community involvement is fine for editors and publishers, but not for the reporters who have the ability to shape the news. Critics say this involvement is a risk for anyone involved in producing the news. Clifford Christians, co-author of Good News Social Ethics and the Press, urges journalists to realize that their publics may gravitate toward self-interest, and therefore the journalists should report stories that lessen the isolationism that comes from reading wider, world-based stories. A fundamental flaw in community journalism is the stubborn resistance to change and a compulsion to shape the system to maintain community standards. Loyalty to a community is the inevitable price of acceptance, and the fee is creating sharp conflicts with allegiance to the truth. Through community journalism, attitudes about necessary information change from the need for a broad range of information (pluralism) to a reliance on information necessary to maintain community values and fortify the status quo (reinforcement). Sooner or later group importance could transcend the value of distributing accurate information both internally to members of the group, and externally about the community or group. Others think the switch toward community journalism is a natural reaction to our out-of-touch mega media. J. Herbert Altschull, writer of "A Crisis of Conscience: Is Community Journalism the Answer?" sees community journalism as a natural outgrowth from concerns of the medias slippage in credibility and influence.

Community Journalism in Pakistan:

Newsletters, Periodicals, Bulletins, Farmers papers, Fashion Magazines, Kitchen magazines Women magazines, Children Magazines Phool aur Kaliyan (Nawa-i-Waqt Group), Kids etc

Scope in Pakistan:
Women, rural life, children and other communities are largely ignored in the coverage of national press, this fact creates a vast scope for the community journalism in Pakistan to address and cover those sections which are traditionally ignored by the mainstream media due to constraints of time and space.

Opportunity to become media entrepreneurs for journalism graduates:

With little investment media graduates can become media entrepreneurs in Pakistan by launching their own community newspaper for their hometown. It will also add to their name and image at their native places besides giving them financial sound footing.