Unveiling the Effects of Citizen Journalism Practice on College Students’ Social Capital

Abstract

This study examined the effects of citizen journalism practices on social capital concerning nonprofit and voluntary organizations (i.e., satisfaction, trust, and engagement). Through a quasi-experimental design, the analyses revealed that students in the treatment group, in which participants engaged in citizen journalism practice, had greater positive changes in levels of satisfaction, trust, and engagement than students in the control group. This study offers unique contributions to the existing body of social capital scholarship and practical implications related to the use of citizen journalism as a civic education tool in school and community settings.

Keywords

citizen journalism civic education quasi-experimental design social capital

Despite long-standing criticisms of journalism,¹ a substantial body of scholarship has examined how journalism and news use positively contribute to community, citizenship, and civil society.² Specifically, recent scholarship sheds light on how traditional news media and the Internet enhance levels of social capital, such as civic participation.³ With emerging digital communication technologies, this line of inquiry has paid considerable attention to user-generated content and citizen journalism.⁴

However, citizen journalism research⁵ has paid little attention to how the experience and practice of citizen journalism can enhance social capital and citizenship among citizens, especially college students. Given the declining level of social capital on the part of younger generations,⁶ citizen journalism as a form of civic education has the potential to increase the levels of social capital and foster citizenship among college students. Therefore, this study implemented citizen journalism as a civic education tool in the college classroom and examines the effects of citizen journalism practice on college students’ social capital (composed of trust, satisfaction, and engagement) concerning the nonprofit and voluntary sector embedded in civil society.

In doing so, this study reveals that citizen journalism practice increased college students’ level of social capital concerning nonprofit and voluntary organizations. In turn, the study suggests that citizen journalism can serve as a civic education tool as well as a community storytelling network for youth and adults, fostering a healthier and stronger civil society to grow and develop in local communities.

Literature Review

Social Capital: Conceptual Definitions

Social capital has been defined according to components such as networks, resources, relationships, trust, reciprocity, norms, and civic engagement. The conceptual definition has varied widely across studies examining how social capital relates to many variables including age, education, media use, and political awareness.⁷ Definitions also vary systematically by specialty area, with some disciplines tending to measure social capital at the individual level and others using network-level measurement.⁸ Communication scholars have conceptualized social capital in terms of social relationships using such measures as neighborliness, residential stability, social support, context, network size, public attendance, and civic engagement.⁹

Coleman¹⁰ conceived of social capital as composed of various entities defined by their common function: to serve as resources for achieving desired outcomes. Given Putnam’s definition of social capital as features that allow for collective action, it seems prudent to conceptualize social capital as a multidimensional construct. Considering Coleman and Putnam’s conceptual definitions, social capital might be best conceptualized as a multifaceted concept with multiple dimensions and levels.

Shah, McLeod, and Yoon¹¹ used a multifaceted definition of social capital, which included individual-level variables, interpersonal trust, and civic participation. Scheufele and Shah¹² also used a multidimensional definition of social capital, measuring the construct with three dimensions: social trust, life satisfaction, and civic engagement. They found that personality strength was positively related to all three dimensions of social capital, providing support for the use of those dimensions to measure social capital. The definition of social capital for the current study draws on previous research, which identifies social capital as comprised of various components.¹³ Thus, we define social capital as a multidimensional construct that consists of satisfaction, trust, and engagement—cognitive and behavioral components of the aggregate social capital concept. Trust and satisfaction should increase civic participation, and civic engagement retrospectively has a positive impact on social trust among community members and satisfaction with one’s life.¹⁴ In other words, the reciprocal relationship between the cognitive and behavioral aspects of social capital forms a “virtuous circle.”¹⁵ Although the three dimensions reflect the social cohesion view or the communitarian perspective of social capital,¹⁶ the three-way relationship among satisfaction, trust, and engagement have been usually investigated with individual-level assessment.¹⁷ For example, Brehm and Rahn¹⁸ and Shah¹⁹ examined social capital with the individual-level assessments of satisfaction, trust, and participation, using national survey data, and found positive mutual relationships among the subconcepts of social capital.

Satisfaction, or life satisfaction, has been conceptualized in social capital studies as a person’s evaluation of his or her surroundings²⁰ and is an intrapersonal component of social capital. Evaluations can be positive or negative and measured by assessing agreement with statements about one’s general life contentment. Both general life satisfaction²¹ and issue-specific satisfaction²² have been explored in previous studies. Valenzuela et al. found that Internet, specifically Facebook, use was positively related to multiple dimensions of social capital including life satisfaction. Social trust is the second component of social capital. Some scholars have defined social trust as a state variable, subject to change across time.²³ Social trust is an interpersonal component of social capital that has to do with a person’s belief in the inherent goodness of others. Valenzuela and colleagues modified Rosenberg’s²⁴ Faith in People scale to measure social trust with items tapping into beliefs about people’s trustworthiness, fairness, helpfulness, and generosity. The final component of social capital in this study, engagement, is a behavioral component of social capital. Previous studies of social capital have measured engagement by focusing on civic engagement,²⁵ political engagement,²⁶ or some combination of the two.²⁷

Media Consumption, Production, and Social Capital

Many studies of social capital have focused on how media affect dimensions of social capital.²⁸ Such explorations have focused on a variety of media and motivations such as use of newspaper, television, and the Internet for informational and entertainment purposes.²⁹ Previous research provides evidence of a positive relationship between media use and social capital. Higher levels of traditional/nontraditional media use are related to higher levels of interest in and processing of news (i.e., political campaigns).³⁰ Similarly, use of news media is related to higher levels of civic participation,³¹ individual social capital,³² and online civic engagement.³³

Evidence shows that at least some aspects of media use enhance components of individual social capital. Emerging media technologies have also enabled ordinary citizens to contribute to news and democratic processes through citizen journalism. Citizen journalism practice is a “contribution to discussion in the public sphere, whether in the form of simple information, synthesis, reporting, or opinion. The contributions can range from very local to global, entering into the ‘conversation of democracy’ in media critic James Carey’s phrase” (p. 297).³⁴ The people who produce such content, citizen journalists, “can be individuals making a single contribution (a fact, correction, photo, etc.), bloggers, or professionals editing citizen content” (p. 297).³⁵ Likewise, citizen journalism in this study refers to activities in which those considered citizen journalists (based on the above definitions) contribute to democratic conversation through production/posting of blogs and news articles. Citizens with little or no professional journalism training/experience who participate in voluntary journalism practice for their communities are citizen journalists.

User-generated/controlled news content in particular has become a widespread phenomenon. As of 2006, there were more than five hundred U.S. community-based citizen journalism websites,³⁶ a number that has grown substantially in the past five years.³⁷ These citizen journalism websites provide a space for community members to express opinions, report on community events, and participate in community problem solving. Websites differ in the extent to which professionals edit, contribute to, and influence the news as well as the degree to which the sites use ratings.³⁸ However, what they all have in common is that they provide the means for dissemination of and involvement with user-generated content specific to a community.

With this new form of journalism comes analysis of its distinctions from professional journalism and its effects on traditional forms of journalism. Previous studies indicate that citizen journalists are more likely to include their opinions and use unofficial and traditional news media sources.³⁹ Citizen journalism content is also more likely to represent diverse opinions and perspectives compared with online newspaper content.⁴⁰ The perceived roles of citizen and professional journalists, and their relationships to aspects of social capital, also differ. Studies show that audiences (i.e., community news users) perceive professional journalists’ roles as more important across a variety of categories compared with those of citizen journalists. Studies also found differences in the relationships of citizen and professional journalists’ roles to aspects of social capital.⁴¹ Perceptions of greater importance of the disseminator, interpreter, and mobilizer roles of both citizen and professional journalists were related to higher levels of social trust on the part of news audiences. Other research studies have investigated the relationship between citizen journalism and aspects of social capital other than social trust.

With the advent of so many place-based citizen journalism websites come questions about their use and effects on components of social capital, such as network ties and civic participation. Studies have found that citizen journalism is revolutionizing the news process through changes to news flow and content, as well as goals and perspectives.⁴² Although some editors see journalism as the exclusive realm of professionals, others see citizen journalism as “a natural extension of traditional journalism” (p. 171)⁴³ and appreciate its ability to engage community members in local news processes. Similar advantages of citizen journalism as well as challenges for professional journalism have been reported by newspaper editors in the United Kingdom.⁴⁴

Motivations for and outcomes of user-generated content have also been examined. Motivations for user-generated content creation have been linked to political participation; extrinsic motivations for blogging contribute to greater online and offline political participation⁴⁵ for both adults and youths. Participation in online citizen journalism has been linked to greater feelings of connection to a person’s community, serving as a catalyst for greater participation in online and offline civic discussion/participation.⁴⁶ Use of user-generated content has also been positively related to online and offline political participation in other studies⁴⁷; one study found that trust enhanced the effects of citizen journalism on online political participation.⁴⁸

Civic Education and Student Engagement

A substantial body of scholarship has investigated the effects of social capital on a variety of educational outcomes including effort, truancy, and motivation. Studies of social capital and educational outcomes have found that social capital is positively related to educational achievement, educational attainment, and psychosocial factors.⁴⁹ Results of one study with young adults indicated that community service served to increase aspects of social capital such as feelings of connectedness, perceived importance of community service, and understanding of individuals from other ethnic groups.⁵⁰

Studies concerning civic education and student engagement have found that numerous factors, including leadership training, academic programs/experiences, and demographic features, influence college students’ civic values, self-efficacy, intentions, and behavior. As it relates to demographic factors, minority students have significantly higher civic values⁵¹ and are more likely to approve of citizen journalism compared with nonminority students.⁵² In a longitudinal study that further investigated differences among racial groups, Ishitani and McKitrick⁵³ found that Asian students’ civic engagement decreased after college, which was the opposite for African American students.

Academic experiences and training programs also seem to influence college students’ civic values and leadership. Engaging in courses and experiences that increase one’s exposure to various viewpoints and cultures predicts students’ civic values—as does participation in leadership training.⁵⁴ Dugan and Komives⁵⁵ similarly found that sociocultural conversations with peers were associated with leadership capabilities and that leadership training was associated with positive student outcomes. In particular, they found that short-term leadership programs were positively related to collaboration and moderate-length training programs were positively associated with citizenship among other outcomes. Long-term leadership training, however, was negatively associated with multiple leadership-relevant outcomes, such as consciousness of self, congruence, commitment, and controversy with civility. In addition, they found that leadership efficacy was a positive predictor of all leadership-relevant outcomes.

Given the aforementioned findings related to educational and leadership training programs, there is high potential for journalism education and training to increase outcomes such as leadership capabilities and civic values, intentions, and behavior. After a semester-long instructional program aimed at helping students understand the positive and negative aspects of civic journalism and traditional journalism, Anyaegbunam and Ryan⁵⁶ found that journalism students increased their attitudes toward objectivity (traditional journalism focus) while also increasing their attitudes toward interacting more with readers. At the end of the instructional experiment, almost 74 percent of students indicated that they were likely or very likely to engage in civic journalism after graduation.⁵⁷ In another article about journalism training techniques, Duncan and Newton⁵⁸ pondered how journalism educators prepare students for reporting in traumatic circumstances, which they refer to as “the death knock.” In particular, they discuss the importance of improving the self-efficacy of students as it relates to this type of reporting, which may be enhanced through role-play and observational learning. Scholars have indicated that there is much room for growth in the area of journalism education and training.⁵⁹ In particular, educators need to integrate theory and practice so that students can make connections between theory and application.⁶⁰ Novel, application-based approaches to journalism education and training are likely to increase students’ self-efficacy, attitudes toward civic values, and subsequent civic behavior.

Overall, studies that have examined effects of citizen journalism use have focused narrowly on political involvement. Many studies of social capital in educational settings have examined social capital as a predictor of learning outcomes, whereas studies of student development have examined various factors that influence civic values and behavior. Our study seeks to fill a gap in the citizen journalism literature by examining how citizen journalism practices, as a form of civic education, affect individual students’ social capital related to nonprofit/voluntary organizations in a local community context.

Hypotheses

Our hypotheses derive from connections between social capital, citizen journalism, and civic education literatures and serve to fill a gap related to effects of citizen journalism. Researchers have investigated various aspects of citizen journalism; however, we wanted to examine effects of citizen journalism on social capital as conceptually defined by satisfaction, trust, and engagement. In particular, we examined citizen journalism’s effect on issue-specific social capital related to nonprofit/voluntary organizations.

Nonprofit/voluntary organizations represent a unique sector that could benefit greatly from citizen journalism, as local nonprofit/voluntary organizations do not have as many resources as other organizations and receive low levels of traditional news media attention. To the extent that local nonprofit and voluntary organizations take advantage of alternative news media, such as citizen journalism and online networks, they can enhance social capital in communities.⁶¹ With that in mind, our study sought to investigate the effects of participation in citizen journalism on individual perceptions of social capital related to local nonprofit/voluntary organizations.

Citizen journalism practices can and have been used in learning environments to encourage student involvement in the learning process and with civic issues.⁶² We wanted to determine whether citizen journalism practices would increase college students’ social capital. We proposed that citizen journalism practices on the part of students would increase their social capital related to local nonprofit/voluntary organizations. Our hypotheses predicted that citizen journalism practices would increase each of the following aspects of issue-specific social capital: satisfaction, trust, and engagement. That is, participants in the citizen journalism practice (treatment) group would exhibit significantly greater positive changes in satisfaction (H1), trust (H2), and willingness to participate (H3) in nonprofit/voluntary organizations than participants in the control group.

Method

Design

We employed a pretest/posttest quasi-experimental nonequivalent groups design, which is less rigorous than an equivalent groups design with randomization⁶³ but is one of the most commonly used experimental designs in educational and community settings. The quasi-experimental design is appropriate in that it mirrors conditions under which the intervention could be implemented in college communication courses, which would occur at the course (not individual) level; thus, the quasi-experimental design has the advantage of strengthening the study’s external validity.

Pretest surveys occurred over a period of one week, after which an author informed treatment group participants about the intervention project assignments and gave students six weeks to complete the project. The project was composed of three assignments, including writing three campaign stories (i.e., one news article and two blog posts) about a local nonprofit organization to be posted to the local citizen journalism website. Participants in both groups took posttest surveys after the intervention ended. All study procedures took place over the course of approximately ten weeks.

Participants

We recruited participants in the Fall semester of 2012 from two upper-level undergraduate courses in an interdisciplinary department at a large southeastern university in a mid-size local community that offers a community communication and leadership development major. The courses were equivalent in terms of the types of students who would generally take the course. Neither course focused any of its content on citizen journalism or nonprofit organizations in particular. Therefore, the courses offered a unique research setting in which college students who do not have professional journalism education and training can practice citizen journalism concerning nonprofit and voluntary organizations in the local community. In contrast to traditional professional journalism, journalism practice by college students or citizen journalism can contribute to conversation of democracy by advocating for nonprofit and voluntary organizations that serve community interests and common good in the local community.

Procedures

All participants filled out pretest surveys about variables of interest including demographics, social capital, attitudes, and behavior. The control group did not receive any materials or additional interaction with the researchers during the six-week intervention period that began after the pretest. Six weeks after the pretest surveys were completed, the posttest survey was administered to both groups.

Intervention

The treatment group was invited to participate in a citizen journalism project. They were asked to imagine themselves as promoters of a local nonprofit organization with the goal of expressing to the public the importance of the particular nonprofit organization to the community. Participants completed three campaign stories (i.e., one news article and two blogs) about a local nonprofit organization for the local citizen journalism website. Students were instructed to interview at least one person (e.g., volunteer, employee, director, founder) and include at least one photo or video approved by someone at the organization. For each of the two blog posts, students were given specific prompts encouraging them to write about the organization’s contributions to the community (Blog 1) as well as the organization’s upcoming event(s) and how the community can get involved/contribute (Blog 2).

Measurement

Social capital

We conceptualized social capital for this study as a multifaceted concept with the three dimensions of satisfaction, trust, and engagement.⁶⁴ In the context of this study, we used an issue-specific conceptualization and operationalization of social capital as it relates to nonprofit and voluntary organizations. For the satisfaction dimension of social capital, we used one item to measure specific satisfaction with nonprofit organizations in the community (pretest: M = 4.89, SD = 1.11; posttest: M = 5.32, SD = 1.18) that was modified from a community satisfaction measure used in Dutta-Bergman’s⁶⁵ study and asked how satisfied the participant was with his or her community. The response scale ranged from very dissatisfied (1) to very satisfied (7).

For the trust dimension of social capital, we used a scale that measured trust in nonprofit organizations. We used a five-item scale adapted from Naskrent and Siebelt⁶⁶ to measure trust in nonprofit organizations with a response scale from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (7). Items asked whether the participant believes nonprofit organizations are competent, know their business, have the ability to achieve their goals, have the ability to keep their promises, and have the skills and qualifications to act reliably. The scale items asked about the two dimensions that the scale measures: willingness and ability of nonprofit organizations. Reliability for the scale was highly acceptable at both pretest (M = 5.26, SD = 0.92, α = .89) and posttest (M = 5.54, SD = 1.05, α = .92).

For the engagement aspect of social capital, we conceptualized the variable as contributions to nonprofit organizations, such as volunteering or donating, which were frequently used as indicators of civic participation in the nonprofit/voluntary sector.⁶⁷ We conceptualized volunteering/donations for this study as the degree to which an individual is willing to become involved with a local nonprofit organization. We measured willingness, or intention, rather than action itself because of the study’s short duration; we did not expect students to have acted on any changes they might have experienced in trust for and satisfaction with nonprofit/voluntary organizations.

We used three items to measure volunteering/donations. One of the items that we included in this scale was a modified item used in a study by Campbell and Kwak.⁶⁸ The first item asked about a participant’s willingness to work as a volunteer for a nonprofit organization in the upcoming year. The response scale ranged from not at all willing (1) to completely willing (7). The next question asked how many hours the participant would be willing to work for a nonprofit organization in the upcoming year on a scale from zero to one hundred hours. The last question asked how willing the participant would be to donate money or items to a nonprofit organization in the upcoming year. The response scale for this item also ranged from not at all willing (1) to completely willing (7). The overall scale was standardized due to the different measurement scales. The scale exhibited acceptable reliability at both pretest (M = −0.01, SD = 0.82, α = .73) and posttest (M = −0.02, SD = 0.83, α = .71). Pretest scores ranged from −2.11 to 1.61; posttest scores ranged from −2.53 to 1.52.

Statistical Analysis

This study employed a quasi-experimental design without random assignment to groups. A t test was used to compare demographics and pretest variable measures to assure that there were no differences between control and treatment groups at baseline.

The primary analysis examined the three major dimensions of social capital—satisfaction, trust, and engagement—after participants completed the intervention. Group differences in changes in primary outcomes were examined using ordinary least-squares analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). With this analysis, we were able to examine the treatment effect more conservatively and make up for some limitations of the quasi-experimental design.

In the ANCOVA, we included demographic and social situation variables as covariates. The control variables were selected based on their likelihood of influencing the dependent variables. Demographic variables have been associated with individual-level indicators of social capital to varying degrees.⁶⁹ Considering the characteristics of our participants, we included age and sex as demographic control variables. We also controlled for effects of participants’ social situations, such as community context (rural vs. urban) and personal involvement with nonprofit organizations. These types of variables have been associated with individual-level indicators of social capital.⁷⁰ All tests were nondirectional with a Type I error rate of 0.05.

Results

Participants Baseline Demographic Characteristics

Table 1 provides descriptive statistics for demographic variables and personal involvement in nonprofit/voluntary organizations (pretest) by group. Several demographic variables were measured, including sex, age, hometown (urban vs. rural), and personal involvement with nonprofit organizations. Sex, hometown, and personal involvement were all measured using categorical response scales. To measure age, participants typed in their exact age (interval-level response scale). About 52 percent of participants were female, with mean age of 21.52 (SD = 2.21) years (range 18–33 years). A majority of participants lived in urban areas (60.2 percent) and reported previous involvement with nonprofit/voluntary organizations (58.7 percent). Prior to testing our hypotheses, we examined whether there were significant differences between the two groups at baseline. Tables 1 and 2 show that there were no significant differences between groups on demographic, community context, personal involvement, or the three social capital variables at baseline (p ≥ .20 for all variables).

Table 1.

T-test and Chi-Square Test Results of Demographics, Personal Involvement, and Community Context.

	Control (n = 45)		Treatment (n = 59)		t(df)	p value
	M	SD	M	SD	t(df)	p value
Age	21.44	1.88	21.58	2.44	−0.30 (102)	.76

	N	%	N	%	χ²(df)
Sex
Male	23	51.1	27	45.8	0.29 (1)	.69
Female	22	48.9	32	54.2
Total	45	100.0	59	100.0
Personal involvement
No	19	42.2	24	40.7	1.64 (1)	.22
Yes	26	57.8	35	59.3
Total	45	100.0	59	100.0
Community context
Urban	24	53.3	35	66.0	0.03 (1)	1.00
Rural	21	46.7	18	34.0
Total	45	100.0	53	100.0

Table 2.

T-test Results of Pretest Values for Satisfaction, Trust, and Engagement in Nonprofit and Voluntary Organizations.

	Control (n = 45)		Treatment (n = 59)		t(df)	p value
	M	SD	M	SD	t(df)	p value
Satisfaction	4.96	1.13	4.85	1.10	0.49 (102)	.62
Trust	5.23	0.89	5.28	0.95	−0.27 (102)	.78
Engagement	−0.10	0.90	0.06	0.75	−0.96 (102)	.34

Hypothesis Testing

The present study examined whether citizen journalism practices could contribute to an increase in social capital regarding nonprofit/voluntary organizations. We predicted that participants in the citizen journalism practice group would show greater positive changes in satisfaction (H1), trust (H2), and willingness to engage (H3) in nonprofit/voluntary organizations than those in the control group.

Table 3 summarizes the adjusted means and standard errors of the three dimensions of social capital by group. Figures 1 to 3 provide visualizations of the patterns of the results. As H1 predicted, the changes in treatment group participants’ satisfaction with nonprofit/voluntary organizations (M = 0.68, SE = 0.17) was significantly greater than for control group participants (M = 0.11, SE = 0.21), F(1, 89) = 4.41, p < .05.

Table 3.

ANCOVA Results and Descriptive Statistics for Changes in Satisfaction, Trust, and Engagement in Nonprofit and Voluntary Organizations.

	Satisfaction				Trust				Engagement
	Adjusted		F	p	Adjusted		F	p	Adjusted		F	p
	M	SE	(df)	p	M	SE	(df)	p	M	SE	(df)	p
Control	0.11	0.21	4.41	.039	−0.04	0.17	4.45	.038	−0.27	0.11	6.07	.016
Treatment	0.68	0.17	(1)	.039	0.43	0.14	(1)	.038	0.09	0.09	(1)	.016

Note. Satisfaction and trust (control: N = 38, treatment: N = 52); engagement (control: N = 38, treatment: N = 51); adjusted based on mean scores of age, gender, personal involvement, and community context.

Figure 1.

Changes in satisfaction with nonprofit and voluntary organizations.

Figure 2.

Changes in trust in nonprofit and voluntary organizations.

Figure 3.

Changes in willingness to engage in nonprofit and voluntary organization.

Regarding trust in nonprofit/voluntary organizations, treatment group participants had significantly greater positive changes than control group participants, F(1, 89) = 4.45, p < .05. More specifically, while participants in the control group showed a slight decrease in trust (M = −0.04, SE = 0.17), participants in the treatment group significantly increased their trust in nonprofit/voluntary organizations (M = 0.43, SE = 0.14). Thus, H2 was supported.

The third hypothesis was also supported. Analyses indicated the treatment group showed significantly more positive changes in willingness to participate in nonprofit/voluntary activities than the control group, F (1, 88) = 6.07, p < .05. Treatment participants were more willing to participate in nonprofit/voluntary activities after the citizen journalism intervention (M = 0.09, SE = 0.09), whereas control group participants showed a decrease in willingness to engage in nonprofit/voluntary organizations at posttest (M = −0.27, SE = 0.11).

Discussion and Conclusion

As predicted, this study revealed that citizen journalism practices, when used in the college classroom, increased the level of social capital measured by satisfaction, trust, and engagement in voluntary and nonprofit organizations in a mid-size local community. Through a pretest and posttest quasi-experimental design in a school setting, this study provides support for involvement with citizen journalism practices to increase levels of social capital concerning the nonprofit and voluntary sector. Therefore, the study unveils the positive effects of citizen journalism practices on social capital and offers theoretical and methodological insights as well as practical implications given the growing social capital research in communication and journalism studies.⁷¹

First, given the declining level of social capital such as trust and civic participation by younger generations,⁷² targeting college students seems to be relevant for civic education through citizen journalism practices. That is, the social capital perspective brings a relevant theoretical framework to citizen journalism as civic education as students engage in news production and distribution processes and interact with fellow citizens in their communities.⁷³ Thus, the study offers a unique combination of social capital theory and citizen journalism that adds insight to the existing body of scholarship.⁷⁴

Second, the study adopted a pretest/posttest quasi-experimental design in a school setting, which examined the main effects of citizen journalism practice on social capital in the context of civic education. Although participants were not randomized to conditions, the study offers a novel methodological approach at the school level, differing from other citizen journalism research methods.⁷⁵ Such a design was particularly relevant as well since our goal was to test its effectiveness as an educational tool in the classroom.

Third, the study provides practical implications related to citizen journalism and civic education in both school and community settings. That is, citizen journalism practice can play a key role in fostering social capital and citizenship. If higher education institutions incorporate citizen journalism education into the journalism and communication curriculum, students can contribute to nurturing the voluntary/nonprofit sector as well as enhancing awareness of other community issues. Likewise, local communities can adopt citizen journalism practice in civic education and train community members to become citizen journalists who report on community issues. Through citizen journalism education, citizens can enhance their citizenship and leadership, while building trust and engaging in their communities.⁷⁶ In this regard, local communities can create community storytelling networks, which are crucial for a civil society to develop and grow through an increased communication infrastructure.⁷⁷ The key storytelling players in the communities, including community members, nonprofit/voluntary organizations, and community news media, can organize citizen journalism education to instruct community members.

As discussed, this study offers unique contributions to the existing body of social capital, citizen journalism, and civic education scholarship, as well as practical and policy implications in school and community settings. Future scholarship should continue efforts to reveal positive outcomes of citizen journalism practices and experiences on student perceptions of and involvement in democratic processes in local communities. While the experimental design enabled this study to examine the effects of citizen journalism practices on students’ social capital, future studies should extend the experimental design to additional educational and community settings. Thus, a community intervention or experiment with representative sampling and randomization can make findings generalizable to other schools and communities. In particular, future studies might investigate the longitudinal effects of citizen journalism for community members who are already inclined toward citizen journalism practices to determine whether citizen journalism enhances social capital in the community context over time. Although behavioral intention measured in this study—due to a short intervention period—may be a good indicator of actual behavior,⁷⁸ future studies should measure behavioral change through citizen journalism as civic education as there exists a gap between behavioral intention and actual behavior.

As classrooms can serve as newsrooms and vice versa,⁷⁹ citizen journalism as a civic education tool can occur in community settings where communities can serve as classrooms to foster social capital and citizenship. In this process, higher educational institutions, through communication and journalism programs, can build partnerships with local governments and business groups to collaborate with nonprofit and voluntary organizations where ordinary citizens, youth and adults, have opportunities to become community storytellers concerning community issues and public affairs.

As implemented in the study, citizen journalism practice served as a tool for civic education in a college classroom. Utilization of a civic education program built on citizen journalism practices can contribute to student social capital related to local communities, especially for nonprofit organizations that receive less attention and often are marginalized by mainstream news media.⁸⁰ That is, this study suggests that citizen journalism practice can influence college students or youth to develop higher levels of citizenship toward nonprofit and voluntary organizations and serve as a civic education tool for both youth and adults. In conclusion, citizen journalism as a civic education tool as well as a community storytelling network can foster a healthier and stronger civil society to grow and develop in local communities.

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Notes

Author Biographies

Seungahn Nah (PhD, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2006) is an Associate Professor of Community Communications in the Department of Community and Leadership Development and Information Communication Technology (ICT) in the School of Library and Information Science at the University of Kentucky. He directs the University of Kentucky Community Communication Research Group and the Kentucky Citizen Media Project: The Lexington Commons. His research centers on the interrelationships among communication, community, and democracy with special emphasis on the roles of digital communication technologies in community and democratic processes and outcomes. His work has appeared in such journals as Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, Mass Communication & Society, New Media & Society, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, and Journal of Communication among others.

Kang Namkoong (PhD, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2011) is an Assistant Professor of community communications in the Department of Community and Leadership Development at the University of Kentucky. His research concerns the psychology of information and communication technology influence, especially the effect of computer-mediated communication on cognitive, affective, and behavioral changes in civic and health contexts. His work has been published in such journals as Journal of National Cancer Institute-Monograph, Journal of Health Communication, Mass Communication & Society, New Media & Society, and Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication.

Stephanie K. Van Stee (PhD, University of Kentucky, 2012) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Missouri–St. Louis. Her research focuses on persuasive health message design for use in mediated campaigns and interventions. Her work has appeared in such journals as Journal of Health Communication, Health Education Research, Qualitative Health Research, and Archives of Sexual Behavior.

Rachael A. Record (PhD, University of Kentucky, 2014) is a Postdoctoral Teaching Scholar in Health Communication in the Department of Communication at the University of Kentucky. Her research aims to examine campaign and intervention strategies to improve health behavior outcomes. Her published work has appeared in such journals as Health Communication, Journal of Community Health, Nursing Clinics of North America, and Public Health Nursing.