Listservs: Mailing Lists

Internet mailing lists allow people with similar interests to communicate easily with each other via e-mail. People subscribe to a mailing list, then can send a single message to the list that is automatically distributed to all other list subscribers. These mailing lists are often referred to as Listservs, although Listserv is actually just one type of mailing list. Other popular mailing lists include Listproc and Majordomo.

Mailing lists are used by journalists to find expert sources and locate "regular people" who can help illustrate a particular story. They also are used to monitor discussions on beat-related topics. And there are dozens of journalism related lists that are used to help keep up on different facets of the profession.

Find Mailing Lists:

L-Soft International. L-Soft, which operates the Listserv system, has a database of all 75,000 public Listserv mailing lists.

To find other mailing lists (such as Listproc or Majordomo), try:

Meta-List.net, which lists more than 175,000 Internet lists, and Tile.net.

Journalism Mailing Lists

The following is a list of some of the journalism-related mailing lists. To subscribe to the list, e-mail to the address located below, leave the subject and cc lines blank and in the text of the message write only what appears below.

General Journalism Topics:

• Reporting. IRE-L, a mailing list operated by Investigative Reporters & Editors. To: listproc@lists.missouri.edu subscribe IRE-L (your name)

• General Journalism. SPJ-L is the mailing list of the Society of Professional Journalists. To: listserv@lists.psu.edu subscribe SPJ-L (your name)

• Today's Word on Journalism. A journalism saying selected by Utah State University's Ted Pease and e-mailed daily. To subscribe, send SUBSCRIBE WORD to tpease@cc.usu.edu.

Computer-Assisted Reporting:

• NICAR-L. National Institute of Computer-Assisted Reporting List. To: listproc@lists.missouri.edu subscribe NICAR-L (your name)

• CARR-L. Computer-Assisted Reporting and Research List. To: listserv@ulkyvm.louisville.edu subscribe CARR-L (your name)

• CENSUS-L focuses on Census and mapping issues. To: majordomo@nicar.org and in the body of the message write: subscribe census-l (your e-mail address)

• NEWSLIB. News Librarians mailing list. To: listproc@listserv.oit.unc.edu subscribe NEWSLIB (your name)

• INTCAR-L. Internationally Oriented Computer-Assisted Reporting List. To: listserv@american.edu subscribe INTCAR-L (your name)

Beats:

• Business Beat. The Society of American Business Editors and Writers operate the SABEW mailing list. To: listserv@webworldinc.com subscribe SABEW.

• Cops and Courts. To: majordomo@reporters.net subscribe ccr-l (your e-mail address)

• Higher Education. The Education Writers Association operates HigherEd-L for EWA members only.

• Schools. EWA-L, primarily for reporters covering kindergarten through 12th grade, also is for EWA members only.

• Environment. The Society of Environmental Journalists runs a private mailing list for members only.

• Science. NASW-TALK, the National Association of Science Writers List. To: majordomo@nasw.org subscribe NASW-TALK

• Science Freelancing. NASW also runs a science journalism list for freelance science writers. To: majordomo@nasw.org subscribe NASW-FREELANCE

• Children and Families. Kidbeat is the mailing list of the Casey Journalism Center for Children and Families. To: listserv@umdd.umd.edu subscribe KIDBEAT (your name)

• International Reporting. CORREX-L is a discussion group for foreign correspondents. To: majordomo@true.net subscribe CORREX-L (your e-mail address)

• Religion. JREL-L is for religion writers. To: majordomo@iclnet93.iclnet.org subscribe JRE-L (your e-mail address)

• Census. CENSUS-L focuses on Census and mapping issues. To: majordomo@nicar.org and in the body of the message write: subscribe census-l (your e-mail address)
  

Specialties Around the Newsroom:

• Investigative Reporters. IRE-Plus. Another list run by Investigative Reporters and Editors, this one devoted exclusively to investigative reporting techniques and projects. To: majordomo@ire.org and in the body of the message write: SUBSCRIBE IREPLUS-L (your e-mail address)

• Copy Editors. COPYEDITING-L. To: listproc@cornell.edu subscribe COPYEDITING-L (your name)

• Editorial Writers. NCEW-L is a closed list run by the National Conference of Editorial Writers. To join contact Phineas Fiske at pfiske@netusa.net

• Training Editors. NEWSCOACH-L is a list for newsroom training editors run by the Freedom Forum Newsroom Education Network. To join contact Beverly Kees at bkees@freedomforum.org.

• Photographers. NPPA-L, the National Press Photographers Association List. To: listserv@cmuvm.csv.cmich.edu subscribe NPPA-L (your name)

• Freelance Writers. WIW-L is a moderated discussion list for the Washington Independent Writers. To: listserv@cmuvm.csv.cmich.edu subscribe WIW-L (your name).

• Youth Editors. A mailing list for youth page editors. To sign up, write to: arnom@naa.org

 Online Publishing:

• Student Electronic Newspapers. To: listserv@vm.temple.edu subscribe STUEPAP (your name)

FOIA and Press Law:

• Freedom of Information. FOI-L is the mailing list of the National Freedom of Information Coalition. To: listserv@listserv.syr.edu subscribe FOI-L (your name)

• Press Law Updates. The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press’ News Media Update. This is not a discussion group, but provides subscribes with biweekly reports on laws and rulings affecting journalists. To: rcfp@rcfp.org subscribe (your name)

• Broadcast Regulation. COMLAW-L is run by the American Association of Law Schools section on mass communications law. To: listproc@lawlib.wuacc.edu subscribe COMLAW-L

Journalism Issues:

• Journalism Ethics. The Society of Professional Journalists runs SPJ-ETHICS. To: majordomo@dworkin.wustl.edu subscribe SPJ-ETHICS (your e-mail address)

• More Ethics. JOURNETHICS is a much smaller discussion group on journalism ethics. To: listproc@lists.missouri.edu subscribe JOURNETHICS (your name)

• Diversity. The National Association of Black Journalists in 1997 became the first minority journalism group to create a mailing list. To: listserv@umdd.umd.edu subscribe NABJ (your name)

• Working Conditions. The Canadian-based Guildnet-L list focuses on newsroom labor issues. To: majordomo@acs.ryerson.ca subscribe Guildnet-L (your e-mail address)

Broadcast Journalism:

• ShopTalk. ShopTalk is not a discussion group. Subscribers receive a daily newsletter about the TV news industry. To: listserv@listserv.syr.edu subscribe ShopTalk (your name)

• Broadcast Journalism. RTVJ-L is run by the Radio-Television Journalism Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. To: listproc@server.umt.edu subscribe RTVJ-L (your name)

• More Broadcast Journalism. The Broadcast Discussion List also focuses on broadcast journalism. To: listserv@unlvm.unl.edu subscribe BRDCST-L (your name)

• IRE's Broadcast List. IREBC-L. To: majordomo@ire.org and write in the body of the message: SUBSCRIBE IREBC-L (your e-mail address)

Student Journalism:

• Student Media. STUMEDIA. To: listserv@uabdpo.dpo.uab.edu subscribe STUMEDIA (your name)

• Campus SPJ. SPJ-C is for campus chapters of the Society of Professional Journalists. To: listserv@umdd.umd.edu subscribe SPJ-C (your name)

• Student Electronic Newspapers. To: listserv@vm.temple.edu subscribe STUEPAP (your name)

• College Media Advisers. To subscribe, write to blick@latech.edu.

Journalism Education:

• Journalism Educators. JOURNET-L. To: listserv@american.edu subscribe JOURNET-L (your name)

• IRE Journalism Educators. IRE-EDU. IRE's list for journalism educators specializing in public affairs, investigative and computer-assisted reporting. To: majordomo@nicar.org
  and in the body of the message type: subscribe ire-edu (your e-mail address)

• More Journalism Educators. JEANET is a smaller journalism educators’ mailing list based in Australia. To: majordomo@uow.edu.au subscribe JEANET (your e-mail address)

• Journalism History. To subscribe to JHISTORY, go to   http://www.h-net.msu.edu/~jhistory.

• Editing Professors. EDPROF-L is for journalism educators who teach copy editing. To: listserv@ouvaxa.cats.ohiou.edu subscribe EDPROF-L (your name)).

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