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JOUR 352: Class Schedule & Readings (part 2 of Chris Harvey's syllabus):

(The instructor reserves the right to make changes to the weekly schedule to fit the needs of the class and to accommodate guest speakers. All readings should be done before class meets, except for readings for the first class, which should be done before Week 2. Please be sure to check the Web site of this syllabus every week to check for any changes to the schedule.)

Week 1:

Jan. 30 : Course and syllabus overview and student introductions. Then: a brief history of the Internet, and a quick overview of why newspapers and broadcast outlets are on the Web, and a bit about the unique features news Web sites offer readers--including personalization, multimedia, searchable databases, 24-hour updates, interactive chats and blogs and in-depth special reports.

Week 1 Readings: Chapters 1 and 2 in the Craig book ("Why Is Online Journalism Different, and Why Should You Care," and "The Job of the Online Journalist").  Plus "Fear.com" by Chip Brown in the June 1999 issue of American Journalism Review and "The Idea Factory that Spawned the Internet Turns 50," by Stephen Barr, in the April 7, 2008, issue of The Washington Post.

Week 2:

Feb. 6: Begin discussing search engines and directories, RSS feeds, and the validity of Wikipedia for research. You'll be asked in class to make an edit on Wikipedia--to see how easily it can be done. (I'll show you how.) You'll be asked in class to set up RSS feed preferences on Google Reader. (I'll show you how.) And you'll be given a Web-surfing assignment that will be counted as an in-class grade. If time permits, we'll do an online, in-class tutorial from John R. Henderson, a reference librarian at the Ithaca College Library, on distinguishing between reliable sources and junk on the Web. 

Readings: Chapter 4 in the Craig book ("Web Resources and Databases"). "Wikipedia in the Newsroom," by Donna Shaw, published in the February/March 2008 issue of AJR; "Collaborative Conundrum: Do Wikis Have a Place in the Newsroom?" by Mark Glaser, in the Sept. 10, 2004, issue of Online Journalism Review; "RSS for journalists: Your own personal Web butler," by Jonathan Dube, in the Feb. 15, 2005, edition of PoynterOnline; "Dot-com Still the Main Domain," from the May 6, 2002, issue of Wired News. A Web research handout from Harvey will be distributed in class.

Please be sure to bring an electronic version of your resume to class Feb. 13!

Week 3:

Feb. 13 : I will show you how to create a .pdf from your electronic resume. Then we'll have an introduction to basic html. We'll discuss font sizes and faces and instructions on creating horizontal rules, headlines and background colors. Plus: Changing link colors, creating hyperlinks, e-mail links, bulleted lists and anchor (internal page) links. We'll also discuss using html source tags to add graphics and photos to a Web page. Please bring a printed or electronic copy of your resume to class. We'll work together, using a basic html handout from Harvey and Webmonkey tutorials as a guide.

Week 3 Readings: "The Html Basics" from Webmonkey.com.

Week 4:

Feb. 20 : A basic introduction to photo scanning, sizing and cropping in PhotoShop, along with a discussion of shooting and selecting strong photos. Please bring in a photo of yourself for use on your resume page; we will scan and size it. We'll also discuss some of the ethical pitfalls of photo manipulation.

Readings: "Distorted Picture," by Sherry Ricchiardi, from the August/September 2007 issue of AJR. Plus, please view some of the award-winning photos on these sites: "NPPA's Best of Photojournalism Web Site Contest 2007" and "NPPA's Best of Photojournalism Web Site Contest 2006." The ambitious among you may also want to click through photos and galleries on The Digital Journalist. I'll have photo scanning and photo shooting handouts for you in class.

Assignment: Please post to the class blog, as directed, under the elections '08 header. Due by the start of class Feb. 20.

Week 5:

Feb. 27: Ethics, taste and restraint in new media. Just because a news organization can publish something doesn't mean it should. A look at how the speed of the 24-hour news cycle has affected news judgment; whether or not online sites are properly differentiating between editorial and advertising content; corrections and linking policies, and more. Plus: Legal issues in cyberspace. Among the legal questions to consider: Can news sites be held liable for comments posted on bulletin boards? Is it OK to copy source code from another site to mimic design? What about republishing someone else's text, photos and graphics? Ethics assignments in class.

Assignment: Due at the beginning of class Feb. 27: Turn in to the x drive your last name folder (copy it from h to x). Inside should be a photos folder with your headshot in it. Inside should also be your one-page resume file, with text, subheads, internal (anchor) links, an e-mail address link, at least one external hyperlink, a bulleted list and a photo. Background colors are optional, as are changed link colors and horizontal rules. Each factual mistake will result in one letter-grade deduction, as will each broken link or broken image tag. Unreadable resumes (because of bad color choices for fonts or backgrounds) will result in an automatic F. Resumes should follow AP style for print throughout.

Week 6:

March 5: Get edited resumes back. Begin discussing online design and navigation issues, eye tracking studies, audience concerns and the importance of folder structure to Web building and Web addresses. We'll review Web design tips and Web site planning in class. Plus: More on using Dreamweaver to create Web pages: inserting links, images and tables using the tool; using font, headline, centering and bullet shortcuts. I'll also talk about text wraps around photo tables, and creating links to big pictures from thumbnail pictures. And I'll show you how to create basic banners in Photoshop. If time permits, we'll also touch on using Dreamweaver's Properties/Page Properties bars (at the bottom of the tool) to set an Internal Style Sheet for your page.

Readings: Chapter 11 ("The Online Editor/Utility Infielder") and Chapter 13 ("Basic Online Layout") in the Craig book.Plus: Webmonkey's tutorials on site design; Dan Farber's "Eye tracking Web usability" on ZDNet's "Between the Lines," March 27, 2006; and Edward C. Baig's "Survey Offers a 'Sneak Peak' Into Web Surfers' Brains," on USA Today March 26, 2006. Help with Dreamweaver: Getting Down to Basics, More on Tables, and Creating Links in Dreamweaver; tutorials from Internet4Classrooms. Also see the W3Schools' explanation of CSS, and for an explanation of differences between external, internal and inline CSS. Plus: Webmonkey's "The Foundation of Web Design" and "Information Architecture Tutorial."

March 12: WE WILL NOT MEET TOGETHER IN ROOM 3103 FOR THIS; IT WILL BE DONE ELECTRONICALLY. A Web tutorial/assignment on the proliferation of Web logs (or blogs) and other citizen journalism, and their impact on emerging democracies in other countries and on politics, mainstream journalism and teens in the United States. Your assignment will be posted by Sunday, March 9, on our class blog. It will be due by e-mail to me by 3:45 p.m. Wednesday, March 12.

Readings: Blogs: Yuki Noguchi's "Kids Say the Darndest Things in Their Blogs; For Parents, It Can Be Embarrassing," in the Aug. 22, 2006, Washington Post; Nico Mcdonald's "Comment Is Free, But Designing Communities Is Hard," in the Aug. 17, 2006, edition of OJR; Robert Niles' "Can Newspapers Do Blogs Right?" in the April 23, 2006, edition of OJR; Mark Glaser's NOLA.com blogs and forums help save lives after Katrina, in the Sept. 13, 2005, edition of OJR; Barb Palser's "Journalism's Backseat Drivers," in the August/September 2005 issue of AJR; Plus: Plus: Mark Glaser's "Flickr, Buzznet Expand Citizens' Role in Visual Journalism," in the Nov. 15, 2005 edition of OJR; J.D. Lasica's "Citizen's Media Gets Richer," in the Sept. 7, 2005, edition of OJR;  Mark Glaser's "Bloggers, Citizen's Media and Rather's Fall: Little People Rise Up in 2004," in the Dec. 21, 2004, edition of OJR; and Mark Glaser's "Will Satellite, 'Podcasting' Bring a Renaissance to Radio Journalism?" in the Oct., 12, 2004, edition of OJR. Plus: Rachel Smolkin's "The Expanding Blogosphere," in the June/July 2004 issue of AJR; Aly Colon's "Blogs and Ethics" in the April 22, 2004, edition of Poynteronline. Plus J.D. Lasica's "When Bloggers Commit Journalism," in OJR's Sept. 24, 2002, issue;  Catherine Seipp's "Online Uprising," in the June 2002 issue of AJR; Staci D. Kramer's "The Perfect News Incubator" in the Dec. 18, 2002, issue of OJR. See also blog tracking sites Technorati and The Truth Laid Bare.

Week 8:

March 19: SPRING BREAK. No Class!

Week 9:

March 26: Review for Test. Plus: We'll discuss different storytelling structures that work on the Web -- including nonlinear ones such as photo galleries and interactive ones such as news quizzes, polls and chats. During the second half of the class, I'll go over basics of incorporating some multimedia and interactivity on a site. Begin thinking about your multimedia feature story assignment. You must give me one-paragraph pitches for two ideas at the start of next week's class.

Assignment due March 26: Resume packages due at the beginning of class: Turn in to the x drive your last name folder, which will include your photos folder, your edited resume page, and a clips page or a photo montage page. The two pages should be linked together. (Please be sure to use relative, or partial, links to link the two pages together.) Each factual mistake will result in one letter-grade deduction, as will each broken link or broken image tag. Unreadable pages (because of bad color choices for fonts or backgrounds) will result in an automatic F. Text on both pages should follow AP style for print throughout. See other guidelines on page 1 of your syllabus.

Readings: Chapters 6, 7, 8 and 12 in the Craig book, ("Online Writing Styles"; "Hooking and Keeping Readers"; "Revving Up Your Writing"; and "Multimedia for News"). Please also read Jonathan Dube's page on "Online Storytelling Forms," on CyberJournalist.net. Please spend some time reviewing packages on "InteractiveNarratives." Plus: Mindy McAdams' "Flash Journalism: Professional Practice Today," published on OJR on Sept. 22, 2005; and Elizabeth A. Ferris' "Rethinking the Multimedia Experience," published on Poynteronline on Nov. 16, 2005.

Week 10:

April 2: TEST!  Plus: You must give me one-paragraph pitches for two feature ideas at the start of class.

Week 11:

April 9: We'll take a quick look at each others' resume packages, then we'll upload them to the university server, using your campus e-mail accounts. Please make sure you've edited them in x before class. We'll then begin a discussion of Web headlines -- and how they share similarities but also key differences from print ones. We'll also do some practice exercises. Before our next class April 16, please find a good and not-so-adept headline on one or more news Web sites, and explain why you think so on this class discussion blog: http://online-journalism-for-beginners.blogspot.com/. Please be sure to give the full URL and headline for each. Please don't write anything you don't want the world to see. We'll also touch on writing succinct feature stories for the Web.

Readings: Chapter 10 in the Craig book, ("An Uphill Battle: Online Copyediting"). Plus: Harvey's Writing for the Web handout.

Week 12:

April 16: Get tests back, and go over the answers. More writing for the Web: Headlines, "blurb" and link writing. Graded headline assignment. Working with interactive polls.

Readings: Check out these headline writing tips from John Schlander, Joel Pisetzner and Wayne Countryman on www.copydesk.org.

Assignment due April 16: Text version of your feature story is due at the start of class. Please turn in a double-spaced printout of 500-700 words, with your name and the word count at top.

Week 13:

April 23: Web newsroom tour and talk. Scheduled for 1:45 p.m. to 3:10 p.m. at USAToday.com, at 7950 Jones Branch Drive, McLean, Va. 22108. For directions see the class blog. We'll meet with mulitmedia producer Joshua Hatch; photographer/videographer Garrett Hubbard; senior designer Ron Coddington; and assistant news director Desair (Brown) Shaw to talk about how storytelling, story presentation and reader interaction at Web sites differ from storytelling in traditional media. You will be given assigned questions to answer about the visit; your typed responses will count as an in-class grade. Responses to questions are due at the start of the next class.

Week 14:

April 30: I'll show you how to create a Google map and drop the coding onto your Web page. I'll do a short tutorial on shooting basic video, and demonstrate how to upload video to YouTube--and grab a coding embed to put the video player on your page. I'll also spend about an hour answering final questions on your multimedia projects, due at the start of next week's class. I'll allow you some time in class to work on them.

Readings: Jeff South's "No Secrets" in the April 2000 issue of AJR.Plus: Chapter 12 in the Craig book, ("Multimedia for News"). Please also read Jonathan Dube's page on "Online Storytelling Forms," on CyberJournalist.net. Please spend some time reviewing packages on "InteractiveNarratives." Plus: Mindy McAdams' "Flash Journalism: Professional Practice Today," published on OJR on Sept. 22, 2005; and Elizabeth A. Ferris' "Rethinking the Multimedia Experience," published on Poynteronline on Nov. 16, 2005.

Week 15:

Assignments: Web feature project due at the start of class May 7 in the x drive. The home page URL must also be uploaded to the college's assessment site, after I've pushed it live on the college server. See page 1 of your syllabus for more details.

Readings: Chapter 17 in the Craig book ("The 21st Century Journalist"). Also: "Pssst: The Next Big Thing May be Mobile," by Rick Edmonds in his blog April 14, 2008, on Poynteronline; "How the Web Was Won," by columnist Leslie Walker, in the Aug. 3, 2006, Washington Post; "The Great Divide: Is the industry really ready for high-tech students?" by Elizabeth Birge, in the Aug. 1, 2006, issue of Quill Online; "On the Rebound: Recovery continues for journalism jobs," by Karon Reinboth Speckman, in the Aug. 1, 2006, issue of Quill Online; "Online opportunities make journalism's future bright, despite gloomy feelings," by Rich Gordon, in the Oct. 27, 2005, edition of OJR;  "Growth of online ads hits high speed," by Jon Swartz, in the Jan. 16, 2005, issue of USA Today; Cynthia Gorney's "Superhire 2000"  in the December 2000 issue of AJR.

Finals Week:

Final Paper Due Friday, May 16, by 3:30 p.m. (based on the university's Final Exam Table): See description in "Assignments/Tests," at top of page 1 of the syllabus.