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JOUR 652: Online Journalism, Spring 2006

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   Instructor: Chris Harvey

   E-mail: charvey@jmail.umd.edu; phone: 301-405-6256 (office) or 301-314-2696 (Maryland Newsline lab on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays). 

   Classes, Section 0101: Wednesdays, 1-3:45  p.m., Room 3103 Journalism Building. Office hours: 3:45 p.m. to 4:45 p.m. Wednesdays, in the new-media lab in Room 3117 Journalism, or by appointment on Tuesdays or Thursdays.

Goals: This is not a computer class or an art class. It's a journalism course in which we'll use computers and readings and discussions to learn about online news publishing. The class will include lectures on emerging media themes, such as Internet-spawned media partnerships and mergers; the business, ethical and legal implications of publishing online; the characteristics that distinguish news Web sites and their stories from their print and broadcast counterparts; and guidelines for doing research on the Internet. In addition, a core portion of the class will include hands-on assignments: Students will be introduced to basic html and to Web-editing and photo-editing tools. And they'll learn about site structuring and navigation, hypertext linking and basic page layout, while building a multi-page biography (with photos) and discussing news and feature packages.  

Prerequisites: JOUR 502, 503 or the equivalent. For journalism majors only.

Assignments/Tests: More detailed instructions on all of these assignments will be supplied in class by your instructor. Assignments are due at the start of each class, unless otherwise noted. Please follow Associated Press style.

• Feb. 15: (5 percent of your grade): One-page Web resume due, with text, subheads, internal (anchor) links, an e-mail address link, at least one external hyperlink, and at least one bulleted list. Your resume should also include a horizontal rule. Background colors are optional, as are changed link colors. Each factual mistake will result in one letter-grade deduction, as will each broken link. Unreadable resumes (because of bad color choices for fonts or backgrounds) will result in an automatic F. Assignments lose a full letter grade for each day that they're late.
• March 8: (20 percent of your grade): Midterm
• April 19: (20 percent of your grade): Four-page Web biography package due. This is an expansion of your resume assignment. You will create a narrative home page and two other pages and link them to your resume to create a package. The nonfiction narrative on the home page should be 300-700 words and include a photo or graphic on the page. The narrative must be compelling and concise and be written in journalistic, Associated Press style. The third page could link to published writing or broadcast samples --news clips, press releases, audio or video clips. Please don't link to unpublished work. Or it and the fourth pages could include a photo montage of friends; a page describing trips; or a page of personal likes and dislikes. The four pages, when linked together, must include lively text, external links, at least two photos and one graphic. The graphic could be created by you in Photoshop or come from free art on the Internet. All links must work; navigation must be consistent on all pages; all text must make sense and be written in AP style. Each factual mistake will result in a full letter-grade deduction, as will each broken link and broken image. This should be something you'd be proud to show a prospective employer. Here are examples of student work from previous semesters:
  Grad students (required to build four pages): Chris Hannas, Elissa Petruzzi, April Chan, Mary Ellen Slayter, Lisa Tossey
  Undergrads:  Damon Curry, Lindsay Smith, Mark Pak, Daniel Conklin, Kendra Nichols, Tania Luma, Jacqueline Sauter, Amy Fink, Meredith Stanton, Ashley Neglia, Yulia Khabinsky, Daina Klimanis, Ellen Massey and Andrea Cohen.
 
• Monday, May 15, 3:30 p.m.:  (25 percent of your grade): Final paper due: News Web site analysis. This is an 11- to 12-page double-spaced paper analyzing a news Web site, selected from a list I will circulate in class. You will discuss how well the site uses navigation; how clean its design is; how well it uses photos and graphics, broadcast features (audio and video) and interactive elements (such as chats, blogs, polls, quizzes and searchable databases); how much (if any) original reporting appears to be done by the online staff; and how well stories are written and presented. You should tell me about any other features you loved or hated and why. And you should tell me what changes editors and publishers might consider to better position themselves for the future.  I recommend that you include an introduction at the start of the paper and a summary at the end. The analysis should be based on your observations of the site throughout the semester and on research you've conducted on the site, using search engines and directories and other tools. I recommend that you do a brief Lexis/Nexis search of the site, to see if you can find background stories about it that may help explain some of its idiosyncrasies. Interviews with at least one high-level designer or editor are required to answer questions that may arise as you are trying to explain why a site is designed the way it is, or why it focuses on a particular type of content, etc.  Factual mistakes--including misspelled proper names and faulty URLs--will result in full letter-grade deductions. Information quoted from other sources should be attributed in the text and included in informal citations at the end. Papers must be typed and turned in on paper and by e-mail to me (so that each will have a time stamp from the e-mail). Papers turned in after deadline will receive an F; no exceptions will be made.
• Class participation (5 percent) and written in-class assignments: (25 percent.) Class attendance is mandatory. You must do the assigned readings and participate in discussions to do well on the participation grade. Missed written class assignments cannot be made up. Only one in-class written grade --your lowest--will be dropped.

Grading: Each assignment will be graded for accuracy, meeting of deadlines, substance, presentation/navigation/links (for Web projects), quality of writing (headlines, story blurbs, photo captions and other text), usability and style. Associate Press print stylebook rules and rules of grammar should be followed on every assignment. Factual errors will result in grade deductions, as noted on each assignment. Letter-grade deductions also will be taken for broken links, including for photos, and for navigation that doesn't work. All written and Web assignments are due at the start of class, unless specifically instructed otherwise. No excuses, other than the hospitalization of the student or the death of a member of the student's immediate family, will be accepted for late assignments. A full letter grade will be deducted for each day an assignment is late, except for the final paper, which will receive an F if turned in after deadline.

Standards, Ethics and Academic Integrity: Students are expected to adhere to the strictest journalistic and academic standards. For this class, you must do all work yourself, without collaboration with classmates or others, unless I tell you otherwise. Along with certain rights, students also have the responsibility to behave honorably in an academic environment. Academic dishonesty, including cheating, fabrication, facilitating academic dishonesty and plagiarism (including use of unauthorized photos, graphics or text from the Web) will not be tolerated. Any abridgement of academic integrity standards will be referred directly to the campus judiciary. Confirmation of such incidents will result in the earning of an "XF" grade for the course and may result in more severe consequences, such as expulsion. Students who are uncertain as to what constitutes academic dishonesty should consult the university publication called "Code of Academic Integrity," administered by the Student Honor Council. This code sets standards for academic integrity at Maryland for all undergraduate and graduate students.  For more information on the code or the council, please visit http://www.studenthonorcouncil.umd.edu/whatis.html.

Books & Materials: We will be using a combination of textbooks and handouts (printed and online) in this course:

• Required texts: Carole Rich's "Creating Online Media" and an Associated Press Stylebook and Libel Manual. Please bring the stylebook to class with you to aid in lab work.
• Recommended text: Any beginner's skills book on FrontPage, the Web editing tool we will be using in class.
• Readings: This syllabus links to various required online reading assignments under the class schedule. In addition, because the field is changing so fast, you'll be expected to do additional reading to keep up. You should on a weekly basis read relevant stories and columns in the Online Journalism Review. 

Computer Access: Our 3rd floor WAM lab is equipped with Microsoft FrontPage, and JOUR 352 students may also access software for this class from Rooms 3102 and 3111, when classes are not in session. 

Students with Special Needs: Should talk to the instructor at the end of the first class. 

Class Schedule:

(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. 25: Course and syllabus overview and student introductions. Plus an 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: Chapter 1 in the Carole Rich book, "Gutenberg to Gigabytes." Plus "Fear.com" by Chip Brown in the June 1999 issue of American Journalism Review.

Week 2:

Feb. 1: A brief history of the Internet. Then begin discussing search engines, directories, wikis and RSS feeds. Plus: an 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. (Read down to "One More St*p*d Assignment.) And a Web-surfing assignment to be counted as an in-class grade.

Week 2 Readings: Chapters 2 & 3  & 12 ("Browsing Basics," "Searching Skills" and "Online Reporting and Research") in the Carole Rich book. Plus: "Non-traditional sources cloud Google News results," by Eric Ulken in the May 19, 2005, edition of Online Journalism Review; "RSS for journalists: Your own personal Web butler," by Jonathan Dube, in the Feb. 15, 2005, edition of PoynterOnline;  "Wikipedia: Teapot Tempest," by Wade Roush, in the Dec. 7, 2005, issue of Technology Review;" Collaborative Conundrum: Do Wikis Have a Place in the Newsroom?" by Mark Glaser in the Sept. 10, 2004, edition of OJR;  "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.

Week 3:

Feb. 8: Introduction to html, with a discussion of 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. Plus: Using html 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 this basic html handout from Harvey as a guide.

Week 3 Readings: Chapter 6 ("Basic HTML") in the Rich book.

Week 4:

Feb. 15:  A basic introduction to photo scanning, sizing and cropping in PhotoShop, along with a brief discussion of shooting and selecting strong photos. Please bring in at least one photo of yourself for possible use in your bio package; we will scan and size it. If time permits: Intermediate html:  An introduction to FrontPage and to table building, for photo and caption boxes and basic page layouts. I'll have a table-building handout for you in class.

Week 4 Readings:  "Digital History, A Guide to Gathering, Preserving and Presenting the Past on the Web," by Daniel J. Cohen and Roy Rosenzweig. Plus: Please review "NPPA's Best of Photojournalism Web Site Contest 2005" and photos on "NPPA's Best of Photojournalism 2003." 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: Due at the beginning of class Feb. 15: Turn in to the x drive a one-page resume, with text, subheads, internal (anchor) links, an e-mail address link, at least one external hyperlink and a bulleted list. Your resume should also include a horizontal rule. Background colors are optional, as are changed link colors. Each factual mistake will result in one letter-grade deduction, as will each broken link. 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 5:

Feb. 22: 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? Can you get in trouble for forwarding a published story to a friend? Complete an ethics assignment in class, which will count as an in-class grade.

Readings on ethics: Chapter 14 in the Rich book ("Legal and Ethical issues"); Robert I. Berkman's "Is It Appropriate for Reporters to Lurk in Online Chat Rooms?" in the Feb. 2, 2004, issue of Online Journalism Review; Barb Palser's "Charting New Terrain" and Michael Oreskes' "Navigating a Minefield" in the November 1999 AJR; plus Matt Welch's "What If You Couldn't Trust the New York Times?" in the April 24, 1999, issue of OJR; and Howard Kurtz's "Dallas Paper's Story: A Scoop That Wasn't," in the Jan. 28, 1998, Washington Post. Readings on copyright: A handy online guide: "10 Big Myths about copyright explained," new-media publisher Brad Templeton's wise-guy analysis of a complicated subject. And "Copyright Issues Present Ongoing Dilemma: To Link or Not To Link? by Robert I. Berkman, in the Oct. 1, 2003, edition of Online Journalism Review. Readings on Credibility issues: Aly Colon's "Putting Old Values to Work with New Tools," in the Dec. 12, 2003, edition of poynter.org; and Chris Harvey's "Journalists Are Still Wary of Online News," in the December 2001 issue of AJR.  

Week 6:

March 1: Review for midterm. Plus: Writing succinctly and conversationally for the Web, session I: Narrative nonfiction. I will give you handouts of several nonfiction narratives written by other students. We'll read and discuss them, then you will begin roughing out the text for a personal, nonfiction essay for your bio package. You'll turn it in to me by the start of class March 8. Your essay should be 300-700 words and should be on a topic that reveals something about your background or character: A relative or teacher who had a great impact on you; an incident that came as a turning point in your life; an anecdote about why you ended up in journalism heading toward a career as a writer. Please try to avoid being too negative or flip; this is intended to be the opening narrative on the home page of your biography package. Potential employers may be reading it. The draft will count as an in-class grade; it will be edited and returned to you for a write-through for inclusion in your bio package.

Week 6 Readings: Chapter 13, "Writing for the Web," in the Rich book; Judith Silverstein Gray's "Turning Personal Experience Into Narrative"; Walt Harrington's "How Memories Become Memoirs"; and Poynter.org's Chip Scanlan on "Writing the Personal Essay" and "Tips for Writing a Personal Essay."

Week 7:

March 8: MIDTERM. Students may work on photo scanning and cropping after they finish their test.

Week 8:

March 15: Get back your narrative essays. Begin discussing online design and navigation issues and the importance of folder structure to Web building and Web addresses. You'll be asked to sketch out (or storyboard) the page layouts for your bio packages. These hand-drawn sketches will show where your navigation bar will go on each page and where photos, headlines and stories or other text will go. Navigation must be consistent on all pages. Also, in a Word document, you'll type a brief description of the content and art that will go on each page; be explicit about the background/banner/text color schemes you will use to tie the pages together, along with the font styles and sizes for headlines, photo captions and text. If you're going to change link colors, please note that, too. This will count as an in-class grade; turn in by start of class March 29. We'll review Web design tips in class.

Readings: Chapters 9 ("Media Site Planning") and 11 ("Web Site Design") in the Rich book. Plus: "Surfing the Web for Design Lessons," by Anne Van Wagener, for PoynterOnline, Jan. 31, 2005, edition.

March 22: NO CLASS. SPRING BREAK.

Week 9:

March 29: Get back midterms. Turn in your bio package layouts and descriptions (on paper) at the start of class. Go over bio package checklist. Then: Writing for the Web, Session II: Begin discussing/working on headline writing for the Web. Also, before our next class, 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.

Week 9 Readings: Check out these headline writing tips from John Schlander, Joel Pisetzner and Wayne Countryman on www.copydesk.org. Plus: Harvey's Writing for the Web handout.

Week 10:

April 5: Get back Web package layouts. More discussion and work on headlines and blurbs, with an in-class assignment (to be graded).

Week 11:

April 12: Discuss different storytelling structures that work on the Web--including nonlinear ones such as photo galleries and interactive ones such as news quizzes and chats.  I'll also allow time to answer questions on your bio packages.

Readings: Please 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 12:

April 19: We'll take a look at each of your projects, and discuss them as a group. Then we'll have a brief discussion of using story templates and production tools to build stories and packages on news Web sites. (You won't be building story pages from scratch when you're hired as a producer or editor at a news Web site, but you will be expected to understand basic html and how packages are built and structured.) We'll also begin having a discussion of interactive databases on the Web, including issues of privacy vs. the public's right to know. Where should the line be drawn? For example, is it OK to publish the salaries of  low-ranking public employees, coaches, etc.? How about property records? Divorce and death notices?

Readings: Jeff South's "No Secrets" in the April 2000 issue of AJR.

Assignment: Due at start of class April 19: Turn in your four-page Web bio/resume package, with internal and external links; at least two photos and one graphic; and text. All links must work; busted links result in letter-grade deductions. Any factual mistakes in your text will result in a full letter-grade deduction; any packages turned in late will lose a full letter grade for each day that they're late.