Spring 2007 Syllabus...

Journalism & Electronic Media 222: Online Journalism

Instructor: Bob Stepno When & Where: 2:10 p.m. - 3:25 p.m.
ÊÊ Tuesdays & Thursdays, Room TBA

email: rstepno @ utk.edu

office phone: 974-4645
-- or call 974-5155
(JEM school main office)

office hours: M-T-W-Th 4-5 p.m.
Ê Mornings and Fridays by appointment
office: 125 Communications Building
  (in the basement, near stairwell & Student Services)
ÊÊmailbox: See staff at JEM office, room 333.
This page: http://web.utk.edu/~rstepno/s7/jem222/s07jem222.html
Class calendar: http://web.utk.edu/~rstepno/s7/jem222
(calendar will be updated frequently; read it often)
New students:
Please fill out the Online Survey linked to this page so that I'll have some idea of your level of computer wizardry.

Catalog course description:

222 Online Journalism (3): Writing and producing for Web presentation. Writing headlines, teasers and summaries, creating hypertext links, storyboarding and developing new, interactive and multimedia storytelling. Converting newspaper and broadcast stories to the Web. Using Web editors and managing Web sites.

Instructor's course description:

Want to help redefine journalism for the 21st century? This is an introduction to the delivery of news stories as World Wide Web pages. You'll start by evaluating current news-site practices and types of presentation, and you'll finish with "what if...?" ideas for our "converging" media. You'll examine writing styles used in news, weblogs, RSS feeds, podcasts and "citizen journalism." As you learn HTML and various software tools, you will produce a home page, weblog and story packages. You'll use online research, "shoeleather" reporting and interviews to develop and publish original material. Hypertext, photo, audio and video reporting techniques will be examined (and used, as time and equipment permit).

Foust Online Journalism book cover

Required texts

Textbook: Online Journalism, James Foust (web supplement)
Reference:AP Stylebook (any edition since 2004)

Resources:


Recommended books (among others)

Expectations:

  • You should understand the basics of news writing for print or broadcast. Writing for websites borrows elements from both.
  • You should be comfortable using a computer to write, to manage documents and folders, and to browse the Web.
  • Experience with a variety of computers and software will help, but isn't essential.
  • You must be willing to learn more than one way to complete a task; flexibility is one of the Web's strong points, but that means tools and techniques change rapidly.

Things you'll need

To save your work, get a USB "jump drive" or "flash drive." (SanDisk, Lexar or other brand.) Some MP3 players can do the job, and may record audio too. The smallest you can find should hold all of your work unless you get into big audio or video files.

Keep a small pair of iPod or Walkman earphones in your bag for times when you need to listen to online audio or video in class without disturbing others.

News Reading & Viewing: Not Just for News Quizzes

Familiarize yourself with these early, and expect to visit three or four of them a week, reading and following links. To learn to write news well, you have to read a lot of it. The same is true of learning the tricks of online publishing -- you learn a lot by taking apart existing sites and stories. Your first online publishing will be an HTML weblog of summaries and comments on stories you read online, so you should pick sites to visit regularly. If you have other favorites that are doing creative things with news, let us all know...

See http://web.utk.edu/~rstepno#links for a longer list of sites.

Schedule changes, e-mail & naming things

Like the news and like technology, expect the class to change as we go along. The course schedule will adjust to take advantage of campus events and breaking news.

Changes in the schedule will be announced in class and on the class's Web site. (Get there from http://stepno.com). For e-mail alerts I use the address given for you in UT's Blackboard system at the start of the semester. Let me know if it changes.

E-MAIL Etiquette: Please use my rstepno @ utk.edu address, not any of my others.
In the SUBJECT line of your message, put your name, the course number and a very specific topic, so that I can keep it out of the folders for spam and other classes. Example: "JBrown-JEM222 blog blew up." If you attach a file, give it a very specific name too, not "homework.doc" or "webpage.html."

 

 

Policies: Attendance, Assignments and Deadlines

  • My attendance policy is inspired by professional media organizations: You are expected to come to every class, arrive on time, and deliver your work on deadline. Arrivals more than 15 minutes late or early departures may be considered absences.
  • Do e-mail to tell me why you were (or will be) absent, but check with your classmates to "see what you missed." Come see me at the office if you are slipping behind on assignments. I usually can't provide catch-up notes by e-mail, but check for new links or assignment updates on the class website after each class.
  • We all get sick or have emergencies and sometimes have to miss a class or two. However, if you accumulate three absences, it will affect your grade. If you miss a fourth class, come see me to discuss whether to withdraw from the course.

Important note about Disability Services

If you believe you have a disability that may warrant accommodations in this class or others, I urge you to register with the Office of Disability Services (191 Hoskins Library, 974-6087, http://ods.utk.edu). That office will help you develop methods of addressing any needed accommodations, and will advise the faculty (including me) accordingly. See Hilltopics for more information.

Journalism, Honor and Integrity

See the "Academic Integrity" and "Honor Statement" sections of Hilltopics. Plagiarism, fabrication and other forms of cheating are unacceptable. On a professional publication, they would get you fired. In this class, they will get you an "F." Be careful with electronic note-taking; don't mistake something you "cut and paste" into your notes for your own words. Accidentally plagiarism is still plagiarism. (For a great comparison of "citation" methods in academic writing and "attribution" in journalism, see this website by professor Melinda McAdams.)

Assignments & grading plan

  1. Three or four quizzes on reading assignments and Web techniques. (25%)
  2. Attendance, class participation and a weblog reflecting your textbook readings and exploration of online news sites. Blog items should be thoughtful, carefully written, and posted regularly from Jan. 23 to April 12, at least a couple of items each week. (25%)
  3. A website portfolio including your blog and at least five news or feature stories, all linked together in an assigned site structure with introductory pages, story summaries and headlines. Blog items and story topics may be related and cross-linked. (For example, one or two blog entries might analyze news coverage of musicians as preparation for your own profile of a local musician.) Stories must use Web linkage, images and other features to be more than "print" or "broadcast" counterparts. Your stories may be published in theTennessee Journalist, http://tnjn.com, but your JEM222 versions, headlines and summaries must be entirely your own work. (40%)
  4. A final portfolio update and "about this site " page discussing your projects -- including content, features or techniques you have learned about that could be used to take them further. (10%)

Grade scale

A: 90-100 percent. Approaches professional-quality work. (Complete, concise and correct; exploits Web features and is fully functional; stories are well written, designed and reported; few errors for the copy desk or producer to catch; signs of creative work, extra effort.)
B: 80-89 percent. Above average work; informative and interesting. (All assignments completed; stories are well "sourced" and reported. Some Web features may have problems, but the site should be need only minor to moderate fixing.)
C: 70-79 percent. Shows a grasp of basic principles; could be published, but would need rewrite, substantial editing, design changes or coding repair. (One or two Web links may not work; pages are difficult to read or navigate; stories need rewrite or substantial editing.)
D: 60-69 percent. Missing part of assignment; poor grasp of principles; serious problems with deadlines; factual errors, serious functional problems with Web pages, etc.
F: Fails to meet basic standards. For example, work is inaccurate, libelous, dishonest or missing major assigned components

Your Teacher

Bob Stepno joined the School of Journalism & Electronic Media faculty in August 2004 as a full-time lecturer. He was a reporter, regional bureau chief and copy editor in his 11 years at The Hartford Courant. Later, he was a news editor at one of the first Web newspapers abd built a variety of websites while working on his Ph.D. at UNC Chapel Hill. Between trips to graduate school he wrote for magazines and software companies. He taught online journalism and "digital culture" courses at Emerson College in Boston from 1999-2003. He received his doctorate in December 2003, after writing a dissertation about a North Carolina television station's award-winning news website.

For inspiration
I recommend The Truth by Terry Pratchett -- a fantasy novel that mixes magic and the invention of journalism. Good for apprentice magicians of both kinds, and it will make you laugh.

A note for you
Thank you for choosing this class.  If you have questions that aren't addressed in this document--or in any class--come talk about them, or at least send me e-mail (which I usually check several times a day, seven days a week). After all, you're the reason I'm here!

LECTURE & ASSIGNMENT SCHEDULE