Journalism 98 Online
The Internet World
First term--Summer 2002
Five weeks June 10 to July 12, 2002
Drake University School of Journalism and Mass Communication

Robert D. Woodward
Ellis and Nelle Levitt Professor of Journalism and Mass Communication
Drake University, Des Moines, Iowa
E-mail: Robert.Woodward@drake.edu
Office phone: 515-271-3105

The Internet is exploding as a communication, information, business, and research environment. Thousands of new sites are opening daily on the World Wide Web across the globe. The list of participants is endless: Governments at all levels, businesses (the dot.coms), universities, media companies, entertainment groups, special interest groups, and individuals.

You have the opportunity to participate in this revolution--and to increase your understanding of the rapidly changing media environment. No one can yet see fully where the Internet is headed, but there's no doubt it is at the center of a dramatic change in world communication. This course aims to tap into the exploding Internet community by providing you with the opportunity to study closely what is occurring. And what better way to study than to do it online!

The course will seek (1) to have students analyze and to think critically about the emergence of this new medium; (2) to explore how the Internet is being used and expanded as new communications approach for broad segments of world society; and (3) to understand the Internet as a major influence in a mass communication revolution at the start of the 21st Century.

Who is your teacher? I am a lover of the print tradition in America who became a strong proponent of the Internet and the emergence of the digital age. I worked for The Washington (D.C.) Evening and Sunday Star from 1965 to 1972 on the national and world news desks. I came to Drake University in the fall of 1972, and I am now in my 30th year of teaching. In recent years, I oversaw the creation of a news-Internet sequence in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Drake. Journalism 98 is one of the required courses in that sequence.

What can you expect from Journalism 98 Online? Here are some of the possibilities:

--How the media are responding to the Internet with digital newspapers, digital magazines, radio and television experimentation, movies and recordings via the Net.

--How the Internet is changing government at all levels. For example, a citizen may now access volumes of information from the federal government--be it the White House, Congress, Census Bureau, Library of Congress, or an historical data base of genealogical material from the National Archives.

--How the Internet is emerging as a research source for students and professsors. How schools at all levels are using the Internet for educational purposes.

--How the Internet is growing as a medium for business opportunities large and small--although the dot.coms have been hit hard in changing economic times. You name it; you'll probably find a business Web site to stir your buying interests.

--How the Internet poses social, political, legal, and ethical concerns. There are questions involving privacy, libel, plagiarism, censorship, and copyright, for example. There is also the major dilemma of a "digital divide"--those who can afford to have access to the Internet and those who cannot.

--How individuals throughout the world are using the Internet as their special new way of communicating with others. E-mail has become a worldwide phenomenon.

What books will we use? Three books are required for the course, and one is recommended. The required books are: Weaving the Web: the Original Design and Ultimate Destiny of the World Wide Web by Tim Berners-Lee, published by HarperBusiness in 2000; What Will Be: How the New World of Information Will Change Our Lives (with a new afterword) by Michael Dertouzos, published by Harper Edge in 1998; and The World Wide Web: A Mass Communication Perspective--2001 Update by Barbara Kaye and Norman Medoff, published by Mayfield Publishing Company in 2001.

What will be the course format? A module of instruction will be offered for each of the five weeks. The module will include assigned readings; assigned sites to study across the World Wide Web; discussion questions for class members; an essay assignment for each of the five weeks; and assigned shorter (credit/no credit) papers on your study of certain Web sites. A Web page each week will deal with assignments and will provide you with hyperlinks to materials for studying.

What technological background will you need? You will need access to e-mail and to the World Wide Web. You should have some understanding of how to conduct searches on the Web, and we will build on that ability during the course.

What are the expectations concerning the essays? Topics will be assigned for your essays each week. The essays should be thoughtful, well-written, and three pages (if printed out on 8 1/2 x 11 paper). The essays will be due each Friday.

How will the shorter papers work? You will be assigned to visit some specific Web sites and to write one-page descriptive and analytical papers about the sites. These papers will be credit/no credit assignments.

Will there be tests? Yes, in the final week of the course, you will have a take-home test on the course materials in addition to your weekly essay assignment for that week.

Where can you get additional information? Use e-mail or the telephone to contact me. I'll be happy to answer your questions.