Bob Woodward

Welcome to the home page of Robert D. Woodward, Ellis and Nelle Levitt Distinguished Professor of Journalism and Mass Communication at Drake University

That's Professor Woodward to the right of the screen. He is in his 31st year of teaching in the Drake University School of Journalism and Mass Communication. He was the first Drake faculty member to receive both the Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching Award (1983) and the Madelyn M. Levitt Mentor of the Year Award (1996). In 1983, Woodward also was named as one of the 10 outstanding journalism professors in the nation by the Poynter Institute for Media Studies. In 2000, he received the first Distinguished Honors Teaching Award from the University's Honors Program. Woodward teaches all incoming first-year journalism students in Journalism 30, the Communications in Society course. He also teaches beginning and advanced reporting courses, journalism history and a new offering on "The Internet World." He's also highly active in Drake's Honors Program. In the Fall 2002, he is teaching an Honors course on "The Creative Process: Exploring the World of Ideas and Imagination."

Why the Picture of All the Books?

Woodward is an old newspaper man. He loves newspapers, magazines and books--anything in print. He worked as a principal assistant national news editor and world editor at The Washington (D.C.) Star prior to coming to Drake in the fall of 1972. Look closely at the books, and you'll see he loves journalism, history, politics and the Internet, among other things. His stacks of magazines include Wired and Yahoo!Internet Life. And if you were to see other parts of his office, you would see newspapers stacked everywhere.

How Can Students Use the Internet?

The news-editorial sequence at Drake University was redesigned to form a news-Internet sequence. Here are five examples of student projects that Woodward has supervised. The Internet opens up exciting new possibilities for students to publish their work and to begin to understand the ways of cyberspace. Take a look at these five student-oriented sites on the Internet:

InteractiveIowa was produced in the spring 2001 by a senior-level "Public Affairs Reporting" class, Journalism 171.

DigitalIowa includes work done by students in several newsroom practicum reporting courses.

CyberCaucus was developed during the 1996 presidential election year, and it centered on the Iowa political caucuses. The site was linked to national news organizations. Go there for the caucus results and to see how a site can be used for covering a special event.

CyberCaucus2000 was developed to capture the year 2000 political activities, including the Iowa political caucuses in 2000. Students in Journalism 103, "Reporting and Writing for the World Wide Web," created the site in the spring of 1999. Reporting students in Journalism 171, "Public Affairs Reporting," contributed stories to the site. In the fall 1999, students in Journalism 101, "Newsroom Practicum," also wrote stories for the site, and "Public Affairs Reporting" students completed the project with coverage of the Iowa caucuses 2000.

Century'sEnd was created during the spring semester 1998 through the combined efforts of students in Journalism 103, "Reporting and Writing for the World Wide Web," and Journalism 171, "Public Affairs Reporting."

What Are the Professor's Other Interests?

He conducted an eight-year of a study of President Bill Clinton and the use of television in the presidency. Woodward's VCRs were running constantly to capture the images of Clinton. Woodward also loves nature and photography, and for more than 25 years, he has combined those interests in a photographic study of monarch butterflies. He has developed an Internet site called "Save the Monarch."