JPROF.com is a web site designed to help people, especially students and teachers, learn about journalism. The site has a wide variety of resources that teachers and students can us to better understand the place that journalism has in our society, the processes by which journalism operates and the skills necessary to become a journalist.
The site is meant, in part, as a supplement to the journalism textbooks authored or co-authored by James Glen Stovall. Those books include:
- Journalism: Who, What, When, Where, Why and How (2005)
- Writing for the Mass Media (2002); a new edition is in production and will be out in 2005
- Web Journalism: Practice and Promise of a New Medium (2004)
- The Complete Editor (2000), with Ed Mullins; a new edition will be out in 2005
- Infographics: A Journalist's Guide (1997)
This site contains a great deal of information about various aspects of journalism and links to many site on the web where additional information can be obtained. But rather than just be a site with a lot of links, we want there to be good, useful material on the site itself. That's why you will find abundant exercise and handout material -- things that a teacher can use in the classroom. Students will find many extra resources and pointers to information they may need. JPROF marks its 6th anniversary JPROF, the website, turns six today (Dec. 31). The site was launched from a small home office in Emory, Va., with the idea that it would support some of the textbooks that I had written. My initial thought was that it would be a big electronic filing cabinet housing all of the things I hadn't put into the books and a place to gather things I might put in subsequent editions. It has since become a site with nearly 500 pages of material and one that attracted nearly 12,000 visitors in 2010. I continue to hear from people all over the world about this site and how it has helped them in conducting their journalism classes. For that I am humbled and gratified.
And, for anyone who is taking note, I am finishing the eighth edition of Writing for the Mass Media and will be delivering the manuscript to the publishers (Allyn and Bacon) next week. This edition is my attempt at getting the concept of convergence into a writing text, something I haven't been satisfied with in other texts that I have seen. Here's hoping I got it right.
Lots of other things are going on, too, but now is not the time. So, my usual New Year's greeting to you all: Party on! In the past five years the site has grown in size (more than 400), expanded in purpose and reached around the globe to people I never would have touched or heard from. JPROF was originally conceived (in my small study in Emory, VA, where we were living at the time) as a large, personal filing cabinet for material that I had accumulated during more than 25 years of teaching journalism. The amount of material on the web was expanding exponentially (as it still is), and I also wanted a place to store the things I had found that I might be able to use. And, because I had several textbooks in print at the time, I wanted a web site that would give users more expanded and up-to-date material. Since that time, JPROF has also become a forum (particularly through the companion blog http://jprof.blogspot.com for my impressions of what is happpening in the world of journalism and a site for all of the courses that I teach. Because of JPROF, I have taken on some interesting and exciting projects, particularly this year for Edgenics.com -- something you will hear a great deal about during 2010. Much has changed in my life during the last five years. I am now on the faculty of the University of Tennesse, having moved from Emory and Henry College in 2006. I am the faculty adviser for the Tennessee Journalist, the students news web site of the School of Journalism and Electronic Media, and through it, we have been able to launch a national organization of campus news web sites, the Intercollegiate Online News Network (ICONN). At UT, we have been able to change our curriculum in an interesting and innovative way, and I have the privilege of being in the midst of those changes. The field of journalism offers many excellent opportunities for our students, and I am happy to still be a part of it. Personally, 2009 brought Sally and me a move to the farm where she grew up and a new daughter-in-law. Our video review of the year is now on YouTube. As ever, I am profoundly grateful for the friends I have made through JPROF and for all of the people who have contacted me over the years because what they have found here. Now, as is my usual custom on this date and because it is New Year's Eve, I bid you: Party on! Have a great New Year. (Posted Dec. 31, 2009) * * * It's the day in 2004 that the site went live. Thus, we celebrate our fourth anniversary today.
The site has come a long way from that small study and cold winter in Emory, Virginia, where it was first conceived and built.
I had finished that fall writing the manuscript for Journalism: Who, What, When, Where, Why and How, an introductory journalism text, and had been working on the web site for the book that the publishers, Allyn and Bacon, wanted. The idea came to me that the book's web site could be broadened into something even larger (since the book was 26 chapters, the site for it was pretty big) and more comprehensive. I had a couple of other texts on the market at the time, so the idea of a site that concentrated on teaching journalism grew like a weed in well-tilled soil.
Then there was the name.
I played around with a couple of things and can't remember how the idea of "jprof" struck. I know I was after something short. When those five letters came together in my head, I checked on the URL availability and, to my utter amazement, found that combination available.
It was a sign. The site had to be built.
Four years later, the site finds itself at the top of the hit list when you do a Google search for "teaching journalism."
I have heard from people all over the world who have found the site and used its contents. I am grateful to all of them and to all those who recommend the site. I plan for it to keep growing. This year, 2008, was certainly one of growth -- some in ways that I never could have imagined when the site was first built.
First, we saw the publication of two new books plus the seventh edition of the venerable Writing for the Mass Media. The new books are: JPROF has also become the home for the Writing for the Mass Media web site in light of the publisher's decision to stop hosting web sites for their books (a decision I find odd and puzzling).
Bigger changes are afoot.
During the last couple of weeks, I have been developing a new model for a news web site based on the concept of link journalism. This concept posits that there is much good information on the web and part of the responsibility of a journalist is to bring that to readers through the power of links. An outfit in Reston, Virginia -- Publish2 -- has developed software that makes it easy to gather links, organize them and publish them on a web site.
So, what we are doing is taking the Publish2 software and feeding it into some specialty sites: So, it being New Year's Eve, party on! * * * Third anniversary.
Beyond classroom use, the material here is restricted and may not be used withou the permission of the author. This restriction includes all artwork found on the site.
Most of the material you will find here can be duplicated for classroom use. We ask that you maintain the integrity of the material at all times and that any credit lines be left visible.
We also ask that you share your ideas with us. If you have a lesson plan, a classroom activity, a handout or something else that others could use, we hope that you will let us know. Write to Jim Stovall at jgstovall at gmail.com with any ideas, material or suggestions that you have.
We plan to make JPROF.com a dynamic site, one that is added to and updated often. Much is happening in the world of journalism. It should be noted and commented upon. That's what we plan to do. We hope that you will stay with us and join in the fun.
* * *
JPROF.com was launched on Dec. 31, 2004. The pages were built with Adobe GoLive, and the site is hosted by Omnis.com.
* * *
Fifth anniversary. JPROF celebrates its fifth anniversary today.
Fourth anniversary. The last day of the year holds a special place on the JPROF.com calendar.
Both of these books have separate URLs, but the web sites are housed under the JPROF rubric.
The next possibility is GrowPROF.com, which will deal with everything from gardening to agriculture. Other ideas are in the wings.
These sites are within the JPROF site but have their own URLs to make them easier to find. In the year 2009, we hope folks will show up. We'll be posting more about this idea and these sites in the coming days.
And there's more to talk about, but as usual, I ramble on too much already.
JPROF observes its third anniversary today. Three years ago, after a couple of months of preparation, I launched JPROF from my small study in the house we were renting from Emory and Henry College in Emory, Va. The site was a personal endeavor, designed to help me keep up with the field of journalism so that I could stay current for my students and so I would have material at hand to updatte the textbooks I had written. I had no ambitions for the site other than those. If the material that I put on JPROF could help other instructors and students of journalism, that would be great, but that was not my first priority.
That's the way it's worked out, however. JPROF ended last year with about 1,400 unique visitors a day (see below). This year the audience grew enormously, and I am not certain why. In November, JPROF averaged more than 8,000 visitors a day, and there were three days that month with the visitor count topped 10,000. That figure has dropped back for December to nearly 5,000 visitors a day. (You can check out the stats for JPROF if you are interested.) The image to the right shows the monthly totals, and you can get a larger view of it by clicking on it. JPROF comes up near the top when a Google search of "teaching journalism" is done.
I sincerely appreciate the time that people spend with JPROF, and I hope there is material here that they find interesting and useful. I also enjoy hearing from folks and certainly don't mind when people point out errors of fact or grammar.
A couple of other items of note before we close out 2007:
I am in the process of changing JPROF from an HTML tables code to a cascading style sheets (CSS) code. I am testing the frontiers of my technical knowledge by doing this, but so far, there have been been few problems. I hope this will make the site more stable, and it will load faster for users. It will also simplfy the layout somewhat. The big differents users may notice is that more pages will have search functions. I hope that helps.
The publishers of Writing for the Mass Media has asked for a seventh edition of the book, and I will be working on that full bore this spring. The sixth edition was used as a text in about 240 colleges and universities, and I am greatly humbled by that fact. Thanks to all.
By far the biggest web thing that has happened to me this year is the phenomenal growth of the Tennessee Journalist, the news web site of the School of Journalism and Electronic Media at the University of Tennessee where I teach. I got TNJN.com rolling in October 2006 with a lot of help from some very good friends. I was blessed with a set of students who quickly took ownership of the site and are making it into something to be proud of. Their hard work and enthusiasm leaves me awestruck, and there were will many good things to come of that in 2008.
With that, I'll stop and bid you my usual New Year's greeting: Party on!
(Posted Dec. 31, 2007)
Second anniversary. 
JPROF celebrates its second birthday today. This is one of those things that "the world will little note nor long remember" (Abraham Lincoln, a big supporter of JPROF). Still, we pause for a moment. I've had a lot of fun putting this thing together and then adding to it over the last couple of years. The best part is the many folks who have said they looked at the site and liked what they said. Some have even recommended to others, and a few cruel folks (including me)have made their students spend a few moments here. Some kind of audience for this site exists out in the world. I'm not sure who they are or why they come, but they seem to be showing up regularly and growing. The number of daily visits -- whatever that means and for whatever that's worth -- grew seven fold this year. At least, that's what my stats say:
I have other counters assigned to the site, but I'm not sure what those numbers mean either. I like these because they are the biggest ones, and they make me feel better on days when the ego is shrunk.
Besides, as Casey Stengel, the old perfersser, says, "You can look it up."
So, in addition to celebrating the New Year, take a moment to celebrate with me. 2006 was a good year in lots of ways. One of the big things for me was taking a position at the University of Tennessee where I have had the chance to get a new news web site started for the School of Journalism and Electronic Media there. The site is called the TennesseeJournalist.com (TNJN.com), and I'll be writing more about that shortly.
I'll stop now. Party on. (Posted Dec. 31, 2006)
