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Advanced Web Publishing


Instructor
Jim Stovall
School of Journalism and Electronic Media
333 Communications Bldg.
974-5109
stovall@utk.edu

Web site: http://www.jprof.com/courses/jem560/jem560.html

Fall 2008

5:45 – 7:35 p.m. Wednesday, 310 Communication Building

Prerequisite: graduate or senior status

This course examines issues surrounding the publication of news and information on the World Wide Web in a journalistic environment. The development of the web has produced profound changes in almost all phases of journalism, and some of those changes will be the focus for this course. Students will have the opportunity to practice some of the techniques of web journalism through their own blogs and contributions to the Tennessee Journalist (tnjn.com).

Student responsibilities

As with any course, students must do three things: prepare, attend and engage. Failure to do any of these adequately will result in a failing grade for the course.

Student work

Students will be asked to do a variety of things for this course, which may include the following:

Weblog. Students should maintain a regular weblog that is devoted to some issue, problem or question related to web journalism. At minimum, they should produce one new entry per week. Students in the class should also visit the weblogs of other class members regularly and respond to what they have said.

Research paper and presentation. Students should select a topic and write a 3,000 – 5,000 word paper on the topic. Students should also prepare an oral presentation of 15 to 30 minutes for the class. This paper can be produced from secondary (rather than original) sources, but it should reflect an in-depth and serious examination of a topic related to web journalism and should represent the student’s very best work. Deadlines for the paper and dates for the presentation will be set individually.

Web packages. Through the semester, students will learn about aspects of web journalism and how it differs from journalism in traditional media. As a reflection of what they learn, they will produce stories, photos, videos, audios, slideshows for consideration for posting by the editors of the Tennessee Journalist. As part of this work, students in this course may be working with a group of JEM 275 students to help them fulfill the professional project course requirement for that course.

Topics and readings

History of the web

Reporting on the web

Writing for the web

Packaging – lateral reporting

Interactivity

Audience analysis and tracking

Audience acquisition

Technical aspects of the web (content management systems, etc.)

Advertising on the web

Ethical considerations

Legal issues

Search engine optimization

Social networking and journalism


Readings for Aug. 27
The Whole Web-News Thing

James Glen Stovall, Web Journalism: Pactice and Promise of a New Medium (Allyn and Bacon, 2003), chapter 1: "Logging on to the Web." This chapter is available for a limited time on this site.

Brian Stelter, "Tape Delay by NBC Faces End Run by Online Fans." New York Times, August 8, 2008.

David Car, "All of Us, the Arbiters of News." New York Times, August 11, 2008.

Readings for Sept. 3
Whither newspapers?

Carl Sessions Stepp, "Maybe it is Time to Panic," American Journalism Review, April/May 2008.
http://www.ajr.org/Article.asp?id=4491

Adrian Holvaty, "A Fundamental Way Newspaper Sites Ought to Change"
http://holovaty.com/blog/archive/2006/09/06/0307/

Vin Crosbie, "Transforming American newspapers," (part 1) (part 2)
http://www.digitaldeliverance.com/blog/2008/08/transforming_american_newspape.html

Michelle Ferrier, "News Never Was One-Size-Fits-All," E-Media Tidbits, Poynter.org, Aug. 26, 2008.
http://poynter.org/column.asp?id=31&aid=149390
This is a critique of the Vin Crosbie piece listed above.

Sept. 10
Social networking I

Sept. 17
Lab work on journalism projects

Sept. 24
Social networking II
Readings:
Robert Niles, Social media provides challenges, and opportunities, for online news, Online Journalism Review.
Jean Young, How social media can help shape society, Online Journalism Review.

Oct. 1
Lab work on journalism projects

Oct. 8
Kate Humphrey: The Internet's Evolution of News Organizations

Gathering an audience:

Oct. 15
Amy Walz: The Lost Phenomenon

Link Journalism

Josh Korr, Publish 2.0: Nervous About Link Journalism? Ignore Web's 'Cesspool' And Tap Its 'Natural Spring'
Take a look at Mahalo, which bills itself as a human-powered
search engine. Try to figure out what that means and what it might
mean for journalism. Take a look at these pages:
• http://www.mahalo.com/Obama_Primetime
• http://www.mahalo.com/Knoxville_Church_Shooting


Oct. 22
Lab work on journalism projects

Oct. 29

Search engine optimization

Readings:
• SEOmoz.com: A beginner's guide to SEO
• New York Times: This boring headline was written for Google
• CNET News.com: Newspapers search for Web headline magic 



Nov. 5
Amanda Wills: Student News Online: Foundations, Formats and Future

Nov. 12
Iveta Imre: The Online Video

Nov. 19
Kelly Hunt: Social activism through blogging in repressed countries

Nov. 26
Lab work on journalism projects




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