Professor Nancy Williams
Office: AnSci 306
Office hours: MWF 10:30 to 11:20, other times by appointment
Phone: 435-797-3299
E-Mail: nancy.williams@usu.edu

You will need the online version of this syllabus, which is available as a PDF on my JCOM department page (http://www.usu.edu/journalism/faculty/williams/) and also in HTML at http://hartshots.com/moonbeam/S2008.html.          

REQUIRED:

TEXT:  Foust, James. C. Online Journalism: Principles and Practices of News for the Web. Holcomb Hathaway Publishers. 2005. ISBN: 978-1-890871-7

COMPUTER HARDWARE: An external hard drive to save your work on.

OPTIONAL RESOURCE: The Living Internet, available free online at http://www.livinginternet.com/.

Course Objectives: This course is designed to prepare you to enter the professional world of online journalism.  It will provide instruction and hands-on opportunities for you to present yourself professionally in e-mail, use the World Wide Web for research, find and use Internet discussion groups and news groups to gather background information, use synchronous Internet resources to interview people, learn to write basic HTML, cite Internet sources in correct academic style, and sharpen your critical judgment of the credibility of the Internet information you use.  You'll have opportunities to apply the knowledge gained from your experience in Web site development and to demonstrate your skills in online reporting.

In this class you will:

-- develop a personal Web site and begin keeping a portfolio of professional work in broadcast video, audio, still photography, public relations, newspaper articles and online journalism.

Late assignments may be accepted up to one week after they are due, but a grade penalty of 5 points per late day will be assessed. Assignments more than one week late will not be accepted.

Attendance:  Class attendance is expected. Surfing the Web, texting, IMing, playing computer games and reading or writing your private e-mail during class are not allowed.  I do not provide special make-up sessions for classes you miss. You will need to clear unavoidable absences with me in advance in order to be be permitted to make up missed assignments. An unavoidable absence is a family emergency (e.g., a funeral) or your own ill health. Vacations are not considered emergencies. Pop quizzes cannot be made up.

The JCOM department has a zero-tolerance policy in this area. Any documented form of academic dishonesty -- including plagiarism-- – may result in an automatic F for the course and a report to the dean of the college. JCOM majors who are found to have engaged in academic dishonesty may be dropped from the major. Students who hand in similar of identical work will receive an F for the assignment, regardless of who copied from whom. If you have any questions about what's acceptable work under the accepted code of academic honesty, see USU's Code of Policies and Procedures for Students, or consult with me. Please note that all written work may be submitted to a database that compares student papers, including papers from previous Online Journalism classes, to detect plagiarism.

Schedule: (I reserve the right to make schedule changes if required.)

PLEASE NOTE: If there is an online reading assigned in the schedule for a particular week, I expect you will have read it before class meets Monday and will be prepared to discuss it. You are encouraged to take full advantage of other university labs and your own computing resources to practice your Internet skills and do the assigned online readings outside of class time.

    Assignment due at end of class Friday, Jan. 11:
    Hard copy of an e-mail from you to the class discussion list that shows the following:
(1) your personal name in the "from" field,
(2) the class list in the "to" field,
(3) your reply to job listing (sent to the class list) quoted and edited correctly,
(4) your professional signature file.

Week 2 -- Jan. 14 - 18
Intro to basic HTML authoring and CSS. Understanding the Internet: What's the World Wide Web? HTTP? FTP? What do all those letters mean, and more to the point, what do they do?
TEXT: Foust, chapters 1, 2, 3.
ONLINE RESOURCES:
HTML Testing space

Students will present their final portfolios in class during the final exam time.