Encourage students to comment

My students started their own blogs. This is a typical assignment I have them do every semester in my Online Media class, however this is the first semester I required them to comment on other blogger’s blogs related to their topic. So far, I have found it a valuable addition to their blogging assignment because through their comments they are driving traffic to their site and exchanging comments with other fellow bloggers, which builds community. This comment assignments helps them more quickly understand the blogosphere and the norms of the blogging community.

Comments assignment
You must comment on other blogs related to your blog topic. Comments must add value to the post and invite reflection/conversation. Comments should not just say  “good job” or “nice post.” Comments must be on recent posts within a one month period. On the date of when each blog post is due, you must email me: 1) the blog post URL and 2) your actual comment.

Online journalism classes to consider adopting

There are several controversies related to teaching newer media and journalism, one of which is that schools focus too heavily on teaching skills. I can teach a student online and broadcast skills that give them an edge when applying for a position. However, have I prepared them to become a leader in that changing field? Journalism graduates burn out quickly because pay is low and hours are long. This means that there is a good chance that future graduates will question their future.

I believe that we should teach them enough skills to understand how to use technology to engage people through words, social media, and visuals. However, we must also cultivate leaders who continually inspire change. I don’t just want to teach them a skill so they can emulate it. Because all they will know is how to follow, not lead. The abilities to think, be flexible, and problem-solve are traits that make employees invaluable to an organization. I want my students to be creators, not consumers. If they lose a job, I want them to think about starting their own companies or be wise enough to look to other types of organizations for work. I want to train my students to adapt and think of journalism as a career for life. This is why I believe journalism programs should expand beyond skill-building to provide classes that connect technology to bigger issues. So I spent this evening instead of grading thinking of ideas for new undergraduate classes not always found in journalism programs.

Digital Sandbox (freshman)
The class encourages students to express their creativity by using whatever digital technology they have to tell stories in text and in visuals for online display. Friend and colleague Bonnie Bucqueroux invented this class concept as a way to encourage learning through structured play, before students are exposed to rigorous journalism school training. De-mystifying technology by focusing on fun also helps reduce pressure and stress on students.

Online Multimedia Journalism (sophomore/juniors)
This class teaches students to understand how to communicate visually, how people process information in the visual and online realm, and how to create visual content for the web. If the digital sandbox class was adopted, students would learn to express the skills they acquired at a professional level.

Entrepreneurship and Online Journalism (juniors/seniors)
Prerequisite: Online Multimedia Journalism
This class teaches students how create a Web site, develop a business plan for that site and use social media tools to market the site. The class would encourage students to work together to launch one or more Web sites into the marketplace.

Online Organizational Behavior and Change (juniors/seniors)
Prerequisite: Online Multimedia Journalism
This class teaches students to view journalism from an organizational perspective. Students would be teamed with information organizations to identify the problems they face and develop a plan to address those problems. Students would not only have the opportunity to job shadow, but they would be participant observers in helping organizations make the most of the online environment.

Citizen Journalism (sophomores/juniors/seniors)
Students in this class would each be assigned to cover one community.  Students would use online media to report on a community and would also recruit members of that community to contribute content to the site on issues facing that community.

Data Mining, Creation and Visualization (juniors/seniors)
Students in this class learn how to mine the internet for information. They not only learn how to find, evaluate, and aggregate sources of information and data, but they also learn how to present information graphically and visually. The class encourages students to do more than present information visually, but to also think critically, select samples, and to use social science research methods. This class reflects some elements of a class designed by Phil Meyer called Precision Journalism.

Defining and Envisioning Journalism (juniors/seniors or masters)
The class would address fundamentals such as the history of journalism, how journalism has evolved, how journalism functions to promote or limit democracy, what journalism is and who journalists are, news quality, and constraints on journalism. The class would also encourage students to envision how the field can retain the best from the past as we move into a digital future.

Elite news may not be the answer

There is a debate in academia as to whether newspapers should continue to provide a diversity of content or whether they should focus their efforts on a few topic areas to survive. Democratic theory assumes that people should actively seek a diversity of information in order to make knowledgeable decisions governing their lives. The question is whether it is one publication’s role to meet those needs. And if one community publication does not exist for readers of all backgrounds, what will this mean? Entman and Herbst argue that democracy will negatively be affected if the press encourages citizens to be ignorant by tailoring information solely for the elite audiences.

However, others argue publications should cater to elites or experts because elites can gather, synthesize, and communicate information to citizens. Phil Meyer, Knight Chair in Journalism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, argues that newspapers should concentrate their efforts on creating quality content for well-educated audiences. He argues the quality of news has diminished because of the need to disseminate a diversity of information.

I think it is important to evaluate the potential consequences and consider the audience before making this sort of committment. A recent study published in Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly by Tewksbury, Hals, and Bibart provides some evidence to counter the argument against creating content for elite audiences. The study divides people into two categories: Selectors (people who use the internet to find information on one topic at a time) and Browsers (those who use information sites to monitor what’s happening in the world). The results show that the majority of newspaper and internet news readers sampled tend to be browsers. These type of readers prefer to scan the publication on a range of topics to be informed on current affairs, and browsers feel more politically and socially aware. Browsers may prefer to scan a publication out of habit because that is how newspapers were read in the past.

I will agree that citizens are not ideal creatures consuming all of the information presented to them, but it is in their nature to connect with other people. But what happens if a publication does not exist to unite people of varying levels of knowledge?

Entman, R.M. and S. Herbst (2001) ’Reframing Public Opinion as We Have Known It’, in W.L. Bennett and R.M. Entman (eds.) Mediated Politics. Communication in the Future of Democracy, pp. 203-25. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.

Tewksbury, D., M.L. Hals, and A. Bibart (2008) ‘The Efficacy of News Browsing: The Relationship of News Consumption Style to Social and Political Efficacy’, Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 85(2): 257-272.

Consumption of public affairs online

People remember more public affairs and other types information from newspapers more than any other medium. However, research is unclear to what affect the presentation of information online will have on news users. The fear with the move online is that people will only read news that directly interests them, rather than news that affects the nation and the world. Cass Sunstein, University of Chicago law professor, has argued that the internet may be become an echo chamber because people will only seek information that aligns with their interests. In the past, newspapers provided cues as to what issues were considered important. In the online realm, there may be fewer cues because the vast amount of information available on a home page and because people arrive to the online publication by going through other routes than the home page such as search engines, RSS feeds, and blogs.

An interesting survey by De Waal and Shoenback in Mass Communication & Society found that online news readers were just as familiar with public affairs topics as newspaper readers. The authors suggest that people may run inadvertently accross a diversity of topics through other means such as news aggregators (e.g., Yahoo News, Google News). The authors also argue that print newspapers need to begin differianting their product from their online one, perhaps by focusing on indepth coverage of public affairs topics. Writing for two different publication types would be difficult for journalists to do the because of downsizing and lack of resources. The need to create efficient content is one reason behind the lack of variability between offline and online publication types.

Social networking’s influence on the election

The influence of candidates using social networking sites such as Facebook or MySpace to reach young voters will not be revealed until after the election. Barack and McCain even have their own own social networking sites. However, if the race rested on social networking site figures, Obama would win. Obama has even made fun of McCain for being out of touch because he does not know how to use email.

Jason Manning, formerly of The Washington Post, now Director of Student Media at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication spoke to my class about whether social networking will influence the outcome of the election. Manning shared an interesting site, TechPresident, that tracks how the candidates are using the web. Based on the number of Facebook and MySpace supporters, Obama would win, however Real Clear Politics poll averages reveal that the race is neck and neck with only a few points difference between the candidates, as Manning showed the class. Social networking sites are more likely used by young people. According to a recent Pew Internet report, “two-thirds of internet users under the age of 30 have a social networking profile, and half of these use social networking sites to get or share information about politics or the campaigns.” And young people are more likely to be Democrats. Thus, the outcome of the election may rest on whether young people decide to vote, and perhaps, whether these sites motivate them to get to the polls.

Journalists may increase participation

A common complaint that I hear from journalists and academics is that the public simply does not care about important issues facing the nation and the world. To respond to this issue, news professionals should critically analyze how they can alter content to potentially encourage civic participation.

This post derives from the arguments of several researchers, whom are cited below. The authors argue that journalists cannot realistically expect citizens to be politically active by simply disseminating information from the mouths of sources. Instead, journalists should provide details that inform citizens of participation opportunities such as how they can get involved, where they can go to voice their concern, or whom they can contact. These researchers found that journalists rarely explain issues or provide information on how citizens can get involved with issues of direct concern to them. In the past, research has shown that journalists did not include this information because they viewed these details as a violation of the objectivity standard and there was simply not enough room to include them on-air or in print.

However, space is not as much of an issue online. Mobilizing or enabling information could be added in an information box adjacent to almost any type of story. Here is an example of how one news organization provided information to the public on how to participate. Look at the end of the story.

Gans, H.J. (1998). What can journalists actually do for American democracy? Press/Politics, 3(4), 6-12.

Lemert, J. B., Mitzman, B. N., Seither, M. A., Cook, R. H., & O’Neil, R. M. (1977). Journalists and mobilizing information. Journalism Quarterly, 54(4), 721-726.

Keefer, J. D. (1993). News media’s failure to facilitate citizen participation in the congressional policymaking process. Journalism Quarterly, 70(2), 412-424.

Hoffman, L. H. (2006). Is internet content different after all? A content analysis of mobilizing information in online and print newspapers. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 83(1), 58-76.

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