Chapters

Chapter 1

Chapter Goals

  • To introduce you to the practice of online journalism
  • To discuss the advantages of online media for practicing journalism
  • To discuss the basic types of online journalism sites
  • To provide basic criteria for evaluating online journalism sites
  • To discuss the economic challenges facing journalism and how these challenges affect online journalism
  • To outline the organization of this book

QuickLinks

The Long Tail: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.10/tail.html

U.S. Supreme Court: http://www.supremecourt.gov/

Tampa Bay Online: http://www2.tbo.com/

Patch: http://www.patch.com/

CNN: http://www.cnn.com/

The New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/

Pew Project State of the News Media: http://stateofthemedia.org/

Chapter 2

Chapter Goals

  • To introduce basic issues involved in the online journalism production process
  • To discuss the concepts of convergence and modular content as they relate to online journalism
  • To discuss new forms of online journalism, including news aggregators, blogs and hyperlocal sites, that are supplementing traditional forms
  • To illustrate the wide range of online journalism organizations by looking at case studies of large, medium and small legacy Web operations

QuickLinks

Marcy Wheeler’s Blog: http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/

Project for Excellence in Journalism: http://www.journalism.org/

SourceMedia Group: http://sourcemedia.net/

NewWest.net: http://www.newwest.net/

"We Media" Report: http://www.hypergene.net/wemedia/weblog.php

The Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com

Michael Shear's Mitt Romney video: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/video/2007/08/02/VI2007080201294.html

The Columbus Dispatch: http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/index.html

DispatchKitchen: http://www.dispatchkitchen.com/live/content/index.html

13abc.com: http://abclocal.go.com/wtvg/index

Chapter 3

Chapter Goals

  • To discuss various types of audience participation in the journalistic process, from acting as sources to citizen journalism
  • To provide an overview of mobile devices and their potential for users and journalists
  • To provide an overview of social media and their potential value to journalists and journalism organization

QuickLinks

Public Radio International: http://www.pri.org/

Public Insight Network: http://www.publicinsightnetwork.org/

Watchdog Blog: http://www.news-press.com/section/SS15/Watchdog

iReport: http://ireport.cnn.com/

NYT’s Recession Photos: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/04/02/business/economy/economy-user-photos.html

Pictory Mag: http://www.pictorymag.com/

The Guardian’s MP Expenses:  http://mps-expenses.guardian.co.uk/

The Forum: http://forumhome.org/

AnnArbor.com on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/AnnArborcom

Chapter 4

Chapter Goals

  • To provide an overview of the development of the Internet and the World Wide Web
  • To introduce the basic applications that allow information exchange over the Internet, both with and without the World Wide Web
  • To discuss the attributes and advantages of digital media
  • To survey the basic types, formats and resource requirements of digital media
  • To discuss the basic hardware and software considerations related to producing and consuming online journalism

QuickLinks

Wired Magazine Article: http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/08/ff_webrip/all/1

Pitch Interactive’s Mashup: http://www.pitchinteractive.com/usbudget/

Google Docs: https://www.google.com/accounts/ServiceLogin?service=writely&passive=1209600&continue=http://docs.google.com/&followup=http://docs.google.com/&ltm

DocumentCloud Commercial Appeal Article: http://www.documentcloud.org/home

Chapter 5

Chapter Goals

  • To examine the general process for using online sources for journalistic stories
  • To discuss the use of e-mail, newsgroups and listservs as potential tools for journalists
  • To provide an overview of Web page–based information, including general reference sources, specialized sources for journalists, search engines, directories, online journalism sites and databases
  • To explore the basic techniques of evaluating online sources using both technical and journalistic skills

QuickLinks

ProfNet: https://profnet.prnewswire.com/CommunicationProfessional.aspx

National Press Club: http://press.org/

Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ): http://www.spj.org/

U.S. Census Bureau: http://www.census.gov/

Federal Aviation Administration: http://www.faa.gov/

Amy Webb's Webmedia Group: http://www.webbmediagroup.com/

InterNIC: http://www.internic.net/index.html

Chapter 6

Chapter Goals

  • To provide an overview of the basic structure of HTML, including standards for tags and attributes
  • To discuss the most common tags for document structure and working with images and links in HTML
  • To introduce the use of cascading style sheets for formatting text in HTML documents
  • To introduce the basic operation of HTML authoring programs, such as Adobe Dreamweaver
  • To provide an overview of JavaScript programming for adding interactivity to Web pages
  • To provide an overview of the process of managing websites with a content management system

QuickLinks

W3C: http://www.w3.org/

W3C CSS Standards: http://www.w3.org/Style/CSS/

Chapter 7

Chapter Goals

  • To discuss the basic design structure used on most online journalism sites
  • To introduce the principles that guide visual design for the Web
  • To discuss the effective presentation of text, color and graphics on Web pages effectively
  • To show how cascading style sheets can be used to create design grids for Web pages
  • To discuss how differences among Web browsers and computer platforms affect Web page design

QuickLinks

The New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/

MSNBC: http://www.msnbc.com

ESPN: http://espn.go.com/

Adobe's Kuler: http://kuler.adobe.com/

Chapter 8

Chapter Goals

  • To discuss the concepts of chunking and distilling for online content
  • To examine how headlines, subheads and summaries can be effectively written
  • To discuss how online story organization and structures can aid scannability
  • To provide an overview of how online stories can be updated with new information

QuickLinks

WikiLeaks Coverage: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/world/statessecrets.html

Google AdWords: https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

Chapter 9

Chapter Goals

  • To discuss the concept of curation, wherein news organization gather, organize and present existing online information as part of the reporting process
  • To show the basic techniques of creating links in HTML
  • To discuss the process of selecting links to use in online stories
  • To provide an overview on presenting links in online stories, including main story links and sidebar links
  • To introduce issues involved in linking, including legal and ethical concerns, and link maintenance

QuickLinks

Vannevar Bush’s Memex article: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1945/07/as-we-may-think/3881/

Mary Ellen’s Will: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/spe/2006/4949swiss/

Chapter 10

Chapter Goals

  • To provide an overview of media elements, specifically graphics, sound, video and rich content, and how they can be used in online journalism
  • To discuss how mashups work and the role of application program interfaces (APIs)
  • To show a sampling of Web-based journalism using multiple media elements and advanced interactivity

QuickLinks

NewsU Language of the Image: http://www.newsu.org/courses/language-image

NewsU Telling Stories With Sound: http://www.newsu.org/courses/telling-stories-sound

JQuery: http://jquery.com/

EveryBlock Chicago: http://chicago.everyblock.com/

API Directory: http://www.programmableweb.com/apis/directory

Suburbified: http://www.suburbified.com/

Casino Map: http://www.lasvegassun.com/history/map/

Girl in the Window: http://www.tampabay.com/features/humaninterest/article750838.ece

Haiti Earthquake: http://content.usatoday.com/topics/topic/Events+and+Awards/In-depth+Coverage/Haiti+Earthquake

Heritage Music Trail: http://www.roanoke.com/webmin/news/musical-heritage-trail-gains-national-distinction/article_239918f6-5890-51d4-9576-50d744e2f560.html

Budget Balancer: http://minnesota.publicradio.org/projects/2007/03/budget_balancer/

The Garbage Game: http://www.gothamgazette.com/games/garbage.php

Chapter 11

Chapter Goals

  • To introduce the basic processes of gathering images, audio and video for online journalism
  • To discuss equipment used to gather and edit images, video and audio
  • To discuss technical and aesthetic considerations and preparations

QuickLinks

Shutter speed demonstration: http://www.digital-photography-school.com/shutter-speed

Sound pick-up demonstration: http://hhpcommunities.com/onlinejournalism/sounddemo.html

Effective use of natural sound: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9252214

Audacity: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

Chapter 12

Chapter Goals

  • To discuss issues of responsibility for libelous material, especially how they affect Internet service providers and journalistic websites
  • To discuss the issues of obscenity and indecency and how they apply to online content
  • To examine aspects of copyright on the Internet, including the concept of fair use and digital copying
  • To introduce the issues involved in online journalism sites’ user agreement contracts
  • To discuss the concept of reporter’s privilege and how it applies to “non-traditional” journalists such as bloggers
  • To introduce ethical issues involved in blogging, commenting, linking, publishing secret information, and editing images and sounds

QuickLinks

Communications Decency Act: http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=104_cong_public_laws&docid=f:publ104.104.pdf

SPEECH Act:  http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:S.3518.IS:

Circular 66: http://nightmist.us/stuck/EL/COPYRIGHT/circ66.pdf

Creative Commons: http://creativecommons.org/

Model Code of Ethics: http://www.cyberjournalist.net/news/000215.php

Shield laws by state: http://www.citmedialaw.org/state-shield-laws

RTNDA Code of Ethics: http://www.rtnda.org/pages/media_items/code-of-ethics-and-professional-conduct48.php