Introduction

The academic calendar says that in this course "Students are introduced to a range of basic tools and concepts in multimedia journalism, from basic HTML and Web design to the use of Web 2.0 tools to author and publish video, audio, and still photography online."

Online journalism has entered a golden era. The combination of easy Web publishing, a mature approach to funding and/or income, and the critical mass of Internet penetration have allowed online journalism to flourish, sort of.

Whether in the form of a blog or podcast or online window into a major media conglomerate, online journalism has its own foibles and processes. The online journalist may be forced to wear many hats: reporter; editor; coder; graphic artist; and sysadmin (system adminstrator).

This course will help you fill those hats. You will write for the Web. You will collaborate. You will design and code a Web page (you may have done this already). Many entry-level and advanced job descriptions call for basic knowledge of HTML and this course will equip you for that requirement.

We'll blog, create audio and video content, and create data mashups and slideshows. We'll also spend time, as a class, thinking though the various conceptual and practical issues associated with the recent changes in news production, such as the economics of multimedia, the design and staffing of the multimedia newsroom, and the advantages and disadvantages of digital tools for Web images and video.

By the end of the semester, you should have a clear sense of the various ways we as journalists use digital media. By learning to apply social tools (okay, even Twitter) to the practice of journalism, we'll learn how to recognize journalistic potential in new media as soon as technological developments make them possible, and know how to assess, learn, and tune new media to our needs as journalists.

Cool, eh?

Policies

1. Students must hand in all assignments within the first five minutes of class time on the due date. Late papers will be awarded half the marks they earn unless you have made specific arrangements with me at least 24 hours in advance. I may allow exceptions for serious illness, bereavement, or other comparable emergency, in which case the student may be asked to present a note from a doctor or other official. All missed assignments must be handed in by a new deadline agreed upon with me. The unreliability of an e-mail provider such as (and especially) Hotmail (1, 2, 3) is not a valid excuse for late assignments.

4. Do not copy, paraphrase, or translate anything from anywhere without saying from where you obtained it. Duh!

5. In all Journalism Department courses, professors may deduct up to 10% from the final grade for poor attendance, chronic lateness, or unsatisfactory behaviour. It's not my job to keep you from IMing or checking e-mail during class - you need to police yourself.

6. Class attendance is mandatory. To encourage attendance, ten of the 13 classes will begin with a short quiz based on current events and the readings for that class. Any student missing four or more classes for any reason may be asked to repeat the course. That can really suck.

7. The iMacs we use have drives that you can use to write CDs or DVDs. They also have USB ports for flash-memory sticks or the equivalent.

8. No food or drink is allowed in the computer lab. Really.

Materials

This course requires no textbooks, but I will post readings for each week's class on the course Web site at http://nyveen.surfzen.com/202. Additionally, the course does require you to have a Google account. You don't have to use Gmail, but you will need access to Google Docs.

You should have access to either a still camera or other photographic device. The department has basic digital cameras to loan, but I strongly encourage you to use equipment you already own. This course does not emphasize high-end equipment but focuses on multiplatform thinking, and on telling stories using the tools you have on hand. In the field, that may be only an iPhone or some such. It's been done, often.

I strongly recommend that students buy a box of disks, a plug-in USB memory stick, or a portable hard drive (such as an iPod) on which they can store back-ups of their assignments, but I do not require that. You can also use Google to back up your work. Ask me how!

Note on Computers

Computers are not infallible, and they sometimes fail. Back up your work elsewhere! If you discover a computer is malfunctioning, e-mail me with the nature of the problem and the offending computer's identification.