JOUR 222--Introduction

Introduction

Reading assignment: Chapter 1 (pp. 3-22)

Journalism 222

Introduction

The Internet offers a vast array of resources to journalists or anyone else who needs information. Much of the information that used to require hours or days of work in a library to locate can now be found in a relatively short time without leaving your computer.
Most people who have used the Internet begin by surfing. That's perhaps the most enjoyable way to approach the World Wide Web. Unfortunately, it's also the least efficient way to conduct research. You can spend a lot of time surfing before you find the information that you need. And if you're a journalist working on deadline, saving time is vital!

"Indeed, knowledge of sources -- whether on the Internet or a bookshelf, or in a commercial research database or CD-ROM -- is the key to becoming a successful researcher. Unfortunately, many students never learn about the importance of this step in the research process." -- Genie Tyburski, Web Manager, The Virtual Chase.

This course is designed to help you to get the most out of your use of the Internet as you conduct research, whether you need to look up something in a hurry or you are working on an in-depth project that will take extended time.
In the lessons ahead, we'll cover a variety of topics. Some will probably already be familiar to you. We'll also look at some that you may not have encountered before.

"The beauty of the Internet is in the quantity of data that can be found on it. The bane of the Internet is that the vast majority isn't what you want." -- Phillip D. Long, Syllabus (July/August 2004, p. 10)

Pages on this site have been tested in Microsoft Internet Explorer 6. You should be able to use them with other browsers, too, but results may vary.
This course is designed with journalism students in mind, but it should be useful for anyone interested in research. The principles that we cover can apply to conducting research in any discipline.

Caution: The Internet changes constantly. New sources will appear, and some of the sources that we consider in this class may disappear or change significantly. If you want to make the best of using the Internet for research you must keep up with such changes after you complete this course
In fact, a news story in the Nov. 30, 2003, issue of the San Francisco Chronicle reported on research that studied disappearing Web sites. Three items of note were as follows:

10 percent of Web pages used as references for articles in three major scientific journals were not available 15 months after the articles were published.
20 percent of a Web-based high school science curriculum's Internet addresses were not available after 12 months.
50 percent of the Web addresses mentioned in articles in two computing journals were not available after four years.

You can find the full story, "Web sites vanish so fast scientific papers just can't keep up," (if the link hasn't disappeared!) at http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2003/11/30/MNGBD3BLD61.DTL.

Sign in please: Since we won't meet physically to allow checking of a class roll, please send me e-mail by clicking the following link: blick@latech.edu to let me know that you are actually participating in Journalism 222. (If you have already received e-mail from me about being enrolled in this class, you don't have to do this step.)