Integration of Internet Resources into Curriculum and Instruction

Abstract

As society moves into electronic age, more people are communicating in cyberspace and using cyberspace to access information. Journalists and trainee journalists have alternative but to fit this mold. They will have to search cyberspace to locate newsworthy data and human sources, just as they do in physical world. Leccese (1994, p. 35) says that the government, universities, and commercial services add new information sources every week on Internet. The number of sites on Internet's World Wide Web has increased dramatically from 1,000 in April 1994 to 40,000 in November 1994 and to 110,000 in October 1995 (Stacey, 1995). The federal government had increased number of federal electronic databases to 10,000 in 1991 (Morrissey, 1995, p. 49). But many federal agencies computerize their offices for their own convenience, and don't think [of] public, much less [of] press (p. 48). Federal agencies have denied electronic data access by newspapers for various reasons (Splichal,1992-1993). However, trend is for federal agencies to make records available electronically, often on-line. Even state governments and local communities have expanded free on-line access to their records through computer linkups (Prime, 1994). Journalists also can meet with millions of world's other Internet users. Forrester Research has estimated current Internet users at 10 million worldwide, and has predicted that number to rise to 52 million in 2000 (Stacey, 1995). Newspapers, mainly larger ones, have increased their use of electronic databases. By 1995, it had turned from a marginal tool to one used by 44.6 percent of big-size newspapers with a circulation size of more than 20,000 (Garrison, 1995b, 1995c, p. 123). The role of journalists in on-line search has also increased relative to that of librarians. Some journalists have benefited from training programs offered by their own newspapers (Garrison, 1995b). Learning on-line search skills before entering profession will help journalists make better use of on-line information. It can expedite newspapers' adoption of on-line search, especially by small newspapers that cannot afford to hire people mainly for on-line search. Ross and Middleberg (1996) assert that no journalism school can do enough, fast enough to train students to accommodate this phenomenal growth in on-line services. Funding or facilities for journalism education, however, have become limited because of financial difficulties facing journalism programs across country (Nelson,1994; Kosicki & Becker,1994). In context of current higher-education budget crunch, Internet is an ideal tool to use in classroom. Information gathering and interaction with others through Internet, via E-mail and other modes, are readily available for classroom training, as well as for newsroom training. Garrison (1995d, p. 14) and others (Friend, 1994; Houston, 1996; Paul, 1994) have pointed out that on-line news research, database analysis and other forms of computer-assisted reporting (C.A.R.) are already available to news organizations and journalists. Garrison (1995c, p. 16) also says that newspapers often move to on-line services as a first-step into C.A.R. because this requires minimal tools and expenses. One concern in integration of new technologies into teaching is how to retain solid core curriculum and, at same time, add new on-line material. Johnson (1995a) has estimated that educating students in new areas of knowledge for Digital Age would require a minimum total of 12- to 15-credit semester hours in journalism major. As a solution, he has proposed more highly specialized journalism graduate programs. Incorporating new technology into existing courses, rather than placing it in separate courses, entails problem of how to add new material to supplement content of a course without sacrificing its original core. …

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