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WEEK ONE SUMMER 2000
Instructor: Jack Lule
On this page are the assignments for Monday and Thursday of Week One. DEADLINES: Each week I will post reading and writing assignments by Monday, 7 p.m. and Thursday, 7 p.m. Each week, you should have the assignments that are posted Monday completed by Thursday, 7 p.m. You should have the assignments posted Thursday completed by Monday, 7 p.m. For this week, with classes starting on Tuesday, you should have your first assignments completed by Thursday, June 1, at 7 p.m. You should have Thursday's assignments completed by Monday, June 5, at 7 p.m. No doubt this is a good deal of reading and writing. But by establishing a good, regular online work routine, you should be able to complete the assignments -- and come to grips with important, interesting material. WEEK ONE, MONDAY: Although the University summer schedule does not officially begin until Tuesday, I'll post this assignment early. You can use our flexible schedule and also start early or wait until Tuesday. In a summer seminar, my goals for the first day are to go through the syllabus, introduce myself, have the students introduce themselves, and discuss how the class will be organized and conducted. Those goals are particularly important for the first day online so I'd like to follow that format. READ SYLLABUS: First, if you haven't read through the various syllabus topics on the class home page, please do that and see if you have any questions. Make sure you understand the proper way to register for the course; how assignments will be posted; the importance of regular online conference participation; how you'll be graded and evaluated. If you have any questions, just email me at jack.lule@lehigh.edu. Your browser may allow you to send email from the Web. If not, just use your usual email method. REGISTER AT DISCUSSION SITE: Second, I would like you to go to our WebCT online discussion area. The URL address is unwieldy: http://tools.lib.lehigh.edu:8900/ You will want to bookmark this address if you use one computer regularly. You can get also always get there from the home page. As I told you in my email instructions, the discussion site is easy and fun once you get to know it. You will first have to register, if you haven't done so already. Click on the orange key. give yourself a user name and password. It's easy. Once at the site, click on Bulletin Board and go to our discussion area. Give yourself some time to explore. The first thing you should always do is click on Forums. This will show all the Forums -- our week-to-week discussions throughout the semester. Explore more. Click on all the buttons on the left side. They usually do one of two things. For example, the Forum button will either show all the forums or hide all the forums. The Show All/Show Unread button will either show all messages or show only the unread messages. INTRODUCE YOURSELF: Your next assignment for this preliminary first day is simple. Click on Forums. At the Forum that says, "Introductions," I would like you to do just that. Click Compose and write to us. Provide the class with a screen or so of introduction. Tell us who you are, where you're from, your major, your class, your likes and dislikes, the name of your dog, and anything else that seems pertinent. I will do the same. RETURN OFTEN TO READ OTHER POSTINGS: You should provide your introduction as soon as possible and then before Thursday, 7 p.m. return to the conference often to read about your classmates and me. You can respond to classmates (although it's not necessary for Introductions) by hitting Respond. This will put your message under theirs, in the same "thread." Or you can hit Compose and make a new "thread." And with that, your first few days of online class will be complete. Congratulations! WEEK ONE, THURSDAY: Now that we are experienced online learners, we have numerous assignments for this day. Remember, you should have them all completed by Monday, June 5. 1) An important part of this class will be taking advantage of the many resources for research that are available on the World Wide Web. I want you to visit some of the U.S. and international news sites on the Web. I want you to look carefully at how they present the news. I want you to compare and contrast. You will find comprehensive listings of news media at the Crayon page. Scroll down that page and you will find international news media, listed country-by-country. At Editor & Publisher Interactive, you will also find a good country-by-country listing that includes broadcast outlets. American Journalism Review's NewsLink has a varied list of international broadcasting sites online. INTERNATIONAL COMPARISON: I would like you to compare online news sites from five different countries. One should be a U.S. news site. When you are finished, please send me an email summary. Tell me what sites you visited and why. Tell me what you thought was good. Tell me what interested or surprised you. ******* 2) For our discussion assignment, I want us to begin thinking about U.S. news coverage of international affairs. Especially since the end of the Cold War, U.S. coverage of international affairs seems to have dropped dramatically. Newspapers and networks have closed foreign bureaus. The amount of news allotted to foreign stories -- the "news hole" -- has shrunk. To understand the issues, you have three tasks: a) I would like you to read two articles from a fine U.S. newspaper, The Christian Science Monitor. The first article, "Through a Lens Darkly and Infrequently," discusses the shrinking news hole and Americans' seeming lack of interest in foreign news. The second article, "Foreign News Finds Niche on the Net," is more hopeful. It suggests that online newspapers may find more room for foreign news. You will find the two Christian Science Monitor articles here online. b) Once you have read these articles, I would like you to send me an email message that briefly summarizes those readings. Simply take a screen or so and tell me what you have learned. c) Once you have thought about these issues, please go to our online discussion area and address these questions: Do you think U.S. networks are correct in closing down expensive news bureaus? Are Americans uninterested in international news? Why or why not? If you come from another nation or have spent time in another country, definitely compare U.S. citizens with your own experience. Just write a screen or so. Tell us what you think and why. Make reference to the readings if you can. To get a solid B grade for your conference discussion, you should post once early, before midnight Saturday, responding to the assignment and making reference to the readings. Then before Monday, 7 p.m. you should post twice more, commenting on one or more of your classmates' postings. If you do less than that, your grade ultimately will suffer. To get an A, you should be contributing and commenting more frequently. You should be reading and responding to classmates. This is an online seminar. An ongoing, thoughtful dialogue is our main goal. If you do this well, we will have an in-depth, wide-ranging discussion of the issues. Indeed, I have found written conference discussions to be much more thoughtful and thorough than similar "in-class" talks. I think you'll find online learning to be interesting and fun. See you in cyberspace. Remember: we never close. return to J/IR 246 International Communication |