JO807: Advanced Journalism Research
Spring ’01 – Tuesday 3-6 p.m.  — COM 208

Preliminary Class Schedule

Week

Date(s)

Topic

Week 0

Jan. 16

§   Course introduction

Week I

Jan. 23

§   Taking the 1st Amendment

Week II

Jan. 30

§   The Infosphere: How the Digital Age Influences Journalism

§   Managing Your Bookmarks

Week III

Feb. 6

§   Searching Strategies: Metasearching

§   Keyword Searching

Week VI

Feb. 13

§   Keyword Searching

§   Alert Search Tools and Online Storage

Week V

Feb. 20

§   Planning Reporting Projects

§   Census 2000 Conference Sat. and Sunday

Week VI

Feb. 27

§   No class – JTJ @ Poynter Inst.

Week VII

Mar. 6

§   No class – Spring Break

Week VIII

Mar. 13

§   Databases: On the Web and otherwise

Week IX

Mar. 20

§   Databases: What does the agency have and how does it have it?

Week X

Mar. 27

§   General Systems Theory and Journalism

Week XI

April 3

§   Principles of Visual Statistics

Week XII

April 10

§   Thinking About Inflation

§   6th Annual Search Engine Conference

Week XIII

April 19

§   Calculating for Inflation

Week XIV

April 22

§   Searching Public Records

§   Freedom of Information Act

Week XV

May 1

§   “The Last Waltz” — Presentation of projects

Finals Week

May 7

§  

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JO807: Advanced Journalism Research
Spring ‘01

Preliminary Class Schedule

Week # 0

Tuesday Date: 16 Jan 2001 — 2-5 p.m.  Classes begin

Topic:

Welcome

Readings:

·    

Pre-Class Assgns:

·   Be sure to have some sort of accessible e-mail address.  Do NOT use  AOL or Hotmail-type services.

·   Complete unofficial JO807 background survey at https://forms.flashbase.com/forms/ClassSignupform

In-Class Assgns:

·   Register at eGroups site http://www.egroups.com
Once registered with eGroups, look for http://www.egroups.com/group/BUJO807-F00

Notes:

·   Even if you’re in the Monday night session, please make an effort to come Tuesday afternoon.  Among other things, we will be trouble shooting some potential computer challenges.

·   Learn how to set up “mail forwarding” from BU account.
http://www.bu.edu/directory/change_entry.html

·   Email for Life? See http://www.bu.edu/alumni/email/forwarding/questions.html

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JO807: Advanced Journalism Research
Spring ‘01

 

Week #1

 

Tuesday Date: 23 Jan. 2001

 

Topic:

·   Online Research

·   Introduction to the course

·   The 1st Amendment: Why we do journalism

 

Readings:

·   Nora Paul: Introduction to the Fourth Edition, p. ix

·   Nora Paul: Chapter 1
(EX Johnson: Some, but far from all, of the Paul book is online, but not enough that you can avoid buying it. Paul's chapters are short, but her writing is quite tight. Read carefully because every sentence has important data for you to analyze.)

·   Nora Paul's "Computer-Assisted Research" ToC

·   NP's Computer-Assisted Research Chpt 1D "Before you start"

·   Paul, Nora and Margo Williams. "GREAT SCOUTS! CyberGuides to Subject Searching on the Web
(EX Johnson: No, you don't have to buy/read this book. But go to the site and scroll down to see how Paul and Williams have organized their suggested resources. Any sites here that might have value for a journalist? If so, how are you going to file them so you can use that tool?))

 

Pre-Class Assgns:

·   Be sure to have some sort of e-mail address.  Avoid AOL.

·   Complete unofficial enrollment background survey at https://forms.flashbase.com/forms/ClassSignupform

·   Register at class website: http://egroups.com/
Once registered with eGroups, look for class BUJO807-F00 at http://www.egroups.com/group/BUJO807-F00

 

In-Class Assgns:

·   How to “flush your cache”

·   Setting home page in browser.  Perhaps a metasearch engine or Journalist Express

 

Notes:

·   Always bring a floppy ZIP disk or two to class

 

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JO807: Advanced Journalism Research
Spring ‘01

Week #2

Tuesday Date: 30 Jan 2001

·   Topic:

§   The Infosphere: How the Digital Age Influences Journalism

§   Managing Your Bookmarks

Readings:

·   Paul, Chapter 2
(EX Johnson: There's a fair amount of relatively technical material in this chapter, but study it closely and be prepared to discuss the definitions of and uses for the major topics/tools in this chapter.

Pre-Class Assgns:

·   Go here to learn how you can access the BU Library from off campus.

·   If you're not familiar with things like changing the IP address in your personal computer, get the necessary CD-ROM from the Computer Support folks and install it. (NB: This set-up is necessary to get into the library's licensed databases like Lexis-Nexis, but you can only do so with a traditional telephone dialup. That is, if you're using DSL or a cable modem, you have to use a normal telephone modem to get to these databases. It's possible to do both, and we can discuss this in class. That said, make sure you use the CD-ROM to install the appropriate settings.)

·   find a WWW site with a free- or share-ware program for managing your bookmarks

·   Download and install that program on your PC

·   Study the program to determine the name of the file where the bookmarks are stores.  (It’s probably something like BOOKMARK.HTM)

·   Create a personal bookmark file and save it to your floppy disk

·   Complete Task #3-Boolean Logic

In-Class Assgns:

·   Task #1: A Simple Question

·   Task #2: Question #2

·   Task#4: Evaluating a Search Engine

Notes:

·   If you can set up your computer at home to get into the library’s licensed databases, take a good look at Lexis-Nexis.

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JO807: Advanced Journalism Research
Spring ‘01

Week #3

Tues. 6 Feb. 2001

Topic:

§   Searching Strategies: Metasearching

§   Keyword Searching

Readings:

·   Paul, Nora Chapter 2 (all)

Pre-Class Assgns:

·   Task #13: Using file archiving programs, i.e. WinZIP or Stuff-it

·   Task #5: Demonstrate knowledge and use of Listservs and NewsGroups

·   Task #5a: Create a signature block

In-Class Assgns:

·   Do Task #6a: Subscribe to selected listservs. See handout.

Notes:

·   Project proposal memo due

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JO807: Advanced Journalism Research
Spring ‘01

Week #4

Tuesday Date: 13 Feb 2001

Topic:

§   Keyword Searching

§   Alert Search Tools and Online Storage

Readings:

·   Nora Paul: Chapt. 3.

Pre-Class Assgns:

·    

In-Class Assgns:

·   Due: Project proposal memo
Filename/slug = JO807#PP-???

·   Task #07 - Tables and your business card

Notes:

·  You can use this document ResearchTopicWorksheet.rtf to plan your semester research project.

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JO807: Advanced Journalism Research
Spring ‘01

Week #5

Tuesday Date: 20 Feb. 2001

Topic:

Planning Reporting Projects

Readings:

·   Nora Paul: Chapt. 4 and 5 and 6

Pre-Class Assgns:

·    

In-Class Assgns:

·    

Notes:

·   This weekend  — Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 24-25  — plan on attending the IRE conference on covering Census 2000.  BU students get in free.  See http://www.2000census.org/

·   Time to brush up on – or learn – how to use Excel.

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JO807: Advanced Journalism Research
Spring ‘01

Week #6

Tuesday Date: 27 Feb. 2001  — NO CLASS THIS WEEK but bibliography due

Topic:

 

Readings:

·  

Pre-Class Assgns:

·   Due: Annotated bibliography and source list. 
Filename/slug = JO807#ABSL-???

In-Class Assgns:

·  

Notes:

·    Annotated bibliography and source list due 2/27.   

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JO807: Advanced Journalism Research
Spring ‘01

Week #7

Tuesday Date: 06 March 2001  — NO CLASS THIS WEEK  — SPRING BREAK

Topic:

 

Readings:

·  

Pre-Class Assgns:

·  

In-Class Assgns:

·  

Notes:

·    

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JO807: Advanced Journalism Research
Spring ‘01

Week #8

Tuesday Date: 13 March 2001

Topic:

§   Databases: On the Web and otherwise

Readings:

·   Houston: Chapters 7 & 8

Pre-Class Assgns:

·   Task #8: Making – and manipulating – a table of data from the Web.

In-Class Assgns:

·    

Notes:

·    

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JO807: Advanced Journalism Research
Spring ‘01

Week #9

Tuesday Date: 20 March 2001

Topic:

§   Databases: What does the agency have and how does it have it?

Readings:

·   Houston: Chapt. 8

Pre-Class Assgns:

·   Task #9: What's in the agency?

In-Class Assgns:

·    

Notes:

·    

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JO807: Advanced Journalism Research
Spring ‘01

Week #10

Tuesday Date: 27 March 2001

Topic:

§         General Systems Theory and Journalism

§         Data Cleaning

Readings:

·    

Pre-Class Assgns:

·    

In-Class Assgns:

·     Task #10a: Cleaning Data

Notes:

·    

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JO807: Advanced Journalism Research
Spring ‘01

Week #11

Tuesday Date: 03 April 2001

Topic:

§   Principles of Visual Statistics

Readings:

·    

Pre-Class Assgns:

·    

In-Class Assgns:

·    

Notes:

·    

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JO807: Advanced Journalism Research
Spring ‘01

Week #12

Tuesday Date: 10 April 2001

Topic:

§   Thinking About Inflation

Readings:

·    

Pre-Class Assgns:

·    Attend 6th Annual Search Engine Conference April 8-10, Hynes Convention Center

In-Class Assgns:

·    

Notes:

·    

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JO807: Advanced Journalism Research
Spring ‘01

Week #13

Tuesday Date: 17 April 2001

Topic:

§   Calculating for Inflation

Readings:

§  

Pre-Class Assgns:

·    

In-Class Assgns:

·    

Notes:

·    

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JO807: Advanced Journalism Research
Spring ‘01

Week #14

Tuesday Date: 24 April 2001

Topic:

§   Searching Public Records

§   Freedom of Information Act

Readings:

·  

Pre-Class Assgns:

·  

In-Class Assgns:

·  

Notes:

·  

 

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JO807: Advanced Journalism Research
Spring ‘01

Week #15   — 

Tuesday Date: 01 May 2001

Topic:

 “The Last Waltz”

Readings:

·  

Pre-Class Assgns:

·  

In-Class Assgns:

·  

Notes:

Final projects due.  Must be submitted by the deadline: The BEGINNING of class.

 

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