The Future of News
Professor: Josh Roiland
Office: Flanner Hall 1038
Email: jroiland@nd.edu
Phone: 574-631-2599 (office)
314-550-9156 (cell)
Office Hours: W+Th 4-5pm
“The future is already here; it’s just not evenly distributed.”
—William Gibson, novelist
Course Description
This course will examine the future of news in the Digital Age. As the newspaper industry continues to shrink, as media conglomerates continue to grow, and as the public increasingly turns to their computers, smart phones, and tablets for news, information, and entertainment (often all blended into one), what will be the impact on public discourse and, ultimately, democracy in America? The course will have two components: 1) a critical survey of current issues facing the journalism industry, 2) a practical experience in mobile, multimedia journalism. Students will study the recent technologic and economic changes in American journalism and then apply that knowledge in two separate essays on the new media landscape. They will also maintain an active Twitter presence with daily postings of news stories related to our class topic, appended with the dedicated course hashtag #NDJED. Students will create and maintain blogs that will house four different multimedia projects along with various written assignments throughout the semester. The four digital projects are: photojournalism, audio journalism, audio slideshow, and video documentary. Are these new hybrid forms of reporting and storytelling the future of news? If so, what are the implications for readers, viewers, and journalists themselves?
iPads+Hardware
This class will use iPad3s (or equivalent tablet device) to both monitor and create journalistic content. The iPads were purchased with generous support from the College of Arts & Letters, the Department of American Studies, and the Gallivan Program in Journalism, Ethics, and Democracy. You will keep the iPad for the entire semester, and you will sign an agreement that stipulates you will return the iPad at the end of the semester (or earlier, if you choose not to stay enrolled in the class). In the event that your iPad becomes lost, stolen, or damaged, it is imperative that you contact me immediately so that we can work through proper university channels to recover, restore, and/or fix the device. In addition to the iPads, the Gallivan Program has purchased an assortment related hardware (mics, tripod, mounts, etc.) which you will have at your disposal when reporting and producing your story. These items will be kept in my office and must be checked out and returned on time.
Required Texts
• Robert W. McChesney & Victor Pickard, Will the Last Reporter Please Turn Out the Lights?
• Mark S. Luckie, The Digital Journalist’s Handbook
• Course Packet
• Assorted iPad Applications
Course Requirements & Evaluation
• Mandatory daily attendance & class participation: 10%
• Blog+Twitter 10%
• Paper 1 15%
• Paper 2 15%
• Photography Project 10%
• Audio Project 15%
• SoundSlides Project 10%
• Video Project 15%
Reading and Writing Schedule
WEEK 1
Monday
Course Introduction
WEEK 2
Monday
*Pew Research Center, “The State of the News Media 2013”
Wednesday
Mark Luckie, The Digital Journalist’s Handbook, Ch.1, 3, 9
Clay Shirky, “Here Comes Everybody” (WATCH)
WEEK 3
Monday
Eric Alterman, “Out of Print: The Death & Life of the American Newspapers”
Robert McChesney, “Farewell to Journalism? Time for a Rethinking”
Wednesday
Paul Starr, “Goodbye to the Age of Newspapers (Hello to a New Era of Corruption): Why American Politics and Society are About to Be Changed for the Worse
WEEK 4
Monday
Clay Shirky, “Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable”
David Simon, “Build the Wall”
James T. Hamilton, “What’s the Incentive to Save Journalism?”
Wednesday
Mark Luckie, The Digital Journalist’s Handbook, Ch.4
WEEK 5
Monday
Leonard Downie & Michael Schudson, “The Reconstruction of American Journalism”
Todd Gitlin, “A Surfeit of Crises: Circulation, Revenue, Attention, Authority, and Deference”
Wednesday
Photojournalism Workshop
WEEK 6
Monday
John Nichols & Robert W. McChesney, “The Money and Media Election Complex”
Jay Rosen, “Why Political Coverage is Broken”
Sasha Issenburg, “Why Campaign Reporters Are Behind the Curve”
Wednesday
Mark Luckie, The Digital Journalist’s Handbook, Ch.5
Photo Project DUE
WEEK 7
Monday
Jodi Enda, “Campaign Coverage in the Time of Twitter”
Amy Mitchell, Paul Hitlin, “Twitter Reaction to Events Often at Odds with Overall Public Opinion,”
Wednesday
Sarah Sobieraj, Jeffrey M. Berry, “From Incivility to Outrage: Political Discourse in Blogs, Talk Radio and Cable News”
Chris Hedges, “The Disease of Objectivity”
WEEK 8
Monday
Audio Journalism Workshop
Wednesday
Audio Journalism Workshop
Sunday
Paper 1 DUE
WEEK 9
NO CLASS—Fall Break
WEEK 10
Monday
Mark Luckie, The Digital Journalist’s Handbook, Ch.6
Audio Project DUE
Wednesday
Janine Jackson, “A Better Future for Journalism Requires a Clear-Eyed View of Its Present”
Yochai Benkler, “Giving the Networked Public Sphere Time to Develop”
WEEK 11
Monday
Yochai Benkler, “A Free Irresponsible Press: WikiLeaks and the Battle Over the Soul of the Fourth Estate”
Wednesday
Micah Sifry, “Wikileaks, Assange and Why There’s No Turning Back”
Clay Shirky, Richard S. Salant Lecture on Freedom of the Press, Harvard Shorenstein Center, 2011.
Page One: Inside the New York Times (WATCH)
WEEK 12
Monday
New York Times media reporter Brian Stelter Visit
Wednesday
Matt Richtel, “Wasting Time Is New Divide in Digital Era”
Mary Madden, Amanda Lenhart, Maeve Duggan, Sandra Cortesi, & Urs Gasser, “Teens and Technology 2013”
Matt Richtel, “Growing Up Digital: Wired for Distraction”
Sunday
Audio Slideshow Project DUE
WEEK 13
Monday
Mark Luckie, The Digital Journalist’s Handbook, Ch.7
Pamela Newkirk, “The Future of Journalism Diversity”
Wednesday
Jessica Clark & Tracy Van Slyke, “How Journalists Must Operate in a New Networked Media Environment”
Laura McGann, “The Rise of the Right: Conservatives are Wading Into Investigative Reporting. Can Their Journalism Survive Their Politics?”
WEEK 14
Monday
Bruce A. Williams and Michael X. Delli Carpini, “The Daily Show and The Colbert Report in a Changing Information Environment: Should ‘Fake News’ Be Held to Real Standards”
Wednesday
NO CLASS—Thanksgiving
WEEK 15
Monday
Nikki Usher, “Professional Journalists, Hands Off! Citizen Journalism as Civic Responsibility”
Bruce Ackerman, “One Click Away: The Case for the Internet News Voucher”
Michael Schudson, “Political Observatories, Databases and News in the Emerging Ecology of Public Information”
Wednesday
Rodney Benson, “Public Funding and Journalistic Independence: What Does Research Tell Us”
Craig Aaron, “Public Media to the Rescue”
WEEK 16
Monday
Video Journalism Workshop
Wednesday
Last Class
Paper 2 DUE
Video Project DUE
Josh Roiland 