Abstract:The Internet is being implemented for many educational and academic purposes, and departments of journalism are no exception in integrating technology into the curriculum. The presence of the Internet in education is causing many educators to reconsider, reevaluate, and modify their teaching methods to meet the needs of a new media environment. But this presents many challenges. Should the focus be on theory or practice? This paper is a case study of a Web Publishing course that covers the basic skills of Web design, graphics, animation, and multimedia, and how it has evolved over time to focus on integration, judgment, and perspective.

No abstract

The propagation and mainstream acceptance of the Internet has become a hot topic addressed in media, business, and scholarly environments. The gender implications of technology are studied in various ways across the disciplines of communications, gender studies, and technology and society. This study overviews and summarizes articles dealing with gender implications of the Internet in journals in these fields. The analysis identified 132 articles during the period of 1995–2003 in 28 publications in which frequencies, trends, and potential gaps were assessed using quantitative and qualitative meta-analysis. Most of the research in this area is being done in technology publications (59.7% of articles). Women's usage of the Internet is the most frequently studied level of participation. Results indicates that the survey method was the most predominant, but various qualitative methods are often employed. Notable themes included those of equal access yet unequal participation, the existence of both negative and positive aspects of the Internet, and the dichotomy of online/offline activities. The purpose of this study was to encourage interest in performing continued research on this topic as women's Internet access meets and exceeds that of men.

Although access to the Internet in the United States has reached parity among males and females, over time gender differences in terms of usage, agency, and representation with technology are becoming evident. Early thinking about the Internet indicated a more liberating and equalizing effect than previous media because of its decentralized nature, reduced structural barriers to entry, and potential for diversity of voices. But over time, mainstream sites that have been developed for women are primarily interested in their value as consumers. Many sites have adopted a women's magazine model, using essentially feminine stereotypes to promote and position their content. This includes the ways in which these sites represent the ideas of technology and the Internet. This study compares two gendered spaces, iVillage and AskMen.com, and analyzes the differences in the ways that technology is framed and discussed.

The World Wide Web continues to grow closer to achieving the vision of becoming the repository of all human knowledge, as features and applications that support user-generated content become more prevalent. Wikipedia is fast becoming an important resource for news and information. It is an online information source that is increasingly used as the first, and sometimes only, stop for online encyclopedic information. Using a method employed by Tankard and Royal to judge completeness of Web content, completeness of information on Wikipedia is assessed. Some topics are covered more comprehensively than others, and the predictors of these biases include recency, importance, population, and financial wealth. Wikipedia is more a socially produced document than a value-free information source. It reflects the viewpoints, interests, and emphases of the people who use it.