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Back at Biola

Well, I feel like writing a blog right now. However, my xanga is looking at me like a betrayed ally. Can I come back after not writing anything for so long without explanation? I guess it would be very lame of me to try and pretend nothing has happened in the last few months. So here you go, you get a short summary that I may or may not elaborate on in the future when I have more time:

- Some stuff happened this summer that called me to be stronger than I ever have and finally put some circumstance induced character on my bones.

- Through these events I had to turn to God in a way I have not in years.

- By the end of the summer my faith in providence was restored.

- It was a powerful few months and I have rarely felt so alive.

I can never sleep the night before school starts. This tradition of me staying awake late into the night with thoughts and anticipation running rampant through my mind dates way back to the days when I carried a Lisa Frank lunch box. I always think about my new outfit, seeing the other students, wonder if my teacher(s) will be nice, and all that jazz. Only tonight is different because tonight is my last ever night-before-school-starts. I guess I thought it would feel different. I thought I would be able to consider myself seasoned and chill. I have been doing this for almost two decades. But I still feel as scared and nervous as I did when I was a little girl. I’d like to promise right now that I will not be this pensive and emotional about everything that happens this semester but I can’t. The next few months are huge in the story of my life.

Sorry again about the hiatus. No promises, Grandma Shirley, but I have a feeling I am back.

So long SoCal!

MCOM 305 Final Blog

Julie Sallee

May 21, 2007

MCOM 305 Principles and Practices of Traditional and Online Information-Gathering

Dr. Michael A. Longinow

Final Blog

            The statement debated: Online Journalism is not as trustworthy, and hence, not as important, as print or traditional broadcast journalism. Because the question can be interpreted so many ways and because anything having to do with the Internet comes accompanied with a plethora of information so massive it can be overwhelming to say the least, the terms must be defined.

            Traditional journalism, also called “traditional media” and “old media,” for the purposes of this debate is defined as broadcast television, newspapers and other news publications. “Big media” is the corporate conglomerations; they are large and established television networks (i.e. CBS, MSNBC, CNN) and newspapers (i.e. The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal.)

            Online journalism or “new media” is reporting news using the Internet. For the purposes of this debate, websites and blogs will be included. One organization has tried to legitimize online news by specifying professional online journalists. The Online News Association (ONA) “has more than 1,000 professional members, that is, members whose principal livelihood involves gathering or producing news for digital presentation.” According to their official website, they were founded on the principle that they, “believe that the Internet is the most powerful communications medium to arise since the dawn of television. As the Net becomes a primary source of news for a growing segment of the world's population, it presents complex challenges and opportunities for journalists as well as the news audience. The Online News Association believes, “responsible journalism on the Internet means that the distinction between news and other information must always be clear, so that individuals can readily distinguish independent editorial information from paid promotional information and other non-news. Online journalists should uphold traditional high principles in reporting original news for the Internet and in reviewing and corroborating information from other sources.”

            However, not all online journalists are members of ONA, and can be considered untrustworthy. Matt Drudge of The Drudge Report has become one, if not the most powerful internet journalists in the world. ABC World News, “Drudge Report Sets Tone for National Political Coverage.” The headline alone proves the power this website has acquired. The Drudge Report is sometimes the very first source to break massive stories like the Monica Lewinski scandal. As a result of Drudge’s lust to be the first and get the scoop, he is often reckless. According to the CNN.com, Michael Isikoff of Newsweek stated, “Drudge is a menace to honest, responsible journalism. And to the extent that he’s read and people believe what they read, he’s dangerous.” While not everything Matt Drudge says is completely accurate and much of it is full of bias, he has succeeded in building one of the most trafficked news websites on the World Wide Web.

            One distinction that must be made to decipher confidence is between official news outlets and blogs. Official news outlets are websites that are affiliated with big media. Those websites often post on the Internet the information their companies have already given, only in accessible cyber form. On the contrary, a blog is a personal online journal. An article entitled, “It’s the links, stupid” featured in The Economist gives the remarkable statistic that 44% of Americans aged 18 to 29 read blogs regularly. It also states that, “Top-tier bloggers themselves are better educated than top-tier newspaper columnists. So one of the main attractions of blogging and other forms of online-only publishing is that you get topical commentary from trained specialists and insiders, instead of from people whose only professional training is journalism school and whose very job description is that they’re professional outsiders.” While blogs are no doubt important in our society, they should not be trusted as a journalistic source. They are full of opinions and have no requirement to anyone to be objective in reporting the news. Even though the FCC is scrambling to come up with an ethical system to control blogging and Tim O’Reiley has proposed a “Bloggers Code of Conduct,” no current system is available to force blogging to be reliable.

            However, blogs are one way in which traditional journalism is being kept accountable by online journalism. Perhaps the most convincing and pioneering case of online journalism keeping traditional journalism accountable was the Killian documents controversy, also called “Rathergate.” This case involved documents critical of President George W. Bush’s service in United States National Guard. Less than two months before the 2004 Presidential Election the documents were shown on an episode of CBS’s 60 Minutes II. The lead anchor for the show at the time, Dan Rather, claimed that the documents had been proven factually by experts. Within hours of the aired report bloggers began to question the authenticity of the documents. Many online journalists had noticed that the typing used in the letters supposedly from the 1970s was not even available on typewriters back then, thus documents had to be phony. Competing news organizations and mass media across the country immediately jumped on the story. Eventually, Rather and CBS issued a statement claiming, “We made a mistake in judgment, and for that I am sorry. It was an error that was made, however, in good faith and in the spirit of trying to carry on a CBS News tradition of investigative reporting without fear or favoritism. Please know that nothing is more important to us than people’s trust in our ability and our commitment to report fairly and truthfully.” As a result of this mistake, several powerful people at CBS and 60 Minutes were fired or resigned from their jobs.

            While the situation is one that proves that online journalism does keep traditional journalism accountable, it also demonstrates one of the most important factors in why traditional media is more trustworthy, it is held to a higher standard. If they make mistakes, there are severe consequences and penalties. In online journalism, many people are doing what they do for recreation.

            The redeeming quality of online journalism is that mistakes can be easily fixed; typos can be altered and adjusted. If a traditional journalism source prints a newspaper or airs a story, it out in tangible form for the world to forever see. It cannot be changed; they have a onetime shot to get it right. Grievous errors must be then followed with a retraction that will also be in print. If something online is mistyped, misrepresented, or incorrect, it can be edited and changed, possibly before anyone has even seen it.

            Online journalism also has the power to break news the very second it happens. It is not held back by the constraints of printer or airing time. By the time a story breaks in old media, everyone with Internet access already knows it has happened.

            What does this mean for old media? Online media is changing and challenging traditional journalism in so many ways. The Los Angeles Times website published a captivating series of debates about old verses new media. The published articles debate the state of contemporary news. Over a week they discussed citizen journalism, media consolidation, and the future of media. The featured writers were Glenn Reynolds, a professor of law at the University of Tennessee who created the immensely popular newsblog, http://www.instapundit.com/, and Robert McChesney professor of Communication at the University of Illinois and and president of Free Press.

            Glenn Harlan Reynolds states, “Things are changing, as technology levels the playing field between ordinary people and huge organizations. The internet excels at eliminating middlemen, and newspapers (and to a lesser, but substantial, degree, television networks) had become middlemen.”

            While Robert W. McChesney says, “Old media still matters. Not simply because the vast majority of Americans still rely upon them for news and information, and not because much of the digital content and commentary originates with them, but because old media are using their current market and political power to place themselves in a dominant position in the digital future. That is why concentration today could come back to bite us down the road and should be opposed.”

            Conclusively, not even the experts really know. Trustworthy does not equal important, dependable or not-new media is changing the concept and practice of journalism.  So while traditional journalism will hopefully always have its place, online journalism is as important.

MCOM 305 Blog

Julie Sallee

May 14, 2007

MCOM 305 Principles and Practices of Traditional and Online Information-Gathering

Dr. Michael A. Longinow

Blog

            Biola University’s Web presence is like many aspects of Biola’s technological presence, lacking but full of heart. To decide if the system is designed and functionality superior to every other Christian college and university in California that are members of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities the pros and cons of the system must be examined and compared. 

            First things first, Biola has far too many programs. In order for Biola students to access all information and paper work required they must go through four or five separate systems. They are the official Biola website, Bubbs, the Biola portal, Blackboard and Clean Access.

            The official Biola University homepage, www.biola.edu, has a well designed homepage. According to Journalism Online by Mike Ward an effective Web communication tool must “design ways to group your content, design a labeling system for those content groups, design a navigation system to help you move around and browse through the content, and design a search system for your content.” (page 170) Biola has obviously made an attempt to cater to their target audience with their youthful looking prospective students’ page. However, the home page has many links and pages of information that lead nowhere or are not updated with reasonable consistency. Sometimes the schedules for events are not even posted until after they have already happened. One additional truth that is always disappointing is that Biola’s newspaper, The Chimes, does not have an online addition. While this fact is in the process of being changed, the sluggish rate at which the transformation is occurring is embarrassing. While the newspaper itself is very high quality, it would be much more useful and lasting if it were online as well.

            Another aspect of the Web system at the college is BUBBS or “Biola University Black Board System,” also called “FirstClass.” The official Biola University website states the system was “implememented in 1992 as a student bulletin board service, providing email, discussion groups, and software for students. Since then, use of FirstClass has grown to more than 11,000 users, including students, employees, and alumni.” Many students at Biola feel that the system is useful and fun. It has united different social and extra curricular groups, such as dorm floors, majors, and clubs, with their own individual forum. The phrase, “bubbs me” has become common language amongst students for “email me using BUBBS.” There is also chat feature and system directory that makes communicating with different people throughout the school easy and attainable. Sylvan Strohm, a graduating senior at Biola states, “Since I was a freshman here I have enjoyed and benefited from BUBBS. It makes it really easy to talk to one person or everybody if you need to.” Aside from the sometimes frustrating time and space constraints the system is well liked and successful.

            Now here is where it starts to get really complicated. There is a system called “the Portal” or “BSI” (Biola Student Information.) Using BSI students can access such information as grades, financial aide information, class schedule, and so much more. This system requires an entirely different password and supplies different information. While this system is quality, it is underutilized. Many students do not know how to use it to its full potential, and some are not even aware of its existence.  One student, senior John Jimenez, was constantly confused as to what courses he should be taking. After two years at Biola one of his friends showed him the system online, “I really should have been told about this sooner. Maybe I missed it the first time but this is so important that someone should have explained it again.”

            In addition to the Biola unique programs there is “Blackboard.” According to Blackboard, Inc.’s official website, “Blackboard develops and licensees software applications and related services to over 2,220 education institutions in more than 60 countries.” After looking up the term in the provided search engine on Biola’s homepage it is defined as an “interactive dynamic learning that occurs via the Internet. It may or may not be part of your classroom experience and is up to your professor’s discretion as to whether it is utilized as part of your learning experience.” It is up to each professor’s discretion whether or not to use this as a tool in their class. To log into this website the student must once again have a different username and password.

            Finally to make everything even more intricate there is “Clean Access.” Beginning in the fall 2006 semester, Biola implemented “Clean Access” on all residential and wireless networks. The program is an anti-virus designed to protect computers from data loss, data theft, and potentially computer killing programs.

            Simply summarizing the entire Web system at Biola is almost impossible. Each student must frequent four distinct websites with uncertain information, remember four separate user names and passwords, and download numerous programs to make most of it work. There are links to the various websites on many of the pages, and most of the systems are useful on their own, but there must be a way to condense them into a more unified program.

            There are ten colleges and universities in California that are members of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities. According to the official website they are Azusa Pacific University, Biola University, California Baptist University, Fresno Pacific University, Hope International University, Master’s College and Seminary, Point Loma Nazarene University, Simpson University, Vanguard University of Southern California, and Westmont College.
            When asked, students at these schools have little complaints about their school’s Web presence. Elizabeth Mousa, a sophomore at California Baptist University states, “My school’s internet is pretty good now. It used to go down a lot, but it improved a lot in the past couple months. I think it is pretty easy to use also. I think it is about the same as that of other Christian schools.” Chelle Stephens, a senior at Loma Nazarene University feels comfortable with her school’s system, “It always helped me get the job done. I never really had any complaints. After my first year or so I knew how to use it really well.”

            In Steve Krug’s book Don’t Make Me Think he believes that “web sites should be self-evident or at least self-explanatory,” (page 12) requiring very thought to make it work. According to Journalism Online by Mike Ward things that interfere with usability are “ambiguous names for sections or functions, links and buttons that are not obviously clickable, confusing options for utilities, and poor navigation.” (page 206) Unfortunately, Biola is an offender of almost all of these faults. With names like “First Class,” links that often go nowhere, and a nearly unfeasible organization to understand, the system is far from user friendly.

            It is appreciated that so many attempts are made to enhance the Web presence at Biola. Unfortunately, each additional program complicates the process. Consequently, Biola does not have a more useful Web presence than any other Christian college or university in California; however, the system is constantly being improved and is not ineffective or inadequate. With a few more restructures and tweaking the structure can become more practical and helpful to students and perspective students.

For Class.

My Blog – the one place I feel I can still express myself creatively as a writer. And now even that is being taken away from me.  Let me explain what is going on. I am going to write two blogs in the next few weeks for class. Now I could have set up an entire new account at a different blog site to post these blogs but I feel like that is just wasting cyber space and real-life time. So I am going to post them here. I am more than happy to share my xanga with my school work. If more teachers did it this way we would save tons of paper and links are simply where it's at! You will be able to tell which ones they are because they will be super long and feature much better grammar and syntax then you are used to. Feel free to read them as a glimpse of what my college life is like, or disregard them and wait for the next update of my humdrum yet lovely life. You’re on my turf now Dr. Longinow, please tread gently.  Oh and readers, I have to do really good on both of these blogs. So let me know if you do see any grammatical errors so I can correct them. Wait, is that unethical journalism? Nah, it is convergence at its best.