WWW Handbook for Journalists

Introduction | The Task | Resources | The Process | Learning Advice | Conclusion

Introduction

Get your "nose for news" ready. You are the vanguard force of journalists at this school to explore the World Wide Web. Your job is to go out on the web and explore several sites that should be helpful to journalists. Your job, if you choose to accept it, and I know you will, is to visit the sites and analyze each site for the type of information it contains. Then you will come back and tell your fellow journalists what you have found by preparing a handbook of the WWW specifically for other students of journalism.

The Task

You will explore eight web sites that are listed in the Resources Section of this WebQuest. These sites should be of particular interest to scholastic journalists. Go to each site and explore the information you find there. For each one summarize the kind of information and analyze the material found in each one. When you get to the Process section of this WebQuest you will find specific information to find at each site.

Keep your "nose for news" alert, for you may also find possible ideas and research for stories along the way. You will also consult several other directories looking for three other sites that might be helpful to other journalists. In essence, you are creating a journalist's guide to resources on the WWW.

Resources

The first seven resources listed below are the specific web sites to explore. The last one is a directory to help you locate three other web sites that journalists would find helpful.

You may also wish to find other websites through Internet magazines or look for the specific websites of The Detroit Journal, The Detroit Free Press, The Detroit News, The Macomb Daily and other news publications. New sites are being born every day.

The Process

To accomplish your task you should use the following steps for each site:
  1. Open the web site
  2. Spend some time reading through the material and then write a summary of the kind of information you saw. Include in the summary the kind of forum the website is. Also include what kind of stories you would find information for, and whether or not high school journalists would be able to use this. Also include whether or not it is an interactive or static forum in your summary.
    1. Then analyze whether or not you think it is a good source. For whom? For what? Be specific in your judgments.
    2. Then list any terminology specific to the Internet that you might have come across in exploring this site.
    3. Then list any ideas for stories you might have found while you were exploring this site.
    4. Use this same procedure for each site so that each site will have a page summarizing and analyzing its usefulness for high school journalists.
    5. Anything that you find unusual about the site can be listed under a category called "Other Features"
    6. The last thing is to find three other websites to explore as you did the first eight doing a page on each one. Find some valuable sources to help your colleagues

Learning Advice

Make a separate page for each website with the following for each site: 1. Summary 2. Analysis, 3. Terminology 4. Ideas for stories 5. Other features

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Conclusion

Since you are journalists, it's a given that you will have fun exploring the web. Your curiosity and love of finding information is in your blood. It's also in your blood to want to share your information with others. The information you have put together in this WWW Handbook for Journalists (You probably even have a better title for it) will be a distinct help for your fellow scholastic journalists to pursue their stories.

This page written by Ann Ferrario / Ann.Ferrario@moa.net
Last updated February 1, 1996.

This page was adapted from Bernie Dodge 's WebQuest_Template1.html by Tom March