Fridays 12:30pm-3:20pm
Room 227, 33 E. Congress, Chicago, IL 60605

Instructor Information

Daniel Sinker

312-369-8988 (office)

650-644-6345 (cell)

dsinker@colum.edu

Office hours: Wednesday & Thursday 1pm - 3pm. Other times available by appointment.

About the Instructor

Daniel Sinker is a full-time faculty member at Columbia College's journalism department where he focuses on online journalism, social media, and the mobile web. He was the founding editor of the influential underground culture magazine Punk Planet until its closure in 2007 and is the editor of the book We Owe You Nothing: Punk Planet, the collected interviews. He was a 2007-08 Knight Fellow at Stanford University and currently blogs about media for The Huffington Post along with maintaining several independent blogs and web projects.

Introduction
Journalism is in a state of massive change. As the Internet continues to redefine how people access information, traditional news outlets find themselves struggling to keep up. This course will introduce you to the concepts and tools necessary to conceive and implement a functional, modern website based in both web best practices and also in journalistic excellence. In other words: this class will keep you relevant.
        The class will be built around two projects: A personal website that you will be encouraged to keep up-to-date during (and after) our semester together, and a journalistic website that will be conceived and built in small teams. This course will follow the rigorous pacing of both a working newsroom and a web startup—sleep is a thing of the past.

Course Description

This course introduces journalism students to the new and varied ways to report stories online. Through two main projects, a personal blog and a team-built journalistic website, students become fluent in the language, workflow, and rigorous demands of Internet publishing.

Course goals and objectives
After completing this course, students should be able to:

Attendance
Attendance is mandatory. Three absences—for any reason—and you fail the class. Two late arrivals equal an absence. Leave home or work in plenty of time to arrive on time. Allow extra time for bad weather. Remember, I accept no excuses.

Missing three course meetings (3 of 15 = 20 percent) equals automatic failure unless there are serious extenuating circumstances.

Tardiness and leaving early are also unacceptable and will negatively affect your grade..

Grading
A   =96-100%        C+ =77-79%        D    =60-69%
A-  =90-95%        C    =73-76%        F     =59% and below
B+ =87-89%        C-   =70-72%       
B    =83-86%                   
B-  =80-82%      

What the grades mean
A, A-: Work at this level will be at or near professional caliber, with excellent technical qualities and close attention to content, style, and voice.
B+, B, B- : Work at this level will represent solid work in all areas, with demonstrated proficiency in all the basic elements of producing journalism online.
C+, C, C-: Work at this level is average in its concept and unexceptional in its execution. It may contain technical errors distracting to a user.
D: Assignments in this range are in need of serious reworking and may have serious technical problems or need extensive additional reporting.
F: Failure will result when the basic requirements of an assignment have not been met.

Grade Breakdown
30% Class Participation
30% Personal blog, homework, in-class work,
40% Final project (graded individually)

A note about your class participation grade
A large part of this class involves a team-based project. Your work within the team will be counted toward class participation and will also affect your grade on the final project.

Department grade requirements
Students who enter as of Fall 2005 must earn a C (not a C-) or better in a journalism course for it to count toward their journalism major. If a student does not meet the C standard in a prerequisite, the student cannot progress to a subsequent course.

Source lists policy
A source list must be attached to reporting assignments.  Example:  name, identifying information, phone number and/or e-mail address.

Multiple submissions policy
The same or similar stories using the same sources written for other courses will not be accepted without prior approval from the instructors in both classes.  Turning in such work without prior approval could result in an “F” for the assignment.  If in doubt, ask.

Incomplete grade policy
An “Incomplete” grade will be granted only in rare emergency instances, with both instructor and student signing the agreement, and only in conformance with college-wide policy.  For the full policy statement and a copy of the Student-Faculty Agreement for Incomplete Grade form, go to http://incompletegrade.columbiacollege.net.

Conaway Center
Students with disabilities are requested to present their Columbia accommodation letters to their instructor at the beginning of the semester so that accommodations can be arranged in a timely manner by the College, the department or the faculty member, as appropriate.  Students with disabilities who do not have accommodation letters should visit the office of Services for Students with Disabilities on the first floor of 33 E. Congress building in back of the Writing Center (312-344-8134/V or 312-360-0767/TTY).  It is incumbent upon the students to know their responsibilities in this regard.



Academic Honesty Policy of the
Columbia College Chicago Journalism Department
Academic honesty is expected of all students.  All quotes and source material must be properly attributed. Your reporting must be truthful, accurate and free of fabrication. And the work you present as your own must be your own.

Violations of this policy include plagiarism, fabrication and any other form of cheating. An instructor who suspects a violation will discuss the matter confidentially with the student.  If the matter remains unresolved, the issue will be referred to the Journalism Department Chairperson and the Academic Integrity Committee.  Consequences of violating the policy may include failing the assignment, failing the course or a recommendation of suspension or expulsion from the college.



CHEATING: The conscious use of unauthorized, prohibited, or unacknowledged materials or methods.

FABRICATING: The conscious falsification or invention of information, interpretation, or source materials.

FACILITATING ACADEMIC DISHONESTY: The conscious participation, in any manner, in another student’s commission of any academically dishonest act.

PLAGIARIZING: The conscious representation of words, ideas, figures, or materials from other sources as one’s own.

ELABORATION AND EXAMPLES

CHEATING: Unless told otherwise by their instructors, students should assume that examinations are to be completed without the use of books, notes, or conversation with others.  Students who intentionally use or attempt to use unauthorized information in any academic exercise, including exams, are cheating.

FABRICATING: Fabrication is the unauthorized and conscious falsification of information in an academic exercise.  For example, it is academically dishonest to “invent” a quote, a scene or a statistic.

FACILITATING ACADEMIC DISHONESTY: Students who make their work available for another student to submit as his or her own, whether exactly as is or in altered form are facilitating academic dishonesty, as are students who allow others to copy their answers on examinations.  Aiding and abetting other students’ dishonesty is a serious breach of the academic honesty policy and is itself punishable just as cheating, fabricating, and plagiarizing are.

PLAGIARIZING: The Random House Webster’s Dictionary of the English Language defines plagiarism as “the unauthorized use of the language and thought of another author and the representation of them as one’s own.”  Any conscious failures to accurately and completely document all uses of source materials constitute academic dishonesty.  Source materials may include but are not limited to, printed books, magazines and newspapers, electronic media, oral reports, speeches statistical information or analyses, anecdotal comments, visual media, musical performances, theatrical performances and official or legal documents.

Class policies and schedule
Read these rules or suffer the consequences:
1. I accept no late homework. All homework must be posted online prior to or turned in at the beginning of class or take an F.
2. This schedule is subject to change. Reading and homework assignments are subject to change. Additional homework assignments may be given at each class meeting.
3. You are expected to work outside of class, so plan accordingly. "I couldn't get into the computer lab" is not a vaild excuse for not doing your work.
4. This class is fast-paced and builds on itself. Missing a class will leave you behind. If you miss a class, you are responsible for getting up-to-speed on what you missed. If you miss an in-class assignment, you cannot make it up. You will receive a grade of zero. Write down the names and phone numbers of two classmates from whom you can get assignments/notes if you are absent.

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Class Schedule

PLEASE NOTE: This syllabus may be amended as the course proceeds. You will be notified of all changes in class.

THE BASICS & THE PITCH

January 30: Introductions, problems, and solutions
 For next week:

February 6: Party like it's 1994: HTML & CSS
For next week:

--At least two more blog posts. One again, of your own choosing, the other about a current event.
--In the class blog, link to and introduce two more websites following the same criteria as last week.
--Continue to ideate and refine your site idea. We will talk about them next week.
--Readings (to be linked in the class blog)

February 13: Cut n Paste Revolution: Putting code to work
For next week:

February 20: Let's Hear 'Em: Your site ideas
 For next week:

THE WEB'S SOCIAL REVOLUTION