Required Reading: We Media

 

Beginning this week we will be reading “We Media: How Audiences are Shaping the Future of News and Information,” by Shayne Bowman and Chris Willis. The report has several chapters. (The link leads you to a page where you can either select individual chapters in HTML, or download the entire report in PDF format.) Please read the report according to this schedule:

• By Monday 3 Sep: Introduction, Foreword, and Chapters 1 – 3
• By Monday 10 Sep: Chapters 4 and 5
• By Monday 17 Sep: Chapters 6 and 7 and the appendix

While you are reading, pay attention to major concepts and arguments, and to how examples are used to support those arguments.

29 August: In class today

I have created a page with links to all the weblog addresses students have posted on this site. Please take a moment to check the page and be sure the link to your site is there and that it is working properly. If it is missing or there is a problem with the link, please let me know so it can be corrected. If there is no link to your site on this page, then you haven’t completed the first assignment due by 1pm today.

What are “new information technologies”?

Today in class we will discuss some important terms for the course as we give a preliminary answer to the question, “What are New Information Technologies?” We will begin with a brief definition:

New information technologies (NITs) are digital, networked, interactive, socio-technical systems for gathering, producing, and distributing information.

• Digital: Information is converted into computer-readable formats consisting of electronic signals. Digitization makes information compact (meaning it can be transmitted quickly and stored easily), easily duplicated, and uniform (information formats are the same as far as the computer is concerned).
• Networked: Linked in an inter-connected and inter-dependent system.
• Interactive: Communication is generally two-way rather than one-way.
• Socio-Technical: The characteristics of the system are based both on technical elements (what tools can do) and on social elements (what people choose to do or to allow).

The internet is one of the most obvious examples of an NIT we will explore. In our discussion today, we will compare the internet to some “old” information networks: wired telephone and wireless broadcast radio and television.

27 August: Today in Class

Reminder: You must create your individual weblog, post one entry, and leave a link to your site as a comment here no later than class time Wednesday 29 August.

Today we will review creating your weblog on WordPress.com, writing and posting an entry, creating a link, and changing the look of your weblog. We will also look at some of the features and settings of your weblog.

Required Reading for Monday 27 August

For this Monday, please read the WordPress “Introduction to Blogging” and browse through the WordPress online documentation.

Setting Up Your Individual Weblog

Due Date: Wednesday 29 August before class

Students will set up individual weblogs this term and use them to post assignments for the course. To begin the process, visit WordPress.com and set up an account and weblog. I will help you with this in class on Friday 24 August.

Once you have created your weblog, please leave a comment on this message providing the URL of your site (the Uniform Resource Locator, or web address) and your name. I will use this information to create a list of links to student sites.

For this Wednesday, your assignment is as follows:

1. Set up your WordPress account and weblog;
2. Post one entry in your own words on your weblog;
3. Place the URL for your weblog in the comments section of this post.

Welcome to New Information Technologies!

Welcome to the course weblog, New Information Technologies for fall 2007. This weblog is part of the course by the same title offered at the Kazakhstan Institute of Management, Economics and Strategic Research (KIMEP) in Almaty Kazakhstan.