Readings for September 4 to 8

For September 4 to 8, please read the following (required):

The Wikipedia entry on Blog

The Online Journalism Review articles, Blogging as a Form of Journalism and Weblogs: A New Source of News

Assignment #1: Weblog

Due Date, Friday 15 September, 1pm

Your first assignment (note: all assignments must be completed in English)

1. Create a weblog using Blogger, LiveJournal, or another blogging tool of your choice. We will introduce these tools in class and you will have some in-class time to work on this assignment, but expect to put in several hours of work outside class as well.
2. Work on your weblog for the next couple of weeks. We will discuss various features of weblogs (i.e. linking, commenting, blogrolls, etc.) in class. (Some helpful material will also be posted on the course weblog--be sure to check.) You should expect to use several of these features (and others you may find) in your own weblog.
3. Write at least two entries relevant to online journalism and post them to your weblog. (Some ideas for entries might be: Journalism and Weblogs; Online Resources for Journalists; Kazakhstan Online, etc.) (Expect your total word count for all entries to be at least 300 words—more is okay.)
4. Post the URL for your weblog to the entry “Student Weblog Links” on our course weblog no later than 1 pm Friday 15 September.

The assignment will be graded both on practical application of new information technology (how you construct your weblog, tools you use, etc.) and on theoretical content of your weblog and entries (relevance, clarity, etc.) Do not neglect either area.

If you have any questions, please let me know in class, via email, or during my office hours.

Frederick Emrich
femrich@kimep.kz
410 Valikhanov
Office Hours: 2 to 4 pm, Tues/Thurs or by appointment

neweurasia Blogging Meeting This Thursday

Dear Students:

You are invited to attend a meeting sponsored by neweurasia on blogging in Central Asia this Thursday 31 August, 12 noon in 237 Valikhanov. The meeting is very relevant to our new information technologies course, and if you are interested and available I urge you to attend.

The text of the invitation I received is pasted below:

The meeting will be hosted by Ms. Leila Karsybekova, coordinator of Kazakhstan neweurasia blog http://kazakhstan.neweurasia.net and its Russian-language version: http://ru.kazakhstan.neweurasia.net/

Their professed goal is to give a space for self-publishing to young people in Central Asia and link them to their peers all over the world. The Russian-language blog started functioning 4 months ago, and they have several authors from Almaty and Karaganda now. They also review Livejournals in Kazakhstan, to present the voices of people directly, as use them as alternative citizen media.

They will be on an outreach trip in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan during late August and early September. They would also like to meet interested KIMEP students to promote blogging, as a tool for free speech, in Kazakhstan. I hope you agree that this is something that might of interest to our students. The meeting should take about one hour.

Reminder for Week Two

A reminder that the readings for this week are:

The Wikipedia entry on Online Journalism

and

First Monday: Online Journalism: Modeling the First Generation of News on the World Wide Web

You should have both read for today (Monday 28 August). If you have not read them already, please do so right away.

And for Friday 1 September (and future reference), please browse through the resources available at The Journalist's Toolbox

Also, there is no class this Wednesday (30 August) because of the Constitution Day holiday. Enjoy the day.

Welcome to New Information Technologies

This course, taught in the International Journalism and Mass Communication Department at the Kazakhstan Institute of Management, Economics, and Strategic Research (KIMEP), is designed to give students a basic critical and practical introduction to new information technologies (NITs). Students will develop knowledge and skills that help them to use NITs and to understand their importance to journalists and others.