Journalism & Mass Communication Educator 51/2 (Summer 1996): 25-35.
(The original, longer version)

Integration of Internet Resources
into Curriculum and Instruction

Shelton A. Gunaratne and Byung S. Lee

As society is moving into the electronic age, more people are communicating in cyberspace and using cyberspace to access more information. Journalists, as well as trainee journalists, have no alternative but to fit this mold. They will have to search cyberspace to locate newsworthy data and human sources, just as they do in the physical world.

Garrison (1995d, p. 14) and others (Friend, 1994; Houston, 1996; Paul, 1994) point out that online news research, database analysis and other forms of computer-assisted reporting (CAR) are available to news organizations and journalists. Garrison (1995c, p. 16) also says that newspapers often move to online services as a first-step into CAR because this requires minimal tools and expenses.

Many newspapers are using the Internet. For example, in a survey of newspapers with a circulation of 20,000 or more, 44.6 percent of 287 newspapers reported that they used the Internet in their newsrooms in 1995 (Garrison, 1995b). Ross and Middleberg (1996), who analyzed 751 mail responses from the print media, found that almost a fourth used online services daily while more than two-thirds used such services at least once a month in 1995. They concluded that "no journalism school can do enough, fast enough" to train students to accommodate this phenomenal growth. To prepare students for the electronic age, journalism and mass communication schools and departments have to incorporate computer-assisted journalism sooner or later.

In one survey, 45 percent of journalism educators reported that technology inadequately" or "very inadequately" taught (Scott, 1995, p. 34). Based on this finding, Scott suggested that journalism educators should keep abreast of and teach the new technologies. At the same time, Scott suggested that journalism schools should pay more attention to technology and pay more for technology (p. 37).

More funding or facilities for journalism have become difficult for a while. Heavily relying on university or college sources for their operations, journalism programs across the country have faced a tough time financially. Some programs have been eliminated or merged with other programs (Nelson, 1994). A survey of 430 journalism programs showed that two-thirds suffered nominal or real cuts in the departmental budgets over the two years between 1991 and 1993 (Kosicki & Becker, 1994, pp. 12-13). In the context of the current higher-education budget crunch, the Internet is an ideal tool to use in the classroom. Information gathering and interaction with others through the Internet, via E-mail and other modes, are readily available for classroom training, as well for the benefit of the newsroom.

Pearson (1993), based on his experience with Bond University journalism students' publication in Australia, detected "an unexpected advantage" of E-mail as a research tool. The students could make electronic mail inquiries from their sources and arrange "conference calls" with sources. The students also tapped into public messages mailed to the broad campuscommunity for new angles they could take on the issues involved.

One concern in the integration of new technologies is how to retain the solid core curriculum and, at the same time, add on new material necessary in the Digital Age. Johnson (1995a) estimated that educating students in the new areas of knowledge for the Digital Age would require a minimum total of 12-to 15-credit semester hours in the journalism major. As a solution, he proposed more highly specialized journalism graduate programs.

Incorporating the new technology into existing courses, rather than placing it in separate courses, entails the problem of how to add on new material to supplement the content of a course without sacrificing its original core. Others have voiced concerns over ethical issues relating to the acquisition of cyber-skills. The increased use of different news-gathering techniques imposes on editors new ethical challenges, or at least, new twists on traditional concerns about accuracy, fairness, privacy, plagiarism and related issues (Steele & Cochran, 1995). Journalists need to double check E-mail responses to confirm who actually sent them. They will also have to know when to stop searching cyberspace, which accommodates much useless information as well (Computer-assisted, 1996, p. 2).

The treatment of quality control of information on the Internet itself requires a separate article. The present article focuses on the reasons for and the issues associated with introducing E-mail and other Internet tools into the journalism classroom. It will also show how instructors can use the Internet, for example, in reporting, editing and international communication courses as an effective teaching device.

Electronic databases and the Internet

Electronic databases have an advantage over printed indexes, even though the costs are a concern. The constant updating of electronic databases enables their users to tap into the most recent information. Speed and multiple-keyword search capability across various databases are another merit of the electronic database search (Ward & Hansen, 1993, p. 151). The importance of the electronic database is bound to increase. Ward and Hansen (1993, pp. 150-151) say, "Although there are printed counterparts for many electronic information sources, the trend is toward the creation of sources that exist only in electronic form. In particular, some public records and government information systems are being converted to electronic data bases, with few paper records to back up the data base."

The Internet is becoming an increasingly important tool for electronic news gathering because of its cheap access costs to individual users. The use of the Internet in the classroom does not usually incur any additional expenses to students. Users also can meet with millions of the world's other Internet users, and that number will increase phenomenally. A survey by O'Reilly & Associates estimated the number of people in the United States with direct access to the Internet at 5.8 million and those with only commercial online services at 3.9 million. The study predicts 6 million new users over the next 12 months ("A down-to-earth," 1995). Forrester Research has estimated the current Internet users at 10 million worldwide and predicted that number to rise to 52 million in 2000 (Stacey, 1995).

Information sources on the Internet are also on the increase. Leccese (1994, p. 35) says, "The growth of government information on the Internet has been dramatic, and the government, universities, and commercial services add new information sources every week." The federal government purchased 17,723 computers in the first 35 years after the computer was invented and more than 2 million PCs in the 13 years since the introduction of PCs. Accordingly, federal electronic databases increased from about 300 to 10,000 in 1991 (Morrissey, 1995, p. 49). But "many federal agencies computerize their offices for their own convenience, and don't think [of] the public, much less [of] the press" (p. 48).

Splichal (1992-1993, pp. 77-78) found in a survey that three quarters of 24 responding newspapers in Florida said government had refused to provide computer-stored data. "Reasons given for access problems varied. Agencies most frequently denied access because their computers were unable to provide the information as requested. The second most frequent reason was that agency personnel were unwilling to take time to extract information from their computers, followed by agency personnel being unfamiliar with how to handle computer-record requests."

However, the trend is for the federal agencies to make records available electronically, often online. Even state governments have allowed free access to their records through the Internet network of computers. Local communities continued to experiment with computer linkups (Prime, 1994).

The number of sites on the Internet's World Wide Web has increased dramatically from 1,000 in April 1994 to 40,000 in November 1994 and to 110,000 in October 1995 (Stacey, 1995).

Internet and the instructor's role

The Internet has gained rapid popularity among the public, who have access to hundreds of Internet-related books from libraries and bookstores. This is a recent phenomenon. Abernathy (1993, p. 56) said that it was hard to find even a real index or a user's manual except for several books in early 1993. Quill, the monthly magazine of the Society of Professional Journalists, has published several articles on using Internet tools -- such as E-mail, Telnet, FTP, Gopher, Archie, Veronica and World Wide Web -- for gathering information (Gaffin, 1994; Johnson, 1995b; Taylor, 1995; "Tidbits," 1994). It also introduced several magazines that covered cyberspace (Noack, 1994). Now there is even a bimonthly newsletter, The Internet Newsroom, which helps journalists use the Internet for newsgathering. It has nearly 400 daily newspaper, TV station, magazine and journalism school subscribers (T. Maloy, personal communication, October31, 1995).

Writing news stories while cruising the information highway is no longer a rare experience for journalists who are now discussing ethics relating to online newsgathering issues such as accuracy, fairness and piracy (Mauro, 1995; Steele & Cochran, 1995).

The Internet has got serious attention among scholars only recently. Communication Abstracts first used the word "Internet" as a search keyword in 1995 (Gordon, 1995). Scholars presented several articles on the Internet at the AEJMC convention in 1994 ("Abstracts," 1994, pp. 11-13) and 1995 ("Abstracts," 1995, pp.11-13).

Reporting textbooks have been slow in incorporating Internet sources because of the time lag between writing books and their publication. They only mention online commercial database search and/or government database search, mostly on tapes or in print (Itule & Anderson, 1994; Mencher, 1994; Rich, 1994; Ullmann, 1995).

Ward and Hansen (1993) assigned a paragraph to the description of the Internet. The most recent books, however, better describe the use of the Internet. Garrison (1995a, pp. 64-69) noted that using the Internet, journalists could obtain full-text journals, newsletters, newspapers and data archives as well as information on Internet-based bulletin board systems; and that they also could share experiences with other professionals through discussion groups, such as IRE-L and NICAR-L. Investigative Reporters and Editors maintains IRE-L; and the National Institute for Computer Assisted Reporting maintains the other.

Lorenz and Vivian (1996, Ch. 19) devoted a chapter titled "Reporting with new technologies" to discuss information gathering through the Internet as well as commercial online providers. They mention interviewing by computer and using other cyberspace tools. Reddick and King (1995) focused on the use of the Internet in their entire book, explaining how to use various Internet services step by step, online laws and ethics, and online information sources.

Innumerable books are available on how to use the variety of Internet tools and features (1). Online help documents are also available to locate sources for journalists (2).

Deaspite the availability of an abundance of guiding material, students still need the help of the instructor to guide them through the glut of information. The instructor can help select the most important information sources so as not to overwhelm students. The instructor is better equipped to know which Web sites are best relevant to the content and assignments of his or her courses. To squeeze Internet-related activities into the classroom without expanding class hours, the instructor needs to restrict students to exploring Internet sources that he or she thinks most relevant to the class-discussion topics.

At the same time, the instructor can provide Internet commands and skills that will fit the local computer network, complementing the general explanation in Internet books. To help students develop their skills of exploring the Internet sources beyond the preselected ones and build their own database outside of class, the instructor also needs to spend time teaching how to use search engines and bookmarking.

Online activities in the newsroom

To take advantage of government data and other sources of information, the newspapers should have manpower to conduct online searches. Neuzil (1994, p. 52) cites the Hansen and Ward (1991) study in which librarians asserted that only 6 percent of the news staff was very proficient at using the electronic library. This is possibly one reason why librarians do the overwhelming majority of searching. Neuzil notes that the lack of search skills drops the reporter one step back from a significant part of the newsgathering process.

However, the online search skills of journalists, as well as their online access, have shown a rapid growth. Reporting on two of his surveys, Garrison (1995b) said that 60 percent of the newspapers (n=208) whose circulation size was 20,000 or more conducted online searches in 1994, with 27 percent conducting searches every day. Those percentages increased to 66 percent and 29 percent respectively in 1995 (n=287). The role of the librarians in online research has decreased relatively. Librarians who did the online work in 1994 accounted for 26 percent, compared to 22 percent by reporters and 8 percent by others. These percentages changed to 20 percent, 18 percent and 17 percent respectively in 1995.

Garrison (1995c, p. 123) found that CompuServe, Lexis/Nexis, local databases, DataTimes and Dialog were popular among the big-size newspapers in 1994 while the Internet was marginal. As more news media gained Internet access for their employees, however, the wider use of the Internet was inevitable. As he predicted, the popularity of the Internet skyrocketed in 1995. Most newspapers used the Internet (44.6 percent), followed by CompuServe (39.4 percent), AOL (38 percent), Government BBS (31.4 percent) and Nexis/Lexis (28.2 percent). The Internet also became the most frequently used service in 14.9 percent of the newspapers, following Nexis/Lexis (21.7 percent) and AOL (17.1 percent) (Garrison, 1995b).

Thus, journalists have to learn online search skills before entering the profession. Otherwise, many will have to learn on their own. Garrison (1995b) found that only 41 percent of the newspapers had training programs in 1995.

In small-sized newspapers, however, the situation appears to be different. Martin (1994), who surveyed 27 small newspapers (circulation of less than 18,000) in 11 states, found that only one newspaper used a commercial database. The newsroom managers of 16 newspapers recognized the benefits of external information retrieval services. Only four said their staff came to work with database-use experience. Where the newspapers had computer access to information retrieval systems, they used in-house librarians rather than the editorial staff. "This doubt, when coupled with the low number of managers who had, themselves, used on-line information retrieval systems, may account for the slower adoption of these kinds of systems among small circulation newspapers" (p. 159).

This trend -- the fast adoption of new technology, except in small-sized newspapers -- received validation in a census of Michigan daily newspapers. In 1986, only two newspapers used online databases. In 1994, at least 19 newspapers -- 41 percent of 46 responding newspapers -- used online databases. In Michigan, as anywhere else, the use of the Internet was a new phenomenon. Michigan newspapers began to use the Internet as an information source from 1993, and its users grew up to 15 newspapers -- 33 percent of 46 responding newspapers -- in 1994. Among the 15 newspapers, 13 had a circulation size of 25,000 or more (Davenport, Fico & Weinstock, 1995).

However, small weekly publishers who successfully introduced online publishing with minimal expenses are advising their counterparts to go online (Mundstock, 1995; Wilson, 1995). Thus, it will be a matter of time when even the small newspapers will introduce online newsgathering. Garrison (1995b) comments that "smaller newspapers are starting slowly, but starting."

Internet and course work: an experiment

The two authors of this article attended the journalism education workshop of the Poynter Institute for Media Studies, May 30-June 2, 1995. One took part in the track on teaching news research, the other in the track on teaching graphics and visual journalism. The idea of developing a Web site tailor-made to teach specific journalism courses (while linking the course outlines themselves to relevant Web sites) occurred to them during those workshops. That faculty could use a variety of Internet resources for teaching, almost on a shoestring budget, was something they had thought about for some time.

The 20 faculty members who participated in the news research track found the potential of the World Wide Web as a teaching tool most intriguing. A few had no experience whatsoever with cyberspace while most had some as electronic-mail users. None, bar one, had tried out creating a Web site. Using Internet resources, particularly Web search engines, as information-gathering tools, as well as a teaching tools, turned out to be a novel, but highly exciting, idea for all the participants.

Following the workshop, the author who was in the news research track kept in touch with 10 of the participants who made their E-mail addresses available. As of mid-fall, half of them had taken steps to make use of some Internet resources for teaching either by themselves or with the help of librarians. None reported developing his or her own Web site even though one was contemplating getting his students build a home page. The reason for not having one's own Web site seemed more to do with lack of will to study HyperText Markup Language than with lack of appropriate computer network access on the participants' campuses.

The creation of the Web site tailor made for teaching Reporting, Copy Editing and International Communication -- the courses that the senior author teaches regularly -- entailed the mutual cooperation of the junior author, who also had the experience of teaching these courses when the former was on sabbatical. The junior author, who taught an extension course on Web publishing and had previous experience as the editor of a campus online newspaper, was instrumental in teaching HTML to his colleague with the book by Lemay (1995) as backup. Both were already knowledgeable on using a variety of other Internet tools -- Telnet, FTP, electronic mail, Usenet, Listservs, Archie, Gopher, WAIS, etc.-- that preceded the overarching World Wide Web, thanks in particular to the ground-breaking book by Krol (1992, 1994).

Rationale of the Web site

The transition of Moorhead State from a quarter to a semester system last fall was an added advantage for revising the content and redesigning the courses to include the Internet as an integral component of each course. The summer break provided the breathing space to build a Web site with essential links relating to each of the three courses. After determining the objectives of each course under the three usual rubrics -- knowledge and understanding, skills and attitudes -- as well as the weekly readings, lecture topics and assignments that seemed to meet those objectives, fitting in cyberspace exploration turned out to be a relatively easy task. The expansion of the courses from a quarter to a semester format enabled the retention of the core components of each course while adding the Internet component. However, because each class met only thrice a week over the 16-week semester compared to four times a week over the 10-week quarter, the net gain in teaching time was eight 50-minute class periods.

The Copy Editing class had traditionally met in a Macintosh lab whereas the other two had met in lecture rooms. It became apparent that the Reporting and the International Communication classes would also have to meet in a Macintosh lab once a week to effectively integrate the related Internet resources. The campus computer services cooperated to equip the lab with all the paraphernalia needed to link to the Internet at hardly any cost to the mass communications department. (A new 30-station state-of-the art Power Macintosh lab came as a bonus following the university's decision to charge a computer fee from students.)

Table I shows the fall semester trial of weekly Internet sessions for each of the three classes. The course outlines demand that each student acquire an E-mail account, available "free" from the computer services, by the middle of the first week of the semester. The purpose of the first Internet session in all three classes was to introduce students to use E-mail to send specific assignments to the instructor. Except for a very few, most students found it an easy learning experience.

The subsequent Internet sessions for each class varied depending on the relevance of the weekly readings, lectures and other assignments. For instance, the use of Web search engines came in the second week for two of the classes. Copy Editing students learned that in the fifth week because their first four weeks were more concerned with learning copy editing marks and Associated Press style. They were, therefore, better off joining a copy editing Listserv or a writing-related Usenet group or accessing other writing and editing links on the Internet.

Internet Resources for Journalism (Figure I) is the Web site the senior author developed for the three classes. Students accessed the Figure I graphic version through Netscape or its text version through Lynx. In either case, they accessed it by pointing the browser to the Uniform Resource Locator <http://www.moorhead.msus.edu/~gunarat/ijr>. (Within the local network, students could use the shorter URL <www/~gunarat/ijr>.) They kept it as a bookmark until some other lab user deleted it for whatever reason.

The Web site started with six components: Web Search Tools, Journalism Resources, Writing & Editing Help, Listservs, Usenet Groups and Internet Help. Now (as of January 1996), it has an additional component: International Communication. The items under each component appear in alphabetical order for easier access. These links enable students to go to other links not listed in our Web site.

The Web Search Tools section provides students with access to more than 20 search engines including AliWeb, All-in-One Search, CUSI, EINet Galaxy, GNN, InfoSeek, JumpStation, Lycos, Open Text Web Index, SavvySearch, WebCrawler, Web Worm and Yahoo. Because each search engine produces different results, this section enables students to try out several engines to research a particular topic.

The main consideration in selecting links for the Journalism Resources section was their relevance to the content and assignments of the reporting courses. Mass communication faculty, who are planning to build their own Web sites, can find numerous other links that may be pertinent to their specific courses. Subscribers to various Listservs (such as inet-news <listserver@nstn.ca>, online-news <majordormo@marketplace.com>, and INTCAR-L <listserv@american.edu>) often highlight outstanding new Web sites related to their specialized interest. A useful Web site requires an alert Webmaster who has a good deal of enterprise to locate such links through scanning such Listservs. Alternatively, faculty may selectively use one or more of the journalism resource lists that are proliferating on the Web, such as Cybertimes Navigator, WWW Virtual Library: Journalism List or our Internet Journalism Resources.

The Reporting <http://www.moorhead.msus.edu/~gunarat/courses/305.html> course was the reason for the inclusion of the majority of 90 or so links in this section: 1990 Census Lookup Page, Population Estimates, Big List of Internet News Sources, C-SPAN Web site, First Amendment CyberTribune, Government Online, GPO Access, The Journalism List, Journalist's Toolbox, Library of Congress, MedForum, Media E-mail Directory, MediaNet, Megasources, OPIN, ProfNet, A ReporterUs Internet Survival Guide, SPJ, U.S. Dailies, The Virtual Journalist, The WELL Gopher, WWW Virtual Library Journalism List, Yale Library Info Gopher and the several civic journalism and cyberdemocracy links (3).

The International Communication section is an offshoot of the original Journalism Resources section. It became necessary to develop this section to fit the content and assignments of the International Communication <http://www.moorhead.msus.edu/~gunarat/courses/300.html> course. This section uses Merrill's (1995) classification of the seven world regionsand the subregions within each as the basis for listing Web resources. It starts with links relating to the whole field before moving into each region. This section lists more than 90 resources including 25 or so general links such as City Net, EthicNet, Government Servers, Online Newspapers Worldwide, The World Factbook, WWW Servers: Summary, and Yahoo-- Regional: Countries.

The Writing and Editing section aims to back up the Copy Editing <http://www.moorhead.msus.edu/~gunarat/courses/310.html> course. Our failed search for inexpensive computer software for teaching aspects of copy editing was a further inducement to locate relevant Internet links. Mindy McAdams' Copy Editing Help link provided a good deal of inspiration. The online availability of Strunk and White (1979) was a reason for elation. This section includes links to some of the best writing labs in the United States, as well as the U.K.-based English Institute's Elementary Grammar link. The link to The Editorial Eye is of particular interest because of Priscilla Taylor's critique of Associated Press style, which the journalism students have to learn willy-nilly. Because we found the Poynter Institute's vertical files on visual journalism, writing and editing, and computer assisted journalism quite helpful to both Copy Editing and Reporting students, we linked them as well.

For the sake of clarity, we separated Listservs and Usenet groups into separate sections and carefully selected only those links that seemed most pertinent to students in all three classes. It was gratifying to note that Copyediting-L became a popular tool for problem solving in the related class. Relevant Usenet groups and Listservs became quite useful for the International Communication class to write individual essays based on their cultural experience gained through contact with virtual ethnic communities.

Finally, the Internet Help section lists several links to enable the beginner to learn about the Internet and the World Wide Web and gain a basic knowledge of HyperText Markup Language. It includes four Web-accessible Internet-related courses: MCOM 551 New Media: The Internet and WWW (a Bowling Green State University course taught by Bruce Klopfenstein), COMM 3271 Introduction to Publishing on the Internet (a University of Texas at El Paso course taught by Kristina Ross), JOUR 489 Special Topics: Journalism and the Internet (a University of Wisconsin-River Falls course taught by Andris Straumanis) and JOMC 191.8 CyberPublishing and CyberCasting (a University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill course taught by Paul Jones). Perhaps, these links may help even those journalism faculty members who suffer from cyberphobia to get over it.

Beginning with the spring semester of 1996, the senior author has gone a step further to extend the Web concept to his course outlines as well. Now, the students in his three courses have to access these clickable course outlines through the World Wide Web. They can visit the Internet Journalism Resources through various links in the course outlines, which, of course, are accessible by any interested party around the globe. The students receive electronic notifications from the instructor when he updates the course outlines from time to time.

Conclusion and suggestions

The weekly 50-minute lab session for each class over the semester worked out quite well for the benefit of most students. However, a problem can arise when a student already knows how to use these tools or a student in one class decides to do one or two of the other classes in the same semester or a subsequent semester. Perhaps the instructor can assign them to do non-redundant exercises during the lab sessions. Another option is for students to attend an Internet workshop before taking the journalism courses if they are not equipped with basic Internet skills, such as how to use E-mail, Gopher, WWW and search engines and how to join Listserv discussion groups and read Usenet group articles. (Moorhead State mass communications department commenced offering such a workshop in 1996 with the help of specialists from the university's computer services: MC 280 Ads, News and Public Relations Online.) The courses can then concentrate on Internet-related material specifically pertinent to the course content during the lab sessions.

Copy Editing students can definitely improve their grammar skills through access to online writing labs, Listservs and Usenet discussion groups. This means a lesser need to distribute handouts. Copyediting-L discussion group has subscribers who are not wedded to the AP style; and this may confuse the newspaper-bound beginner. However, the ready availability of online wire copy and global newspapers will benefit the student. The easy access to Poynter Institute's vertical files on visual journalism helped the class to do projects using Mario Garcia's (1993) concept of integrated writing, editing and design (WEDiting).

Reporting students, as well as the International Communication students, learned how to use the Web search engines and the Gopher a tool to conduct research. The Reporting students, however, were reluctant to use electronic mail and Internet Relay Chat to conduct cyberspace interviews with appropriate sources. Part of the reason may lie in the nature of the assignments they had to do: reporting for the area's three campus newspapers. Thus they were looking for strictly local sources. The ability to access Internet global newspapers was beneficial to both classes. The Reporting students tried out the Listservs and Usenet groups to learn more and to make contacts.

The International Communication class found the Internet most useful to do their various projects. Their initial project was to identify the countries of the world within the seven regions. This helped them to improve their knowledge of geography early in the course. They found the online CIA World Factbook most helpful. They used the Web search engines to study specific countries in the various regions during several lab sessions. Another project required them to select a non-Western country and develop contact with a native of that country through an Internet-related virtual community to produce a report on their intercultural experience.

In the course evaluations, five students (31 percent of 16 students) in the International Communication class strongly agreed that the course achieved the objectives of improving their skills relating to use of Internet tools to research the field. Eight students (50 percent) agreed with the same statement. Five Reporting class students (21 percent of a total of 24) strongly agreed that the course improved their skills in the use of Internet research tools, and 17 (71 percent) agreed. Four Copy Editing class students (40 percent of 10) strongly agreed that the course improved their skills in the use of Internet resources while another four (40 percent) agreed.

Some student comments submitted with the evaluations expressed interest in learning more about Internet search techniques. This may well be the reason that most students agreed rather than agreed strongly with the statement that the course improved their Internet skills.

Many resources that are rarely available offline are now available through the Internet for International Communication and Reporting students. This, however, is not necessarily the case with resources for Copy Editing even though students can now readily access online newspapers from around the globe, as well as timely wire copy. That may partly be the reason that only six students (60 percent of the total) agreed with the statement that online editing labs were helpful and with the statement that Internet resources on editing and writing were helpful. As more resources become available, however, student satisfaction is likely to increase.

Maintaining a Web site and providing relevant material for students would be a time-consuming exercise for an instructor because he or she will have to clean up outdated links and add new, relevant ones. However, that kind of effort would spare students the waste of time and the frustration dysfunctional links would bring. That effort also may have a payback in the form of less time the instructor has to devote preparing course material on his or her own. Gradually, the role of the instructor may change from feeding or lecturing students to helping them understand the best material found.

The basic educational objective of introducing the Internet as an integral part of journalism teaching goes well beyond the acquisition of search skills: it creates in students an indelible awareness of global and cultural interdependence. They could "talk" with a cyberpal from the otherside of the world and download material from Web sites in Sri Lanka or anywhere else. They could read the online editions of newspapers around the world in real time. Other Internet advantages: students can find story ideas from a global pool; they can tap diverse sources locally, nationally and globally; they will leran to separate the "wheat" from the "chaff" in cyberspace through real experience.

That teaching about the tools would crowd out the traditional core components of a course may become a legitimate concern of some instructors. This concern is bound to disappear in due course as students pick up the new technology before coming to college. Even elementary students in affluent school districts are learning the Internet and Web "stuffs" (Poole, 1996). For the time being, a program can introduce an intensive workshop on new technology either before the commencement or at the beginning of an academic term. (Our specific experience at Moorhead State was different because we did not have to discard any core component to accommodate Internet skills because of the extra time each course gained during the conversion process from a quarter to a semester system.)

The Internet is bound to become an integral part of mass communication teaching before the turn of the century. Woodard (1995, p. 84) writes that "the Internet has seen explosive growth everywhere over the past fewyears, but its expansion in the former communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe has been staggering. That region of the world currently is showing the fastest growth in network connections, and the trend is expected to grow." The Internet mania is unlikely to abate in the foreseeable future. Therefore, it becomes the responsibility of journalism teachers to discard cyberphobia and embrace the Internet as a teaching tool.

Johnson (1995a) was pessimistic about the possibility of journalism teachers incorporating the new technology because "there's just too much to learn, the inertia too strong" (p. 69). However, many departments are now trying to recruit new faculty members who are familiar with the Internet and HTML for information gathering and dissemination. (See announcements of positions in journalism, communication or mass communication in the Chronicle of Higher Education.) Also, journalism educators are exchanging information about efficient ways of incorporating the new technologies including the development of online syllabi through discussion groups, such as Journet, a list serving journalism education.

Journalism teachers who are interested in learning about cyberspace can do so by attending workshops or reading books at their own pace. Once they know how to use E-mail and how to post questions onto newsgroups or discussion groups, they could get help from experts around the world about almost any question (4).

If a program does not have computer equipment or an Internet connection either through online or dial-up, it should persuade the university to charge lab fees from students so they could get an education incorporating the latest technology. Also, a program may try to share facilities with computer science, industrial engineering and other departments that already have computers and Internet connections and, at the same time, borrow their expertise.

Many instructors may consider it burdensome to learn new things and update Web sites, etc., that are part and parcel of the new technology. However, if journalism instructors do not take the initiative, then computer science, library science or some other program may well jump in and skim off this "cream of the cake."

Gunaratne (gunarat@mhd1.moorhead.msus.edu) is professor of mass communications at Moorhead State University, Minnesota; and Lee (byunglee@numen.elon.edu) is assistant professor of journalism and communications at Elon College, North Carolina.

Notes:

1 At the Moorhead State University Library, a search of the keyword "Internet" displayed 38 books.

2 The keyword "journalist" made 727 hits in the WebCrawler whose address is .

3 Those interested can locate the URLs for these links through the source page of the Internet Resources for Journalism on World Wide Web. Figure I describes each of these links in some detail. Moorhead Senior High junior Junius Gunaratne helped with the overall design of the Web site.

4 When the junior author posted a question about software programs available to run Listserv lists, he received two answers within several minutes -- one from New York and another from Germany. He used the "talk" program immediately to talk in real time with the person in New York and got further information.

References:

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Davenport, L. D., Fico, F., & Weinstock, D. (1995, August). Seven Electronic Information Sources in the Newsroom: A Census of One State's Daily Newspapers.Paper presented at the convention of AEJMC, Washington, D.C.

A down-to-earth look at cyberspace. (1995, October 9). US News and World Report, 24.

Friend, C. (1994, Winter). Daily newspaper use of computers to analyze data. Newspaper Research Journal, 15(1), 63-72.

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Integration of Internet Resources into Curriculum and Instruction