How Accredited Programs Use the World Wide Web.

Some academicians and communication professionals have criticized U.S. higher education programs in journalism and mass communication for being slow to respond to the need for new technology training for both students and faculty (Scott, 1995; Yovovich, 1997). Lee and Fleming (1995) noted that the requirements for entry-level positions have multiplied in areas such as computer-assisted reporting. The growth of the World Wide Web is putting still more pressure on higher education to respond to the need to create "techie" journalists. As early as 1995, Internet World publisher Paul Bonington wondered whether the Web was on the verge of taking its place alongside broadcast and print media as a major news medium (Garcia, 1997). Dr. Everett Rogers (1995) wrote that communication scholars began to investigate the diffusion of technological innovations in the United States in the 1970s. In an interview with Singhal and Law (1997), he calls for more diffusion of innovations research in the study of resistance to new innovations. Rogers recommends that scholars analyze the five main attributes of an innovation which are relative advantage, compatability, complexity, trialability, and observability. The Web exhibits such attributes. The Web, with its innovations in the areas of hypertext, multimedia, and interactivity, has had a profound impact on higher education (Starr, 1997). University administrators, partially driven by market forces, value the Web as a vehicle to market their institution as well as to deliver distance learning (Barnard,1997). With these converging factors in mind, this study explores how programs of the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications (ACEJMC) are using the Web for instructional and informational purposes. Background The Internet, developed in the 1960s to facilitate military research, had expanded to other research uses by the end of the 1970s. By 1981, the Internet had grown to comprise 213 host computers, linked in an unorganized collection of networks that included local area networks, dedicated computer lines, telephone lines and satellite links (Starr, 1997). Barely a decade later, the Internet had come to include more than two million host computers, a growth largely driven by the popularity of the Web, which only became available in 1990. Lehnert (1998) stated that this rapid growth of the Web stemmed from the increased availability of inexpensive, powerful computers, widespread access to the Internet, the combination of the easy to use HTML and graphics, readily available Web browsers, and significant attention given to the Web by the mass media. Carey (1998) argues that the infrastructure of our postmodern communications is now set, with the Internet at the center of a new media ecology. Just as news media experiment with the new medium for delivering news, universities are seeking to realize the distance learning potential of the Web. So-called "virtual universities" combine the Web with existing communication technologies such as satellite TV, CD-ROM, cable and videocassettes to deliver education products to students beyond the traditional university boundaries. The Web is particularly adept at providing access to vast electronic libraries; lectures and notes ondemand to facilitate self-study; as well as basic assignments and course syllabi (Barker and Tan, 1997). In some cases, according to Barnard (1997), the kind of communication made possible through the Web can produce far greater student-teacher interaction than might otherwise take place in the classroom. Journalism programs around the country have reacted to the potential of the Web in fits and spurts. The University of Missouri and the Digital Missourian developed a checklist to help students evaluate Internet sites for use in reporting classes and at the university newspaper (Ketterer, 1998). Other programs have begun to incorporate the Web into the studies of advertising, public relations, and broadcasting. …