Jour 5350: Journalism and the Science of Information.

I have designed a new graduate course, Journalism and the Science of Information that I will be teaching in the fall.


Journalism, like information science, transmits human knowledge. Information science deals with the processes of selecting and recording information. Journalism crafts that information into newsworthy items. Journalism discovers – by transforming occurrences into events – and transmits news. Information science deals with storage and later retrieval of information. This course introduces students to interdisciplinary methods of gathering, organizing, storing, retrieving and disseminating news and information.
It introduces students to ways of examining properties of news and information, and to the theory of information and human information processing.

Objectives of this course:

This course seeks to:
•Introduce students to processes of information gathering and how retrieved information is journalistically crafted to convey news events to a larger audience.

•Introduce students to theories of information and communication and how they affect news crafting
•Develop information retrieval strategies to support students’ research
•Explore ways of tapping into the vast reservoir and practices of Library and Information Sciences for the purpose of retrieving background, direct and indirect sources for news and delivering news and narratives via multiple systems
•Identify information science concepts and how they relate with journalism
•Expose students to foundational and main concepts in both information and journalism
•Expose students to information science and journalism academic and research resources such as databases, bibliographies, journals and other scholarly works both off-line and on line
•Introduce students to interdisciplinary research topics in information science and journalism

At the end of the course, students will be able to:
•Articulate the key approaches to the science of information and its relationship with journalism and mass communication
•Identify relationship of information science concepts and how they relate with journalism
•Identify ways of gathering, storing and retrieving information.
•Conduct interdisciplinary research and evaluate information by methods appropriate to both communication and information science
•Understand concepts and apply theories in an interdisciplinary way in the use of and presentation of information
•Demonstrate an understanding of the role of information and how it shapes human communication
•Think critically and creatively with the aim of developing research and professional skills