Office Hours:
Note: I maintain an OPEN DOOR policy. If my door is open (it generally is) please stop in. If I am free, we can talk. If I'm busy, I'll let you know when I expect to be available.
Kevin Coughlin
Ashley Overbeck
in.for.ma.tion. n 1: the communication or reception of knowledge or intelligence 2a : knowledge obtained by investigation, study, or instruction b: INTELLIGENCE, NEWS c: FACTS, DATA d: a signal or character...representing data e: something...which justifies change in a construct ...that represents physical or mental experience or another construct f: a quantitative measure of the content of information, specify: a numerical quantity that measures the uncertainly in the outcome of an experiment to be performed 3: the act of informing against another person 4: a formal accusation of a crime made by a prosecuting officer as distinguished from an indictment presented by a grand jury.
"Turning information into knowledge is the creative skill of our age,"
Anthony Smith, Goodbye Gutenberg, 1980.
Why does the UO School of Journalism and Communication offer this course? Why do we require Journalism and Communication pre-majors take it? These questions could be answered by repeating several commonly heard statements:
"We live in an information society."
"Information is power."
"This is the information age."
But what does it mean to say, for example, that "information is power"?
It means that we are both dependent on and empowered by information. What we know shapes our personal and professional lives. From the mundane (where can I get a good cup of coffee?) to the profound (Is there a God?), our lives are shaped by the ability to obtain and make sense of information and to then convey what we have learned to others.
For journalism and communication students, information gathering is critical. All professionals, and especially those working in communication fields, must constantly gather and process information if they are to produce meaningful messages.
We live in an age of unprecedented access to information--an age of information overload. But in order to take advantage of all this information, we must learn how to manage it. We must learn how to find the information we need and then how to sort the important from the trivial and the accurate from the inaccurate. We must be information literate.
This course introduces you to the theory and methods of information gathering and gives you the opportunity to apply what you're learning to an important public policy question.
Among other things, this course will examine:
--planning and using search strategies;
--laws related to information gathering and use;
--efficient use of library sources, with a special emphasis in reference materials and government documents;
--interviewing techniques;
--special aspects of corporate information gathering
--how electronic information gathering is changing our information structure.
--how to evaluate "evidence"; and
--organizing a "message" from the raw material of the information search. It is important to note that while we are rapidly moving from a "paper-based" to an "electronic-based" world of information, the foundations of information gathering remain the same. If you don't understand the logic of the information structure, you will waste time, energy, money and your search will fail.
Texts:
Kessler and McDonald, The Search: Information Gathering for the Mass Media (1992).
Browne, Asking the Right Questions, 4th ed. (1994)
Packets: Jenkins, UO Library Information Resources (Fall 1996).
REQUIRED E-MAIL: Each student must have an E-mail account for the class. Throughout the term I will use E-mail and the INFORMATION GATHERING HOME PAGE to distribute lecture notes, quizzes, assignments and other class materials. We will also use E-mail for student-to-professor/GTF communication. You will be able to send questions, comments, observations, etc. to us via E-mail and we will respond. This is not intended to replace office visits or class discussion, but rather, to add an additional means of communication to the mix.
INFORMATION GATHERING HOME PAGE: To access the Home Page, you will need to be using a computer running Netscape, Internet Explorer, Lynx or an equivalent browser. You can access the J202 Home page through Online classes page on the School's Home Page (http://jcomm.uoregon.edu/); or go directly to the J202 Home Page (http://ballmer.uoregon.edu/tgleason/home96_j202.html).
REQUIRED USE OF ELECTRONIC DATA BASES: You will be required to use electronic data bases, CD/ROM data bases and the INTERNET in your research papers this term. We will spend several weeks discussing the expanding world of electronic data gathering; however, you should not wait until then to start learning about these information sources.
: Your course grade will be based on the following work:
*The Warm Up assignments will introduce you to the various parts of your Annotated Bibliography. They will be graded, but the primary purpose will be to provide you with feed back so that you will be prepared to do an outstanding job on the Final Project.
Please Note: Failure to complete and submit the Annotated Bibliography by the assigned deadline will result in a grade of "F" for the course.
[Additional readings, many provided on-line, will be assigned as we move through the quarter.]
Week 1: Sept. 30 - Oct. 4. Introduction:
How will we operate this term? Use of the Internet. The information age. Why we search. What is a "public policy question?" How do we construct a question? Developing search strategies.
Readings.
Week 2: Oct. 7-11. Introduction continues. Article analysis. Evaluating Evidence. Discovering the world of libraries. Writing annotations.
Readings:
Week 3: Oct. 14-18. Library strategies, cont. The electronic library; the interactive search.
Guest Lecturer, Oct. 16: Barbara Jenkins, Reference Librarian, Knight Library
Readings:
Week 4: Oct. 21-25. Understanding government organization. Peeling, slicing and dicing government sources. Carefully read the Glossary of Sources in The Search.. Evaluating Evidence (more).
Guest Lecturer: Tom Stave, Government Documents, Knight Library
Readings:
Week 6: Nov. 4-8. Corporate information and the world of business
Readings:
Week 7: Nov. 11-15. The interview. Finding Experts. Tracking institutions
Readings:
(WARM-UP #4: Thesis Statement & Outline: Noon, Wednesday, Nov. 20.)
Week 8: Nov. 18-22. Information Gathering and the Writing Process.
Readings:
Week 9: Nov. 25 (Thanksgiving Holiday, no class Nov. 27-29): The Writing Process, cont. Doing the right thing...
Week 10: Dec. 2-6: Writing the Conclusion (i.e., The End).
Notes on the annotated bibliography: This is the culmination of your term's work -- a critically abstracted compilation of recent and relevant sources on a public policy topic. You are required to find, examine and annotate at least 35 relevant sources from the following categories: books, general periodicals ("popular" newspapers and magazines); specialized periodicals; government documents; institutional or associational materials, Internet sources; and interviews. More on these sources in class. You must begin work on this project immediately.
If you start early, get organized, establish a work schedule, stay focused and don't panic, you will succeed! For students' perspectives on the course, see Words of Wisdom
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