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At 17:12 on 22 Jul 98, Howard Owens  wrote in part:

> > Just throw it at someone and say, that's your job, learn it.

> I vote for risky or maybe just unwise.
> 
> There is so much more to creating a news Web site, or any Web site,
> than just throwing up some HTML and gifs.

Which is worse: a website created by someone who understands HTML but 
not content, or one created by someone who understands content but 
not HTML? It's somewhat akin to asking whether you'd rather have a 
reporter who can't write or a writer who can't report.

As someone who does, in fact, teach people about online publishing, I 
tend to spend no more than an hour explaining the basics of HTML, 
even in a semester-long course on online publishing. I might add 
little half-hour sections on, say, animation or JavaScript as the 
new journalists begin to see a need for these, but I resist the 
temptation to turn training in online publishing into HTML training 
every bit as much as I would resist turning Reporting I (or 
even Editing I) into a class on grammar and syntax, or on typing 
and using proofreading symbols.

Explain to me how you teach someone to drive a manual transmission 
car. I could spend four hours or four minutes going over the 
mechanics, but either way it's still going to take learning by doing, 
and that typically involves assuming responsibility for a lot of your 
own learning. The environment can be supportive, but you cannot teach 
what people will not learn. Otherwise it becomes like your old high 
school American History class. Quick, anyone: What was the Hatch Act 
and when was it adopted?



              ERIC K. MEYER - meyer@newslink.org
-----------------------------------------------------------------
           managing partner - NewsLink Associates  
           online publisher - AJR NewsLink  
    asst prof of journalism - University of Illinois
visiting research scientist - Natl Center for Supercomputing Aps

- "Tomorrow's News Today" critically acclaimed guide to strategic 
   planning for online publishing (mailto:report@newslink.org)
- "Designing Infographics" (http://www.newslink.org/book.html)
-  http://www.newslink.org, web's top media resource: 8,000 
   links, more newspapers, hundreds of journalism jobs 

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