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It was interesting, fun and educational the first time. Why not do it again? Once again, we welcome into our online class Professor Robert Rosenwein and students from JOUR/SPSY 327 Mass Communication and Society. Professor Rosenwein and I both received many good comments from all of you about our first co-classroom. We also felt you learned a great deal from the process and from one another. The logistics will work the same. We will do some readings
in common about a topic of interest to both classes. Then we will meet
online in groups throughout the week to consider a case study.
The issue is taken from the headlines of the past months. It involves an anti-abortion web site known as the Nuremberg Files. The web site has been embroiled in deep controversy. It shows pictures of aborted fetuses. It features names, home addresses and photographs of doctors who perform abortions. It gives the doctors' work schedules. It provides a checklist of doctors who have been injured or killed. Doctors and clinics said the site was an incitement and invitation to murder. Events came to a head when a Buffalo, N.Y. doctor was killed by a sniper. Within 15 minutes of the killing, the doctor's murder was checked off on the web site. Doctors and clinics sued the web site. We would like you to read about the trial, the verdict and the aftermath. Details are important. You will find varied reports of the case at the Conservative News Service, The New York Times, CNN and other sites of your own choosing. Interesting essays can be found by Sallie Tisdale at Salon, Paul McMasters at Freedom Forum and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) at its site. A woman who "mirrored" -- hosted -- the Nuremberg Files online has a provocative site that discusses her reasons. The New York Times also has an article about attempts by the site creators to get back online. CNET has a recent analysis. The site itself has been closed down by two different
Internet providers. It keeps trying to get back online. In one of the bizarre
happenstances of life online, the URL www.nurembergfiles.com takes you
to a pornography site.
After reading about the site and thinking through the issues, we would like you to consider a fundamental question: Do you think that the Nuremberg Files should be permitted on the Web? Please defend your answer in broad terms: Do the creators
of the web site have the right to free expression? When is "hate speech"
protected? When does it cross the line?
Again, we recognize that we can't have both classes discuss this case as a whole. It would be too large and unwieldy. We instead have divided you up into separate groups, made up of 9 or 10 students from both classes. The groups are the same as last time and printed below. The discussions will take place at the Online Journalism Bulletin Board. You all have already registered. You can simply go the site at: http://www.lib.lehigh.edu:8900. To reach the discussion, a) you go from Course Listing, b) to Journalism & Communication, c) you click on the Jour 366 Online Journalism listing, d) you enter your user name and password, e) you go to the Jour 366 Online Journalism page, f) you click on the Bulletin Board icon. If you forget your password, just email me. Once at the discussion site, the format should be familiar to you. Click on Forum to see the list of Forums. You click on a Forum to read the previous postings. You click Compose to write a message to that Forum. When you return, you can click on Show All or Show Unread to see the postings of your classmates. Last time, students said they felt they were slow to contribute and then felt rushed to say things as the week drew quickly to a close. Please do the readings and post at least one response before the weekend. Then return and respond at least once more to the thoughts of other students. Once again, please remember that this is indeed a week of classes. Like any good seminar case study, you will be evaluated by the quality as well as the number of your responses. Here are the group assignments again: Nuremberg-1 Brooke Dumain
Nuremberg-2 Christine Lawlor
Nuremberg-3 Jennifer Conigliaro
Nuremberg-4 Jessica McCarthy
We'll begin Wednesday, March 17 and continue until Wednesday, March 24. Work at day or night. Work during the weekend. We are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Thanks again to all. Please email me if you have any questions or call me at 758-4177. return to JOUR
366 Online Journalism
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