This document outlines the key topics to be covered in a course on media and information studies, including: [1] the importance of information access and ethics; [2] finding and evaluating a variety of information sources; and [3] different types of communication tools and skills. It also mentions ongoing components on current events, literature, and a student showcase of additional tools. The course aims to equip students with skills for navigating the modern media landscape and communicating information effectively through various online and presentation formats.

1. Sequence of topics- Media and Information Studies
M. Stigge
1. The importance of information (1.1.1, all Indicators of Standard 11)
a. Equitable access (7.2. 1, 8.1.1)
b. Global nature
c. Your digital life: your digital footprint; orphaned accounts
d. Ethics of (8.2.1)
i. Citation, creative commons, etc.
ii. Freedom of information (Wikileaks)
iii. Anonymity on the internet; trolls, etc.
2. Finding and using a variety of types of sources/media (5.2.1)
a. Organization of information (1.4.1)- classification systems, open vs. closed
systems, tagging, search algorithms, social recommendations (Facebook)
b. Primary vs. secondary sources
c. Print vs. electronic
d. Scholarly vs. non-scholarly
e. Reference vs. general nonfiction
i. Periodical indexes
ii. Government documents 1.5.2, 14.1.1-3, 14.2.1-2)
iii. Databases
1. Boolean searching (1.5.3)
2. Truncation
iv. Other electronic sources
1. Wikis- validity of info and the possibility of malicious code
embedded
a. Citation chasing
2. Blogs
3. RSS feeds
4. Digg, StumbleUpon, etc.
5. Social bookmarking with tagging: delicious, diigo
6. Twitter
7. Slideshare
v. Various search engines
1. How does the internet work
2. How do search engines work?
3. Combating content farms and search engine optimization
4. Advanced search options
5. Search terms
vi. Content specific encyclopedias
vii. Citation chasing
viii. Periodicals
1. Newspapers

2. 2. Popular magazines
3. Trade magazines
4. News magazines
5. Opinion magazines
6. Journals- peer-reviewed, etc.
ix. Fiction as a source of information?
3. Information evaluation
a. Source evaluation (2.1.1)
b. Selecting right type of source for different situations/needs (7.1.1)
c. Fact/ point of view/ opinion, including different news sources (2.2.1, 6.1.2)
d. “On the flip side” exercises
e. Internet source evaluation
i. Anatomy of a URL
4. Types of communication- face to face presentation & online/global
communication 3.1.1, 3.4.1,
a. Presentation skills and media tools or product types 4.2.1, 4.2.3,
i. Animoto, prezi, screencasting, bighugelabs, jing, the rules of 5.2.2, 5.2.1,
Powerpoint, glogster 5.3.1, 5.3.2,
b. Wikis 5.3.3, all
i. Other collaborative tools: wallwisher, crocodoc, google docs, indicators of
basecamp (9.1.1, 9.2.1) Standards 11,
c. Social networks and their implications 12, and 13)
i. Behaviors online
ii. Is privacy dead? Sharing of personal info, Newsweek article
iii. Where does the information go?
1. Where stored?
2. Once on internet, never really goes away- Wayback Machine,
Facebook’s “delete account” feature?
d. Blogs
e. Twitter
f. Basic HTML, what XML does
g. Free website creation
5. Big 6 process model (6.2.1)
6. Personal interest projects using varied media, evaluation, and product format
a. Choosing product format based on content (5.2.1)
7. Student showcase of tools we haven’t looked at

3. Current event component- ONGOING
Literature component- ONGOING (5.1.1-5, 4.1.1)