The following teaching notes accompany Internet Journalism and the Starr Investigation as part of Thinking Clearly (Columbia University Press, 2003), a textbook on journalism case studies.
By J.D. Lasica
Synopsis
Most journalism students today have grown up using the Internet as an important way of receiving news. They are likely unaware of the various stages of its development and may accept current practices as the only possible way of communicating. This case was designed to help students think through the challenges the Internet created and the choices journalists have made.
Use of the Internet slowly broadened from use by the technologically savvy to use by the general public as a form of communication. According to public opinion surveys, as late as 1997 only 37 percent of the public went on line, but by the summer of 1999 half of those questioned reported having used the Internet (Tom Rosenstiel and Bill Kovach, Warp Speed [New York: Century Foundation, 1999], p. 11). [Read more…] about Lewinsky scandal: Case study teaching notes