Okay, scholarly paper time.  

Choose from one of the following topics or come up with your own.  Make sure that if you don't pick one of the following that you get approval from me.  Your going to find some of your information from the trade journals (Columbia Journalism Review, American Journalism Review, Editor and Publisher, etc.) but you might find other interesting stuff in Wired and other more technical journals.  Don't avoid the "scholarly journals" such as Journal of Mass Communications,  Journal of Communications, etc.  You can also interview people.  Your paper should include footnotes or a bibliography.  Just make sure I know where you got your information.   The paper should be at least 8 double-spaced pages. 

Again.  Have fun with it.  The questions are purposely broad to give you plenty of wiggle room.  You'll probably want to recast them into a more precise question.  Don't tackle an overly broad subject.

1. Pick one significant new technology (the Internet, the Web, desk-top publishing, etc) and explain the affect it might have on journalism., good or bad.  Justify why you think this is so.
2. Electonic information that has been collected and stored is easier to use than paper records.  Many news organizations and government agencies are offering increase access to this information.  Examine the ramifications on privacy of these new practices especially as it relates to your job as a journalist.
3. Multimedia is the joining of text, images and sound and, most importantly, interactivity.  How will news organizations deal with this new technology?  How will it affect how we as journalists do our job?
4. Computer-assisted reporting has changed the ways some news organizations do newsgathering.  What is the future of this important technology in the newsroom of tomorrow?
5. The lines of distribution of a product are important to any industry.  Examine the historical, current and future ways that news was, is and will be distributed. What are the ramifications of this change?