for Feb 8

Text Reading
Chapter 3 (Foust)

Online Reading
--http://www.w3schools.com/html/html_intro.asp
--http://www.w3schools.com/css/css_intro.asp

Blog Customization
You should have the following things done to your blog. I have listed them below by the menu item in your dashboard. You may have done some of these in class before you left Monday night.
--Posts--
Under "edit", delete the "hello world" post.
Under "add new", post the blog post you emailed to me the first night of class
Under "categories", change Uncatagorized to Jour232 (or something similar). You'll file all the blog posts I assign you under this category. You can also create other categoreies as needed, if you want.

--Links--
Under "edit", delete the wordpress links.
Under "add new", add some links (at least 2 or 3 -- more if you want) in your specialization that you think would benefit your readers.

--Appearance--
(OPTIONAL) Under "themes", activate another theme to change the way your blog looks.

--Users--
Under "authors and users", edit yourself so that your posts are written by "FirstName Last Name" rather than your blog username

--Settings--
Under "General", change your blog's title and tagline to something appropriate. Change the time zone to UTC -6

(OPTIONAL)Under "Discussion" and "Privacy", change your settings to whatever level of security you would like.

VERY IMPORTANT
email me (chris.houchens@wku.edu) the address of your blog (username.wordpress.com) so I can give you a grade this week (and the rest of the semester)

for feb1

You should do the following to be prepared for class on Feb 1:

Text Reading
Read and be prepared to discuss Chapters 1 and 2 of the Foust "online journalism" textbook.

Online Reading
Read the info on the Brand You initiative at the WKU Fusion site.

Blog Post #1
If you didn't do it tonight, email me the prompts of your current impressions of the technical side of journalism and publishing and what you expect to get out of this class.

Begin the process to set up your web site / blog
You should make the decision if you're going to use a free Wordpress.com hosted site or if you're going to make the investment in your future and purchase your own domain name and a hosting package.
(You're also free to use Blogger, Typepad, iMac, or other blog/web platform -- but we will primarily discuss Wordpress in class)

1) If you choose the free Wordpress hosted site...

• Come up with some professional / timeless usernames using the criteria we discussed in class
  (If you'd like, you can email me your potential username choices and I'll give you my opinion on which would be best.)


• Visit Wordpress.com and sign up for an account with one of those usernames


• SAVE the login info that they will email you. We'll begin working on your site on Feb 1

22) If you choose to purchase your own domain and hosting...

• Come up with some potential domain names for yourself using the criteria we discussed in class.
  (If you'd like, you can email me your potential domain name choices and I'll give you my opinion on which would be best.)


• Purchase a domain/hosting package using one of the vendors on the Brand You page. You'll be fine with the economy/budget or other lowest hosting package they have for now. You can upgrade later if you want.
  (You can use any domain/hosting vendor you want. Just make sure that a one-click install of Wordpress and at least one MySQL database is included in your hosting.


• SAVE the login info that they will email you. We will install Wordpress at the beginning of the next class