By
Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate College of the Oklahoma State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF EDUCATION
May, 1999
Abstract
This study involved a content analysis of 193 randomly-selected World Wide Web sites maintained by higher education journalism/ mass communication programs. Also involved was an online survey of 127 faculty members from these programs. The research was conducted to answer seven research questions relating to WWW site content, functionality, and value – and to assess faculty members’ perceptions of social order in programs as social order relates to Web site creation and maintenance. Eighty-six percent of institutions had an operational WWW site devoted exclusively to journalism/mass communication. Types of WWW site visual, operational, and informational enhancements varied widely in quantity and quality. At least 30 percent of Web sites failed to provide even basic information sought by users, such as faculty members’ names, degrees offered, and program mailing address. At least 6 percent of sites contained obviously outdated, erroneous, or incorrect information. Twenty-eight percent of sites were rated as "not user friendly" because of content which was absent or judged as inappropriate. Statistically significant relationships were found between institutional types and levels of site enhancement. Programs housed in smaller (lower Carnegie classified) institutions and in undergraduate institutions had WWW sites with the lowest levels of enhancement. Still, faculty in undergraduate institutions ranked their program Web sites higher in quality than did faculty in graduate institutions, and the difference was statistically significant. Faculty members in all institutions overwhelmingly denied the presence of a positive social order in most areas which relate to Web site development and use, but faculty in journalism/ mass communication programs in graduate degree-granting institutions gave lower rankings to social order components than did faculty within undergraduate institutions. Faculty reported less than average agreement with presented social order statements, suggesting that the social order of programs is insufficient in four areas relating to creation and maintenance of Web sites. Results show journalism/ mass communication programs still have much work to do, to demonstrate proficiency in the presentation of visual, operational, and informational enhancements on Web sites. Furthermore, many programs are perceived by faculty as failing to have the social order which would be supportive of ‘state of the art’ development of the medium.