WORLD WIDE WEB SITES AND SOCIAL ORDER WITHIN HIGHER EDUCATION JOURNALISM AND MASS COMMUNICATION PROGRAMS

By

DOUGLAS J. SWANSON

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Many people deserve credit for helping me complete this project. My wife, Terri, was the sounding board and technical expert. Sons Matthew and Albert gave up "quality time" so I could work. As the months passed, our extended family and friends smiled attentively through many tedious reports of my progress.

I thank my committee, Dr. Maureen Nemecek, Dr. Steven Smethers, Dr. Dave Webster, and Dr. Tom Weir for their scholarly direction and practical recommendations at every stage of development. I am grateful for Dr. Martin Burlingame’s help at my defense, as well as at other points during my doctoral journey at OSU.

I am indebted to Dr. Debbie Blue and Dr. Bret Roark at Oklahoma Baptist University for their statistics and software assistance, and to my other OBU colleagues and students for patiently enduring far too many "dissertation examples" sprinkled into lectures and casual conversations.

Finally, I am grateful for the wise counsel of my OBU friend, mentor and "boss" Dr. Laura Crouch. She encouraged me during my bitter experiences in Norman, and shared the joy of my successes in Stillwater. She was a clear thinker, an exceptional writer, and a stabilizing influence for me. Her untimely death leaves me much poorer.