World Wide Web sites and social order within higher education journalism and mass communication programs

Scope and method of study. The purpose of the study was to assess journalism/mass communication program World Wide Web 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. The study involved an analysis of 193 World Wide Web sites maintained by higher education journalism/mass communication programs and an online survey of 127 faculty members from those programs. Web sites were subject to content analysis. Survey participants responded to a 23-item questionnaire. Descriptive statistics, analysis of variance and t-tests, were used to answer seven research questions relating to Web site use by academic programs and related perceptions of social order by faculty.; Findings and conclusions. Most journalism/mass communication programs had an operational Web site, but site visual, operational, and informational enhancements varied widely. Twenty-eight percent of sites were rated as “not user friendly” because of content judged absent or inappropriate. Programs housed in smaller institutions and in undergraduate institutions had Web sites with significantly lower enhancement levels. Faculty in undergraduate institutions ranked their program Web sites significantly higher in quality than did faculty in graduate institutions. 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. Faculty in graduate degree-granting institutions gave lower rankings to social order components than did faculty within undergraduate institutions.