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Student-Initiated Use of Facebook for Learning Online Journalism

Journalism & Mass Communication Educator

Published online on

Abstract

This article presents a case study of student-initiated use of Facebook Groups in doing a team project for an online journalism course. Drawing upon the concept of affinity space and a theoretical taxonomy of asynchronous online discussion, the present study triangulates classroom observation, semi-structured student interviews, and microanalysis of posting activities of a student-initiated Facebook group. The findings suggest a shift of attention from instructor-centered course design to student-initiated use of social networking sites for learning online journalism. Instructors are invited to position themselves as facilitators and to take an intersubjective stance when designing computer-assisted learning activities.