This fall, USC students will get the chance to take a class on “Glass Journalism”. The course is aimed at shaping the way news and other print media is consumed via the Google wearable, but won’t go so far as to produce any actual journalism with or about Glass. Via Tumblr, course Professor Robert Hernandez says “In this class we’re not talking about the future of journalism, we’re building it.”
The goal is the same as any other for Glass at this point: to further shape what Glass will be. Students will work with Developers on best practices for creating Glass apps designed for consuming media and pushing information. Rather than create an app that beautifully displays the news on a tiny screen, we may be able to get information about city services or officials by staring at City Hall while wearing Glass.
According to Hernandez, half the students in his class are Explorers. The class will also examine current apps like Spritz, where the aim is media consumption on the tiny screen, but won’t focus on development in that area. Instead the class is about shaping a future of Journalism we’re not necessarily on the cusp of. The course aims to examine how Glass affects media, and shape the course of those changes, but is Glass really going to disrupt anything in regard to Journalism?
This class may bring big things to Glass, or it may end up a bunch of Glass enthusiasts toying with an app for a semester or two. It’s hard to imagine Glass being disruptive or otherwise affecting journalism at all, but that’s what these types of classes are for. If anything effective actually comes of it, we’ll be sure to highlight it int he future.
Hey Nate, thanks for writing a piece about my class… but, man, you got a few things wrong:
– The point of the class is to actually create journalism experiences specifically for Glass and other wearables.
– We are not “working with developers” half the students in the class ARE developers, many who have already developed Glassware on the side.
– This isn’t about Glass, but about trying to explore and develop storytelling types for emerging wearable platforms, but clearly Glass is the main platform mature enough to allow us to do this.
– This is wrong: “Rather than create an app that beautifully displays the news on a tiny screen, we may be able to get information about city services or officials by staring at City Hall while wearing Glass.” // Where did you get this? It is presented like a quote of mine, but who is the “we” here?
– Typo in last sentence: “it int he future.”
Again, thanks for taking the time to write a post… I wish it could have been more accurate. Happy to answer any of your questions.
Cheers,
Robert