The fact is, this is really important for journalists who want to be able to embrace and adapt to a changing industry.

Whether you like it or not, the vast majority of you are going to use the internet in some capacity, whether this is blogging, publishing your own work, having your articles indirectly published or syndicated, or representing yourself online in order to help a career.

In 2008 we cannot pretend that journalism has nothing to do with the internet. The newspapers, magazines, tv, and radio that were once the sum of all journalism are now largely also available over the internet, or at least have some form of online outlet.

This online presence is growing in size and importance every day, as the world gets connected in ever-more remote places. For example, many people in the USA and other English-speaking countries around the world with unreliable main-stream media, use and benefit greatly from British journalism outlets like BBC Online and Guardian Unlimited, which confirm that they receive a significant proportion of hits from outside the UK.

In short, the journalism that has always been there is being rapidly transferred to digitally based, easily dispersible formats.

In addition, there are many newer internet-based forms of rapid information (and opinion) dispersal, which, whether or not you count them as journalism, are certainly in competition with traditional journalistic sources, online or not.

All of this together makes up online journalism.

Hence we cannot pretend that journalism has nothing to do with HTML, because the digitally based, easily dispersible format is HTML. No HTML, no embedded video, sound, text formatting or links. In other words, no internet.

So there is a link, but, I hear you thinking, why do the actual journalists need to know anything about HTML? The metaphor: Surely Lewis Hamilton doesn’t have to know about engines to be a racing car driver? He has a different set of skills to a mechanic.

Yes, he does have a different set of skills, but in order to drive the car, get the best out of the engine, and keep winning, he probably does have an in depth understanding of how the engine behind him behaves and why, at least far more so than you or me.

Likewise, you are not being asked to become HTML gurus. Nor are you being taught Web Design 101. You are being taught Web Concepts for Journalists Who Don’t Know What the Future Holds and Want to be as Hireable and Versatile as Possible 301.

One of the things this module is going to ensure is that you have a level of comfort in understanding what the technology is capable of, and how you can best make use of it.

Hopefully you will also learn to de-throne the word ‘technology’ in this context. Broadcast students have to learn about cameras, microphones, sound formats and digital editing as a matter of necessity. Anything less than a basic familiarity would raise questions about the adequacy of their training. Similarly, print students are being taught Quark Express, Photoshop, and sub-editing. Although you won’t have to lay out articles unless you work for a tiny publication or pursue a career in page layout, you will still find it useful to understand how pages are laid out when you write a news story or feature, as much in the job interview as in the daily job that hopefully follows it. Likewise, you’ll increasingly need to understand how HTML behaves, what can be done with it and what can’t, if you want to become a 21st century journalist.

Otherwise, if you really want to be stuck doing jobs that don’t give you the chance to embrace or adapt to the future, which will involve the internet, you can stop paying attention right now.