As I've done all semester, I'm going to leave the details of this final task somewhat open-ended. Over the course of the past 10 weeks, we've spent our time in the classroom examining various theories and ideas about how the news media and the political system interact. During the week, you've spent part of your time following that interaction in the blogosphere, and part of it exploring the theories in a bit more detail through a series of assigned readings. Now that we're near the end, its time to bring all that together....
STEP ONE: By Wednesday, 11/26, bring your regular weekly blogging to a close. You've followed the hourly news cycle long enough for one semester. But remember: your work on the blog constitutes 80% of your final grade, and of that what you've done up until 11/26 will count for 3/4 of that total (i.e. 60% of your course grade). If you've fallen behind, there's a very limited amount of time left for you to make up that lost ground. If you need an extension on this deadline, please let me know ASAP and we may be able to work something out. [Feel compelled by events to post something after that date? Just be sure to file it under the category of "Rants + Reactions"]
STEP TWO: Eat, drink, and be merry. Do not - I repeat, do not - read blogs on Thanksgiving.
STEP THREE: Come to our final class on Wednesday, 12/3, prepared to pull things together with a discussion of the last 30 years of US political media history, including a detailed examination of how Shirky's ideas about this latest information revolution do and do not fit with what you've seen in the blogosphere throughout the semester. Are there any parts of Shirky's work that struck you as particular relevant? What critiques do you have of his work? And last but not least, any predictions about the future of our political media? Remember: Class participation is 20% of your grade, so if you need to make one last push, its now or never.
STEP FOUR: Between 12/4 and 12/15, write a post or a series of posts - your choice! - that make a serious effort to pull together your efforts over this past semester. What have you learned? What questions have been left unanswered? What has most surprised you about what you've learned? What has most disappointed you? What, if anything, does the perspective of this class have to say about the media during the Bush years? And what might it lead you to expect during the Obama years? And no partisan answers, please! The goal here is to do serious analysis, not carry water for your favorite candidate or political party.
As you write, everything is fair game: class lectures, discussions, assigned readings, past work on the class blog, responses of your fellow students to this assignment, the blogosphere, the elites... as is always the case with blogging, your approach is yours to choose. Only one real requirement, in fact: Don't try to do, say, and include everything in your your post. As I'm sure you all know by now, blog posts work best when they are built around a small handful of arguments. What I'm looking for is some personal reflection and analysis, and not a typical blue book, final exam styled brain dump.
And although it should go without saying at this point, just in case... you will of course want to include links to whatever materials you are analyzing throughout your analysis. Link to your own posts, link to the posts of others on our blog, link to other parts of the web.... Link link link!
This final writing (or set of writings) will account for the final 20% of your grade. If you can get an initial post done by Tuesday, 12/9, I'm happy to provide you some initial feedback on that day.
And of course, if you have any questions about any of this, please ask.
Comments