What Do Blogs Do? What Do They Look Like?
Despite their variety, blogs do have some things in common. Blogs should be kairotic. Bloggers focus on timely issues and engage in current conversations. Blogs should be inviting—to blog is to become part of a community (our blog will be public so keep that in mind as you choose a screen name and edit your blogs). Blogs are audience aware. The audience for our blogs could be this class or it could be any number of TV watchers. Evaluate what your audience knows and show that awareness. Blogs are subjective. There is no right and wrong, but you still need to support your claims with evidence. Blogs are personal. Every blog has its own sense of style. Develop a voice. Blogs are analytical. Good blogs don’t simply provide a summary, instead they give opinions and analyze issues.
Look at the examples listed on the blog roll to your right. Many of these examples are professional, written by TV critics, but many others are written by fans who feel motivated to spend their time writing about shows that inspire them. However, all of them review shows and offer insight into different aspects of TV. For a particularly good personal blog, check out Jennifer Eolins MySpace blog. She has a strong voice, critical insights, and obvious investment in each of her Project Runway blogs (she has since moved her blog and given up on the show, but it is still archived on MySpace). And, Alan Sepinwall of “What’s Alan Watching?” was a TV critic with a personal blog who is now blogging for Hitfix. His viewpoint is critical, in depth, and entertaining. I highly suggest you check him out for guidance with your own writing.
I point out Alan, in particular, because you should keep your role as a critic in mind as you write: “As a critic, you will engage with the essential organization of television programs, context, time-space manipulation, the use of images and language, conventions and variations of genre, narrative patterns, character development, and the episodic nature of television. You will also examine social and cultural values, ideology, possible meanings, codes, and the representation of gender, race, sexuality, age, ethnicity, employment and nationality. As a critic, you must also understand the nature of the business of TV and the viewing audience, its expectations, desires, participation, and satisfaction. Criticism also goes well beyond understanding of the program itself and asks what conceptual or theoretical implications have resulted” (O’Donnell 4). Piece of cake.
Blog Requirements for This Class
You will be expected to write one blog of at least 300 words per week that engages with some aspect of the television industry. It can be a weekly program review, thoughts on th summer programming schedule, or even gossip-related. However, I do expect your blog to be critical, thoughtful, and reflect you as a writer. You will write 5 blogs total. I suggest that you write your blog in Word first, then cut and paste it into the blog. This will avoid any potential computer problems, allow you to spell-check, and make revision easier.
When composing your blogs, please use titles that accurately reflect the content of the blog. The fact is that there are 16 people in this class. I don’t expect you to read everyone’s blog every week. Accurate titles and appropriate tags will help each of us sift through blogs more efficiently.
In addition, I expect you to respond to your classmates blogs at least twice a week. Your comments should be substantive. In other words, I expect you to respond in a thoughtful and critical way to some of your classmates blogs and/or comments. The goal is to engage in dialogue.
Please respect your classmates and other bloggers. The internet is a community. This class is a community. Because blogs are highly subjective, we are likely to disagree. Often. Keep your analysis and criticism firmly focused on the subject at hand—not on the character of the blogger.
The Blog Portfolio: Content and Grading
At the end of the semester, you will turn in a blog portfolio with all 5 blog entries and a reflection worth 25% of your grade. I strongly suggest that you revise each of the blogs before you submit them in the portfolio—especially the early blogs. Generally, because blogs are so topical and timely, revision doesn’t occur after they are posted. BUT, this is a writing class and you will become a better blogger in these 5 weeks; use that knowledge to submit the best blogs possible in the portfolio. The 5 blogs that you choose will constitute 15% of your grade. I will also go through and check to make sure that you have been leaving comments. Consistent, substantial commenting represents 5% of your grade.
The final 5% will be based on your reflection. I’d like you to reflect on your own growth as a blogger. What was difficult for you? What did you enjoy? What kind of revisions did you make? How is blogging different than the type of writing you usually do? How has it affected your engagement with television? How has your thinking about TV changed throughout the course of the semester? Take your time and reflect thoughtfully on your progress as a writer, thinker, and blogger. The reflection should be engaging and detailed—and about 3-4 pages.
Grading will be based on the criteria I listed above. They should be timely, audience aware, critical, analytical, personal, and—above all—well-written. Blogs are not IM’s or texts. You want people to seriously consider your opinion and they will not do so if you do not write it in a way that demands them to. Nor will I.
Happy Blogging!!!
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