Final Blog Post

Hello Class!

This will be my final post to this blog. *sheds a tear*  I hope that you have learned a bit over the course of the semester. My students never cease to amaze me. I think I learn just as much from my students, if not more, than my students learn from me. In short, I have had a great time with you this semester, and wish each of you a relaxing and happy break.


I want to thank each and every one of you for making this semester truly wonderful for me.  YOU made the class what it is!  Give yourselves a HUGE pat on the back for the effort that you put into the class.  Blogging almost every week, taking an honest look at your Facebook page, etc...  Y'all put in a good amount of effort into this class.  You should be proud!!!!!

As of midnight last night everything should be entered into D2L.  I have added a column to the gradebook that adds up all of the points you have accrued in the class.  Take a look at your total points then compare that number to the following scale to see the grade you earned in Comm 131P.  Do not look at your percentage in D2L, as it may not reflect properly.  In short, look only at your total points accrued, then compare it to this scale: 

A+ 970-1000
A 940-969
A- 900-939
B+ 870-899
B 840-869
B- 800-839
C+ 770-799
C 740-769
C- 700-739
D+ 670-699
D 640-669
D- 600-639
F 600 and below

I will post grades at some point tonight, but I don't think they will be released for a day or two. The mysjsu system will release grades at its own pace.

Again, I have had a great time with you all this semester, and hope that you have a wonderful break!

Signing off for the last time.....

The Blogging Prof

Final Exam Procedures

Hello Fabulous Students,

Here is some information regarding the proctor form required for the final exam.  As a reminder the final exam will open up on Aug 8th at 12:01am, and will close on Aug 10th at 11:59pm.  Please be sure to take the final exam during the scheduled time.  It is an open book/open notes exam.


Please follow these instructions and reminders to take the final exam:

1). Download the Proctor Form from the "Content" tab on D2L.  You can locate it under the "Quizzes and Tests" tab.
2). Find someone to proctor your final exam who is a). NOT a part of Comm 131P at SJSU, and b). Over the age of 21.  You do not need to go to a testing center for the final exam, rather, you can ask a family member, friend, etc.....
3). Make sure the proctor watches you take the final exam to attest to the fact that you did not share questions or answers with anyone.  In short - the proctor is there to make sure you don't offer assistance or get assistance from another person.
4). Log onto D2L and locate the final exam.
5). Take the test - This is an open book/open notes test.
6). Submit the test within the time limit allowed (see D2L for more info.)
7). Submit the SIGNED proctor form to me through email.  You can either scan it into the computer and send it to me, or you can take a HIGH QUALITY digital photo and email the picture to me.  Be sure to email the proctor form to the class email address.

NOTE:  If I do not receive a signed Proctor Form from you with 24 hours of you completing the final exam, you will earn a zero on the final. 

Email me with any questions you might have.

:)
The Blogging Prof.

Week of August 6 - 10

Hello Folks!


Due this week:
*Study: Study for the final exam this week.  The final exam will cover all readings throughout the semester.

*Wiki: See explanation below.

*FINAL EXAM: Please log into D2L between Aug 8th and Aug 10th to take the final exam.  The exam will open at 12:01am on August 8th, and will close at 11:59pm on August 10th.  Make sure you start your final exam early in order to submit it by 11:59pm on August 10th.



WIKI:  It's Wiki Week.  You will log onto the class Wiki by going HERE.  Use the user name and password you created when uploading your paper.

You should read through your colleagues papers and comment on them at the bottom of their entry.  Make sure your name appears in the comments you leave so I can grade them appropriately.  You can find your colleagues papers by looking at the sidebar on the right hand side of the Wiki and clicking on the names of your colleagues. 

Each comment is worth 10 points for a total of 30 points.    Each comment should be at least 250 words. You can compare, contrast, evaluate, critique - but the comments should provide constructive feedback, and a critique.  There is NO time restriction for your three posts this week, and can be posted at anytime before Friday at 11:59pm.

Wiki Comments

Hello Brilliant Students,

I have had a couple of questions regarding the Wiki Comments, so I thought I should clarify a bit.  You do not need to do anything with the Wiki this week (by midnight tonight) other than upload your paper.  Commenting on other students papers will take place this coming week.  I will post more about this on my blog tomorrow in the "Monday Post".

I look forward to receiving your papers by 11:59pm tonight (along with them being uploaded to the Wiki).

Have a great night!
:)
The Blogging Prof.

Wiki Info.

Hello Folks,

I just sent out an email regarding the Wiki.  Just in case though, here are the directions.....

Comm 131P Wiki

To log in to the Comm 131P Wiki:

1). Go to: http://comm131p.pbwiki.com/

2). Log in with your email address (create a password) – invitation was sent

3). Remember to write down your username and password

To upload your final project:

1). Click: “Create a Page” in the upper right hand section

2). Name your page:  Please use first and last name (ex. Carol Perez)

3). Import a Document (attach your paper in .rtf format, as submitted to instructor)

4). To view your page, please click on “Pages & Files”

5). Find your name and click on it

To Comment on Other Wiki Pages:

1). Log into the Comm 131P Wiki

2). Look at the right hand side of the page and locate the "sidebar"

3). Click on the name of a classmate (will only be clickable once I make the links active)

4). Read the paper

5). Scroll to the bottom and leave a comment of 250 words or more

Media Research Project: 250 pts.

Wiki Responses 250 words each (in place of discussion): 30 pts.

Grades have been updated in D2L

Hello Fabulous Students,

I just updated grades in D2L.  Please take a look at the most recent discussion week grade.

There will be no instructor wrap up this week, as I am slammed with end of the semester papers from all of my classes. 


Have a great day!
:)
The Blogging Prof.

Week of July 30 - August 5

Hello Folks!

Here is what is listed on the Schedule and Participation Pages from D2L for this week.  The schedule for the entire semester, and the discussion questions for the entire semester are listed on the Schedule and Participation Pages, respectively.  In case you do not want to wait for the "Monday Post", you are more than welcome to get started by looking at those two pages on D2L.

Due this week:
*Read the article "The World Wide Web" (download and print from D2L)
*Read the chapter from "Collective Behavior in You Tube" (download and print from D2L)
*Read the chapter from "Discourses of Attention" (download and print from D2L)
*Read chapter 8 in the Burkitt text
*Participate in the discussion (see questions below)
*Media Research Project is due by August 5, 2012.  Submit your assignment through the class email address AND upload your paper to the class Wiki.  (Directions will be given through email, and posted to my blog).

Class Discussion:
Answer one question in its entirety in each of your three separate posts, at least 12 hours apart. Please make sure you are creating a NEW POST for each question on your blog. You MUST WAIT at least 12 hours from the first post in order to create a second post. The same is true for the second and third post. I will record dates and time of your posts, so make sure they are at least 12 hours apart. EACH POST MUST BE 150 WORDS OR MORE.

1). Respond to the article,  The World Wide Web.  What did you learn from the article?  What did you find interesting or useful?
2). Respond to the article,  Burkitt text.  Please highlight 2 or 3 main ideas from the chapter and discuss them. 
3).  Respond to the article,  Discourses of Attention.  Please discuss 2 or 3 interesting ideas from the article. 

Remember to post 3 responses to your colleagues blogs.  (As a reminder, comments will only be counted for the current discussion week. I do not go back to past discussion weeks to look for comments.  Once a discussion week is over, it's over.  So please make sure you are commenting on a relevant blog post.  In other words, pay close attention to the post, and date.
 

Comments - Remember to post ONE comment ON THREE DIFFERENT BLOGS between 12:01am on Monday and 11:59pm on Sunday. This means that you will log onto MY BLOG at: http://comm131p.blogspot.com/ and look under "Student Blogs" to see a list of your colleagues blogs. Click on those blogs, read what was posted for this week and respond. You need to make sure you are responding to only what was discussed THIS WEEK (starting Monday and ending Sunday of the current week). Comments posted to blogs that were NOT within this week will not be counted for points. Each comment must be a minimum of 100 words.

Note about comments: When you leave a comment on another blog, make sure you are logged into your blogspot account. In other words, you will need to make sure your "Display Name/Alias Name" shows up on the blog you are commenting on. I record the locations, dates and times of your comments. Please keep record of your posts and comments in case there I have questions about where they are located.

Grades have been updated in D2L

Hello Fabulous Students,

I just updated grades in D2L.  Please take a look at the most recent discussion week grade, among the other grades, and email me if you have any questions.

Have a great day!
:)
The Blogging Prof.

Instructor Wrap Up - A Virtual Death - Jordan

I am going to take a bit of a different approach to this article, so bear with me.

This article brings up a number of good ideas:  rhetoric, definition of community, expectation, identity - I can go on and on.  But what I really want to talk about is my personal experience with 'communities' such as these.  I read a number of blogs where a person has or has had some sort of ailment.  One such blog is called "Especially Heather".  Heather is a young mother who was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor, and her daughter Emma has had pretty severe health problems since she was born, but they have both fought for a long time.  Emma passed away on April 22, 2011, which is heartbreaking for their family, as well as the community of readers at Especially Heather.   Heather is a highly religious person, although I hate to use the word 'religious' because I know she would not classify herself that way, but for lack of a better description, I shall use it. 

Heather, did indeed, have brain surgery, and she blogged through the whole experience.  Just recently she had to go back for an MRI to check on the state of the tumor, which came back clear.  A little over 3 years ago a number of Dr's told her that she had approximately 3 years to live.  As you can imagine, this turned her world upside down.  She is living on what she calls 'borrowed time' at this point since she has lived past the expectations of the Dr's.  Dr's in her area, and many specialists told her that her brain cancer was inoperable.  The Mayo Clinic said otherwise and took her as a patient almost immediately.  Heather is still alive, and she has blogged through her experience with facing death, not only her death, but her daughter's as well.

I feel connected to Heather, as do the folks involved in her 'blog community'.  I know for a fact that those folks gathering around Heather to support her, through the internet, feel a close connection to her.  She has built a genuine community through her blogging, and I would be horrified if I found out that her story was false.  Community, even an online community where folks don't necessarily meet in person, is strong.  Folks have an emotional bond.

Another blog I read is called, "Noah Steven 'Crowned in Peace'".  Adrienne is another young mother who has gone through a harrowing experience.   Her son died before he was a year old, and the Dr's had no idea why.  He simply stopped being able to process nutrients in his body, and he slowly passed away.  Adrienne and her husband are amazingly strong folks.  They have blogged about their experience from Day 1, sharing it with the world.

This blog is a bit different because I know Adrienne personally from about 15 years ago.  She and I served at the same organization together, though I don't think we ever had a f2f conversation.  I was connected to her blog through some mutual friends.  Peruse her blog if you're interested.

Both of these blogs are examples of blog 'communities'.  Those folks that read their blogs on a regular basis have prayed, banned together to raise money, supported the blog authors and each other in times of need.  Blog readers have connected with each other in a very unique way, creating a very strong community.

The article "A Virtual Death" was a hard one to read, only because I am so involved in blogging communities outside of my online classes.  I feel a connection to the blog authors, and the blog communities at large, and can't imagine how the folks felt who had prayed for hours on end, who had invested time to comment on Kaycee's (Debbie's) blog.  Shocked - yes!  Betrayed - yes!  Hurt - yes! 

The article brings up a lot of good points, and I hope you enjoyed reading through it as much as I did.  It brings to light the length's that some folks will go.

Instructor Wrap Up - The End of Books - Coover

Loved, loved, loved this article.  Did you?

I find it interesting that we are having a similar conversation in 2012, that we were having in 1992.  Here are some of my favorite quotes from this article:

Page 706......

 ...you will often hear it said that the print medium is a doomed and outdated technology,, a mere curiosity of bygone days destined soon to be consigned forever to those dusty unattended museums we now call libraries.

But true freedom from the tyranny of the line is perceived as only really possible now at last with the advent of hypertext, written and read on the computer, where the line in fact does not exist unless one invents and implants it in the text.

You will often hear the proclaim, quite seriously, that there have been three great events in the history of literacy:  the invention of writing, the invention of movable type, and the invention of hypertext.

Page 707.....

There are no hierarchies in these topless (and bottomless) networks, as paragraphs, chapters and other conventional text divisions are replaced by evenly empowered and equally ephemeral window-sized blocks of text and graphics - soon to be supplemented with sound, animation, and film.

Writing students are notoriously conservative creatures.  They write stubbornly and hopefully within the tradition of what they have read.

Page 708.......
"The great thing", as one young writer, Alvin Lu, put it in an on-line class essay, is "the degree to which narrative is completely destructed into its constituent bits.  Bits of information convey knowledge, but the juxtaposition of bits creates narrative.

In hypertext, multivocalism is popular, graphic elements, both drawn and scanned, have been incorporated into the narratives, imaginative font changes have been employed to identify various voices or plot elements, and there has also been a very effective use of formal documents not typically used in fictions - .......

However, as all of us have discovered, even though the basic technology of hypertext may be with us for centuries to come, perhaps even as long as the technology of the book, its hardware and software seem to be fragile and short-lived; whole new generations of equipment and programs arrive before we can finish reading the instructions of the old.

And my very favorite....
Page 709......
Print documents may be read in hyperspace, but hypertext does not translate into print. It is not like film, which is really just the dead end of linear narrative, just as 12-tone music is the dead end of music by the stave.

Week of July 23 - 29

Hello Folks!

Here is what is listed on the Schedule and Participation Pages from D2L for this week.  The schedule for the entire semester, and the discussion questions for the entire semester are listed on the Schedule and Participation Pages, respectively.  In case you do not want to wait for the "Monday Post", you are more than welcome to get started by looking at those two pages on D2L.

Due this week:
*Read the article "The End of Books" (download and print from D2L)
*Read the chapter from "Blogging: Self Presentation and Privacy" (download and print from D2L)
*Read the chapter from "A Virtual Death & A Real Dilemma" (download and print from D2L)
*Chapter 7 from the Burkitt text:  pages 162-173 only (though the whole chapter is super interesting)
*Participate in the discussion (see questions below)
*Work on your final project in this course: Media Exploration Project.  As a reminder, this project is due no later than August 5, 2012.

Class Discussion:
Answer one question in its entirety in each of your three separate posts, at least 12 hours apart. Please make sure you are creating a NEW POST for each question on your blog. You MUST WAIT at least 12 hours from the first post in order to create a second post. The same is true for the second and third post. I will record dates and time of your posts, so make sure they are at least 12 hours apart. EACH POST MUST BE 150 WORDS OR MORE.

1). Respond to the article,  The End of Books.  What did you learn from the article?  What did you find interesting or useful?
2). Respond to the Birkitt text reading.   Please highlight 2 or 3 ideas from the chapter and discuss them. 
3).  Respond to the article,  A Virtual Death & A Real Dilemma.  Please discuss 2 or 3 interesting ideas from the article. 

Remember to post 3 responses to your colleagues blogs.  (As a reminder, comments will only be counted for the current discussion week. I do not go back to past discussion weeks to look for comments.  Once a discussion week is over, it's over.  So please make sure you are commenting on a relevant blog post.  In other words, pay close attention to the post, and date.
 

Comments - Remember to post ONE comment ON THREE DIFFERENT BLOGS between 12:01am on Monday and 11:59pm on Sunday. This means that you will log onto MY BLOG at: http://comm131p.blogspot.com/ and look under "Student Blogs" to see a list of your colleagues blogs. Click on those blogs, read what was posted for this week and respond. You need to make sure you are responding to only what was discussed THIS WEEK (starting Monday and ending Sunday of the current week). Comments posted to blogs that were NOT within this week will not be counted for points. Each comment must be a minimum of 100 words.

Note about comments: When you leave a comment on another blog, make sure you are logged into your blogspot account. In other words, you will need to make sure your "Display Name/Alias Name" shows up on the blog you are commenting on. I record the locations, dates and times of your comments. Please keep record of your posts and comments in case there I have questions about where they are located.

Instructor Wrap Up - Navigating Technomedia - Sam Han

Chapter 1 of Sam Han's book is titled, of all things, Technomedia!  (You can click on the link to lead you to a web version of the book.  It's not a complete version, but more extensive than what I have provided on D2L.).  Cool huh?  Google books is awesome!


The chapter starts out by describing something near and dear to the hearts of quite a few folks:  The gap distance between the "have's" and "have-not's".  Page 2 offers a good quote:  "On top of concerns such as AIDS, poverty, and political unrest, postcoloniality, it seems, necessarily involved a technological oppression, taking form in a structured lag.  Hence, for those for whom the promise of globalization had yet to be realized, new media technologies became an integral part of not only the discourse of modernization, but of global justice." 

Can the internet really have such a powerful presence?  If you have been reading the news lately, and I know you have because of the requirement of one of our discussion questions, the internet and programs contained within, have helped start revolutions.  Not just 'virtual' revolutions, but real, tangible revolutions!  Libya ring a bell?  Page 2 goes onto say, "The Internet, specifically, brought glimpses of hope for global democratization, in the form of a "true" public sphere that would circumvent traditional political channels.  By facilitating more efficient communication among the citizens of the world usually laden with failures of bureaucracy, the usual stoppages characteristic of bureaucratic institutions could be circumvented."  Wow, just wow!  The power of technology never ceases to amaze me.  I will leave you to ponder this idea.

We are then brought back down to earth a little on page 3, where it states, "Nevertheless, the liberal dream of progress espoused by Friedman and other did nothing but rearticulate the false hopes of modernity under the guise of technological advancement."  But don't lose all hope yet.  :)  Read a bit further down:  "Against such optimism, I see the power of information technologies and new media as challenges to these notions altogether."  Isn't that what this is all about?  Challenging ideas?  New thought?  Expanding our knowledge?  Bridging the gap between the have's and have not's?  Or the folks who have access and those that don't?   Page three goes on to say, "The Internet not only acts as a forum to disperse knowledge but transforms it, hauling into question the certainty of what constitutes knowledge as such."  Yes, yes and yes! 

Page 4 starts out by reinforcing ideas we covered at the beginning of the semester:  McLuhan!!!  "...the content of one medium always involves another."  (Don't skip over the box about McLuhand on Page 5).  The Medium IS the Message.  Enough said!

One thing to pay attention to is the explanation of Hot and Cold Media.  This idea was briefly brought up in the McLuhand piece, but it did not expand much on the idea too much. Some students have been confused about hot and cold media in the past, but the book provides some good insight, as does the link I provided.

After the discussion about McLuhan, and a discussion about how "specific media are not tied down to a corresponding technology", the chapter moves into a history of media.  There are three eras:
1). Mechanical
2). Electric
3). Broadcast

While this information is review because we have already covered a chapter in media history, it's a great thing to be able to read the history from another authors perspective.  Especially where Han asserts that we are on the verge of a fourth era:  Virtual!  Of course, this book was written in 2008.  How much has changed since that time?  Quite a bit!  If you read further in the book, provided you are interested in purchasing the book (which I recommend if you are at all interested in new media), it discusses a great many things including censorship in other countries, space and time as common place, and a plethora of other ideas.  Great read!

I will not recount all three areas of history that Han covers, but be sure to read through it.  As mentioned previously, it includes some repetitive information (repetition helps with retention of information, right?)  but it also brings up some other great ideas and relationships we have not previously covered.

I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter as much as I have.  If you are interested in the book, it's not incredibly expensive and a great read if you have the time.  Of course, this is coming from a communication and new media geek, but I recommend it nonetheless. 

Thanks for letting me geek out about yet another reading.

The Blogging Prof.

Instructor Wrap Up - Personal Dynamic Media - Kay and Goldberg

I'm not going to go into too much detail about the Kay and Goldberg piece because it was a fairly easy read.

The introduction to this piece brought up some very good ideas, and explained some pertinent things to the article.  A couple of things to read over are NeXT, Dynabook , PARC, Smalltalk Language, and the Squeak project. Briefly reading through these links will give you further understanding about the reading.

Page 393 covers what the article is about.  It says, "In it, we explain the Dynabook idea, and describe a variety of systems we have already written in Smalltalk language in order to give broad images of the kinds of information-related tools that might represent the kernel of a personal computing medium".

Here are some additional quotes I liked for various reasons:
Pg. 393 - "Although thinking goes on in one's head, external media serve to materialize thoughts and, through feedback, to augment the actual paths the thinking follows."

Pg. 394 - "Imagine having your own self-contained knowledge manipulator in a portable package the size and shape of an ordinary notebook.  Suppose it had enough power to outrace your sense of sight and hearing, enough capacity to store for later retrieval thousands of page-equivalents of reference materials, poems, letters, recipes, records, drawings, animations, musical scores, waveforms, dynamic simulations, and anything else you would like to remember and change."

Pg. 394 - "If the 'medium is the message', then the message of low-bandwidth timesharing is 'blah'".  Holy cow - I love love love this quote!

Pg 395 - "Different fonts create different moods and cast an aura that influences the subjective style of both writing and reading."

Pg. 396 - I loved all of the conclusion section, but this really takes the cake:  "For educators, the Dynabook could be a new world limited only by their imagination and ingenuity".  The only thing I will say about this quote is that I completely and wholeheartedly agree.  I'm using my 'Dynabook' to type out this blog post.  But I digress......

The way the article is set up is kind of neat.  It starts out with the editors introduction, then proceeds to the authors introduction.  It then covers the following sections:
*Background: Humans and Media
*A Dynamic Medium for Creative Thought: The Dynabook
*Design Background
*An Interim Dynabook
*Remembering, Seeing and Hearing
*Different Fonts for Different Effects
*Editing
*Filing
*Drawing/Painting
*Animation and Music
*Simulation
*An Animation System Programmed by Animators
*A Drawing and Painting System Programmed by a Child
*A Hospital Simulation Programmed by a Decision-Theorist
*An Audio Animation System Programmed by Musicians
*A Musical Score Capture System Programmed by a Musician
*Electronic Circuit Design by a High School Student
*Conclusion

Most of these sections were very interesting to read, especially since the article was written in the late 1970's (around the time I was born, so it was interesting to read about 'new innovations' at this time).  But one of the other sections stood out to me: A Hospital Simulation Programmed by a Decision-Theorist .  This section struck me as interesting because the small town I live in has a health center that is switching over to an electronic charting system.  They have spent quite a bit of money installing this system that can easily network with other systems in the area.  This idea is just now becoming widespread.

The other idea, and main focus of the article that interested me was the Dynabook.  Right after I graduated high school, I worked for a company called General Magic.  While I did very basic things at General Magic, it was interesting to see the link between this article, and the company I did some work for right out of high school.  The company has since gone under, as a lot of new media companies do, but it was intriguing to read about the company again from the perspective of historical 'new media'.

A personal note:  I vaguely remember the day that the product was finally released.  The company threw a huge party because the release date of the product kept getting pushed back incrementally, and the engineers were under a deadline.   I even more vaguely remember when the company started to lay off folks due to poor market performance.  I recall the stock prices plummeting, and depression around the company setting in. It was a hard time for the folks at General Magic.  Such is life in the 'new media' business.  :)

Grades have been updated in D2L

Hello Fabulous Students,

I just updated grades in D2L.  Please take a look at the most recent discussion week grade, among the other grades, and email me if you have any questions.

Have a great night!
:)
The Blogging Prof.

Week of July 17-23

Hello Folks!

Here is what is listed on the Schedule and Participation Pages from D2L for this week.  The schedule for the entire semester, and the discussion questions for the entire semester are listed on the Schedule and Participation Pages, respectively.  In case you do not want to wait for the "Monday Post", you are more than welcome to get started by looking at those two pages on D2L.

Due this week:
*Read the article "Personal Dynamic Media" (download and print from D2L)
*Read the chapter from "Navigating Technomedia" (download and print from D2L)
*Read Chapter 6 from the Burkitt text (pages 138-148 only)
*Quiz - D2L.   Readings from Midterm to Present.
*Participate in the discussion (see questions below)
*Research Question Due: Please read through the final project in this course "Media Exploration Project".  Please email me with your research question by Saturday, July 22 @ 11:59pm.  As a reminder, this project is due by Sunday, August 5th.  Please keep in mind the field of COMMUNICATION STUDIES when picking a topic.

Class Discussion:
Answer one question in its entirety in each of your three separate posts, at least 12 hours apart. Please make sure you are creating a NEW POST for each question on your blog. You MUST WAIT at least 12 hours from the first post in order to create a second post. The same is true for the second and third post. I will record dates and time of your posts, so make sure they are at least 12 hours apart. EACH POST MUST BE 150 WORDS OR MORE.

1). Respond to the article,  Personal Dynamic Media.  What did you learn from the article?  What did you find interesting or useful?
2). Respond to the article,  Navigating Technomedia.  Please highlight 2 or 3 main ideas from the article and discuss them. 
3).  Give the class an update on your interests for the Media Exploration Project.  Post your research question to your blog, and give a bit of a discussion about the topic you have chosen.  In other words, tell us why you have chosen your topic, why it interests you, what you already know about the topic, etc.....

Remember to post 3 responses to your colleagues blogs.  (As a reminder, comments will only be counted for the current discussion week. I do not go back to past discussion weeks to look for comments.  Once a discussion week is over, it's over.  So please make sure you are commenting on a relevant blog post.  In other words, pay close attention to the post, and date.
 

Comments - Remember to post ONE comment ON THREE DIFFERENT BLOGS between 12:01am on Monday and 11:59pm on Sunday. This means that you will log onto MY BLOG at: http://comm131p.blogspot.com/ and look under "Student Blogs" to see a list of your colleagues blogs. Click on those blogs, read what was posted for this week and respond. You need to make sure you are responding to only what was discussed THIS WEEK (starting Monday and ending Sunday of the current week). Comments posted to blogs that were NOT within this week will not be counted for points. Each comment must be a minimum of 100 words.

Note about comments: When you leave a comment on another blog, make sure you are logged into your blogspot account. In other words, you will need to make sure your "Display Name/Alias Name" shows up on the blog you are commenting on. I record the locations, dates and times of your comments. Please keep record of your posts and comments in case there I have questions about where they are located.

Study Abroad Summer 2013 - Beijing

Note:  This was posted back in September for the coming 2012 trip.  While I will be co-leading the 2012 trip with Andy Wood, I will be leading the trip in 2013.  So if you want to study abroad with yours truly, please read the post below, then contact me so you can be placed on my 'interested students' list.  

Visit Beijing and earn four upper division unites in communication studies!

During the summer of 2013 I will be leading an intercultural communication study abroad program to China, with a special emphasis on tourism, modernity, and urban life.

Students will stay at Communication University of China, which provides comfortable dormitory housing, low-cost meals, and easy access to the sights of Beijing.  Classes focus on conversation and real-life exploration, and you will have lots of free time.  That means opportunities to climb the Great Wall, wander the Forbidden City, experience the Peking Opera, and more.

Great Wall

Forbidden City

Peking Opera

Pricing (excluding airfare and visa fees) is about $2,500, which covers housing, course fees, food, and several local tours.  Cost for airfare and visa fees is estimated at an additional $1,500.  The course meets COMM 161F requirements, but course substitutions can be made if you've already taken that class.  If you a communication major, you should apply for this terrific opportunity.

Want to learn more:

Please contact me for more information.  I am currently putting together a list of students who are interested in traveling with me to Beijing for the Study Abroad Program during Summer 2013.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Instructor Wrap Up - From Computer Power and Human Reason - Weizenbaum

Joseph Weizenbaum wrote the book From Computer Power and Human Reason: From Judgment to Calculation (both clickable) in 1976.  The excerpt from our text seems to be a bit of a response/discussion about some folks perspectives of his computer system ELIZA, and ultimately the program called Doctor.  He also discusses a number of other ideas in this excerpt, mainly the idea that computers lack human qualities, such as compassion and wisdom.  He brings up a good number of logical conclusions based on his knowledge and observations, both of computer systems, and human qualities.

The introduction written by the editors of The New Media Reader (the book that I required in a previous semester, but did not assign this semester because of the variety of articles I wanted you all to read) starts out by explaining that new media has been criticized by a great number of people who have little to no knowledge of the subject.  Weizenbaum on the other hand, has knowledge about new media, computer systems, and the inner workings of one of the first conversational computer programs called ELIZA.  After all, he created the program.  (Click on the name to go to the wikipedia page describing ELIZA). 

At the start of the excerpt, Weizenbaum recites some 'history' as he calls it.  He describes an interaction that includes the Chair of Physical Chemistry at the Victoria University of Manchester, England, and Nicolai Bukharin, a leading theoretician of the Russian Communist party.  He recounts this bit of history for two reasons:

1). "The first is to illustrate that ideas which seem at first glance to be obvious and simple, and which ought therefore to be universally credible once they have been articulated, are sometimes buoys marking out stormy channels in deep intellectual seas."

2). "...I recite this history is that I feel myself to be reliving part of it.  My own shock was administered not by any important political figure espousing his philosophy of science, but by some people who insisted on misinterpreting a piece of work I had done."

In short, he is defending and explaining his computer program ELIZA, and the subsequent application/experiment, Doctor.  Doctor was a simulation of a Rogerian Psychotherapist. See the article for a short interaction between the system and a person typing into a computer.  The system (Doctor) responds, and is in the BOLD FACE type.

What interests me is Weizenbaums discussion about how folks, actual psychotherapists (not just one, but a number of folks), believed that this computer system could be developed to reach a large audience.  The author proceeds to talk about 3 reason why he was shocked.  He states, "The shocks I experienced as DOCTOR became widely known and "played" were due to principally three distinct events:"...

1). "A number of practicing psychiatrists seriously believed the DOCTOR computer program could grow into a nearly completely automatic form of psychotherapy".....

2). "I was startled to see how quickly and how very deeply people conversing with DOCTOR became emotionally involved with the computer and how unequivocally they anthropomorphized it."

3). "Another widespread, and to me surprising, reaction to the ELIZA program was the spread of a belief that it demonstrated a general solution to the problem of computer understanding of natural language."

Each of these reasons is very interesting, but being that we are in the field of communication, let's camp in #3 for just a second.  The author goes on to mention that language is contextual, or "the importance of context to language understanding".  Wow - even when we are talking about computers do we have a conversation about how language is contextual.  How different is a computer than a human?  Does it lack reasoning?  Compassion?  Wisdom?  Weizenbaum, a little further down in number 3 explains, "This reaction to ELIZA showed me more vividly than anything I had seen hitherto the enormously exaggerated attributions an even well-educated audience is capable of making, even strives to make, to a technology it does not understand."  Do we still do this today?

The author continues on and concerns himself with a list of questions and explanations.  The questions he asks are wonderful, and very much worth reviewing.  There is talk of 'plausibility', 'emotional ties to machines' and how humans have begun to rely on 'autonomous machines'.  Relevant today?  What do you think?

He then goes on to chat a bit about professors, or leaders in his field, and students at MIT.  A quote that really spoke to me says, "They (students) sense the presence of a dilemma in an education polarized around science and technology, and education that implicitly claims to open a privileged access-path to fact, but that cannot tell them how to decide what is to count as fact."  So true!  Even today, this statement rings true!

The author then moves to a deeper issues than just ELIZA.  He discusses two sides of a computer debate.  They are:
1). Computers should and will do everything
2). Computers should have limits

Have we passed this point of debate?

Weizenbaum then moves to a discussion about knowledge and science, likening science to a drug, and even referring to science as a 'slow-acting poison'.  For someone in the scientific community, he sure is stating his opinion here.  Or is it fact?  We're not sure (read the article to get that joke).

I will leave you with two snippets from the excerpt:
"Scientific statements can never be certain; they can be only more or less credible".

"When I say that science has been gradually converted into a slow-acting poison, I mean that the attribution of certainty to scientific knowledge by the common wisdom, an attribution now made so nearly universally that it has become a commonsense dogma, has virtually delegitimized all other way of understanding.  People viewed the arts, especially literature, as sources of intellectual nourishment and understanding, but today the arts are perceived largely as entertainments."

In short, I loved Weizenbaums discussion in this excerpt.  I think he brings up a number of great ideas, especially when it comes to computer programs, and the limitations.  He points out some great ideas throughout the piece, things that are still relevant in today's 'new media'.  I'm not just talking about social networking, but rather, larger scale media.  Some of the discussions that he confronts are still going on in our time, and I do not see those discussions coming to an end anytime soon.

I hope that you have enjoyed this article as much as I have, and it is my hope that you grab a hold of the larger meaning involved.  Advances in technology bring up a great number of issues, and those issues, especially when mixed with human interaction, will not cease.

Instructor Wrap Up - The Technology and the Society - Williams

The Technology and the Society.  Wow, this was an interesting read considering the state of our society, and how television currently fits into our collective daily lives.  You can read more about Raymond Williams by clicking on his name.  Wikkipedia  gives a nice overview of Williams, and even describes in a sentence or two the background of this chapter (hint: it includes McLuhan).  This was a chapter out of Willams's book titled Television: Technology and Cultural Form, published in 1972.

The introduction to this chapter is quite interesting.  Although I did not copy the intro for you to focus on,  it really gives some context to this chapter from Williams's book. One section early in the introduction states, "Technological determinism, a viewpoint for which Marshall McLuhan is the canonical figure in media studies, tends to frame questions around technology in terms of technology's "effects" on the culture.  This viewpoint has been rejected, or greatly qualified in its use, by most academic writers since McLuhan.  However, it remains the dominant popular discourse on technology, and many academic writers remain engaged in outlining their positions as alternatives to this viewpoint.  For these reasons, Williams's early section presenting a number of different varieties of technological determinism remains quite relevant today."  (Don't forget to click on the link to technological determinism.  This will help you grasp what Willams is talking about in this selection.)

The introduction starts out by saying, "It is often said that television has altered our world.  In the same way, people often speak of a new world, a new society, a new phase of history, being created - "brought about" - by this or that new technology: the steam-engine, the automobile, the atomic bomb."  So true, isn't it?  We still share the same sentiment when new technologies come along. To the credit of Williams, and countless others, a new phase of history really was ushered in by each of the 'new technologies' Willams mentioned here.  Looking at our current technologies, the internet for example, how much have our lives changed simply from the ability to access the internet? 

Williams goes on to describe a cause/effect relationship of technology/society, technology/culture, technology/psychology.  A little lower down on the same page (pg. 291), he goes on to mention that, "If the technology is a cause, we can at best modify or seek to control its effects."  Valid questions for research.  In fact, the first page mentions this very thing.

The following page states the point of the chapter:  "It is with these problems in mind that I want to try to anaylse television as particular cultural technology, and to look at its development, its institutions, its forms and its effects, in this critical dimension."  He then states the three sections that he will be covering in the paper, which are:

(a) versions of cause and effect in technology and society
(b) the social history of television as a technology
(c) the social history of the uses of television technology

I won't bore you with a recount of the entire article, but I will share a few interesting quotes with you.  At the bottom right hand side of page 292, Williams gives a summary of the 9 items he outlines.  1-5 are said to be: "the technology is in effect accidental".  In other words, technology is the cause for change.  6-9 says, "television is again, in effect, a technological accident, but its significance lief in its uses, which are held to be symptomatic of some order of society or some qualities of human nature which are otherwise determined."  In other words, the change would have happened regardless of technology.  Go back and read that section, it's very interesting to think about.

Reading through the rest of section (a) proves to be really interesting.  Williams covers the ideas of "technological determinism", the 'otherwise determined', and 'symptomatic technology'.  Very interesting indeed.

Section (b) covers the history of television, which proves to be incredibly interesting for those of us that grew up in an era of the internet and beyond.  It is worth paying close attention to, as these are forms of 'new media'.

Section (c) goes over the uses of television technology.  An even more interesting section than the last, though section (b) was really interesting for me.  ;)  The current section starts out by saying, "It is never quite true to say that in modern societies, when a social need has been demonstrated, it is appropriate technology will be found.  This is partly because real needs, in any particular period, are beyond the scope of existing or foreseeable scientific and technical knowledge."  The following section is a discussion of television, and what brought it to the current point in the early 1970's.

All in all, this was a very interesting article from an historical perspective of the television.  Taking into account the links I have provided here, and we've got an incredible glimpse into that particular stage of history.

I hope you have enjoyed reading this chapter as much as I have.

Until later....
The Blogging Prof.

Week of July 9 - 15

Hello Folks!

Here is what is listed on the Schedule and Participation Pages from D2L for this week.  The schedule for the entire semester, and the discussion questions for the entire semester are listed on the Schedule and Participation Pages, respectively.  In case you do not want to wait for the "Monday Post", you are more than welcome to get started by looking at those two pages on D2L.

Due this week:
*Read the article "The Technology and the Society" (download and print from D2L)
*Read the article "Second Life" (download and print from D2L)
*Read the article "From Computer Power and Human Reason"  (download and print from D2L)
*Read Chapter 5 from the Burkitt text (pages: 111 - 120 only)
*Participate in the discussion (see questions below)
*REMINDER:  The second portion of the Social Media Project is due by Sunday, July 15th @ 11:59pm.  Remember to submit early to avoid running into any technical issues.  The assignment sheet can be found on D2L.  Email me with any questions you have have. 

Class Discussion:
Answer one question in its entirety in each of your three separate posts, at least 12 hours apart. Please make sure you are creating a NEW POST for each question on your blog. You MUST WAIT at least 12 hours from the first post in order to create a second post. The same is true for the second and third post. I will record dates and time of your posts, so make sure they are at least 12 hours apart. EACH POST MUST BE 150 WORDS OR MORE.

1). Respond to the article,  The Technology and the Society.  What did you learn from the article?  What did you find interesting or useful?
2). Respond to the article,  Second Life.  Please highlight 2 or 3 main ideas from the article and discuss them. 
3).  Respond to the article,  From Computer Power and Human Reason.  Please discuss 2 or 3 interesting ideas from the article. 

Remember to post 3 responses to your colleagues blogs.  (As a reminder, comments will only be counted for the current discussion week. I do not go back to past discussion weeks to look for comments.  Once a discussion week is over, it's over.  So please make sure you are commenting on a relevant blog post.  In other words, pay close attention to the post, and date.
 

Comments - Remember to post ONE comment ON THREE DIFFERENT BLOGS between 12:01am on Monday and 11:59pm on Sunday. This means that you will log onto MY BLOG at: http://comm131p.blogspot.com/ and look under "Student Blogs" to see a list of your colleagues blogs. Click on those blogs, read what was posted for this week and respond. You need to make sure you are responding to only what was discussed THIS WEEK (starting Monday and ending Sunday of the current week). Comments posted to blogs that were NOT within this week will not be counted for points. Each comment must be a minimum of 100 words.

Note about comments: When you leave a comment on another blog, make sure you are logged into your blogspot account. In other words, you will need to make sure your "Display Name/Alias Name" shows up on the blog you are commenting on. I record the locations, dates and times of your comments. Please keep record of your posts and comments in case there I have questions about where they are located.

I will be checking my email on and off today, so email me with any questions.

Grades have been updated in D2L

Hello Fabulous Students,

I just updated grades in D2L.  Please take a look at the most recent discussion week grade, among the other grades, and email me if you have any questions.

Have a great 4th of July everyone!
:)
The Blogging Prof.

Week of July 3-9

Hello Folks!

The only thing due this week is the Midterm Exam on D2L, and reading Chapter 4 of the Burkitt text.  Please log onto D2L to take the exam.  It is open book, open notes and it covers all of the readings we have covered so far in the course.  Remember that the midterm is timed, and it needs to be submitted by 11:59pm on Sunday night.  Please do not share answers or test questions with fellow classmates.

Note:  I will not test you on the Burkitt text, so please only study the other readings in the course.  The Burkitt text will be primarily used for your Social Media Representation Project, and evaluating whether or not you comprehend that material will take place when I grade that assignment.  

REMINDER:  You have two weeks to complete the next step of the Social Media Representation Project.  It is due by Sunday, July 15th @ 11:59pm.  It will be based on the Data Gathering project you turned into me last night through email. Please email me with any questions you might have about the Social Media Representation Project. 

Have a good week everyone!
:)
The Blogging Prof.

Grades have been updated in D2L

Hello Fabulous Students,

At the beginning of the week I updated grades in D2L.  Please take a look at the most recent discussion week grade, among the other grades, and email me if you have any questions.

Starting last week I will no longer email you individually regarding your grade in the class.  It is your responsibility to check grades at least once a week and email me if there are any discrepancies or issues.

Have a great weekend everyone!
:)
The Blogging Prof.

Instructor Wrap Up - Community Media Chapter 7 - by Ellie Rennie

A seemingly unrelated reading that I have crazily chosen for this semester in Comm 131P, right?  I beg to differ.  There is certainly a method to my 'geeky madness' when it comes to New Media/You Media.  When I was first planning this course well over a year ago now, I had the hardest time trying to find a textbook for the course.  I ordered many books from publishers, purchased many books from online sources, and spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out what I wanted to cover in the class.  New Media can cover so many ideas, and so far, we have read through a number of them.  Community Media was one of those ideas that I was completely enamored with.  In fact, I almost required you to purchase a number of books for the course before deciding to change things up a bit and simply make the readings available on D2L.  The decision was a hard one, but I'm happy with the readings I have chose for this semester.  Who knows - the course may look completely different next semester, as it did last semester.

I think I have mentioned before that the first semester I offered this class, I required the textbook "The New Media Reader".  There were quite a few difficult readings in that text, but it really opened up the world of new media in a number of different ways for students.  Through feedback I received from students over the last year or so, I decided to no longer require that text and simply go to a 'reader' that I put together myself.  This allowed me to cover quite a few more topics than I had previously in this course.  One of those topics is Community Media.  To frame this idea a bit, click HERE to read about it a bit.  While Wikipedia is not my favorite place currently, it sure helps to give a jumping off point a lot of time.  This is one of those times!

Here is a short excerpt from the book Community Media by Ellie Rennie page 12: "Chapter 7 synthesizes the arguments of previous chapters and offers some further thoughts as to what media democracy in the digital age might look like.  Community media has always been about self-expression - - - and seeing ourselves as part of the society in which we live.  Democracy is said to be in a predicament over the perceived distance between the people and the institutions that represent them, which results in political apathy.  Can participation in the media help close that distance?  E-government model suggests direct input into the policy process by citizens.  Is this desirable? Being able to represent oneself in the media paves the way for a more visible, transparent, and responsive model of democracy.  Community media may not solve the problems of the mass media, but it does offer some valuable lessons for e-democracy."

If you are at all interested in this concept, you can purchase the book through online booksellers.  In fact, Amazon has an interesting review about the book.  You can link to the Amazon page HERE. 

You can also read more about community media
HERE

HERE 

and HERE.   These are just a few samples of what is out there pertaining to Community Media.

Are you geeking out about Community Media movements?  Perhaps not yet, but at least this exposed y'all to a concept that some may have never heard of previously.

Enjoy!
:)
The Blogging Prof.

Instructor Wrap Up - Uses and Grats Article

Hello Folks!

This was a fairly easy read, so I will cover only some minimal things, and highlight some ideas I thought were interesting.

First off, when you write your Social Media Paper (based on your data-gathering project)  you will need to incorporate some outside sources (see assignment sheet for more detail).  The Uses and Grats article is a great place to find other sources to support your ideas.  Use the "Literature Review" section and the Reference page from this article to help you find other sources.

Here are some quotes from the article that I thought were pretty interesting:

Pg. 217 "Dye (2007) points out that this new medium has created a new generation of individuals whose identities are defined by their connections and the content they produce online".  Think about this for a second......  Think about how YOU used to define yourself before social networking.  What were your definitions?  What did you connect with?  Who?  This is a very interesting concept!  What about folks how are not as connected online?  How do those folks define themselves?

On page 217 the idea of 'instant gratification' is brought up.  How does this idea, or how has this idea (or process) shape our society?  Connect this idea to pagers back in the early 1990's before cell phones were wide spread.  Go further and connect this idea to drive through restaurants.  Even cell phones, DVR's, internet - - - do you get the point?  Instant gratification!  There is no waiting.

Side Note:  My SIL just had her first child, and I have been thinking a lot about babies, kids, families, etc...  Babies are on demand, right?  Kids are taught patience through growing up.  We sit in classes for hours and hours at a time through primary education, then in college our time is divided up even more with hour long classes, then work, then friends, then family, etc...  Now throw into the equation this idea of instant gratification and what do we have?  I will stop here and let you make the obvious link, but what are your thoughts on this?  What are the implications of social networking when taking into account where we have come in just 10-15 years?

Moving on.....

It is interesting to read on pages 217 and 218, the start and spread of Facebook.  Pay attention to that section, because it is fairly easy to breeze by it.   Also pay attention to process gratifications and content gratifications.

Page 218 states, "According to the uses and gratification perspective, media use is determined by a group of key elements including "people's needs and motives to communicate, the psychological and social environment, the mass media, functional alternatives to media use, communication behavior, and the consequences of such behavior" (Rubin, 1994, p. 419)."

Page 218 - "Gurevitch (1974) defined that the uses and gratification perspective as focusing on the "social and psychological origins of needs, which generate expectation of the mass media or other sources, which lead to different patterns of media exposure resulting in need gratifications and other consequences" (as cited in Rubin, 1994, p. 419)."


One last thing - page 223 talks a bit about the idea of 'convenient communication' and how some folks sent their profiles to 'private'.  This idea is one that I hope to cover soon, but setting your Facebook profile to 'private' is key for a lot of folks.  The privacy issue on FB is an important one because of accessibility on the internet.  FB changes their privacy issues so frequently that it's hard to keep up.  However, if you are careful about keeping up your privacy settings (news articles are published frequently about 'how' to keep up your privacy settings), social networking can be a useful tool for satisfying interpersonal needs (keeping up with friends, networking with folks, etc..).  It can also be a decently safe place for folks to 'hang out' if they watch their content, who they allow to be their friends, and certainly keep up with privacy settings.

It is my hope, that through the way I have planned the class (reading 'new media', 'old media' and the Social Selves text), that folks will come out of the class with an arsenal of new media experiences along with learning some incredible things from the past/present and even future projections about new media and what this means to you as a media consumer. 

How's that for a tangent?  ;)

Until later.....

The Blogging Prof.

Week of June 25 - July 1

Hello Folks!

Here is what is listed on the Schedule and Participation Pages from D2L for this week.  The schedule for the entire semester, and the discussion questions for the entire semester are listed on the Schedule and Participation Pages, respectively.  In case you do not want to wait for the "Monday Post", you are more than welcome to get started by looking at those two pages on D2L.

Due this week:
*Read the article "Uses and Gratifications" (download and print from D2L)
*Read the article "Chapter from: Community Media" (download and print from D2L)
*Read the article "Just Like Me Only Better"  (download and print from D2L)
*Read Chapter 3 from the Burkitt text - pages 77-82 only
*Participate in the discussion (see questions below)
*REMINDER:  Your "Data Gathering" portion of the Social Media Project is due by Saturday, July 1st @ 11:59pm.  Remember to submit early to avoid running into any technical issues.

Class Discussion:
Answer one question in its entirety in each of your three separate posts, at least 12 hours apart. Please make sure you are creating a NEW POST for each question on your blog. You MUST WAIT at least 12 hours from the first post in order to create a second post. The same is true for the second and third post. I will record dates and time of your posts, so make sure they are at least 12 hours apart. EACH POST MUST BE 150 WORDS OR MORE.

1). Respond to the article,  Uses and Gratifications.  What did you learn from the article?  What did you find interesting or useful?
2). Respond to the article,  Chapter from: Community Media.  Please highlight 2 or 3 main ideas from the article and discuss them. 
3).  Respond to the article,  Just Like Me Only Better.  Please discuss 2 or 3 interesting ideas from the article. 

Remember to post 3 responses to your colleagues blogs.  (As a reminder, comments will only be counted for the current discussion week. I do not go back to past discussion weeks to look for comments.  Once a discussion week is over, it's over.  So please make sure you are commenting on a relevant blog post.  In other words, pay close attention to the post, and date.
 

Comments - Remember to post ONE comment ON THREE DIFFERENT BLOGS between 12:01am on Monday and 11:59pm on Sunday. This means that you will log onto MY BLOG at: http://comm131p.blogspot.com/ and look under "Student Blogs" to see a list of your colleagues blogs. Click on those blogs, read what was posted for this week and respond. You need to make sure you are responding to only what was discussed THIS WEEK (starting Monday and ending Sunday of the current week). Comments posted to blogs that were NOT within this week will not be counted for points. Each comment must be a minimum of 100 words.

Note about comments: When you leave a comment on another blog, make sure you are logged into your blogspot account. In other words, you will need to make sure your "Display Name/Alias Name" shows up on the blog you are commenting on. I record the locations, dates and times of your comments. Please keep record of your posts and comments in case there I have questions about where they are located.

Data-Gathering Clarification

A couple of students from class have asked about Part I of the Data-Gathering Project.  Here is a brief explanation of what you should do for this project:

Part 1:  First, you will gather data by using the most recent 25-45 status updates.  Go through your status updates and simply copy/paste the quotes directly into a word document.  Include dates/times, as these may be relevant in your analysis.  

Notes: In this task you should observe and evaluate your FB page.  What have you placed on your wall?  What do your status updates say?  How have you constructed your online identity?  How do you portray yourself through your FB page?  You are simply reading through your FB page and drawing some conclusions. 

Part 2:  You will then father information about yourself, or your 'friend' based on their interaction on other people's Facebook pages.  You will gather postings/comments you have made on your friends FB pages or 'side' conversations you have contributed to on your pages or other pages.  Again, go through and gather past comments you have made on 'friends' pages, or comments on pictures, etc....  Use as many as needed to construct your identity. 

Notes: Questions to ask yourself in this section:  Have you let your guard down with your comments?  Do you see a different pattern with your comments than with your status updates?  What other patterns emerge?  Do you only comment on certain posts from friends? 

Part 3: In addition to these two text based constructions, you will gather and analyze at least 8 pictures to represent who you have constructed yourself to be on the popular social networking website.

Notes:  Again, you should analyze your FB page (or that of the same friend as you did in Parts 1 & 2).  

Part 4: Finally, you will draw conclusions by analyzing the data you have collected.  (HINT:  Use the Burkitt text to inform this part of your project).  In other words,  ‘construct’ who you have represented yourself to be on the popular social media website.  Try to analyze yourself from an outsider’s perspective.  What do they see?  What do your friends see?  The conclusions that you draw can be a summary of ideas, formatted in bullet points.  The adjoining assignment to this data-gathering project will use all information gathered, and you will put together a final analysis paper based on your data, and your analysis.  Please do not go through your Facebook page and ‘clean it up’ before engaging in this assignment.  Be honest with yourself throughout this process. 

Notes:  This is, by far, one of the most important parts of this project.  Part 4 will help you write your Media Representation Project by looking at the data you have gathered in this project.  How do you represent yourself (or how does your friend represent themselves on FB)?

This project will basically inform your next project, the Media Representation Project.  You are essentially confronting three different ideas by putting into "Practice" (this is a 4-unit practice course, and this project represents the additional unit for this class) your observations.  

Here are the three ideas you will be confronting throughout the process of the Data-Gathering Project, and the Media Representation Project:

1). What do I think?  The data-gathering portion will do a lot of this for you.  What are your observations about your FB page, or the FB page of one friend that you chose to evaluate (Parts 1-3)?

2). What do they say?  This part will be accomplished in the Media Representation Project.  You will need to inform your analysis by figuring out what researches have said about media representation.  (HINT:  Use the Burkitt text)  You will also ask some HR departments how they use social networking.  (This will make more sense once you read through the Media Representation Project).

3). What does this mean?  Again, this will be accomplished in the Social Media Representation portion of the project.

For right now, let's just focus on the What do I think? part.  The other two parts will come as you begin to work on second portion of the "Practice" unit in this class, the Social Media Representation Project.

I hope this clears up the Data-Gathering portion of the "Practice" unit project for Comm 131P. 

Instructor Wrap Up - The Medium IS the Message - McLuhan

Although I am not a big fan of Wikipedia because of it's current lack of internal and external control, THIS page talks a bit about McLuhan, and may help to clarify the reading.

First off, let me mention that McLuhan was criticized a bit for his ideas.  You can easily search the internet for some opinions about McLuhan, but let's skip over the for now, and focus on who McLuhan was, and his ideas as presented in the present piece.

The article starts on page 203 with an explanation of how and why McLuhan thinks the medium really IS the message.  The rest of the article goes on to support this idea by bringing up a number of examples.  He also throws in some other ideas here and there, but he is pretty succinct in asserting his idea throughout the writing.  Here are some excerpts that stood out to me:

*pg. 203 - "This is merely to say that the persona and social consequence of any medium - that is, of any extension of ourselves - result from the new scale that is introduced into our affairs by each extension of ourselves, or by any new technology".  After this statement, the author goes on to explain job elimination and a creation of roles, etc.... After this, McLuhan states, "Many people would be disposed to say that it was not the machine, but what one did with the machine, that was its meaning or message".

*pg. 203 - "For the "message" of any medium or technology is the change of scale or pace or pattern that it introduces into human affairs".

(I'm backtracking a bit here)
McLuhan is brilliant in explaining the electric light.  You might be thinking, "I already read that, and he lost me pretty quickly".  that is understandable.  Go back and read the parts on page 203 about the electric light - just those parts, and see what you can extrapolate from his explanation.  This short description of the meaning of the electric light, or lack thereof, is the essence of the reading.  McLuhan states, "The instance of the electric light may prove illuminating in this connection.  The electric light is pure information.  It is a medium without a message, as it were, unless it is used to spell out some verbal ad or name.  This fact, characteristic of all media, means that the 'content' of any medium is always another medium".  Brilliant!  (am I geeking out again - sorry!).  :)  But then if you keep reading he comes back to the electric light and explains, "Let us return to the electric light.  Whether the light is being used for brain surgery or night baseball is a matter of indifference.  It could be argued that these activities are in some way the "content" of the electric light, since they could not exist without the electric light.  This fact merely underlines the point that "the medium is the message" because it is the medium that shapes and controls the scale and form of human association and action".  If you keep reading a couple of sentences beyond this excerpt, it says, "...it is only too typical that the "content" of any medium blinds us to the character of the medium".

As an aside - I am looking through my notes on the McLuhan article, and if you can get past some of the wording, the meaning is incredible! 

Here are some other brief quotes.  I will try to limit my commentary so that you can simply absorb what McLuhan is saying, and the implications it has for us today in our current 'media state'.  I suggest that you read these in context, that is, have your book/the reading close by so that you can follow along and really absorb what is being said and implied.  It may take a second to simply sit there and think about the concept for a few seconds before the light bulb (pun intended) flashes on and you 'get' what he is saying.

*pg. 205 "In other words, cubism, by giving the inside and outside, the top, bottom, back, and front and the rest, in two dimensions, drops the illusion of perspectives in favor of instant sensory awareness of the whole.  Cubism, by seizing on instant total awareness, suddenly announced that the medium is the message."

*pg. 205 "Before the electric speed and total field, it was not obvious that the medium is the message.  The message, it seemed, was the "content", as people used to as what a painting was about. Yet they never thought to ask what a melody was about, nor what a house or a dress was about.  In such matters, people retained some sense of the whole pattern, of form and function as a unity".

*pg. 205 "...He understood the grammar of gunpowder".  Think about this for a second.  I mean, really think about this statement.  What does this statement say to you?  Does it not explain in 6 words what McLuhan is trying to convey?

*pg. 206-207 "But with electric media Western man himself experiences exactly the same inundation as the remote native. We are no more prepared to encounter radio and TV in our literate milieu than the native of Ghana is able to cope with the literacy that takes him out of his collective tribal world and beaches him in individual isolation.  We are as numb to our new electric world as the native involved in our literate and mechanical culture".

*pg. 207 "Our conventional response to all media, namely that is how they are used that counts, is the numb stance of the technological idiot.  For the "content" of a medium is like the juicy piece of mean carried by the burglar to distract the watchdog of the mind".

*pg. 208 "Today when we want to get our bearings in our own culture, and have need to stand aside from the bias and pressure exerted by any technical form of human expression, we have only to visit a society where that particular form has not been felt, or a historical period in which it was unknown".

I can go on with quotes from this piece that would be great conversation starters, especially the last couple of pages, but I will stop here.  As I mentioned earlier in the post, many folks did not agree with McLuhan's assertions, and if you do not agree, explain your position in your post.  You certainly do not have to agree with the folks who have written the articles we will be reading throughout the semester.  I simply ask that if you do not agree, or even if you do agree for that matter, that you state your position clearly. 

Each of the pieces I have selected for us to read throughout this class will confront a myriad of issues.  I find Lickliders piece relevant for a completely different reason than McLuhan's piece.  McLuhan brings up a completely different set of issues and ideas, and that is the exact reason why we will read through a number of different pieces.  Simply because I would like the class to be exposed to a number of different perspectives, focuses, etc... throughout the semester.  Licklider was a forward thinker, as was McLuhuan, but McLuhan brings up some controversial ideas.

I hope you enjoyed this article as much as I did, and I hope this post helped to clarify some of the ideas from McLuhan.

Week of June 18 - 24

Hello Folks!

Here is what is listed on the Schedule and Participation Pages from D2L for this week.  The schedule for the entire semester, and the discussion questions for the entire semester are listed on the Schedule and Participation Pages, respectively.  In case you do not want to wait for the "Monday Post", you are more than welcome to get started by looking at those two pages on D2L.

Due this week:
*Read Chapter 2 in the Burkitt text - pages 31-40
*Read the article "Consequences of Online Social Networking" (download and print from D2L)
*Read the article "The Medium IS the Message"  (download and print from D2L)
*Participate in the discussion (see questions below)
*Test on D2L - includes all readings so far in the course, including this week's readings.
*Start working on Data-Gathering  - downloadable from D2L.
*Connect to my page through Facebook and Twitter if you haven't already.
*Comment on my most recent Facebook status to get connected to your colleagues in the class. Go ahead and "friend' all other students in the class please.  Do this ASAP.


Class Discussion:
Answer one question in its entirety in each of your three separate posts, at least 12 hours apart. Please make sure you are creating a NEW POST for each question on your blog. You MUST WAIT at least 12 hours from the first post in order to create a second post. The same is true for the second and third post. I will record dates and time of your posts, so make sure they are at least 12 hours apart. EACH POST MUST BE 150 WORDS OR MORE.

1). Respond to Chapter 2 of the Burkitt text.  What did you learn from the article?  What did you find interesting or useful? How does what you learned pertain to Social Networking?
2). Respond to the article,  Consequences of Online Social Networking.  Please highlight 2 or 3 main ideas from the article and discuss them. 
3).  Respond to the article,  The Medium IS the Message.  Please discuss 2 or 3 interesting ideas from the article. 

Remember to post 3 responses to your colleagues blogs.  (As a reminder, comments will only be counted for the current discussion week. I do not go back to past discussion weeks to look for comments.  Once a discussion week is over, it's over.  So please make sure you are commenting on a relevant blog post.  In other words, pay close attention to the post, and date.
 

Comments - Remember to post ONE comment ON THREE DIFFERENT BLOGS between 12:01am on Monday and 11:59pm on Sunday. This means that you will log onto MY BLOG at: http://comm131p.blogspot.com/ and look under "Student Blogs" to see a list of your colleagues blogs. Click on those blogs, read what was posted for this week and respond. You need to make sure you are responding to only what was discussed THIS WEEK (starting Sunday and ending Saturday of the current week). Comments posted to blogs that were NOT within this week will not be counted for points. Each comment must be a minimum of 100 words.

Note about comments: When you leave a comment on another blog, make sure you are logged into your blogspot account. In other words, you will need to make sure your "Display Name/Alias Name" shows up on the blog you are commenting on. I record the locations, dates and times of your comments. Please keep record of your posts and comments in case there I have questions about where they are located.

Instructor Wrap Up - Be Who You Want to Be - Ellis

From last week's assigned reading........

Be Who You Want to Be

When someone thinks of 'media', a few things usually come to mind: the internet, and news.  Am I right?  Rarely do we think about older forms of media, and even more rare do we think of self-representation in newer forms of media.  This brings us to the Ellis article.

Be who you want to be: The philosophy of Facebook and the construction of identity

It's interesting to sit back and simply ponder the title of this article, isn't it?  Without reading the article, one can wonder how 'they' have constructed themselves on the internet, specifically when it comes to social networking.  We have a number of different camps to consider:

1). Those that simply do not engage at all.
2). Those that engage completely, meaning everything on FB is public.
3). Those that engage in social networking but have 'tried' to limit public information (by keeping a close watch on FB's ever changing privacy settings).
4). Those that engage in social networking but have failed to keep up their privacy settings appropriately to block others from seeing what they don't want them to see.

It is my assumption that some people fall into category #3, but unknowingly fall into category #4.  In either case, along with #2, we should be concerned with self-representation or our social identity.  Here's where Ellis' article becomes quite important to think about.

Ellis starts out the article by talked a bit about identity and social behavior.  She then justifies how she will consider FB an example of 'communicative identity'.  I have read over many articles of folks losing their jobs because they posted something inappropriate on FB.  Folks simply aren't aware of how they portray themselves on the internet.  This representation does not stop at social networking, but can be applied to many other areas of media as well.

Here are some quotes from the article with some commentary where appropriate:

pg. 37 "A decreasing level of anonymity brought about through social networking has led to the adoption of different strategies depending on the individual's goal for social interaction.  Communication via Facebook is changing the face of social communication on an interpersonal level."  There are a few things going on in this quote.  I will focus on the phrase, "...different strategies depending on the individual's goal...".  It is worth us asking ourselves, "What is my goal with having a FB profile?".  Really, what is your goal?  Is it to keep in touch with folks from your past/present?  Is your goal to keep family in the loop of what is going on in your life?  Is FB a replacement for f2f social interaction?  A social networking participants, we all have different goals, right?  It's worth it to ask yourself why.

pg. 38 "On Facebook we take our own name and seem to be willing to part with our personal information than were previous net generations."  (emphasis mine)  Yikes!  I will let this quote speak for itself.

pg. 39 "Although I really enjoy my Facebook friends and feel a strong connection and a sense of community with many of them, most of the time these people are little more than objects of entertainment."    We can debate all day long about FB and 'real friends', etc...  but think about this quote for a minute.  Are most of your friends on FB entertainment for you?  Do they serve as a community?  Support?  Act as 'real' friends would?  Honestly, this can be debated until the cows come home, but the point of this quote is to critically analyze your FB interactions.

pg. 39 "When Facebook users communicate 'what's on [their] mind', of update their status, they are offering a representation of the self or a 'me' based on socialization they have already experienced."  Representation of the self is something to critically evaluate - thus the first journal entry in this course.

pg. 39 - Ellis then goes on to explain Mead's three step process.  You can read that on your own.

pg. 40 "The idea the Facebook users can no longer differentiate between representation and reality has led to calls for people to go offline.  Communication overload has inspired a teen movement of 'switching off':..."  I'm sure we can all agree that how we 'represent' ourselves is quite different than who we really are, or 'reality'.  Think about how different our social interaction is now then it was perhaps 20 years ago.  Folks did not need to worry about how they were representing themselves so much online, though they did have to answer the A/S/L question as Ellis writes on page 38.  That was the extent of representation. Now, however, there are a myriad of things to consider when representing yourself online.

So the question remains, how do YOU represent yourself online through social networking?  I thought the journal assignment would be an interesting one because folks rarely ask the question How or Why?  Critical evaluation of self-representation happens in small micro-bits when we ask ourselves, "Should I put that on FB?" or "Will someone take this the wrong way if I post this to my status update?".  We rarely take a look at the whole of our self-representation.  This is the very reason for the journal assignment.  I want you to look at how you have represented yourself, report on that without changing your Facebook page at this stage, and come to some conclusions.  Do you need to change your page?  Un-tag some photos?  Remove photos?  Watch what you are saying on your status updates?  Watch your 'side' conversations with folks on FB?  It is the evaluation that is going to lead to some eye-opening things.  At least that's my hope.


Until then......
The Blogging Prof