Designer and data analyst Matt Daniels has used new media to present a study of the number of unique words used by current hip hop artists. I think this is an example of how new media writing expresses ideas in new and different ways. New media writing is way cool!
This week we will be working on your final assignment for the class: a digital portfolio that showcases all of the work you have done this semester. Here are some examples of e-portfolios in various disciplines. Although these portfolios are not from this same course, they contain organizational strategies and elements that you may want to use in your e-portfolio. Take a look at some of the samples for ideas of what to do and what to avoid. Note that these sample portfolios are not perfect.
Click on the image below to hear advice on how to write an editorial from the New York Time's editorial page editor, Andrew Rosenthal.
As Mary Kate Cary wrote, new media is changing politics in very interesting ways. Or at least it is changing how the general public interacts with political and social issues and with the power players involved. New media writing has given the general public a platform in which we can share our political and social views. We have the power to reach a wider audience, organize, and mobilize. However, like with every technology, it is important to maintain a critical eye on how new media has changed the political sphere. We will start our exploration of new media and politics by exploring the Kony 2012 campaign. The video below became the most viral video in history by getting more than 100 million views in just 6 days. What did the Kony 2012 campaign do right? Where did they go wrong? If we have time, today we will read this NPR blog post and this post from The Guardian, which critique and praise the Kony 2012 campaign.
The University Information Technology Services (UITS) provides courses and tutorials (some free, some not) on all sorts of software. You can access free iMovie tutorials by visiting UITS Computer-based Training, logging in with your NETID and password, searching for Apple iLife 11, and then scrolling down for the iMovie tutorials.
Next week we will start discussing ethics in new media writing. We will try to answer the following questions:
To begin the conversation, we will focus on a specific case where ethics and new media writing converged. During 2012's Hurricane Sandy, which devastated the Northeast coast of the US, the infamous Sandy Twitter Villain used Twitter to disseminate fake news about the chaos that Sandy had caused in Manhattan. His Twitter messages were shared widely and created a bit of panic. Although Twitter user @ComfortablySmug trusted in the presumed anonymity of the Internet, he was later outed by BuzzFeed and even gave a public apology for his prank. What do you think? Did @ComfortablySmug take part in unethical behavior? Should we care?
As continue to consider the question of "what is new media writing," I wanted to share with you the recent "selfie protest" that began in Lebanon at the end of last month. As a response to the death of 16-year old Mohammad Chaar, whose death was captured on Twitter (via pic upload), young people in the nation's capital Beirut began tweeting selfies with statements of protest and the hashtag #notamartyr. In response to the Washington Court of Appeals' decision on January 14, which struck down the FCC's net neutrality clause, we will be discussing net neutrality this week and its possible implications on writing for new media. What are the pros and cons of net neutrality?
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AuthorI am a teacher and student of writing and rhetoric. Archives
May 2014
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