Week 2

Tuesday * * * Sept. 2

TOPIC Blogs and blogging

DUE Your blog topic, which will consume your life for the next 12 weeks. Please choose a topic in which you are really, truly, deeply interested. Please read the Blog Posts assignment very carefully.

LAB Work on setup of your own blog for this course. We will be using WordPress.com. DO NOT set up your blog before class.

By the time you come to class today, I expect you to have a good idea of what a blog is and what kind of diversity exists among blogs today.

READ

  1. What Makes for a Good Blog? by Merlin Mann, Aug. 19, 2008.
  2. Kate Nash: Blogs have changed how I do my job, for the better. A column by an Albuquerque Tribune reporter about why she reads other people's blogs. Aug. 27, 2006.
  3. Blogging Lessons For and From Journalism, by Jonathan Bailey, April 21, 2008.
  4. CNN Producer Says He Was Fired for Blogging, by Sewell Chan, Feb. 14, 2008.

BROWSE

  1. Professor McAdams's blog. Just take a good look so you know what I blog about.
  2. Instapundit.com. Examine this blog and figure out what it's about.
  3. Google search on top 10 blogs. Click at least one of the search results that provides a list of blogs, and then look at two blogs on that list and figure out what they are about. Write down the names of the two blogs and bring that piece of paper (note: paper) with you to class.

There will be a quiz covering all of the assigned reading and browsing.

Notes * * *

You will clear your own blog topic with me today (during class). That means you need to know what you are going to blog about for the next 12 weeks. This assignment will be very tedious if you fail to choose a topic that you care about. I strongly suggest that you search for similar or related blogs once you think you have a good topic idea. Reason: Having access to related blogs fuels your imagination and helps you become part of a conversation. It's hard to find an audience for a poorly focused blog.

Today's reading tells you much of what you need to know about journalism blogs and bloggers today. Even if you think you know everything, you still need to read the assigned readings.

Quizzes are always based on the assigned reading. Read to understand what the readings say, and the quiz should be no problem. This is not the FCAT. You are not reading to pass a quiz. You are reading to learn. Treat the readings that way, and you should do fine on the quizzes.

Today's Site * * *

Technorati is an index of more than 100 million blogs and more than 250 million items of tagged social media.

Today's PowerPoint * * *

PDF file, 1.8 MB