All posts by Dr. Menke

“Probe” due 10/9: Brief interview of someone whose social media use differs from yours

Assignment: Interview someone (a friend, roommate, relative, random stranger—hmm, that might be weird) whose social media use differs from yours. You should take notes, but you do not need to transcribe the whole interview or to paste everything into the blog.

Rather, reflect on what you’ve learned and write a blog post highlighting the most interesting things you find about your interviewee’s social media habits and practices. (You can mention any aspects of your interviewee’s background or identity that seem relevant, but we definitely don’t need to know your interviewee’s name, Twitter handle, etc.)

Some questions to get things started (you can ask more interesting questions and more focused follow-up questions!):

  • How frequently do you access social media?
    • (Hourly? Daily? Weekly? Etc.)
    • When do you usually post or check your social media platforms?
  • Which social media networks do you use?
    • On which of these are you most active?
  • What do you use social media for?
    • What features do you use on each platform?
    • What do you share on each platform?
    • Do you use different platforms for different things? How so?
  • How do you access the various social media you use?
  • Whom do you interact with on the social media you use?
    • How many of your friends/followers/etc. do you know in real life?
  • How do you use privacy features on your social media platforms of choice?
  • Would it concern you if a person in a position of authority (a parent, employer, professor) were to come across your online profile and the things you’ve shared?
  • Do you engage with “brands”/businesses on social media? How and where?
  • Do you ever take note of the advertising on social media? What do you notice?
  • How has your social media use changed over time?
    • Are there social media platforms you no longer use?

Topic for blog post due October 2: Social Media

Read these reviews of two books about social media:

Then write a blog response based on these readings and on your own experiences with social media. Some possible issues and approaches:

  • Do you recognize your own experiences in the claims of these books (or of the reviewers)?
  • Do you take any steps to avoid some of the pitfalls these writers suggest?
  • What do you use social media for—and does it give you what you want?
  • Have your own social media habits changed since you came to UGA?

Blog post for 9/25

What is a media ecology?  Read the brief definitions here. Recommended: also take a look at the 7.5-minute video here.  Then write a post reflecting on the media (and/or the media ecology) of college in 2016.

One possible approach: how does the media ecology of UGA compare to that of your high school or another school, institution, or setting you’re familiar with?

Another approach: how does the media ecology of UGA reflect or diverge from the media ecology of the rest of America or the world in 2016? Which media have the most impact on education—or on student life—at UGA?

One more sample approach: how are the media of college in 2016 shaping the experience and the content of your studies and of your life as college students? Books, websites, clickers, apps, texts, social media, electronic readings, powerpoints, lectures…?

Blog Post #4: The Email Issue

Is email another “legacy medium”? Maybe so, but universities still seem to run on it. Read this serious piece (How to Email Your Professor…) and this jokey one (Every Email College Students Send Their Professors) and respond to the issues they raise. Some possibilities:

  • Do these pieces tally with your impressions (or experiences) of students, professors, and email?
  • What larger issues do they suggest?
  • Might students and professors have different understandings of email (and different understandings of college!) that come out in these mismatched exchanges?
  • What’s your own relationship to email?
  • Why do you think universities are so email-crazy? Why do you think they haven’t embraced alternative media (texting, facebook, WhatsApp, whatever) to the same extent?

Blog post due 9/11: Legacy Media

We might think of older media in a number of ways: as residual media (as opposed to media that are dominant or emergent in a particular place and time), as legacy media (we’ve inherited them from previous generations), or as obsolete media (ouch!).

Write a blog posting that focuses on your own experiences with residual, legacy, or obsolete media—or with one old medium in particular. Did you ever have to struggle with an older medium, perhaps because your assumptions had been shaped by newer media) ? Did you grow up with any media that hardly exist anymore? Did you come late to a medium that was already on its way out? Do you carry a torch for a legacy medium?

For class on 9/12, read “The End of Legacy Media” (WWW) (…but make sure you check out the date!)

Week two: writing a letter

Your assignment (due Sunday night) is to write a post-able letter to someone who doesn’t live near you/whom you don’t see all the time these days. Then write a paragraph analyzing or reflecting on the experience, the letter, letters as a medium, your history with written letters, or using such an old (obsolete?) medium in a digital world.

Reading: for Monday:  On letters in the digital age

Resource on letter writing (intended for kids in UK but still interesting!)

Remember to bring your letter and your recipient’s postal address to class on Monday… the envelopes and domestic stamps are on me! 

(Sorry to be slow off the mark with this posting—but I love the fact that some folks have already beaten me to the punch with thoughtful posts!)

First Blog Posting (a few tips & clarifications)

I’m already enjoying reading your posts!

A few tips, etc.:

  • Please post your blog entry by clicking “+ New” in the menu up there (not by posting a comment to an existing blog post).
  • On this first round, you might need fewer than “250-350 words” to introduce yourself and suggest a medium for us to analyze as a “tetrad.”
  • I think there’s no need to offer comments on your classmates’ postings this time, unless something especially makes you want to jump in!