The end of the semester

As of December 15, the blogs to the right of this page will be in their "final" form for grading. Students were required to establish an identity as "expert" on any topic of their choice and signal that expertise using elements and formats commonly associated with the blog.

What research is required to take a general interest of an individual to the level of public expert? What level of engagement is necessary to draw a following? What basic rudiments of language must be made precise and "clean" to ensure the meaning and message remain unobstructed?

Some students found the process more challenging and motivating than others. From an instructor's perspective, the blog was a good means of summative evaluation -- all the feedback and exercises to date are expected to be reflected in this final product.

Is anybody really listening?

Introductory journalism textbooks spend a lot of time dealing with the mechanics of journalism production and walking students through mechanistic processes of story formation. They spend remarkably little time on the very real skill of critically assessing the quality and richness of the information itself -- how and where it was gathered, what was chosen as relevant and why, and what the instrumental processes of newsmaking do to meaning itself.

In truth, this is a monumental task. To begin that reflexive exploration, I found this video of musician Evelyn Glennie to be both revealing and inspiring to anyone hoping to have the words on the page communicate meaning and be of value to some recipient.

We didn't show it in the first semester but I will use it during second when we move into using radio as the core platform. What better way to start. :)