I’ve been asked by a couple of folks recently on how to use this blog to help teach your intro to mass comm/media literacy class. That’s easy because the real reason I have written this blog since 2004 is that it helps me teach my own class.
So, briefly, here are several suggestions for making the most of this blog:
How can I find useful stuff on the blog?
- Use the category links on the right side of the blog.
These links will take you to all the blog entries since early summer 2010 that deal with a particular chapter. (That’s when I switched the blog from being hand coded to being a Word Press site.)So, for example, if you are looking for links that deal with the movie industry, click on Chapter 8 under Categories. I try to categorize every post by the chapters covered in it. With the omnibus (and often snarky) Questions Worth Asking (Maybe)posts, they can cover quite a few.I generally play a pre-class video as my students are coming in, and I often go looking for them using this tool. Going back to the Chapter 8 category, I find that I have a post labeled “George Carlin and Movie Trailers.” I check it out and see that I have two great movie trailer parody videos. I decide to play the one for what We then went on to look at what Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince would look like as a screwball teen comedy. - Use the Tags word cloud
Underneath the list of chapters on the right is a word cloud of topic tags. These are the most popular words I use to describe the blog posts. Click on a word or phrase and you will get all the posts that have that tag.So if I was looking for material dealing with the Super Bowl and the media, I would click on Super Bowlin the word cloud.Note that the bigger the word or phrase is, the more posts there are tagged with it. - Use the Search box
At the top right of the blog is a box with a Searchbutton next to it. Type in whatever you are looking for (think key words) and all the blog posts that mention that word or words will pop up.So if I was looking for all the posts that deal with Jon Stewart, I would type in his name, click on Search and find all the posts that mention him.
What kind of useful things are on the blog? Here are just a few examples:
- Many of the links from the fourth edition of the book are to my blog posts.
You can find all of the book links by searching for them. So, for all the book links from Chapter 12, Public Relations, type “link ch. 12” into the search box and click Search.(Make sure you include the quote marks.) These will often give you pictures, video or audio that deal with material from the book.One of the blog posts this will bring you to is one that amplifies on the material in the book on the Domino’s Pizza social media crisis. The post includes a video news story about the case and a video apology from the company’s CEO. - Updates on news that has broken since the book was published.
It is impossible for any textbook to keep up with the rapid pace of change in the media industry, so if you read the blog on a regular basis you will see posts dealing with a wide range of updates including Univision scoring a sweeps rating victory over NBC (Do we need to be talking about the Big 5 networks?), Carnival Cruise Line dealing with a PR crisis, and Comcast completing its purchase of NBCU from GE several years ahead of schedule. - Fun pop culture case studies to use in class.
Last fall everyone on campus, it seemed was either listening to or making a Gangnam Style video. In a pair of blog posts written by guest blogger Charley Reed, we looked at what Ganghnam Style is, where it came from, and why it matters to us. Along with the cultural history and the original video, there’s also a great parody of “Klingon Style.”
What else do I put online other than the main blog?
- I have a Twitter account where I post and retweet links on a variety of media issues, many of which become blog posts. You can follow me as @ralphehanson. I try to use the hashtag #liamw (Living in a Media World) to identify posts that directly apply to the book. You may find other teachers and students around the country using the same hashtag.
- I also have a Tumblr where I post video, audio, pictures, and occasional text that I’ve found online that I find interesting. The Tumblr is more eclectic, less serious, and more personal than the blog. I never miss the opportunity to add items that mock Disney, post music I like, or link to interesting videos. The Tumblr is located at: http://ralphehanson.tumblr.com.
- Finally, I have a Facebook account for the book, but it is mostly reposting of links to the blog.
Any more questions? Don’t hesitate to contact me! My e-mail address is rhanson40@gmail.com.