Blogging guidelines

One of the primary goals of this course is to get you to think more critically about the sexual socialization messages in the media content you regularly consume.  I believe this competency is best gained through regular practice.  Consequently, you are expected to write weekly(ish) blog posts (guidelines below).  

Your blogging throughout the semester will account for 24% of your final grade.  Specifically, your blogging from before fall break will account for 9% of your final grade, and your blogging during the second half of the semester will account for 15% of your final grade.

The weeks will run Sunday-Saturday, as indicated below:

• Weeks before fall break:
• Week 1: September 20-September 26
• Week 2: September 27-October 3
• Week 3: October 4-October 10
• Week 4: October 11-October 17
• Weeks after fall break
• Week 5: October 25-October 31
• Week 6: November 1-November 7
• Week 7: November 8 -November 14
• Week 8: November 15 –November 21
• Week 9: November 22-November 28
• Week 10: November 29-December 5

Guidelines for blog posts

• Introduce media content.  You may take one of two approaches to introduce your media content.    

1.     Embed or link to the content you discuss.  Provide a brief description of the content before beginning your analysis.

2.     It isn’t always possible to access media content.  If you are unable to embed or link to the content you wish to analyze, you may describe that content instead.  If you take this approach, you will need to write a lengthier description of the content than you would if you took Approach 1, because your readers will be relying solely on your description to understand your analysis.

• Reference at least one of the readings from class. Does this content exemplify one of the codes identified in one of our readings?  Can you make predictions, grounded in scholarly work, about what sort of effects this content might have?  Is there a trend you’ve noticed in the media (e.g., increasing levels of condom use, decreasing amounts male homophobia) that suggests that one or more of the findings in a reading from class no longer hold? 
• Length is flexible. Posts should be a minimum of two-to-three paragraphs, but you are welcome to write more if you wish.
•  Snark is allowed. But only well-informed snark.  Snark is not required, but if you think your blogging voice is snarky, go for it!
•  Need a break?  Sometimes life gets unusually busy, or you find that you don’t have anything you want to say.  There are a total of four blogging weeks before break, but you are only required to write blog posts for three of them.  You may pick which three.  Similarly, there are a total of six blogging weeks after fall break.  You only need to blog for five of those weeks—whichever five you choose.  Of course, if you would like to blog all twelve weeks, or more than once in a given week, you should feel free!
• Important: you must blog for three DIFFERENT weeks (as defined above) before fall break, and five DIFFERENT weeks (as defined above) after fall break to meet the minimum requirements of this assignment.  If you were to submit one blog post on October 4 and another on October 10, that would count as having blogged during one week.  If you were to submit one blog post on October 10 and another on October 11, that would count as having blogged during two weeks.
• Cite your work using APA style.  There are resources to assist you with APA style posted on the CTools site (Resources à APA citation guides).  You do not need to include a citation for any source to which you provide a link.
• Tag your post using your full name.

How I will evaluate you: I am looking for evidence of thoughtful, critically informed engagement with the media, the course readings, and your peers that conforms to the guidelines listed above.  Exemplary posts typically have some or all of these characteristics:

• They make me think about something in a new way, or help me to draw connections I never had. 
• The author starts with a media text of interest and then builds an argument around it using the course readings, rather than trying to slot media examples into a specific reading (though there have definitely been notable exceptions—typically when the reading genuinely sparked an idea about a particular TV episode, movie, etc).
• The author connects multiple readings or course concepts to a single media text, and these are woven together seamlessly.  (Again, I’ve definitely seen outstanding posts that only use one course reading.)
• The prose is stylish and free of grammatical errors.
• The post uses appropriate citation.
• The post follows all the guidelines listed under “Guidelines for blog posts.”