J101 INTRO TO THE COURSE and First Assignment (Deadline Jan. 18) Orientation, Profile (Deadline Jan 18)
OVERBOOKED
INTRO TO THE COURSE AND FIRST ASSIGNMENT (Deadline Jan. 18 Friday at 4pm): Read the following article and accomplish the assignment described at the end of the article.
“What is news? by Scott Kleinberg Chicago Tribune social media editor
at https://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/chi-social-media-what-is-news-20140502-story.html
“Why is this news??? @chicagotribune: Prince William and friends munched on nachos during O’Hare layover
— kevkaz (@kevkaz) May 2, 2014 “News. You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
“Yes, someone tweeted a variation of the famous line from “The Princess Bride” at us recently. And a few weeks ago. And a bunch of times before that.
“We get it. You think that story we shared via social media and posted on our website is ridiculous, stupid and far from newsworthy. And we hear you, and we appreciate your opinion. But that’s not going to stop us from sharing it.
“News is not always serious. We’re well aware of the big stories, and our reporters work tirelessly to track down details. But just because we throw in something that makes you #facepalm or LMAO doesn’t mean we’ve lost sight of the big picture.
“Your perspective might change if you saw the process unfold for yourselves. We think ahead about your possible reaction. We even laugh about it. We take ourselves seriously, but never too seriously. Earlier, when we posted about Prince William munching on nachos and wings during a layover at O’Hare, we knew we’d hear snarky comments in response.
” “Why is this news?”
” “This is news?”
“And other words we can’t print here.
“We can take it. But we want you to understand why we post what we post and why we share what we share.
“Your definition of news is different from ours, just as your definition is different from the person sitting next to you. For us, news is anything popular or trending or being talked about. It’s often serious, but not always. It’s often bad but sometimes good.
“And sometimes, it’s just plain silly. Or not helpful.
“In the social media age, you see a lot of things that are nonsensical. You read things that “shock” and “restore your faith in humanity.” You’re often tricked and enticed to click. In our case, we strive to tell you what you need to know up front, but we don’t shy away from the obscure.
“Let’s use the Prince William nacho story as the example. If he munched on nachos at an airport in Tennessee, we wouldn’t report on it. Who cares? It happened in Tennessee. Bring him to Chicago and you’ve got something different.
“Celebrities are often blasted as not newsworthy. You may not care, but it matters for the people who do. If we ignore these stories, someone will complain. It’s impossible to please everyone. When we post stories about bicyclists, the people without bikes tell us they don’t care and they ask us to post real news. When we post a story about price hikes on the Tollway, non-drivers tell us they don’t care and ask us to post real news.
“And so it goes. For what it’s worth, I played the Prince William tweet a little differently than @chicagotribune. It went more straight. I went with “nacho ORD-inary layover.” One person even favorited it, so all is not lost.
“Part of my job as social media editor is to spot trends. It is also to inform and engage. And this job has helped me develop a really thick skin. I never take your tweets personally, even when they are. If you insult our choices and tell us in a not-so-nice way, I won’t ignore or block you. I’ll try to give you an honest and heartfelt answer. And I’ll probably send you a link to this column.
“So by all means say what’s on your mind, but at the same time please understand there’s a method to our madness.
“Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go. We hear Rob Ford is in Chicago. #YesItReallyIsNews ”
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For J101, Intro to the Course: What is News? First Assignment: In the comments section below: Embed or summarize one actual news report about a famous person from Dec. 18, 2018- Jan. 18, 2019 from your social media news feed or from any social media news site or any news site, and answer the question “Is this news?”. Explain why or why not using the elements of news or news values. Then, give a definition of news. Deadline: Jan. 18 Friday at 4pm. You will need a gravatar in order to post your answers in the comments section, so please accomplish the requirements under “Orientation, Profile” below (in green font) before working on the First Assignment.
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ORIENTATION, PROFILE (Deadline Jan. 18, Friday, 4pm)
PLS SUBMIT YOUR AVATAR & PUBLIC PROFILE ELECTRONICALLY, with deadline today Jan. 18 Friday 4pm)
Use nicknames only, or pseudonyms, or “aliases”, do not use your full names.
Please submit your avatar and public profile electronically with deadline today 4pm. Those who fail to do so will be asked to complete the requirement before taking a seat in class. PLEASE USE YOUR NICKNAMES ONLY, OR PSEUDONYMS, OR PET NAMES.
This is a public site and you are advised not to use your full names.
In order to have an organized flow of class discussion: Everyone is required to attend the orientation meeting next week after the last day of enlistment of classes – even those who have not completed their enrolment. Experience shows that those who fail to attend the orientation fail to be aware of the requirements and class policies, fail to get their topics for reporting (for 30 points) and end up DISRUPTING THE CLASS with noisy cellphones, noisy inquiries, and abrupt behavior in trying to get out of the classroom to comply with the requirements.
Students will always be held responsible for whatever they miss as a consequence of their being late or absent, and are requested not to harangue the handling faculty to be given special treatment by way of a “personalized briefing”, or updates, or to get topics.
The class record and class scorecards of this class are electronic (with one print copy as final backup).
My avatar and public profile are in this site, in the “About” widget at the left-hand corner below the header of this page, and in the seventh widget in the righthand-side (widgets column) of the page.
HOW TO POST YOUR AVATAR AND PUBLIC PROFILE: Pls submit electronically your avatar and public profile by embedding them or linking them in this site, in this post, in the comments section. You may use the computers in the department, or the computers in the classrooms, or the free and public computers in the corridors and lobby, or the free and public computers in the library, or your own devices (the college has a free, public wifi). You may take a seat in class ONLY AFTER having posted your avatar and public profile.
The avatar is your digital public photo. For this class, do not submit an image of a cartoon character or a computer-generated image unless you want to be considered a winged creature in class. Do not submit a microscopic, dot-size photo unless you want a dot score for all the requirements. Pls make your avatar at least the usual 1” x 1”. Thank you.
The public profile is the public description of yourself, the profile that you use in your public sites. Use your nicknames only, do not submit your full names in this site.
Pls include the following in your “description”:
1.your course;
2.your favorite book or novel of all time (and state why);
3.your favorite film of all time (and state why);
4.your favorite media practitioner of all time (any medium: newspaper, broadcast, multimedia, film, social media, etc), (and state why);
5.your favorite song/ music/ band/ songwriter of all time (and state why);
6.Your favorite internet site (specify the name of the site and give its description: do not just state a generic platform “FB” or “Youtube”)
7.your favorite meal of all time (and state why).
8.”hobbies”, if any (optional).
Those who do not have these will be asked to show or perform their own original composition in class as a description of themselves.
There are several ways of producing your public profile:
1.Thru your own public site (thru free sites such as FB, Twitter, tumblr, wordpress, blogspot, etc)
2.or thru Gravatar (a free app/site),
3.or thru about.com (another free site/app)
(note that all sites collect your information: Do not post any personal information that has digits/numbers or real names.
Gravatar and about.com are apps that automatically show your avatar anywhere you post in the net, and are useful when posting your media monitor requirements in the course of the semester.
There are two ways of submitting them in the comments section of this post: 1.By embedding, as in-line text; or 2.by linking the url of your own site (pasting the url of your site in the comments section). Simply click the comments box at the end of this post, then type: you may embed your public profile and avatar, or paste the link to your site where your public profile and avatar appear.
FINALLY: If you are a recluse, or have zero presence in the internet, you may submit all these requirements to the department assistant. You will need to FOLLOW UP the department assistant to submit it to the handling faculty – the disadvantage of this procedure is — as experience shows – this takes more administrative steps; any delay will be counted against the student for failure to follow up efficiently.
A one-pager confidential directory will be routed manually (print) in class next week where the student will be asked to write their email address and “name of person to contact in case of emergency” and that person’s contact info. This document is confidential and no one is allowed to borrow or to photocopy it.
Those who fail to submit an avatar and public profile will not be allotted an electronic classcard and will not appear in the electronic class record. Those who are not allotted a classcard and do not appear in the class record will be considered a fictitious character. Their grade will be posted by Galema, Anak ni Zuma.
