Anth 397 Media Persons Publics
Blog Commentaries (Spring 2025)

Due: 1) You will write 2 informal blog commentaries (the third is optional/extra credit) on the readings and films (all scheduled once a month on the syllabus).

  • Friday Feb 7, midnight, Media Use Reflection
  • Friday Mar 7, midnight, Jackson Lecture
  • OPTIONAL/EXTRA CREDIT: Friday April 11, midnight, Algorithmic Sociality

All should be posted to your personal Moodle blog forum: you are sharing your commentaries with the whole class.

2) Comments on your blog partner's posts are due the following Sundays, midnight, posted as a 'reply' in your partner's Moodle Blog forums. Note: if your partner's commentary is delayed, you can comment on anyone else's blog post by Sunday. Note: you can also elect to use audio comments (see below).
 
3) Blog partners should also find ways to bring their own and their partners' blog work into class discussion and Moodle discussion forums at least on weeks commentaries are due. 

Length and Format: ~280-400 words, or if it were a Word doc, it would be 1-2 pages, double spaced, 12 pt font, 1 inch margins. Your commentary can include images and/or video but it should incorporate at least 280-400 words of text. If you include media from other sources (eg., Youtube, a news source), please carefully caption them, citing the creator/producer and date created or uploaded if possible (NOT just the URL). Be attentive to the Ethical Use of Images.

The writing is less structured than a formal academic analysis (no need for formal essay structure, thesis statement, conclusion, etc), but tone should still be informative, humble, and not overly colloquial/slangy or flippant/sarcastic, claims should be evidence-based.

You will be writing for your fellow class members (as practice for writing for larger audiences), so write for relevance, interest, and readability, relate your discussion to issues or key terms raised in our readings and films, explain terms clearly and briefly, rather than assume your readers know, and be careful to portray events and people respectfully. Please avoid using images or video for shock value and provide any content notes necessary.

Discussion of reading(s) should be more than just a quick allusion; you should engage with the reading(s) in at least several lines or a paragraph, defining a key term or two, considering a particular argument, contrasting a claim with that of another theorist, and finally, discussing how that term or claim could or could not help illuminate something in the popular article. All references to the readings should be cited with in-text, parenthetical citation (ie., Lopez 1998: 10). No reference list is needed unless you cite sources outside the syllabus. Please include the link for any outside popular media articles used.

Class members will be able to see and comment on your posts. Please be respectful and relevant in your comments on others' posts. Comments can be in many forms. This is not copy-editing. Ask follow-up questions, comment on or compliment someone's writing/media use, discuss how their post made you feel, respond to the writer's use of a theorist or key term, bring in a comparison or contrast with your own commentary, bring in another author or film from the course (most important) and then from other courses.

A note on commenting on films in Moodle forums or in class:

This is not a "film review," (eg., just what you liked or not about the film), but the idea is to critically comment on course films with reference to ideas and debates from the relevant week's readings. In this, pay attention NOT just to the "content" of the film (what it seems to be about, the story it tells), but think multi-modally: HOW is it filmed and framed for you by the director? and WHY? with what goals or effects?

Editing is where the art and politics of films happen. Consider in this:

  • Scene composition
  • camera angle: whose 'eyes' does the camera represent? how does the film address its viewers?
  • music soundtrack
  • the sound environments created
  • use of slow motion or other filmic techniques
  • the juxtposition or 'cuts' between scenes
  • how voices are handled aurally,
  • who/what figures or subjects are centered or marginalized.

Evaluation: Even though these are informal commentaries, this is still a writing assignment. I will evaluate based on (in order of priority):

1) Extent to which you respond to the prompts and refer to course readings, and demonstrate clear understanding of basic terms presented in the course;
2) The creativity and originality of your ideas;
3) The clarity of your organization and writing;
4) The creativity of your use of non-text media and its integration with your writing.

Writing for Moodle Forums

ALWAYS write outside of the forums, and then cut and paste into them. Unlike Google Docs, Moodle forums do NOT automatically save what you’ve written. Students can lose lots of work this way!

Using the editor menu in Moodle

One option to easily include audio and video in Moodle forums is to use the editor menu in Moodle, which includes buttons for including images, videos, AND recording brief audio/voice messages.

Tips

  • You will need an internet connection to make recordings in Moodle.
  • Forum replies use a simple text box by default. Click on “advanced” to get the full text editor.
  • Audio and video recordings made using the Moodle editor menu are not designed to be edited. If you would like to create edited content, choose another method of recording on your phone.
  • Using the Moodle editor, you can also drag and drop images into your forum post. Images automatically appear in Moodle in their original size; click on the picture icon to change the dimensions.
  • As always, make sure to caption all media that is not your own creation: cite the creator/producer and date created (best) or uploaded if possible (NOT just the URL).
  • Be attentive to the Ethical Use of Images.
  • All video or audio clips posted on Moodle should be 5 min or less.

Linking to media stored in Google Drive 

If you would like to use another method to record and edit media, uploading your media to Google Drive and then linking to it from your forum post will provide the best user experience. Simply add your media to your Anth 397 Google Drive Project Folder. Saving it in your course folder, rather than only in your own Drive folders, ensures that your project media stays with your final project for the course, and it will be retained by Reed after you graduate. To find the link to the media file you want to use, open the file in Google Drive’s viewer, click “share” in the top right corner, and then select “copy link.". Paste the link in the appropriate place in your forum post. NOTE: the contents of all of your project folders are shared with the whole class; if you recorded media you would rather keep private, do not upload it to your course folder. However, to make sure your files are shared with the class, ALL media used in your blog posts and final projects should also be stored in your course Google Drive Project Folder.

Tips

  • If you’d like to incorporate your media into projects outside of Moodle (eg., your final project), create your media with the audio or video recording application of your choice and store it in your Google Drive Project folder.
  • Remember that you will lose access to your Reed account, and files stored in your Google Drive, when you leave the college. Storing files in the course project folder will allow Reed to retain them after your account is deleted. Be sure to also backup any files you want to keep.