Talking Back...

As you look over the Listen Up! site for class tomorrow, think about the title of this week. Do you think of this kind of video work as "talking back?"

Looking forward to seeing you all tomorrow!

LB :)

Another Facebook Issue to Consider

I stumbled upon this article over the weekend and thought it, too, was relevant to our discussion of MySpace and YouTube for this week. Check it out.

Testing Horace Mann

When students created Facebook pages that viciously attacked a teacher, and when their wealthy parents on the school’s board defended them, Horace Mann was forced to confront a series of questions: Is a Facebook page private, like a diary? Is big money distorting private-school education? And what values is a school supposed to teach?...

MySpace and YouTube

We've been talking a lot about issues of representation and how adults represent youth. This week, I want you to take look at some of the spaces where teens represent themselves. Of course, adult have something to say about this as well... What are the issues that arise in our culture when youth have a genuine, authentic 'room of their own'? How are teens using that space? What concerns do adults have about that space? Take a look at these articles I found and blog about them for this week. Be mindful of the issues we have been talking about: dominant discourses of youth, resistance, race, class, gender... Have fun with it!

YouTube 101: A College Class

Why Youth Heart MySpace

Henry Jenkins Interview on Social Networking

Family, Community and YouTube

Readings on Kid Nation

Here are the readings for next week's class on Kid Nation, a reality show that aired last fall.

Take a look at these links and feel free to look for other write ups about the show. You may even be able to find some clips if you dig a little. Use your blog to think about what these authors below have to say about teenagers. Are they drawing from the dominant discourse we have talked about? Or are they challenging them? Do they think that this reality show looks favorably on the kids of Kid Nation, or is it just another chance to cast kids in a negative light?

Kid Nation Home Page (check it out for basic info)

Ellen Goodman, 'Kid Nation': CBS' New Reality Show Creates Little Capitalists

Should Kids Be Seen?

Birth of a Kid Nation

Kid Nation: It's Not Exactly William Golding!

How do we learn about the political process?

So this is for Priscilla and many others of us who talked about being mystified by the whole political process tonight in class... Schoolhouse Rock was a big hit in the 1970s (some of you may remember!). Its main purpose was to educate kids about everything from social studies to grammar. If you want more, go to YouTube and look up SCHOOLHOUSE ROCK. Look at all the ways we can learn (good and bad!) from popular culture!!

Photo Project Presentations

Just a reminder of the plan we made in class on Monday...

You will each have a max of 10 minutes for your presentations next week. I will have the digital projector, my laptop, and a TV cart (for VHS tapes) so you can plan for any of this technology.

Your goal is to present your photos in a coherent "story," illustrating that story in the details of your photographs. The Greenfield piece is your model.

Looking forward to seeing the stories you produce with your teenagers pics!!

LB :)

Hello? Seeking Evidence of you in the Blogisphere!

Just a reminder that your blog posts are due by noon on Mondays. Barely half of you have posted for today. Those of you that have posted have up fabulous thoughts and ideas -- all of the ones I have read have been so strong! For example, check out Alice, Nicole, and Alisha for some great insights.

See you in class!

Journey to the Motherland with Tricia Rose

I saw a few of you at the Tricia Rose talk on Friday night. I am so interested to hear what you thought of her, her words, and the event in general. Feel free to leave a comment here, or write it up on your own blog! I had a really great night. What did you think??

LB :)

Writing About Juno?

Per my proposition in class, is anyone interested in trying to pull together a critique of Juno to send off to a magazine or journal for publication? It will take a lot of work, researching where to send it off, and pulling together our arguments and evidence in a coherent way... but I am interested in doing it if you are!

Leave a comment if you think you might want to get on board for this...

LB :)

This is one possibility for submission:

A Style Nobody Can Deal With

I have heard from a few of you that the Tricia Rose reading (here online and outside my office door at HBS 207 if you weren’t in class last week!!) is a difficult read. Compelling. Fascinating. But hard to follow. Be patient with her. Seek out the big picture. What is she trying to say here.

You also might make a list of the words you don’t know and list them on your blog. Look those words up online and make links to any useful information you can find that helps you understand them. For example:

“Hip hop is an Afro-diasporic cultural form which attempts to negotiate the experiences of marginalization, brutally truncated opportunity and oppression within the cultural imperatives of African American and Carribean history, identity and community.” Check out my links (I mostly used wikipedia because the site felt rich and thorough, but you can look at any sites that help you understand the concept). Now… translation, anyone??

Also, remember to use the format I offer in the syllabus:

Some things I understand
Some things I don’t understand
Connections to texts/course themes
Questions/comments to raise in class

You can still write in a fluid, narrative form, but stay focused on making sense of the text and connecting it to other issues we have discussed. Check out Nicole’s blog for a good use of this.

I will leave you with a question to consider: how does Rose’s argument apply to 2008? Her article was published in 1994 so her examples and context are dated at this point. Do her overall claims stand up in 2008? (Sarah B sems to ask this question on her blog as well, and makes a good connection to Prensky.)

“I intend to demonstrate the importance of locating hip hop culture within the context of deindustrialization and to show how hip hop’s primary properties of flow, layering and rupture silmultaneously reflect and contest the social roles up to urban inner city youth at the end of the twentieth century” (402).

What do you think?

Pew Studies on Technology

Per our lively conversation on Monday about Prensky's article, I wanted to share with you this link to the Pew Charitable Trust Research Center. They release reports often, sometimes even weekly! If you want more information about Digital Natives and the digital culture in which we all live, check out the study on Teens and Social Media. Feel free to poke around at the other studies as well!

LB :)

So? How was Juno?

I haven't had time yet to post my thoughts about seeing Juno for the second time last night. (Sorry the weather spoiled our group viewing, but I am glad a handful of you were able to come out last night!)

If you saw Juno, with us or alone, I am very interested to hear what you thought... how does this film teach us about teenagers? How does this film teach us about gender? What assumptions does this film have about what is normal and natural and good in the world? What does it value? Who does it value? How do you know? (Think of Christensen's barage of questions that we used to analyze Beauty and the Beast!)

Here are a couple of reviews of the film that raise some compelling issues. I will post more of my own thoughts this weekend when I can take some time to organize and reflect.

Sex and the Teenage Girl (NY Times)
Changing the Script on Teen Pregnancy (Boston Globe)

Media Literacy

Hope you are having a good weekend. If you haven't already put your blog up, please make sure to do so before class on Monday. I want to get all the links set up, so leave me a COMMENT with your blog address once you have finished.

Check out this video I pulled off of youtube... Some of you may have seen TOUGH GUISE (produced by the Media Education Foundation) before. This clip raises great questions that compliment the issues Christensen raises in the reading this week. Leave me a comment and let me know what you think!

LB :)

Welcome to WMST 350!

Welcome to this WMST 350 blogging adventure! Sometime before Monday, Feb. 11, you will set up your own blog to use this semester for all of your Teenagers in/and the Media Talking Points assignments, and to keep track of your thoughts about any of the issues we cover in class.

A blog is your very own, personal online journal. It is public, in that I and your classmates can read it and comment on it, but it is your space and you can control most everything about it. (If you want to make it private so that *only* members of this class can read it, I can show you how to do so).

In the context of this course, your blog has two purposes:

1) Your blog will provide a space for you to keep all of your Talking Points assignments over the course of our semester together. You will not hand in written assignments to me each week; rather you will post them on your blog. In this sense, your blog is merely your assignment notebook that you will use as you read and prepare for class each week. You will also be posting any additional thoughts you have: responses to class discussion, after thoughts, things you forgot to say in class, relevant experiences you have, etc.

2) In 2008, online spaces are central to any discussion of teenagers and the media. Creating your own blog will also introduce you to the blogisphere if you don't know this place already. I hope that your experience on blogger will inspire you to explore other (teen) blogs as well.

So here's how it works:

You are going to set up your own blog. If you don't think of yourself as very "tech-saavy," don't stress! The site below makes it very easy for you to get your own personal space up and running in no time at all.

Once you get your blogs up and running, I will provide links to each of them on the right of this page (where your names are already listed). You can come here to this page (my blog) if you want to to read what I write, or to link to one another's blogs as well. This site is new and improved so managing, editing, posting, designing and getting creative on your blog is now easier than ever!

To start your own blog, you will go to:

www.blogger.com

The big orange arrow at the bottom right of the page will direct you to creating your own blog on a site called blogspot.com. Follow the instructions to open up a free account. As you fill in the info, you will be asked to name your blog. This title will appear at the top of your blog.

Then, you need to choose an address:

http://_______.blogspot.com

This will be the web address associated with your site. you can call it anything you like. Be clever or simple (or both) -- it is up to you.

You will also need to choose a design template for your blog. Look through the options listed and see what appeals to you. Again, up to you. Once it is all set up, you can go in and change things, edit, create a more creative space, etc. I have posted some websites under COOL LINKS that can help you get more creative if you want to play.

Once you have the account set up, you will need to start posting in order to get the blog up and running. (Nothing will show up until you post that first entry.) A “posting” is an entry on your blog. (For clarification, you have one blog, but many postings). Give the posting a title and then compose as you would any journal entry. When you are finished, hit the button at the bottom that says Publish Post. It will not appear on your blog until you publish it. You can always go back and edit old posts and create new ones.

Your First Post:
Your first post should be a short introduction to you... when you were 13. Start your entry with , "When i was 13..." and write a little bit about yourself through the lens of your memory. Just a short paragraph or two — no big deal. You will post the rest of the entries as they are due (see course syllabus for dates), or whenever you have something to say!

When you are done creating your site and posting your first entry, please come back to this blog and post a comment at the end of my first posting (scroll down) that includes your blog address so that I can post it in the link list to the right.

Some Tips and Helpful Hints:

• Once you are in your blog, look at the top right corner of the screen. If you click on the word CUSTOMIZE, you will be able to make design changes, create new posts, edit old posts, etc.
• If you want to make your blog a bit more interesting, poke around online and make a list of websites related to education, diversity, social justice or anything else relevant and post them on your blog as a Resource List. To do this, view your blog and click on the CUSTOMIZE link at the top right corner of your screen. Click on ADD A NEW ELEMENT, and then choose Link List. This will allow you to add as many links as you desire. They will show up in a box on your blog!
• Just do the best you can with this. If you get stuck, don't fret... I am happy to help you anytime as you work on getting this started. Send me an email, come see me in office hours, or grab me after class. And remember: you can't break it. It is just a blog. Everything can be changed if need be!

Good luck!!

LB :)