Media Lab (EL200)

Term Project Presentation -- Actual Date TBA

2007-12-13T15:00:00Z

An informal oral report, a reflective essay and all written material, are all due during our final class period, which meeds during the time set aside for our final exam. (I will check with the registrar and let you know if this isn't the right date.)
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Term Project (100 pts)
Includes an informal oral report (20pts),
a project portfolio
which includes a reflective essay(10pts) that quotes passages from the progress reports you submitted as part of your portfolios,
a final (10pts), a one-page handout (10pts) that includes tips and advice for students in future classes of EL200,
and my assessment of your contributions to the project (50pts).)

Portfolio 4

2007-12-03T15:05:00Z

Upload Portfolio 4 to the appropriate slot on Turnitin.com.

Part 1: As usual, a 400-word lab report, written in the form of a news story, in which you write about yourself in the third person. (Thus, I would say "Jerz asked his class..." not "I asked my class...".) You can count yourself as one source, but you will need to get two more sources. (Don't rely too heavily on super-long quotes from the "you" character in the story -- a good news story requires balance.)
Part 2: Short essay, demonstrating your ability to synthesize what you learned from our history textbook. I have already asked some of you individually to deal directly with issues ranging from an analysis of your own personal negative reaction to parts of the book, to your reflections on the relationship between technology and journalism. However you choose to approach your final essay, recognize that I am seeking evidence that you are making a sincere effort to engage actively with the subject matter. (2 pages; this is really Exercise 4, for which there won't be a separate slot)
Part 3: (On your blog.) An informal final blogging portfolio, including links to your best contributions to the online discussion. (Include the URL of your portfolio entry in the file you upload.)
Part 4: A very brief, informal assessment of your term project. How can I help you succeed as we make the final push towards the end of term? (Just a paragraph or two would be fine here.)

Stephens, 15 and 16

2007-11-26T15:05:00Z

Finish the book.

Stephens, Chapters 13 and 14

2007-11-19T17:21:50Z

Please write separate agenda items and reflection papers for this reading selection. (Chapter 12 is a single reading assignment, and Chapters 13 and 14 make a second assignment.)

Stephens, Chapter 12

2007-11-19T17:19:19Z

I'm also assigning Chapters 13 and 14, but they are on a different subject so I'm considering this a separate reading assignment.

Term Project Workshop

2007-11-12T17:23:37Z

Work during class on your term project.

Stephens, Chapters 10 and 11

2007-11-05T18:36:19Z

Portfolio 3

2007-11-05T15:05:00Z

Part 1: 400-word lab report, focusing on your contributions to the Setonian in ways other than writing or taking pictures.

Part 2: Informal progress report for your term project (half a page). What have you accomplished since last week? Is there something you are waiting for, or something you need me to do for you? Remember that you will get busier and busier as the semester progresses, so don't wait until the last minute.

Part 3: Informal self-assessment of your blogging for EL200 so far (half a page). Have you been keeping up with your agenda items and peer commenting? Is the history of journalism a topic that you find more or less interesting than other topics you've been asked to blog about? If you had the choice of what to blog about in relation to journalism, what would you choose?

Ex 3: Concrete Progress on Term Project

2007-10-29T18:04:44Z

Upload to Turnitin.com any document that demonstrates concrete progress you have made towards your term project.

Stephens, Chapters 8 and 9

2007-10-22T14:10:00Z

Remember also that another production cycle has started. Issue 3 hits the stands Wednesday, Oct 31

Fall Break (No Class)

2007-10-15T19:52:38Z

Stephens: Chapters 6 and 7

2007-10-08T20:56:29Z

EX 2: Newsworthiness in Historical Perspective

2007-10-08T20:51:23Z

More details on this assignment as the deadline approaches. It will ask you to apply material from the textbook.

Rescheduled from Oct 1.

Choose an event described as newsworthy to a particular community in our textbook, and explored in some detail in the textbook. Select a current news story on a similar theme, and write a 2-page essay that examines the concept of newsworthiness, as reflected in each of your stories. Rather than working your way mechanically through each story, or working mechanically through a list of the kinds of ways stories can be newsworthy, focus on a small number of details -- or perhaps just one. Demonstrate your ability to note a trend and to draw a significant conclusion from your observations.

You are welcome to post your exercise in your blog, but you are not required to do so.

Trackback Tutorial

2007-10-08T17:24:51Z

The purpose of this entry is for all of us to practice creating a blog entry on our individual sites, in such a way as to create a link from the new page back to this page, and from this page back to the new page that comments on it.

Imagine if you read something in a book, then pulled out a piece of your own paper and jotted down a note about it. Somebody else who came along and read the same book would never know that a piece of paper exists somewhere with your thoughts on it.

Blogging can seem lonely and pointless unless other people read and respond to what you have written. So follow these steps, and you'll draw more readers to your writing. ]]>

Go the blog entry for the individual reading or topic that you want to post about.
1. If the URL you see ends in a number (whether it is a date or the course number), then look for a link titled "permalink" and click it to find the permanent link to an individual page on the site.
2. The correct URL of that page should look something like "http://jerz.setonhill.edu/teaching/EL200/2007/10/trackback_tutorial.php" (with some words and ".php" at the end).
3. If the URL at the top of your browser reads something general like "http://jerz.setonhill.edu/teaching/EL220" or "http://jerz.setonhill.edu/teaching/EL220/2007/09/14" then you haven't yet found the permalink.
Copy the permalink (click inside the box where the address is displayed, select all the text, and copy it... you can use your web browser's "Edit" menu, or you can type CTRL-A to select all and CTRL-C to copy.)
Go to blogs.setonhill.edu and log in, using FirstnameLastname as the ID and Firstname as the default password.
You should see a screen with a black bar on the top. If you see "New Media Journalism @ Seton Hill," click the triangle next to it and select your name. When you see your name at the top of the screen, click the "Write Entry" button.
On the "Create Entry" screen, give your new entry a meaningful title. (For now, it can just be "Testing," but in the future this should be something catchy and significant -- not "Chapter 2 Homework" or "Hamlet," but instead something specific and interesting like, "Hamlet is perfectly sane -- it's that Polonius guy who's nuts.")
In the area beneath "Body," create a link that points back to this page.

Type a few meaningful words. For today it can just be "link" or "test," but if you are writing about Hamlet, you should type the word "Hamlet." You can be more specific than that, if you wish.
Select the words, and click the link button (it looks like three chain links, between the S and the envelope icon). Paste the URL that you saved when you were on the course website. (You can use your browser's Edit menu, or type CTRL-V.)
Press OK. The text will still be selected, so it won't look like a link, but if you press an arrow key or click somewhere with the mouse, you will see that it is blue and underlined.

Write the rest of your entry.

Usually, it should include a brief quote from the assigned readings, or a link to a classmate's blog entry, or a link to something you found elsewhere on the internet. (If this is an "Agenda Item" homework assignment, you need a brief quote from the assigned readings and a brief statement of what you would talk about if called on in class.)
Links are what makes blogs work -- they are like currency; the more you link to stuff that you like, the more traffic that those good sites get. If you are generous with links to your peers, they are more likely to repay you by posting links to your work.
Your blogging will be more meaningful and useful if you really are part of a community that seeks out and encourages insight and analytical creativity.)

Save your entry.

Your blog will churn away for a while... you should see a message about "Pinging" various sites, and then a green box that says "Your entry has been saved."
If you see a yellow box with a message like "Trackback Error" or "unblessed reference" or "no result columns to bind" or any manner of weird stuff, don't panic. This blogging software was just released a few weeks ago, and it may still be a little buggy, but the core functions work well. Your blog actually auto-saves your work every few minutes.
If you're not ready to publish your work -- let's say you're in the middle of a paragraph and you get interrupted, you can change the "Publishing Status" to "Unpublished," and click SAVE. Your work is saved, but not published. Later you will be able to go back to that entry, finish it, change the "Publishing Status" to "Publish," and SAVE it again.

Check your entry.

Below the green box you should see "View published entry." Click on it, and you should see your new entry.
If you ran into a problem, try the "Preview" button first, and then after you see what your page will look like, click "Save Entry."
If your blog doesn't seem to be working properly, look for an icon that looks like two curved arrows (to the right of the "Preferences" triangle and to the left of an icon that looks like a web page). This is the Publish Site button. When you click it you will see an option to Publish All Files. Click on Publish, and in a few seconds you should see a link you can click on to visit your blog.

Check your Trackback.

Click the link that you created, in order to view the course website devoted to the topic you were blogging about.
Now the page on the course website should include a link that points to the entry you just created. (There is now a two-way link between your blog an the course blog, which is extremely important for the development of an online discussion.)
If for some reason your blog has not been able to generate a two-way link, you can try looking for the Trackback URL. On the page on the course website where you want your trackback to appear, look for a line that reads something like "TrackBack URL for this entry: http://jerz.setonhill.edu/mt-jerz/mt-tb.cgi/887". Copy that Trackback URL (for example, "http://jerz.setonhill.edu/mt-jerz/mt-tb.cgi/887") to your clipboard (CTRL-C), and then return to the screen where you edit your blog entry. Paste (CTRL-V) that Trackback URL into the box next to the label "Outbound Trackback URLs." When you save your entry, your blog will once again try to establish the two-way connection.
If for some reason the link continues to fail, you can always post a comment on the course blog, inviting readers to come to your blog to see what you just wrote. (In that comment, include the permalink of the individual page you just created, not the general URL of your blog's homepage.)

Portfolio 2

2007-10-08T14:05:00Z

Revised, as described in class on 17 Sep

Upload to Turnitin.com:

1) A Lab Report (a 400-word news article) (50%)

Cover your contributions to the production of The Setonian (other than writing or photography)
Include direct quotes from your supervisors and co-workers.
Write it in the third person, following all the principles of good journalism. (Thus, on first reference you are "Firstname Lastname, a freshman at Seton Hill University," and on subsequent references you are "Lastname.")

2) Blogging Reflection (1/2 page, 25%)

By now, you should be using your blog to post your agenda item (a brief quotation and a brief statement of what you would talk about if called on during class) for each assigned set of chapters, and 2-4 comments on peer weblogs.
I encourage you to publish your half-page reflections on your blog (but this is not required).
In your reflection, include a link to a blog entry that you feel demonstrate your ability to reflect on and discuss the assigned readings with your peers.

3) Term Project "action item" (25%)

With respect to your term project, describe your progress since your last "action item."
Very briefly, sketch out where you feel you should be by the time you write your next portfolio.
If you have actually produced substantial work towards your project, include it here for my feedback.
For the first portfolio, your action item may simply have been a proposal and a rough timeline. For this portfolio, possible action items might include

A complete timeline.
A one-page handout for the "New Media Journalism" website.
A draft of a letter to publicize a journalism contest, and a list of addresses for mailing.
A list of URLs that link to pages you have "webbified" (adding links and formatting for the online reader) on the Setonian Online.

4) In Turnitin.com, there is a separate slot for Exercise 2