Election Journal Kept on LiveJournal.com

 

Everyone is required to keep a free electronic journal on LiveJournal.com, in which you write brief entries responding to what's going on in the national presidential campaign, and also comment on each others' entries.  If you haven't done this before, don't worry: it’s easy and free. Each of you will need to create your own journal, and then give me your user name so I can make you a "friend" on my page, and everyone will be able to navigate through my page to see each others' entries.

http://www.livejournal.com/users/wattann/

 

After you create your page, please email me with your username and the URL for your journal site.

 

Each week, I'll expect you to make at least three postings: 1-2 entries of your own, and 1-2 comment on others' entries. I’ll act as moderator, letting individuals know if they are posting too often, being offensive, etc.; so please channel your concerns through me.

 

Journal grades will be based on evidence of engagement and thoughtfulness: I want to see that you’re following the current election coverage, that you’re thinking critically about it, and that you’re making a meaningful contribution to the class’s cumulative knowledge and understanding.  Please see grading sheet.  I will use this sheet to give you feedback and a current estimated journal grade several times throughout the quarter.

 

Ideas for the content of entries:

·         Read a recent news article reporting on campaign developments, link it up and comment on it

·         Link up an editorial cartoon that deals with the campaigns (candidates, issues), and analyze it

·         Use some of the tools that are out there for determining your stands on issues, what party you should belong to, what candidate you should vote for—and comment on their usefulness

·         Watch a campaign ad and analyze it.

·         Find the transcript or video clip of one of the candidates’ speeches, and comment on its rhetoric

·         Do meta-analysis: analyze someone else’s analysis of a campaign performance (speech, ad, debate, etc.); for example, point out how a certain news service used the “strategy frame” in their coverage of the primaries (treating it like a horse race rather than attending to the candidates’ positions on issues).