The Digital Revolution: Writing and Social Media Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth

Unit One: Community Sunday

Goals Session Agenda Introduction and Pre-Assessment

Evening Icebreakers and Course goals/Pre-Assessment Honor code and classroom rules—set self-expectations. Extra time: Start logos.

WEEK ONE

Monday

Goals Session Agenda Theory: New Media Interpretation/ Writing: Engaged reading, annotation, discussion. Vocabulary: Medium/Media

Morning #OTD Sign-up Introduction to Digital Culture and New Media (lecture, writing and discussion) Read OED entries for “media” “digital” “internet” and “technology.” Identify one use of each term that surprises you.

Reading and writing community lesson and workshop (Johnson and Williams).

Discuss study skills and organizational habits. Make/finish logos

Afternoon Writing prompt: A world without the internet. "Old vs. New": Manovich and Gitelman.

Look and listen (video, still, music examples): What is old and new about each piece?

Describe and identify: Records, DVD, book, etc. (What am I?”)

Evening Set self-made course goals. Discuss and set goals as a class. Read Chomsky excerpts, write and exchange responses. (Follow the money)

Tuesday

Goals Session Agenda

Theory: Semiotics, Public Sphere Interpretation/ Writing: Issue, Problem, and Solution; Evidence; Pre-writing Content: Blogs Vocabulary: connotation and denotation.

Morning Media in Minutes (MIM) 1 + discussion.

Discuss Chomsky Introduce concepts: Connotation and denotation.

View and analyze online ads. Issue, Problem, Solution presentation and exercise.

Concept: Public Sphere (Habermas and Dakroury/Birdsall excerpts)

Afternoon Writing prompt: community and public sphere. Read blogs and discuss virtual and physical communities. Evidence workshop: primary, secondary, how to frame. Discuss and practice prewriting strategies.

Introduce Essay 1.

Evening Complete outlines and prewriting for essay 1.

Read/discuss keywords: consumerism, capitalism, community, identity.

Wednesday

Goals Session Agenda Theory: Media Circuits Interpretation/ Writing: Citation Content: Online Advertising Vocabulary: encoding/decoding

Morning Look at social media sites. Who/how do they target?

Lecture and discussion: The history of advertising before and after the internet.

Encoding/decoding and social media ads. (View and analyze pages together, write ads for targets—enact encode/decode process) Write up your character for support group. Hold Support group. Read Purdue OWL section on MLA citation and take quiz.

Afternoon Thesis Statements workshop. Discuss openers.

Listen to podcasts and discuss (Freakonomics) Begin drafting Essay 1.

Evening Complete Essay 1 Draft.

Thursday

Goals Session Agenda Interpretation/ Writing: Multi-media Presentation. Content: Community-based production: Crowdfunding, Web Series, Sound Communities Vocabulary: fan-ancing.

Morning #OTD MIM 2 + discussion

Workshop Essay 1 and discuss revision, conclusions, verbs of attribution.

Intro multi-media project; look at Kickstarter campaigns and discuss; Read and discuss Scott.

Begin Essay #1 revisions.

Afternoon Youtube series (Send Me, DHMIS)

Script and perform your own “audition” (for a different historical period)

Music Communities: Read Ratliff, explore and compare Bandcamp, itunes, Spotify, Pandora.

Finish Freakonomics podcast.

Evening Complete multi-media project: Collaborative Prezi (on Digital Advertising). Work on Essay #1 Revisions.

Read Manovich on digital cinema.

Unit Two: Aesthetics

Friday

Goals Session Agenda Theory: Aesthetics Interpretation/ Writing: Quote Integration Content: TV and Cinema. Vocabulary: Aesthetics

Morning #OTD

Multimedia Presentations Lecture and discussion: TV and Cinema before and after. (Manovich passages on board) Watch and discuss clips from Zorro and Batman(s).

Quote Integration Workshop

Afternoon MIM 3+ discussion Writing prompt: Aesthetics.

Practice visual, sound, and narrative analysis (Isolate elements and discuss).

WEEK TWO

Sunday

Goals Session Agenda Evening Watch Hitrecord on TV and read reviews.

Read Kittler and McLuhan excerpts.

Monday

Goals Session Agenda Theory: Convergence Interpretation/ Writing: Paragraph construction. Content: Literature and Web Comics Vocabulary: Convergence Culture

Morning #OTD Discuss Hitrecord and reviews in terms of aesthetic.

Medium: McLuhan and Kittler (Choose difficult and intriguing passages and pick apart together).

Literature and Web Comics (Emerson). Look at comics together and discuss, write short capsule reviews. Paragraph Construction. Do paragraph puzzles.

Afternoon Read Jenkins excerpts and watch video. Discuss participatory culture.

Role play: converge and participate (corporations, fans, artists, etc.) on production and consumption of fan art. Introduce Essay 2

Transitions workshop

Evening Write essay 2 outlines.

Read and respond: Prez Read Jaffa.

Tuesday

Goals Session Agenda Interpretation/ Writing: Multimodal writing.

Morning #OTD MIM 4 + discussion

Define multimodal composition and discuss pros, cons, and options. In groups, answer a writing prompt in a non-traditional mode and assemble/synthesize. (Each student gets a card with a

Content: Games, Memes. Vocabulary: multimodality.

mode and a component of an argument – use Jaffa or Harris?) Discuss Corndog so far

Watch McGonigal video Read/Discuss Harris. Create avatars.

Writing prompt: A typical day in my life, as a video game. Swap and play others’ games.

Afternoon Read Singal, watch Poole (and/or other TED meme videos) and discuss memes (organized debate).

Writing prompt: Rapid-fire hooks and main ideas. Make opening lines into memes.

Concision workshop. Begin drafting Essay 2.

Evening Complete Essay 2 Draft.

Wednesday

Goals Session Agenda Theory: (Post) Fordism Interpretation/ Writing: Concision Content: Media industries. Vocabulary: Genre, vertical/horizontal integration.

Morning Essay 2 Workshop. Writing prompt: Economy.

Lecture and discussion: Fordism, Post-Fordism, Media industries, vertical and horizontal integration.

Plan video production. Read and respond: Prez

Afternoon Discuss genre (adapt a text across genre and medium).

Work on video production. Fill out mid-session evaluations (self and course).

Evening Read and respond: Prez

Editing workshop: High-level revisions. Work on essay 2 revisions.

Unit 3: Economy

Thursday

Goals Session Agenda Morning MIM 5 + discussion

Discuss Corndog so far.

Theory: New Media and Moral Panic. Interpretation/ Writing: Clarity and polish. Content: Digital distribution. Vocabulary: distribution.

Work on video production and editing.

Digital distribution: Each student reads and reports on a segment from Distribution Revolution.

Distributor Monopoly (game board made of media entities, they can buy media properties).

Conferences: Progress so far, plans for revision.

Afternoon Complete work on videos.

Concision workshop. Introduce Essay #3 and Game assignment.

Evening Game programming practicum. Plan video game essays.

Work on revisions to both essays.

Friday

Goals Session Agenda Theory: Performativity. Interpretation/ Writing: Research. Content: Celebrity Culture. Vocabulary: Star, Fame, Celebrity.

Morning Show and discuss videos. Celebrity Culture

Word cloud exercise: Sports Illustrated online vs. Us or People Mag.

Watch Gleeson video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKboLTwzFTs

TSIS Yes, but. Analyze Gleeson video and practice interpretive methods (2 groups). Review Shumway excerpt, test on Youtube celeb examples. (Mota, Singh, Geertz). Identify his definitions of fame, celebrity, and stardom. How much sense do they make? Using same videos, discuss identity and performativity (Butler Lesson).

Afternoon Prewrite essay 3

Discuss and practice counterarguments. Library research

WEEK THREE Sunday,

Goals Session Agenda Evening Write Essay 3

Unit 4: Politics Monday

Goals Session Agenda Theory: Ideology and Hegemony. Interpretation/ Writing: Style Content: Hacking and Piracy. Vocabulary: Ideology and Hegemony.

Morning #OTD MIM 6 + discussion

Williams “Ideology” and “Hegemony,” (handouts) discuss and role-play.

Read Coleman and watch Lessig, and discuss hacking and piracy.

Finish Essay 3

Afternoon Workshop Essay 3

Style workshop (choose essays, find good/bad examples, pick apart…)

Evening Work on game design Read Lessig and Penny, write defenses and critiques of hacking.

Tuesday

Goals Session Agenda Interpretation/ Writing: Multimodal writing Content: Whistleblowers. Vocabulary: Whistleblowing

Morning #OTD

Writing prompt: politics Mock trial preparation.

Watch and discuss: Snowden and CitizenFour clips, articles, Greenwald, NBC interview.

Prepare arguments (write opening statements and main questions).

Afternoon Mock Trial Work on game design

Evening Game testing Read Civic Media chapter section by section. For each section, choose an important and complex term to dig into. Swap terms with a partner and look up

the other person’s term. Discuss together how each term fits into the overall argument of the chapter.

Wednesday

Goals Session Agenda Interpretation/ Writing: Revision for final polish. Content: Digital Politics Vocabulary: Activism.

Morning #OTD MIM 7 + discussion

Game presentations. Discuss Civic Media chapter.

Look at selections from Rauch, Massey and Snyder together, discuss.

Town Hall: develop a plan for online activism to solve a community problem.

Polish essay for literary salon.

Afternoon Social media: In groups of two or three, read about and analyze a social media “event” from the 2016 election. (Based on short blurbs and screenshots of tweets, headlines, etc.) Quick debate: social media fosters/degrades democracy. Work on essay completion and revision.

Evening Work on posters and essay revisions in computer lab.

Thursday

Goals Session Agenda Interpretation/ Writing: Public presentation.

Morning Make sure posters and essays are completely finished. Game presentation, part 2. Reading practice

Afternoon Literary Salon

Afternoon 2

Poster Session + play games. Post-assessment

Friday

Goals Session Agenda Wrap up! Morning Class Party—parting thoughts.

Afternoon P-T conferences