Week 5 – Mid Term
Work Plan
At mid-course, we find ourselves in the thick of several arguments, taxonomies, disruptions and separate threads. Just as they come together, they are often pulling assumptions apart while we explore the evolving sphere of digital culture while it changes the terms of participation and involvement in culture, civil society and new forms of community realignments. During this week’s in-person workshop (November 2) we will focus our discussions and work together around how the readings and the projects to date reveal and throw light on issues that have been obscure or hidden – both in the content and the form of participatory media.
On-Campus Workshop: Saturday, November 2
- Mid-course check-in
- Skype-in discussion with guest speaker: Professor Patricia Zimmermann for a talk and discussion on models for Open Space Documentary
- Each group presents and discusses their LIVE Term Project (now online and open to the public)
- Talk and discussion on the elements of online community building and public engagement models (in preparation for your Term Project Engagement Campaign)
- Discuss midterm paper themes in break-out group session:
- In preparation for this session: Cut and paste in a document any of your writings (posts, comments, private essays to date) that include themes, ideas, descriptions, etc. that you want to explore in the midterm
- Bring to our workshop (either printed out or on your laptop) — organize the material into patterns that could work for a paper. Be prepared to share in small group settings to clarify, question, deepen your ideas, etc.
Reading Assignment
Henry Jenkins, Sam Ford, Joshua Green (2013). Spreadable Media. pp 85 – 152.
Term Project: Week 5 Benchmarks
- Term Projects GO LIVE (and can be revised based on participant/audience feedback)
- Review and revise public engagement and community building work plan
- Set weekly goals and roles/responsibilities for each team member to participate in the campaign
- Begin your strategic outreach process
Online Assignment: website immersion + viewing
Lunch Love Community
www.lunchlovecommunity.org/
Project Creator: Helen De Michiel (in association with Citizen Film and Media Working Group)
Online Discussion
This week you can choose to post and comment about either my team’s project, Lunch Love Community, or to discuss the mid term and how your work on this paper is developing. Please be “users” (!) and “participants” who reach out to one another for dialogue around the ideas and projects we have been looking at to date, supporting and encouraging new threads of thinking among yourselves.
Public post + comment this week is due before Friday, 5pm. Midterm paper will be due on Friday, November 8.
NO PRIVATE POST-ESSAY DUE THIS WEEK — FOCUS IS ON MIDTERM PAPER.
Recap for the Mid Term: A comparative critical essay
Due Friday, November 8.
1. Develop a central argument and comparative analysis exploring how two different digital or online projects studied in the first half of this course open up a critical intervention into conceptions and practices of participatory media. Justify and explain WHY you selected these two projects and what we can learn and understand about participatory media and social practice through this comparative juxtaposition.
2. Select three theoretical ideas illuminating major trends and operations in digital culture theory to frame your argument and illuminate your analysis. Why these three concepts? How do they advance and illuminate the analysis you advance in your essay? For example, what do these concepts/arguments help us to see that would otherwise be concealed or invisible? You may choose the concepts from Digital Culture, Spreadable Media, Interacting with Transmedia Panel (Google Hangout), or supplementary texts of your choice.
3. Discuss your two digital/online projects through the lens of the three concepts that you are selecting. Analyze the: how, why, form, function, meaning, implications, themes. Review your weekly writings for your own questions and insights – there will be a lot of valuable material to work with that you have already articulated.
4. Please be sure to organize your argument so that theories and analysis are integrated in the flow of the essay. The three concepts you choose are the armature on which to hang a grounded analysis of the actual projects.
5. Proper citation and referencing required. Use your preferred official style guide.
