Tuesday 6 March 2012

Week 6 Summary: Social Media Revolution

On Monday 5th March the class was split in to two groups.
In the Social Media Revolution class, the following was covered:
The presentation and reading is available in the Blackboard.


How Facebook Changed the World
The BBC production about The Arab Spring and how the protestors and activists used social media.


A discussion on how mobile and social media is used in current and political protests around the world.


Reading of newspaper articles and a debate on the following questions:
1. How were the activists of The Arab Spring able to report on their situation?
2. What methods were used for their revolution to begin?
3. What are the dangers of online activism?
4. How has The Arab Spring changed how social media can be used in activism and protest?
5. Identify and discuss 3 benefits there are to citizen journalism.
6. Identify and discuss 3 issues there are with citizen journalism.


The homework for this class is to write a new blog post on the title: How has the Internet changed journalism? More details below.

4th Post: How has the Internet changed journalism?

In class there was a discussion on the following questions:
1. How were the activists of The Arab Spring able to report on their situation?
2. What methods were used for their revolution to begin?
3. What are the dangers of online activism?
4. How has The Arab Spring changed how social media can be used in activism and protest?
5. Identify and discuss 3 benefits there are to citizen journalism.
6. Identify and discuss 3 issues there are with citizen journalism.



Using this discussion, reflection on the BBC production shown in class called 'How Facebook changed the world' and using the newspaper articles provided (see links below) write a new blog post on the title:


How has the Internet changed journalism?


You should include a minimum of two quotes from the newspaper articles to support your answer.


You are expected to use Harvard referencing of all quotes, for detailed advice on how to harvard reference click here: Harvard Referencing Guide

The post will be a maximum of 300 words (not including referencing).

For students in the class on 5th March the deadline is: 9am Monday 12th March.
To be added to your Online Learning Journals (blog).

Objectives of this post:
  • To engage in the contemporary debate about citizen journalism 
  • To reflect critically on the current issues of new media
  • To research and use various resources, specifically newspaper articles
  • To practice using Harvard referencing
Reading:
Newspaper articles: