Cobre

Antoinette Pole writes in Blogging the Political: Politics and Participation in a Networked Society that “political blogs have become a gateway to civic engagement” (135). Blogs, in general, are a vast repository of advocate and activist and editorial messages, but political blogs serve additional purposes, according to Pole.

 Increase participation – Blogs that aim to “mobilize voters, speak directly to voters”

 Candidate promotion and fundraising – Campaign blogs aim to raise funds or promote a candidate/counter message the MSM. These provide opportunity for

immediate response to topics of interest, working much faster than a press release that relies on the MSM newscycle.

 Constituent correspondence – Elected officials’ blogs share updates that are timely and serve to bypass the MSM, allowing the blogger to maintain control of the message.

Beyond political purposes, though, Pole’s analysis points to the value of a blog for civic and community purposes, as well. Bloggers can mobilize efforts in a nation- or worldwide way that has never been done before. Through blogging, “networks” are created. Pole cites three types of networks: individual/group identity, topical interests, and ideology. She defines “network” as “associations or affiliations of groups of individuals who have common interests and form a basis for providing mutual assistance” (17). This could be compared to Hauser’s “public sphere,” which he defines as a “discursive space in which individuals and groups

associate to discuss matters of mutual interest, and, where possible, to reach a common judgment about them” (“Civil Society and the Public Sphere” 21).

Pole references Copeland’s 2004 study findings and agrees with them that “blog readers tend to be well read, politically active, and cyber-active” (qtd in 11). An additional value of blogging, she says, is that “There are no gatekeepers with political blogs,” affording individuals an opportunity to “influence public opinion, shape agendas, and mobilize citizens. Political blogs have revolutionized citizen participation, enabling political bloggers to communicate with the masses” (138). Instead of assuming “Americans are disengaged and apathetic, these data suggest otherwise”… “it appears that the constraints of modern society might have prevented individuals from engaging or expressing their interest. Political blogging provides a new venue for this” (Pole 130).

Understanding and sharing with my students the value of blogging was a necessary precursor to asking them to blog. Additionally, before I could ask my students to design and populate with content an effective blog, I had to have them evaluate others’ blogs. We used the questions for discussion in the second chapter of the Writer/Designer: A Guide to Making Multimodal Projects textbook. As part of this blog analysis, students were asked to locate two

blogs on their topic and answer questions related to rhetorical situation, audience, purpose, context, authority, and genre. Here is a sampling of some of the questions they were asked to answer/consider in evaluating other blogs:

 Who is the author, and why did s/he compose this text?

 How does this author establish credibility on the subject matter (or does s/he?)?

 Why did the author choose this form/genre of writing?

 Who is the primary audience? Secondary?

 What values or positions might the intended audience(s) hold?

 How will readers interact with this text?

 What design choices were made, and how do they serve the purpose of the author?

 How effectively does the blogger use white space and balance of text and image?

 How is contrast used on the page?

 What kind of navigation exists, and how does it impact the user experience?

Completing this analysis exercise helped them to see the impact of their composition and design decisions on their reader(s). As a result, they were able to adopt effective practices in their own design and avoid those they felt to be poor choices. This was mostly useful in the design stage as students selected templates, color schemes, and navigational structures. It also helped them understand the kind of information that would be essential in their bio page and why it might be helpful to create a FAQs page on their blog. As part of these discussions, students began to see that one of their primary roles as bloggers on their chosen cause would be as informers. They had a responsibility to help increase functional literacy among their readers before they could take the steps to advocate or effectively persuade their readers.

Bill Moyer talks about the significance of this in his book Doing Democracy: The MAP Model for Organizing Social Movements, where he cites eight stages in the process of social movement success. He highlights the importance of the activist/reformer (whom he says should start out playing the role of citizen, then rebel, then change agent, before becoming reformer) persuading the reader/public that there is a problem. Therein lies the informer piece we’re focusing on initially as bloggers. Moyer says, the “public must be convinced three times”:

1. That there is a problem

2. To oppose current conditions and policies 3. To want, no longer fear, alternatives (Moyer 44)

He suggests that very early on in a movement, activists should “become experts; do research,” and this is exactly what I hoped to accomplish through the blogging assignment; I wanted students to acquire some degree of expertise on their cause or issue, knowing this expertise would contribute to increased agency and sense of efficacy.

As part of the blogging assignment, I required eight posts. Because this was where the bulk of the traditional writing would be accomplished – and curricular and course objectives would be met – I structured the posts in order to match the types of assignments that might be assigned in a more traditional English Composition I course. Though most individual blog posts were geared to the standard 400-word maximum, student blogs as a whole consisted of

approximately 3,000-3,500 words each, surpassing the volume of writing in many other first- year writing courses. Additionally, when journals and reflection essays are factored in, the total word count of the course is likely near 6,500-7,500. The following table lists the various assigned posts and the objectives/skills those posts met.

Assigned Blog Post Course Objectives

An overview of the cause/issue Expository writing

Current event summary/commentary (four) Argument, persuasive writing, article summary, analysis, research

Documentary review Film analysis

Opposing Viewpoint response Article critique, research, analysis, logical

fallacies Annotated bibliography/Recommended

reading list

MLA formatting, research, summary of source, abstract writing

Calls to action Persuasive writing, rhetorical appeal (ethos, logos, pathos)

Table 3: Chart of Assigned Blog Posts and Course Objectives

I used a narrative style of feedback with screen shots, which is recommended in Assessing Digital Writing (and by other scholars of multimodal composition) in order to

illustrate places where students found success and where they could have used improvement. In this way, my feedback was a continued pedagogical tool and not exclusively an assessment tool. I provided students with both a rubric and the visually rich feedback.

Additionally, I tried to be very encouraging in my feedback, remaining ever cognizant of the fact that students (nay, humans) trying something new need encouragement, affirmation, guidance. Overly critical commentary would only serve to dissuade and discourage, neither of which a first-year writing teacher should ever set out to do.

In the Appendix of this chapter, you will see two samples of this narrative feedback students received on their blog assignments.