The purpose of the reading responses for you to have a conversation with the readings at your pace. During the class, the professor, classmates, and the ensuing discussion usually mediate the ideal conversation between the readings and students. Reading responses give you a chance to engage with a given topic and their assigned readings at your own time and pace.
Requirements & Grading
There are two basic ground rules: 1) You have to respond/engage all the readings in a given module; 2) The response cannot be less than three and more than six pages (double spaced, times new roman 12 font with default margins. Within these ground rules, following are the basic guidelines you need follow to craft a well written reading response.
Demonstrate that you understand the main argument of all the readings (1%)
This is different from merely summarizing or quoting the articles. Use your own
words.
Take a stance relative to the readings and their arguments & back that stance up with argumentation and other sources if necessary (3%)
It is not enough to say “I don’t like/agree with this point”—that does not tell me anything and that does not speak well for your writing prowess either. If you agree or disagree with an argument, a claim, or a point, you need to explain/argue why/why not. If you base your ensuing argument on another empty claim, however, that does not count either. Such as, “I don’t like this point because it is racist.” Yes, many people can point to a racist claim. You need to go deeper. What makes it racist? What are the consequences of such racist claim in that kind of an article? Tell me more. Use other readings or outside sources if you need to.
Discuss what these readings mean in context of the course so far. (1%)
In other words, how do the readings you are responding to fit with (or don’t) the idea of intercultural communication you understand from the other readings and from the class in general?
(In this class, we have approached social media and social networking sites from a variety of angles. We talked about how social networking sites position people as commodities, we talked about their roles in social movements, we talked about their engagement with privacy and democracy.)
Learning Resources
Read:
Shirky, C. (2011). The political power of social media. Foreign affairs, 90(1), 28-41. download
Morozov, E. (2010). The Digital Dictatorship. The Wall Street Journal. (Links to an external site.)
https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748703983004575073911147404540
Gladwell, M. (2010). Small change. The New Yorker, 4(2010), 42-49. download
Tufekci, Z., & Wilson, C. (2012). Social Media and the Decision to Participate in Political Protest: Observations From Tahrir Square. Journal of Communication, 62(2), 363-379.
Last Completed Projects
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