Category: writ3152

Week Five is Mon, 2/9 through Fri, 2/13.

Reminder: No formal class on Mon, 2/9, due to our voluntary Georgia State Capitol field trip on that day (details here). You will have another opportunity next month on Mon, 3/23.

Key practice: ethical image selection

Although you are legally protected by the Fair Use provision of copyright law to use most images on a blog post composed for educational purposes, we will operate under different guidelines. In order to prepare you for the content creation/digital culture norms in the world beyond the university, I require that you practice “ethical image selection”, meaning that you avoid images that are protected by copyright. In our work you should use, instead, images that are available 1) within the public domain, 2) under a Creative Commons license, or 3) because they belong to you. You can read more about ethical image selection on Open Lab’s copyright guideline page (my guidelines are similar to theirs). All visuals that you use for publication in WRIT 3152 need to demonstrate ethical image selection, cite the owner, and hyperlink to the original license (if you found it online).

Completing Week Four Activity blog posts (due Mon, 2/9)

1. Change your title to one that matches the subject of your post.
2. Choose an image to set as the “featured image” for your post, following the guidelines above.
3. Navigate to the the “set featured image” button in the right corner of the post editing screen:

3. Upload the image that you want to use.
4. Begin your post with an attribution of the post that is justified on the right margin and in italics.
5. See my citation of an Unsplash image or my citation of my own image as examples.
6. Proofread carefully for mechanical and style issues.
7. Click “publish” in the right-hand corner.
8. Your post is now live on the site! Congratulations.

Reading/Media

1. Read “1, Implicit Feudalism: The Origins of Counter-democratic Design,” (pgs 17-39) the first chapter of Schneider’s book Governable Spaces: Democratic Design for Online Life.
2. Choose three news or blog articles to read (whether published in the AJC or elsewhere) that relate to a specific legislative initiative (bill or topic) in the current Georgia General Assembly session.
3. Complete the five lessons under the second module (“Gain a familiarity with the WordPress Interface”) within the Beginner WordPress User course (you should NOT need to sign up, pay anything, or click the “take this course” button). You should have already worked through the first module (“Getting started with WordPress) in our first week; if you did not, you should complete that step as well.

Homework (due Wed, 2/11)

1. Prepare a list of three impactful quotes from Schneider along with your observations about them (100 words each).
2. Prepare three observations from your legislative/news reading on why you choose to study that bill/topic (100 words each).
3. Prepare a descriptions of three skills that you learned during your WordPress tutorials that you would like to experiment with in your next blog post (100 words each).

Class on Wed, 2/11

As you can see, I’m asking you to complete a significant amount of work for next Wednesday’s class. Bring questions, concerns, thoughts, brainstorms, etc. to class for discussion. We will spend most of class as a workshop for all of the material that I have asked you to prepare. I will take a grade on everything I’ve asked you to submit above, and you will need to be in class (or have prior approval from me to submit the work during class) to receive credit.

We will go through this steps in class on Feb, 2/4. DM on Discord if you do not attend and need additional information. Everyone in the class needs to open an account.

1. Currently our publishing site web domain is: https://env-3934933.us.reclaim.cloud/. That domain name will be changing within a couple of weeks.
2. Navigate to the login page for that WordPress site: https://env-3934933.us.reclaim.cloud/login
3. Use your KSU NetID as your username.
4. I will be giving you the introductory password during class.
5. Once you are logged in, use the Profile button (top right corner) to
   • change your Nickname/Display Name if you would like
   • change your password
6. Familiarize yourself with the WordPress dashboard.

We’ll be taking voluntary trips to the Capitol this semester on Mon, 2/9, and Mon, 3/23.

For Mon, 2/9:

1. If you plan to join me, put an emoji on this message in Discord.
2. Prepare a list of lawmakers who you would like to visit regarding legislation that they have sponsored or those who represent your district.
3. Bring a pad and pen for taking notes along with your phone for research and pictures.
4. Wear comfortable but professional attire, as you may end up talking to and taking pictures with lawmakers.
5. There are various places to park within several blocks of the Capitol, both street parking and parking decks. Unfortunately, none of it is free. If you decide to park at a Marta station, navigate to the Georgia State Marta Station, and the Capitol will be one block south along Piedmont Ave.
6. The Georgia State Capitol is located at 206 Washington Street, Atlanta, 30334. The Governor’s Office webpage includes driving directions.
7. Meet me at the southern entrance to the building, next to the fence along Capitol Square, SE, between 8.45a-9a (see the map below).
8. I will enter the building with everyone who is there at 9am. Do not bring any weapons or anything you don’t want searched, as you have to go through a metal detector scan to get into the building.
9. Once we get into the building, we’ll find a place to sit and I’ll orient you to the building.
10. You’ll have from 9.30-12p to take a tour, talk to lawmakers, meet any of the Capitol staff and interns, observe press conferences/committee meetings, and talk with protesters/demonstrators.
11. We will leave the Capitol between 12p-12:30p.

Reminders from last week:

1. Read any four articles in the AJC’s Politics section published this week (1/27-2/1) and be prepared for a class discussion on the bills with the most “buzz” for this session.
2. I did not post instructions for joining our WordPress site on Friday. We will do that in class on Wed, 2/4.

Announcements:

1. No formal class meeting next Mon, 2/9, due to our voluntary Georgia State Capitol field trip
2. Here is the trip planning post for anyone planning to attend.

Monday discussion:

1. Legislative topics from your AJC reading
2. Our Analysis Post template
3. , which outlines the guidelines for the analysis posts for our class
4. Come to class with 3 related artifacts; two must be social media stakeholders

Wednesday activity:

1. Measuring digital ethos
2. Opening your WordPress accounts on our publishing space
3. Open new post and start composing your first analysis using the 3 artifacts that you found for homework that uses: 100 words of introduction, 3 artifacts (at least two must be stakeholders), and 3 annotations following the model in Monday’s template and this, simpler, Week Four Activity Example post.
4. Give the post a contextually useful title and place it in the “Week Four Activity” category (use the menu on the right side of your composing screen and choose “Post” at the top to find the drop down for categories).
5. Complete the above steps and save the post in a “DRAFT” format (do not “publish” it) by the end of the day tomorrow (Thurs, 2/5).

For completion before next week:

Because we are missing class on Monday, our Week Five post on Friday morning will outline activities and readings for the weekend and next week.

As class begins:

1. Post reflection and analysis of Week Two stakeholder activity (during class)
   • Link for reflection on research methods
   • Link for tweet analysis
2. Creating threads, notes, and replies on the Week Two op-ed activity

Announcements:

1. Capitol field trips will be happen Monday, 2/9 (in Week Five) and Monday, 3/23. Monday, 3/23, will be our transit day from KSU.
   • Mark these events and attend if you can, but they are voluntary ways to complete an “experiential learning” activity that will be outlined next week.
   • Students can organize and take their own trips to Capitol without going with a group from class.
2. Flow of course information/activity
   • Weekly posts on Friday morning will cover the coming week from Monday afternoon after class to the next Monday afternoon before class
   • Example: Week Four post, which I’ll add to and publish to Discord on Fri, 1/30)
   • Everything else happens in Discord. Be sure to follow #announcements, activities you’ve joined, and @you messages closely.

For discussion in class today:

“Democracy in the Wild” from the Welcome post in the first week of class.

For completion by Sunday (2/1):

Read any four articles in the AJC’s Politics section published this week (1/27-2/1) and be prepared for a class discussion on the bills with the most “buzz” for this session.

Open a WordPress user account on our class site when instructions are posted on Friday (1/30).

(Feb. 2-Feb. 8)

In class:

Activities to complete:

Texts to read:

We only have class once this week (due to the MLK holiday on Monday). In class on Wednesday we will discuss the following:

In class on Wed., 1/21

1. Grades on our first six activities
2. Choosing dates for our Georgia Capitol field trips (1.25p chooses a range of 4 dates; 2.30p narrows to 2)
3. Looking at the Georgia General Assembly website
4. Smart links (class definition)
5. Defining and locating “stakeholders” (according to our class definition)
   • Politicians (both elected and political party employees)
   • Journalists (professional journalists whether freelance or committed to a media company or organization)
   • Stakeholders (living in Georgia, arguing to/for Georgia citizens)
6. Discussion: “Democracy in the Wild” by Schneider
7. Look for a Week Three post on Fri, 1/23.

Activity: Gathering social media posts

• Join one of the teams published as separate threads in the #activities channel on Discord (5 people max to a team) with a “hello” into that team’s channel by the end of today (Wed, 1/21).
• Identify a project manager (PM) — someone who will agree to organize the group’s work as 50% of their work on the project. Organizing involves facilitating, answering questions, surveying opinions, and communicating deadlines. You can make this choice with a volunteer, a vote, a random draw, or some other method, but be sure the method is clearly communicated in the thread.
• PM should either open an organize a document all team members can use collaboratively or offer to organize the material in the channel into a document themselves. The PM should communicate this choice to the group by Thurs, 1/22.
• Each group member should find 2 tweets (on X/Twitter) from each of the following categories: 1) Georgia state politicians (check our spreadsheet if it’s helpful); 2) Georgia journalists or media companies; and 3) Georgia stakeholders who are neither politicians (including political parties or party employees) or journalists. Tweets should be no older than the current session of the General Assembly and should address something related to the work of the current session. PM’s choose 1 tweet instead of 2 for each category. Tweets should be added to the group in the format decided on by the PM by Fri, 1/23.
• PM needs to confirm that each tweet fits its intended category and communicate to team members if they need to find replacements.
• Start building a list of useful accounts on X/Twitter.
• Compose 100-200 words of reflection on the methods that you used to find your tweets (PM is exempt from this requirement). Have that language ready to share (as a copy/paste) in class on Mon, 1/26.
• Compose 100-200 words of analysis connecting the tweets collected by the group. In your analysis concentrate on providing explanation, narration, and/or a concrete argument that connects some of the content of the group. Be sure that your analysis refers to specific social media posts and uses smart links to hyperlink to them. Have that language ready to share (as a copy/paste) in class on Mon, 1/26.

Reading/media for Mon., 1/26

1. Spend some time exploring the Georgia General Assembly website.
2. Read Rep. Mary Margaret Oliver’s AJC op-ed from 1/16 on affordable housing.
3. Choose one of the bills referred to in the op-ed, find it on the GA website, and read it thoroughly.
4. Compose some notes on what you learn about the content of the bill and the form of the bill, roughly 100-200 words each.

In class Monday, 1/12, I’ll be doing brief introductions; then, I will be discussing:

1. The Welcome post activities and the general shape of the class
2. Our importance of our ongoing definition of a “stakeholder”
3. WordPress software and development
4. The differences between federal and state representation

We will conclude with my description of an activity, due on Wed., which will require you to enter your Congressional level senators and reps and your State level senators and reps into a spreadsheet (look for that link in #activities on Discord).

Don’t forget to complete all of the activities in the Welcome post required for Wed, 1/14 (including the AJC reading).

In class on Wednesday, 1/14, we will be:

1. Completing an index card activity.
2. Discussing what you learned by looking up your state rep. and state senator.
3. Orienting to WordPress and the differences between proprietary and open source software.
4. Discussing your AJC reading from the Welcome post (“Will Georgia lawmakers revive ..”)

Remember that we will not have class on Mon, 1/19, on the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday.

For Wednesday please complete the following:

1. Read the book chapter from the Welcome post (“Democracy in the Wild”).
2. Read “The Georgia General Assembly begins the 2026 legislative session” in the AJC
3. Listen to Politically Georgia, “Back Under the Gold Dome” episode (33 mins).
4. Take a tour the Georgia General Assembly website to discover it’s functionality.
5. Work through the five lessons under the module “Getting Started With WordPress” on learn.wordpress.org.