WRIT 3152 | Week Two

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.