For those interested, here is the brief description of my next course:
The history of blogosphere is very short, yet very complex. This course is an overview of the personal historical narratives about the emergence and rise of what is defined today as an American political blogosphere, the U.S. political Web or the U.S. politicosphere. So, what is a “blog”? Within blogosphere, it is asserted to be “common knowledge” that the term “weblog” was coined in December 17, 1997 by Jorn Barger of Robot Wisdom. In 1998, American webloggers became a self-conscious community (Rosenberg, 2009). In January 1999, Cameron Barrett of CamWorld published an essay called “Anatomy of a Weblog,” which adopted the term “weblog” and described the main technical features of the format. In 1999, Peter Merholz of Peterme announced about his decision to pronounce “weblog” as “wee’-blog”, “Or ‘blog’ for short.” Obviously, there is no dominant definition of what “blog” stands for. It has always been a matter of definition and a question of acceptance of this definition by bloggers-practitioners, who make up a community of communities. In September 1999, Brad L. Graham of The BradLands jokingly named this enormous collection of the interconnected communities as “blogosphere”. But what stands for “politicosphere”? And how different is it from “blogosphere”? And does it make any sense to distinguisg between the both? Despite the popularity of the term in the American on-line and off-line political news, the term has not been yet defined. This course invites you to read the personal historical narratives of the bloggers-educators and journalists (Blood, Barrett, Mead, Perlmutter, Davis, Rosenberg, Boehlert, etc.) and bloggers-politicians and political activists (Dean, Obama, Plouffe, Moulitsas, etc.) and share your thoughts, observations and research findings related to the topic of this course in a short blog-project.
Texts
1. Blood, Rebecca (2002). The weblog handbook: Practical advice on creating and maintaining your blog. Perseus Publishing: Cambridge, MA.
2. Blood, Rebecca (2002). Weblogs: A History and Perspective, in Rebecca’s Pocket, weblog. Also in John Rodzvilla (ed) (2002): We’ve got blog; How weblogs are changing our culture, Cambridge Massachusetts: Perseus PublishingBoehlert, Eric (2009) “Bloggers on the Bus/How the Internet Changed Politics and the Press”.
3. Davis, Richard (2009). Typing Politics: The Role of Blogs in American Politics, Oxford University Press.
4. Perlmutter, David (2008). Blog Wars: The New Political Battleground, Oxford UP.
5. Plouffe, David (2009). The Audacity to Win: The Inside Story and Lessons of Barack Obama's Historic Victory, Viking Adult.
6. Rosenberg, Scott (2009) Say Everything: How Blogging Began, What It's Becoming, and Why It Matters. New York: Crown Publishers.
7. Trippi, Joe (2004). The Revolution Will Not Be Televised: Democracy, the Internet, and the Overthrow of Everything, Regan Books.
Tentative Schedule
WEEK 1: First day of class, introduction, syllabus.
The Emergence
WEEK 2: The Emergence and Rise of the American Politicosphere I (PPT)
WEEK 3: The Emergence and Rise of the American Politicosphere II (PPT)
WEEK 4: Rebecca Blood (2002) “The Weblog Handbook/Practical Advice on Creating and Maintaining Your Blog”
WEEK 5: Ed. Rebecca Blood (2002) “We’ve Got Blog/How Weblogs Are Changing Our Culture”
WEEK 6: Ed. Rebecca Blood (2002) “We’ve Got Blog”
WEEK 7: Rebecca Blood (2002) “The Weblog Handbook” and Ed. Rebecca Blood (2002) “We’ve Got Blog”
The Rise
WEEK 8: Joe Trippi (2004) “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised”
WEEK 9: David Perlmutter (2008) “Blog Wars”
WEEK 10: Scott Rosenberg (2009) “Say Everything/How Blogging Began, What It’s Becoming, and Why It Matters”
WEEK 11: Richard Davis (2009) “Typing Politics/The Role of Blogs in American Politics”
WEEK 12: Eric Boehlert (2009) “Bloggers on the Bus/How the Internet Changed Politics and the Press”
The Fall (?)
WEEK 13: David Plouffe (2009) “The Audacity to Win: The Inside Story and Lessons of Barack Obama's Historic Victory”
WEEK 14: Blogging declining in popularity: selection of articles and reports from The Pew Research and The Economist about the trend.
WEEK 15: PRESENTATIONS of the blog projects
WEEK 16: Exam, Kaffee und Kuchen
Posts
