Assignment #2: Peer Group Reconnaissance

Response due Tuesday, 10/2 by midnight
(response will be submitted as a post on your blog, as explained below)

At this point in the quarter, each of us should now be part of a blog group for the “social issue publishing” component of this course. The following assignment is designed to help you get a handle on: (1) who else is writing about your social issue on the Web; (2) what, specifically, they’re writing about, and (3) how they're writing about it.



The other bloggers and media outlets that cover and provide analysis and commentary about your social issue are your “peer group.” Literally, you can think of them as your “peers” within the blogging and media world when it comes to writing about your social issue. For instance, if you started a blog about “Voting Rights,” your peer group might include ...

... blogs published by individual citizens with interest in that area, such as:

• Rick Hansen's Election Law Blog
• Edward Still's Votelaw blog

... blogs (and other formats) published by Governmental or not-for-profit organizations, such as:

• The Brennan Center for Justice’s Voting Rights and Elections blog
• The American Civil Liberties Union's Blog of Rights

... media outlets that we don't traditionally think of as "blogs," but that still provide regular coverage and analysis of your social issue, such as:

• The Democracy Now! daily news show
• The Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call
• The New York Times, which has a Politics & Government blog named The Caucus

For this assignment, you'll search for and compile a collection of at least four sites you consider as part of your "peer group" for your social issue. The requirements: 

• Each of your group members should identify four different sites.
• It's great if you can find sites that are focused exclusively on your group's social issue; however, not every site is going to be exactly focused on that issue. Each of your links should be reasonably related to your social issue, though. In the example above, for instance, not all of the sites are focused exclusively on "Voting Rights"; however, each of the sites regularly offers news and/or analysis about elections and election law, including matters of voting rights. In this, each can be considered reasonably related to the social issue of "Voting Rights."
• At least two of your four links should be to sites we would commonly understand as "blogs." In other words, the site offers news or commentary about a given topic, which it publishes in reverse-chronological order (i.e., the most recent content shows up at the top of the page, followed by previous posts). 
• Moreover, those two blogs should publish at least one post per week.

Once you've found four sites you consider part of your "peer group," you'll be responsible for identifying the following key information about each of those sites:

1. Who produces the site's content? 
• an individual? an organization? a company?
2. In two to three sentences, what types of content does the site produce? You might want to consider:
• content specific to your social issue or closely related?
• news or commentary? a mix?
• original reporting or highlighting, linking to, and commenting on others' work?
• relatively "neutral" (unbiased) content or does there seem to be an explicit agenda? If so, what's the agenda?
3. What the producer's their interest in creating this content? 
• Check out the "about us" page -- why do they write about this topic? 
• Is it a personal interest? because the topic directly impacts the producer? for the public good? to make money?
4. How often (roughly) do they publish content? And how often do they specifically publish content about your social issue?
• Look back through the archives to get a reasonable sense for the regularity of publication
5. Are there comments that accompany the posts/articles/videos? If yes, briefly describe what the discussions in the comment threads are like (no more than two sentences).
6. Does the site have a social media presence? (i.e., a Facebook page or Twitter feed)

NOTE: This may seem like a lot of work, and it may seem like it will take you hours to research. Stop. Don't over-think this or spend endless time searching for the "right" answers. Provide the best answers you can determine from the information that's available on each site, and then move on.

Reporting your "reconnaissance" research:

1. You'll each sign in (individually) to Blogger using your Google account (For some of you this will be the sign in information you regularly use for Google services. For those of you that did not have a Google account before taking this course, your sign in information is name and password you created in the lab on Thursday).

2. After you sign in, you'll arrive at a page where we'll be spending a good bit of time this quarter -- your blog's "Dashboard." You'll know you're at the Dashboard because the page will say "Your Name's Blogs," like this:

3. Click the orange button with the pencil icon on it.

4. A blank page will open which you'll use to create and publish new posts to your blog. Here you'll enter information about each of the four "peer group" sites you've located. Make sure to include:

1. The name of each site with an active link embedded in the site's name
• For instance: Rick Hansen's Election Law Blog
• Bad: Rick Hansen's Election Law Blog http://electionlawblog.org/ 
• If you're not familiar with how to embed a link like this, see steps 1, 2, & 3 here.
2. Responses to the six questions above for each of your sites.

5. If you want to save your work at any point, click "Save" and you can return to it later.

6. After you've finished compiling the information about your four "peer group" sites, click "Preview" to view your post and to check that everything looks okay.

7. If you're happy with things, click "Publish." A post will be published to your group's blog that I'll grade you based on (individually).

Remember, each member of your group should individually research, report, and publish the information above. You're welcome to consult with one another, but the final products should be separate posts to the blog (part of the logic of this assignment is to assure that each member of each group knows how to post to their group's blog).

Make sure your post is published by midnight on Tuesday (10/2).

Finally, by Tuesday at midnight, I also need one member from your group to provide me with a link to your group's blog. To do this:

1. Go to your blog's Dashboard and click "View Blog."

2. This will open your blog as a reader would see it. (NOTE: the URL should read something like this: "nameofyourblog.blogspot.com"). Copy the URL for your blog from the address bar.

3. Enter your name and your blog's URL in this URL Submission Form form and click "Submit."

 4. You're done.

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I will evaluate your "Peer Group Reconnaissance" posts based on the following criteria:

A full-credit, 20-point post will...

• ... identify at least four "peer group" sites with a reasonable relationship to your social issue
• ... embed hyperlinks to those four peer group sites in the names of those sites (e.g., Rick Hansen's Election Law Blog)
• ... include, among your "peer group" sites, at least two blogs that publish at least once a week
• ... answer, to the best of your ability, the six key questions about each of your "peer group" sites (i.e., Who produces the site's content?; What types of content does the site produce?, etc.)
• ... present this information in an easy-to-read, mistake-free way
• ... individually submit this information as a post to your group's blog by Tuesday at midnight

15-point post: Satisfies most, but not all of the criteria above, and does so in a satisfactory manner

10-point post: Satisfies some, but not all of the criteria above, and does so with some important deficiencies

5-point post: Satisfies little of the criteria above, and does so with serious deficiencies

0-point post: No assignment submitted or submitted late