Najwa S Ahmed

Digital Composition, Literature, and Pedagogy

Dr. Kenneth Sherwood

25 April 2017

Tittle: Final Project Blogging Mini-Lesson Plan: New Media Journalism.

Level: Undergraduates Program,

Department: Mass communication/Media Studies

University: Bayero University Kano, Nigeria.

Introduction:

In today’s education, technological advancement has made great impact and success in introducing a new paradigm shift in learning. Hence, social networking is another method used in teaching and learning. Digital humanists, suggest the use of different social network applications, which include Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, websites, blogs, e t c., in pedagogy. A blog is a very powerful tool in learning, be it personal or professional blog. According to Owen, “blogging involves certain technological requirements, posting bits of text on the web and generally allowing others to comment on those posts…it is actually a set of skills that is worth cultivating” (Owen). In this course students are going to be taught how to use blogs due to their connection to journalism.  For instance, blogs provide journalists with an opportunity to reflect on their thoughts and to send their message to their audience within a short period of time. As students of journalism, blogging is a very important tool that will widen the students’ knowledge. ASNE Lesson Plans for Blogging indicates that, “blogging is a great resource for beginning journalists who are starting their first blog. It’s easy to use, so set up your own account and blog title, and start writing” (schooljournalism.org). This will expose students on how to become bloggers in the future, how to use blog, and share ideas with the rest of the world. Thus, students will understand what blogs are all about and how to use blogs and write news reports.

Goals: At the end of this lesson the students should be able to:

·         Use blog to design write posts on different contents areas, news report, article, adverts, feature writing, sports writing.

·         Students should be able to create blogs on their blogging pages.

·         Integrate social media platforms for blogging.

·         Recognize the relevance of blogging in today’s technologically connected world.

·         Study of various blogging platforms: be familiar with other blogs platform as additional knowledge.

·         Students should be able to understand the merit and qualities of a strong journalistic blog.

Methodology: This is an online program, and the students might not all have access to laptops. Therefore, this course is going to take place at the computer laboratory. Thus, Power Point will be used in class to demonstrate to students how to create their own personal blogs. Another method will be assigning students to read blog posts and articles and post their responses on their blogs.

Rationale: Marshall Mcluhan predicted that the world would turned into a global village: “one would interconnected by an electronic nervous system, making it part of our popular culture before it actually happened” (Understanding Media). Mcluhan was the first to predict that the world would turn into a global village in the digital and information age. By extension, information would be accessible to all; what is happening in China will be seen and heard in the United States within the shortest period of time. As the world has turned into a global village today, information is available at fingertips; people rely more on social media news than print or broadcast news.  As a result, there is the need for the Bayero University Mass Communication department to teach students new approaches in journalism. This department has groomed many intellectual media practitioners, both print and broadcast media, in the country. Recently, the British Broadcasting Cooperation, (BBC), Hausa Service, during its fifty years’ anniversary, acknowledged the role of this department in training professional journalists across the country. Thus, it is important to add professional blogging under the ‘journalism and social media’ course. This will train students on how to write effectively and objectively by using their own personal blogs. One of the major problems of online journalism in Nigeria is that the stories lack credibility and knowhow, while some online journalists have been accused of writing to please a particular audience. Apparently, several online media journalists have been attacked for writing biased stories and not being objective in their news reporting. Micheal Poh explains that, “there has been debate about whether bloggers could be considered as journalists in this digital and information age, modern technology has enabled anyone with easy access to internet and the most basic blogging knowledge to share with the world whatever information they wish to” (Journalism for Blogging, Para 1,). Ultimately, there is need for effective professionalism in writing on blogs, so it will be significant to teach upcoming journalists how to use social networks, blogs specifically in reporting news, articles, adverts, sport writings, and feature writings among others. Poh further outlined six important points to consider when writing on blogs: “headlines and leads; brevity and clarity; distinguishing opinions from facts; fact verification; editing and re-writing; and ethics” (Journalism for Blogging, para 2-8). One interesting thing about blogging journalism is that it is independent. Thus, one will be free from editors scrutiny, for example, you might come with a very good news story idea, but your editor might object the idea, he will discard it immediately and the story will die eventually. Hence, if you are an independent blogger you are free from editor’s scrutiny. In as much as you apply the ethics of trained journalist in your news story. As indicated by Magda Abu- Fadi in an interview; “[as] a trained journalist I still pay close attention to accuracy, sourcing, fairness and balance on my stories, the rules are the same but the tools are different” (Abu-Fadi, Para 5,2011). She added that, “it’s a must for journalists: to turn into blogging because of infinitely more exposure [and] also open source journalism…social media and citizen journalism need to be embrace fully and become multimedia reporters and editors” (Abu-Fadi Para 6, 2011). Press freedom in Nigeria, is still lagging behind, compared to other countries as there are still certain restrictions. The government owned media are being controlled by the government; “He who pay the piper dictates the tune”, reports concerning political parties are restricted and scrutinized.

Therefore, it is imperative that this course will help students to become independent journalists, which will reduce the over dependence on government jobs, which eventually will reduce the unemployment rate in the country’s media sector.  

Context/Setting: The course is specifically designed for undergraduate students of the Mass Communication department. Between the ages of eighteen to twenty- two, and since the department is divided into two sections: broadcast and print media, this course will be taught under the broadcast media section. Also, the course will be taught within the department, for easy access to the computer laboratory.

Lesson Plan

Title: Pedagogy Mini- Project Lesson Plan: Using blogging to teach Journalism and Social Media

 

 

Number of Students/Age range

15/ 18-22

Course: Journalism and Social Media

 

Topic:

Blogs

 

Description:

Blog: Definition, Process of creating blog, Relevance of blog,

 

Level:

Lesson duration:  Two Hours

 

Lesson Objectives

 

1: Students will be taught how to create blog accounts on wordpress.com which is easy to use, easy to upload photos directly to the site, and easy to publish and read using mobile devices.

2: Students will be taught how to make good blogs: choosing interesting topics and adding life and creativity to their stories by using images, video, text etc.

3: Students will understand what blogs is and how to use blogs to balance news coverage.

4: They will also be taught some basic ideas that they can implement at their publications.

 

 

 

Lesson Presentation

Step 1: Introduction.

Step 2: Creating blogs with students.

Step 3: Assign students to read articles on blogs; choose the best.

Step 4: Brainstorm on the blogs post read: teacher and student.

Step 5: Writing a blog post.

Step 6: Response to classmate’s blogs post

 

 

 

 

 

 

Materials/ Equipment

Computers/ Laptops/ Tablets

Projector

PowerPoint presentation

 

Class Activity

At this point the students will engage in creating their blogs and the instructor will be go around to help students during this activity.

 

Assessment

Summative Assessment will be conducted at the end of lesson.

Quiz and Homework will be evaluated.

 Create a news article and make a blog post

 

Best blog post will be posted on the department online media page: Bayero Beacon- (thumps up and thumps down).

 

Frequent check-ups in the form of classroom assessments.

 

 

 

Lesson Closure

General questions will be asked based on what students learn in this course:

·         Did they find the course useful?

·         How they can practice what they have learned independently.

·         What did they find most challenging, while learning this course?

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This section will be useful to the teacher, in order to improve when teaching the course next.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Works Cited

Ijnet International Journalists Network. "Journalism Trainer: Blogging: a must for professional Journalists", May 26, 2011,https:// ijnet.org/en/blog/journaOWENS, TREVOR. "The Public Course Blog: The Required Reading." Debates in the digital humanities (2012).lism-trainer-blogging-must-professional-journalists, Accessed date May 8,2017.

Micheal, Poh. “Journalism for Blogging: 6 Things to Consider”,www.hongkiat.com/blog/journalism-for-blogging/. Accessed date April 27TH 2017.

Schooljournalism.Org Website. “Blogging Lesson Plans-ASNE Lesson Plans for Blogging”, www.schooljournalism.org/blogging-lessons/, Accessed date April 26th 2017.

Understanding Media. “Marshal Mcluhan Predicts the Global Village”, www.livinginternet.com/i/ii_mcluhan.htm, Accessed date April 27th 2017.

OWENS, TREVOR. "The Public Course Blog: The Required Reading." Debates in the digital humanities (2012).