News and news media: blog assignment

This week, as usual, your minimum blog requirement is to write two posts, one after each class but before the next class. You have only one topic assignment for the week, though, which means the second topic is of your choosing.

The assignment for one of your two posts is as follows: Read one day’s edition of the Mercury News. Then, read the paper’s Web site for the same day. Pay attention to the differences, and how you feel about them as a consumer of news. Blog about your experience.

When I grade your blog posts for this week I’m going to include an element of quality. That is, you won’t get full points for saying just anything about the topic. I’m going to grade you on a 5 point scale for this week’s entries. You’ll get 5 points if, at the end of the week (that is, before next Tuesday's class) you have on your blog:

• a well-written post (entry) that makes a point about the differences between print and online newspapers


• is well written and free of careless errors


• contains at least one link to an external (outside of this class) Web site


• a second post that is about something interesting and relevant. That is, something "blogworthy" to do with the media — and which is also free of careless errors and contains at least one link.