1. Go to wordpress.com

2. Click on “Get a WordPress Blog now”

3. Choose a username. Please note that this username will become part of the URL for your blog. For example, the username for this blog is expository, and the URL is www.expository.wordpress.com. In other words choose something that isn’t overly complex, is easy to remember, and is a little bit unique and/or “catchy.” NOTE: to avoid giving the world too much information, you might want to pick a username that is NOT your Saint Rose ID…

4. Enter email address; check yes to “the terms of service;” and choose “gimme a blog!”

5. On the next screen, create a title for your blog and click Signup. This title should tell us something about you and your life—after all, this is a class on the “personal”!

6. Go to your email and activate your blog. When you activate your blog, you will be given your password. Please write this down and don’t lose it. You can change your password, but for now be sure you are able to log-in.

7. Login; click on your blog name/link on the right-hand side of your screen. This will take you to what is called your “Dashboard”–this is the place from which you control your blog–writing posts, making edits, changing the look of your blog, etc.

8. Click on “Presentation” and then choose a theme. This is what your blog will look like.

9. You now have a blog, and I need the URL or blog address. Again, this should look like http://username.wordpress.com. Your blog address appears at the top of browser screen in the Address or URL line. Please copy this address and email it to Kim RIGHT NOW [kmiddleton@strose.edu].

10. To change your password go to Users and Update password.

[clear and cogent instructions courtesy of Jenn Marlow.]

Below is a collection of quotes from a variety of people (media scholars, teachers, journalists) about the impact of YouTube:

One of the things that has excited me about YouTube is the ways that it represents a shared portal where all of these different groups circulate their videos, thus opening up possibilities for cross-pollination. Yet, … the mechanisms of YouTube as a platform work to discourage the real exchange of work. YouTube is a participatory channel but it lacks mechanisms which might encourage real diversity or the exchange of ideas. The Forums on YouTube are superficial at best and filled with hate speech at worst, meaning that anyone who tries to do work beyond the mainstream (however narrowly this is defined) is apt to face ridicule and harrasment.

[Henry Jenkins, "From YouTube to WeTube"

YouTube uses its users for almost everything: they create content, sort it, judge it, and censor it, all the while producing the revenue which runs the company by producing both its content and its consumers. There are incredible opportunities this affords us as a society: primarily unparalleled access to the thoughts, experiences, interests and documents of the daily life of real people, as they wish to be seen and heard...Of course I agree that YouTube has opened access to video production and distribution, and that many of these newly allowed videos appear in either the home or confessional mode...But... I am less interested in the fact of who produces, as much as I am how she does so and in what context. I am most interested in media cultures that allow regular people not simply to document their lived experience, not merely to reflect their experience through and to the norms and values of the dominant culture, but to create art and/or opinions about their lives and culture, in the name of a stated goal (of world or self-changing), and to an intended community.

[Alex Juhasz, in an interview with Henry Jenkins]

“Caught on Safari: Battle at Kruger” is believed to be the first hourlong documentary to be inspired by a YouTube clip.

The quality of Mr. Budzinski’s video contradicts the increasingly outdated dog-on-a-skateboard stereotype of YouTube. The site, which had more than 3.4 billion video views in February, now serves up seemingly every type of video in existence. Still, the wildlife tug of war stands out. National Geographic screens nature videos every day, “and this is an incredible sequence by any stretch of the imagination,” Mr. Cascio said.

Indeed, the producers found that it was rather easy to fill an hour talking about the short video. The documentary dissects the primal behavior of the animals and answers a question that aspiring videographers have asked: how did he get that shot?

[Brian Stelter, NY TImes]

Teaching young people how to use digital media to convey their public voices could connect youthful interest in identity exploration and social interaction with direct experiences of civic engagement. Learning to use blogs (“web logs,” web pages that are regularly updated with links and opinion), wikis (web pages that non-programmers can edit easily), podcasts (digital radio productions distributed through the Internet), and digital video as media of self-expression, with an emphasis on “public voice,” should be considered a pillar—not just a component—of twenty-first-century civic curriculum.

[Howard Rheingold, from "Civic Life Online"]

This post serves two important functions: 1) The first is to introduce yourself in more depth; 2)The second is to begin mapping your own “territories” as possible subjects to examine in your personal essay film. So the more specific you can be, the better! Here are some writing prompts to guide you:

Tells us some suprising things about yourself and your life.

What are your obsessions and passions?

What are your hobbies and pasttimes?

What groups or communities do you belong to? (Jobs? Organziations? Volunteering?)

What do you know how to do or make?

What worlds or cultures are you deeply familiar with? (Think about your family, background, work, region…)

Rather than writing one or two words for each one, aim for a paragraph or a juicy list.