As the semester comes to a close, it occurred to me that I hadn’t really looked at anyone else’s blogs in this class, to see what they’re been saying about the topics we discuss in class. But I was happy to see an assignment where we basically got to review our peers’ work and take a look at what they’ve been up to all year. This wasn’t supposed to be an assignment where we slurp or badmouth our classmates and tell them that their work is either great or crappy, but one where we critique their blogs. This made perfect sense to me, because, well isn’t the class Media Criticism?
I thought that this would be a great way to wrap up the year and have a little fun with our classmates in the process. The following three comments are ones that I’ve posted on the blogs of three of my classmates. I tried my best to praise what they did well and point out some things I would try and improve on going forward.
Overall, they did a nice job getting their points across and convincing the readers that what they said was valid and worthy. It’s been a lot of fun to be in a class with so many intelligent students that share the same passion for critiquing the media.
Enjoy my comments and have a great winter break!
Comment #1: Stephen Middelton‘s blog post titled “OH MICKEY YOU’RE SO..hegemonic??“
Stephen, I have to say, you’re one of the biggest characters that I’ve met at Towson. Your energy towards everything is both exciting and humorous and the way you go about making your points in class and through your blog is excellent. The post that you wrote, titled, “OH MICKEY YOU’RE SO…hegemonic??” really did everything necessary to get the point across in your own particular way.
Not only do you have a visually appealing blog, but the way that it’s laid out really helps the reader follow the post and stay connected to it. You made points about Ideological Criticism and political economy to strengthen your argument that the two films we watched, Consuming Kids and Mickey Mouse Monopoly were conveying bad messages to kids and adults alike. The way that you referenced outside sources, like the words of a psychologist or founder of an organization directly involved with the message being sent out really helped pound home your points as well.
To be honest with you, I don’t know how I would go about disagreeing with what you wrote in this post. Your points all made sense, I was never lost while reading and the visuals presented only helped your case. The one thing that I would suggest for the future would be to try and get some kind of cutline or caption on the photos that you post. There are five photos that I saw on this post and while some of them have words and images on them that seem self-explanatory, a one or two-sentence cutline would only add to what you’re saying about the image and why it’s important that we look at it.
Overall, I think you did a great job on this blog post and I can only say to keep up the good work going forward. You’re a personality that everyone should hear from.
Comment #2: Breyana Franklin‘s blog post titled “Putting The Analysis To Use“
Breyana, knowing you from other classes before this one began, I knew that you had a way about you of making a statement and sticking to it. I had noticed that your ideas were usually filled with insights and creativity. When I clicked over to your blog, I was reaffirmed that my thoughts were correct.
While the page itself is visually appealing, the way that the posts are broken down only helps the reader know exactly what they’re looking at and how they should approach your writing. The post of yours that I looked at was the one about the particular show and how to critique it. I’ll be honest, I’ve never seen the show, The Bad Girls Club, and if you hadn’t pointed out which channel it appeared on, I wouldn’t have known that either. But I think the best thing that you did was break down the blog post into different sections that really helped me fully understand what it was that you were saying about the show and the types of criticism that you were employing.
One thing that I liked was that you compared The Bad Girls Club to other popular shows like The Jersey Shore and The Real World so that I could have a better understanding of what to think about this show that I’d never heard of. Your insights about the show helped me picture exactly what was happening before we even got to the types of criticism you’d be using.
I loved the way that you broke down the two approaches, Visualist, Aristotelian and Structuralist into separate sections with proper identification of each. Instead of just throwing them all together in three separate paragraphs, you accurately pointed out the differences in each and kept them apart from each other so nobody could be confused as to which one you were talking about.
I also really liked the way that you utilized Propp and Todorov and their contributions to the topic as to add more of a basis for a reader that might not know what they’re looking at. If I had to pick one thing to improve, it would be to break up the paragraphs a little bit and maybe add some more visuals to draw the eye away from such a long post. but overall, excellent job on the assignment!
Comment #3: Mike Nitti‘s blog post titled “Up All Night with Genre Criticism“
While he and I live together and sit next to each other in class, I haven’t known what Mike has written on his blog for this class until now. I know that twice we’ve sat in the same room while finishing up these blogs as the time ticks closer and closer to the midnight due date. But I hadn’t really explored his work until this final assignment.
I know that Mike is a great writer and someone that is immensely capable of making a strong, valid point in a humorous and friendly way. This is one of his outstanding personality traits that will take him far in life.
But, back to his blog, it’s one that is easy to follow and one that I would be proud to show off. The blog post that he made about the TV show Up All Night, was the one I selected to review. I knew that a few times he’d disappear to watch something in his room while the rest of us stayed put. I would assume that he was escaping to watch this new show which debuted in the fall. I’ve never watched an episode, probably because I don’t like Will Arnett, but Mike does a great job of introducing the show and its background for dummies like me that have never seen it before.
His comparisons of the show to other, more popular ones like Law & Order: SVU and Without A Trace, helped shape the argument that he was going to make. By using bold-face words and links to outside sources, Mike does a nice job of pulling in the reader and making sure they know exactly what he’s trying to say.
A couple ways that I would have improved this particular post would be to get to the point a little quicker and try and add some more appropriate visuals. Also, the same video clip was used twice which lengthened the whole post unnecessarily. The points that you made throughout the post were all factually correct and ones I would agree with, but there are always ways to improve your writing and approaches.
Good work buddy, you’re always impressing me!