BACKGROUND: Our goal
is to prepare students for responsible citizenship and life-long engagement in the political process. More specifically, we aim to create Twitter feeds as personalized, annotated miniblogs that connect students to searchable current affairs and political analysis.
See
@ParishGOV for more details.
TODAY'S ASSIGNMENT (daily work grade):
- Google "Presidential Debates" and do a little background research first. You'll want to be able to answer the following essential question: According to political scientists and political analysts, why are the Presidential Debates important?
- Use your academic Twitter feed to find a story that relates to the Presidential Debates (which begin soon... as you've no-doubt discovered).
- Re-tweet the link to the story.
- Write 3-4 sentences of reflection: start with a brief summary, then maybe share your opinion about the story, perhaps explain the story's connection(s) to our study of government.
- Post an excerpt from your writing as a comment to our blog - remember to add a link to the story!
- Tweet a comment - of your own (!) - about the Presidential Debates. Add a hashtag: #ParishGov
1) Celebrity endorsements;
2) Analyzing the way things are said
(hand over heart, invoking God, etc.) vs. what is said; and/or
3) Making hyperbolic
claims about candidates (terrorist, anti-American, waging a war on women).
Which of these three do you consider to be actually helpful for the average
American in deciding whom to support (like a political cartoon uses
irony/exaggeration to make a point), which do you consider “white noise”(irrelevant but of no real harm), and which do
you consider potentially harmful to the electorate making informed, good
choices? If
possible, find a specific example (discussed in class or on your own) from this
presidential election to analyze.
