This week, you will write your first journal entry, focusing on practicing the skills of observation, identification, and analysis. Eventually, you will attempt to make concrete connections between your two journal entries (in weeks one and two) in what we call a synthesis. Please approach this journaling exercise with the intention of being challenged, and do your best to present your ideas in a coherent and thought-provoking manner :^)
Your assignment this week is to write your observations about the cultural anxieties expressed by the people you follow on social media and/or by the journalists who write for the news sites you frequent. For this first journal entry, try to observe and identify these anxieties–they might not always be obvious! Try and read between the lines. For example, if a mutual of yours on your social media timeline is expressing angst about a particular public figure or piece of media or other controversy, try and analyze what about this is specifically upsetting (fears about societal prejudices, political issues, mortality, etc). Or if the news sites you read are focusing on a particular story, try and explain why you believe it’s of special interest to the audience (readers) of that news site.
You can also attempt to link these anxieties together, to try and find a common thread, but at this stage for the first entry I am most interested in your observations and identification.
