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Austin Carney

Professor Pierson

12/1/17

Political Media Journal Analysis

Community

I have not had any substantial writing assignments since entering UCF; therefore, I am

using a high school assignment from my A.P. U.S. Government and Politics class, which I took

my senior year. Our teacher assigned Media Journals quarterly, which changed slightly from one

quarter to the next. For example, the first quarter journals had to be conducted upon a TV or live

stream show from a specified list of networks, but then the second quarter journals had to be

based from a(n) newspaper, magazine or online article from specified providers. For specifics

see the appendix where I attached the assignment sheet following the citations page.

I attended this class at Pompano Beach High School, a community I was a member of for

four years. Within the high school I was in a Discourse titled A.P. U.S. Government and Politics.

A Discourse is defined by Gee (1989, p. 278) as an identity kit. This identity kit consisted of

the students and teachers clothes, actions and language. Specifically, students use specific

language that other Discourses within the school dont use, setting the class apart.

The teacher of this course uses many different literacy activities such as: lectures,

discussions, media journals (which we will be analyzing), readings, projects, and various

homework activities. Accordingly, Ms. Boudinet, the teacher, was the literacy sponsor of the

Discourse. Brandt (1988, pp.70-97) defines literacy sponsors as the people, ideas or institutions
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that help others become literate. In this Discourse Ms. Boudinet is helping us become proficient

in U.S. politics to pass the final exam awarding the successful student with a college credit.

The main goal for students in this class was for students to get an A to help raise their

GPA and pass the A.P. exam to receive college credit for the course. Many students could have

had ulterior motives during this course such as self interest in the topic, desire to become

educated about politics (as it was an election year where many were able to vote) or maybe

because they wanted Ms. Boudinet as a teacher. Other also have a sense of self pride when it

comes to there work thus they will always put forth their best effort because it reflects them as a

person.

Audience

The media journals only direct audience is the teacher, Ms. Boudinet, unless you have

your paper peer reviewed. Peer review is not a requirement and there is no direct grade incentive,

yet it can only improve your paper, fixing mistakes you dont often catch as a personal reviewer.

I would get my journals peer reviewed, if time allotted. These two audiences would be

characterized by Grant-Davie as the audience addressed, meaning who the intended reader is

and who happens read or hear the text (1997, p.497). To look at this assignment from the bigger

picture you could imagine your intellectual audience being the viewers of the show or

subscribers to the article youre editorializing. Often with online articles and/or broadcasts there

is a comment section at the end where people voice their opinions and editorialize the interaction

of politicians. When writing I would imagine Im going to post this in the comments to express

my thoughts and opinions with the idea of communicating back and forth with others. This is the

audience invoked: who the reader has in mind (Grant-Davie, 1997, p.497). One last possible

audience could be anyone who views the paper by affiliation. For example, the person in front of
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me when I pass my paper to the front or maybe the teachers assistant who hands back the

papers.

Exigence

The main exigence for writing this paper is to receive a good grade because it is worth a

drastic percentage of our quarter grades. Receiving good quarter grades turns into good semester

grades which results in an increasing GPA, which is nice when in the college application

process. Although, I am curious about politics and want to learn. Not to mention at the time I

was 18 years old and the presidential election was approaching thus I wanted to make an

educated decision when voting. This was a perfect assignment to saturate my time and tackle

both motives.

The main exigence for the teacher assigning these media journals is twofold. Her main

exigence is for the students to stay up to date with political current events and learn the

sophistication of politics. Second, its an easy grade that is weighted to reward hard working

students, like myself. For example, one quarter I had a B+ prior to this assignment and it bumped

me up to an A giving me an A average for the semester.

This assignment fits into the course goals many ways. The main goal of the course is pass

the A.P. exam and this assignment introduced us to writing about politics because that is an

unfamiliar task to the majority. Not only does this enable us to be comfortable writing about

politics but it also helps us gain knowledge using political terminology. Also, it can give us

something to relate to the history of politics and the associated terms when learning new

material, which can help tackle the learning curve of something so foreign as the U.S.

government.
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Lexis & Rhetorical Strategies

Specific terms to this distinct course can be defined as lexis (Klass, 1987, p.343). Lexis

exist to mediate activities through facilitation of communication. Comprehending these lexis and

utilizing them properly expresses your membership of the community. Examples of lexis within

this community that I could possibly use during this assignment are: gerrymandering, popular

sovereignty, federalism, bureaucracy and bicameral.

This assignment was very lengthy and would take the whole quarter to complete. The

first step of the assignment was to create an interesting cover page with a specific header. My

cover page was decorated with the different logos of the news shows that I discussed in my

journal, giving the reader a guess at what theyre getting into. When writing each journal, I

would complete them in sections. I would first have an introduction paragraph where I would

describe background information which would explain who the guests were on the show,

subjects discussed, opinions expressed, etc. Following, I would have several body paragraphs

where I would editorialize the information and opinions discussed. This was the crucial portion

of the journal that had to be very detailed with well supported claims. Throughout this section I

would use many quotes and examples to build ethos. Subsequently, I would have a conclusion

paragraph, wrapping up my thoughts and opinions, summarizing how the show went and how I

interacted with the materials and viewpoints discussed.

I broke the journals into sections to help with clarification to my audience. The

assignment sheet requires you to have: a cover page, introduction to who was on the show and to

editorialize. Therefore, it was in my best interest to create an eye-catching cover which was
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vibrant yet effective in previewing the material. When writing its important to introduce the

audience to who and what was taking place before analyzing the information. Consequently, I

put that section first for each journal. The majority of the paper was taken up by the body

paragraphs where I editorialized the show/article: the major goal of the paper. Thus, the audience

is mostly going to be paying attention this portion, for this was the most extensive section.

Lastly, I had a conclusion paragraph that I used to tie in all my arguments leaving the audience

with full understanding of my points. This section was not required but I included it for its

effectiveness in communicating with the audience.

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Work Cited

Gee, J. (1989). Literacy, discourse, and linguistics. In E. Wardle & D. Downs (eds.). Writing

about Writing: A college reader (pp. 276-295). Boston: Bedford/St. Martins.

Klass, P. (1987). Learning the language. In E. Wardle & D. Downs (eds.). Writing about

Writing: A college reader (pp. 343-347). Boston: Bedford/St. Martins.

Brandt, D. (1998). Sponsors of literacy. In E. Wardle & D. Downs (eds.). Writing about Writing:

A college reader (pp. 70-97). Boston: Bedford/St. Martins.

Grant-Davie, K. (1997). Rhetorical situations and their constituents. In E. Wardle & D. Downs

(eds.). Writing about Writing: A college reader (pp. 487-507). Boston: Bedford/St.

Martins.
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Appendix
MEDIA JOURNAL
First Quarter

RATIONALE
The purpose of this work is twofold. First, you need to gain information and
sophistication in the area of politics. Second, an easy grade will help your quarter
average.

REQUIREMENTS
Media Journal
Typed in 12 - 14 pt single-spaced
Programs must span the entire 9-week period
Due: Oct. 19th, 2016
Worth 50 points

You will watch five (5) different television political news shows (at least one-half
hour each show). One of the programs MUST be C_SPAN. The only other
acceptable shows are listed below:
State of the Union-CNN
Meet the Press-NBC
This Week-ABC
News Hour-PBS
C_SPAN
Hardball Chris Matthews-MSNBC
OReilly Factor-FOX
Fox News Sunday
The Situation Room-CNN
Face the Nation-CBS
Do not use regular network nightly news it tends not to have much depth on
politics. Past student have mentioned that it is easier to tape the show then
compose the summary.
You will complete 5, one-page entries of political summaries. Explain who the
guests were on the show, subjects discussed, opinions expressed, etc. You MUST
editorialize about the subject matter of that particular show in your final
paragraph. Create an interesting cover with you name in the top, right corner.
Make sure that your Media Journal is original and does NOT resemble another
journal in our class. Put the name of the show, date aired, time aired, and network
at the top of each page. This assignment is not difficult You must DO A
THOROUGH JOB. Minimum work will receive minimum points.
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