Creating a Critical Commentary

This week you are responsible for creating a Critical Commentary. You will be put into small groups on Moodle and have until 11:59pm Sunday, October 23" d to write your response. Your response is worth 7.5% of your grade. You are also required to respond to one of your group member’s Critical Commentary. You have until 11:59pm Sunday, October 30th to write your response to a group member. For this Critical Commentary you are required to find a media article (online, through social media, or a picture of an in-print newspaper article) which highlights moral panic or a folk devil. You must post a link to, or a picture of, this article. You are required to explain why you chose this article and how the media is perpetuating fear of crime, or fear of a certain population. From the Syllabus: For selected weeks, I will post a critical discussion question — under the Moodle module for that week — pertaining to the topic under consideration. Students will be able to post their thoughts in response in the form of a 300-to-400-word critical commentary that makes reference to the course material. Students will also post a 200-to-300-word response to another student’s post. These commentaries and responses will form the basis of your class participation mark. Students will be assigned to specific pre-selected groups of six to seven people. Each question will have its own discussion forum. Within that forum you will be able to see and respond to the commentaries of other members of your group but not those of other students in the class. Each commentary should be posted as a new “discussion topic.” Commentaries will not be accepted after the week in question. (You can post commentaries for upcoming topics as early as you wish — just not for ones that are already past.) You will have until the end of the following week, however, to post a response. These should be posted by clicking reply on the comment to which you are responding. I will monitor these forums and occasionally respond to posts. Commentaries should be written in complete sentences and include an introductory and concluding sentence (or brief introductory and concluding paragraphs). You are required to use at least one academic source outside of the course materials. References to outside material should be make using APA (7m Edition) format. Commentaries will be evaluated on the basis of the degree to which they are on topic and engage with the issue in question, the appropriateness of the academic reference(s) provided, clarity of thought and writing, evidence of critical and original thinking, organization, and grammar and syntax. You are also encouraged to submit up to two commentaries and two responses in video form. These should be two-to-three minutes in length. They should be submitted using the record feature of the discussion forum message. You are required to submit at least two commentaries and two responses in written form, however.