Culture Clash: Banger vs. Hot Dog

Mel can't comprehend Stephen's favorite all-American food. Watch her verbal confusion when she confronts her hubby's bad eating.

Portrayals of Culture Clash: this is a video of Sgt. Shamar Thomas venting his ...

this is a video of Sgt. Shamar Thomas venting his anger onto the police of New York City in response to the Occupy Wall Street violence. he talk's about serving and fighting for our countrymen not assaulting them for no reason. with all the publicity and emotions that had been going on during the movement do you think if there hadn't been so many cameras around, do you think the police force would have reacted differently to his tirade? what if he had been some random outspoken person as opposed to a war veteran?

Toyota Yaris

This was the winning entry for a competition Toyota put out for its new car, the Yaris. It was seen as very offensive and they decided to never air it (I don't think it ever aired, but don't quote me). Anyway, why do you think so many people found this offensive, and lets think outside the box and not just talk about how it was "explicit".

Katrina Picture

These are two articles showing the effects of the Katrina hurricane. The AFP article says that a white man and light skinned woman found food. The AP article says that a young black man looted food. Do you think that AP is a racist media? Do you think that if the woman was darker or the white guy was black that AFP would have said looting instead of finding? Could it possible be that AP said looting based on the black man's age? Why do you think one said looting while the other one said finding?

Occupy Wall Street!

This comedic short video takes a satirical look at the Occupy Wall Street protests that swept throughout the nation this past fall. It points out some ironic characteristics of the protests and perhaps of modern American culture. Our group felt this video would good for discussion because it brings up very relevant, current issues and topics of contention. What might this video be saying about the culture of Occupy Wall Street or modern America in general?

Welcome!

Welcome to the class blog for ENGL 110!!!

This will be our forum for discussing interesting videos, stories, commercials, or images that you all find out there in the big bad world. Once during the quarter you will work with a small group to select and post a piece of public writing that your group feels will elicit worthy analytic discussion. This includes, but is not limited to, blogs, Facebook comments, Youtube videos, personal and professional websites, Twitter updates, online news articles, etc. Your featured post will be the topic of that week's discussion. In your group, you will also be responsible for "facilitating discussion"--something we'll talk about in class.

If you're not posting / facilitating, your job will be to act as a "Respondent", whose job it will be to analyze the provided piece of public writing and talk about what you think the piece is about. My guess is you have all done this at one point in your life, either by commenting on someone's status, or getting into a flame war over a Youtube clip.  Here, you'll be doing something similar, but slightly more structured and focused. This blog does not exist so we can call each other n00bs.

Participating in the Blog Project is required and part of your grade, but it's also supposed to be a lot of fun. However, that fun element is really up to you. Because you guys are providing the material and directing the conversation, you can make this forum worthwhile or a giant waste of time.

Personally, I'm excited to see the kinds of writings you all bring in. I think we can all agree I have fantastic taste. Nevertheless, the Themed Readings I give out to the class are just a smidgen of the material available on the web. So, good luck and good hunting!