Social Commentary
The definition proposed by this course of what social commentary is in correct. Social commentary is the act of using rhetorical means to provide commentary on issues in a society. This is often done with the idea of implementing or promoting change by informing the general populace about a given problem and appealing to people's sense of justice.
What you have described is the ability to comment on or about social media posts. Not social commentary.
The American society is not interested in truth. Those who provide social commentary are typically branded as crackpots, or worse yet, whistle blowers, or even traitors.
Some social commentary is permitted, as long as it does not upset the political and economic apple cart. For example, consider what happened to Ralph Nader when he published "Unsafe at any Speed." General Motors hired beautiful women to entice Nader to engage in compromising positions. See the documentary entitled, "An Unreasonable Man."
Even so, it is the quote from George Bernard Shaw that is most appropriate. Paraphrasing, him, Shaw said that a reasonable person looks at the world, and changes his or her behavior to fit the world, but an unreasonable person looks at the works, and changes the world to fit that person, and thus, all change is made. Which way is better? You decide.
Donald L. Buresh
Gregory,
I think you can loosely define how you use social media in your own student learning space. I think we have to be careful promoting social commentary without solid research. It has to connect to the outcomes of the course.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
