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05/23/2004 Archived Entry: "Gossip"
Since academics love to gossip so much, how come we don't teach it as a form of expression in composition? Particularly in CAC (Communication Across the Curriculum), you would think gossip would rate up there with the oral presentation, the speech, or developing interview skills (should we have GAC – Gossip Across the Curriculum?). And as the network becomes more of a way of organizing information (as well as a logic which structures the apparatus) and less of a metaphor, gossip must be considered as a major form of communication. Gossip spreads through the network very easily (here we can think of the "meme" and gossip as being, at times, interchangeable parts) and creates its own reality or simulation of reality - choose your flavor. Yes, Lingua Franca, a gossip-esque pub for academics, failed. But we shouldn’t let that stop us from developing GAC! (or GAG? Gossip Across the Gossip – serious meta gossip going on in that program).
But what would the gossip-writing assignment look like? It can't be yet another "analyze this" writing assignment. It has to be an assignment (or series of assignments) which produces gossip as a rhetoric. Maybe students watch the E! channel for ideas? Maybe students are asked to fabricate rumors about each other and post them to a class weblog (sophistry, no?) where interlinking allows new gossip tidbits to be produced and hyperlinked (the never ending network of gossip – GAG!). Ideas, folks? Sounds like a textbook in the making here.
Replies: 5 comments
Heh. Maybe I had a little advantage: I graduated from John Carroll University and my next younger brother graduated from University of Detroit. I know the territory of old.
Posted by John @ 05/25/2004 11:57 PM EST
Hey John
The thing about your assignment:
it's so true, especially at a small university like UDM. So many times I could have given an A based on your criteria....
Posted by jeff @ 05/24/2004 09:02 AM EST
My first thought was the old joke "the reason academic politics are so vicious is because the stakes are so low."
Here's the assignment: each student spreads a different rumor about the instructor. The rumor that generates a response from the President's office gets an A, from the Dean's office a B, and from the Chair's office a C.
Posted by John @ 05/24/2004 12:03 AM EST
Hah..I love it. I can't wait to see how the academics react to this one.
Posted by Neha @ 05/23/2004 09:16 PM EST
Gotta love "Gossip Across the Curriculum"
Posted by B @ 05/23/2004 12:13 PM EST