SESSION 1:
TWEET TWEET!
Did you know that the verb to tweet is an onomatopoeic word that was primarily defined as a short, high sound made by a bird? But, when did the first tweet happen? Easy, on 21 March 2006, Jack Dorsey shared the first tweet ever - a simple: “just setting up my twttr”.
Exactly, I'm not referring to birds any more. When Twitter first launched, it was meant to provide an outlet for sharing messages no longer than 140 characters to both friends and the general public. This site proved to be a hit, and grew quickly. However, over the past 14 years, it has transformed into one of the largest social media platforms, giving room to breaking news, but also cyber abuse, and musings from US Presidents...Do you use Twitter or any social media to get your news?
1. Look at pictures and say how these people are getting their news. Can you think of any other ways of giving or getting news?
2. What are the advantages or disadvantages of each? Draw two columns and explain.
3. Read the magazine article on page 111 while listening. Audio 3.06
4. In what three ways do people use Twitter? How do YOU use it?
5. Go to page 110 and do exercise 5. Find examples for each way.
DISCUSSION POINT:
SESSION 2:
WHO IS BEHIND THIS
A new report from Reuters Institute has found that celebrities and politicians have played a key role in spreading COVID-19 misinformation on social media and this information has influenced millions and millions of people . Example:
"Covid has cure. America wake up " Donald Trump
"Papa Don't Preach. The truth will set us all free! But some people don't want to hear the truth." Madonna
"An international elite has artificially created the coronavirus in order to have an excuse to vaccinate the world’s entire population and implant everyone with “microchips or nanobots with the sole purpose of controlling them” Miguel Bosé
So,
...How can we discriminate what's suspicious of being simply fake from what is really trustworthy?
Mainly checking the source. Who's saying this? Is he or she an expert? Have they checked their own sources? Will you expect a chef to give you a prescription better than a certified doctor does? Will you expect that doctor to write a famous recipe book? Well...it could happen haha, but it is not very common. By knowing who is giving the information, and their background, you can decide how much importance to give it.
And, a second aspect, are you aware of the fact that someone in a dark room maybe modifying your way of thinking?
1. Listen to Tristan Harris, a former design ethicist at Google and fill in the gaps of the sentences below with words from the video:
a. I want you to imagine walking into a room, a control room with a .................. of people, a hundred people, ....................... over a desk with little dial.
b. If you .................... over that notification, it schedules you into spending a little bit of time getting sucked into something that maybe you didn't intend to get sucked into.
c. A simple example is YouTube.YouTube wants to maximize how much time you spend. And so what do they do? They ....................... the next video.
d. And they invented a feature called .......................,which shows the number of days in a row that two people have communicated with each other.
e. If Facebook had a choice between showing you the ......................... feed and a calm newsfeed, they would want to show you the ...................... feed.
f. The first is we need to acknowledge that we are ...............................
g. Well, imagine an entire design renaissance that tried to ........................... the exact and most empowering time-well-spent way for those timelines to happen.
h. Today, let's say your friend cancels dinner on you, and you are feeling a little bit ............... You open up Facebook... using all of their data, these designers actually help you get out with the people that you care about? Just think, ...................... all loneliness in society,
i. Maybe instead of worrying about ......................... future runaway artificial intelligences ... instead of running away to ................... new planets, we could fix the one that we're already on.
2. Go to page 111 from your books and do exercise 1 from the section Train to Think.
3. The following tweets are far from being influential, simply because they are utterly stupid. But let's analyze them anyway. What's wrong with the following tweets? Spot the mistakes.
a.
b.
c.
d.
SESSION 3:
THE PRESS & REPORTED SPEECH
A report is basically a description of an event or situation. A reporter usually repeats the words somebody has said before but in their own words. In most cases the setting of the story, the people in the conversation and the time have changed and this implies a series of changes in the actual changes that you heard. Example:
You heard: " I'm tired! ", she cried
Then, you report or repeat these words in your own words: She cried she was tired.
If you look for reports, you will see loads of them in the press. That's why Diego, our assistant, has prepared this interesting presentation where you will analyze the type of structures you will encounter in headlines and will help you deduce the rules behind the use of Reported Speech, which is the grammatical content that includes Unit 10.
1. Follow the presentation and answer the questions.
2. Click on the link and complete the sentences: Reported Speech Statements
SESSION 4:
MRS DALLOWAY
Revise last week's presentation and answer the questions below.
Questions:
Woolf suggests that one needs sink into his or her unconscious to write. What do you think is the relationship between the unconscious mind and creativity?
Why do you think Woolf says, “I prefer, where truth is important, to write fiction”? Do you think fiction offers a different kind of truth than fact? What kind of truth? What can fiction do that fact cannot?
Have you ever tried to write an article for a magazine? Do you think writing journalism could detract from or even harm your creative writing? Do you think it is of lesser value than fiction or poetry?
Do you think walking is valuable for a writer?
Woolf claims that telling the truth about oneself is essential in the memoir or autobiography. How difficult do you think this would be to do? Why is it so important to reveal yourself and not just the world around you?
What is the difference between stream of consciousness and interior monologue?
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