Keeping up with Pop Culture

I am currently teaching a course entitled American Popular Culture.  I wrote the curriculum for the course a few years ago with the idea that many students find traditional History classes boring.  This class allows students to learn history by studying music, television, film, and more.  When students sign up for the class, they often don't realize that we focus on history from 1950 through the present, but spend little time on the present.  This is a semester course, so I am very limited on what I am able to cover.  Ideally, students would be able to incorporate what they like about Pop Culture into the class.  This is where the idea of using blogs fits well.  Students could create their own blogs to discuss one aspect of pop culture that appeals to them. Other students could subscribe to the blogs and start discussions. This would not only tie into the course content, but would also improve their reading and writing skills.  Because students would be able to choose the content of their blogs, I believe this would make them more likely to update their blog.