From Violent to Victim

News stories have more to them the one might expect. No I’m not talking about hidden symbolic messages, that would be boring and not worth writing about. All news stories have their own timeline, and the original breakout of that story is only a small part of the timeline. When one reads a story there is a whole part before and after that often isn’t realized. A perfect example of this situation happened just last mouth, and continues to happen right now. This very moment. I suggest you stop reading this because the time spend reading this will prevent you from learning the latest in this story. Why are you still reading? Well if you insist on going on.

Soccer. Not exactly the sport one thinks of in America, unless you’re thinking about sports that are loved around the world and ignored in America. Then it would be the first sport that comes to mind. However, most of the time soccer plays second fiddle to our love of football, and, well, mostly football, with a little bit of basketball and baseball thrown in depending on where you live. This was not the case last November when a New Mexico soccer player caused a stir. Her name was Elisabeth Lambert, and her story was spread so fast through so many outlets, that repeating it now seems almost unnecessary. However I am going to repeat the story because there is more to it than most people realize. See the story becomes a story itself as it moves through different media outlets. As time goes on and the news spreads, opinions about it change, and those changes affect the story that the media outlets want to put out.

Here’s the basic background. The day was November 5th, 2009. The soccer game was a Mountain West Conference Women’s Soccer semi-final (say that five times fast). It was between the University of New Mexico, Elisabeth’s team, verses Brighum Young University. At half-time Brighum Young was up one to nothing. Miss. Lambert did not like this, and that’s putting it lightly. During the second half of the game, Elizabeth Lambert kicked, tripped, and punched girls on the other team. Two girls seemed to be the main recipients of Elizabeth’s violence; Carlee Payne, and Kassidy Shumwan. The first was the girl who made the goal in the first half; the second was the stand-out girl on the team. It’s the second girl who was the victim of the now and forevermore infamous ponytail pull. This was no ordinary ponytail pull. This was a ponytail pull that brought the six foot tall girl to the ground. One second she was there, the next she was on the ground crying. America stared in awe at the poor girl. For doing all this Elizabeth only got a yellow penalty card.

All of this, though very dramatic, would probably go unnoticed if it wasn’t for the fact that someone got it on tape. If you can’t predict what happened next, then you haven’t been a member of society for the last few years. The video appeared on, everyone now, YouTube. See the magic of video means certain aspects of Elizabeth’s behavior was noted. The certain aspects being alluded to here is her seemingly lack of remorse. Remember the ponytail pull? How could you forget? Well, after said ponytail pull when Miss. Shumwan was on the ground, Elizabeth didn’t even look down at her. Not even to make sure she didn’t trip over her. This kind of evidence is best exemplified on tape. And the fact that the internet is worldwide, that doesn’t hurt with spreading the news.

From there the story, with compelling video evidence, goes to the major mews networks, and morning news shows. The spin they were putting on the story, that Elizabeth’s behavior was, according to Good Morning America, “despicable losership.” Losership here being a new word inspired by Elizabeth. Ladies and gentlemen this is what violence causes, the addition of words to our vocabulary. Surprisingly, this is a little known fact.

Soon after the story broke, a facebook page was formed, “Ban Elizabeth Lambert from College Soccer.” In just a couple of days, this page gained 3,605 members. Translation, the public was not happy about what happened and they wanted repercussions. The media’s reporting continued to reflect this.

Of course after all of this negative press, two things happened that didn’t surprise anyone. When something like this happens some responsibility has to be taken. First the University of New Mexico suspended Miss. Lambert indefinitely. Elizabeth also offered an apology to the girls, their team, and her own team for her actions. This really shows the effects of things like the facebook page have on situations like this.

For a few days questions were raised about the roughness of soccer games in general, Elizabeth’s playing history (apparently this wasn’t the only time she had played rough), and how could the referees of the game be so oblivious to what was going on in the field. It would seem to most people that if a girl was suddenly on the ground crying, there might be something to that.

Then, just when the public thinks this story is over and done with, and they all have to go back to the ‘relatively’ new Michael Jackson news (that would be a fun timeline to follow), something changes and the Elizabeth is back.

A new question arises in this story, would Elizabeth be getting this much coverage if she were a boy? Apparently soccer is a very physically nasty game. See as Americans we did not know this because when it comes down to it we don’t care about soccer until it involves girls beating up on each other. Part of this newfound breath in the story came from Elisabeth herself. On November 17th she spoke out to the public for the first time since the incident occurred,

I definitely feel that because
I am a female it did bring about a lot more attention than if a male were to do
it. It’s more expected for men to go out there and be rough. The
female, we’re still looked as, oh, we kick the ball around and score a
goal. But it’s not. We train very hard to reach the highest level we can
get to. The physical aspect has maybe increased over the years. I’m
not saying it’s for the bad or it’s been to overly aggressive. It’s a
game. Sports are physical.

She also discussed some key points like how she doesn’t recognize herself on the tapes, and that’s not the kind of player she is at all. Although the New York Times did report on her press conference, the gender issue was really seen on the blogs. People started to stand up for Elizabeth. The blog Crimesider stated, “In both instances of the video where she gives one player a shot in the back and decks the second one by snatching a hand full of ponytail and slamming her to the ground, she was adequately provoked. Both of her acts were in reaction to two dirty cheap shots she received.” (p. 5)

Now the story wasn’t mean soccer girl, it was gender in sports is held at double standers. Just a few days later the opinion changes and the media reflects that again. Did you really think America would stay mad at a cute little blonde girl for very long? Even if she does play rough, she’s an American girl at heart. She doesn’t even recognize herself on the tapes.

Now he story doesn’t end there. See I myself am adding to it right now. Simply by talking about it some of my opinion has leaked through and added to the story. I’ve been adding my own commentary here and there but here, in a nutshell, is what I think about the whole situation. Elizabeth should be banned from the soccer team for her actions. I don’t think the gender thing has much merit because there is a small detail that seems to be missing when people bring it up. The rough and tuff in the boy’s games are pro games in other countries. Again, soccer in the U.S., not a big thing. I don’t think the standers held by people in another country, for a pro game, should matter when it comes to a college game in the U.S. It has nothing to do with gender.

Now I’ve added to the story and am part of its time line. What started off as a soccer game with little rough play has turned into a national phenomenon and a topic for a simple essay. Believe it or not, this is not the only story this happens to. This happens to every story ever reported. All it takes to start is a little human interest. That’s what keeps a story going, human interest. If people weren’t interested then the news outlets wouldn’t report on it because they would just lose money, not a goal in any situation. If people weren’t interested then the bloggers wouldn’t pay any attention because, being part of the people, they wouldn’t care. However the biggest blow due to lack of interest is something I haven’t talked about yet mostly because it’s hard to prove. Conversation. When people are interested in a story they talk about it to their friends and family. This happened with Elizabeth, but it’s hard to prove because there’s no hard evidence of it. Conversation has a huge impact on the spread of news and the development of a story. Every time someone tells the story their adding their opinion to it, and becoming part of the timeline.

If one takes all that into consideration it’s easy to see how a story doesn’t end with its original reporting. The very idea that it could end there seems kind of ridiculous now doesn’t it? News stories are dynamic and constantly changing. You just have to pay attention. Now hurry up and get caught up on all the stuff you missed by insisting on reading this.

The End

I think I’ve learned about blogging as its own form of writing. It really does have its own style. Before this class I didn’t know that much about bloggers and what I did know I kind of looked down on. I didn’t realize how much effort goes into a blog. How you constantly have to be on top of it and putting out new stuff like Sullivan said. Some blogs put out about 15 posts a day, and even if they’re from different people, the person in charge still has to check on the blog regularly.

My views on reading and writing have changed regarding blogs. I used to think of them as outlets for outcasts but now I see that a lot of information passes through them and they make a big difference. Now that I’m paying more attention to the main news, I notice that many times references are made to different blogs, besides Prez Hilton, which so doesn’t count. Even to the founders of those blogs have a certain sense of credibility because I’ve seen the founders of the blogs I’m following on major news networks. Who knew?

My reading practices have definitely changed because now I read the New York Times. I never thought that I would get into the habit of ding that, but even when the class is over, I still think I will do it. Now when I’m sitting bored in front of my computer not sure where to go, I go to the NYT. Problem solved. I has actually become one of the things I look forward to.

Essay

From Violent to Victim
News stories have more to them the one might expect. No I’m not talking about hidden symbolic messages, that would be boring and not worth writing about. All news stories have their own timeline, and the original breakout of that story is only a small part of the timeline. A perfect example of this happened just this mouth, and continues to happen right now. This very moment. I suggest you stop reading this because the time spend reading this will prevent you from learning the latest in this story. Why are you still reading? Well if you insist on going on.
Soccer. Not exactly the sport one thinks of in America, unless your thinking about sports that are loved around the world and ignored in America. Then it would be the first sport that comes to mind. However, most of the time soccer plays second fiddle to our love of football, and, well, mostly football, with a little bit of basketball and baseball depending on where you live. This was not the case earlier this month when a New Mexico soccer player caused a stir. Her name is Elisabeth Lambert, and her story was spread so fast through so many outlets, that repeating it now is almost unnecessary. However I am going to repeat the story because there is more to it then one might think. See the story becomes a story itself as it moves through different media outlets. As time goes on and the news spreads, opinions about it change that changes the story that the media outlets want to put out.
Here’s the basic background. The day was November 5th, 2009. The soccer game was a Mountain West Conference Women’s Soccer semi-final. It was between the University of New Mexico, Elisabeth’s team, verses Brighum Young University. At half-time Brighum Young was up one to nothing. Miss. Lambert did not like this, and that’s putting it lightly. During the second half of the game, Elizabeth Lambert kicked, tripped, and punched girls on the other team. Specifically two girls, Carlee Payne, and Kassidy Shumwan. The first was the girl who made the goal in the first half; the second was the stand-out girl on the team. It’s the second girl who was the victim of the now and forevermore infamous ponytail pull. This was no ordinary ponytail pull. This was a ponytail pull that brought the six foot tall girl to the ground. One second she was there, the next she was on the ground crying. For doing all this she got a yellow penalty card.
All of this, though very dramatic, would probably go unnoticed if it wasn’t for the fact that someone got it on tape. If you can’t predict what happened next, then you haven’t been a member of society for the last few years. The video appeared on, everyone now, YouTube. See the magic of video means certain aspects of Elizabeth’s behavior was noted. The certain aspects being alluded to here is her seemingly lack of remorse. Remember the ponytail pull? How could you forget? Well, after said ponytail pull when Miss. Shumwan was on the ground, Elizabeth didn’t even look down at her. Not even to make sure she didn’t trip over her. This kind of evidence is best exemplified on tape. And the fact that the internet is worldwide, that doesn’t hurt with spreading the news.
From there it goes to the major mews networks, and morning news shows. The spin they were putting on the story, that Elizabeth’s behavior was, according to Good Morning America, “despicable losership.” Losership here being a new word. Ladies and gentlemen this is what violence causes, the addition of words to our vocabulary. Surprisingly, it’s a little known fact.
Soon after the story broke, a facebook page was formed, “Ban Elizabeth Lambert from College Soccer.” In just a couple of days, this page gained 3,605 members. Translation, the public was not happy about what happened and the media reflected it.
Of course after all of this negative press, two things happened that didn’t surprise anyone. When something like this happens some responsibility has to be taken. First the University of New Mexico suspended Miss. Lambert indefinitely. Elizabeth also offered an apology to the girls, their team, and her own team for her actions.
For a few days questions were raised about the roughness of soccer games, Elizabeth’s playing history (apparently she had a history of rough play), and how could the refs. Of the game be so oblivious to what was going on in the field.
Then, just when the public thinks this story is over and done with, and they all have to go back to the ‘relatively’ new Michael Jackson news, something changes and the Elizabeth is back.
A new question arises in this story, would Elizabeth be getting this much coverage if she were a boy? Apparently soccer is a very physically nasty game. See as Americans we did not know this because when it comes down to it we don’t care about soccer until it involves girls beating up on each other. Part of this newfound breath in the story came from Elisabeth herself. On November 17th she spoke out to the public for the first time since the incident occurred.
I definitely feel that because I am a female it did bring about a lot more attention than if a male were to do it. It’s more expected for men to go out there and be rough. The female, we’re still looked as, oh, we kick the ball around and score a goal. But it’s not. We train very hard to reach the highest level we can get to. The physical aspect has maybe increased over the years. I’m not saying it’s for the bad or it’s been to overly aggressive. It’s a game. Sports are physical.
She also discussed so key points like how she doesn’t recognize herself on the tapes, and that’s not the kind of player she is at all. Although the New York Times did report on her press conference, the gender issue was really seen on the blogs. People started to stand up for Elizabeth. Now the story wasn’t mean soccer girl, it was gender in sports is held at double standers. Just a few days later the opinion changes and the media reflects that again. Did you really think America would stay mad at a cute little blonde girl for very long? Even if she does play rough, she’s an American girl at heart. She doesn’t even recognize herself on the tapes.
Now he story doesn’t end there. See I myself am adding to it right now. Simply talking about it some of my opinion is leaking through and adding to the story. I’ve been adding my own commentary here and there but here is what I think about the whole situation. Elizabeth should be banned from the soccer team for her actions. I don’t think the gender thing has much merit because there is a small detail that seems to be missing when people bring it up. The rough and tuff in the boy’s games are pro games in other countries. Again, soccer in the U.S., not a big thing. I don’t think the standers held by people in another country, for a pro game, should matter when it comes to a college game in the U.S.
Now I’ve added to the story and am a part of its time line. What started off as a soccer game with little rough play has turned into a national phenomenon and a topic for a simple essay. Believe it or not, this is not the only story this happens to. This happens to ever story ever reported. All it takes to start is a little human interest. That’s what keeps a story going, human interest. If people weren’t interested then the news outlets wouldn’t report on it because they would just lose money, not a goal in any situation. If people weren’t interested then the bloggers wouldn’t pay any attention because, being part of the people, they wouldn’t care. However the biggest blow due to lack of interest is something I haven’t talked about yet mostly because it’s hard to prove. Conversation. When people are interested in a story they talk about it to their friends and family. This happened with Elizabeth, but it’s hard to prove. Conversation has a huge impact on the spread of news and the development of a story. Every time someone tells the story their adding their opinion to it, and becoming part of the timeline.
If one takes all that into consideration it’s easy to see how a story doesn’t end with its original reporting. It doesn’t even begin there. News stories are dynamic and constantly changing. You just have to pay attention.

Not as Far Behind as I Was an Hour Ago, But Still Not Caught Up

I’m definitely a write it and leave it type of person. I don’t really like to go back and look at stuff that I’ve already written. When we first got the lists of blog posts, this was the one that I looked at and went crap, I so don’t want to do that. But I’m going to have to do it anyway which makes me so not happy right now.

The post that I’ve decided to revisit is the one where we talked about reading the New York Times. I know, about half the posts qualify under this description, let me clarify. I believe it’s the third post in the second unit, I titled mine, “Done With 33min. Left Till Due Time”. Obviously this wasn’t my best piece of writing because it was rushed, but then again almost all my posts are done close to due time (or days after, sorry for the delay) and are rushed.

The reason I’m revisiting this one is because my perspective has changed. When I wrote it I was still getting used to checking the site, and had to remind myself to go on. Now I go on all the time, sometime more than once a day to read things, granted I haven’t checked it much in the last week, but I had other things going on.

When I wrote the post I also didn’t feel more informed because I was looking at more human interest stories than hard-core news. I still mostly only look at what I can fun stories, but I don’t feel like I’m not learning much anymore. I don’t know why this changed but I like that my head is full of facts about vegemite and Mickey Mouse instead of Iraq and Afghanistan.

A new idea that I would add to the post is that the sigma that all news is negative is only partially (there is no way that is how you spell that word) true. Yes the main headlines tend to be negative, but there is still positive news beneath the surface.

I think I have a better understanding of countering now. Even though there were parts of my post that I wanted to change, there were still ideas that I had that still hold true.

(I'm also posting this post in the same color i posted the other one in)

I Know I'm Really Far Behind, I'm Working on It

I like how Harris addresses that there is a difference between countering and arguing. According to Harris, when one is countering, they’re not saying that another person is wrong, more that they ‘forgot’ something or didn’t clarify something enough.

When people argue, their main goal is to convince the other person that they’re wrong. The problem with this is that it’s nearly impossible to convince someone that they are wrong. With countering, I think the main purpose is to convince a third party that there are flaws in someone’s point. It is very unlikely that, as writers, the things we counter will be considered by the original writers. I really doubt that Hedges or Jarvis will see our criticism of their witting, but the pint is not to convince them, the point is to convince others.

In this way countering is like forwarding in that its part of a continuous timeline. One person write something, another counters, and then a third person counters. However when the third person counters the second person they don’t necessarily agree with the first person because there are more than two sides to any situation. They could bring something new to the table. I don’t really like that phrase; bring something new t the table. I think it’s because it lack the dynamic quality that is going on. A table doesn’t move. I think what going on is that the stuff from one table is being transported to another table and slightly altered. Then it goes to another table. I think this metaphor also works for forwarding.

That’s all I’m going to write for this one because I am so far behind in all of my classes that I need to work on other stuff.

Forwarding about Forwarding

Harris views life as a continuing conversation that everyone is a part of, but no one can summarize because no one has been a part of it the whole time. I like this metaphor, and I see how it works for life. The chapter went downhill after that. Personally I think the whole chapter could be shorted to just the beginning explanation and the bullet points on page 39. Forwarding is basically when one uses another’s point idea or quote to improve their point idea or quote, or improve the one they’ve just forwarded. I think the hardest part of Harris’ definition of forwarding is that it’s not arguing. In Harris’ words, “A Dialogue is not a debate… The arts of conversation are subtler than those of debate.” (See I just forwarded Harris talking about forwarding. It’s like looking up dictionary in the dictionary, and Googleing Google.)

Did anyone else notice that Harris talked about spheres to? Page 37.

According to Harris there are four different ways to forward texts: illustrating, authorizing, borrowing, extending. He then goes on to explain each in agonizing detail, until he explains that sometimes they work together and he forwards a piece by Barbara Ehrenreich saying it’s, “An example of intellectual writing at its finest.” Harris gets some cool cred here because Barbara Ehrenreich happens to be, in my opinion, an excellent writer.

On to forwarding in the blogs I’m following:

From AmericaBlog:

• Good morning.This morning, your President is speaking at the White House
  Tribal Nations Conference. According to the emailed White House "Daily Guidance
  and Press Schedule":
  
  As part of President Obama’s sustained outreach to the American people,
  this conference will provide leaders from the 564 federally recognized tribes
  the opportunity to interact directly with the President and representatives from
  the highest levels of his Administration.
  
  Now, that sounds like a good idea. And, it sounds very policy and substance
  focused. I look forward to the White House LGBT Conference when the President
  invites LGBT leaders and activists and gives them the opportunity to interact
  directly with the President and representatives from the highest levels of his
  Administration. I'm sure Brian Bond, the LGBT liaison at the White House, is
  working on this right now. If not, he should be. Rep. Michelle Bachmann,
  arguably the most extreme of the extremist GOPers in Congress, has invited the
  teabaggers to Capitol Hill today. They're taking a "last stand" against the
  health insurance reform bill. Busloads of teabaggers are descending on the
  Capitol. And, no matter how many teabaggers really show up, we'll be told it's
  millions. It should make for some good visuals and video.
  

That was easy, it was the latest post. I’ve noticed a lot of forwarding in the blogs. Most posts are someone taking a quote and expanding on it, unless their criticizing it which I think will e discussed in the next chapter. I included the part about Michelle because I’m very excited about maybe seeing footage from that and laughing my butt off. Since I’ve put in the AmericaBlog excerpt, I’m not sure if I have 250 words and I forgot to check before I put the quote in, so I’m just going to assume that I do.

I Have No Idea What To Title This

The New York Times has things in common with the blogs I’m following, but I think there are more differences. To an extent they cover the same information, but the blogs are kind of limited to health care, while the New York Times coves all sorts of things. While health care is a big issue right now, I don’t understand why the blogs insist on talking about it every day because not much changes on a day to day basis. If it did the New York Times would cover it. The best idea that I can come up for it is that it all comes down to purpose. The New York Times is focused on informing while the blogs are focused on hating Republicans. Another possible reason is that there are lots of people associated with the New York Times and not as many for the blogs. The blogs are dependent on bigger sources like the New York Times to get their information. (Although I don’t think my blogs get a lot of information from the New York Times specifically, but here it’s used metaphorically.) Likewise the New York Times uses blog like writing. Their entire opinions section has the same purpose f the blogs. (Again not specially my blogs’ goal of hating on Republicans, but the whole idea of persuasion.) To summarize, the relationship between blog and the New York Times is that, the New York Times gives a brief overlook over a lot of things, while the blogs take a topic and elaborate on it.

Today was pick random words and change their color day.

Thinking of a Creative Title That Doesn't Involve the Names Sullivan or Jarvis, Oh Crap, so Much for that Idea

First I have to state the obvious in regard to the pieces by Sullivan and Jarvis; Jarvis’ is shorter and it has pictures. The rest of this will be legitimate I promise, I just had to get that out of my system.

The first difference I notice is with audience and style. Sullivan wrote an article for the press about blogging, and Jarvis blogged about the press. (This is why I felt like it was my duty to mention the fact that Jarvis’s piece was shorter even though it seems obvious and insignificant. Though one should remember that nothing is insignificant. This is a life lesson that has nothing to do with the prompt, but I thought it had to be said.) See, with Sullivan’s article there is the possibility that it will reach people who aren’t on the internet; something that I think is a major part of Jarvis’ sphere. If those non-internet users were to come across Jarvis’ post they might be confused, well more confused, when compared to internet users.

If one looks at both pieces it can almost be said that Sullivan’s is an in-depth look at part of Jarvis’ point; blogging. I really don’t have anywhere to go with this, I thought I did, but it’s just a sole thought on its own.

Here’s a thought that I was going to put in the last post, but I forgot, but it works for this one so yeah. I think that Sullivan’s point about how with blogging the deadline in right now, is compatible with Jarvis’ point about the product being the process. I know this doesn’t make sense now, but it will, maybe, I’m not doing a very good job explaining things tonight. With blogging everything is about what happened one minute ago. If we look at Jarvis’ diagram with all the arrows, which I now know is a timeline, we see that a story takes longer than a minute to develop. With blogs all of these steps are documented. I’ve noticed this when reading my two blogs that often there will be multiple posts through-out the day on the same topic. (connections!!!!) Today these topics happened to be health care reform (big surprise), and Maine’s gay rights election.

Another similarity that both pieces have in common is tone. Both aren’t concerned too much if this change is good or bad, more or stating that there is a change.

(Side note: I think this is the first time this unit that I have posted hours, with an s as in more than one, before due time. I am considering this a great accomplishment.)

It's Alive!!!!!

Jeff Jarvis made me think about news in a way that I haven’t previously considered; news is alive. Not alive like you and me, but in a way it is alive. I figure the news is one step above what Hedges predicts our future generations to be like, but one step below Carr’s robots. Almost like a virus in that it shows all the characteristics of life, but it needs another life form in order to survive and reproduce. (In this metaphor we would be the other life form.) In class we’ve talked about all the different places we get news and the pros and cons, but never did we talk about how all sources are necessary.

Jarvis says that stories don’t have a beginning and an end. I agree with this. Even when a story is late breaking, it’s not new. There is tons of background information that is needed in order to explain and discuss the news, and all that background info has background info. But where does the background info come from? The same places we get ‘new’ news from. Some things we dismiss as gossip could still give us useful background information for later news.

Besides never beginning, the news is never ending either. Because we have all these outlets to get information news can travel and change. For example, a story could break out on the news networks, then the blogs take that information and put their own twist on it, word is spread around people, then some crazy person does something crazy (because that’s what crazy people do, they do crazy things, thus the title crazy) regarding their opinion on the story, and that act become late breaking news. Even that ‘late breaking news’ is just a continuation of the same story.

Staying with the idea of a never changing story, look at history. Stories that happened hundreds of years ago are still being spread around today.

There are two quotes that I really liked in this reading:

“The notion that news comes in and stories go out.” I just really liked the way he phrased this. What is the difference between news and stories? The obvious answer is that news is more factual, but is it? Or is the real difference just the title?

“Who brings that together? It’s not always the reporter or editor anymore. It can just as easily be the reader(s) now.” We are part of the news spreading community. I think that this increases our interest in the news. Let’s go back to what people said in the first post. People don’t read news for their own pleasure, most of the time. The read it because it’s something that is seen as conversational, and if you can’t converse about it then there is something wrong with you.

Done With 33 Min. Left Till Due Time

Reading the New York Times. I have to say I am enjoying it more than I thought I would. The only problem I am having is trying to get into the habit of checking it every day. I get easily distracted, so I will go online planning to do a couple of things, including going to New York Times, and then I’ll forget to go. Then I have to log on again. I think I’m getting better though. I find that once I get n though I spend more than 5-20 there. There’s a lot to navigate through there.

All though I am reading the New York Times, it doesn’t really feel like I know more. Let me explain. I thought that if I was a more informed person, I would have this look at me, I know things feeling, but I don’t. Oh well.

All though I’ve read a lot of different things, the best one was a little bit I found one day about why vampires are so popular now. Basically it said that vampires are popular because women want to have sex with gay men. Not even kidding. Even though it was on the site I’m not sure if it was really a part of the New York Times. It made me laugh though.

I also read a story about a priest who had an affair, and the child resulting from that affair now has cancer, so the mother is breaking her confidentiality agreement with the church to get money. This story was actually more legitimate than the vampire thing. Maybe the reason I don’t feel more informed is because I read stupid stories.

Blogging about Blogs

Both blogs that I’m following are very similar, so this should be very simple. For the last few das I have been looking at Daily Kos, and AmericaBlog. Both basically have the same purpose, which is to spread liberal views to everyone. Both blogs talk mostly about politics, actually that’s the only topic I’ve come across; I just say ‘mostly’ in case I missed something. For the last few days the main topic has been heath care reform. If you are in anyway surprised by this please go crawl in a little hole and stay there, forever. It will be a nice change from the rock you’ve been staying under lately. Although another topic that has come up, I would say it’s second next to health care, is the ‘battle’ between the white house and Fox ‘news’. I put news in quotes because I don’t like Fox. That’s all I’ll say about that but just so you know I could go on for quite a while. Back to the real point I’m trying to make. The thing that interested me about this topic, is that I first heard about it on the New York Times. It was really interesting to get the basic story, and then follow it with the opinions on the blog.

Authors for both: On Daily Kos there seems to be about 7-10 regular writers, and on AmericaBlog there are 5. Right now I can’t tell too much difference in each author’s style, but I think the more I read them the better I will be at figuring out who wrote what without looking at the byline.

Audience: again the audience for both are the same. Liberals who like to make fun of republicans. I did notice on AmericaBlog that they have a bunch of stuff dedicated to gay rights, so I think that’s part of the audience they cater heavily to as well.

Layout: shocker, they are both laid out the same; Posts on the left side, hyperlink features and advertisements on the right side. They have different color schemes though. AmericaBlog is blue and Daily Kos is orange. I don’t know about AmericaBlog yet, but I think the orange has importance on Daily Kos. I can’t find it now to quote it, but earlier today I read something on thee about orange. It was like the nation in orange, or the news in orange, or the truth in orange, or the orange machine, something like that. It made me think about what we talked about in class reguarding different jargon used in blogs. I have also noticed that AmericaBlog put up a lot of videos. Instead of just quoting someone they put a video up. I think this has a greater effect for the points they try to make.

I think that’s all I have to say. I’m not sure how to end this so I’m just going to stop.

How Come None of the Saints of English 105 are Women?

This is the first time that I actually read everyone’s posts word for word. Normally, I have to be honest; I just skim them a bit. It took me a long time to read them all too, I think I’ll go back to skimming. But now to what I found out. Are you ready for this? Are you sure? You might be surprised. The faint of heart should stop reading now. This is my last warning. You think you can handle this? OK, cue dramatic drum roll please… It turns out, we’re all different! Who knew? Why would 18 people have completely different views on where they get news? Ha ha, views and news rhyme, views and news views and news. It’s one in the morning, in case you couldn't tell.

Anyway, everyone is different. We get our news from different combinations of the following; people (consisting of friends, family, parents, boyfriends who watch comedies, and grandmothers who watch CBS), television (lots of CNN, Fox, and a PBS), radio (both fun stations and NPR), magazines, actual newspapers, and that wonderful thing, the internet (Google, Huffington Post, New York Times, and even facebook) See I really did read everyone’s post. I might have let one or two slip the cracks though, like I said, lots of variation.

Lots of these sources showed up in a lot of people’s blogs (I thought about tallying up how often things showed up but then again it’s one in the morning and that would involve more work, at one in the morning, wait it’s actually closer to two in the morning now. Basically it didn’t happen.) Even though some people got their news from similar sources, they still seemed different. I can’t explain this right now very well, (I want to sleep) so I’m going to finish this in the morning.

Much better now. So what I mean is that every one ad different confidence levels on their news intake. Some people were perfectly fine with the amount of news they were getting, while others didn’t feel as self-assured. Some people said that they were glad that the unit would force them to get more news. No one actually said they were unhappy about the topic of the unit, but that isn’t something one would actually put up so I’m sure one of us feels that way.

Now, to what those three would say about our posts. We should give them nicknames, like the English 105 Tribunal or something. Wait that doesn’t work, we need to include Harris. How come Harris wasn’t in the prompt? Do we not care what he thinks? Maybe we could refer to them as the Saints of English 105, used to attain guidance in our quest of knowledge regarding civic literacy.

Hedges: His who thing is that we aren’t getting news, but obviously we are, so he would probably find something else to complain about. Like that we’re spending t much time inside attaining news that we’re not getting our vitamin D requirement.

Carr: Without actually making a strong point, he would look at our habits at different angles, and see how he can twist the fact t make it look like we’re turning into robots. (Although he has his work cut out for him because, as I said before, all our habits are different and show our individuality.)

Sullivan: I’m not sure about him. He would definitely look at everything analytically, but I’m not sure what he would say. Although it will probably be more positive then Hedges or Carr.

(I know the title has nothing to do with my post, it’s just a thought I’m throwing out there)

Blogs to Follow

Daily Kos
and
AmericaBlog

I'd like to say that I did lots of looking around to find blogs, but I didn't. These were towards the top, and I liked them so I figured why look any more? I thought about picking one liberal blog and on conservative one, but I decided against it when I thought about having to read things I don't like on a regular basis. Yea, not going to happen. (Sorry it's so late, I had a some problems with my Internet)

New Unit, Same Blog

Where does my knowledge of what’s going on come from? As embarrassing as it sounds, most of it comes from my mother. There are few current events that my mother doesn’t know about. While she doesn’t read the newspaper, she flips through the news stations every couple of hours to see what’s going on. She also checks their websites when she’s online. I mean she actually listens to NPR. No one does that. Then she just tells me all the important and interesting stuff.

Lately it seems that I have been getting a lot of my information from the radio. I listen to t in the morning to get traffic info, and I end up getting the news stories as well.

Not so much now, but when I was younger most of my information came from watching Weekend Update on Saturday Night Live. For some reason I don’t watch it much anymore.

Of course, I get information through conversations with people, but I think that’s the same with everyone.

Ok, I’ll admit it. When it comes to getting information, I’m what most people would call ‘lazy’. Mostly I just wait for things to come to me. I never really go out and seek information, it’s more like if it’s around I’ll pay attention. Although I don’t really consider myself to be ‘lazy’. I prefer the term low maintenance. (Side note: I’ve literally spent the last five minutes trying to figure out how to spell that word and I’m not sure if I got it right, so I apologize if it’s wrong.)

I’m really not an informed person. It’s kind of sad, I’ve never really noticed before. Oh well, no biggie maybe it will change one day.

Emma's Essay 2.0

Link to Emma's Essay 2.0

Emma's Essay

link to Emma's Essay

Good Times, Good Times

My blogging experience so far has been mostly what I expected it to be. The only surprise was that I didn’t think I would write as much as I did on my posts. Normally I’m not a very wordy person. However in this case I find it’s pretty easy to just keep going once you get started and the 250 limit isn’t a problem at all. Of course some were easier to write than others, it all depended on the reading that went with it. I found it was much easier to write about the stuff I didn’t like as opposed to the stuff that I did. It’s a lot easier to complain then to complement. Plus let’s face it, reading something that’s one fact after another isn’t as entertaining as when someone writes based off emotion.

Having our blogs due 24 hours before was kind of an inconvenience. Personally I think 18 hours before would be enough time.

Overall in this experience I think I’ve learned how bogging is easy in some ways and hard in others. It’s easy because it’s so informal and someone could easily just type away. The hard part for me is making the decision to finally click publish post; because once I click it, there’s no going back. Sometimes right after I click it I think of something that I wanted to add or delete. I know that technically you can go back and change it, but to me that seems a little wrong. I can’t explain it exactly, but I just feel that it’s wrong to put something out there and then go never mind.

I’ve really enjoyed reading my peer’s blogs. I like hearing about other people’s opinions even if they differ from my own. Most of the time, someone will bring up a point that I would never have thought of.

Article Link

A Tale of Two Tasks: Editing in the Era of Digial Literacies

Corporations Raping the Nation till it's an Ideological Ghetto, While George W. Bush Plays the Fiddle

As I was reading the Hedges’ article I found certain mocking thoughts come to me. It got so bad that I had to start writing them in the margin of the paper. So for this post I think I’ll just put quotes followed by my inner thoughts.

“This year alone… some 6000 journalists nationwide have lost their jobs.” Yes because in 2008 nobody lost their jobs and everyone was hiring.

“Net advertising amounts to $21 billion a year, that amount is actually relatively small.” If that’s small then the hundreds of millions that Obama spent on campaigning must be like change. Maybe if we gather it up we can go taco bell and order from pretty pictures.

“[newspapers] give a voice to those who, without the press, have no voice.” If that’s true then who’s writing all the blogs.

“They keep citizens engaged with their cultural, civic and political life.” I thought that politics were corrupt? Why would citizens want to be engaged in that?

“Nearly all reporting-I would guess at least 80 percent- is done by newspapers.” You ‘guess’ 80 percent. While I ‘guess’ that 80 percent of the population goes to McDonalds because of the health benefits, not to order from the pictures. See how much fun it is to ‘guess’!

“Those who rely on the internet gravitate to sites that reinforce their belief.” Um, that’s true, but it’s true for a lot of sources besides the internet, like all of them.

“Reporting, which is time consuming and expensive.” Wait a second; didn’t he say earlier that newspapers were losing money by using the internet?

“We are left awash in a sea in propaganda.” Ok, newspapers are infamous for propaganda, take a history class, they’ll tell you.

“Facts, for many bloggers, are interchangeable with opinions.” If anyone would know about confusing facts with opinions, it would be you. Is hypocrite in that big advance vocabulary of yours?

“Time Warner, Disney, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., General Electric and Viacom control nearly everything we read, watch, and ultimately think.” You forgot the fast food places with all those pictures!

“A democracy survives when its citizens have access to trustworthy and impartial sources of information, when it can discern lies from truth.” Is there such a thing of ‘impartial sources of information’?

“Ideological ghettos.” I just think this phrase is funny.

“And the citizens in these degraded societies, he warned always end up ruled by a despot, a Nero or a George W. Bush.” I bet Cicero knew all about Bush, and besides, Bush is nothing like Nero, there is no way Bush has the talent to learn to fiddle.

I don’t have that much to say about the Thompson piece. It’s not as much fun writing about something that you agree with.

Remember when Chris Hedges was talking about how real journalists spend all this time researching, and gathering information to make newspapers descent sources of factual information? I think the Thompson piece fits this description, except that this piece was found on the evil internet.

Can You Read?

As I’m reading this article by Hedges, the first thing that comes to mind is that one third of America is not going to get his message. Of course his audience isn’t really for that one third; it’s the other two thirds, to scare them about what’s going on in America. My question is why isn’t he addressing the one third? He clearly stats the problem, and gives ample evidence to support it, but he doesn’t give anything on how to solve the problem.

Another thing I notice is that he complains about the vocabulary level of past presidential candidate, but his vocabulary isn’t that impressive. This could be because he doesn’t think his audience can handle a more advance vocabulary. And if this is the case, they why doesn’t he tell his audience to work on their own vocabulary? With the amount of time he spent researching this topic, you’d think he wanted to fix it.

I don’t think it does an good to give a problem without even the beginnings of a plan to fix it. With this problem I think the answer is in the schools. They spend too much time worrying about their test score stats; they need to focus on teaching the kids.

I think Hedges defines literacy as not only the ability to read and write, but to read and write at a semi-advanced level. It’s not good enough to be able to recognize the symbols on the page, but you have to be able to think about them critically, and use those same words in your every day speech.

The main difference between this article and the one by Carr is that this focuses on something that has already happened, and Carr is worried about the future. I think that makes this one more significant. Carr’s point may or may not (more towards the not) happen. Hedges’ issue is already here.

Me Ranting, About Something I Really Don't Like

Oh no! The internet is talking over the world! It’s destroying our brains cell by cell, oh wait, the article didn’t say that, I believe it said something along the lines of, “Nerve cells routinely break old connections and form new ones.” (Carr 3) I guess we have to assume that the new connections aren’t as good as the old ones, though no evidence is given to prove this or even say this.

He also says something about our reading skills going away, “Reading, explains Wolf, is not an instinctive skill for human beings. It’s not etched into our genes the way speech is. We have to teach our minds how to translate the symbolic characters we see into the language we understand… We can expect as well that the circuits woven by our use of the Net will be different from those woven by our reading of books and other printed works.”(Carr 3) I stand corrected; our reading skills aren’t going away. That’s weird; again nothing is destroyed, just different. It’s also strange that he doesn’t think that reading is instinctive, because a written language is one of the requirements to be called a civilized people. Is the internet destroying civilization too? I hate to break it to you, but Miley Cyrus is doing a pretty good job of that all by herself.

I believe one point he makes is about how reading on the internet is damaging our concentration skills. Is this what is making us stupid? I’m sure there are a few ADHD kids who would have a problem with this statement. It will only last for a few seconds before they move on to something else, but for those few seconds they’re going to be pretty upset.

So I’m reading and I come across, “So, yes, you should be skeptical of my skepticism.” (Carr 7) I though Google was supposed to be making you stupid, not psychic. I hate it when people can tell what I’m thinking.

Then he goes on to give all these examples from history about people being afraid of new technology. Is it just me or does this kind of contradict his whole point?

Maybe the joke is on me and the title is supposed to be ironic, but I didn’t get that feeling while I was reading it. Maybe Google has already gotten to me.

After I’m done reading this I’m sitting there wondering, who is this guy? So I Google him, which is something I think is a little on the funny side god bless irony, and come across his blog. I read something he wrote comparing Rockband to coloring by numbers which was pretty good. It had actual points and everything!

I then looked around his page and found a link to something he wrote with J. Alfred Prufrock in the title. This happens to be the subject in one of the best poems in the world. I of course clicked, and found a piece that I not only liked, but loved. Technically it compares the plight of Prufrock to facebook, but much of the same points can be applied to blogging so I think it would be perfect for this class. I’m going to try to get a link on her to it, but I’m not promising anything, I’m not sure how to do it. I'll at lest have the address on here so you can copy and paste it.

http://www.roughtype.com/archives/2006/05/the_love_song_o_1.php

I've lost count on what number we're on and I don't feel like looking it up

As I’m reading the reading on rewriting, I’m drawing a blank. Mostly because, I have to be honest here, it’s really, really boring. But then I think about how my fellow classmates are going t responded and I know what to write about. I apply the three moves from chapter 1 to my fellow blogger’s posts. Problem solved. This task was made slightly easier by the fact that many classmates had yet to post their blogs. A fact that is a little concerning because I waited to an hour before the due hour to get the most posts in my comparison. The fact that a lot of people haven’t posted anything scares me a little bit.

Moving on, move one: Define the Project. Not to had to do because we all got the same prompt and we all (with the exception of me) stuck to it pretty well (I’m stretching it a little bit). Reflect on Rewriting, compare to Sullivan. Simple

Move two: Note keywords. I’ve picked out some quotes that I liked from the posts I read, and I’ve added my thought on them. I stayed away from tings I didn’t like because I didn’t want t hurt anyone’s feelings:

“ I think Joseph Harris’s Rewriting is an appropriate text for a course focused on ‘civic literacy.’” I liked how this person thought about how the book works with the class.

“ reading is the scanning through of someone’s work and noting, copying, or rewording those portions of the text that you find useful in some particular way.” I found it interesting that this person focused a bit on reading instead of commpletl focusing on writing, which is what I would have done.

“Harris makes writing out to be a social activity rather than a personal one.” I agree that it is important to think of writing as a social activity.

“Harris defines writing as a process or a journey, not a fixed position or stance.” I’ve never thought of writing as a journey before, but it is. If I think about major pieces that I’ve written I have a storyline of memories to go with them.

Move Three: Asses the Use and limits: honestly this part kind of confused me a little bit. What I think can apply to this is when everyone is talking about Rewriting compared to “Why I Blog”. No two posts look alike. Everyone takes a different stand on how the two are similar or different, even though we all read the same two texts.

I would go into it a little bit more but I am running out of time.

Blog 4

As I was going from blog to blog a suspicion of mine was confirmed. Everyone likes to facebook. I personally have a thing against social networking and here’s why. I fail to see the need to be in constant contact with my friends. I mean, I like them, and I like being around them, but I don’t need to catch up with them every hour on the hour. And then there’s the fact that most of peoples ‘friends’ on social networking site, are more acquaintances that they really have no interest in. I had a myspace a couple of years ago and I thought I would be different. I would only accept friend requests from people that I was actually friends with. However this changed when I actually got those friend requests, because I couldn’t hurt their feelings by not accepting. That’s when I realized that there was a special code of conduct with social networking and I didn’t want to follow it. I didn’t want to have 300 friends that I had never really met. I didn’t want to comment about everyone’s pictures all the time. And those LOL, IDK things, yeah hate those. Therefore I do not have a facebook and I do not plan on getting one.

There is one aspect of social networking that I simply don’t get. I don’t have anything against it, I just don’t get it. Maybe someone can explain it to me. Why do people take tons of pictures of only themselves and put them up. When I take a picture it is because I’m seeing something or experiencing something that I may never see r experience again and I want to remember it. I know what I look like. I don’t think I’m going to forget that when I look in a mirror every day. So why take pictures of yourself?

Blog 3

My internet log for Friday September 4th

I didn’t even go on the internet till around 7:30 on Friday. Normally I go on sooner, but I was really tired so I took a nap for most of the afternoon. The first thing I did was cheek my e-mail. This is normally the first thing that I do when I go on the internet. I used to never cheek my e-mail so that’s why it’s the first thing I do now. That way I can’t forget to do it latter. This habit was brought on by my mother who kept telling me how irresponsible I was being by checking my e-mail only about once a month. Granted my mother thinks pretty much everything I do is irresponsible, but she may have had a point in this case.

After checking my e-mail I went to mortystv.com. This is a website that gives information about one of my favorite shows, Big Brother. Yes, I watch Big Brother. It is by far my favorite reality T.V. show. Every summer a bunch of people are locked in a house with tons of cameras, and each week they evict someone until only one is left. CBS has this thing where if you pay a certain amount of money (I don’t know how much) you can watch the live feeds on your computer all summer long. I don’t do this but Morty does and he, with the help of a few friends, types up what’s going on in the house. I check this site at least once a day during the summer.

After Morty’s I went to youtube and watched a movie. I would have to say that most of what I do on my laptop is watching things on youtube. I love youtube. I don’t watch movies in the theater that often, mostly because I think it’s a rip off. If you wait a couple of months you can spend the same amount of money and own the movie on DVD. Wait a couple more months and you can watch it for free on youtube. On Friday I happened to watch Slumdog Millionaire because I had never seen it before. By the way, it’s a really good movie. One of my favorite things to do on youtube is read the comments that people put under the videos. Some people say the stupidest things and it is so funny, and if you’re really lucky you come across two people having a knock down drag out fight full of “you need to shut p you (fill in curse words of choice here)”, and various things of that nature.

After that I checked Morty’s again and that was all I did on Friday.

My internet log for Saturday September 5th

I went on about 2 and again the first thing I did was checked my e-mail and then went to Morty’s.

After that I did some research for an article for my Hon 101 class. This was a very frustrating, irritating experience. For one my internet was running slower than normal, and that’s always fun. It was also really hard to find an article because it had to apply the scientific method to something in humanities, and it also had to be about food and one more thing, it had to be at least 8 pages. Not many articles fit this description and even less are interesting. After I was done I figured I needed a break from my computer and that’s all I did on Saturday.

Blog 2

While reading this article an aspect of blogging that I had never thought about ran through my mind. How much confidence is needed to blog? Andrew Sullivan talks about the scrutiny in which readers comment about thing written on blogs. It has to affect your confidence in a negative way when you hear horrible stuff said about your opinions. Then again it is easier to write thought down on ‘paper’ then say it out loud where the negative feedback takes a more personal feel because you can actually see the person who is criticizing you. Even if you write a book you still personally know your publisher and editor and their comments do more to your confidence level.

If you think about it, it can become a very dynamic push and pull concept. When you blog criticism isn’t as personal, but there is more of it, and it happens sooner. Therefore is it easier to take criticism by blogging, or in real life? Or does each just take a different kind of confidence?

What I found interesting about this article is when he talked about seeing what he wrote during 9/11, and when Pope John Paul II died. He’s right about going back and seeing exactly what he thought and how he felt at those times. I think we should stop thinking of blogging as online diaries and more like a memoir in-process. I think he is wrong when he says that if new posts constantly have to be put on in order for the blog to be significant. I think all posts can be seen as a piece of history that can be visited again months and years latter.

Blog 1

My blogging experience so far has been limited, but so far so good. I’ve always stayed away from blogs because I have always felt they were more for whinny people who loved to complain, but don’t have any one to listen to them. There is a difference between stating an opinion and ranting. I feel that bloggers tend to do the second. When I hear someone whine about how they think this and feel that all I want to do is yell at them to shut up, which is hard to do over the internet, and ends up frustrating me because I can’t stop them from sharing their diluted opinions. The only thing I can do is not listen to them, ergo my limited experience with bloggers.

Hopefully this image I have of the blogging universe is inaccurate. Otherwise I might begin to dislike this class rather quickly.

Reasons why I haven’t blogged myself: First I have this tendency to be very meticulous about what I put online. Basically I check over and over again to make sure everything is spelled right, something I don’t do for anything else I write. Then after I post something I’m always really paranoid about mistakes I missed. Second, when I write about something that I’m opinionated about I can just rant on and on. This would make me a hypocrite. I don’t want to be a hypocrite. Therefore no blogging for me.

This blog could have its advantages. For one, I think I’m funnier on paper than in real life. This may have to do with the fact that I don’t talk in real life. If I opened my mouth every once in a while maybe funny stuff would come out. Maybe I’m crazy and I’m not funny on paper either. If this is the case please don’t tell me. I like my deluded realities, they make me feel special. I also like the whole informality involved in this blog. It’s a lot more freeing than other writing styles. However the best part of all is picking colors.

Now I’m well over the 250 mark which means I’m done! Time for a victory dance.