1. Read this article from the Student Press Law Center Report. The article talks about web publishing and the rules and regulations that come with it. What do you think about the rules of web publishing? Should web publishing be held to the same standards as print publishing? Should schools be able to reprimand you/punish you for something published from home? Now school's have legislation to support discipline decisions. Will this make you think twice about about starting a Facebook forum against school policy? school issues? Is this legislation a threat to freedom of speech or a benefit to the integrity of the internet? Share your brilliance and insight.
2. Sarah Palin is all over the news, still. Read this article from the pages of the Wall Street Journal opinion section and comment on the effectiveness of the writing. It's not content reaction, rather execution and writing response that I'm looking for. Is this an effective opinion piece with viable examples and engaging language? Is the argument well stated and supported? Share your brilliance and insight.
3 comments:
The article written by Cathy Young was carelessly put together and in my opinion backwards. It began with quotes and evidence from a miriad of newspapers and commentators who all criticized Palin in one way or another. This was a nice introduction, yet the author should have introduced her own opinion by using "I" statements before the second to last and last paragraph! Was the author trying to emphasize what left wing feminists think or what she thinks? I got the impression that the author intended for the article to be about herself.
In fact, the authors lack of opinion until the end of the editorial resulted in the article lacking direction because she scarcely included her own ideas. While reading, I was confused as to what the author felt about her peers commentary. In writting features this may not have been a bad thing, yet this is a op/ed which people specifically read so that they may understand what the author is thinking and trying to say. This was not accomplished in the article. If anything, as soon as the author began to write about her opinion, the article felt rushed
On the other hand, I was glad to see the author include numerous opinions into the editorial, although they were all very biased.
----Amanda :)
As we all know, the internet has revolutionized traditional journalism as well as more unconventional means of communication. As the sheer size of the internet grows (in users and domain names) it is becoming increasingly easy for any individual to put out whatever information they want for everyone to see. This is why we are taught to take everything we find on the web with a grain of salt; it is difficult to find sites that are 100% factual. The internet also does not have any sort of published rules or even an informal agreement on what information is fair game to publish electronically, unlike print journalism which is held more responsible for providing the facts. I think it is fair that what can be put on the web is virtually limitless because most people know not to trust everything they find on the internet; they are not expecting everything they read to be credible like a newspaper should and hopefully would be.
Adding schools and students into the mix of these blogs, profiles, and file sharing sites does create a complicated issue – the web has developed as a place where virtually anyone can say virtually whatever they want. However, school administrations challenge this concept when it comes to students; they often are able to punish students for actions taken on the internet. As much as I would like to agree that schools are just making the internet a ‘safer’ or more credible environment, I honestly do not think they should have as much jurisdiction as they do. I understand there are times when it is reasonable and beneficial for a school to step in on an issue started on the internet, but it really is not their domain. The internet is full of ridiculous and mean-spirited sites, and it should not be under a school’s authority to say whether or not a student can be part of one.
Because of current rules and regulations, it would not be wise to create any sort of negative website related to MA or its students (though plenty have done this). However, in reality, I think that students should have the right to do so if they so desire, only because they are users of a larger domain where most everyone else has no limits as to what they publish.
I agree with Amanda. I thought that the article was not written very well. She started out talking about feminists then started to use the personal "I" later. This stirred up a little bit of confusion for me. I really did not like that she started to talk about her own opinion toward the end. If she wanted to do that then she should have just started with that. I got bored as I got further into the article. I felt that all the information/examples she included was information that I have heard before. She did not have any words/language that made my want to read more. The author also failed to broaden her perspective. I feel that a good writer would get quotes and examples from both sides, like people who were for Palin/McCain. I think there was one paragraph where she talked about Palin's husband then a couple paragraphs later she talked about him again. I felt that she should have combined them together. However, I have to give the author credit for getting most of her points across.
Dami
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