I'm not going to lie, there are oodles and oodles of articles I would love for you all to read, but I fear I would overload your lives with reading. Then again, reading is a good thing, right? So, I am going to post a few extra reads. Read, comment, share, etc. Any suggestions for readings, please let me know.
Vanishing Republican Voter
A good read about the hows and whys of a counties political leanings. And, a mention or Marin County always gets my attention.
Digital Intimacy
As one letter to the editor quoted, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, speaking to Deborah Solomon in 2005, best captures my reaction to this trend: “What’s called the dominant culture will fade away as soon as the electricity goes off.” Could that really happen? If people are only connected digitally, what happens when technology fails?
Texting & Teachers
An interesting read regarding "casual rapport" between students and teachers. If teachers are using social networking sites to keep up with students, and clearly students use these kinds of sites to network with each other, should communication via these outlets be limited or banned? Is this an infringement on the First Amendment?
This sucks!
Or, maybe it doesn't. What do you think about this work and its usage in The Voice? In mainstream media?
The death of newspapers
Really? The newspaper crisis is hitting college campuses. Does that mean the good old newspaper is not long for this world? Long ago newspapers started giving away their product for free -- a reader simply had to go on-line to get all the news. No charge. No messy fingers. Will newsprint really be a thing of the past? Is the new media blogs and message boards and social networking sites? Say it ain't so.
Obama as Other and The Power of Political Misinformation
Two good reads not only for their stellar style but also their content. Misinformation is running rampant in this election. Both sides are using comments out of context and hoping that people are listening and remembering. But how this could backfire. While many of the missteps are on commercials and in paid campaign activities, a lot of the mainstream media has been caught up in cultivating and perpetuating ideas and claims that are false. How can this be stopped? How can the average voter sift through the noise and figure out what is real and what is not, what is truth and what is not? Is the media to blame for the culture of misinformation? Or is that just the nature of politics as usual?
11 comments:
Digital-ism:
I think the concept of "ambient awareness" that Thompson mentions is a fascinating concept. As I see it, facebook (which is far too modern to capitalize the first letter of its name) takes ambient awareness and makes it available 24/7, at home, at school, or anywhere someone's iPhone works. I love it because it means I don't have to drive from Novato every time I want to catch up with friends (forget calling – that's so 1990s!). Yet, I think the author has a point when he says that to some degree facebook, Twitter, and the like devalue actual human interactions. "Facebook-stalking" has basically become everyone's favorite way to procrastinate, and though the new built-in instant messenger is actually two-way communication (!), and could probably form the basis of a friendship on its own, it's no substitute for a face-to-face chat.
Since I started reading this article, I've checked facebook, like, at least three or four times. I read the 84th and 85th comments to a concert video I uploaded late Saturday night, saw a friend's photos from that same day, and discovered that plans for a surprise birthday party for my friends have changed at least twice.
And every time I check facebook I think, "Man, I could take all this time I've spent online, finish my homework and take better care of myself.
After reading "Texting and Teachers" I started to think about how teachers and students connect and communicate at MA--especially since we tend to have more casual relationships than many other schools. I feel incredibly comfortable emailing teachers at MA and I don't think its wierd if teachers have your phone number for scheduling purposes etc. but I think that I would feel wierd being friends with teachers Facebook. I think that students often forget that even with privacy settings something like a Facebook profile is never completely private and secure. It is a phenomenon that comes with the technological world we live in that not everyone, including myself, has really come to terms with. Even this blog, which feels somewhat personal because it is meant for the Journalism class, is public.
However, back to texting, I wouldn't want MA to have restrictions on student/teacher communication because there tends to be a great amount of trust in the relationships formed at MA. But I can understand where school boards are coming from, especially when they have seen the line crossed at a school.
In regards to the article about the "death" of print news: I say it isn't so, however some major changes need to be made. I have always thought that school newspapers are going to have somewhat of a difficult time gaining readership in the face of the 24-hour news cycle, as people will begin to view them more as a novelty item than an up-to-date news source. From this idea, it is easy to say that print news media will certainly die. That may be the case, unless newspapers drastically change the way in which they convey information. I think that a more tabloid style newspaper is the future of print media. I first started believing this when one of the editors for the San Francisco Chronicle came to talk at the Stanford Journalism Workshop I attended and said that the Chronicle was looking at a major re-design for 2009 or 2010. This redesign is supposedly going to include larger images and graphics, short, to the point text, and a tabloid style interface for the front page. I realize that this idea is often scoffed at by journalism purists, but journalism must change in order to better serve the public that consumes it. And if the short attention span society (us) asks for larger images, less text, and more accessible information, who are we to deny them? While it certainly is not what a lot of us private school journalists want (anyone who has read one of my articles knows that concise language is not one of my strong points), if it is essential to keep print media alive then it will be done. So will print news die? No, it is ingrained in our culture and is embedded in the foundation of the democracy that we so readily enjoy. Will changes be made? Most certainly.
Texting and Teachers:
I agree with Abigail that, while limits on texting communications at MA would seem unnecessarily restricting because of the general closeness and trust that exists at our school, it is, at the same time, easy to see how school boards of larger schools would desire some type of rule to crack down on inappropriate communications happening between teachers and students.
While the actions of these school boards are understandable and represent a genuine effort to limit this behavior, I think rules banning texting still fail to address the root of problem. Inappropriate behavior between faculty members and students existed before texting was a widely used medium of communication and, even if it is banned between students and teachers, it will not prevent the problem from occurring.
With regards to facebook (or any other social networking site) being used as a method of communication between students, I don't think that most students would feel comfortable "friending" a teacher because facebook is primarily used for entertainment/catching up with friends, not for getting assignments or anything "business" related.
In the same way, I know teachers want to maintain this same line of "professionalism". Most faculty members want to really get to know their students but at the same time they do not want to know the details of their personal lives.
- Julia
Before reading "The Vanishing Republican Voter" I had never considered the correlation between an area's economic disparity and its political sway. More and more during our current election time, the image of a conservative that I see projected by my community and our nation's liberals is of a wealthy, well-educated person only concerned with forwarding their own profit with no regard to the lower socioeconomic levels. So, it is refreshing to hear a conservative saying that egalitarianism is the key to preserving the modern American conservative. Frum speaks of a very difficult balance, between one's right to reap the rewards of working harder than one's neighbor and ensuring that the reward is not too great. I also enjoyed Frum's idea that income inequality was just monetary diversity. It raises the question of whether or not diversity is always such a good thing. If it is not, though, how does America avoid becoming a nation of Stepfords?
About the death of newsprint...
I disagree with Nish that print media is so ingrained in our culture that it's here to stay. Though I love print journalism and believe that there is nothing like sitting down and reading a tangible newspaper, I have to admit that it's rare for me to have the opportunity to read anything that isn't online. As a part of society's technological and cultural evolution, I believe the convenience of the internet will eventually overwhelm print journalism sources until they disappear (dark and horrible, I know, I'm just hoping it takes more than a few years to happen). This is something that I have been considering a lot lately as I think about my future and what I'd like to study in college. I seriously wish I had been born a few decades earlier!
I would love to join in the the discussion about the texting and teachers, but the article which I found most appealing and eye opening is the article about the usage of the word sucks.
The author makes some excellent points about how the word sucks is no longer related to the vulgar sexual act. He makes a valid point, and mentions the 9 year old who claims that blues clues sucks. One thing that I think he overlooked is that children often are of the most curious people, and if one were to ask why do we say something sucks, but we also say that we suck a lollipop. This curiosity can drive a devious older child to inform the child of its origins, therefore prematurely introducing the child to a subject that requires great delicacy and deliberateness. As for using this word in the Voice, I think that in a newspaper setting, it can be very effective when adressing a younger audience, and can also be used for emphasis. For example if you were to explain a long new policy which is faulty, you could write a paragraph about the contents of the policy and have the last sentence simply be, "and it sucks".
I would have to agree with Anjuli's statement in response to nish's statement regarding the "death of newsprint". A clear example that relates to us is the currents events quizzes which we have once a week, most of us quickly scramble to a computer in a rush for time as it is faster, more encompassing, and easier to navigate through. Also, there is actually a hobby called "surfing the web", and that is where one searches through the web in search of things to occupy their time. Their is no such event off of the web. Rarely are people just doping homework, or reading, and say, "Hey why dont I look at the newspaper while i am reading" Off of the internet, we are focused on one tasks, rather than searching for things to do.
In regard to the article"This Sucks" I agree that the word has lost nearly all of its meaning amongst most people. I have heard my parents and quite a few MA teachers use the word on many occasions and it was quite clear that they were in no may referencing oral sex. "Sucks" is quite mainstream and used quite frequently by many people including children who have no idea what the word originally implied. Personally, I remember not connecting the word with its original meaning for quite awhile even after I learned the word and about oral sex. I remember it clicking one day and realizing "oh thats probably what that means". The word has taken on its own non vulgar meaning and I believe it is acceptable in most conversation. However, some people, especially older people do take issue with the word because they still associate it with its original reason. Using it with these people should be avoided and because the Voice does reach some of these people we should not use it except in some quotes which would lose their meaning without it which are few. In striving to be the most professional paper we can be, it would be unwise to use "sucks" in our paper.
Regarding the death of newsprint, I think that Anjuli brings up a good point about how this will affect college majors and the new generation of young people considering their professions. Part of the appeal of writing for a newspaper, it is often said is seeing ones name in print. It is not quite so satisfactory to for some to view to view their writing on line as opposed to in a tangible way. The advent of new technologies and internet news may lead to less people feeling inclined to go into a profession such as journalism if it is so internet based. I for one know that it would deeply impactmy decision about college or a future job.
Olivia
I really agree with what Nishant said about the "death of print media" While I believe that because print media is so engraved into our culture that it will never fully die, it seems evident that it is rapidly decaying in the face of 24 hour up to date news. Nish talked about the representative from the SF Chronicle who made clear the plans to change print media, and I personally think this is both an advantage and a disadvantage.
While making the newspaper more concise with bigger images may combat the strengths of 24 hour news media, it still take away some of the charm of the newspaper. Sometime when I want to read the newspaper, I enjoy long and detailed stories that I would rarely find in the short news feeds from yahoo or google news. Reading a printed newspaper also is much more engaging than using a computer to find articles. They both have their advantages and disadvantages, but the way I see it is that they can't live with each other, and can't live without each other.
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