1. A interesting read from the NYT magazine this weekend. Why Women Can't Let Sarah Palin Go touches on why women struggle to support her and eagerly hate her. What do you think of the opinion presented in this piece? There are some excellent similes used to describe Palin. The author is also quite honest in her own feelings about the subject. Does that skew the overall impression of the piece?
2. This is a RIDICULOUSLY AWESOME READ!!! from Andrew Miller. It is long, but so worth the read. It's about a man who tried to hide from the internet for one month. As Andrew noted, the point of view is not consistent. Why do you think that approach was taken? Seriously READ THIS ARTICLE!! IT'S THAT GOOD!!
8 comments:
Alec
Why Women cannot let Sarah Palin go:
Palin's strategy is to act like she is just another American woman struggling to get by and she is portraying herself as a populist. Also, she probably would never have become prominent if McCain did not pick her for VP. He picked her mainly because he wanted a woman to win disaffected Hillary voters but he wanted an anti abortion woman so he could excite the evangelicals. The reason Palin failed is that besides her obvious flaws (just recently, she cancelled a conference on Latin American issues because she knew nothing about them,) she made women who were big Hillary fans in the primary feel stupid. Many of them viewed Hillary as a real feminist but Palin as an unprogressive woman who did not support a woman's right to choose or even equal pay for equal work with men and women. At the same time, some women want a strong woman leader because women are definitely underepresented in politics with only 17 female Senators and about 5-7 female Governors. Those women who want a strong leader who is a woman cannot let Palin go but many feel embarressed because they believe the McCain campaign thought they would vote for anyone who did not put a Mr. next to her last name.
About the long lines: Some people hate Obama so much and think Palin is the best thing in the world because she will bring back traditional values and many of them know as much about the world as Palin does and they share her values. Also, she is popular with the teabagger movement.
Vanish:
While the changing voice confused me at first, I began to realize that it was really effective for this particular story. It allows the reader to see both the perspective of the chase from that of the chasers and that of the target. I think it works really well in a feature piece to build tension up to the conclusion. The use of twitter updates is also a great way to break up the story, since they work almost like pullquotes while at the same time adding a third point of view.
On the other hand, having so many switches left some holes in the story. I think it would be a great way to write a story if it was done effectively.
Alec
Vanishing:
I found it interesting to watch someone try to vanish in society. Currently, we have extremely powerful FBI and with the U.S population at 300 million, it is pretty hard to find a place to hide. I find it even more amazing that someone can hide in a city but it should help because crowds can help hide people. Also, most people in the city probably do not remember most faces they see in a city and maybe they just glanced at the guy's picture in the newspaper. This reminds me a bit of Jennifer Willbanks from Georgia, the runaway bride. In 2005, she went out for a jog and disappeared for three days. A nationwide search was conducted for her, she heard about it and called from...New Mexico. She was on a bus to Las Vegas to take a gamble at starting a new life. Apparently, she was worried about getting married. She probably hoped she could vanish into the crowd, just like the guy in the vanishing story.
Katie Eiseman said...
1. Sarah Palin
I really like the lead to this story. I think it is intriguing and relatable. Additionally, I like the comparison about high-school and the different roles of the people in politics because it is funny and holds a lot of truth (I believe). I think the writers credibility, however, is lacking. It seems very one sided and the use of "we" throws me off. A funny ad entertaining read but not something I would take too many facts from.
2. Vanish
This is a raw article! It is super intriguing and well written. First of all, I think the idea is really really interesting and so well written. I like that it is written in chronological order making it more exciting. Also, I like the tweets and emails mixed in because I think they keep the perspective more open than if it were just to be from his perspective. The end is scary! How easy it is to find out about information about people these days scares me! But awesome conclusion.
Vanish:
This was a really awesome / crazy read. It really got me thinking about how little privacy exists today. Your IP can be traced over the internet, your ATM records accessed, your cellphone tracked, and your license plate number recorded at toll plazas. What I really liked about this article is that Evan didn't just go hide out in the middle on nowhere; instead he tried to start a new life with some degree of normality. He still used the internet, his credit cards, and even kept up with his old hobbies (the soccer game). This made the story ten times more interesting, as he played a game of cat and mouse with his stalkers of sorts.
I really liked the way the story was put together with twitter comments interspersed to give multiple perspectives. As to this formats applications with the Voice, I think we could open topics up to the entire school for debate online (maybe through a blog like this), and then we could use quotes and views not just from the Journalism students to write more comprehensive opinion pieces.
Jamie M. wrote the one above this ^
Why Women Can't Let Sarah Palin Go:
I had never really realized Sarah Palin's "appeal" until I had read this article. During the campaign, Palin went to extreme lengths to seem like the "average" American woman, most likely to gain more votes. Truth be told, until she opened her mouth, many women were incredibly inspired by her (such as Copeland).
One thing I dislike is the article's one-sidedness, and depending on what format of an article this is (op-ed, feature, etc), I think it would have benefited from multiple viewpoints.
The Sarah Palin article highlighted the issue of the role of women in American society. I remember reading articles during the election about the conflicted emotions feminists had about Sarah Palin. On one hand, Sarah Palin represented empowerment of women. However at the same time she was a women who would take rights like abortion away from other women. So feminists who had wanted to advance women's rights at all costs suddenly found the price of supporting Palin was too high. I think this is in part what led to the feeling of betrayal that many women have about Palin.
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