For my extra credit assignment I chose to contribute to the Wikipedia page of Rick Reilly. Rick Reilly is a sportswriter who is most commonly for his writing on the back page of sports illustrated from 1985-2007. I chose to contribute to his page because he is my favorite Sportswriter and I love the style with which he writes.
At First I struggled with this assignment. The first two contributions I made were taken down within a day. After contacting the sitemaster at Wikipedia I learned that I needed to be less opinionated with my contribution so I decided to take one last shot. In my final attempt I made a cobntribution that was based on fact and I used examples from his writing to backup everything I said. I posted my final contribution recently and it has not yet been taken down. Although I did not make it the full 7 days I am still very happy with what I did. I think my contribution gives readers an in depth view of the way Rick writes and feels. It is for this reason that I am proud of my post and am confident that it will remain on the site forever.
Friday, December 5, 2008
Sports Journalism
The topic I chose to discuss in my final blog post is sports journalism and broadcasting. I am a huge sports fan and therefore, spend a good amount of my time reading and watching espn writers and analysts.
It is my opinion that the world of sports Journalism is becoming more and more outrageous. I can remember a time when ESPN had 5 anchors and maybe 1 roundtable sports talk show. If you watch ESPN nowadays you'll notice that they have over 30 sportscenter anchors and nearly 10 roundtable discussion shows such as, Pardon the Interruption, Around the Horn, The Sports Reporters, and Cold Pizza. All these shows have created a somewhat hectic atmosphere when it comes to reporting sports news. It used to be when something happened in Sports you could read the newspaper or watch ESPN and get 1 or 2 stories about what happened. When something happens today sports journalists beat the issue to death and cover it from every possible angle.
One example of this is the latest situation with Plaxico Burress shooting himself in the leg at a New York City nightclub. This issue received more coverage in the press than any issue I can remember. ESPN covered it from every possible angle. If I watched ESPN for 1 hour I would end up getting 20 different opinions on what happened and up to 10 conflciting stories between the newspapers, television, and magazines. It's this type of guerrilla journalism that ruins people's perceptions of the media. All I wanted to do was last week was tune into ESPN and not have to hear about Burress, unfortunately it was near impossible.
The media expends so much effort in covering these negative articles that they end up blowing issues out of proportion and ruining people's lives. I believe the world of sports Journalism would be much more well received if journalists would cover an issue and let it rest; without discussing it every 5 minutes.
I believe the media is mostly responsible for these issues being blown out of proportion. The agenda setting theory states the media doesn't tell us what to think but what to think about. This definitely holds true for issues in the world of sports. When ESPN writers and anchors discuss these issues over and over it puts pressure on people like NFL officials and the NYC District Attorney to act quickly and harshly. In essence the media is making the sentencing process swifter and harsher with their nonstop coverage.
Another medium that ruins the field of sports journalism is the radio. Station like am 660 The Fan in New York discuss these issues over and over until people are repeating themselves for hours. These radio talk shows have hours and hours of broadcasting time to fill and very little to talk about. What ends up happening is that the hosts end up fielding hours of calls from angry callers who do nothing but slander these athletes and offer up amateur opinions using the biased opinions they have received from other mediums.
All in all the world of Sports Journalism has reached a crisis point. Journalists need to loosen up on their coverage and worry more about making quality broadcasts than making 10 differing broadcasts a day.
1.Sports writers from USA Today and The Washington Times answer the question, "What is Sports Journalism?" A program hosted by ResearchChannel
2. Scott, David (2008-04-01). "Jackie Mack Taking Latest Globe Buyout", Boston Sports Media Watch. Retrieved on 3 April 2008.
3.How objective is our sports journalism?
It is my opinion that the world of sports Journalism is becoming more and more outrageous. I can remember a time when ESPN had 5 anchors and maybe 1 roundtable sports talk show. If you watch ESPN nowadays you'll notice that they have over 30 sportscenter anchors and nearly 10 roundtable discussion shows such as, Pardon the Interruption, Around the Horn, The Sports Reporters, and Cold Pizza. All these shows have created a somewhat hectic atmosphere when it comes to reporting sports news. It used to be when something happened in Sports you could read the newspaper or watch ESPN and get 1 or 2 stories about what happened. When something happens today sports journalists beat the issue to death and cover it from every possible angle.
One example of this is the latest situation with Plaxico Burress shooting himself in the leg at a New York City nightclub. This issue received more coverage in the press than any issue I can remember. ESPN covered it from every possible angle. If I watched ESPN for 1 hour I would end up getting 20 different opinions on what happened and up to 10 conflciting stories between the newspapers, television, and magazines. It's this type of guerrilla journalism that ruins people's perceptions of the media. All I wanted to do was last week was tune into ESPN and not have to hear about Burress, unfortunately it was near impossible.
The media expends so much effort in covering these negative articles that they end up blowing issues out of proportion and ruining people's lives. I believe the world of sports Journalism would be much more well received if journalists would cover an issue and let it rest; without discussing it every 5 minutes.
I believe the media is mostly responsible for these issues being blown out of proportion. The agenda setting theory states the media doesn't tell us what to think but what to think about. This definitely holds true for issues in the world of sports. When ESPN writers and anchors discuss these issues over and over it puts pressure on people like NFL officials and the NYC District Attorney to act quickly and harshly. In essence the media is making the sentencing process swifter and harsher with their nonstop coverage.
Another medium that ruins the field of sports journalism is the radio. Station like am 660 The Fan in New York discuss these issues over and over until people are repeating themselves for hours. These radio talk shows have hours and hours of broadcasting time to fill and very little to talk about. What ends up happening is that the hosts end up fielding hours of calls from angry callers who do nothing but slander these athletes and offer up amateur opinions using the biased opinions they have received from other mediums.
All in all the world of Sports Journalism has reached a crisis point. Journalists need to loosen up on their coverage and worry more about making quality broadcasts than making 10 differing broadcasts a day.
1.Sports writers from USA Today and The Washington Times answer the question, "What is Sports Journalism?" A program hosted by ResearchChannel
2. Scott, David (2008-04-01). "Jackie Mack Taking Latest Globe Buyout", Boston Sports Media Watch. Retrieved on 3 April 2008.
3.How objective is our sports journalism?
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Can technology help government
I am a firm believer that technology can be utilized to help government, especially if it used to make government more transparent and accessible. Although the comments on Slashdot suggest many ways technology can be used, one in particular stood out to me. I believe that Barack Obama's "youtube"presidency can have a tremendously positive impact on the way Americans view our government. I personally feel that a weekly presidential address will completely change the way the mainstream public feels about government in general.
This is a transition period in our countries' history. For the first time since I can remember we have a president elect who actually excites and inspires the American public. I believe Obama can utilize technology to help keep the American inspired and interested. Some comments on slashdot suggest that these youtube videos won't work because nobody is actually interested in government. "The problem with accessible government is that no-one's interested. Even where there are dedicated TV channels (e.g. in the UK) hardly anyone watches them. Why's that? Because the work of government is almost 100% pure tedium. No-one wants to watch what happens in committee meeting - even if that's where the laws are actually made, nor do are they prepared to sit through hours of televised debate." While this quote presents a valid point I don't believe that it is touching on the proper subject. I think Obama can use these videos to help him keep the interest of the mainstream public. American morale is at an all time low after 8 years of Bush and I think the Americans are ready for a complete change. For example, I believe that the average American feels no daily connection to government, he votes on election day and then forgets about government for the most part. By utilizing youtube as a weekly communicative media Barack Obama can completely change that.
Many posts on slashdot also suggest that any messages the president would be sending would be false or watered down anyway. I feel that this is a more legitimate cocnern. There is definitely a buffer between the truth and what the public actually hears about government. But I believe that Barack Obama doesn't need to use these videos as a front for filling Americans in the absolute truth. I think these videos would be just as useful if he spent 5 minutes explaining to Americans the current state of affairs regarding foreign policy, the economy, and other issues that are important to Americans. I believe the most important thing is that Obama shows his face once a week and assures the Americans that everything is ok. Reassurance is all people really need.
This new idea of using technology to help government is definitely a revolutionary and brilliant idea. In my mind the key to fixing our country is by increasing the average Americans' participation in government. I feel that mainstream America doesn't know enough about government to really be involved. If our government doesn't have anything to hide than I believe it would be a great thing if people could see it in action. Why stop with youtube videos, why can't people tune in to an entire congressional hearing. This new utilization of technology is going to change American politics forever and I believe for the better.
This is a transition period in our countries' history. For the first time since I can remember we have a president elect who actually excites and inspires the American public. I believe Obama can utilize technology to help keep the American inspired and interested. Some comments on slashdot suggest that these youtube videos won't work because nobody is actually interested in government. "The problem with accessible government is that no-one's interested. Even where there are dedicated TV channels (e.g. in the UK) hardly anyone watches them. Why's that? Because the work of government is almost 100% pure tedium. No-one wants to watch what happens in committee meeting - even if that's where the laws are actually made, nor do are they prepared to sit through hours of televised debate." While this quote presents a valid point I don't believe that it is touching on the proper subject. I think Obama can use these videos to help him keep the interest of the mainstream public. American morale is at an all time low after 8 years of Bush and I think the Americans are ready for a complete change. For example, I believe that the average American feels no daily connection to government, he votes on election day and then forgets about government for the most part. By utilizing youtube as a weekly communicative media Barack Obama can completely change that.
Many posts on slashdot also suggest that any messages the president would be sending would be false or watered down anyway. I feel that this is a more legitimate cocnern. There is definitely a buffer between the truth and what the public actually hears about government. But I believe that Barack Obama doesn't need to use these videos as a front for filling Americans in the absolute truth. I think these videos would be just as useful if he spent 5 minutes explaining to Americans the current state of affairs regarding foreign policy, the economy, and other issues that are important to Americans. I believe the most important thing is that Obama shows his face once a week and assures the Americans that everything is ok. Reassurance is all people really need.
This new idea of using technology to help government is definitely a revolutionary and brilliant idea. In my mind the key to fixing our country is by increasing the average Americans' participation in government. I feel that mainstream America doesn't know enough about government to really be involved. If our government doesn't have anything to hide than I believe it would be a great thing if people could see it in action. Why stop with youtube videos, why can't people tune in to an entire congressional hearing. This new utilization of technology is going to change American politics forever and I believe for the better.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Net Neutrality
In simple terms Network Neutrality can be defined as the guiding principle that preserves the free and open internet. This means that the net provides no discrimination. Net Neutrality prevents internet from blocking, speeding up, or slowing down web content on the basis of its source, content or ownership.
Our generation takes the internet for granted. Since we basically grew up with the internet we have certain expectations as to how we want the internet to work. We expect access to all web sites and we expect them all to load at the same speed and to provide us with the full content that the page has to offer. But are these reasonable expectations? Does the future hold a world where the internet is tailormade to fit the criteria of the providers and not the users? It is these issues that have sparked the controversy over net neutrality.
In my mind net neutrality is extremely important. I feel that the large internet providers have no right to manipulate internet content in order to serve there own personal agendas. The ability of the internet to remain neutral is what has allowed it to become so popular amongst every single group of people. The internet has been a driving force for economic innovation, democratic participation in government, and free speech online. If we lose the neutrality of the internet we are losing far more than a little content from certain webpages. When the internet was created it was meant to be used as medium for sharing information, and for nearly for the last two decades it has been used as just that. No matter who you are you can use the internet to find information that is beneficial to you. If we lose the neutrality of the internet we will lose it's democratic aspect. For an exmaple of how net neutrality could damage the public I conducted a small experiment. I went to google (who happens to argue for net neutrality along with ebay, amazon, yahoo, and the creator of the world wide web, Tim Berners-Lee.) and typed in "issues surrounding verizon." Google had hundreds of hits for this search which makes it very clear that verizon has had there fair share of problems with employees, competitors, and even subscribers. But think about what would happen if we lost the neutrality of the internet and companies like verizon got to decide what information was acceptable for the internet. They would have the ability to influence the public much the same way as mass media but to an even greater extent. If all the information on the internet was subjective then people would not have the option of seeking out information they wanted because the major corporations would control all the content. Say for example that I wanted to find negative information about Barack Obama during the election but corporations that supported Obama controlled the internet. These corporations would have the ability to block the information or just make it incredibly hard to access. They could make it so that the pages slandering Obama take 5 minutes longer to load than the pages slandering McCain. This kind of corporate interference is completely against democracy and goes against the free speech provided for in the 1st ammendment of the constitution.
The internet has always been and should always remain a place for objective discussion and sharing of information. If we lose net neutrality we will lose the democratic nature of the internet that has made it what it is today.
Our generation takes the internet for granted. Since we basically grew up with the internet we have certain expectations as to how we want the internet to work. We expect access to all web sites and we expect them all to load at the same speed and to provide us with the full content that the page has to offer. But are these reasonable expectations? Does the future hold a world where the internet is tailormade to fit the criteria of the providers and not the users? It is these issues that have sparked the controversy over net neutrality.
In my mind net neutrality is extremely important. I feel that the large internet providers have no right to manipulate internet content in order to serve there own personal agendas. The ability of the internet to remain neutral is what has allowed it to become so popular amongst every single group of people. The internet has been a driving force for economic innovation, democratic participation in government, and free speech online. If we lose the neutrality of the internet we are losing far more than a little content from certain webpages. When the internet was created it was meant to be used as medium for sharing information, and for nearly for the last two decades it has been used as just that. No matter who you are you can use the internet to find information that is beneficial to you. If we lose the neutrality of the internet we will lose it's democratic aspect. For an exmaple of how net neutrality could damage the public I conducted a small experiment. I went to google (who happens to argue for net neutrality along with ebay, amazon, yahoo, and the creator of the world wide web, Tim Berners-Lee.) and typed in "issues surrounding verizon." Google had hundreds of hits for this search which makes it very clear that verizon has had there fair share of problems with employees, competitors, and even subscribers. But think about what would happen if we lost the neutrality of the internet and companies like verizon got to decide what information was acceptable for the internet. They would have the ability to influence the public much the same way as mass media but to an even greater extent. If all the information on the internet was subjective then people would not have the option of seeking out information they wanted because the major corporations would control all the content. Say for example that I wanted to find negative information about Barack Obama during the election but corporations that supported Obama controlled the internet. These corporations would have the ability to block the information or just make it incredibly hard to access. They could make it so that the pages slandering Obama take 5 minutes longer to load than the pages slandering McCain. This kind of corporate interference is completely against democracy and goes against the free speech provided for in the 1st ammendment of the constitution.
The internet has always been and should always remain a place for objective discussion and sharing of information. If we lose net neutrality we will lose the democratic nature of the internet that has made it what it is today.
Friday, November 7, 2008
Second Life
Up until 3 days ago I had never even heard of Second Life. When I first read about second life I had no idea what to expect. After downloading it and checking it out for a while I was extremely impressed and surprised that I had never heard of it before.
I think second life is an extremely good social networking site. It gives users a multitude of options that allow them to communicate effectively with everyone else on the site. I found the site very difficult to use but I was able to make some progress after I started talking to people and finding out more and more about the world. I spoke to many different people many of who were also exploring the world in order to do assignments for their respective classes. I met two girls from purdue who were writing a paper about second life for their internet and society class. I found it very easy to talk to and share information people and I really liked it. I ended up talking to these girls for a while and we helped eachother navigate the grid and search out all the amazing features that second life has to offer. Before long we were much more well versed in second life. Together we learned to fly, walk around, purchase virtual property with Linden dollars(which the girls actually ended up buying.)
I also ended up striking up a conversation with another person on second life. He was a 25 Human resources manager whose boss had assigned him the task to find out whether second life was a valuable commodity for the company. He told me that his boss wanted to find out whether second life could be used to recruit and hold information sessions for workers. I ended up talking to him for a while in order to find out what his experiences with second life had been. He told me that he had been on second life for a week and was still having trouble fully navigating the site. I asked him if he thought that second life had any value his comapany and he responded by telling me that he had yet to see how second life could be used to hold information but that it could potentially be a good place to actively recruit new employees.
I definitely think that second life can be a valuable tool for building and maintaining relationships. All the poeple I met were extremely smart and interesting which led me to conclude that second life is a good social networking site if you are looking to meet good people. I like it better than normal chatrooms becuase it allows you to take your life skills and apply them to the virtual world in order to be successful. If you are looking for a good place to meet new people and build your social roladex second life is an extremely good place to do so. I will definitely be using it again in the future and I am extremely happy I found it.
I think second life is an extremely good social networking site. It gives users a multitude of options that allow them to communicate effectively with everyone else on the site. I found the site very difficult to use but I was able to make some progress after I started talking to people and finding out more and more about the world. I spoke to many different people many of who were also exploring the world in order to do assignments for their respective classes. I met two girls from purdue who were writing a paper about second life for their internet and society class. I found it very easy to talk to and share information people and I really liked it. I ended up talking to these girls for a while and we helped eachother navigate the grid and search out all the amazing features that second life has to offer. Before long we were much more well versed in second life. Together we learned to fly, walk around, purchase virtual property with Linden dollars(which the girls actually ended up buying.)
I also ended up striking up a conversation with another person on second life. He was a 25 Human resources manager whose boss had assigned him the task to find out whether second life was a valuable commodity for the company. He told me that his boss wanted to find out whether second life could be used to recruit and hold information sessions for workers. I ended up talking to him for a while in order to find out what his experiences with second life had been. He told me that he had been on second life for a week and was still having trouble fully navigating the site. I asked him if he thought that second life had any value his comapany and he responded by telling me that he had yet to see how second life could be used to hold information but that it could potentially be a good place to actively recruit new employees.
I definitely think that second life can be a valuable tool for building and maintaining relationships. All the poeple I met were extremely smart and interesting which led me to conclude that second life is a good social networking site if you are looking to meet good people. I like it better than normal chatrooms becuase it allows you to take your life skills and apply them to the virtual world in order to be successful. If you are looking for a good place to meet new people and build your social roladex second life is an extremely good place to do so. I will definitely be using it again in the future and I am extremely happy I found it.
Friday, October 31, 2008
Obama and McCain fight out key swing states
The issue I chose to write about is the competition between Barack Obama and John McCain over the key swing states that will decide who wins the White House on November 4th. I sorted through many different articles on the topic and found 1 article from each forum that I decided to use.
The first article I chose was published in the Washington Post and is titled AP polls: Obama ahead in 6 swing states, even in 2. The article is structured in a very convenient way. Each state is listed and then the article lists the poll used and the amount of electoral votes the state gets. After that the article lists the numbers from the poll. (i.e. Obama 52% McCain 46%.) Then the article lists the points of interest in the state. (i.e. which candidates are supported by which demographics and what issues are of the most importance in that particular state. Then there is a small details section that gives a few more bits of information about the state and it goes on to the next state. The article does this for the 8 swing states in the election, providing unbiased and detailed information. I found this article to be extremely informative and interesting. It is very structured and to the point. The article does not waste time with opinions or silly statistics. It is all very business like and brief. They are very careful to provide sources for all of their statistics and they don't make any claims unless they are proven to be supported by fact.
The next article I chose to write about was published on Yahoo by Yahoo news. It is titled "Obama widens lead over McCain in nation, key states." This article is also very informative but it differs from the Washington post article in many ways. The first major difference is the structure of this article compared to the other one. It isn't sorted out nearly as clear as the newspaper article. Where the newspaper article is put together very specifically the online article is written more freelance. The online article lists more than just current issues and statistics. It talks about past elections and what the candidates can do to change the trends that have occurred in past elections. It is very clear that the newspaper article exists only to give fact and to provide the reader with unbiased facts and statistics. The online article is much more free to write a more biased piece and to provide the reader with more then just proven facts and non-partisan facts.
Although the structure of these articles are different the content is somewhat similar. Both articles are focused on getting the most information out of the polls and finding out which candidate has a better chance to win the White House. They both rely on facts to give the public their best idea of who is going to win the election. The articles do rely on different polls so both of them offer different statistics. I found both articles to be extremely informative and although they had some differences both of them were similar in that they were both trying to discover and portray the same thing.
1)http://news.yahoo.com/s/bloomberg/20081025/pl_bloomberg/acc_gj9gwbk8
2)http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/29/AR2008102900894.html
The first article I chose was published in the Washington Post and is titled AP polls: Obama ahead in 6 swing states, even in 2. The article is structured in a very convenient way. Each state is listed and then the article lists the poll used and the amount of electoral votes the state gets. After that the article lists the numbers from the poll. (i.e. Obama 52% McCain 46%.) Then the article lists the points of interest in the state. (i.e. which candidates are supported by which demographics and what issues are of the most importance in that particular state. Then there is a small details section that gives a few more bits of information about the state and it goes on to the next state. The article does this for the 8 swing states in the election, providing unbiased and detailed information. I found this article to be extremely informative and interesting. It is very structured and to the point. The article does not waste time with opinions or silly statistics. It is all very business like and brief. They are very careful to provide sources for all of their statistics and they don't make any claims unless they are proven to be supported by fact.
The next article I chose to write about was published on Yahoo by Yahoo news. It is titled "Obama widens lead over McCain in nation, key states." This article is also very informative but it differs from the Washington post article in many ways. The first major difference is the structure of this article compared to the other one. It isn't sorted out nearly as clear as the newspaper article. Where the newspaper article is put together very specifically the online article is written more freelance. The online article lists more than just current issues and statistics. It talks about past elections and what the candidates can do to change the trends that have occurred in past elections. It is very clear that the newspaper article exists only to give fact and to provide the reader with unbiased facts and statistics. The online article is much more free to write a more biased piece and to provide the reader with more then just proven facts and non-partisan facts.
Although the structure of these articles are different the content is somewhat similar. Both articles are focused on getting the most information out of the polls and finding out which candidate has a better chance to win the White House. They both rely on facts to give the public their best idea of who is going to win the election. The articles do rely on different polls so both of them offer different statistics. I found both articles to be extremely informative and although they had some differences both of them were similar in that they were both trying to discover and portray the same thing.
1)http://news.yahoo.com/s/bloomberg/20081025/pl_bloomberg/acc_gj9gwbk8
2)http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/29/AR2008102900894.html
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Political Blog
The blog I chose to write about is called Politics Now and it is a blog written by contributors of the Buffalo News namely Jerry Zremski, Douglas Turner, and Robert J. McCarthy. The blog can be accessed by visiting http://buffalonews.typepad.com/politics_now/2008/08/index.html. The three contributors to this blog are writers for the Buffalo News who, in addition to writing for the paper, blog daily on the site. The blog began on august 22nd 2007 and is still posted on daily.
I found this blog to be very interesting. I especially liked how it has different contributors which allows readers to enjoy different opinions, viewpoints, and writing styles. The posts are mostly non partisan in nature. I started reading with the anticipation of reading a mostly liberal blog, but for the most part I couldn't tell if the writers were pro McCain or Obama. Many of the posts were directly about the competition between the 2 candidates but there will also posts that adressed other political issues.i like the post about whether Hillary Clinton would run for president again and the post about Kathy Konst and whether she voted twice in the 1998 election. It is important that people realize that the presidential election isn't the only political thing happening in the world right now. A lot of people have trouble putting the presidential election and all it's aspects into perspective. The bottom of the page did have an Ad for Obama which confirmed my initial suspicion that the blog leaned to the left.
I read the comments for most of the posts and it was very clear that many people use this blog as a forum for finding out about the election and also sharing their views on the hot issues and their likes and dislikes of the two candidates. For the most part it seems that most of the readers support Obama but many people question his links to the liberal organization ACORN. Many people got into heated debates with their comments. Many of the posts had comments by the same people multiple times.
Overall I really enjoyed reading the blog. Because the blog is done by professional political journalists I found the blog to be very informative and I learned a lot about the election that I didn't previously know. There is a good chance that I access this blog again before the election because it provides me with a simple, unbiased way to learn about what is going on.
1)Mathew. Can Blogs Effect Politics and Society?. April 27, 2006. URL: http://www.mathewingram.com/work/2006/04/27/can-blogs-affect-politics-and-society/
2)Pew Internet. (2008). The internet and the 2008 election. Retrieved on October 23, 2008 from http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_2008_election.pdf
I found this blog to be very interesting. I especially liked how it has different contributors which allows readers to enjoy different opinions, viewpoints, and writing styles. The posts are mostly non partisan in nature. I started reading with the anticipation of reading a mostly liberal blog, but for the most part I couldn't tell if the writers were pro McCain or Obama. Many of the posts were directly about the competition between the 2 candidates but there will also posts that adressed other political issues.i like the post about whether Hillary Clinton would run for president again and the post about Kathy Konst and whether she voted twice in the 1998 election. It is important that people realize that the presidential election isn't the only political thing happening in the world right now. A lot of people have trouble putting the presidential election and all it's aspects into perspective. The bottom of the page did have an Ad for Obama which confirmed my initial suspicion that the blog leaned to the left.
I read the comments for most of the posts and it was very clear that many people use this blog as a forum for finding out about the election and also sharing their views on the hot issues and their likes and dislikes of the two candidates. For the most part it seems that most of the readers support Obama but many people question his links to the liberal organization ACORN. Many people got into heated debates with their comments. Many of the posts had comments by the same people multiple times.
Overall I really enjoyed reading the blog. Because the blog is done by professional political journalists I found the blog to be very informative and I learned a lot about the election that I didn't previously know. There is a good chance that I access this blog again before the election because it provides me with a simple, unbiased way to learn about what is going on.
1)Mathew. Can Blogs Effect Politics and Society?. April 27, 2006. URL: http://www.mathewingram.com/work/2006/04/27/can-blogs-affect-politics-and-society/
2)Pew Internet. (2008). The internet and the 2008 election. Retrieved on October 23, 2008 from http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_2008_election.pdf
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Google Maps
Type www.maps.google.com into your web browser and you'll find yourself at one of the most innovative and helpful interactive sites on the entire internet, Google Maps. The internet has a countless number of map sites so what makes google maps so special? The answer is that Google maps has more special features then any other map website you'll find. Most map sites will get you directions to anywhere from anywhere in the entire world, but giving directions hardly scratches the surface of the functionality of google maps. In addition to giving you directions to anywhere in the world, google maps offers you the ability to get traffic and street views in over 50 US cities, and photos of hundreds of cities in the Northern hemisphere. The streetview feature actually allows you to get a 360 degree angle of any intersection in any city that is featured on the site. Whereas most sites can only give directions google maps can give you up to date traffic updates and show you a photo of exactly where you're going. Features that no other interactive map site can boast. Google Maps also has other incredible features that you can't find anywhere else. One of them allows you to search the life maps of Barack Obama and John McCain. I found this feature to be amazingly interesting because it lets you see everywhere the two candidates have journeyed to in their lives.
Another thing I like about the site is the layout. Some interactive sites are complicated and difficult to use but google maps has a very simple layout and all the features are extremely easy to use. All these features coupled with Google's reputation for innovation make google maps an incredible interactive website which is not only years ahead of the competitors but is also much easier to use.
Another thing I like about the site is the layout. Some interactive sites are complicated and difficult to use but google maps has a very simple layout and all the features are extremely easy to use. All these features coupled with Google's reputation for innovation make google maps an incredible interactive website which is not only years ahead of the competitors but is also much easier to use.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Keeping in touch
Wikipedia defines an online community as a group of people that primarily interact via communication media such as newsletters, telephone, email, online social networks or instant messages rather than face-to-face, for social, professional, educational or other purposes. After reading this definition I realized that I am an active participant of an online community that I share with all my friends from back home.
After our freshman year of college one of my friends decided to set up an email listserv for my entire group of friends, this way if one of us had something to say to everyone we could just send an email rather than having to tell everyone individually. This utilization of the internet has been very helpful and convenient over the past 3 years. At least once a week I receive an email from one of my friends with funny stories, websites I should check out or even just updates about how their lives are going. Keeping in touch with all my friends can be very difficult, but our listserv makes it extremely easy for all my friends to stay in touch and to know what's happening in eachothers lives. No matter how busy I may be I always have time to write a quick email, whereas if I had to talk to each of my friends individually it would be much more difficult to stay in touch.
The listserv I share with my friends is a great thing becuase it helps us maintain our relationships no matter where in the world we might be. I have friends that go to college all over the country and many who have studied abroad in the past. Without the internet and our listserv it would be very easy for them to lose touch, but with our listserv I can go a month without talking to a friend personally and still feel like we talk all the time. Our listserv also helps us maintain our friendships and cohesiveness. When we all return home for the holidays it feels as if we have been together the whole time because we have been communicating as a group and not just individually. We can get together and talk about things that happened to us at school as if everyone had actually been there to witness them. This makes us all feel closer to one another and helps us maintain the same type of status that we did in high school when we all used to hang out together every day. This way there is no catching up to do when we see eachother. Without our listserve it would take so much time to catch up with one another that by the time we were all caught up the vacation would probably be over already.
I am very grateful for the online community that I am a part of. It gives me the convenience and flexibility to share what I want with a large amount of people without sacraficing valuable time that I could be committing to schoolwork. When college is over and everyone is back home we will likely disband the listserv, but once everyone moves away again it will be an extremely valuable tool so that as the years go by we all stay in touch and maintain the closeness that we already have for so many years.
Wellman, Barry and Gulia, Melina. Net Surfers Don't Ride Alone: Virtual Communities as Communities. August 1997. http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman/publications/netsurfers/netsurfers.pdf.
Various. (6 October, 2008). Virtual Community. Retrieved 13 October, 2008, from Wikipedia Web site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_communities
After our freshman year of college one of my friends decided to set up an email listserv for my entire group of friends, this way if one of us had something to say to everyone we could just send an email rather than having to tell everyone individually. This utilization of the internet has been very helpful and convenient over the past 3 years. At least once a week I receive an email from one of my friends with funny stories, websites I should check out or even just updates about how their lives are going. Keeping in touch with all my friends can be very difficult, but our listserv makes it extremely easy for all my friends to stay in touch and to know what's happening in eachothers lives. No matter how busy I may be I always have time to write a quick email, whereas if I had to talk to each of my friends individually it would be much more difficult to stay in touch.
The listserv I share with my friends is a great thing becuase it helps us maintain our relationships no matter where in the world we might be. I have friends that go to college all over the country and many who have studied abroad in the past. Without the internet and our listserv it would be very easy for them to lose touch, but with our listserv I can go a month without talking to a friend personally and still feel like we talk all the time. Our listserv also helps us maintain our friendships and cohesiveness. When we all return home for the holidays it feels as if we have been together the whole time because we have been communicating as a group and not just individually. We can get together and talk about things that happened to us at school as if everyone had actually been there to witness them. This makes us all feel closer to one another and helps us maintain the same type of status that we did in high school when we all used to hang out together every day. This way there is no catching up to do when we see eachother. Without our listserve it would take so much time to catch up with one another that by the time we were all caught up the vacation would probably be over already.
I am very grateful for the online community that I am a part of. It gives me the convenience and flexibility to share what I want with a large amount of people without sacraficing valuable time that I could be committing to schoolwork. When college is over and everyone is back home we will likely disband the listserv, but once everyone moves away again it will be an extremely valuable tool so that as the years go by we all stay in touch and maintain the closeness that we already have for so many years.
Wellman, Barry and Gulia, Melina. Net Surfers Don't Ride Alone: Virtual Communities as Communities. August 1997. http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman/publications/netsurfers/netsurfers.pdf.
Various. (6 October, 2008). Virtual Community. Retrieved 13 October, 2008, from Wikipedia Web site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_communities
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Multiple personalities- How do we differ from our online identities?
The DSM IV defines multiple personality disorder as having at least one alter personality that controls behavior. But in the new internet era don't we all have a second identity that functions at least somewhat separately from our normal self. In most cases everyone in America has a second identity that they use on the internet. Whether it be an identity for an anonymous internet chatroom, a screenname, or a team name for a fantasy league, the internet provides us with a platform to create a second identity for ourselves. When we converse with someone in an internet chatroom we are talking to an alias, very seldomly do people use their real names when identifying themselves. These aliases allow us to spend hours talking to people without every actually knowing who we are talking to. Like most people my age I have numerous internet identities. I have a screename, an email address, and numerous fantasy teams. The identity I choose to focus on is the many identities I have created throughout my numerous fantasy leagues. Over the years I've partaken in upwards of 20 fantasy leagues. I do everything from fantasy baseball to fantasy basketball and football. Each time I enter a league I am forced to create a team name. This team name will serve as my alias for the duration of the fantasy season. When people address me with wall posts or trade offers they are sending their information not to Seth Sininsky but to the alias I have chosen to represent me. When I join a public league I am randomly assigned to a league full of people who I do not know. So at its core this is just a league full of strangers who spend an entire season interacting with eachother without ever even knowing the real names of the fellow league members. Since I have used a different team name for every league i've been in i'd say that over the course of my life i've had upwards of 20 identities on the internet. No other medium allows users the ability to create and operate so many indentities throughout such a wide range of activities. Some people have multiple screenames and some people have up to 5 email adresses just to sort out all of their various identities in the real world. For instance a professional can create an email address for work, 1 for family, 1 for friends and maybe one for everything else. This is an example of an individual creating an online identity to help separate his real life identities. Like any other internet identity my fantasy league identities leave me vulnerable to identity theft. In order to sign up for a fantasy website a user must provide the site with all types of personal information. Since I do my leagues through yahoo I have had an active account with them for the better part of a decade. If anyone ever hacked into the yahoo database they would have access to information that could ruin my life. This is why it is extremely important for yahoo to have the most updated and stringent security software. In conclusion the internet gives us the opportunity to be whoever we want to be. If someone wants to get in a chatroom and claim to be the queen of England all they have to do is log in and type away. The anonymity of the internet has created a new cyber world which affords us the opportunity to play pretend with the rest of the world n be whoever we want to be.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Privacy
Wikipedia defines Privacy as the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves and thereby reveal themselves selectively. In essence privacy is just the ability to hide information that you don't want to share. Privacy is an extremely important aspect of our society. Without our personal privacy we have no ability to hide anything, no matter how embarrassing or personal it might be. Most pyschologists agree that keeping a set of boundaries is crucial to our mental health, and if we disclose everything we are liable to having certain psychological problems. Privacy on the internet is an extremely important aspect of today's society, and an aspect of society that has had an influence on me personally. I learned the hard way about the importance of internet safety. Last year I was in the library on UB learns sorting through my classes and checking my schedule. After about 20 minutes I got up and went to the bathroom without logging out of my UBlearns. When I got back from the bathroom I started checking my classes again but I noticed that something was different. Someone had dropped one of my classes. At first I couldn't believe that someone would do something like that. But after I thought about it I realized that the fact of the matter is that we live in a world where anything is possible. Even though I was only away from the computer for a few minutes I left myself vulnerable to an internet predator. It's scary to think about all the ways that predators can use the internet to take advantage of innocent people. This experience taught me how important it is to practice safe internet use. Never again will I leave a computer unintended while I'm logged in. Unfortunately there are so many aspects to the internet that it is difficult to fully protect ourselves on all possible fronts. Even if people take every neccessary precaution there are still predators that are able to hack into innocent people's accounts. These days people use the internet for everything. People shop on the internet, do their banking on the internet, and divulge all types of other information on the internet. Although the internet provides us with a very convenient medium for all these things, it also can be dangerous. Internet privacy is extremely important. If hackers can gain access to someones personal accounts numbers over the internet they will immediately hold in their hands the ability to ruin that person's life. It is extremely important that the US government imposes strict penalties for internet predators. If predators find out that they can committ these acts and only face minimal penalties then we will continue to live in a world where internet and identify theft is very prevalent.
Internet Privacy, Wikipedia.com, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interniet_privacy
Cyberbullying, UrbanDictionary.com, http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=cyberbullying
Internet Privacy, Wikipedia.com, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interniet_privacy
Cyberbullying, UrbanDictionary.com, http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=cyberbullying
Friday, September 12, 2008
Com125 Copyright Infringement
Copyright Infringement is a serious issue that affects a wide range of people. Two of the biggest problems include downloading music and movies illegally. The internet has made this problem worse over the years and it has become very hard to control. Programs such as limewire and kazza allow people to download music for free and burn it to CDs. Music downloading is an especially big problem on college campuses across the country. In 2006 U.S. college students downloaded 1.3 billion tracks illegally and only 500 million legally. Numbers like these are very troubling to the music industry, who are losing billions of dollars every year due to the massive amount of illegal downloading and file sharing. The Film industry has also suffered serious financial ramifications as a result of unauthorized copying of films. In 2005 the Motion Picture Association of America estimated that Copyright infringement had cost the film industry 18 billion dollars worldwide. With global costs of copyright infringement skyrocketing, it has become imperative that the US government find a solution to this increasingly large problem.
There are several technical and social structures that could be put into place to stop this problem. The most important thing we can do to ensure that this problem doesn't persist is to educate the infringers. Many people are unaware that sharing files of copyrighted work is illegal. The recording industry recently decided to increase its public awareness program and found that there is an increase in the amount of people who didn't know that it was illegal to share their music files with other users. When some people know that an activity is illegal, they are less likely to do it. Speakers should go into high schools and colleges to discuss copyright infringement. The key to putting an end to piracy is making sure the younger generation knows that it is illegal and will not be tolerated by society.
Another way we can prevent copyright infringement is by developing a technology system that includes features that make it difficult for people to steal and share files. This will make it harder and require more effort, which will lead to a decrease in piracy. One idea is to develop a website where users can anonymously report copyright infringement to the authorities. This will allow people to actively participate in the process of ending copyright infringement. For example if a user sees someone selling illegal DVDs, they can go to the site and type in the location of the crime. This will help the authorities get to heart of the problem and stop it before it continues further. People will feel comfortable going to the site because it will be easy to use and will be one hundred percent anonymous.
The final thing that can be done to help prevent the illegal theft and sharing of files is by establishing harsher, and more meaningful punishments. When someone is caught sharing files they need to be made an example of. There have already been several reported cases of users of online music sharing websites being sued by record labels for illegal theft of their product. The key to ending mainstream file sharing is letting the public know that if they choose to break the law it could end up costing them much more than it is worth. People will be more likely to purchase their music if they know that obtaining it illegally can and will cost them hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The issue of copyright infringement is something that should not be taken lightly. In this current period of economic downturn it is critical that big businsses are not jeopardized by petty crime. Through education awareness, technology, and harsher punishments we can set in place, a system where copyright infringement goes from a multi billion dollar industry to nothing more than another minor problem in our society.
K.C. Jones InformationWeek June 7, 2007 http://www.informationweek.com/news/internet/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=199902097
Nathan Davis. Thanks for letting us pirate. 5 February 2007.
There are several technical and social structures that could be put into place to stop this problem. The most important thing we can do to ensure that this problem doesn't persist is to educate the infringers. Many people are unaware that sharing files of copyrighted work is illegal. The recording industry recently decided to increase its public awareness program and found that there is an increase in the amount of people who didn't know that it was illegal to share their music files with other users. When some people know that an activity is illegal, they are less likely to do it. Speakers should go into high schools and colleges to discuss copyright infringement. The key to putting an end to piracy is making sure the younger generation knows that it is illegal and will not be tolerated by society.
Another way we can prevent copyright infringement is by developing a technology system that includes features that make it difficult for people to steal and share files. This will make it harder and require more effort, which will lead to a decrease in piracy. One idea is to develop a website where users can anonymously report copyright infringement to the authorities. This will allow people to actively participate in the process of ending copyright infringement. For example if a user sees someone selling illegal DVDs, they can go to the site and type in the location of the crime. This will help the authorities get to heart of the problem and stop it before it continues further. People will feel comfortable going to the site because it will be easy to use and will be one hundred percent anonymous.
The final thing that can be done to help prevent the illegal theft and sharing of files is by establishing harsher, and more meaningful punishments. When someone is caught sharing files they need to be made an example of. There have already been several reported cases of users of online music sharing websites being sued by record labels for illegal theft of their product. The key to ending mainstream file sharing is letting the public know that if they choose to break the law it could end up costing them much more than it is worth. People will be more likely to purchase their music if they know that obtaining it illegally can and will cost them hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The issue of copyright infringement is something that should not be taken lightly. In this current period of economic downturn it is critical that big businsses are not jeopardized by petty crime. Through education awareness, technology, and harsher punishments we can set in place, a system where copyright infringement goes from a multi billion dollar industry to nothing more than another minor problem in our society.
K.C. Jones InformationWeek June 7, 2007 http://www.informationweek.com/news/internet/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=199902097
Nathan Davis. Thanks for letting us pirate. 5 February 2007.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)