HW 18 "Rubbish Journalism"

Upon investigating the Wonkette page i ran across mostly articles that I was indifferent to or that I agreed with. Then I ran upon an article that seemed to be just a sad form of negative propaganda. The article was called "Obama Targets 17 Yr Old Girls in Iowa" the link is http://wonkette.com/politics/obama.s-underage-harem-dept%27/obama-targets-17+year+old-girls-in-iowa-309163.php. Let us go under the illusion that i momentarily forgot the voting age in America, why is Obama talking to all these young girls? Oh, thats right the voting age in America is 18, how absurd for a presidential candidate to target the demographic of soon to be voters. It is nothing other than a good campaign strategy. Image for a moment if he had targeted an adult audiance in Iowa or another midwestern state. These states are so full of Evangeslists and rascism that it would have been a joke and a waste of his time to try and converse with them. On the site there is a picture of Obama standing in front of a large gathering young people, the majority being women. What the article fails to mention is that roughly 40% of the group is boys, and he is merely shaking their hands. Why, that seems like a quite common campaign procedure to me. "Perhaps not satisfied with wife Michelle anymore, Barack Obama has been wooing and cooing 17-year-olds in Iowa." This quote is something I'd fully expect to see on Fox news or a Tabloid. Rubbish journalism without any investigation.

HW 17b Zuniga > Cox

Without even a question of a doubt, if I were looking for helpful election tips I would towards Zuniga over Cox. I don't trust the Esquire to give me reliable tips about celebrities, I certainly wouldn't trust a similar work to give me my political advice. I have broad sense of humor, I love political satire. However, I also have a strong interest in politics and hearing about a senators sex life does not interest me in the least. What that politician does on his own time is his own concern, I'm more interested in his political values. To discredit Cox further, I also would not accept her article into my political reasoning simply because she is not a credible source. Fired from every job as she puts it, does give me the urge or desire to get my sources from her site. If she published a funny in the newspaper I might be more likely to read her work. Now, since i have clearly stated why i would not choose Cox's article I must explain why I would chose Zuniga's. First off he is a former GI and a democrat. I feel like this is a good mix, if you can be part of the army and then still retain liberal values, you must be an opinionated person. Like me even directly post 9/11 he was still able to see the injustices with our government and was able to voice them. All things considering he might actually be worth listening too.

HW 17 "More than friendly"

Cruising around Jezebel.com i ran into several interesting articles as I knew I would. Gossip, women's experiences and celebrity antics are abundant on this page. I picked an article that jumped out at me; actually I'm sure it would be hard to miss. The article is called "Sluts: They're Not Whores, They're Just Friendly! The link reads, http://jezebel.com/gossip/sexplanation/sluts-theyre-not-whores-theyre-just-friendly-308648.php. With a title such as that i could hardly keep myself from investigating further. The article went on to say that perhaps promiscuous people do not deserve their bad labels. Suggesting that instead of it being a bad thing to sleep around, that people do it because they are warm and friendly individuals. It actually states a line saying that there are two types of promiscuous people, warm and friendly people and cold and distant people. Cold and distant people are people that have sex with no regards for the feelings of others. Which i think is oft the case. However, it is fun to think that maybe instead of labeling the word slut with a negative connotation, you could put a positive spin on it. For instance, instead of saying "what a slut, she is shaming herself." You could say, "what a slut, i wish i was as giving as she was!" Not likely to happen anytime soon, but hey i would like to look at it from the optimistic side from now on

hw 16b "RSS is better than IRS"

Scoble says in his article "Humanizing the Faces of Corporate America" that there are five things that made blogs hot. He called them the five pillars of controversial software. The first pillar is "ease of publishing." This means that virtually everyone can publish their own blogs, all you need is an email address and no prior knowledge is necessary. The second pillar is "discoverability," which basically means that blogs are extremely well linked up to one another. If you are searching for a blog on a topic, it will be very easy to find that topic. The third pillar is "cross-site conversations," which means that if somebody has linked your blog to their own, you can see who that person is. At which point you could talk to that person, because you are very likely to share and express some equivilant views. The fourth is known as "permalinking." A permalink is simply a URL that points out a specific blogging entry. Making it easy to navigate a blog. Finally, syndication is the last pillar. I am a little confused about this last pillar, but what i can take from it is that syndication may be a method of organization. There are many reasons why blogs are as hot as they are now, i don't neseccarily agree with scoble that these are the reasons, but they certainly helped.

hw 14 " a joy to read Joi"

to sum up my thoughts on Joi's article, I could say that i agreed with everything that he said. There was not one topic that he brought up that was not well thought out, furthermore i feel as if everything he said was true or to become true. The community aspect of blogs allow people to feel more free to speak their minds, as a result blogs have become an open area of discussion. A person is much more likely to share their views on a blog like Joi's than for instance, a place where they will be shot down for their opinions. The old round table trick, or in other words putting everyone on an equal footing. however, i am also on gaurd against the things Joi warns might happen. Joi was worried that in time the internet may become censored, along the same lines that mainstream media has. Ultimately, this would put an and to any source of media would could bring biased opinions to the table. This is a line of thought that i likewise share with Joi. To put it bluntl, I feel that if this occurs we will have litterally no way of knowing the truth about world affairs besides word of mouth. As a result that whole new world order thing may come about, but i would delve into the conspiracies here. In conclusion, Joi's blog seems to be a good place to relax and talk controversies in a non-threatening setting.

hw 13 business bologna

In the article "Blogs Will Change Your Business" Baker and Green say that blogs should be a prerequisite to business. That blogs are todays equivalant to The printing Press. That no matter what business you are heading for wether it be delivery or smut; you need to be observing all blogs, because they pertain to you. This i feel is just simply not true. They make it seem as if blogs are the second coming, and yet contradict themselves by saying, "only 27% of internet users in America now bother to read them"(Baker and Green pg. 222). As far as blogging goes in the business world, I still feel like a good cup of coffee in the morning would help accomplish more. Blogs are important when they are given to normal people and in turn giving them a voice. In the article it says that there are 40,000 new blogs everyday, which seems to be a stretch, becuase by that account in just about 20 years every person in America will have a blog. They said that it did not matter if 99% of those blogs were worthless, as long as 1% was still worth reading. I completely agree with this, blogs can get the full news out to the public; unlike mainstream media which is filtered for content. Clearly there is a desire from the American public to reach a source of news that matters. In theory the blogosphere would be place to reach that news.

hw 11 ooi ooi ooi!

Most of Asia just very recently gained access to the blogosphere. Jeff Ooi a Malaysian citizen is taking full advantage of the media option. In fact the Malaysian government has still not given the full rights of freedom of speech. They still closely monitor and sensor reports in regards to the government. This is why Jeff Ooi is getting so much attention, because he is daring to question the Government. Jeff's blog is filled with pictures and videos. He uses many visuals in his blog; as in more of a screenshot blog. There are links to other newspage and also to other blogs. His main topic of discussion was of a rally. More than 1,ooo lawyers went on a march and ended up at the palace of justice. To protest the way the government ran their judicial system. So Mackinnon's view of Ooi's blog being an outspoken political blog was completely correct. But Malaysian government officials would certainly take issues with the argument that the judicial system needing improvement. If there is a faulty government, there is government officials making more money than they should be. So naturally, they would want it to remain the same. Jeff is doing a job that certainly needs to be done, especially in areas that are not keen on not getting the story out.