HW42: Podcast

Hello, this is Kelly, and we are the Beta Pod from Keene State College ITW 101. We are using Baghdad Burning as a reference for this podcast.

Hi, this is Sarah. The passage that left the biggest impression on us from this weeks reading was found on page 262. Riverbend basically says that Bush gives repulsive speeches and is sheepish-however he makes an attempt to sound sincere. The people of Iraq are not big fans of President Bush.

Hi, this is Lori. Student next semester can expect to learn first hand what it was like living in Iraq during the war.

Hey, this is Hayley. The students can also learn from the book that what is shown on Television is not half as bad as it really is.

Hi, this is Emily. Thank you for listening to us, have an enjoyable evening! Peace out.

Hw 36: The Beta Pod's first PodCast

http://www.gabcast.com/index.php?a=episodes&query=&b=play&id=8538&cast=49707&castPage=&autoplay=true

HW35: A letter for you

Over the past semester, we’ve been keeping blogs. Here, we’ve written about books, other blogs, things that we’ve attended, etc. Throughout maintaining this blog, I’ve learned so much about the Internet, and how to use things. Before this class I had never even heard of blogging before. So it was kind of difficult to use one without having any knowledge of who could read it, and knowing that someone could actually respond to it. I hope that someone who comes along my blog actually learns at least something from it. Maybe they’ll learn about Riverbend, or about Virginia Woolfe. After this semester, I’ll most likely never post anything again. It’s not that I don’t like it it’s just that I probably won’t have time to. I don’t like the idea of having someone comment on my own opinion, or life if I started writing about that. I just don’t like the idea of it. As of right now, I think I’ll stick to Facebook.

HW 34: Cultural Differences

In Baghdad Burning, Riverbend mentions that gold is very big in family savings in Iraq. The way she makes it seem is that, people have gold to sell, because the price of gold never changes. So when people get married, the man gives the woman gold jewelry, also known as a “mahar” or when a baby is born the gifts are usually little golden trinkets that the parents can either keep or sell. Riverbend explains “People began converting their money to gold-earrings, bracelets, necklaces-because the value of gold didn’t change. People pulled their money out of banks before the war, and bought gold instead.” (Riverbend 100) This is why gold has such a big role in family savings, because gold is the savings, there is no money. Riverbend then discusses the custom of evening tea in Iraq. “In the evening, most Iraqi families gather together for “evening tea.” It’s hardly as formal as it sounds… No matter how busy the day, everyone sits around in the living room, waiting for tea.” (Riverbend 108) She says that the tea in Iraq is not like having tea here. Here, we use teabags, in Iraq they go through a three-step process just to make tea. “Tea is so important in Iraq, that it makes up a substantial part of the rations we’ve been getting ever since the sanctions were imposed upon the country. People drink tea with breakfast, the drink tea at midday, they drink tea in the evening and often drink tea with dinner.” I don’t know about you… but I didn’t know that tea was such a big thing.

HW33: Challenges at Al-Safina Middle School

The Podcast that I decided to watch was called “Challenges at a Girl’s School in Baghdad” this was shown on May 21st 2007. Here is the link that I found the Podcast on: http://aliveinbaghdad.org/2007/05/21/challenges-at-a-girls-school-in-baghdad. It first tells us about the Al-Safina Middle School in Adhamiya, Baghdad. The topic that is covered is how children face challenges getting to school. The people shown in this podcast are Jinan Jamal Mahmoud (Director or Al-Safina), Samirah Izzi Ali (Physics Teacher), and two students. One of the girls shown in the podcast, is wearing a hijab, and answering questions on how she gets to school. One of the students shown said that she wasn’t afraid of the explosions anymore because she’s so used to hearing them. The scenery is basically the classroom, but the school doesn’t look like a school here in America. The paint on the walls were chipped, and the classrooms were too small. From watching this video, I’ve learned that it must be really hard for students in other countries to go to school with all these explosions, raids, and shootings going on around them. I could never imagine having to live with that. I think that’s the most memorable part for me… when the student said she’s so used to hearing the noise, because it shouldn’t have to be like that.

HW 32: Akila Al-Hashimi

On September 21st 2003, Riverbend wrote about Akila Al-Hashimi, here she tells us that as she was walking out of work, two pick-up trucks with armed men, cut her off and opened fire on her. They thought that she was walking with “body guards” but they were only her brothers. Anyway, Akila had been taken to the Al-Yarmuk hospital, “where her stomach was operated upon, and [she was] then shipped off in an American army ambulance to no one knows where, but people say it was probably the hospital they have set up in Baghdad Airport. (Riverbend 75) After Riverbend explains this to us, she explains whom Al-Hashimi. Al-Hashimi was one of the “decent members on the council.”(Riverbend 75) She lived in Iraq and had worked in foreign affairs in the past. Riverbend then states, “It’s also depressing because of it signifies-that no female is safe, no matter how high up she is…”(Riverbend 75) She also says that Al-Hashimi was not only female, but didn’t wear a hijab, and was the first real “foreign representative” of the new government.

HW 31: Responding to Riverbend

During the reading, from Baghdad Burning, I became interested in Al-Hakim (Riverbend 43). I did some research on the Internet and found out that he was an Iraqi theologian and politician and the leader of SIIC, the largest political party in the Iraqi Council of Representatives. His full name is Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, and he was born in 1950. He was also a member of the United States-appointed Iraqi Governing Council and served as the president in December 2003. He was the top candidate listed for the United Iraqi Coalition during the first Iraqi legislative election of January 2005 but has not sought a government post because the Alliance had decided not to include theologians in the government. The reason I chose him was because Salam had sent Riverbend a post on her site saying that they were going to have an Iraqi blog-fight. (Riverbend 43). This “blog-fight” was going to be over Al-Hakim’s death. This interested me.

HW31: Citizenship Symposium

On Thursday, November 9th 2007, I attended the Citizenship Symposium. It was called, “Citizenship & Responsibility”. Here, the United States Representative & Holocaust Survivor Tom Lantos spoke, as did his daughter Katrina Sweat. Katrina was the first to speak. She told us that her father is the only Holocaust Survivor to serve in the United States Congress, and that he is also the Chairman of the House of Foreign Affairs Committee since 2006. Next, Tom Lantos spoke to us. He moved to the United States when he was 19 years old. He then attended University of Washington, Seattle. He talked about meeting the New President of France, and hearing his speech on the US-Europe relations. He quoted the New President of France, “America did not teach men the idea of freedom, she taught them how to practice it.” I thought it was a very smart quote, and it made a lot of sense to me. I thought it was genius.

HW30: What Kind of Democracy do we want?

Today at the Citizenship Symposium, I attended the session called, “What kind of Democracy do we want?” There were 3 speakers by the names of Emile Netzhammer (KSC Provost), Mayor Michael Blastos, and Nancy Tobi. Nancy Tobi showed us a slide show that she called, “Citizens Gone Wild: Taking Control of Our Democracy.” The first slide she told us about Moses, and how he was the first leader of the democratic movement. She referred to him as “a stuttering, humble, poor shepherd refugee,” who “led his people from slavery to freedom, invoking pure democratic law.” Nancy Tobi then began to ask “What kind of Democracy do we have?” She went over the Declaration of Independence, and the meaning of what democracy is on Wikipedia; a republic state or country that is not led by a monarchy. Tobi then talked about safeguard, and election crime. This affects everything. There are two methods that are used to count votes. There is a hand count (community counters) and then there is the Diebold Count (black box count). Nationally, 80% of the ballots counted by corporate owned and programmed computers using secret vote counting. In New Hampshire, 81% of the ballots are counted by corporate owned and programmed computers using secret vote counting. One quote that she used was by Joseph Stalin, “It’s not who votes that counts, It’s who counts the votes.” If there’s one thing I learned it would be about the election crime, I never knew that the ballots were counted by corporate owned and programmed computers.

HwW 29: Dear Riverbend

Dear Riverbend,

I’d like to start off with a “thank you.” This book has given me an insight to the war, and a lot of others as well. It’s not like we’re watching it on T.V. you’re actually giving us a vision of living the way you do. It must be hard, and I give you credit for it. Having to wake up to the sound of a gun-shots, explosion or yelling; and then wondering if it was a burglar, gang of looters, an attack, a bomb, or an American midnight raid, is frightening and I could never imagine doing that. It also amazes me that you know if it’s a tank, armored vehicle, Apache or Chinook, or me how you can tell if it’s a pistol or a machine-gun and how far the distance and maybe even the target. You show us what it’s like living in Iraq, as a woman. I also never knew that 50% of the work force in Iraq was made up of woman. You’ve opened my eyes to the life of an Iraqi woman living in the war, and the war in general. Keep writing!

HW 28: Baghdad Burning

The book Baghdad Burning is a blog written by an Iraqi woman who is 24. She goes by the name “Riverbend.” In her first blog post she tells us we should “expect a lot of complaining and ranting.” (Riverbend 5) She was just looking for a place to go and vent, and then she found her blog. She never really knew that anyone was going to read it. In the second blog she tells us what it’s like living in Iraq. She describes what it’s like waking up to the sound of “gun-shot, explosion, or yelling.” (Riverbend 6) Honestly, I’ll admit that I don’t pay that much attention to the war. This opens up my mind and makes me think, not only about the troops in Iraq, but now the people there. It’s teaching me about the war, and way people in Iraq see it.



Works Cited:
Riverbend. Baghdad Burning. New York: The Feminist Press at the City University of New York, 2005.

HW25: Baghdad Burning

I thought the Forward and Introduction of Baghdad Burning were interesting, and open-minded. In the Forward, by Ahdaf Soueif he tells us about a young Baghdadi woman who blogs on the Internet about the war. She goes by the name “Riverbend” and her blog is called “Baghdad Burning.” Soueif tells us that this war in Iraq has changed Riverbend’s life. On her blog she explains how she loses power, and there’s water shortages. As I was reading this, Soueif also quoted her on how people in Iraq actually felt bad for the troops. “There was a time when people here felt sorry for the troops. No matter what one’s attitude was to the occupation, there were moments of pity towards the troops, regardless of their nationality. We Would see them suffering under the Iraqi sun, obviously wishing they were somewhere else and somehow the vulnerability made them seem less monstrous and more human, That time has passed.” (Riverbend, viii) I like that he included this because to me, it seemed like they hated the troops that are there, and for her to state that actually opens my eyes to the war. In the Introduction, by James Ridgeway, he explains everything in depth. He tells us about Riverbend’s background, and how her “culture is rooted in one of the oldest and richest civilizations in the world.” (Smithway xiii) Smithway also tells us how Riverbend is not only living through the war not, but she also grew up when the Persian Gulf War was occurring.

HW24: A Room of My Own

Virginia Woolfe once stated, “A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.” (Woolfe 4) I have a room in which I share with another woman, one of my best friends from High School. I only get half of the room because I’m in a dorm room. Is Virginia Woolfe telling me that I can write fiction? The place in which I write my work, is where I’m sitting right now; at my desk. On my desk there’s a postcard from Rome, phone numbers, pictures of friends, a mirror calendar, fortune cookie fortunes, a phone, and a light. This is where I write my work. “The rooms differ so completely; they are calm or thunderous; open on to the sea, or, on the contrary, give on to a prison yard; are hard as a horsehair or soft as feathers- one has only to go into any room in any street for the whole of that extremely complex force of femininity to fly in one’s face.” (Woolfe 87) My room can be described as lively, bright brilliant colors, and a wall filled with faces of people who I love the most. This is a calming place for me, and I like the way my room is set up. “There must be a freedom, and there must be a peace.” (Woolfe 104) She’s right there should be freedom, and peace.

HW 23: With apologies to Virginia Woolfe

Lately, I’ve been reading blogs online. It seems to be that everything is revolved around things that are not so important. I’ve been reading the Jezebel website. On this site is a bunch of “gossip.” One blog on this page I chose to look at was the one labeled, “Making Billions From Bad Sausage: The History of Botox.” The picture shows a magazine called In Touch Weekly.” On the front page there is a picture of a beautiful woman. The caption show below says “BOTOX AT 23.” What a vision of loneliness! (pg 62) This woman is trying to make her self feel better by fixing her natural beauties. Woman should be accepted just the way they are. They shouldn’t feel the need to better themselves just so everyone else can think they’re beautiful. Women should be proud of who they are, and not care about what others have to say.

http://jezebel.com/gossip/pretty-poison/making-billions-from-bad-sausage-the-history-of-botox-313573.php

HW 22: Is the US a patriarchy?

I think that Woolfe believed the paper in England was patriarchy. Throughout chapter two, she talks about how women have nothing to write or say about men, and all men have to do is talk about women. On page 33, as she’s reading the newspaper Woolfe is distracted by the headlines, “Somebody had made a big score in South Africa. Lesser ribbons announced that Sir Austen Chamberlain was at Geneva. A meat axe with human hair on it had been found in a cellar. Mr. Justice --- commented in the Divorce Courts upon Shamelessness of Women.” Since patriarchy means; a society in which fathers are the powerful responsible heads of their families and households, and by extension, a society in which men hold a disproportionately large share of power, Woolfe has a reason to think that the paper is a patriarchy. All it mentions is men, and the power that they have. I looked at the New York Times newspaper to see if it would give a transient visitor to our planet the impression that the United States is a patriarchy. In my opinion, I don’t think it does at all. On the homepage to the New York Times, there are mostly articles about what’s going on with the war. That doesn’t seem like a patriarchy because there are both men and women soldiers fighting in the war right now.

HW 21: Dear Jenny

Hey Jenny,

I know that reading A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf can be hard. It was even hard for me to understand. She has a way of writing where you know what she’s talking about in a sense, but you don’t know exactly what she means. In the first chapter, Woolfe is talking about women and fiction, and that every woman needs a room of her own to write fiction, and money. Woolfe mentions sitting on a riverbank at Oxbridge, this is where she writes her opening statements, and ponders about women and fiction. Throughout the chapter, she seems to be at a luncheon, and believes that “before the war at a luncheon party like this people would have said precisely the same things but they would have sounded different, because in those days they were accompanied by a sort of humming noise, not articulate, but musical, exciting, which changed the value of words themselves.” (p.12) Woolfe then found a poem by Tennyson who she believes does not depict women in a good way. She seems to be a very strong-willed women, and strongly against sexism. That’s what this chapter leads me to believe. Maybe your English teacher believes this is a good book because Woolfe believes that “it is not a matter of importance” (p.5) on who is writing it, but what the subject is about. Women, fiction, money, and I believe sexism. She’s trying to make a statement, and open up doors for women writers in society today. I think it’s really confusing and I don’t fully understand why a sophomore in high school would be reading this, but at least attempt to read it. Maybe it will make more sense as you read through more chapters. As Mom always says, “You can’t say you dislike a book after 25 pages, at least get to page 50.” Good luck Jen! If you need anything else, just let me know.

Love you!

Kelly

HW 19: Blogging Restrictions

After reading the article, “Web of Influence” by Daniel W. Drezner and Henry Farrell, the most important paragraph I found is on page 93-94. Here, they talk about a Chinese blogger named Lui Di, a 23-year-old psychology student who “offended authorities with her satirical comments about the Communist Party.” She was released but two individuals who started an online petition on Di’s behalf were arrested. It amazes me that in China there are 300,000 bloggers that uneasily coexist with the government, and they all have to be secretive. It says here in the paragraph that, “Text messaging is much safer medium for the online Chinese community.” In other words, Chinese bloggers basically aren’t allowed to blog what they feel or like on the internet. This is why I chose this paragraph because I like the fact that it informs you on what’s happening on the other side of the world, and their restrictions on blogging.

HW 18: Amy Winehouse: Dirty?

I decided to look at Jezebel’s page. As I was searching through her site, I saw a picture of Amy Winehouse. The caption for the picture is “Amy Winehouse Never Lets A Good Fag Go To Waste.” In the picture, Winehouse is shown picking up a cigarette off the street. Not only is that disturbing in every way possible, but it gets worse because in the next picture she’s actually lighting it. Who knows where that cigarette has been, it could have been in someone’s mouth that has, lets say…herpes. Maybe it was hers, and she just dropped it. But, from the looks of it, that’s not what I’m assuming, and clearly, the person who took this picture isn’t either. It’s disgusting, and not only is her smoking a cigarette she found on the floor, but her hair is gross as well. Someone needs to hire a new hairstylist ASAP. If you’d like to check out this disgusting picture, it’s on this website: http://jezebel.com/gossip/snap-judgment/amy-winehouse-never-lets-a-good-fag-go-to-waste-307758.php

HW17b: Influence for elections

The first interview I read was with Markos Moulitsas Zuniga. Markos is a thirty-four-year-old former GI and committed Democrat who writes in a political blog called “DailyKos.” Throughout his interview he talks about his blog, and all the attention that it has gotten. As he states, “DailyKos has really gone through three main growth phases.” First there are the 2002 midterm elections, then the Iraq war, and lastly the 2004 Democratic primaries. Next, I read the interview with Ana Marie Cox. Throughout her interview I felt that she doesn’t really have anything to say about the elections. She writes freely, and she made that clear in her interview. To answer the question, “Which blog would be more likely to influence the way you would vote in a coming election?” I would go with DailyKos. Zuniga has a way of writing, it’s formal, and makes much more of a statement with elections then Cox does with Wonkette. Wonkette is good if you’re looking for a laugh or feel like reading up on gossip. For elections though, I’d much rather go with DailyKos.

HW 17: Keeping it in the family

http://jezebel.com/gossip/daddy-issues/-307685.php

As I was searching through Jezebel’s website, I found an article about a couple who couldn’t have a baby. She says that in London there’s a couple that are having sperm donated in order for them to have a child. This sperm is donated by their 72-year-old father/father-in-law. In my opinion, I think that’s disgusting. I don’t think I would ever ask my father to donate his sperm if I couldn’t have a child. I would much rather adopt. That’s repulsive. I honestly don’t believe that they would even think about that. The child is going to look more like the 72-year-old then his own father. The 72-year-old is now going to be fathering his grandchild. Gross. The woman is basically having a child with her father-in-law. Really, if people want to have children and can’t, then just adopt; do you really have to keep it in the family? Is it really that horrible to adopt a child?

HW 16: The five pillars according to Scoble

In an interview with Robert Scoble, in the book Blog! How the newest media revolution is changing politics, business, and culture, he explains the five pillars of conversational software. Here, he explains “RSS” “ a techie’s way of saying it allows a blogger to offer his Webog for people to subscribe to, as well as to integrate links and news from other websites.” (Kline & Burstein 130) Scoble explains “five things that made blogging hot.” They include ease of publishing, discoverability, cross-site conversations, permalinking, and syndication. I would say that ease of publishing is how easy it is to publish a blog, or post something on the internet. Discoversability, is kind of obvious, it’s how easy it is to find a blog or be “discovered.” Cross-site communications most likely means, that if you go to one site, it probably has a link to another site. Permalinking as Scoble explains is “a URL that will take me directly to a post.” And last but not least, syndication is to keep up multiple blogs.

HW 14: Interview with Nick Denton

After reading “Take an Obsession, Then Feed It!” (Kline & Burstein 150-156) I felt that Nick Denton puts a lot of hope into these blogs. Actually, Fortune magazine said the reporter created “the first “empire of the fledgling weblog industry’ – an empire that includes such hot name-brand blogs.” Denton actually mentions that the formula to having such a big blog is “actually quite simple: Take an obsession-say, a gadget obsession- and feed it.” In other words, he has writers put things on the blogs that are going to get a lot of feedback, but not too much, this way, readers come back for more. Denton also points out that in the near future people won’t be looking at the front page of the New York Times or Fortune as much as they do now because weblogs will allow people to “their own newspaper.” Although this doesn’t sound like a good idea, it’s much faster through a computer to get the news updates or look something up, rather then reading the newspaper.

HW 13: Blogs changing businesses

After reading, “Blogs Will Change Your Business” by Stephen Baker and Heather Green (Kline and Burstein 221-223) it’s changed my view about the impact of blogging on business. I never knew that blogging has had such an impact on the world, and it’s industries. Businesses depend so much on blogs, it’s kind of disturbing. As mentioned in the chapter, “a young programmer named Mark Jen started blogging about his first days in the Googleplex.” Although he wasn’t “giving out inside dirt,” he talked about Google’s health plan and how it had a better plan than Microsoft. After two weeks, Jen was fired. This is an example of why I believe that blogging has an impact on business. Businesses depend so much on blogs, and what goes on. It’s a way to communicate with people all over the world. As stated in this chapter, “Most blogs are open to the world. As the bloggers read each other, comment, and link from one page to the next, they create a global conversation.” Blogs have made such a major impact on the world. Blogs are important because they have information, opinions, thoughts, comments, anything you want to write on them. They make businesses or they destroy them.

HW 11: Applying Graff, Chapter 6 to "Making Global Voices Heard"

I chose to view and read the blog Global Voices is now (http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/). This blog is for people all over the world, people who blog from a country or about a country. Rebecca MacKinnon states that this site is “to point to the most interesting and important information that’s coming off the international blogosphere, because if you look at the mainstream media large parts of the world are almost never mentioned.” When you first open the site you see different countries mentioned, such as China, Kuwait, Peru, etc. The style of writing is easy so that anyone, anywhere is able to read it. The website shows posts such as, “World Reaction to the UN Declaration on Indigenous Rights,” “China: Traffic Cops get Machine Guns,” and “Myanmar: Tens of Thousands Join Protest led by Monks.” As MacKinnon described it before, this site seems to do exactly what she stated. It covers all world regions, and topics. I believe that the site corresponds to my understanding of the reading “Making Global Voices Heard” by Kline and Burstein. The site and MacKinnon’s comments about the site are the same. She explained it very well. This site is very well planned out, and covers plenty of topics. Of course, many will probably disagree with my assertion that there may not be enough information on the site. But, they can always add their input, and ask for more, or even find information themselves and blog it.

HW 9: Applying Graff to Huffington

I chose to respond to Huffington’s interview, “Punching Holes In Faded Mirrors.” (Kline & Burstein 343-348) During this interview Huffington mention’s that “media is suffering from attention deficit disorder.” (Kline& Burstein 345)I have to disagree with her on this quote. The media always spends plenty of time on top stories. For weeks, the story just runs, whether it’s on television, newspapers, or magazines. Huffington also mentions that, “the great thing about the blogosphere is that it can be self-correcting. If there’s fact that a blogger puts out that’s wrong, the chances of it being corrected quickly are very great.” I agree with Huffington on this statement, because blogs can be edited and quickly changed, whereas a newspaper article can’t be edited because it’s already printed and on paper. On blogs, you can go back and edit or completely change your opinion on something that you have written about. By blogging, you can reach everyone, stories keep going on and on for months, and you can change your opinion with a click of a button.

HW 7: "My So-Called Blog"

Over the years online blogging has become very popular, mostly among teenagers. This worries parents because teenagers stay on the computer at all hours of the day, and the parents have no idea what they’re doing. In a way, parents should be worried due to the fact that there have been abductions that have involved young women and men meeting up with strangers. I disagree though sites like Xanga, LiveJournal, and Blogger are used as online journals where people can vent. Parents should let their kids make choices. If they decide to be stupid and meet up with a complete stranger, then that’s their fault. Emily Nussbaum states, “A result of all this self-chronicling is that the private experience of adolescence- a period traditionally marked by seizures of self-consciousness and personal confessions wrapped in layers and hidden in a sock-drawer-has been made public. Peer into an online journal, and you find the operatic texture of a teenage life with its fits of romantic misery, quick-change moods and sardonic inside jokes. Gossip spreads like poison. Diary writers compete for attention, then fret when they get it.” (Kline & Burstein 351) Nussbaum explains it so perfectly. It’s an escape where people can feel free to write whatever they want.

HW 6: Interest Statement for semester-long project

The social computing technologies that I’m interested in right now are e-mail, instant messaging, and social networking services. The reason I like e-mail is because I use it everyday to keep in touch with my family. Everyday I wake up, I check my e-mail and I always have one from my mom. It’s our way of keeping in touch. Instant messaging is one that I’m also interested in because I always use it. There is never a moment that I’m not online. That doesn’t mean that I’m always at the computer, but my screen name is always on. It’s a huge way of keeping in touch with friends who are back at home. Specific social networking that I use is Facebook, and Myspace. I mostly use Facebook, because it’s a way to keep in friends who aren’t always around. You can always leave a comment on their page, or even a message.
The kinds of empowerment that I’m interested in are overcoming sexism, rights and empowerment of people with HIV/AIDS, and issues of disabilities or learning differences. The one I’m most interested in is overcoming sexism. This topic always gets me annoyed. I hate the fact that men think they’re better than women.
The geographical areas that I’m interested in looking at are the US and Europe.

HW 5b: Applying Graff Chp 2 to "I blog, Therefore I am"

In Kline’s, “I Blog, Therefore I Am,” Kline insists that our media has adapted to the changes throughout history. Kline acknowledges the fact that during the 1950s when televisions came about, newspapers chose to “avoid duplicating what readers already saw on their TVs, focusing instead on explaining the larger meaning of news events.” (Kline, pg 242) This is what blog’s do in today’s world. As Kline mentions, most of the nations’ leading newspapers have blog’s. Blog’s are used to keep reporters, and news-watchers in touch. Here, they can share opinions. Kline also admires that blog’s better distinguish the genuine fairness, and false statements between stories. I agree with Kline, there has been a major difference in the media, from the 1950s till now. All major newspapers, television shows, and company’s have blogs to get the feedback on their products. Sometimes the outcome might not be so good, but at least they have something to know how customers feel.

HW 4: Responding to "The Voice of the Customer"

Greg Thomas once stated, "Great Brands are always built on a promise." (David Kline & Dan Burstein 112) In my room, I have a bottle of All laundry detergent. All has a website that they use to inform people of their detergent. The slogan for All is: “All, Small and Mighty.” They say that All is “small and mighty” because it is three times concentrated. On the website they also state “Tiny bottle, Mighty green.” They claim to have reduced the bottle size to use less plastic, and also reduced the bottle size so that they can use smaller boxes for shipping. The All promise is that even though the bottle may be small, it cleans better then any other detergent. I believe this is true because today I did all my laundry, and my clothes are cleaner then ever, and smell nice and fresh. I think that All has kept it’s promise, and I also like the idea that they’re trying to reduce the use of plastic and cardboard.

HW 3: Correspondence to "Toward a More Participatory Democracy"

Throughout the reading of "Toward a More Participatory Democracy" by Burstein and Kline, I thought that they went on and on about the elections and how the blogs have effected the outcome. Maybe the chapter was too long? I knew I was losing interest after page 10. The whole chapter made every person who reads the blogs sound vulnerable. It’s like anything people write, such as opinions, other people take it as facts. It also made our society sound pathetic. People are researching everything, and going beyond the News and the Media. Why would people want to see photos of the caskets of soldiers who had died in the Iraqi War? Maybe their families didn’t want the pictures to get out into the media. Also, people read about the elections online and it changed their thought of mind. It had such an impact on the American Political scene as well. Around the 2004 elections blogging was huge. Many people visited the blog sites to get “the scoop.” The whole ordeal to me is just retarded. People should have their own opinions, instead of having others think for them.

HW 2: Connecting one of Burstien's 12 key ideas

One of Burnsteins 12 key ideas in the book, Blog! How the newest media revolution is changing politics, business, and culture, is Blogging is going global. This one key idea is the one that seemed most interesting. Throughout the years blogging has become very big. It’s one way for people to stay connected without actually speaking with each other. As Burstein mentions, “A very knowledgeable Chinese friend recently predicted that blogs would have more impact on revolutionizing China and bringing it fully into the modern world than any other influence.” The reason he believes this is because so many people write their opinions on their blogs. People influence people. When people read blogs, their opinions spread throughout. I know that here, a lot of young adults use Facebook, and Myspace. This is the way of blogging. Word travels really quickly throughout these. People could influence plenty of things, such as what shoes to buy, or what phone to use, etc. Blogging is a huge issue, it’s being used everywhere. “Blogging software now allows more voices to be heard on more subjects in countries like the UK or Australia or Sweden.”