A Blog

After reading “Sex, Lies and Political Scrapes” i have found a new interest in politics.  Before reading this article and looking at Cox’s blog , Wonkette, i didn’t keep up with politics and didn’t find it very interesting.  But this is a side of politics that really grabs my attention.  Wonkette sums up the life of politicians that isn’t plastered all over the news.  These are politicians private lives and scandals that are going on behind the scenes.  After reading some of the blogs I wanna say that i won’t let what i read influence my decision on who to vote for for President because someones personal life shouldn’t reflect on how they run  a country.  There have been many past presidents that have been adulterous, but they have still been GREAT leaders of our country.  But in the end the things i read in Wonkette will secretly influence my decision on who i vote for.  Which in the long run might be a good thing because no matter what kind of leader, whether it be Governor or President, you want some one that doesn’t have too juicy of a past. 

I read Deadspin’s article ” Barry Bond May Be Leaving Our Shores”.  The author Rick follows rule #3 especially well.  He uses ” a human voice” when he incorporates his opinion into the article while at the same time making it easy for the reader to pick out the facts.  He states that Bonds could be leaving the US to play in Japan and then states a little side comment about it and laughs to himself. So the reader really feels like they are reading opinion and fact at the same time.  I think that this blog follows Scoble’s 20 Rules…but obviously it is almost impossible to incorporate every law in one shirt blog.  I feel like the rules are pretty acceptable to follow and are a good outline to base a bog entry off of. 

 Ito clearly states that although it is true that blogging is getting very big at a fast pace, however he doesn’t leave out the fact that journalism is not going anywhere soon.  In addition it will start to turn up everywhere like TV and commercial radio do now.  I agree with Ito when he says that blogging is good for society, after all it is easy to relate too which helps the reader connect more.  As a result this will increase the number of blogger and readers which will move along the development of blogging at a very high pace. 

One of the most interesting blogs i read this week was on from the Huffington Post titledAshton Kutcher’s Birthday Crashed by Hepatitis A. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/02/21/ashton-kutchers-birthday_n_87892.html .  The New York Health Department stated that at the night of Ashton Kutcher’s birthday celebration, one of the bar tenders was diagnosed with Hepatitis A, which is the swelling of the liver.  It is not the worst of the 3 diseases but the Health Department is advising everyone who visited the club the 3 days the bartender was working to get vaccinations.  The bar estimated that around 700 to 800 people had came in contact with it and could contract the disease.  I found this a very interesting article because it makes you realize all the things you open yourself up to when you eat out at a restaurant.  This may not be the first thing that pops into your head but it just goes to show that things like this really can happen. 

I chose to look at english.ohmynews.com The page is set up very organized and everything is really easy to get to.  The title of the page stands out in a bold red.  The format kind of reminds me of a newspaper setting, which is what MacKinnon states in her interview.  The first thing my eyes really go to is the picture of a homeless man in a Santa hat…the caption is “Homeless people have rights too”.  Ordinary people write on this blog but it is edited by a group of editors, such as a newspaper would get edited.  I think that the way MacKinnon described OhMyNews was a perfect description of what it is really like.  I read a few blogs from it and it really is an online newspaper.  I can see how people were influenced to go out and vote. The articles are very professional and persuasive.  I just read an article on the reviews of a new movie and what was said in the blog actually had some say in whether or no to see the new movie or not. 

Waldman states in her last interview question that there is some sort of education out on the Web for women.  Although i agree with this it is only to a certain point.  Yes there is “education” on the Web but it more like someones opinion of the subject.  For example Waldman says that the education is for pregnant women, a sort of support group.  But it is just the knowledge or experiences of other pregnant women writing on this blog page.  Not true book education.  Although i do agree that this kind of “education” is important to hear from other women going through the same things as each other.  If anything it is more of a support system where they tell each other what is going on and try to relate to each other. 

Waldman also says that one of the negativity’s of blogging is that it is unedited and that this is why it gives of a tone of nastiness.  I agree with her completely on this statement.  If you are reading the newspaper it has been edited by the editors who make sure that there are no negative tones in the article or too much bias in it.  This is not the case with blogging, there are no limitations to what can be said.  Another thing that adds to this negative tone is that other blogger’s can leave comments, agreeing or disagreeing with the topic, which can result in angry or nasty tones. 

There is a certain line that should not be crossed when monitoring what your teenager writes online.  I think that if a parent sees a change in the child’s behavior whether it be suspicion or drugs, that gives the parent the right to see what the teen is writing online.  An example where the parents should have stepped in was when Nussbaum hears about a girl who “poster graphic descriptions of cutting herself, family fights, sex.  It was all documented on her Web log, complete with photos and real names.”  I feel like these images and posts are extremely inappropriate for other teens to be reading about and if the parents had been monitoring the site they could have stopped it before it came to her posting images.  But there is always a contradiction to monitoring what your child says.  Parents may not always want or like what they see is they monitor what their child writes online.  Nussbaum talks about a parents worst nightmare is things they see being posted like “It was a night of lying to my dad”.  Parents don’t want to find things like this.  There are just some things that teens post on their blogs that they wouldn’t really do or say in person.  So it is very hard for me to make a strong argument on where i stand because there are certain situations that could have been avoided if a parent was monitoring and then there are others that aren’t putting the teen in danger but may not follow the parents “rules”. 

In David Kline’s ” I Blog Therefore I Am”, he suggests that blogging might “be the death” of Big Media.  I highly disagree with this statement.  Newspapers have been around for ages.  Spreading the news around and making it easy for readers to get a hold of.  The information was presented professionally right out in-front of the reader.  Next came the television.  The TV is filled with different news channels such as CNN, FOX, MSNBC which have been around for many years and have great reputation for fulfilling the needs of news to watchers all over the globe.  Kline also believes that “Web users generally watch less TV and listen-to fewer ,minutes of the radio.”  I highly contradictthis statement.  I myself am a frequent web user but can also say that I watch the TV for news programs just as much.  Television is much more reliable than the Internet.  The Internet may not always work there can be bad connection or “construction” on  a website, blocking a reader to view it.  There have not been many instances when the television doesn’t work with the exception of a power outage, where the Internet does not work either.  Although Kline does admit that “the disciplines of traditional media aren’t just awkward restrictions.  They add meaning. They help understanding.  Without them its much, much harder to make sense of what’s happening in the world.” 

My three top choices for social computing at the moment are chat rooms, instant messaging, and texting.  I chose these three because i feel like they are used the most in the age that we are in right now.  Chat rooms let people with similar interests talk to each other and exchange ideas, instant messaging is one of the most popular ways to communicate between friends and family of all ages, and texting is just like IM on the go.  I think it would be really interesting to find out more information about women in the middle east because they don’t have much of a say or place in their culture.  Abuse survivors have always been interesting to me because i think its incredible for someone to go through all the mental and physical pain and still be able to function and lead a normal life.  Another incredible group of people that are becoming more popular this day and age is single parents.  I have lots of friends who were just raised by one parent.  I think its a very different environment and i feel like single parent families haven’t been heard enough, so that would also be interesting to find out more about.

Tag Body Spray implies that men who wear it attract beautiful woman and will have someone to go home with at night.  http://www.consideryourselfwarned.com/ .  The opening page for the website is full of provocative women.  After seeing one of the “testing videos” it shows three young, skinny boys putting on tag and going out into an environment of woman after a sweaty day.  It shows one boy coming up to a group of girls bouncing on a trampoline and tackling the boy.  The second boy runs into two girls who are sexually pouring whip-cream and chocolate sauce into their mouths.  And the third boy is seen being touched and then “never to be seen again”.  This shows all the young men who watch this commercial that when they put on TAG Body Spray woman will be crawling at their feet wanting to have sex with them. Obviously this is a promise that the product can not keep.