Hw 42: final pod cast

Gabcast! A Blog of One's Own #60



This is sarah and my final podcast

Hw 37: Second Podcast

Gabcast! A Blog of One's Own #36




This is Hannah and Sarah's second podcast for Baghdad Burning

Hw 36: baghdad burning podcast 1

http://www.gabcast.com/index.php?a=episodes&b=play&id=8538&cast=49836&autoplay=true

this is sarah and my podcast on Baghdad Burning

Hw 35: Letter to Blog Readers

Over the course of the past 13 weeks, I have learned a lot about maintaining a blog. Before I started "A Blog of One's Own," I wasn't even that sure what a blog was. Now that I have written about many different topics, from other online blogs and the books we have read, blogging has showed me how you can get an opinion out to anyone who comes across my blog. I hope that anyone who reads my blog gets a feel for every topic and subject area we have covered in the class. I wouldn't say that I have a favorite blog, or a blog that I am proud of, but the blogs toward the last few weeks are definitely much better than the ones that I wrote when I first started writing them. Although I thought writing blogs were a very different and interesting way of writing a homework assignment because it was more personal than any other homework assignment that could have been assigned, but I don't think that I will be writing any more blogs on my Blog in the future. On the other hand, if you are someone who likes to get your thoughts and opinions out there, than blogging is something you should definitely take up.

Hw 34: Culture in Iraq

In Baghdad Burning, Riverbend shares Iraq's differences in their culture, such as the importance of date palms and the importance of their custom of evening tea. Date palms are found in Dhuluaya, which is an area north of Baghdad. "Orchards in many areas in Iraq--especially central Iraq--are almost like oases in the desert"(Riverbend 103). Palm trees are very useful to Iraqi people for things that come from dates. "Dibiss," which is a dark smooth syrup that comes from the date is a main source of sugar in their sweets. Another thing that is produced by dates, is "khal," which is vinegar. Many people use for seasoning their. "Areg," which is an alcoholic beverage, and lastly dates can be used as presents. Another custom that is important to the people of Iraq, is evening tea. "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). It is also a time for the family to have a conversation together and talk about everything from war strategies to politics. What I found most interesting about their tea, was that they use tea leaves and not tea bags. If you have "teabag tea" they think of it as an insult.

Hw 33: Iraqi Teens Work to Help Their Families

The title of the episode of that I chose was "Iraqi Teens Work to Help Their Families." The title of the series is called "Alive in Baghdad." The podcast was published on October 15th 2007 and the link to the video is http://aliveinbaghdad.org/2007/10/15/iraqi-teens-work-to-help-their-families/.
The podcast was about three boys in their early teens that are currently working for their parents and not attending school. The three boys that appear in the podcast are names Hussein Kamal, Mustafa Malek Futhullah Ali, and Yousif. Mustafa Malek Futhallah Ali is 14 years old and is in the 6th grade. He worked with his father ever since he was a child and he his currently working for his uncle doing carpentry. The scenery at the places that these teens work are run down and not in the best condition. During Husseins Kamals interview inside his house, it shows his kitchen and it is also run down and in not in very good condition.
From watching this podcast, a viewer may learn how hard it is for teens in Iraq to live, working numerous hours everyday in the conditions of war. It shows a good comparison with how different it is for teenagers living in America today, and what the Iraqi's have to go through everyday. The most memorable thing from the podcast, was when Hussein Kamal said "Stop supporting terrorism because many youth of my people are being killed." This line stuck out to me because of how greatly children and teenagers are being effected from the war, and nearly 50% of Iraqis are unemployed and there is nothing that they can do about it.

Hw 32: Shopping for School Supplies

In Baghdad Burning, Riverbend explains her trip she takes to get school supplies. She goes with her cousin, his wife, and her brother E. so that they can get school supplies for her cousins two daughters. Both of the daughters are not able to leave the house since the war began because their mother won't let them. The 4 of them went to " 'makatib' or stationary shops that sell everything from toys to desks"(Riverbend 94). They all picked out everything from scented erasers and crayons to Barbie notebooks for the two little girls. When the four of them were done school supply shopping, the two girls were impatiently waiting for them to get back, waiting at the door. The oldest was grateful for what she had gotten but the younger one was a little jealous of her sisters Barbie notebook because she had outgrown Winnie the Poo one she had gotten. Getting to school, on the other hand, was a little more difficult than picking out the school supplies. The girls had to me walked by Riverbends cousin S. every morning, and then wait to see when school would be out to walk them back. She explained the school to be full of people, but the classrooms were empty and unfurnished. The school systems had no money to fix it up or for any supplies so the kids would have to pitch in for paint and chalk and everything else that they needed. Her cousin S. is very worried about the girls starting school since she can't keep her eye on them at all times.

Hw 31: Responding to Riverbernd --Arbil

The Place that I chose that I wanted to learn more about, is Arbil. In the book it was mentioned as one of the northern Kurdish areas where a huge explosion took place on Tuesday, September 9th, 2003. " They say it was a suicide bomber in a car in front of the American intelligence headquarters. The number of casualties varied form news network to news network, but the one thing is sure-- a child in a house e across the headquarters was killed.Horrible" (Riverbend 61). Wikipedia.org says that "Arbil is believed to be one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world and is one of the larger cities in Iraq. The city lies eighty kilometres (fifty miles) east of Mosul. In 2005, its estimated population was 990,000 inhabitants. The city is the capital of the Kurdistan Region." The latest modern history of Arbil " in the mid-1990s when fighting broke out between the two main Kurdish factions, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). The city was captured by the KDP in 1996 with the assistance of the Iraqi government of Saddam Hussein......Since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, only isolated, sporadic violence has hit Arbil, unlike many other areas of Iraq. Parallel bomb attacks against the Eid celebrations arranged by the PUK and KDP killed 109 people on February 1, 2004. Responsibility was claimed by the Islamist group Ansar al-Sunnah, and stated to be in solidarity with the Kurdish Islamist faction Ansar al-Islam." This city is Iraq has a lot of history too it and recently has had a lot of violence, more than most places in Iraq, and has continued to have more and more bombings.

Works Cited:

"Arbil." Wikipedia. 12 Nov. 2007 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/arbil

Riverbend. Baghdad Burning: Girl Blog From Iraq. New York: Feminist Press, 2005. vii-286

Hw 30b: "Citizen Soldiers and Global Warriors:Challenges of Iraq"

The Citizenship Symposium presented last Thursday, spoken by Scott Ritter was titled "Citizen Soldiers and Global Warriors:Challenges of Iraq." Scott Ritter, former UN chief weapons inspector and former marine, discuses the title of the session and talks about how the Constitution comes into play. He said that the constitution is "who we are as citizens of America," and how it represents us as people with our rights and responsibilities. He defines the title of the session very clear by saying a soldier is "Someone who defends citizens. Men and women who proudly represent us as people from foreign and domestic enemies." He defines global warrior as "Men and women who wear the uniform that are deployed throughout the world doing the bidding for the government of the United States." Ritter says that a soldier is someone who defends citizens, but a citizen solider is "someone who can defend the constitution,uniform or not." All of these characterizations deal with the citizenship of Americans and how the Constitution comes into play. Scott Ritter stresses this point when he says "true citizenship is one who can defend the Constitution--solider of democracy."
This citizenship symposium was much different from June Cross's and it was also not my favorite. I felt that John Ritter was very straight forward and opinionated about what he was saying and i didn't agree 100% some of his beliefs on what was going on with the war.

Hw 30a: Secret Daughter

Former Journalist for the Boston globe, and Former professor at Colombia University, June Cross, presented a documentary,Secret Daughter, on November 6th in the Mabel Brown Room at Keene State College. The main topic to this session was for people to understand the race division that she(dark skinned) and her mother(white) had dealt with throughout their lives. The main question she asked before she presented her documentary, was "What is it that makes dark skinned people so different than white."
The Documentary showed what it was like for June Cross to grow up, and all the obstacles that came her way being a dark skinned girl living with a white mother. When she was only 4 years old, her mother sent her away to live in a Black family in Atlantic City. She did this because she was "Afraid society friends will drop me if they find out." They will do this if they find out that she once was with a black man. The rest of the documentary discusses her life and the relationship her and her mother have grown to have today. One interesting thing that I learned in the documentary, was when June Cross's mother explained how people would be treated if you were with a black man. "I was walking down the street and I saw a black man hitting his wife who was white, and people walking by didn't do one thing about it because they thought she deserved to get hurt if she was with an black man."
Overall, I found the symposium to be very informational and interesting. I learned many things June Cross had gone through being a African American child during that time period.

Hw 28: Open Letter to Riverbend

Dear Riverbend,

After reading your blogs from August through September of 2003, the posts gave me a true sense of what your life is like. Even after reading the first entry you wrote when you talk about how awful you night sleep was the previous night, and then in later posts you continue to write about your insomnia and how uncomfortable it is to sleep. I immediately began to feel the pain and suffering you are going through just by the first post. It doesn't take a lot to realize the awful things that you and your family are going through, but there were a few events that really caught my attention. One post that I was blown away with more than the others, was Saturday August 23rd. You discussed how females can no longer leave their homes alone. "Each time i go out, E. and either a father, uncle, or cousin has to accompany me. It feels like we've gone back 50 years ever since the beginning of the occupation." Even how you are told what to wear, and how you would never leave the house if you weren't wearing a long skirt and a long sleeved loose shirt. It amazes me how girls who wear jeans are at risk of being attacked or abducted because here in America just about everyone wears jeans. Another post that caught my attention was Saturday, September 6th, 2003. It is titled "Bad, Bad, Bad Day." One bad thing that occurred Wasthe Mosque shooting in Al-Sha'ab. I think it is awful that things like this occur on a regular basis and you don't even get to know the amount of people that die in such an traumatic event. Another thing that happened in this post was the electricity was off and the water pumps didn't work leaving you and your family with no water to shower, wash dishes, or to do laundry with. It is tragic to hear that things like this happen on a regular basis also, and there is nothing that can be done about it. These blog entries that you wrote over the course of a month, really gave me a feel for the things you and your family suffer from day to day, but also what it is like to be female and Muslim living in Iraq.

Sincerely,
Hannah

HW 27: Annotated Bibliography Entry for Baghdad Burning

Riverbend. Baghdad Burning: Girl Blog From Iraq. New York: Feminist Press, 2005. vii-286

Baghdad Burning, written by a young Iraqi girl who goes by the name of "Riverbend," is a collection of Blogs written from August of 2003 to March of 2004. The book gives the reader a feeling of what it is like being an Iraqi living in the middle of a war. "Riverbend," wrote these blogs, which are all in English, so Americans could understand the war and live through the eyes of her and her family. She wrote blogs whenever she got the chance, depending if the power was on or not. From reading this book, you will learn everything from personal to political events that Riverbend and her family witness everyday in Iraq. The book displays many benefits, which are getting information from a solid source and viewing it differently than you might see on the news. This book fits in well with this course because it shows how different news can come through blogging and not on television. It is also being written through a women's perspective, which fits into the feminist part of this course

Hw 25: Responding to Riverbend

Baghdad Burning is a collection of blogs written by an Iraqi girl living in Iraq today who goes by the name of "Riverbend." This collection of blogs is first forwarded by Adhaf Souief. Souief explains how Riverbend's blogs, that are all English, are written to show the voice of an "ordinary" Iraqi resident, and to show the people the perspective of a family who is living through these traumatic invasions going on today in Iraq. Riverbend wanted to blog in order to reach out to the people to show her account of war. She also has some help from her brother "E" who shares his thoughts on their situation. The forward also explains how Riverbend is not anti-America just because of the war that is going on, and she speaks for many of her people as well. "In fact, far from being anti anything, this book is firmly on the side of humanity and the side of life"(Soueif viii). I think this is a good perspective for a book like this to be at, and I think it makes it more of an acurate view point. The introduction, written by James Ridgeway, briefly overviews Riverbend's day-by-day living experience of war as well as the background history of Iraq since the beginning of the twentieth century when the issues with natural resources began. It backgrounds many brief wars that happened in the 1900's and explains the change relation with the U.S and Iraq after they invaded Kuwait in 1990. After that, in 1991, the Persian Gulf War took place which greatly effected the economy in Iraq as well as the people for the next twelve years. The war to follow this,was the 2003 war. The way that both of the authors explained the war in Iraq are pretty accurate to the memories that I know and have heard throughout the years from hearing it from people and in the news, but it will be interesting to hear what Riverbend has to go though.

Hw 24: A Room of My Own

When I first started reading "A Room of One's Own," Woolf explained her thesis and she said that "A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction"(Woolf 4). At first that means to the reader exactly what it says, but by the end of the book, you realize that it is more than that. "-give her a room of her own and a five hundred a year, let her speak her mind and leave out half that she now puts in, and she will write a better book one of these day"(Woolf 93). What Woolf is trying to say here is that although Mary Carmichael, in her opinion, was not a very good writer, if she had an atmosphere she was comfortable in both physically and emotionally, she would fill in the missing gaps to the literature she wrote.
I would say that I do have a room of my own. Not in my dorm room, but in my room at home. It is a place where I am perfectly comfortable and has a peaceful and relaxing atmosphere. Like the name of our course, our blogs are a small piece of ourselves that we can be ourselves and show our opinions in every way possible.Woolf concludes the book by restating with what a women needs to write fiction in a room of her own. "The whole of the mind must lie wide open if we are to get the sense that the writer is communicating his experience with perfect fullness. There must be freedom and there must be peace. Not a wheel must grate, not a light glimmer"(Woolf 106).

Hw 23: Virginia Woolf and Feminist Blogging

"With Apologies to Virginia Woolf"

As I was looking through all of the different "blogs" I came across some feminist weblogs which I was very happy about. I was appalled that there are websites that involve people writing journal entries about all different kinds of feminist issues. It is an honor to see women writing and getting their voices out there. Other than that, i feel there are other ways for women to get there opinions heard. I think that for one to spend hours on the computer commenting on journal entries is a waste of time while you could be doing other things more productive. The time I did spend browsing however, I did indeed come across some blogs on the feminist site http://www.winnocotte.com/ that I felt were rubbish. The women talked about this one particular article that was talking about politics in the United States but it was more gossip than politics. "Whatever the reason, all these blogs, are worthless for my purposes"(Woolf 32). It is, indeed, outstanding that there are feminist sites, but for the most part they are not to my liking.

Hw 22: Patriarchy then and now

One of the main themes in chapter two of Virginia Woolfs "A Room of One's Own," is patriarchy. Patriarchy is a social system where the male of the family is in charge over the women and children.Woolf discusses the issues that have been bothering her about her visit to the two colleges that involved patriarchy. There were many questions that she asked herself such as "Why do women drink water and men wine? Why was one sex so prosperous and the other so poor?-a thousand questions at once suggested themselves"(Woolf 25). Woolf proves that England is a patriarchy with all of the questions about how men dominate over women that she continues to ask herself. Even when she goes to look up book "M" in the library of the museum, and there are no books written about males. All of these things that Woolf is questioning over and over shows the male dominance of the time. She stresses this fact when she states, " The most transient visitor to this planet, I thought, who picked up this paper could not fail to be aware, even from the scattered testimony, that England is under rule of patriarchy"(Woolf 33).
When I looked on the front cover of "The Boston Globe" the article was about the win of the Boston Red Sox. This shows that today in the US there is still some sense of patriarchy, because the sports these days are usually only popular if men are the ones participating in them.

Hw:21 Responding to Virginia Woolf

Dear cousin,

In chapter one of Virgina Woolfs "A Room of One's Own," Woolf first makes the introduction talking about what she will address in the book. She explains how she was asked to speak about women and fiction, and she makes a small point of saying, "A woman must have money and a room of her own is she is to write fiction, that is, as you will see, leaves the great problem of the true nature of woman ad the true nature of fiction unsolved. " She then beings to explain how the book will be about the past two days that proceeded her ending up where she was at that moment. Woolf also stresses the point that "I" has little importance to it. The narrative part of the book begins, and the narrator is sitting on a river bank of Oxbridge ,a university, and is thinking of women and fiction. She gets interrupted in thought by "the Beadle"(a security guard)telling her than women aren't allowed on the grass. She then wants to go to the library of the university but later finds out that women are not allowed in the library if they are not accompanied by a man of the University. She then gets angry and feels excluded from her surroundings. The narrator then talks about how she has dinner at Fernham. She describes the setting of the meal and the conversations amongst the people she is with. She then goes on thinking about the poverty of women and questions why women don't have never had that much money. She concludes the chapter with these thoughts.
The chapters point, is to show how different it was for women back then and how much more difficult their lives were.It shows how different it was than it is today for females. Setting the chapter on a college campus really gives the reader a feel for how different it was because we can compair with how it is today.Your teacher may find this book important to read because it is not only an educational book, but it is a classic piece of literature than can be learned and discussed a lot from. I found the reading actually more interesting that I expected. Although is was difficult to understand at parts, I learned a lot from how it was back then and how women were treated.

Sincerely,
Hannah

Hw 19: Web of Influence

The paragraph that I decided to write about was the last paragraph on page 91 of the chapter. The text explores how bloggers make people more aware of the causes and issues, and how it is portrayed different in the media. The paragraph first addresses how "bloggers purposefully harness the medium to promote wide awareness of their causes." Two experts Kenneth Roth, Human rights director, and Samantha Power, author and winner of Pulitzer Prize both set up a blog and Website called "Passion of the Present." The blogsite was to collect news and info about the genocide going on in Sudan. They both sought out well known bloggers to spread the knowledge. To put it in another way, eventually the whole blogosphere was informed on the issue since the "elite bloggers" spread the word. They also explained how Blogs let us tell offline media when we want. My conclusion, then, is that I felt that this paragraph had interesting and important information in how an issue as large as the the genocide going on in Sudan is being spread in throughout the blogosphere so that everyone is educated about this serious issue going on today in the world.

hw 18: least favorite post of the week

My least favorite blog of the week was on the blogsite "Women In the Media and News Voices"http://www.wimnonline.org/WIMNsVoicesBlog/?p=829. The blog that I disliked, was not because I disagreed with the opinion or because of the writing, but it was because the topic bothered me. The women that respond to the news I completely agreed with, but the topic is a bit of a shock. The Blog was about the latest news about Warner Bros. Productions. According to three different producers, The WB is no longer going to cast women as lead roles in any of their upcoming films. They blamed movies that the WB had recently done that were not successful on the female actresses that took part in the films. The response from a female on the article explained how "If that studio confirms that their policy is to now exclude women as leads, then my policy would be to boycott films made by Warner Bros.” -journalist Nikki Finke. Although there were many blogs that I came across with that I disagreed with, this one bothered me more than any other of the blogs that I read that were written within the past week.

hw 17b:Daily Kos

I thought that Markos Moulitsas Zuniga's Daily Kos was much more politically influential than Ana Marie Cox's blog Wonkette. If I were to choose a blog that was going to influence my vote on a coming election, I would choose Daily Kos because it a blog that gets thousands of views a day and it has all sorts of controversy on liberal and democratic views. The blog is also filled with up to date news stories that involves potitics. Marie Cox's blog, on the other hand is more of a gossip blogsite with different types of political views. I feel that the Daily Kos is not only has a more accurate viewpoint on politics, but it a more serious blog that is focused on the news. I found the Wonkette blog more entertaining because she talked more than just politics, but she talks about what she finds funny in politics, and the gossip around it. If I were reading a blog that I found interesting, I would choose, Wonkette, but if I wanted to read a blog that would influence my vote, I would choose The Daily Kos.

Hw 17: favorite blog of the week

My favorite blog of this week was on http://www.wimnonline.org/WIMsVOicesBlogs by a woman named Jennifer L Ponzer. This was a very interesting website because of how different it is compared to other ones that i have looked at. All of the blogs are by females and their opinions from everything from the what they think about the blogosphere to all kinds of current news in the media. Jennifer L. Ponzer is probably one of the more committed bloggers to this website she writes everyday about all kinds of issues and ideas. The blog that i liked of hers this week was "WIMN at JAWS - Journalism & Women Symposium." In her blog, she talks about a new group of women journalists in Wisconsin. "JAWS," which is Journalism & Women Symposium, is a conference being held about the issues of women getting heard in journalism. She is very interested and supportive about women getting their voices out there in the media and news, so she leads discussion groups about the issues. I don't only find this blog interesting, but all of her blogs have a lot of interesting thoughts to them which I will like to read in the future.

Hw 16b:5 pillars

In the interview with Robert Scoble "Blogs: Humanizing The Face OF Corporate America," Scoble explains the five things that he thinks made blogging as hot as it became. One of the "5 pillars" as he calls it, was "ease of publishing." This pillar means that no matter who you are your voice is easily able to be heard. Anyone is able to get their opinion out there and you don't have to be a journalist or on the news, it is so easy to publish something of your own. The second pillar was "discoverablitiy." This means that no matter who you are, if you have a blog that is worth something, it is not hard at all for you to become discovered. The 3rd pillar was "cross site conversation." This is so anyone can see who was linking you with track backs. The 4th was "permalinking." Permalinking is "where you can isolate a URL that will take you directly to a post" (Scoble 130). Making little things like this so easy for blog writers, it makes it more available for everyone including the reader. The last of the 5 pillars was "syndication." This is basically a group of people who run the blogosphere, and have websites that link many different blogs together.

Hw 14:Ito interview

As a result of reading Joi Ito's interview the "Japanses Blogger Champions Internet Democracy," i learned about blogging in a different perspective. Also, i got a good understanding of Ito's thoughts on blogs and how he believes the result of blogging and how it will change everything from music to media for the better. In the same way, the interview also gave me a better understanding about the changes blogs may lead to and what may happen with them. Along the same lines, Ito believes that there are no negative side effects to blogging and everything that may be bad is "easy to ignore, and the interesting blogs are easy to find"(Kline and Burstein 150). In conclusion, i found the interview with Ito not only interesting but full of different information about blogging that i wasn't aware of before.

HW:13 "Blogs Will Change Your Buisness"

Although I feel that Blogging is more of an important impact on communication, Blogging affects businesses to a larger extent. The impact of blogs on communication I believe is more important because it enhances connections and reviews of ideas about everything from diaries to politics. It is a way to transfer information fast and efficiently, and it is a way to get your voice heard with all kinds of opinions by the general public. Although all this is true about blogs on communications, Blogs on business has a larger impact. This impact is greatly larger because many give their opinions of the business whether it is going well or not, and everyone can see if there is a repetitive complaint or compliment by the consumer. Frank states that "We can't afford to lose our eyes on blogs, because they are simply the most explosive outbreak of information since the Internet itself. And they're going to shake up just about every business--including yours" (Kline and Burnstein 222). This shows that blogs are a huge impact on how a company succeeds. Although I feel the impact is stronger on business, to me, the impact of blogging on communication is more important to the people.

hw 11:Making global voices heard

The blog that i chose was "Ohmynews." The blog is a different form of an online newspaper with a lot of information. It gets thousands of submissions everyday from ordinary people. This blog was created in South Korea and has a large impact on politics in South Korea. The blog has many different news articles, some from South Korea, but also news from other places in the world. The blogs themselves are not listed on the website you have to go to global voices online to read the blogs. The blogs are posted by ordinary people from all over the world. The topics that are blogged about relate to the articles posted on the website of "Ohmynews."
MacKinnons views and statements about "Ohmynews" are somewhat agreeable, it does not necessarily follow everything on the blogsite today. The only thing that i don't think corresponds with Mackinnons views, is that the blogs don't necessarily relate to the articles. I expected more out of the website with a lot of different opinions about the news that was currently going on that related directly to a specific article. The blogs relate to the news as a whole, which i didn't expect. I also expected the blogs to be based more on politics in South Korea, rather than news all over the world, since Mackinnon talked mostly about how blogs effected the last election of the South Korean president.
Of course, many will probably agree with the assertion that the blogs are a large impact on politics and alternative information, i felt it lacked politics, and was largely based on the alternative information.

Hw 9: applying ch 4 to interveiw

In the interview with Arianna Huffington, “Punching Holes in Old Faded Mirrors,” she explains her blog that she has launched that was propelled by celebrity power. Arianna Huffington is a social and political activist, and once a candidate for the governor of California. The point of Huffingtons bogs, is to “enrich and strengthen the blogs’ impact on the national conversation.” (Huffington 343) Huffingtons Blog is a combination of conversations of news and blogs. She calls this a “blogazine.”
There are many points that I agree with that Huffington has to say. Her Theory of blogs is extremely useful because it sheds insight of the difficult problems of the monopoly of the mainstream media. Where journalists head in sometimes a misleading direction, blogs are a larger group of people that have reports of their own giving blogs more opinions than just one particular reporter may have. I also agree with what Huffington has to say when she talks about the mainstream media “With the mainstream media there are so many constraints. And the biggest constrain in my opinion, is that the media is suffering from ADD. They can only focus on one story at a time……In contrast, in the blogoshere you can stay on a topic and return to it.” ( Huffington 345) I agree with that because my experience of watching and reading mainstream media confirms that. The blog that Huffington created is to show as many different views of the news that involve the opinions from celebrities, to people of all ages. She wants to show as many sides possible to have a blog that is true to the people as possible.

HW 7: "My so called blog"

One of the most important factors in a teenager’s path to self discovery is having some personal space away from the two people who are constantly telling you what to do. Although it might be helpful for the parents of teens to find out what kind of trouble their teenage son or daughter might be up to, it's almost more important to express what you have to say, even if it involves something that your parents should know. In Emily Nussbaums chapter, "My So-Called Blog," she interviews a variety of teens that have an online journal. One 15-year-old boy "J." tells Nussbaum his feelings toward his online journal and she says:
" He called it "better than therapy," a what to get out his true feelings --all the emotions he thought might get him in trouble if he expressed them in school or at home. Online, he could blurt out confessions of loneliness and insecurity, worrying about slights from friends."(Kline and Burnstein 352)
The way J. explains his online journal, shows how it not only helps him confessing his insecurities, but it aids his through rough times with his friends. I think that teens should have a confidential online journal, because it could help them out in the long run and may even reach to them more than a therapist could.

Hw 6 : interset statement for semester-long project

There are many topics to chose from for the semester long writing project but there are a few that interest me a little more. To start out with geographical areas, i am interested in places like Asia, Europe, US, and Africa. For empowerment of marginalized groups, things such as Rights and empowerment of people with illnesses such as HIV/AIDS are one of the largest issues going on in Africa. Thousands and thousands are dying from it and there is little being done to stop this tragic issue. I find this topic very interesting because of the amount of people that are being killed from this disease and how it is not improving. In The US there are many empowerment issues, such as sexism,racism,ageism,religious intolerance, and homophobia. Although these issues are not as strong as they were years ago, they continue to be an issue for many Americans today. I find these topics so interesting, because it is awful how people are discriminatory towards people after the many years trying to fight for things, such as sexism, racism etc. Social computing technologies that interest me most are instant messaging, podcasting, social networking services, and wikis. All of these social computing technologies interest me because of the way they have evolved for the past few years. From the amount of people that join social networking services and instant messaging, to the way the podcasting has taken over. All of these subjects really interest me and there is a lot to write about with all of these topics.

Hw 5b

In the chapter "Therefore I Am," by David Kline, there were many points of the chapter that were disagreeable. On page 250, there are a few paragraphs that Kline talks about, that I disagree upon a little more than the rest of the chapter. In these few paragraphs, Kline talks about Netspeak. Netspeak is an online communication often used on instant message and Blogs. "It's methods of conveying text, thoughts, and even emotions in the shortest form possible"(Kline 251). An example of this would be "g2g, ttyl" meaning got to go, talk to you later. What people are worried about, is that we will start speaking, and writing like this all the time They are concerned that generations from now, our language will be completely transformed from online communication.
I disagree strongly with what Kline had to say about Netspeak. He thinks that our classic literature will be ruined from this and that the English language will be transformed from the way we communicate online. However, a panel of experts at a recent Washington symposium on language and Internet refuted the thought that Netspeak was not undermining our literacy. They verified Netspeak, as an encourager for younger people to write more, even if it is not 100% good at first. I support with what they had to say about Netspeak, because i have been writing on instant messenger for years now, and it hasn't affected the way that i write at all.

Hw:4 responding to "The Voice of the Customer" Option 2

The product that I chose, was "Snyder's of Hanover," the honey wheat organic pretzels. I think the promise of this product is not only that it is a tasty and healthier snack, but that it is USDA organic. When a product is USDA organic, that promises the consumer that it is organic and doesn't just say it is. On the Snyder's of Hanover website (www.snydersofhanover.com) the site implies that "Each of our time-honored recipes is baked only from the finest organic ingredients. Ingredients that are naturally grown without harm to the environment, and meet the strict standards for organic certification… like our Organic Honey Wheat Sticks, always delicious and low-fat." In my experience, i agree with the promise that was on the website because although they are low in fat and organic, they are very tasty. I also believe that Snyder's it trying to draw more of a crowd in by having organic products and promising that they "meet the strict standards for organic certification" and also that they are "delicious and low fat." The company doesn't have a blog, so all of the comments about the product are all positive.

Hw 3: Toward a more participatory democracy

In the first chapter of Blog! by David Kline and Dan Burnstein, David Kline writes "Toward a more participatory democracy." In This chapter, there are many different opinions and opposing views about blogging in America from politics, to the media. The chapter gives examples of many bits and pieces of different blogs but it mostly talks about two very popular blogs that were made with such different opinions. The 2004 election was a very popular time for bloggers to get their political views out there for everyone to see. During this time, blog visits beat fox news online visits by 1.3 million viewers. This shows how much of an influence these blogs are on opinions of voters. Even after this election, millions of viewers were still attracted to these political blogs. Common sense seems to dictate that "political blogs have become a vital source of news and opinions for millions of Americans and an alternative to traditional newspapers and television"(Kline 6).
The media has made a large impact on blogging because so many Americans have lost respect and trust from the media, that many people have found blogging more truthful since it is coming from the people and Americans would rather be persuaded by blogs than the media.The conclusion of this chapter talks about how political blogging is opening up new opportunities to make the political future of our country better for the people.
I was intrigued by how people are so against the opinions in the media, and how they think it is reflecting politics. I wasn't fully aware how much blogging has effected peoples opinions in politics or even how much people thought the media is corrupting our views.

Hw 2 : Blogging is going global

Americans today tend to believe that "Blogging is going global." According to Burnstein's 12 key ideas about blogging, he also believes that it is going global and changing our culture and politics not only in America, but worldwide. I find this topic very interesting because i was unaware that blogging was so popular here or that it has become influential in countries all over the globe. For blogging to become so popular in places like Iraq and Iran, it really shows that we have urges and needs to express our thoughts. Another intrest that came to mind in while i was reading"Blogging is going global," was how it can impact a culture to the point where people can change their opinion. The school teacher from Marseille who opposed the European Constitution in France in May of 2005. It amazes me how her blog and other contributions to her blog made the pubic realize what needed to be stopped. This section on "Blogging is going global" is a very interesting and important factor in blogging because it really shows how not only the nation, but the globe is making a contribution towards it.