Hey, hey, we're the Gorillaz!

Yep, go go Gorillaz! I would have to say that my second favorite CD of the year is Gorillaz' Demon Days and the latest Wired interviews Damon Albarn about his Cartoon band. I won't say much for now other than this is the best extension of Warhol in pop music since Don Kirshner and his Archies... ok, I always loved The Monkees more (the most famous Kirshner project) and, oif course, the connection between the Kirshner band is clear. will write more about it later, but let's just say that when it comes to pop these days there is something going on between me and my monkey, indeed!

Yes, a Good Anti Effects Study Essay

Not a big fan of "media effects" work for so many reasons, luckily this essay gives you ten good reasons to really question this work.

There is So Much to Share

It looks like I am going to have to teach a seminar on gaming at a 400 level and I am thinking about doing one on social action, in particular something that works to produce a game on homelessness. I am not certain what that would look like, but it may be like "The Sims", but we will see.

Heck, I learned about Red vs. Blue and My Trip to Liberty City. But that's only the beginning of what we are doing. Among discussing theory and the like, the most interesting the are doing is playing games, of course. The website will be coming soon!

Digital Gaming Seminar!

Today I am at NITLE at this year's media studies seminar, which is on Digital Gaming. I am really looking forward to dealing with this issues of gaming, not only in XBOX and PSP land, but also how to use gaming in other places such as SimCity in the Urbanity class. For myself, I am wondering how to think through the issues of material culture and popular music, but others as well. I may teach a class on gaming in communication, but it would be from rudiments to "complexity", but that is all relative. Anyways, we will see how this works in teaching in media studies/communication. So, interested and, of course, looking to play!

News from the BBC: American Journalism is the Laughing Stock of the English-Speaking World!!!

The BBC, arguably the best newsservice in the English-speaking world, has this to say about our missing-white-woman-obsessed media...

Since the teenager went missing after leaving a nightclub on 30 May her picture has stared out from newspapers, while TV bulletins have covered every movement in the story.

It is not hard to imagine cynical reasons why.

Natalee is young, pretty and white. A judge and his son are among five people held over her vanishing.

Aruba, where the teenager was celebrating her graduation, is renowned for an intoxicating party scene.

Tragic as her disappearance is, some have criticised the flood of coverage which is dominating the national news agenda.

Mark Feldstein, associate professor of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University, told the BBC: "Of course there has been too much coverage, by my standards, but this is what we have come to expect."

Mr Feldstein, a former investigative reporter, compared the case to the story earlier this year of the woman who faked her abduction before her wedding, becoming known around the world as the "Runaway Bride".

"These are really not national stories but they get national attention," he said.

Yeah, and more than half of the US has no idea what the words Downing Street Memo mean. You know, I thought editors were supposed to make reporters report the news and edit when it gets excessive. Of course, 24 hour-a-day news, sports and comedy is exessive. Remember, when you follow the logic of Capital, too much is never enough!

More Oscar The Grouch, Less Grinch.

Given that the US Congress spent essentially a month focusing on really important stuff like the Terry Schiavo case and another deciding whether or not to change the rules so that we could get a tyranny of the majority, now we are getting down the the nitty gritty: depopulating Sesame Street and Mr. Roger's Neighborhood...

A House subcommittee voted yesterday to sharply reduce the federal government's financial support for public broadcasting, including eliminating taxpayer funds that help underwrite such popular children's educational programs as "Sesame Street," "Reading Rainbow," "Arthur" and "Postcards From Buster."

In addition, the subcommittee acted to eliminate within two years all federal money for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting -- which passes federal funds to public broadcasters -- starting with a 25 percent reduction in CPB's budget for next year, from $400 million to $300 million.

In all, the cuts would represent the most drastic cutback of public broadcasting since Congress created the nonprofit CPB in 1967. The CPB funds are particularly important for small TV and radio stations and account for about 15 percent of the public broadcasting industry's total revenue.

If it sounds partisan to say it then let it be: today's GOP really doesn't care for much that is "public" as evidenced by the following dollops of wisdom (insert sarcastic tone here)...

Rep. Ralph Regula (R-Ohio), the subcommittee's chairman, said the cuts had nothing to do with dissatisfaction over public radio or TV programs. "It's pretty simple," he said in an interview. "The thinking was, there's not enough money for everything. There are 'must-do,' 'need-to-do' and 'nice-to-do' programs that we have to pay for. [Public broadcasting] is somewhere between a 'need-to-do' and a 'nice-to-do.' "

Let's eview the facts: 98 percent of America has at least one TV set, most families have more than one and many of us consider it a "must-have" item. And of those of use who were raised in families that wanted us to learn the alphabet and count to ten, Sesame Stree and Zoom were "must-dos". As I have gotten older I often think that the only broadcast (not cable) programming I can watch on a consistent basis are PBS related. Call me an "old man" but I would rather watch a Frontline on the Iraq situation than American Idol. And, sure, PBS has problems... tends to be too white, too middle class, nothing on the channel represents Working Class views and it needs to get a helluva lot more financially secure so I don't have to watch two people stand in front of a phone bank taking bids on a seven day vacation to the Smokey Mountains. The way you do that is by actually funding this channel. Or more public channels.

That's right, I just asked for more. For too long Americans have considere one public station in their market as good enough. But what if I told you that that just about every other first world country in the world would find this laughable, the televiusal equivalent of being happy just to get one ladle of water a day (that you have to drink from a tin can to boot!)? For many of us we believe that we can make the public sphere more bountiful, not less flexible. Take Michale Curtin's suggestion from a recent edition of Flow for example...

Google's pull media technology is popular largely because it addresses at least three noteworthy and enduring aspirations among media audiences. The first is a desire to escape at times from the world of commercial imagery. The second is a longing to create meaningful patterns and linkages in an era of symbolic excess. And the third is a yearning to counteract the imperatives of push media, which seek out audiences in order to corral them within a universe of proprietary content. Such aspirations are also manifested in the popularity of other recent technologies, such as TiVo, DVR, and podcasting, suggesting that audiences value diversity and intelligibility despite U.S. media's current emphasis on synergy and cross-promotion.

Using these audience aspirations as a point of reference, Thomas Streeter and I have recommended four strategies for media reform in the United States.[i] The first calls for an aggressive expansion of non-commercial services to be funded both by the FCC's upcoming auction on spectrum reallocations as well as a modest tax on commercial users of the public airwaves. Instead of engaging in dramatic David-vs.-Goliath struggles over primetime TV content or News Corps market share, it seems more reasonable to work toward the expansion of alternative resources. If our society is to be truly innovative, then we need structural diversity in media, media organized in a variety of ways, not just more and more outlets that are all following the same principle of delivering audiences to advertisers. Is one public television service enough? One community radio station? Or one or two severely underfunded cable access channels? Are reliable, non-commercial Internet resources available regarding such crucial topics as health, environment, and workplace safety? We need to expand the number of non-commercial services wherever possible but we should at the same time emphasize structural innovation: not just more public television or radio, but more kinds of public TV or radio. Why is there nothing like Britain's Channel Four in the US? The terms "commercial" and "public" have become inadequate to describe all the different structural possibilities; we need terms adequate to the task of engendering a new era of experimentation in media.

In other words, when it comes to creating free space away from Corporate imagery and for-profit endeavors, less isn't more... only more is more.

Comm 226: Framing the Language and PR in British Politics

Hey guys, I know you are all working very, very hard these last few days, but if you read the papers then one of the things you know is that there is a General Election in Britain this Thursday where the people of the UK will elect a new Parliament and a new Prime Minister. I think it is interesting that most people expect Labour to win and Tony Blair to remain Prime Minister. There are many reasons for this, but US Based Liberal Blogger, Markos Moulitsas, has this to say about how Labour controls framing language...

with the Republican sweep of 2004, Democrats have finally come to terms with its minority status. And with that realisation has come a desperate effort to study the factors fuelling the rise of the American right.

The factors are various, but key among them is the notion of "framing" - that is, controlling the political language. Republicans realised decades ago that those who controlled the language, controlled the political battleground. A sort of electoral high ground, providing a tactical advantage in the battle of ideas. ...

Reading Britain's Sunday Times' expected endorsement of the Conservative party, the direct parallel between disaffected American Democrats and disaffected British Tories was startling. "The Tories have accepted that Labour has won the political battle over tax and spend," it says. "Talk of deep tax cuts would, they fear, frighten voters. So the party offers new Labour-lite; no significant tax cuts and plenty of extra public spending."

With all of Tony Blair's faults, and he clearly has many, his ability to win the framing wars in Britain is probably his chief legacy - the sort of victory that rises above immediate political concerns, including Thursday's election, and can provide the philosophical foundation for a long lasting Labour majority. That is no small feat, no small accomplishment. And presents a huge challenge for British conservatives given their already significant parliamentary deficits. (The Liberal Democrats appear to be on more solid footing, sharing Labour's economic frame: social services good, tax cuts bad).

In other words, never underestimate the power of framing language as a communication strategy!

Ok, take care and talk with y'all later.

Comm 226: Review Stuff

Dear Class. As promised you can get the review sheets by clicking here and here. The more you prepare, the better you will do on this exam. I want you to think big and synthesize topics on this exam, so go back this weekend and look through all of the notes and your marks in the book to help you.

By the way, I also wanted to note that the issue of education cropped up in the New York Times editorial page. Thomas Friedman, who is one of the loudest voices on issues of globalization, wrote this in today's NYT...

ne of America's most important entrepreneurs recently gave a remarkable speech at a summit meeting of our nation's governors. Bill Gates minced no words. "American high schools are obsolete," he told the governors. "By obsolete, I don't just mean that our high schools are broken, flawed and underfunded. ... By obsolete, I mean that our high schools - even when they are working exactly as designed - cannot teach our kids what they need to know today.

"Training the work force of tomorrow with the high schools of today is like trying to teach kids about today's computers on a 50-year-old mainframe. ... Our high schools were designed 50 years ago to meet the needs of another age. Until we design them to meet the needs of the 21st century, we will keep limiting - even ruining - the lives of millions of Americans every year."

Let me translate Mr. Gates's words: "If we don't fix American education, I will not be able to hire your kids." I consider that, well, kind of important.

So do I and I know that all of you mentioned it last week as well. Anyways, if you want to read the rest you can register on the NYT website for free and have at it. Otherwise, have a great weekend!

Comm 200: Readings, Dossiers and More Dossiers

Hey Guys. I know that everyone is burning at at both ends these days but I wanted to remind you of a couple of things as we finish, and say something new as well.

1) First: Even if you have read the articles for Friday, please re-read them. One of things that I think you should learn how to do in college is to re-read. It isn't a skill that many of us think of as valuable because much of our busy lives but it is far more important than many of us would like to admit. Often articles we are researching will enlighten you in a different manner than it did the first time. This may be because concepts you didn't get the first time you finally get. It may be because you just didn't notice what was going on the first time. This is true for all of us. I know that there have been books I come to once or twice a year and I feel like they pay off in different ways every time I read them.

2) If there are a set of questions I would like you to ask of everything piece of research you read and write for college, they would be

1) What is the thesis?
2) What is the unit or units of analysis?
3) How did the researcher investigate and analyse their data? Always remember, how questions are method questions!
4) What is the research question that the person is trying to answer?
5) What is at stake in this research? If you do not know what is at stake, ask the teacher. For me this is always something that I feel like I need to know. Research is not something that should be done purely for the pleasure of research. Research always has real world consequences. Some research is better known than others, but all research, when done, gives us a new understanding of a topic, method or question. Giving the world a new understanding is a real world consequence!
6) Could this research be proven or disproven? If it cannot then it probably isn't research. It could be an essay, but not a research essay.
7) What kind of sources is the researcher drawing from? When you begin an article try this: start with the endnotes and works cited first and take note of what the sources are. This will always clue you into other kinds of questions?

Believe it or not these are lessons that are easy to state but difficult to learn. Practice these in your upcoming classes and make them habits of the mind. The more habitual they become the better student and learner you will become. And that's one you can take to the bank!

Tomorrow, bring your dossiers. Last week you spent some time looking at each others works cited. Look at these again tonight and now look see what you would like to xerox in other folders. You may also want to bring your earliest drafts with RQs and Theses and workshop them in class. We will be doing that on Monday as well. I know that this is a busy time, but I do have high hopes for you. Also, tomorrow, please be ready to leave your dossiers behind. I would like to, with your permission, place them in library here in Higley so that we can access them for the next week. All I ask is that when you look at an article you LEAVE THE DOSSIER IN THE SAME CONDITION AS YOU FOUND IT. You all worked really hard on your work and we should be considerate of each others work.

Finally, I need to let you know that I have one VERY IMPORTANT REQUEST regarding your dossiers. Please note, when you turn in your repory you should...

1) Make certain your proposal has a detachable cover sheet with all of your information (do not print on the other side!!!)

2) Please, no self-identifying information throughout the paper in any way shape or form!!!

3)Failure to do so will result in an automatic “incomplete” for the course and the assignment.

The reason I need it in this fashion is that your papers will be read by othger professors in the department to see if we are doing a solid job in the 200 level course. We value anonymity and no professor reading your paper will have an effect on your grade for the class. In fact, we will read them in August well after your grades are returned. We think this is a valuable way to see what is working and what isn't. By giving us this kind of anonymous feedback you will be making us better teachers and much more robust department.

Take care and see you tomorrow.

Comm 226: Hong Kong, Dim Sum and Dossiers

Hey Guys. I know the semester has been long and things are winding down. I wanted to let you know that because of the way the semester played out and I am going to make a real quick edit on your readings. I am only going to hold you accountable for the first six chapters and the inrtoduction of the Cohen. Chapters 8-Epilogue as well as Budd et. al for next week, please ignore. You have had a lot of reading and I would rather stay focused on the issue of institutional responsibilities and audience demands for "quality of life" in mass society for our last two lectures. Please DO listen to the MP3 of "The Fix is In" before Monday. It is one of the finest examples of what we have been discussing: issues of corporate/governmental responsibility. It's an hour long, but if you are like me and have any interest in business, I think you will find it very compelling as it is about "price fixing" and Archers Daniel Midland, one of the largest agricultural corporations in the world.

That said, some of you were asking about the dossiers. You may turn in your work in a three-ring binder or a folder. Please have a sense of organization where it is relatively easy to find your work as well as your research. I should be able to find your research with relative ease. so that I can verify your work. Also, if you have questions about MLA format and you want to talk about, please feel free to see me after classes in my office. I imagine most seniors and juniors would not have that many problems, but if you do, no problem. Please stop on by. I need a works cited list to verify your work. If you can't verify it doesn't count!

Finally, I thought of our class when I read this article in today's New York Times

HONG KONG JOURNAL

Dim Sum Under Assault, and Devotees Say 'Hands Off'
By KEITH BRADSHER
Published: April 28, 2005

HONG KONG, April 26 - A report by the Hong Kong government suggesting that eating many kinds of dim sum regularly may be bad for your health is threatening to overshadow whatever else might be worrying the people of this city.

Practically every Chinese-language newspaper here has run a banner headline about it across its front page. Scrolling electronic displays in subway cars have flashed the news, and the report has become a topic of breakfast, lunch and dinner conversations at Chinese restaurants across the city.
Advertisement

Longtime dim sum lovers are indignant.

"The government is putting its thumb on every part of citizens' lives, and it shouldn't be telling anyone how dim sum should be served," said Wong Yuen, a retired mechanic and truck driver who says he has eaten dim sum every morning for the last two decades. "People can make their own decisions. If it's unhealthy, they can eat less. They don't need the government to tell them."

Dim sum, which means "touch of the heart," is usually eaten at breakfast or lunch and includes steamed or fried pastry dumplings stuffed with anything from pork and beef to shrimp and egg custard. Many other savories, like mango pudding and egg tarts, are also dim sum. The Cantonese restaurants of the local Maxim's chain serve 100 kinds of dim sum.

But based on laboratory analyses of 750 dim sum samples, Hong Kong's Food and Environmental Hygiene Department found high fat and salt and low calcium and fiber in everything from fried dumplings to marinated jellyfish. The report suggested that local residents eat these kinds of dim sum in moderation, and choose more dim sum like steamed buns and steamed rice rolls.

Regular dim sum diners should order plates of boiled vegetables to go with their meals, the report said, and should beware of some steamed dim sum for which the ingredients are fried, like bean curd sheets.

The report came as a shock here because dim sum is a part of the culture of Hong Kong in a way that few foods unite Americans.

Families gather every Sunday morning in dim sum shops across the city, grandparents showing grandchildren how to hold their chopsticks properly. Wealthy taitais, the fashionably dressed wives of powerful men, take breaks from their shopping marathons and spa visits to try costly varieties of tea and nibble the occasional har gau, a shrimp dumpling, or kwun tong gau, a shark's fin dumpling in a rich broth.

The mainstays of dim sum restaurants across Hong Kong are retired men like Mr. Wong who come every morning to socialize, sip tea and occasionally order a small freshly steamed bamboo basket with several delicacies inside. These are the avid dim sum consumers whom the government here is trying hardest to reach, and who are not enthusiastic about the government's warning.

The restaurants have large tables seating a half-dozen or more customers, and diners are routinely seated with strangers. Sitting on Tuesday morning in the Sun Chung Wah Restaurant, where the ham shui kok, or fried pork dumplings, leave little yellow lines of grease on a plate, Mr. Wong, who is 86, periodically gestured with his chopsticks as he explained how important these dim sum breakfasts were to him.

"I meet people here every day," he said. "We don't know each other at the beginning, but we talk."

Dr. Ho Yuk-yin, the community medicine specialist who oversaw the government report, said no one wanted to stop such meals, but older people in particular need to be aware of the risks of relying too much on dim sum.

Edmund T. S. Li, a nutritionist at Hong Kong University who was not involved in preparing the government report, said the findings were consistent with academic research on the nutritional content of dim sum and were especially important given recent studies on how people from this region absorb fat. Genetic tendencies toward long trunks and shorter legs mean that many people of southeast Asian descent may carry a higher proportion of fat relative to their height and weight than people of the same height and weight from northern China or Europe, he said.

There are some hints that even without the government warning a new health consciousness is starting to spread here. In the more expensive restaurants, working women and taitais alike can sometimes be seen dabbing their dim sum with tissues to soak up some of the grease and daintily pulling away the fried exteriors of some dumplings with their chopsticks before popping them into their mouths.

Some women - few men - even pour a little hot water, provided to dilute tea, into a small bowl and dip the dim sum in it to remove oil.

Perhaps proving the cynical adage that it is more expensive to eat healthy foods, the restaurants that are trying to reduce the fat and the salt in their dim sum are often not cheap. One of them is the Man Wah Restaurant at the top of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, with magnificent views of Hong Kong harbor and I. M. Pei's Bank of China tower.

The restaurant stopped using monosodium glutamate, or MSG, 15 years ago, and switched from lard to vegetable shortening five years ago. But Henry Ho, the restaurant's Chinese culinary adviser, said the renunciation of lard had cost the restaurant valuable points in the city's fiercely contested dim sum competitions.

"A high fat content adds to the flavor," said Kong Churk Tong, the chief dim sum chef.

A dim sum lunch at the Man Wah runs the equivalent of $25 a person with inexpensive tea and no wine. By contrast, Mr. Wong, the retired mechanic, paid just $2.82 for tea, a bowl of porridge with pork and preserved duck eggs and a plate of cheung fun, a steamed, folded sheet of wheat flour with pork inside.

He brushed aside the government warnings as he relished his food. "I'll just keep eating pork," he said, "the greasy kinds of pork even."

It's a good example of how at times governments can easily reach beyond their limits when influencing the public's daily habits. So much for "Progressivism"? I don't know. I just think it is interesting.

Take care!

Comm 226: Working Wages and Wal Mart

Class, While we are talking about the rights of the consumer, one of the things that I think is interesting is that one can only consumer if you have consuming power. This is typically the kind of discussion that people have in economics classes, but there is nothing more interesting in America today than to watch what happens when a Wal Mart comes to town. Where I grew up in Arizona, this was something akin to a Holiday or the opening of Disneyland. My Father was a small business owner, lifelong Republican and very pro-business and really resented Wal Mart because he felt that he just couldn't compete in terms of prices. His business didn't fold, but it is interesting that there are so many passions revolving around Wal Mart.

Recently, The Cleveland Plain Dealer ran this interesting article on the cost of Wal Mart to the State of Ohio and just this week I got an e-mail about a campaign called Wake Up Wal Mart. You can just hear the PR people at Wal Mart working away, can't you?

Anyways, I mention all of this since Wal Mart is always talking about the low prices it offers consumers, then if the AFL-CIO posts these talking points do they hate consumers?

Ok, enough for now. Will chat with you later in class.

Comm 200: Indy Research Proposals, Plus...

Dear Class,

Sorry for the length between when I said I would post and when I could. A number of factors have made this delay happen, most notably the amount of time it took me to prepare for the conference, which was considerable (all day Tuesday until midnight) and, after waking up at 6am the next day, I was stayed up a continual 31 hours until I could catch a wink. Let’s just say that you should never ever give a paper after 30 hours of consciousness, lengthy travel and inadequate nutrition. No problem… the audience all noted that it made sense.

Anyways, I wanted to let you know a little about the project so below is what you are looking at …

Purpose - If properly developed properly, this research proposal will result in three specific products. They are 1) a large individual portfolio/proposal, 2) a continual develop of internet resources through blogging, and 3) a research proposal substantial enough to be submitted for some a large portion of research paper in a 300 or 400 level course. By paying attention to what happened and how it happened in your research groups, your final proposal will become a much richer experience than most of you may first envision.


Requirements -

This second research proposal comes out of your group’s work and practice, but it is a personal project that is centered around creating a qualtitative research project. This discernment will come in the form of a research proposal that will consist of the following

1)Your RQ, a hypothesis and a discussion of your method all in the form of an abstract that will come first thing after your table of contents.
2)An explanation of why you want to study what you want to study. Explain what is at stake in your research. In other words, make it clear why anyone should care about this research.
3)A Literature Review – a formal explanation of what has been researched and how it has been researched. This will take the most amount of time but a good literature review allows you to take your question deeper and provides your reader with a clearer understanding of what is at stake.
4)A proposal of what you wish to research and how.
5)And, at minimum, a 30 cite working bibliography. Your bibliography should consist of one third “book citations”, one third peer-reviewed articles and one third other (reference books, audio-video, general periodicals, etc.).
6)All research will be represented by the inclusion in the dossier of a Xerox of the title page of each book title and the complete Xerox or printout of each peer-reviewed journal article, reference book entry and general periodical article.
7)The dossier will be a large, three ring binder that has your individual name.

Ok, Take care and cheers from London!

Comm 226: VNRs and Democracy

Given the suggestion of John that many people may not be interested in democracy (and he may be right, who knows?) I thought I would make a post on VNRs. As it turns out, this isn't a just a Bush technique. According to at least this 1994 post, the Clinton admin was doing somewhat similar things as I mentioned earler....

Congress and the White House have gotten into the act. Congress creates VNRs in its own fully equipped, tax-payer-funded television station in the belly of the Rayburn Building in Washington. Meanwhile, the Clinton administration hires out, paying companies like Medialink of New York--at taxpayer expense--to transmit VNRs by satellite to stations around the country.

Honestly, I don't care who is in power in the government, it seems to me that if we value independent thinking then we should be concerned that governments create VNRs that pass as news and have been for over 10 years!

Call me a curious, but I am always interested in how people are trying to influence the way I think and feel. So I decided to go to Medialink.com's website and guess what I found...

"Our Newstream.com and U.S. Newswire services generally grow in both strong and sluggish economies," Moskowitz continued. "Newstream.com, our joint venture with Business Wire, continued to expand its reach to more than 35,000 registered users, up 32% from the fourth quarter of 2000. The increased reach has carried over to the client base, attracting domestic and international companies, including Anheuser-Busch, National Semiconductor, MG Rover, Kraft Foods, Taco Bell, Motorola, Qwest, American Home Products, Hasbro, Pfizer, Sony Electronics, Novartis, Nextel, Prudential Insurance, Stockholm Stock Exchange, and Universal Studios."


"Additionally, we have seen growth in our U.S. Newswire (USN) service, a leading news release wire service utilized by approximately 1,900 government associations and public affairs news sources," stated Moskowitz. "After previously working with the Clinton Administration, during the first quarter USN began working for the new Bush Administration, transmitting news and information issued by The White House to newsrooms nationwide. In an effort to cost effectively broaden the reach of USN, we have added sales personnel in the Midwest Region and consolidated USN’s operations with Medialink’s Washington office. USN will continue this integration in the coming months, expanding USN’s sales presence with Medialink offices nationwide." (emphasis mine)

So guess what, you and I are paying for Medialink's services, have been for quite a while, and you probably didn't even know about this.

This is where the issue of accountability kicks in. It may be true that the transmission of perfect information and transmission is impossible to get, but the deliberate creation of government-funded information, no matter how noble its intentions, should be labeled as "government funded information". Or should it not? I mean, there is plenty of government information that is labeled. Pamphlets, books, reports, legislation... why not these White House press releases? We know why they are not... executives of all types want to effectively mobilize their agenda to a mass society. The question is, is this the only way to do it? Should we be democratic in our deliberations about policy? Or can we not afford that luxury? Maybe we need to seriously think about John's point that democracies are inefficient at times. Indeed, they are. Perhaps we cannot deliberate in a time of serious threat? Honestly, I don't think there are easy answers to these questions. The truth is that conservatives and liberals alike should be invested in getting the best information possible. If you are a conservative the last thing you want is to grow government and place it in places like our mass media, which these VNRs do. If you are a liberal you would hopefully want to place a check on any misuse of information production and distribution by any government: misinformation distorts the social good according to liberal beliefs in the competitive marketplace of ideas. Wherever you stand politically, the issue of the VNR should at least make you sit back and think.

Comm 226: Rathergate and Gannongate

John noted the power of "bloggers", a community of which you are now part. Congrats! And he noted the Dan Rather story where bloggers helped force the resignation of Dan Rather after he and his producers used a piece of false evidence in a story about President Bush's service in the Texas National Guard. There is an entire website deidicated to it titled Rathergate.com.

Conversely, I mentioned the Jeff Gannon story in the context of framing the White House news. This has not gotten even close to the amount of attention, partially because Dan Rather is a huge name in news and Jeff Gannon is, well, someone who I didn't even know of until about two weeks ago. That said, I think both The Daily Show (quicktime)(some mature content!) and this piece from Anderson Cooper do a good job detailing this issue. The issue really is about someone who seems like a fake reporter who was let in to ask "softball questions." Is this as bad as using fake evidence that you didn't properly check out? I am not certain. But that said, it's interesting that both sides are interested in framing the news.

By the way, if you are like me and are hypercritical of all media (hey it's my job!), you may want to see this video from The Daily Show (quicktime) (some mature content) on the "new journalism". It's fairly inciteful about how you should always question reporters and their motives. That does not mean you ignore reporters, rather you are always critical and you ask for evidence or question the questions they ask. Also, this is an interview that is very candid between Ari Fleischer and John Stewart of the Daily Show. Here he talks about managing the news and framing it. In many ways this is because I would like all of my students to become something of an iconoclast and thinking critically about all media images, sounds and expressions. This is what it means to be part of an active democracy!

Comm 200 and 226: Deepen your Blogs

I will be gone starting on Thursday morning until Monday morning and will be out of touch for the most part. So, you should still be posting your quality posts as I do plan on checking them out if I can find a connection. If not, I will do it when I return.

That said, many of your blog sites can improve and improve the quality of your in-class research experience and I want to suggest that you take the time to do just that in the next four days. Devote an hour and a half to working on your sidebar and your blog will become that much deeper. Allow me to give you a few examples of blogs that I feel have very deep and helpful sidebars. The first one is Baseballnews.Blogspot. Just look at the sidebar on the left-hand side of this blog. Any major league franchise and a blog about that franchise (official or unofficial) is just a click away. This makes thos blog an exceptional research resource not only for its reader, but also for its blog composers.

For another example of something that is even more specialized, look at bandbaja.org, a blog devoted to Pakistani Music. It's links are a bit more limited, but they take you to sites that are of interest to this person and, ideally, the readers as well.

Finally, here's one blog that is very deep and useful for someone like myself who studies media. It is called Abu Aardvark and it deals with "Arab Media". The amazing thing about this is if you scroll down the blog and follow the right-hand sidebar you run into an amazing sidebar devoted to Arab Media links. How helpful! How convenient! To an outsider such as myself this is one of those blogs that I feel makes me want to learn more about these institutiuons and that is the point!.

So take some time and work on your sidebar and you will find that yoru project won't so much be an assignment but something that you find yourself getting further and further into.

Comm 226: Blogging and Contemporary Connections

Dear Class, one of the things that this blogging should be about is making the things in class more relevant to your life. As we are in the middle of the 6th week I will need more participation on your part to make this class energetic and blogging is one way to do that. There were a number of really smart posts that connected issues of brand loyalty to discussions made in class last week by Dan on the NHL lockout and another Brand Loyalty and one's Jeans by Erin. Another was on how ads often have to take on Nationalist airs in order to reach its audience and Derek makes this point on Canadian Advertising. That reminds me of one of my favorite ads of all time, this ad for Molson beer about being Canadian (quicktime). Really wonderful stuff about Canadian culture. Anyways, notice, that and each of these posts and others like them that have taken soemthing discussed in class or the readings and made it relevant. That's a big positive and it will help better get the main ideas in the class. It will also help your peers.

As you blog think of this as the opportunity to make contemporary connections. This class deals with the past, but it is a very relevant and pertinent past, one that is little over 140 years. That isn't much time and we are still dealing with many of the issues and concepts. Technologies and standardization, PR and advertising are all issues that you must deal with each day of your life, even if you do not necessarily think about it.

On Friday I think I am going to show you a film about needing to control information in a time of chaos where the stakes are high. It is titled Control Room and is about how the allies CentCom worked to put out their story and Al Jazeera is putting out another. I will show the first 55 minutes or so and will give you a writing exercise to turn in later. We will relate this back to PR, so please finish the first four chapters by Friday.

Take care and see you later!

Comm 226: Quizzes for Study

Class, I promised you the quizzes and here is a copy of the fourth quiz and the fifth quiz. I hope that you can find some time to help each other through discussion and study groups and look forward to seeing you next week Monday for your exam. Have a great weekend.

Comm 200: Quantitative Keyterms

Dear Class,

Up until now you have done the readings and taken notes without keyterms. I don't believe in giving keyterms until after people read and listen since they are often mistaken for "the only terms you should look out for". Still, I expect you to be able to learn the vocabularly and given that there is quite a bit in the book, I would like you to begin to think of your projects with certain terms in mind. I have made a list of keyterms, terms that you should have an understanding of in both definition and how to use them in a proposal, in a word doc that is available here. I will add some more terms later and let you know when I have updated it, but I think that this is a good time for you to begin to test yourself and your peers. Remembers use this language and you should be able to use it if you want to communicate as a researcher in any field. And the only way to learn a language is practice, practice, practice. Use these terms in your blog, when discussing your survey, etc. It will take some time but they will stick if you practice!

Comm 200 and 226: More on blogging.

Dear class members,

Many of you are reporting that you are running into bugs with blogger. All I can say is that if you cannot post, give it some time an make certain to cut and paste your code into a word or text doc and try later. Blogger has bugs and it jams up. I wish I could do something about itr, but I can't. That's the sad truth.

In other cases I am hearing about students who are having trouble with their hypertext links. I think this is often the result of bad coding, although I am not always certain. If your code is off even just one character inside the quotation marks, you will not be able to retrieve your desired text. Computers are dumb and they only do what we tell them to do. So always double check your code if you are having problems.

Finally, you guys are interested in another couple of hours of blog help this Friday could you write me back tomorrow by 10am in the morning? If I have enough interest I can put aside some time to assist like I did last week. There was a decent turnout in the lab last week, but it was mainly Comm 200 students. If you 226ers want some help, then let's do it.

Comm 200 and 226: A Time to Practice Blogging and a survey, for you!

Hey, Guys. I want to offer you a chance to come work on your blogging skills with me on Friday not only in class, but also from 2pm to 4pm in Higley 325. I have reserved the lab to spend a few hours with you and we can work on making your blog more "personal" or informative. I can give you a number of tips I have picked up in the last few months. And if we have few people, then you will get more attention. It should be fun!

Also, and especially for students in Comm 200, if you could take a minute to do this survey, I would be grateful.