AC Student Voices

Taking it to the next level

2010-10-28T08:17:00.000-07:00

Hello AC Student Voices community,

I have recently entered a contest to win a blogging contract with Sunglass Hut. Judges will choose nine finalists to go to the next round and participate in in-person interviews in New York City. The tenth finalist will be chosen by public vote. This would be the opportunity of a lifetime and I am using all forms of social media to rally votes for my entry. Check out the link and if you like my entry please vote, you must validate your vote via your email address once you place it.

Thank you in advance!
Maria Cris

Health Care for Young Adults: Albright Style

2010-04-27T07:32:00.000-07:00

For my project, I will localize President Obama's Health Care Reform. The Plan has a special section that applies specifically to young adults, and how it will change their health care situations. In the new plan, one of the new stipulations will be that young adults can stay on their parent's plans until the age of 26, if their jobs don't offer them a good benefit package. However, the law won't officially come into play until around fall/January, so many graduates might be uninsured. I'll interview seniors since it is affecting them the most at this time, and get some of their feedback. For my multimedia element, I will include a video segment of Obama signing the law.

Final Reflections

2009-05-22T11:35:00.000-07:00

1. What did you know about journalism, citizen journalism, and blogging before you took the course? I knew Journalism was an important industry, and that newspapers were steadily declining. I knew of blogging as being more personal perspective of certain issues.

2. What did you learn about journalism, citizen journalism, and blogging through readings and discussions? What do you remember most from the readings? What do you agree with/disagree with? I learned how little certain content is filtered, and I think that is a great thing. I disagree with the need to find sources when reporting certain issues. Blogging is intended for people to put their message out there. If there was a deadline that any facts we used needed to be cited, that is fine, but finding sources made this site a journalist site for Albright, and not blogging.

3. Describe your experience with the hands-on element with a focus on what you learned, the educational value, and the application to the real world. Be sure to discuss:
a. Use of technology
There needs to be more time spent on learning the technology. There were many struggles within the class trying to use the equipment, and it was a disaster.
b. Covering stories/event/issues relevant to Albright/Reading community
We should have been allowed to cover our written blogs on any issue, local, state, national, international, so be it. The Albright Campus is very limited in stories, and makes it very hard for everyone to cover something. Second, as I stated earlier, this was reporting, not blogging. We were not allowed to cover the issues with the spins we wanted to, or to be as critical as we wanted to.
c. Class critiques of blogs/podcasts
The Critiques were very helpful, it is a fresher set of eyes, and allowed those being critiqued to gain input and ideas. I think the technical issues we experienced did take away from the quality of the stories, but having classmates give different ideas was very helpful.
d. Responsibility/freedom of blogging
The responsibility of blogging was too high for this class. If I wanted to do a video blog on our country's economy, I doubt I'm going to be able to have President Obama appear on it. Let's put that on scale, if I wanted to cover Albright's tuition, I doubt President McMillan has the time to help for a video blog. Blogging is not about reporting, it is about reaction. I fully agree we should check our information, and points should be deducted for false information, but the source requirements made this class non-blogging. Also, we are not reporters, we are students. We do our written blog, and if it gets noticed, great. Yes, it is good reporting to interview those who comment, and then post a follow-up story, but we are full-time students, who have other work to do for other classes, as well as moving on to the next story for this class. If there was extra credit offered to follow up that is a different story, but this class has 8 assigned blogs, and expecting more out of anyone because they got noticed is not completely fair.

4. Discuss what you now think/feel/believe about the role citizen journalism and blogging play in communication. Is blogging a form of journalism? Citizen Journalism is a great way of revealing issues that others would not otherwise be aware of. However, the fact remains blogging is not a form of journalism. Blogging is not about reporting the news. It is about stating how you feel about the news, and why you feel that way.

Update: The Trouble with Digital Media

2009-05-21T22:34:00.000-07:00

I realize that in my very first blog about Digital Media, I may have written rather harshly and in a rather heated manner. This is all due to my growing frustration with the department and the college. I decided to write this optional update because a surprising amount of things has happened since my blog was posted. That Friday, when I entered Alumni Hall for my Digital Literacy class, I found the class delayed due to a meeting that the DM department was having. When I actually did enter class, I was approached by Dan Falabella, the head of the Digital Media department, who told me that he had read my blog. He told me that he had been made head of the department to "help resolve some of the issues addressed in the blog." The meeting they were having was, in fact, to discuss installing lab monitors, so the lab could stay open later and be easily accessible to its students.

Once in class, my professor, Jocelyn Kolb, explained that lab monitors would have 24-hour access to the lab. The lab is open until 1 a.m. on weekdays for students, but if the monitors are there later, it is at their discretion whether to let students in. She also explained the extended weekday hours, a great improvement over its current hours. Lab monitors, however, will also have a great responsibility, and will be held accountable if anything goes wrong or if the lab is left unattended, which is understandable. However, in the past students, were allowed in the lab unattended and simply had to wait for public safety to let them in. This was often an annoyance for both students and public safety, and students often waited for up to an hour. However, once in the lab, students remained unhindered to do their work until about 3 a.m. There have been many improvements, but there are also still many hindrances. I have actually found that getting into the lab is still far too much of a hassle; half the time, I find myself going to the computer center instead, and I often see many other DM students there as well. One student, who wishes to remain anonymous, told me, “It is just easier this way.” I may have made a big fuss about getting into the labs, but is still a hassle, and so I agree that sometimes it is just easier not to go there. However, this is only if the computers in the Computer Center have the programs you need. There was one occasion when my group for class needed a specific lab to do a project (because it is the only one on campus with the program) and public safety refused to open it until 10 p.m. They said this was because that is when the lab monitor started, but the person with whom I was working, John Smucker,’10, was the lab monitor that night, and despite telling them this, they still refused to open it. I know they are trying to make improvements, but it is all very frustrating. I found out it is really not up to public safety when the labs are open; that authority lies with Dr. Falabella.

I spoke with Dr. Falabella, who told me that the lab is now open Monday-Thursday until 1 a.m., under supervision of a monitor. They are not open during the weekends at this time, which I found out about the hard way when I attempted to go the lab and do work on a Sunday, only to call public safety and be refused entry to the labs. I found this rather annoying, and I know many other students have as well. Dr. Falabella explained that it is all about funding; there is not enough money to keep the lab open on weekends or later at night. He explained that he would like to follow the hours of the Computer Center, which is open for students on the weekends. I was informed that the reason for locking the doors and having so many precautions is all about safety. There have apparently been reports of people coming in off the streets or of non-DM students fooling around in the lab. I have never heard of such incidents or heard of problems, but I understand the need for safety. Instead of calling public safety and having to wait long amounts of time for entry, the lab monitor is now given a radio and public safety will radio them to let students in. It can also be used to radio public safety in case of an emergency. The labs had apparently become more of a hang-out than a professional workspace. I never saw much of a problem with this, but either way, it all seems to come down to funding, and I am disappointed that DM cannot obtain more of that.

What I am sure everyone would love is to have key-card entry to the lab. This way, only Digital Media students could get in, there would be no need to call or to radio anyone to gain access, and work would be accomplished more enthusiastically. Many colleges have this for their buildings and departments, but unfortunately somehow Albright College just does not seem to have the money. This semester will be my last at Albright, as I am transferring in the fall to Drexel University in Philadelphia. I told Dr. Falabella, and despite his efforts to improve the department, I simply have not been impressed or convinced enough to stay. Were it not for Dr. Falabella, the Digital Media department might not even have been kept in existence, as there was talk of shutting it down last year. I do have hope for the Digital Media department, and I know it can improve, but its progress is slow, and the lack of money just does allow for all the opportunities that are available.

Final Reflective Blog

2009-05-21T22:30:00.000-07:00

Frankly, before I took this class, I was not all that interested in journalism, citizen journalism, or blogging. I found this class to be a lot of work, but it really opened my eyes and made me more aware and knowledgeable about these things. I was never all that interested in journalism because I always thought of newspapers, or nosy reporters, or invading people’s privacy, but I learned that it was so much more than this. I never really thought of bloggers as citizen journalists, and I never knew that websites existed solely for this purpose. I had read blogs on previous occasions, but I had never really considered them newsworthy; they were more just for fun, but when I go back and look at them now, they actually are very informative. After this class, I am actually much more interested in journalism and blogging. I have seen all the possibilities it can create, and even just from this one class’s blog, it still managed to spark controversy on campus. I really learned how to seek out sources, obtain permission to film or record things, and especially how to edit. I am really glad I was able to learn how to edit, because it is a skill that I know I will need, but with which I have not yet had a lot of experience. When Deborah Horan came to speak to us and told us about her experience reporting in the Middle East, she told us that it was very important to be well-rounded and to know how to do a little bit of everything. The more you can do, the more employable you are, and the more you can further yourself in your field and for your own personal gain. As for the readings, many of them I did not find all that useful or relatable to what we were doing in class. They often did spark discussions in class that were interesting, but sometimes I failed to see how they related back to the focus of everything. They often did create discussion about ethics, which I do think is useful, because being in Communications, this question of what is moral or what is allowed is constantly arising. I did learn about some citizen journalist websites of which I was previously unaware and I actually found them quite interesting. It showed that you don’t necessarily have to have a career in journalism to report on the news or on something that you feel is important. I especially liked them because they often focused on more local or smaller things that would not normally make headline news. I also found one particular article we read early on about blogging, and about how it is different from other types of writing; I the aspect of blogging that it is more conversational and personal than other types of writing. I also found discussions about freedom of speech and things like comments very interesting, and how some bloggers allow for comments while others do not.

Sometimes going to campus events or setting up interviews could be a little nerve-racking, and I found I had to leave my comfort zone quite a bit, but this is all part of the real-experience. I did not realize at first that other faculty or administrators would be reading the blog, and so I was very surprised with my first blog that Dan Falabella, the head of the Digital Media department, approached me after reading my blog. I think that making videos and podcasts was a really great experience, and although it was a lot of work, I am really glad I was able to learn different techniques. I wish the equipment from the library was a little better quality and that it was more available, but it is good that we got to use the technology at all. I found good opportunities being presented to me because of this class and the events I covered. As I said, I was approached after writing my first blog, and I believe that it helped lead to a change in the way Alumni Hall was handled, where the DM department is. Also, when I filmed the student peace demonstration, I interviewed a member of Silent Witness, the protest group from the community, and the Executive Director, Alanna Berger, asked me if I could give them a copy of my footage, which they would use and for which they would give me credit. This class presented a lot of opportunities to me that I had not originally anticipated. Although I liked posting these things on a blog, I felt that our freedom with it was slightly limited. Blogs are all about saying what you want to say, and being open and conversational. I know this was a class, but there were requirements to be met, and sometimes it felt difficult to keep it true to blogging style, while still trying to remain professional for class.

Class critiques were also sometimes embarrassing or nerve-racking. I think they were a good idea, though; it was good to hear what my peers had to say, as opposed to just hearing from the professor. Sometimes they could relate better to the event or the trouble and could offer a different kind of perspective or critique. Just as we need well-rounded sources for our blogs and podcasts, it was good to have well-rounded opinions, advice, and critiques. I also liked watching other people’s blogs in a classroom setting rather than in my own room, because sometimes I noticed things that I had not noticed before, and we could have more of a discussion and listen to what other people had to say. This was helpful because it was often done before we had actually received a grade, and we could hear things that we could remember for the next time before actually learning what we had earned. However, sometimes it was more difficult to hear podcasts in class and sometimes this made it difficult to critique it properly. Overall, however, although class critiques could sometimes be stressful for those being critiqued, I think they are a good idea and worked out well so that people could get varying views and opinions.

My opinions of citizen journalism and blogging have certainly changed after this class. I pay a lot more attention to it and actually respect it more. There are lots of things that can be done with either of them, and they can definitely have some kind of impact. I think that they are often overlooked, and now that I see the impact that they can have, I believe people should start paying attention. Blogs and citizen journalist websites as well as the comments that people have left, have the ability to share news and so they do appear as a form of journalism. They can inform people, cause controversy, have a significant influence, and create bigger stories. We even read several accounts where businesses have considered using blogs to transmit information, and certainly, with TV shows and spoiler blogs playing a big role, some have even become famous. There are lots of well-known blogs, and while some are news, others have made the news. They are a new form of communication, and as the culture converges and moves even more towards the Internet, I think they will only become more popular and more common. A lot of people prefer to get their information this way, rather than read a newspaper or watch the news; the power is at their fingertips, and they have the freedom to do and say almost anything they want. If you have something to say, a blog is a great way to do it. Not everyone may see it, but the Internet is so vast that there are ways to get yourself out there and have your voice heard or read.

This class forced me and allowed me to do things and to speak to people that normally I would not have. I think this was a good experience that could be helpful in a real-world situation, not just dealing with journalism. There was a lot of work involved, a lot of organization, and a lot of planning, all skills that someone should have. I found out a lot of things about the campus and the community that I never knew before, and was able to see a different side of things. I know it was an experimental class, and I think it does need some tweaking and I often found the workload stressful, but I really enjoyed doing most of it, and am so happy with the things I can take away from it. I know I have progressed from the very first blog I wrote until now, and hopefully I will continue to do so.

Final Blog

2009-05-21T16:58:00.000-07:00

When coming to this class I thought I knew something about journalism and citizen journalism and everything else we were going to talk about but I really had no clue. I knew what journalism was but was unclear about citizen journalism, I never heard it. As for blogging I heard of it and knew what it was but had never done it.

Through reading the book and the articles that we were given I have learned that citizen journalism is a lot of hard work and time it took to get the stories. I have learned that you need to back your sources and the more proof you have the better off you are. The examples that Professor Bekken has talked about helped me understand what citizen journalism really is. The thing I remember most from the readings is the “potter wars.” All of the confrontation over something that seemed so simple but to some it was a very big deal. I did enjoy the book because he talked as if he was blogging and not writing a book. It made it more interesting to read.

The technology as the hardest part of the whole class, the use of the camcorders and voice recorders will be a huge help in the real world. Since the real world is depending on technology this class helped prepare me for the use of technology and able to edit it. Being in college I thought it was a good idea that we covered issues about Albright. Having people, like any professor that read the blog, respond to the blog I think will help Albright in the future. The topics presented are situation that students feel very strong about and hopefully it will benefit Albright.

When we had to critique someone else blogs and podcasts, I was a little nervous because I did not want to be mean in my opinion and have someone get mad at me. The way that Professor Rakus made us write the critique and not write our names I thought it was very smart and enjoyed doing it. I believe it really helped out to get a students opinion on what they thought. We had many responsibilities and that is what it is like in the real world, so in that sense it was good. I found every topic that we all picked were good topics because we were not assigned it, we had the freedom to make our own choice in what we found interesting.

Blogging, I do not care what anyone says, is a form of journalism. People that do it may not have a masters is journalism or communication but it is a form of journalism in the sense there is research behind it and write it. If they are blogging about something the bloggers must research what they are talking about. If it was not for bloggers society would not be able it state their opinions in a fast, non-formal way.

Final Reflective Blog

2009-05-21T16:09:00.000-07:00

Before taking this class, I knew a little bit about the journalism process and the different types of writings and styles associated with it, things that I learned from a journalism class I took last semester. In that class, we learned about the different types of articles (feature, interview, etc.) and wrote several articles in different styles. So, from that, I knew how to write certain types of articles and knew the general principles involved with journalism.

Before taking the class, I knew little to nothing about citizen journalism. We talked about it, briefly, last semester in the journalism class but the coverage was not as in-depth that it was in this class. I knew that citizen journalism was a newer type of journalism that allowed people that were not professional journalist to publish stories that they felt were newsworthy and caught their interest. I also knew that this was a type of journalism that was taking over traditional journalism because online journalism is now more popular than print.

I had visited numerous blogs before taking class. While, they were not focused around world news or politics, I knew that blogs gave people the power to speak and get their voice out there on their own. I visit almost 10 celebrity gossip and news blogs daily so I was familiar with how they work and what they were.

From this class, I learned a lot about citizen and online journalism. With citizen journalism and blogging, I learned about the origins and how they became popular. I also gained a greater perspective on why it is important and the power it gives people. For decades, people have relied on TV and news publications to deliver news and were basically told what is important; now, people decide what they want to discuss and now have a bigger voice. It truly shows the evolution news has had over the years and tells us where we’re going.

With all that said, I wonder if one day, news in print will no longer exist and online publications will dominate completely. As an aspiring journalist, I worry about how secure my future is, given the transition from print to online publications and the fact that so many major newspapers are ending their publications and are experiencing debt and other financial problems. I know that a lot has to do with the recession, but a lot of it is the fact that most news has gone online. I guess the brighter side of things is that the people that these newspapers are hiring have to be very capable of handling online tasks and have to know how to work with technology—I have been exposed to all of the technology used today as well as the fact that I grew up in the age of computers and internet. It’s comforting to know that some of the things that I learned in this class will come in handy one day.

I don’t feel like I necessarily learned anything about journalism—I did, however, see print journalism in a different light because this class takes more of the online perspective and I had the print perspective last semester. So, comparing these two and looking at journalism from each standpoint, I gained new opinions. I basically feel that print journalism is not as effective as online journalism because online journalism is very convenient and so much that people do everyday (email, Facebook, shopping) is online, it is no wonder why this type of journalism has become so popular.

Some aspects from the readings that stick out to me are when the readings discussed whether citizen journalism and blogging are real types of journalism. This really made me think because I think it is tough to call. Some people write because they are just expressing an opinion while others are actually delivering some type of news—so, for that reason, I feel that citizen journalism is real journalism, is just depends on the content and delivery. Another part is that in the readings talks about why citizen journalism and other aspects of online happenings (like the fan groups and Sims games) is so important and encourages it. Those readings encourage it and say that it gives people a voice and a sense of community. This is an aspect I agree with because I think it is such a powerful thing to be able to write about whatever you feel and say whatever you feel; news is no longer necessarily dictated by the media. I also think it’s a way for people to feel more included and apart of a world they were formerly on the outside of.

My experiences with:
- Use of technology: I’ve always been comfortable with using technology—computers, internet, etc. so I never had an issue with the things that we had to use in this class. I learned a lot—I learned how to make a movie which is one of the biggest things I think I’ve taken away from this class and podcasts which I had heard about before but never really knew what they were prior to the class. Like I stated before, these are all advantages because when I get out there in the real world, looking to build my career, these are the type of capabilities that employers look for and I feel like I’ll be up to date and prepared for the tasks that jobs in the journalism field entail. The only thing is that sometimes the applications (Audacity and Movie Maker) would stop working or not save work which was VERY frustrating. The podcasts, audio and video, are extremely time-consuming. But, on the way, I’ve learned how to make sure certain mistakes wouldn’t occur and how to make it better.
- Covering stories/events/issues relevant to the Albright/Reading community: There were pros and cons about covering issues surrounding the Albright and Reading community. The pros were that I was able to really dig deep into Albright events and meet so many different people—whether they were my fellow students or members of the administration and really get a feel for what the school stands for. I felt more apart of the community and more knowledgeable about some of the things that happen on campus. Most of my posts surrounded issues of diversity and gave voice to minorities on campus (gay people, people of color) which I was proud of because I feel like these voices need to be heard. I was happy that I was given the opportunity to help give the platform for their voices. The cons are that sometimes, it was very difficult to select a topic—there is not that much going on campus that is really interesting and there was always the issue of someone already picking a topic that you had in mind. I felt that we should have been given topics or that we should have been able to step out of Albright and Reading for an assignment or two just to add variety.
- Class critiques of blogs/podcasts: I’ve never enjoyed critiquing other people’s work or having my own work critiqued…but, it is always beneficial to get an idea of how people are receiving your work. This aspect of the class taught me even more how to accept constructive criticism and just being open to improving and growing as a writer.
- Responsibility/freedom as a blogger: Looking back on it, I am very satisfied with my blogging experience and proud that I was apart of a blog and was exposed to so many types of things. I loved having to take on the responsibility of a blogger and writer because I felt like it was preparation for the career I hope to have one day. I also enjoyed being able to talk about the issues I found important and crucial to the campus.

Now that the class is over, I have a true perspective and idea about what blogging and citizen journalism truly is. And, given this perspective, it has impacted the way I view blogging. And, with all that said, I do feel that blogging/citizen journalism is a type of journalism. Like I said above, it is all about content and the way it is delivered—if a person is delivering a piece of news, than yes, it is journalism. You don’t necessarily have to go to school to be considered a journalist. While, school and training helps you become a better writer and helps you survive through the industry, a person reporting on news and writing about it is a journalist, in my opinion. Everyone deserves to be able to express their ideas and thoughts. Citizen journalism and blogging helps with allowing people to speak and to get their voices heard. News doesn’t always have to be provided by TV or a newspaper—now, people can determine their own news and have it all out there. And, that’s the way it should be.

My Final Reflective Blog

2009-05-21T11:56:00.000-07:00

Before I started this class, I think everything I knew, or what I thought I knew, was based off of misconceptions. I assumed that journalism, meant solely print journalism and broadcasting; I didn't think a journalist was anyone whose work wasn't in a magazine or newspaper, or wasn't reported in the evening news on television. I assumed that blogging was something that people did when they wanted to chronicle their daily lives, like an online journal, which I think had been put in my head by movies and television shows that I've seen. Any other form of blogging was assumed to be entertainment blogs, about celebrities, like Perezhilton.com, or other forms of pop culture. And I had no idea was citizen journalism was, so I had no prior thoughts about it, before the class. Overall, I think I had a black and white thought of what journalism was, and wasn't, and obviously I was wrong.

After taking this class, I learned that journalism is basically the action of writing. I learned that a person does't have to be Diane Sawyer, or a famous novelist, to be a journalist. If a person writes, whether its a blog, or an article, they can be a journalist. This proves true with the phenomena of the citizen journalist. These people are writing their thoughts, opinions, and experiences, often times without having any professional background, but a keyboard and a message, and allowing other people to see their work, which I learned, makes them journalists. One of the outlets for this work can be blogging, which I learned doesn't always have to be about the latest tabloid gossip, but about important events, like politics, and other serious issues. The thing I remember most from the readings, which was probably my favorite section, was the issue in Convergence Culture. The Harry Potter issue really hit home to me, because when I first heard that the section was about him, I assumed it was going to be something that glorified the books, movies, or JK Rolwing, and what the franchise has done for pop culture. No, alas, there was a conflict, one between adults and children, that really intrigued me, and opened my eyes to how things in our society can be perceived and written about. And maybe because it was formally written about, rather than on television or a gossip blog, but in a well-known book, I liked it even more. I didn't disagree with anything in our readings, in neither Convergence Culture, or We The Media. Especially in We The Media, I felt like everything discussed always came from a valid and relevant place; I never wondered why I was reading a particular section, or if I would be able to apply it to the class. And the events discussed were actual and true, so I didn't really feel like I could necessarily disagree.

The hands-on element of the class was by far the hardest part. I learned a lot, which was good, for more than just an education value. I learned how to film and post videos, which helps me a great deal, since I was want to be a newscaster. I also liked the audio portion of the class; I had used voice recorders before, but I never used them for any substantial record keeping. Journalists use recorders to record their subjects so they can go back it later. I know really learning how to use it was also more than just for education. In the real world, at my job, I'll more than likely have to use a recorder at sometime, and learning how to pull quotes and information from the data, and edit will undoubtedly help me with my job. The writing portion, which I was the most comfortable with, was probably the portion that I learned the most from. I had to learn how to use my sources to write a good article, and also be able to interject my own thoughts and ideas into it. I was used to writing opinion pieces, and I have never interviewed anyone for anything before. For once, Jacara was not my only source, but I had to find two others. Obviously learning how to have outside sources will help me in the real world with my other classes, outside of those for my communications major, and when I finally become a journalist. Covering stories that happened on the Albright Campus and around the Reading area, I must admit, was a pain. It was fun in the beginning, to interview people I knew, and people I didn't know, but after a while it got to be extremely tedious...and a bit boring. I think that we still should have been limited to the Albright community to interview, since outside sources may have be difficult to reach, but we should have been able to discuss topics that we wanted to choose. I was itching to do a video piece on effect of Barack Obama on the campus, and/or how Michelle Obama has influenced fashion, and interview Albright students (mainly those majoring in fashion), and I never got the chance to do that, which was a disappointment. The class critiques of the blogs and podcasts were okay; I was never uncomfortable to do them, or the possibility that someone would critique mine, because they would be posted on such a public site anyway. I sometimes thought that the grades of the critiques were a little harsh, especially since this was the first class, of its kind, for a lot of us that demanded so much work and dedication. Although I said I didn't like that we didn't get to choose topics beyond the Reading area, I did like how we could choose the topics. Granted, I had to do my projects on somethings I was less than ecstatic to do, but I didn't hate any of them. I'm glad the professors didn't choose them for us; it would have made it extremely boring, and by choosing our own topics, we were able to freely choose the angles that we wanted to focus our stories on, and do it on our own time. of course, we had to be responsible for our stories and make sure that they "balanced", which I hated having to concentrate so hard on in the beginning, but enjoyed challenging myself towards the end. The way I look at it is, when I become a paid journalist, I won't always be able to choose my topics, and even if I do, I won't always like them. I detest extreme discussion of politics and foreign affairs, but my job may ask to research that, so I'd have to do it. This class prepared for having to deal with that situation.

In conclusion, this class taught me a lot about the role of the journalist, especially the citizen blogger. I know think that citizen blogging is a part of journalism, and I understand the importance of the voice of the people. These random, freely speaking people have something to say, and I now think they have the right to say it. People can read anything online, and now they have not only the opportunity to read the Daily News but Joe Schmoe's thoughts too. I like that, and since this class, I have been reading more citizen blogs. Blogging plays a big part in the role of communications. Not only is it an open range for people to tell how they feel, but they can join with people who feel the same way that they do, and talk about their thoughts. I don't think if people have an outlet to discuss how they feel, then they may as well not write anything. Whats the point of writing, when you have to be censored all the time?

A Greater View of the Arts

2009-05-19T20:53:00.000-07:00

Albright AM released their Third issue of the school year on Friday, May 1st. The event showed a gathering at the pond, as well as the disbursement of magazines all across campus.

From a personal standpoint, I feel as though many of the students at Albright are not very active in the Arts. Therefore, I feel as though the magazine is not very popular amongst the student body. Sophomore Editor-in-Chief Sarah Bruno had a different standpoint. "I do think we attract a lot of student interest, simply because we appeal to so many different aspects of the arts, Albright, and the greater community, as a whole. There's something for almost everyone, basically."

In an interview with senior Tim Zachwieja, he drew a line between Sarah's and my point.

"Is it popular among the whole student body? No. But towards its target audience, it is probably very popular. The Artists will read it, and anyone outside of that group who does is a plus for the magazine," Tim stated.

The magazine is also free to all students, which has to be assumed would help reach more readers. The publishing is made possible through SGA and a grant from Berks County, according to Faculty Advisor Margaret Rakus, and sophomore Vice-President Jessica Taylor.

As for content, the magazine features numerous aspects including featured writings, AGON Coffeehouses, Domino Players Productions, the Berks Jazzfest, Earth Week, and a popular new Artist of the Month segment.

"The Artist of the Month is a relatively new feature, but one of our favorites. Basically, we encourage people to nominate a potential Artist of the Month based on the candidate's major contributions to any area of the arts and a continued interest in that area (or those areas, as the case sometimes may be)," stated Sarah Bruno.

The Artists featured in the latest issue were Elliot Wallace (March) and David Wellman (April). Wallace was showcased for his written production "Faith Eats the Soul," which is a part of Albright's "Green and Growing Festival," a collection of student productions. Wellman was selected for his contributions to AGON, MEISA, and his senior thesis album "Lifeboat." Two different styles, equal impact.

The Arts Magazine is a great example of student dedication here at Albright College. With Rakus taking her "hands off" approach to advising, the students run this magazine completely, and with the many stories they cover, the Arts Community at Albright has yet another source to display their work.

I would like to thank Margaret Rakus, Jessica Taylor, Tim Zachwieja, and Sarah Bruno for their time in answering my questions.

My Reflection

2009-05-19T13:43:00.001-07:00

Before taking this class I knew little to nothing about citizen journalism and blogging. Other than a few other blogs on which I’ve written, I never knew of the all the capabilities that a blog could have, such as an audio or video portion. The other blogs I took part in were never for anything else but for enjoyment, the thought that anyone else would read it never crossed our minds, but I now know that blogs and citizen journalists can write or create a work which can change things.
Through this class I’ve learned that blogging and citizen journalism takes on many forms than those we’ve created in our minds. Things like spoilers, democratic campaigns, and even unpublished news all take place on blogs and are done by citizen journalists. This class has really opened my eyes to the possibility that blogs can serve a higher purpose than just posting your things on the internet. The readings that we had to do for this class really wanted to take blogging out of the stereotype that it really isn’t that important. The author used many examples which encompassed a lot of the movements, campaigns, and news stories which began because of a blog or a story written by an average person. After seeing all these examples I do agree that people should not count out citizen journalism, it could be the way of the future.
The hands-on portion of this class was the hardest part, by far. I’ve had good experience with the technological equipment needed each component to complete my projects I found each project easier and easier the more frequently I did them. Most of my interviews with people have been pleasant, and most of the Albright faculty made themselves available for my needs. There have been some ruffled feathers because of some of the projects that I did, but I never received any problems from any of my interviewees. The class critiques were the hardest part of this class for me. For this portion of the class we had to go to sites, or review a work and evaluate it on a given criteria. Critiques were the hardest part for me because for some of them we did not have anything to grade each one on, and when we did have the criteria, the body of my work was very offhanded and unstructured trying to hit every question. Blogging in this format, about the college, there is a responsibility that comes along with it, you can’t just post anything you want because people will be reading it. After interviewing people it’s very important that you represent them in the way they actually answer the questions you ask, and it is required that you give everyone involved in the story a voice to speak on the situation.
I believe that in this state we’re in, where print journalism is going through a transition and many don’t trust their news anchors, citizen journalism has become a crucial part of communication. I believe that anyone can be a journalist in this day, it all comes down to what journalism is. Journalism is writing that reflects superficial thought and research, which is exactly what we’re doing. For this class every writer on this blog became a journalist when we began to write about subjects that required research and digging up. This class helped me see that a reporter is more than what we perceive as a journalist, it’s someone who executes the story in the way which it needs to be told, which I felt we did, and what every blogger does when he/she does a story that involves more than just themselves.
in this class, for the most part they were readily available at the Gingrich Library. After getting the hang of each camera, digital voice recorder, and the software needed, and after shown how to use

Stalkers in our Mailroom

2009-05-19T11:51:00.000-07:00

Photo by: http://www.archiegates.com/assets/images/envelope.jpg

"I like what you wore on Friday"

to...

"You shouldn't walk alone at night, I know where you live"

to a blatant...

"I'm going to kill you!"

The mailroom at Albright College is a simple direct instrument to use to communicate with your friends, all you need is their mailbox number which is provided by the Albright Directory, or what many students call "the stalker book". Once a person has a student's mailbox number the sky is the limit of what could be sent to them, the best part about it, they don't have to know you sent it. Jackpot for those who wish to stalk or send gross messages to you.

A couple of girls reported, amongst themselves, having recieved nasty letters from an anonymous source. One of the girls gave the full story in the audio interview (link in title). The biggest part of the of this story is the fact that none of these victims reported the abuse of the mailroom to anyone, so many of those who were interviewed knew nothing about it, and it was the first time hearing about it.

Nikki Detwiler, the secretary Multi Ethnic Student Affairs said that she was shocked, she was oblivious that students were recieving these types of letters. "These types of letters should have been taken to Public Safety immediately. Anything threatening that is recieved should be taken seriously, all thes letters should have been kept and reported, that's what the public safety officers are here for". Detwiler encourages all students to be careful no matter who you are, "Students should be aware of their surroundings, be aware, and stay close to friends".

RAD classes are also available to students so that proper self defense techniques can be learned, and Detwiler hopes that Albrightians across genders will grasp ahold of this oppurtunity. These precautions are all in place that there will be no victims at this college, and to make this school a safer place.

Feiler Knows Best: 2009 Baseball Season

2009-05-19T11:08:00.000-07:00

I based my multimedia package, "Feiler Knows Best", off of an article in the Albrightian titled, "Improvement is key for men's baseball team", by Kayla Waldrup. The article, was about the men's baseball coach, Jeffrey Feiler, and how he details his plans for the 2009 season, before it started. He discussed how he planned to help the team adjust as six new freshman entered the team, and two seniors were preparing to leave. I expanded on the article, and interviewed different people from the team. My video portion, "Feiler Knows Best: A Senior Reflection", was a reflection, about the two seniors graduating, Jason Dunkelberger, and Tim Flannery. Because I was unable to get in contact with Flannery, his good friend Kevin Butler stands in his place, and talks about Tim. My audio component, "Feiler Knows Best: Confessions of the Freshmen", was with two of the six freshman who became Albright Lions this season, Tom Casuno, and Ben Koch. I discussed various things with them, like adjusting to the team, differences betwen collegiate football and high school football, and what influences Feiler has had on their first season. Lastly, for my written portion, "Feiler Knows Best: Coaches' Dreams", I interviewed Coach Feiler, and one of his assistant coaches Gary Yeager, asking them questions about how the goals for the team have been fulfilled post-season. I also included a chart of Jason Dunkelberger's statistics, which is supposed to be an addition to the video portion.

"Feiler Knows Best: Coaches' Dreams"

Teamwork. Encouragement. Improvement. Championship. These four words are extremely important to Albright’s men’s baseball team’s head coach Jeffrey Feiler, and his assistant coaches, Gary Yeager and Kyle Wenrich, as far as plans for the team next season. Reflecting on the 2009 season, the coaches saw promise in his team, especially with six freshmen, Tom Canuso, Ben Koch, Doug Mace, Matt Rehrig, Tyler Storms, and Brandon Wiegand, joining, and his two seniors, Jason Dunkelberger and Tim Flannery, preparing to graduate. In the article in the Albrightian, “Improvement is key for men’s baseball team”, by Kayla Waldrup, about Feiler’s hopes for improvement for the team during the 2009 season, he shared some goals that he would like the team to reach by the end of the season. By the end of the season, some goals were met, and some have yet to be attained, but one thing is certain: the coaches are proud of the team, and look forward to their ride to the top.
One of the main goals that Coach Feiler stated in the article for this season was to help the incoming freshmen adjust to collegiate baseball, and, along the way, become better players. To do so, he “tried to help the freshmen and players who don’t play much get prepared for games. I tried to put them in game-like situations, and I didn’t just put them all on the same team. I made mix-matched teams, so that everyone was intermingled. It really helped team building.” Assistant coach Yeager felt that to help the freshmen become comfortable on the team, it had to be a sense of family between the players, on and off the field, “We make every effort to challenge the entire team to push one another and gel together like a family.” Once this ‘gel’ happened, the team had to start playing together, and pushing each other, even the underclassmen to the older players, which is important to Yeager, “No matter what class level, I personally engage every player to become a leader in some capacity.”
Before the season even started the coaches all clear ideas of what they wanted the team to accomplish. In the Albrightian article, coach Feiler stated that with a younger team, he feels as though it is their chance to re-develop. He wanted to put players in new positions and let them all know that their roles would be expanded. Yeager concurs, “Some of our goals that we laid out in the beginning of the season included playing a style of TEAM-oriented baseball every day that highlighted our strengths and allowed us to gain an identity. By doing this, we challenged each Lion to get better at some aspect of the game every single day. Ultimately by playing Albright baseball as a unit, we expected to win enough ball games to return to the playoffs.”
With all of the things that Coach Feiler stated that he wanted the team to improve on, the question, of course, if the coach was pleased with the season’s results. Feiler was satisfied, to an extent, “I was pleased with the season. The freshman played pretty well. But the team started off played well, and then we got tight, for some reason”. When asked why he thought this ‘tightness’ happened, he stated that because a lot of things go wrong in baseball, players need to know how to deal with them, and adjust quickly during the games, physically and mentally. He thinks that at time his team go ‘beat down’, and it affected how they played. But fortunately, he said, “We got out of the funk, and got into the playoffs.” Reaching the playoffs was clearly something that coach Yeager was proud of too, “By the end of the season, a majority of our goals were accomplished as we restored the confidence that we had at the start and jumped back into the postseason chase for the Commonwealth Conference Crown.”
Discussing the next season was a moment of reflection for the coaches, as they realized what the team managed to accomplish, and what goals they think should be set for the 2010 season. Coach Feiler has high hopes for his team, “I definitely want to get to the playoffs, and get to the Conference Tournament again, like we did this year. I want to win the tournament, and advance to a higher level. But overall, I want to be a better team at the end of the year, than we were at the beginning of the year.” While Coach Yeager undoubtedly shares these sentiments, he desires an array of things, “Some of the things we definitely need to work on for next season is to execute offensively particularly with runners in scoring position, improve our defensive play, and to consistently work together to become a family that exudes confidence.”
Post-season, it is important for the players to continue their skills once they leave Albright’s baseball field, and go home for the summer. To help them polish their skills, coach Feiler expressed that he encourages his players to continue to practice even when he isn’t their coach, “I encourage them to play summer baseball and try out for teams, so they can practice even after the season is over.” He also commented on how he allows the players to know that they have room for improvement, and what to do to fix their flaws. He and the other coaches are currently in the process of meeting with each player individually for discussion on improvement, and things they should continue to work at. He believes that this will “make for a stronger club”, for the upcoming season.
College athletic teams are like revolving doors; as players leave, new players come in. And the coaches of the Albright baseball team are well aware of this, which is why they strive so hard to set goals for the team, and help those that are there for the season, to lead their team, both individually and collectively. It’s a group effort, for the players and coaches, and as coach Feiler said, “From a coaching standpoint, the season’s outcome is a question of why did certain things happen, when sometimes there isn’t necessarily a reason.” The only thing he, and his assistant coaches, can do is encourage teamwork, and improvement, and hopefully, bring a championship trophy back to the Albright campus.

Bringing the Troops Home One Protest at a Time

2009-05-19T10:54:00.000-07:00

Protesting and peace? These are two words that you usually do not hear together but that is exactly what one group of people in the city of Reading are doing. They are protesting for peace against the wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan, in hopes to not only bring about peace but also to bring the troops home. Every Friday at 5pm you can see this group of people protesting the war on the Penn Street Bridge. Although, not many people know about the protest, it has been going on for three years and will continue to go on as long as there are people to support it. The main supporters and leaders of the protest are Lisa and John, who preferred to have their last names kept private.

The protest is not trying to insult anybody, but it is in fact just trying to inform the people of Reading about the war. They are also trying to spread a message of peace instead of a message of war. The protest is not limited to a certain group of people, in fact anybody can join in and they encourage people who feel that it’s right to join them on the bridge and help spread the word.

Although some people might think that this is offensive to the troops that are over fighting the war, there are also those who support the cause. This can be both seen and heard in the number of honks and peace signs thrown up by the cars that drive by on the bridge. There are also war veterans who participate in the protest. So it is possible to both fight in the war and still want peace and to bring the troops home.

Melvin Domgiphe, an Iraqi war veteran used to think that the protests were offensive but now feels indifferent to them. More can be heard about this in the audio cast, where he talks about both his time in Iraq and how he feels about both protests in general and this particular protest.

There may be lots of support but there are also the people who do not support the people on the bridge and occasionally will tell them to “get a job”, give them the finger, or call them other degrading names.

Surprisingly there has not been much news coverage or support from the city of Reading. The only news that covered the event was Berks 69 News and that was only because it was John Lennon’s birthday. In fact, about a year ago the city of Reading did not allow the group to have their parade on the street, because they were using the word peace. Since the group refused to listen to the city of Reading and who wanted them to not use the word they were moved to the sidewalk instead of being allowed to march in the street.

The city of Reading could not be reached for any further information on the subject.

So is it possible to protest for peace? One group of people seem to think so and they are out their proving it to Reading every Friday that it is possible. And despite the few people who are angered by their presence there is a surprisingly warm welcome.

Diversity Week: Retrospect, Present and the Future of Diversity at Albright

2009-05-19T00:34:00.001-07:00

Even though its been almost a month since Diversity Week arrived on the Albright campus, people are still talking about some of the unforgettable moments that occured during that special week and planning a possible follow-up, slated to run next year. In this blog post, articles published in the May 7th issue of The Albrightian about DW are followed-up and reflected upon. In first part (the audio component), I spoke with sophomores Amanda Irizarry and Sheron Au about thier involvement with DW and why diversity is an important issue to spotlight. In the second part, the video titled "Diversity Week: Adminstrators Join the Students' Quest for Diversity," the administration's perspective is given on diversity and the reaction to DW. Lastly, in the third component, provided below, titled "Diversity Week: Students Respond to a Celebration of Difference," three students (sophomores Gina Sarno and Meaghan Washington as well as freshman Jamal Ishamel) discuss their feelings on DW and the signifcance of celebrating such an event on campus. Each component provide a different perspective but ultimately all discuss the same issue--diversity--and why it is important to have in the Albright community.

"DIVERSITY WEEK: STUDENTS RESPOND TO A CELEBRATION OF DIFFERENCE"

Diversity Week kicked off on April 27^th and was a jam-packed with several events all designed to encourage people to embrace each other’s differences and uniqueness. Some memorable events included “Building Bridges,” which exposed students to other students from different backgrounds of their own, the open-panel discussion of race in “Race in America,” and Judy Sheppard, mother of Matthew Sheppard, who was slain in a hate-crime in 1998. The week was a time to focus specifically on diversity and celebrating the melting pot of cultures and backgrounds within the Albright community.

On a personal note, I pleased to hear about Diversity Week and appreciated that Albright cared enough to devote an entire week to recognize our differences and to unify the members of the community. While, I think that there is always more room to keep the community more diverse and even more full of people that are different from each other, I also feel that Albright is made up of a fairly diverse group of people. And, for this reason, it makes it just as important to highlight this and to not recognize it. We are all not from the same place, experienced the same things in life nor lead the same lives—I think that shedding light on this is extremely necessary and vital to have on campus.

I loved all of the events devoted to talking about race but was mostly moved by the Judy Sheppard event as well as the “Stand Up for Love” demonstration. I feel that little attention is paid to the lives of gay people at Albright and to have the most publicized and visited event of the week was shocking and touching to me. I know that much of the turn-out was due to all of the hype received from the visit of the controversial Westboro Baptist Church, who follow Judy Sheppard around to protest her as well as homosexuality. Regardless of for the reason that people came, I was still elated that they were there to at least hear Judy Sheppard’s story and thoughts on gay people in society. It hopefully opened people’s eyes and challenged their thinking.

Based on my positive reaction to Diversity Week, I wanted to talk to members of the Albright community (all of different genders, races and other aspects of background) and get their opinions on Diversity Week and diversity in the community in general. After speaking with the presidents of the DW staff (as heard in the audio portion) and hearing their optimism about DW continuing on in the future, I wanted to know if the student population joined them in their enthusiasm and want it to become a permanent part of the community.

For Gina Sarno (class of 2011) and Jamal Ishmael (class of 2012), Diversity Week was an enjoyable and unforgettable week. “I did enjoy Diversity Week. One highlight of Diversity week for me was when Judy Shepard. She is such a strong woman and for her to keep speaking out to schools about her son's death is remarkable,” says Sarno. Ishmael had the same sentiments: “I liked diversity week because it was a nice way to educate and show how different everyone and every culture and nationality are. I really enjoyed the Judy Shepard lecture and the icebreaker. The icebreaker showed how different we are but it also showed how we all had something similar to each other such as goals, favorite show, movies and music.”

While, Meaghan Washington (class of 2011) enjoyed the week along with Sarno and Ishamel, she felt that more time devoted to the event could of benefited the way it turned out. “I did enjoy the activities and stuff they had. I thought it could have been better but I liked what I went to. I think if more time was put forth by the committee, it would have been better,” Washington reveals.

No matter how each felt about the week, each felt the week was still important and necessary to the campus’ growth. “Its important because it embraces not only people’s racial backgrounds, but their sexual backgrounds and genders. We all come from different places and we should want to share that,” states Washington. “I think it's important for everyone to learn about other cultures and other lifestyles. There are plenty of issues that need to addressed and by having Diversity Week, students and faculty here, can start to understand others,” Sarno remarked. “I think diversity is important because it shows you how even though everyone is different the differences we have aren't necessarily a bad thing,” Ishmael feels.

I also wanted to know if they felt that administration does enough to highlight diversity at Albright and make sure its noted in the community. Sarno felt that administration cares about diversity, mainly because there was a whole week dedicated to diversity and spotlighting it. But, she feels like DW needs to be spread throughout the year and be more than one. Washington sees an improvement from administration and their efforts to make diversity an important Albright community principle but feels that in the end, its up to the students to make diversity important and to help it permeate through the community.

I then asked about the future and if they wanted another DW in the future. Gina optimistically replied, “Yes, another Diversity Week would be amazing! We should make sure that this continues in the future.” Ishmael and Washington both would like to see DW continue but both worry about it becoming repetitious. “It would be nice for them to have that again. I would like it if they found different facts and information about different cultures each year so it wont seem old and repetitive,” declares Ishmael. “I would like to see another one but I think it should be only for the fall semester so it would be a way for the new students to meet the old ones. I like the idea of it being every year but I don’t want it to get monotonous,” Washington concludes.

Regardless of the different responses DW received, it is indisputable that it existed without being noticed. Whether you liked it or not, DW was one of the most major events of the 2008-2009 year and provided memories for years to come. I think an annual DW would do the community good and help everyone feel apart of the community. However, everyone needs to be involved and not just on the outside looking in. That would be a true celebration of diversity and proof that the week is making a change and statement.

Annual Student Juried Art Show

2009-05-18T21:48:00.000-07:00

Every year Albright hosts the Annual Juried Student Art show held in Albright’s own Freedman Gallery. I look forward to this event because it gives me an opportunity to try to display photographs I have taken, and it also allows me to see the other art produced by students here at Albright. This year’s show was displayed from May 8th to May 14th and the opening reception took place from 3-5pm on May 8th. Any student at Albright can submit pieces to show; it is not limited to art students. I myself am not an art student but a Digital Media major, and so my concentrated area focused on photography. After speaking with Michael Howell, the Director of the Freedman Gallery, I was able to learn about how and why the show exists, and about the organizational process of it all:
“Like all institutions that teach art, it is important that the educators and students be given the opportunity to showcase the works of the student artists for a number of reasons. The first, and perhaps the most vital to the mission of the institution, is to offer the students some real world experience in the intricacies of professional competition. Second, but not necessarily in importance, is to offer the students the opportunity to show their work(s) to the broader community of the campus and the region (we do get many people from outside that come here to see what our students are creating). It allows the best of our young artists the chance to show their work to a much broader audience beyond the classroom environment.”

Each student can submit up to 7 pieces, which are then assessed by an outside artist whom the gallery invites to be the juror. The juror is an artist who has either shown at the gallery or will be showing there in the near future. This year, that artist was Beverly Leviner,(Click to see an example of Beverly’s work) a sculptor and ceramic artist who helped found the Hilltop Studio in Reading, PA, where she works with fellow artist Nancy Sarangoulis to make mosaic and tile art pieces. Nancy now works at Albright as the Collections manager and Preparator for the Freedman Gallery. Nancy also currently works at Penn State Berks. Michael told me that the reason for the outside juror is also because it ties in with real world experience. Every artist, in every medium, benefits from criticism by people outside of their peers and those whom they know. It is also thought to be more objective if the juror has no direct ties with the submitted work. It also helps students and artists to learn about the diversity of opinions: a different juror may have picked different works, or they have picked the same ones; it is impossible to say. The juror also decides which pieces or individuals are to receive awards.

There were many other awards that were given out as well, and although not every artist could receive one, their art and talents were still very much appreciated. This is a fantastic opportunity for students to have their works displayed for the public to see and appreciate. If they wish, students can even choose to price their works for sale, giving them an even bigger taste of the real-work experience of having artwork in a gallery. It is very generous for the gallery to hold such an event and showcase the work of the students. In the Albrightian article written by Esther Lam, a freshman at Albright, another freshman, Ruby Chu, was quoted as saying, “I am not an art major, but I’ve loved art since I was young. I look at everything’s colors, shapes, curves, mediums, textures, and so on. I am so glad Albright is holding this art show, giving me an opportunity to get in touch with art again.” I think that this is the main focus of having such a gallery show, and it works wonderfully, not only for students who wish to submit pieces, but also for those who would just like to come to appreciate some art. It is especially exciting for students to see their friends’ works displayed in a gallery.

Reading community member Stephanie Cromwell comes to the show every year because it allows people to see Albright students’ talents in the arts, and it’s a good opportunity for students to see other students’ works. Stephanie has many friends at Albright, and she told me “I am not an art student, and so this is a unique chance to see the work the students have been working on all year.” The show allows students to learn, and for the work that is not accepted, they can submit it again next year. Everyone learns from experience. The show is very effective because a wide variety of people come to the show; it showcases Albright students’ hard work and how creative they are.

For my podcast I chose to focus on the organization of the show and especially on the awards ceremony, as this is the highlight for many people. The awards ceremony also takes place every year when certain artists are awarded for certain art pieces. I won the Digital Media award for the three photographs that were accepted, and Heather Martell, one of the interviewees in the my video, won the Art Department award for her sculpture “Fashion Stinks.” I spoke with Lisa Korecky, the secretary for the Center of the Arts who handles all the contacts for the awards, as well as helps with the organization. I also spoke with student Esther Lam, who wrote the Albrightian article, who did not have works in the show, but was able to share her opinions on the awards and the show.

My video is of the gallery opening night and of the wide variety of pieces on display. I spoke with Heather Martell ‘11, whose sculpture won an award, along with Kevin Vogrin, an alumnus of Albright who had works in the show in previous years. There was a wide range of pieces in the gallery and the opening reception was a huge success, filled with students, professors, and community members.

Final Reflective Blog

2009-05-18T11:08:00.000-07:00

1. What did you know about journalism, citizen journalism, and blogging before you took the course?
Before taking this class I knew very little about citizen journalism and blogging. To be honest I never read a blog until now. My understanding of blogging was minuscule. My perception of blogging was that it was a way for people who weren’t professional journalist to voice their opinions. I never took much thought as to what citizen journalism and blogging are until I took this lovely course. I guess I was sitting under rock while all of my friends were creating live journals and such because I really didn’t know what a live journal was until I met Tal. After taking this class I now know much more about citizen journalism and blogging.

2. What did you learn about journalism, citizen journalism, and blogging through readings and discussions?
I learned a great deal of information on citizen journalism and blogging through the readings and discussions. Being a communications major I knew pretty much what journalism was but what I did not know what citizen journalism and blogging were all about. Through this class I learned that anyone can be a reporter technically. If you want to write about an issue you feel strongly about you can do it on the Internet. You can start a blog and write whatever you want to write about on it. Through the readings and discussions I learned that sometimes citizen journalists and bloggers capture the news before a news organization can. I also learned that citizen journalist and bloggers can many times obtain information that the news organization would not have access to.

Before taking this class I didn’t know what citizen journalism was. I know have a better understanding of citizen journalism after having to complete the assignments. The discussions and readings brought about a number of topics including are citizen journalist really journalist. Some people think they are while others believe they are a branch of journalism. I think many people are really just unsure of what citizen journalism is and they have trouble trusting it because it is not always reliable.

When it came to blogging I really only knew it as a way people expressed themselves. I looked at blogging as an online diary for people to write about their lives for all to see. After taking this class I learned that blogs serve as more than just a diary. Blogs are used when people want to give their opinion, inform others on a topic they care about, as well as provide feedback and suggestions to give a few examples. Blogs are on the rise. Through the readings and discussion I think that blogs are going to become the next big thing. They are going to become a form of communication that people use on an everyday basis like checking their e-mail, people will also be checking their blogs.

3. Describe your experience with the hands-on element with a focus on what you learned, the educational value, and the application to the real world.
a. Use of technology
When it comes to technology I can say I never want to work in a field with computers. However; I thought having to do the audio and video podcasts were a nice change from paper writing and test taking but I did not enjoy all the problems that came with the technology and programs. It was just frustrating when you would complete an audio podcast and then it would not work and there was nothing you could do about it. However; besides the technical difficulties I thought learning how to create these projects will definitely help me in the future. Knowing how to make movies for example is a great tool to have in the workplace and even out of the workplace. I thought it was also cool that what we learned about technology in the classroom we were able to practice outside of the classroom. In our discussions we were constantly talking about how technology is advancing and if you do not know how to use it you will be lost. Technology is also becoming a huge part in journalism and many other careers so knowing how to use it can give you an advantage over someone else. This class really broadened my skills with technology and the software programs that I think will really help me when I start looking for jobs in a few short days

b. Covering stories/events/issues relevant to Albright/Reading Community
I thought covering stories/events/issues relevant to Albright and the Reading Community was a great idea because it made it interesting to write about. I didn’t mind covering the stories or events because many of them involved me, my friends or just Albright in general. It was fun finding out interesting events happening at Albright and what issues were being discussed. It was much easier to cover stories these stories too because we could get information from the sources we needed. I also met a lot of new people on Albright’s campus by having to do these assignments. I met faculty members, administration and even more students. It is funny to say this but I graduate soon and now know even more people especially the administration than I did before. Contacting sources and conducting interviews provided me with a ton of information for my assignment. As the semester went on I could tell my interviewing skills were getting better each time. I felt less nervous each time I did an interview and felt more confident as well. Doing these assignments and conduction the interviews made me really feel like a journalist. I think it was good practice if someone wanted to have a profession in the journalism field.

c. Class Critiques of blogs/podcasts
At first I was not too fond of having my work critiqued in front of the class. It made me feel like I was in middle school again when the teacher would make you go to the board and do a math problem while the rest of the class watched. And if you didn’t know how to do the problem it was the most embarrassing experience. This is how I felt about the critiques at first. I was a little worried that anyone could look at our work on the Internet. I am really self conscious and worry that people will not think my work is good so I really did not like the idea of all of our assignments being posted on the Web. I do know that this is the point of the class though and after a few weeks I learned to not mind as much. Maybe it was the fact that not many people read the blogs or that I was becoming more comfortable with the work I produced, I am not really sure.

What I do know is that after surviving the first critique I really did not mind the rest. I did think it was helpful to see how others went about doing their projects and it game me ideas for my future assignments. I thought that everyone gave great feedback and were respectable when critiquing someone else’s assignment. It made me feel good when people would give me supportive feedback and told me that they thought I did a nice job. I think the critiques were helpful because they provided for the most part positive feedback.

d. Freedom of blogging
I really enjoyed the freedom of blogging. I liked picking topics that really related to us. I think picking our own topics made it easier for me to really get into what I was doing my assignment on. I never really minded doing the assignments; sometimes they were actually kind of fun! Seeing the finished product was always something I looked forward to.

In the real world if you are a blogger, usually you are allowed to pick your topic so I think choosing our topics was a good way to prepare us for the real world. The fourth hour assignments were the only time that I felt like we were being forced to write about a particular thing. I just figured this was fine because we are still in a class and we have to cover certain issues.

4. Discuss what you now think/feel/believe about the role citizen journalism and blogging play in communication. Is blogging a form of journalism?
This class has opened my eyes to the fact that journalism is changing very quickly. Citizen journalism and blogging are also becoming very popular fields to get into. More and more people are becoming bloggers and citizen journalists than ever before. I think without them there would be a lot of news and information that is not covered. I think they help to provide information, opinions and new topics.

I think that blogging is a form of journalism but I do not consider it the same journalism as I do a newspaper. I think that people who work for a newspaper are journalist but those who are bloggers I consider a branch off of journalism.

Women's Lacrosse Club at Albright

2009-05-18T09:39:00.000-07:00

Everyone loves college for their own reason, one reason why I love college is for the sports. I like waking up on a Saturday morning knowing that in two hours there is a football game in Shirk Stadium or a final four game in the Bollman Center. That is why i think the issue of the Women's Lacrosse Club is so important. If the club is able to be started Fall of 2009 is when tryout will be. I interviewed a variety of different people to get an idea of what the student body and facility think about the club. I interviewed Athletic Director Janice Luck, Athletic Director and previous Director of Club Sports Rick Ferry, volleyball player Melissa Guida, lacrosse player and starter coach of the women's lacrosse club Andrew Brehm and two girls who will hopefully be joining the team in the fall Sarah Rowe and Christi Wilson.

Ball or ball down, Change plans and face-off are just some of the terms in the game of lacrosse. Here at Albright College lacrosse is not a varsity sport and gets looked over, it is a club sport. Being a club sport is different than a varsity sport. The main focus right now in club sports is the Girls Lacrosse Club Team that is trying to be organized. Students are taking the initiative to form a team so the girls do not have to play with the men’s team anymore. “I think it is awesome that students are stepping up to the plate to start a club sport that they are interested in, being a female myself even though I do not play a sport I do think the guys sports get more recognition for their sport rather than girls do. For example students will go to out to see the men’s football and basketball game but the girls basketball games do get low attendance,” say Brittani Kelly a senior and member of a sorority here at Albright.

There are a total of twenty male and female sports here at Albright. In addition there are five club sports men and women’s rugby, men’s lacrosse, badminton and ultimate Frisbee. The girls here at Albright are determined to make a team “good for them, I know I wouldn’t play but to hear about people that have the passion to do that good for them,” says Kassie Budzski a Junior and Vice President of a Sorority here at Albright.

The girls came across this idea of starting a club team when they realized that there was no women’s lacrosse at Albright at all. In the up and coming year they are hoping to take the idea of a lacrosse club team and make it reality. “I don’t know anyone that would or should be against the students to try and make something. I know I can’t play because I am a boy but it is something that I give a lot of credit to. I mean it is time consuming but if it is what they want then good for them,” says Kevin Zinzel a Junior football player here at Albright.

The task of starting a new club is very hard but many are hoping that it will pay off in the end. When it comes down to it there are several challenges that students had to face is make the club. One challenge was funding, the head Athletic Director and previous director of Club sports goes into detail of how the finances are handled and the difference between club and varsity sports in my interviews in the blog. The girls are in high hopes of finding a coach and ready to play next year. They feel that the future is looking bright and are excited to see what will happen over the next couple of months.

With all these bumps ahead of them the students still are not giving up. By next spring some of the Lady Lions are hoping to be playing Lacrosse in Schirk Stadium on the turf, right where the football, men’s lacrosse and many other Albright sports are played. This is Jay Warker for AC Studentvoices.

Final Reflective Blog

2009-05-18T09:09:00.000-07:00

Before taking this blogging course I knew more about journalism than I did citizen journalism or blogging. I’ve written for my school’s newspaper since high school, so I was familiar with AP style and how stories were reported and framed in journalism. My knowledge of blogging was very limited. I very rarely read blogs, but I knew they existed and that ordinary people were the main writers. What I didn’t know was that they are written using some of the same elements of journalistic stories. I was always under the impression that a blog was almost like a diary entry of the person’s opinion of certain issues. I didn’t know that a major component of blogging was quoting sources and linking to different stories on the web that describe the issue the writer is referring to. I think the main misconception I had about blogging was that it isn’t a serious form of journalism. I really thought it was just random people who had something to say that created a blog to strictly voice their opinions. I didn’t think that they became citizen journalists in the fact that they quote sources and refer to different articles to support their opinions. I also never really thought about audio and video blogs in association with blogging. When I came into this course I really only expected to be writing blogs and never realized that there were two other forms of blogging that have become popular among citizen journalists.

The biggest thing I learned about blogging and citizen journalism is that they are framed much like journalism, but with a more relaxed tone. There is room for bloggers to voice their opinions in their posts, but they get sources to back up their opinion while also quoting sources that don’t. They are sure to balance their stories with the sources they quote much like journalists do to create credibility for their readers. By balancing their stories and making sure they are quoting reputable sources, they create credibility not only among their readers but among the mass media as well. I remember in the Newswar documentary, that bloggers were the driving force behind the Trent Lott ordeal. They were the first to cover the story that Lott had said he supported Strom Thurman’s prejudiced presidential campaign during Thurman’s birthday celebration. Only after bloggers who had shaped a credible reputation brought the story to light did the national media pick up on the story that eventually led to Lott’s resignation. In We the Media, Dan Gillmor suggests that the approach of credible bloggers to reach the masses is more effective than magazine advertisements. He said that companies and politicians should now remember to tell the truth because there are well informed, expert citizen journalists taking to the Internet to make sure the truth is reported. And there are many bloggers who have established their credibility like the ones who picked up the Trent Lott story and those that found Dan Rather’s documents showing President Bush’s military records to be fake. I think this showed to the masses that there are bloggers who are doing a better job at finding the facts then the national media is doing. In my opinion this gave bloggers a little more credibility over that of the national media and showed that citizen journalists were on the side of those just like them.

Another thing I learned from the reading is the ridiculous things people become experts in and credible for. In this particular instance I’m referring to the Convergence Culture reading about Survivor bloggers. There are people who in some ways undermine the idea of citizen journalism to report and become experts in predicting the winner of a reality television show like Survivor. I realize that Survivor is one of the most popular reality shows on television, but the idea of stalking people they believe are contestants and places they think the show is filming, undermines the credibility of citizen journalism. In a way the Survivor bloggers create a mockery of the idea that ordinary citizens can report the facts about specific topics by choosing ridiculous topics like the winner of Survivor. However, at the same time I understand that one of the benefits of this is people coming together to share information no matter how ridiculous the topic. This can also be seen in the chapter about the Harry Potter wars; although I think young kids learning to become better writers is a more just reason for their foray into blogging then those just trying to be the first to figure out the winner of a reality show. In the Harry Potter instance, young kids are coming together to publish fake school newspapers about something they read in a book, which not only helps them become better writers but engages them in reading. The idea of kids being interested in books when they have video games and television to occupy their time is something that should be celebrated not shut down by corporations like Warner Brothers. Blogging gives these citizens the chance to engage themselves further in media and that is a huge benefit from the evolution of the Internet and the creation of blogging.

From all of the hands-on work in creating many different types of blogs I learned a lot about blogging and citizen journalism. The most difficult aspect of creating the blogs for me was the different technology we used. I’m not the most technology savvy, but I learned how to use things like audio recorders and video cameras, which I had never done before. I also learned how to use the programs associated with each to edit and create both audio and video casts, something I never thought I would be able to do by just knowing the basics. I also learned how to use a Mac to create my first audio cast, which I think was my biggest technology struggle during the class. However, the more I used the different forms of technology the better I understood them and the more comfortable I felt listening to the sound of my own voice or being on camera. Learning to use the different forms of technology to produce audio and video casts is going to be very useful when I find a job in the communications field. Many of the jobs I have already applied for want someone with blogging knowledge. Not only do I have the knowledge of written blogs, but I also know how to create audio and video blogs after taking this course, which will help in the application process for companies who want a person with an understanding of the new forms of media used today.

Finding things to cover around the Albright campus was sometimes difficult because in order for me to do my best work I had to have an interest in the story I was producing. I tried to cover events or stories that not only I had an interest in, but that I thought other students would also have an interest in. Sometimes that was hard because with the way certain breaks fell there weren’t many events being held on campus. It was also difficult to find sources that were willing to be recorded or videotaped. This could have been because they were shy but it also could have been that they feared the repercussions of having their opinion about college events or issues on the web where fellow students, faculty, and administration could possible view them. I know that there will always be people unwilling to make themselves a source, but for the purpose of this class it made it frustrating to not have their cooperation or sometimes understanding. I think if more people understood the purpose of this class was to develop students as citizen journalists and not to get them in trouble or criticize the college in any way, people would have been more willing to become sources.

The class critiques of our work were really beneficial. I know that I learned a lot from the feedback that the other students gave me and also from the feedback that I received from the grader of each project. I think that everyone in the class always had constructive criticism for the blogs that we critiqued and never attacked the work we put into our projects. I think the feedback we received on all of our projects helped to make the next one that much better and really helped when putting together the two multimedia blogs. Without knowing what others wanted out of an audio cast or a video cast, it would have been hard to create better second projects and comprehensive multimedia blogs. In the real world there are always going to be people critiquing your work and its best to take in their feedback and learn from it to improve upon your future projects. And there will always be someone there with negative criticism, but so long as we use that constructively, our future projects will become better and better.

I really liked the freedom associated with blogging because it gave me a chance to tell my opinion. I’m so used to only having to report the facts that it was refreshing to be able to incorporate my opinion into the blogs. I don’t think that as someone covering an event or an issue that we don’t have some kind of opinion, even if that opinion is that we don’t care. It was nice to be able to show that opinion that is so rarely done apart from commentaries and editorials in journalism. I also liked that we were able to pick any topic that we wanted. I think that if we were assigned topics that would in a lot of ways go against one of the fundamentals of blogging, which is freedom. Bloggers are not assigned stories or events to cover. They cover issues or events that interest them. So I liked that this class stayed true to form because in the real world of blogging there are no restrictions on topics one can cover.

At the beginning of this course I didn’t think that blogging was a form of journalism. However, after creating written, audio, and video blogs, I realized that blogging is a form of journalism. These everyday citizens find sources and other stories that have been written about the topic and use that in a relaxed journalistic narrative that tells their story. These bloggers take the time to find sources that back up the information they find or the opinions they have while also finding sources that disagree. They make sure to have their facts straight and their stories balanced in the same way that journalists do. The only real noticeable differences are they don’t have a title from a national media outlet and they incorporate their opinion into their writing. I think that blogging has become an important form of communication. These citizen journalists build credibility and are seen as experts on the topics they discuss within their blogs. Some of the expert bloggers have become influential in their discoveries, like those in the Trent Lott case, and have given bloggers everywhere credibility among the masses. These citizen journalists have taken on the role of gatekeepers to the national media, corporations, and politicians by researching their claims for verification. If they find something to be untrue, they will tell the masses through their blogs and those bloggers that are considered experts will be believed. Citizen journalist bloggers have become an influential part of media today and as they break more stories or find more things to be false, their influence and credibility will only continue to grow.

What's your handicap?

2009-05-18T08:32:00.000-07:00

Have you ever thought about how hard it is for a handicap person to get around Albright’s campus? You most likely answered “No” to that question. The truth is most students don’t think twice about the accessibility of our campus because it does not affect them personally. Professor Bonnie Hamwi of the education department believes that this is an important issue that should not be ignored. Professor Hamwi took this issue and applied it to her intro to elemtary education class. I spoke to one of Professor Hamwi’s former students about her experiences while taking the class. Ashley Gaynor is a senior special education and theater major. “That one exercise really opened my eyes, I never really thought about whether it was easy or hard for handicapped people,” said Ashley when I asked her what she remembers most about the class. One part of the intro to education class experiment requires the students to take turns riding a wheel chair and maneuvering through campus. The students have a list of places they must attempt to access; Grinrich library, campus center, Masters and Selwyn hall to name a few. “I remember the worst place to get around in was Jake’s Place because of that ramp by the bathroom. It’s like a 180 degree turn,” stated Ashley. Although there are ramps in many places on campus some can be hard to maneuver depending on what type of wheel chair that is used. Professor Hamwi’s class is one of the few ways that students can learn about the accessibility of our campus.

The admissions office does have a tour route designated to accommodate people who are handicap. Albright Ambassadors are responsible for providing prospective students and visitors with a fresh, fun, and personal experience on their college tours. The admissions office mandates that all ambassadors be proficient in giving a handicap campus tour. The normal campus tour takes about an hour and makes stops at all the major landmarks of the college; Grinrich library, Masters Hall, Memorial chapel, and computing and mathematics just to name a few. During the handicap tour the tour guide relays all the same information as in a normal tour and points out all the major landmarks. However, the handicap tour does take a half hour longer than the normal tour. This is due to the extra walking around buildings and the estimated time for elevators and maneuvering up and down ramps. “I had to give a handicap tour a couple weeks ago and it was tough,” said Jared Epler a senior ambassador. Jared has been an ambassador since the spring semester of his freshman year. “Since I don’t normally give the handicap tours I had to bring the manual with me to remember the path, it’s hard because I have to deviate from my normal tour route and walk around everything,” said Jared about his latest tour experience.

Although Albright is not an easily accessible campus there are services that are offered free of charge for students who request them. Students can request to be shuttled by public safety to different locations. Jen Bonnes a sophomore said, “Public safety did use to drive me to my physical therapy three times a week since I couldn’t drive myself.” On top of the shuttle service public safety can also provide an elevator key if the student follows the proper procedures to procure the key.

Want to know what else public safety and other departments on campus do to assist handicapped students? Be sure to listen to the audio podcast version of this post. Also step into someone else’s shoes and check out the mini documentary, “day in the life.”

"Crawling for a Cause, One Keg at a Time"

2009-05-17T19:07:00.000-07:00

On October 28, 2006 an Albright student, Derek Kehoe passed away from a rare cancer type called leiomyosarcoma (LMS). Leiomyosarcoma is a cancerous tumor of the smooth muscle cells. It is a soft tissue sarcoma, which are cancers that attack soft tissues for example fat and muscle cells. The body has two types of muscles: voluntary and involuntary. Voluntary muscles are the muscles that control the intentional physical activities of the body for example the biceps, abdominal and pectoral muscles. On the other hand, smooth muscle cells are involuntary muscles meaning we have no control over them. These muscles are throughout the whole body and can be typically found in the blood vessels, uterus, stomach, intestines, and skin.

Derek was only a sophomore when he passed away yet many people across the college knew him very well. Coming in as a freshman Derek wasted no time getting involved. He played point guard on the varsity basketball team, was involved as a counselor for the summer start program, a student employee for the Office of Community Standards and served as a member of the Public Safety Advisory Committee. Senior, Matt Bazsika, Derek’s freshman roommate and teammate describes Derek as, “A really energetic and kind guy who you would want to have as a best friend. Everyone who knew Derek loved him like a brother.”

As Matt said, many students were touched by Derek Kehoe. The students who knew him wanted to give back to Derek by raising money for his fund which was started by his parents in remembrance of him. To raise money Senior, Kyle Meyer and many other students decided to take Keg Crawl which has been an annual event for the past seven years and make it a fundraiser for Derek’s fund. For the past two years students have been participating in Keg Crawl whether they knew Derek or not to raise money.

Although this event raises money for a good cause it also raises a lot of controversy with Albright. Being that Keg Crawl is not an Albright sponsored event, the faculty and administration have many concerns. Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students, Gina-Lyn Crance expressed, “We are concerned about underage drinking, students being unsafe or getting hurt, inappropriate behavior in the community (reports have been made that students urinate, defecate and vomit in public), sale of alcohol to minors---mostly though, it is concern about the dangers associated with excessive drinking and illegal behavior.”

Students understand why Albright’s administration might be worried however some students wish they would be more supportive. Senior, Maria Disla stated, “I can see why the school would not want their name attached to an event with the title Keg Crawl, obviously that would not look good on their part, but I think there is a way for everyone to come together to help make this a huge philanthropic event. I suggest having an event that allows all students to get involved maybe having a 5K race and bringing in support from the whole community.”

When asked if the school would ever consider participating in some type of fundraiser event for Derek Kehoe Dean Crance stated, “There are a lot of options and it could certainly be a discussion topic.”

While Keg Crawl brings about many discussion topics, overall the money is supporting an Albright student who passed away and was loved by many. This year alone Senior Kyle Meyer proudly announced that, “We raised $1,100 this year and $800 last year which I think it pretty awesome.”

Statistics for Soft Tissue Sarcoma and Leiomyosarcoma
-Soft tissue sarcomas account for approximately one percent (approximately 8,100) of new cancer cases each year in the United States.
-Approximately ten percent of the total new cases of soft tissuesarcomas occur in children and teenagers.
-About fifty percent of all soft tissue sarcomas occur in the smooth muscle cells of the body's extremities including arms, nipples, legs, hands and feet.
-About forty percent occur in the chest, back, hips, shoulders, gastrointestinal tract and abdomen.
-Only ten percent occur in the head and neck.
-Leiomyosarcoma accounts for around fifteen percent of cases of soft tissue sarcoma cases.
-Leiomyosarcoma affects mainly adults with an average age ofaround sixty years.

*Statistics taken from http://www.leiomyosarcomacancer.com/articles/leiomyosarcoma/index.php
* Link to the Albrightian issue http://www.albright.edu/albrightian/archives/11_02_2006.pdf
*Some of the pictures used are courtesy of photos taken by Dr. John Pankratz and song is courtesy of Billy Joel
*Note I tried to get information from Security but they did not get back in time

Final Reflective Post

2009-05-17T17:23:00.000-07:00

1. What did you know about journalism, citizen journalism, and blogging before you took the course?
Before I took the blogging course, my knowledge of journalism, citizen journalism, and blogging was varied. I knew the most about journalism considering I had just taken Writing for Mass Media. Throughout the class I was exposed to just about every topic concerning journalism I could think of. I learned AP Style in writing, the conventions of news, all about different kinds of story and lead structures, about the profession, ethics, etc. I even spent time actually writing articles. I left that class feeling pretty confident that I understood the basics of journalism both as a profession and practice.
Citizen journalism I knew nothing about. I came in to the class with an extremely basic understanding of what it was, and that was only because I had it explained to me during advising when Professor Rakus suggested that I take the class. She told me about a project done on YouTube about citizen journalism where ordinary people put together news pieces for a competition. Based on what I knew about that competition I thought citizen journalism was simply people who weren’t journalists that reporting news.
Blogging I’d had some experience with in the past in two ways. First, I’m an avid reader of Perez Hilton. I knew what he did was a blog, but that’s about all I knew. I’d also had some experience searching around on various established blogs at my internship. However, in both of those cases I really didn’t know anything about blogging as a practice. I took the ones I was engaging with as being nothing particularly different than regular websites. Second, I have personally blogged in the past; I just didn’t know that’s what I was doing. When I was in high school I maintained a livejournal. Livejournal is basically a site that allows users to keep personal journals online. I loved my site and used it frequently but I had no idea at the time that I was blogging. It wasn’t until I took the class that I figured it out.

2. What did you learn about journalism, citizen journalism, and blogging through readings and discussions?
Throughout the course I learned a lot about all three areas. Coming in to the class I felt that I knew most of what there was to know about journalism, but I was wrong. The biggest thing I learned about it throughout the class is that journalism extends beyond just the newspaper. Never once in my four years at Albright had I ever thought of journalism existing anywhere except newspapers and online newspaper sites, broadcast news, and NPR. This class opened my eyes to the fact that anyone can be a reporter. I learned that thanks to blogging not only can anyone be a reporter, anyone can publish what they write on the web to share their news with others. Through readings and class discussion it became clear to me that news happens everywhere and someone from a news organization isn’t always going to be there to cover it. Citizen journalists are becoming popular because technology is giving them the opportunity to share and write news whether they work for a news source or not.

When it comes to citizen journalism, the most important thing I learned was what it was and its increasing prominence on the web. As I said before, until I took this class I had never really heard of citizen journalism and had no idea what it was. Now I fully understand the concept and have even participated in it myself through my assignments. However, I also learned through various reading and discussions that there is a lot of controversy over what constitutes journalism and if citizen journalists are actually engaging in journalism at all. It has become clear that the idea of it is something very new and that all of society has a lot still to learn about it, but I’m glad I was exposed to it enough through the material covered in class that I now know what it is and what goes into it.

As for blogging, I learned that it is more than just people writing about their lives. I came in with the preconceived notion that blogs were just online diaries. I was wrong. I learned the blogs serve many purposes. I also learned that blogs are becoming extremely popular, both in number and their influence. We spent a lot of time this semester reading and discussing the role of blogs in today’s society. Through all of that I learned that blogs are becoming more important in the spread of information and ideas. We discussed how blogs are opening up channels of communication and discussion amongst people in ways they’ve never experienced and how powerful that communication and discussion can be in doing things such as understanding issues, fact checking professionals, etc. Had I not taken this class, I’m sure that I would have continued to be ignorant of the entire blogosphere and been content engaging in just one small part of it.

3. Describe your experience with the hands-on element with a focus on what you learned, the educational value, and the application to the real world.

a. Use of technology
I had a very frustrating experience with the technology in the class. However, I liked the fact that instead of just sitting in a classroom and learning about blogging we were actually doing it and the technology is what made that possible. I think that somewhere down the line when I am out working, knowing how to use Moviemaker, operate a voice recorder, edit audio, and use basic blogging software is going to be very helpful. We’ve learned continually that technology is really becoming a major part of the world of journalism, so it is likely that technical skills are going to be high in demand for people looking for jobs. I think that aspect of the class is going to really help students once they go out into the workforce. Before this class, I had only had to use voice recorders, cameras, and editing software once or twice through my college career. When I did have to use it, I struggled because I was never shown how, and my experience was limited so I never really became comfortable with it. The technological aspect of the class added a lot of value to it in my opinion. It made the class innovative and really showed that the communications track is able to keep up with changing industry trends to really prepare students for work in the real world.

b. Covering stories/events/issues relevant to Albright/Reading Community
I learned a lot when it came to the types of stories I covered. First and foremost, I learned a lot about the issues and events that I was discussing. I felt more comfortable covering issues for my blogs. By doing that I had to contact sources from all over the college that I probably wouldn’t have ever gotten in touch with otherwise. All my sources had so much information to offer that I always walked away knowing more than I did when I went it. I think that was a really cool aspect of the blog assignments, not only were we learning about blogging and citizen journalism but we had to opportunity to learn more about Albright as well. The other big thing I learned was what it must be like to work in the real world of journalism. I’ve always heard that when working in the field you would be assigned to a story and that is what you had to cover or that you would follow a specific beat. The class acted like that by forcing us to cover issues and events pertaining to Albright and the Reading Community. The fact that we were given deadlines and we were not allowed to change topics also added to that professional feeling. I feel like I learned what it would be like for a real journalist.

c. Class Critiques of blogs/podcasts
At first I thought this aspect of the class was really embarrassing. I wasn’t fond of the entire class being able to read/hear/watch my work. I know that’s the point of the class but I still didn’t like it in the beginning. I was used to peers critiquing my work but before this class it had never been a multi-person endeavor and I wasn’t fond of it. However, I feel like I learned a lot from them by the end. When you spend countless hours watching the same video footage or listening to the same audio interview over and over again it becomes hard to pick out the flaws in your own work. I feel like everyone in the class was really respectful of each other’s work and offered really constructive criticisms for each other. I know that I personally took the comments that were directed towards me in class and applied them to future projects to try and improve my work. It was also nice to be able to see the work of others and hear what people had to say about those pieces as well. There were numerous times that we would critique other students work and I would mentally remind myself of what worked in their blogs and to try to improve my own work based on it. I think that the critiques were one of the best parts of the class.

d. Freedom of blogging
I felt like the freedom we got with respect to choosing the topics of our blogs was very consistent with what we would face in the real world. I liked that there were some boundaries because we had to cover something that affects Albright, but that we were given the freedom to choose any topic as within those criteria. I feel that we would face that same type of situation in the real world. If I left school to work for the Philadelphia Inquirer I would have expected to be assigned to some area of news within the Philadelphia area and then given the freedom to find stories that correspond with that assignment.

The only time I felt like our freedom was really compromised was with the fourth hour blogs. I understand that there needed to be other assignments in the class but I felt like when we were assigned specific topics to discuss, they were contradictory with what we were learning about blogging in class. We were always taught that there was so much freedom in blogging. You could talk about whatever you wanted, in however much space you wanted, etc. I feel like the fourth hours were important from an educational standpoint and that they helped to reinforce what was covered in the classroom but I think that they hindered the experience of blogging a little bit. I think the fourth hour assignments should have been removed from the blog and handed in separately to give us an experience that was more in line with what we would experience in a working environment.

4. Discuss what you now think/feel/believe about the role citizen journalism and blogging play in communication. Is blogging a form of journalism?
This class has shown me that the field of journalism is quickly changing. Based on what we’ve covered in class I now believe that the role citizen journalism and blogging are playing is growing quickly. As the world of journalism continues the shift online, blogging is growing in popularity and people are beginning to learn the power of it. We’ve seen many different examples of this throughout the class. We read about how people came together to offer information after a club fire, we read about how bloggers are working together to fact check journalists and make sure they are reporting accurate information, and we read about how technology is making it easier for citizens to capture and report the news without the intervention of the professional news media. It seems to me that as people begin to learn more about blogging and citizen journalism it will continue on the trend of growing and becoming more influential.

As for whether blogging is a form of journalism, I’ve had a hard time all semester trying to answer that question but in the end I feel as though it depends on what is being written. For example, technically, my livejournal from high school is considered a blog, but I would never consider what I wrote in it to be journalism. To fall into that category I feel like a post should follow the typical conventions of news such as timeliness, objectivity, balance, etc. A person should be covering a story fairly and accurately. That being said, I believe that only some blogging is journalism. For example, the posts from YouTube’s Project: Report competition, had they been posted on a blog would certainly constitute journalism because they follow those news conventions. In addition, many news sites, such as nytimes.com, whose business is journalism, also have blogs to report news. Despite the fact that I think some blogging is journalism, I feel that a majority of the blogging done is not journalism. There are countless blogs that are personal and act as someone’s journal or diary online, blogs that just provide a place to aggregate information on various topics, etc.

I also don’t think that for journalism to occur on a blog that the entire blog needs to be devoted specifically to journalism, I believe that it can occur in specific posts. Technology is making it so easy for ordinary people to take pictures or video and write news. What I’ve written in my livejournal in the past was not journalism or news regardless of how you looked at it. However, there is nothing stopping me from going out and covering a story much like I would for the Albrightian or this class. If I did that and posted it on there, I would consider that one specific post to be journalism but not the rest of the content on the site.

And This Little Piggy Cried Wee Wee Wee All The Way Home: Swine Flu at Albright

2009-05-17T16:50:00.000-07:00

For several weeks the swine flu pandemic has been a major issue across much of the country. On May 3, 2009 Pennsylvania confirmed its first case of Novel Influenza A H1N1, the swine flu. As of 3:00pm on Sunday May 17, that number rose to 46 confirmed and 10 probable cases. Four of those confirmed cases are right here in Berks County creating a major cause for concern for Albright.

According to information released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the swine flu is a new flu virus that was first detected in April of this year. They report that the virus is currently spreading from person to person and it is unknown how severe the outbreak will be. People are not likely to have immunity towards it resulting in more severe illness and a higher number of cases. There is no vaccine against swine flu but the virus does respond to certain anti-viral medications such as Tamiflu and Relenza.

The fact that the virus spreads from person to person is not good news for Albright. Gina Crance, Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students explains, “we are a residential learning community so we have probably well over 2,000 people on campus at any given time between students, faculty, staff, visitors, and administrators, so given the communicable nature of the swine flu, and the seriousness, it makes our community more vulnerable”.

Although there is currently an increased risk for Albright to be affected by the swine flu, the college is prepared, thanks largely in part to the Pandemic Planning Task Force (PPTF). According to Samantha Wesner, the world is historically overdue for a pandemic. Because of that, in 2006 the Department of Education sent out information requesting that Colleges and Universities develop pandemic plans.

Over the past three years a group of faculty, staff, and administration has been working to develop an extensive plan for the college to follow should a pandemic situation arise. Earlier this semester the World Health Organization raised the level of pandemic awareness from a level three, where it has been for the past three years, to a level five. Since that change, the PPTF has been meeting weekly and talking every day while closely monitoring the number of cases across the country, as well as in Pennsylvania, to decide what action needs to be taken on campus.

Many different people are involved in Albright’s pandemic plans. Wesner is the chair of the PPTF, and is joined by representatives from housing, public safety, IT, food services, the controller’s office, the registrar’s office, human resources, faculty, college relations, among others.

One of the biggest issues facing the task force is how to decrease the spread of the virus should it hit Albright. The virus is currently spreading human to human making it very easy for people to become infected. The pandemic plan outlines several ways to deal with this issue. Their first plan of action is to send infected students home. However, Albright, as well as most colleges and universities, has many international students on campus. Wesner says, “we have international students and you can’t put a sick student on a plane, you have to take care of them”. She also explains that some students are from out of state and would also have problems getting home. For students like that, the school has designated quarantine and isolation homes to care for those who either got infected or exposed to the virus.

The PPTF has other measures in place should students or other members of the college become infectedas well. They understand that if Albright experienced a confirmed case of the swine flu, the need for information would increase dramatically. College relations has developed an extensive question and answer document to be sent out and placed on the college web site, and the school has set aside phone lines specifically to deal with inquiries about the flu. If the phone lines ever needed to be put to use, members of the PPTF would be prepared to answer calls with all the necessary information in front of them.

From a prophylactic standpoint, the college and the PPTF have placed information on the college homepage, sent e-mails to students and parents, placed hand sanitizer in common areas on campus, and gave out bottles of hand sanitizer to individual rooms in the residence halls.

Although Albright has an extensive pandemic plan designed to handle illness outbreaks such as the swine flu, it becomes difficult for them to take the proper action if they are not kept informed about possible cases on the campus. Wesner explains, “if it’s a student, we recommend that they come to the health center on campus because we need to know so that we can protect the rest of the community.”

Her thoughts were echoed by Dean Crance, “if you know you’re sick get to the doctor, get to the health center, make sure you’re okay, we need to try to help people stay healthy, and move beyond this”.

Any member of the Albright community that has concerns about exposure or possible infection is encouraged to contact their primary health care provider or see the Health Center right away.

For more information concerning student opinion on the swine flu at Albright as well as how to keep yourself healthy, what to do if you fear infection, and what signs and symptoms to watch out for, please watch and listen to the video and audio components of this post.

Note: To listen to the audio portion of this blog you must download the file.

Additional Sources of Information:

1. Center For Disease Control

2. Pennsylvania Department of Health

3. World Health Organization

4. Berks County Pandemic Advisory Council

5. Gable Health and Counseling Center

The following video contains additional statistics and information on the swine flu in the US and Pennsylvania

A Reflection of the Past in the Multimedia World

2009-05-17T12:34:00.000-07:00

“Communicating in the Multi-media World” was certainly a class I do not regret taking. This class was just an elective for me and was not part of my major at all, but I found this class to be one of the most beneficial classes I have had at Albright College. The only part of the class I would change is the structure of the class. I felt that if we had weekly media-lab work days then more of our stress and questions would have been non existent. Other than that the readings and lectures were relevant to the purpose of the class.

Honestly, I did not know very much about journalism, citizen journalism and blogging. What I did know was the bloggers, such as Perez Hilton can put whatever they want about whatever they want and consider it a blog. I also knew that anyone could blog, because my cousin blogs about her family and children. Other than that the subject of online journalism was pretty new to me.

I learned a lot about this class based on the readings and discussions we had in class. I learned how much of an impact blogging has on the media. I was very shocked to learn that the reason why Dan Rather left his job was simply because of a blog that someone posted saying that he was lying about something. Also I didn’t realize that there was a difference between citizen journalism and regular journalism. I knew that anyone could post something on the internet, but I didn’t know there was a different name. I actually am very opinionated about this, because I feel bad that people go to school to be journalists, therefore I believe they have the right to write on the internet. I just think that not everyone should be opened to write anything, unless you want to consider them bloggers.

The topic that interested me the most was the chapter about the spoilers. Personally, I have done this to my favorite television show. I thought it was interesting about how intense spoilers are. I never realized the hassle they go through to find information just to post on the internet. I believe this is okay because if people can put pornography on the computer and it be allowed, then honestly anything can be allowed.

Now I am going to focus on acstudentvoices.blogspot.com. I think this was an excellent value that you added to this class. I enjoyed being able to blog myself. I liked how you made us read about blogging, citizen journalist, etc. But more I liked how you add us do things hands out and show us how easy it really is to post on the internet. I never had used audacity or moviemaker before and found them pretty easy to use. Like usual technology doesn’t always run the way you want it to, so I ran into a few problems, but once I got the hang of it I was fine. The hardest part about the homework assignments was the actual interview portion of the assignment. Sometimes it was hard trying to find people that were willing to voice their opinion of Albright issues and put them on the internet. Overall, I felt that you graded the blogs fairly and gave constructive criticism to work on if you felt there was a weakness about our blogs.

“Journalism is the production of news reports and editorial through media such as newspapers, magazines, radio, television and the Internet. Journalists—be they writers, editors, photographers, broadcast presenters or producers—serve as the main purveyors of information and opinion in contemporary society.” (Encyclopedia) I agree that blogging is a form of journalism by the definition and that citizen journalism, blogging, and journalism deal greatly with communication. In the United States, freedom of speech is allowed and I believe in this generation that is how people are going to be able to voice their opinions. The internet is a big part of the world today and if you want the world to see what you have to say, it is the easiest and fastest way to do so. I do believe that sometimes sites should be aware of what people are posting, but I believe that everyone has a right to post.
Overall, I believe this class was beneficial in communications. Everyone needs to keep up with technology and if the future is the internet, then this is where one needs to learn to communicate. It’s interesting to read stories about the technology, and how much of an effect it has on our world today.

Looking Backwards: Final Reflective Blog

2009-05-17T11:39:00.000-07:00

What did you know about journalism, citizen journalism, and blogging before you took this course?

Being journalism major I have taken classes over the years where I learned the basics, laws and history of journalism. Prior to taking this course I knew what citizen journalism was. At least the definition I could gather from Wikipedia or just word of mouth. Blogging was also not a foreign concept due to my job as a face of Albright I was required to blog so I was use to blogging about daily events, but certainly nothing to the level that could be considered citizen journalism.

What did you learn about journalism, citizen journalism, and blogging through readings and discussions?

From the readings I learned a lot about the history and start of blogging and how the concept of citizen journalism came about. I never knew there was background information to the world of blogging or that there was an entire community of citizen journalists. The discussions in class did open eyes to being balanced when covering an event or an issue. The importance of balance was always in the back of my head but having to think about it being on audio or on video made me realize how important it is to show multiple sides of a story in order to make sure the audience is well informed on the subject.

What do you remember most from the readings? What do you agree with/ disagree with?

One of thing that I remember the most from the readings is when they discussed the struggle that citizen journalist face. Since they are not trained citizen journalist are considered in some aspects not to be “real” journalists. I agree with the author of our main text we the media, when he discusses the reason why citizen journalist are “real” journalist and that they provide news from a different perspective and viewpoint and many times through a new and exciting medium. Citizen journalism is the way of the future. Audiences no longer want to sit by and be handed news, they want to be part of the news and feel some sort of connection to the stories, events, and issues that are being presented to them as news.

Describe your experience with the hands-on element with a focus on what you learned, the educational value, and the application to the real world. Be sure to discuss:
a. Use of technology

I thought that the use of technology was great. Prior to this class I had never listened to a podcast let alone record and edit one. Being able to learn how to take a story, develop it and present it in different mediums was really beneficial and a frustrating and educational process.

b. Covering stories/events/issues relevant to Albright/ Reading community

Being limited to stories and events that were relevant to Albright was difficult. Since Albright is a small college the number of events worth covering fell short at times. The option of doing an issue over an event worked some times except when sources did not want to be compliant for the fear of being reprimanded for speaking their minds about an issue that related to Albright.

c. Class critiques of blogs/podcasts

The class critiques were helped me to see how some of my peers viewed my work. Professors were not always my target demographic on campus, so by allowing students to view and respond to my work allowed me to see how my target demographic reacted to my work.

d. Responsibility/freedom of blogging

I would have liked more freedom with the topics for the blogs. I felt that making students blog about a reading assignment in which the questions were provided made it seem like a homework assignment rather than a blogging. In my mind blogging is meant to be a freedom of expression where I can go to gather and distribute information that I feel is relevant.

Discuss what you now think/feel/believe about the role citizen journalism and blogging play in communication.

My opinion has not changed since the beginning to this course. Blogging and citizen journalism is a new form of journalism. It takes the traditional and historical components of journalism and turns into something new. Blogging and citizen journalism allows for more opinions and viewpoints to be heard. I think that blogging and citizen journalism play major role in communication. Without either of them communication would suffer. There would be less ideas and viewpoints in the world of communication. Blogging and citizen journalism allows for every day citizens to become involved in what is happening around them. It also adds to the number of sources that can be used in a story. Now when something happens you can read about it in the newspaper from a traditional journalist point of view. You can then look at a video blog that a bi-stander took with their cell phone and uploaded to their web site. Then once you have gathered information on the subject you can comment on your reactions, thoughts, and ideas about what happened. Blogging and citizen journalism makes information some that can be easily accessible by all who seek it.

Is blogging a form of journalism?

I believe that blogging is a new form of journalism that has adopted some parts from the traditional form of journalism. Bloggers can provide their audience with information, which is something that traditional journalist do. They also follow many of the principles of journalism like proximity, timeliness, and relevance. One big difference between traditional journalist and bloggers is the credibility factor. Traditional journalists are considered credible because they studied the subject and receive some sort of formal training at an institution. Bloggers on the other hand for the most part are self-taught and therefore do no have the same credibility of traditional journalist.

Update On the Science Building

2009-05-16T14:48:00.000-07:00

With graduation only a week away, I have been thinking a lot about my memories from my years here at Albright. I’ve even been thinking about the tour that eventually sealed my decision to come here. One of the biggest things I remember about my tour was the promise of a new state-of-the-art science building that was to be completed in my junior or senior year. And I’m definitely not the only one who remembers this tour highlight.

Unfortunately, the construction of the new addition was started only this past fall and those of us who remember this tour promise won’t be here to see it become a reality. “The senior and junior science majors are kind of bitter about this because we were promised a new building when we came here for orientation,” said senior Rick Grimminger, a chemistry major here at Albright. Theresa Parrish, a senior biology major, agreed with Rick when asked her opinion on the new addition to the science building. “The only thing I have to complain about is they said it would be done when I was touring.”

Since I’m not a science major, it’s easy for me not to be all that upset that the science building isn’t complete despite the promise during my tour. Then again I didn’t base my decision to come here on that promise because I’m a communications and English major. I would probably feel much like Rick and Theresa if I was promised a new communications center and wasn’t in school when the project came to fruition.

However, both Rick and Theresa see the benefits the new addition will bring. “I think it’s a good way to expand our academic pursuits by building the new building,” said Theresa. Rick said, “It will be a huge benefit. The new addition will provide new classrooms and new labs. Along with those lab will be new lab equipment.”

Having taken an anatomy class to fulfill my lab science general studies requirement, I saw how outdated most of the labs and equipment seemed to be. Even though I don’t use the building and its resources on an everyday basis, I’m pretty sure when trying to dissect a whale’s eye it shouldn’t break the scalpel. Samantha Cordisco, a freshman chemistry and education major who often uses the labs and their equipment explained, “The facilities we have are in need of an update. Things are old and corroded.” She also said the new labs and equipment will help speed up the processes of labs that oftentimes take much longer to complete using outdated materials.

Bob Presser, a sophomore business administration major, has yet to take his lab science general studies course. He said that if he knew the addition was to be finished and operating, he would wait to take his lab science in his senior year. “If all the science majors I know are right in telling me their sure it will help me, I guess I can trust them,” he said. Judging by the opinions of science majors like Rick, Theresa, and Samantha, and knowing first hand that the materials and labs are out dated, Bob may be smart in waiting to take his lab science course and utilizing the advantages the addition will afford him.

In the attached videoblog, I document the construction’s progress. With the unique foundation being finished, the summer months will see the quick rise of the actual building’s frame, according to Bill Robinson, the Senior Superintendent for IMC Construction who is handling all of the construction work. Administrator William Wood, Vice President for Administrative and Financial Services at Albright, discusses how the completion of the construction is a top priority for the college and how the web cam showing the progress is an under utilized tool. Despite being at the beginning stages of the construction, IMC and the Albright community have a good working relationship that both Robinson and Wood believe is the key to the success of the project moving forward and being completed as scheduled.

In the attached audio blog, I interviewed Albright professors from the physics, chemistry, and biology departments about the advantages the new addition will provide for teaching. Dr. Richard Heller, a biology professor, said the new addition will go beyond just giving the building a facelift. Dr. Pamela Artz, chair of the chemistry and biochemistry departments, said the chemistry department will have a better ventilation system to work with. Dr. Brian Buerke, chair of the physics department, said all physics labs will be able to occur under one roof. The professors not only agreed the addition would bring benefits to their different departments, but they all agreed it will allow students the opportunity to do more advanced and sophisticated research.

A New Change To The Albright Education Department.

2009-05-15T14:19:00.000-07:00

Albright College is a private, co-educational college that offers a liberal arts curriculum with an interdisciplinary focus. Albright is made up of roughly 1600 students. One of Albright College’s popular majors is education. According to Dr. Yarworth, Albright is made up of 250 education majors. Albright’s education department has its very own mission statement, which states: “Albright College is a liberal arts institution. Within the context of a liberal arts education, the mission of the Teacher Certification Programs at Albright College is the development of broadly educated professionals who are knowledgeable in areas of specialization, skilled in pedagogy, technologically proficient and cognizant of divergent learning processes. Albright aims to develop reflective practitioners who are knowledgeable and thoughtful facilitators of the learning, growth and development of students in a culturally diverse and complex world.” Albright tends to stand apart from other colleges because of the variety of education the student receives. The education majors gain an assortment of knowledge through the standard liberal arts institution and the education department.

The Pennsylvania Board of Education is going through major changes to make their program better. The changes that the Board has made will come into effect January 1, 2013. The Penn State Live website explains the change pretty thoroughly by stating what the changes are. The teaching certificate will change from the current N-3, K-6, 7-12, and K-12 special education certification for all grades to pre-K-4, 4-8, 7-12, and a required dual certification for special education teachers in Pre-K-8. According to Sharon L. Brumbaugh, Special Assistant to the Secretary of Education for the state of Pennsylvania stated in a speech addressed to the House of Education, “the changes the Board of Education proposed are part of the Department of Education’s strategy to boost student achievement by enhancing teacher quality through: changing the scope of the certificate to better tailor teacher preparation to stages of child learning and development, requiring that all teachers have better preparation in teaching children with disabilities and English language learners, ensuring that special education teachers are dually certified in both special education and the appropriate content area, and enabling more focused continuing education for all teachers.”

Albright is under strict rules to try and reorganize their education program to fit the regulations of the Pennsylvania Department of Education new rules. Dr. Andrea Chapdelaine explained to me what Albright is trying to do to enforce the change. “The department developed a new concentration for the middle level certification that allows students to complete the required education courses as well as one of the substance areas-science, social studies, math, and language arts.” Dr. Chapdelaine informed me that the faculty approved Albright’s changes and now the Education department is just waiting on the Board of Trustees for approval. Albright still has major improvements they have to complete over the summer. The projected plan seems like they are developing a modified early education program that will hopefully include a co-concentration in an area of the student’s choice.

“The issue from my perspective is that this situation will offer students fewer chances to tailor make their undergraduate degree to fit their own intellectual curiosities. Interdisciplinary has been the hallmark of an Albright Education but, soon, education students might have to curb their desire to study a field more intently,” says theatre department professor, Jeff Lentz. Lentz explained to me that Education is becoming a pre-professional degree just like Pre-Med or Pre-Law. It seems that a majority of professors are thinking this way and do not like the change very much. The reason why Albright is having such an issue is due to the fact they want to keep the liberal arts education involved in the Education department. The new changes are making this a little difficult for Albright to change. If you want to hear the perspectives of the professors make sure you tune into the audio portion of this blog and also see what the students have to say by watching the video. Signing off I’m Meghan Devore at acstudentvoices.

Pictures from www.http://www.angelo.edu/dept/ceducation/images/ST.gif and http://www.cmet.com/images/sidebar_24.jpg

Photoshop for Democracy Evaluation

2009-05-12T12:18:00.000-07:00

Photoshop is an invention like none other, it gives you the power to create something new from two or more different sources, to fuse them together. In the 2004 elections this power was used for campaigning and downplaying the opposition. By doing this there is a possibility that through the various videos, fake photos, and all the illegally distributed photographs that bloggers may have shaped the turn-out of the election.
Henry Jenkins posed the argument that blogging is spoiling the American government and the democratic process in Chapter 6 of Convergence Culture. In "Photoshop for Democracy" he says that this form of grassroots goes beyond the Survivor scandals, but their seeking of information and evidence is to "shape future events". Some examples of these are photographs of dead American solders coming home from Iraq, and shots of abuse in the prison at Abu Ghraib. These journalists, according to Jenkins, are more dangerous than usual bloggers because they "deal often with rumors and innuendos".
the author's support is relevant and believable, he takes true events that could have possible swayed an American citizen's vote and used it for his argument, however I believe that a person's blog is their space to voice their opinions, about whoever or whatever they want. I don't believe that by saying how they feel about certain things, though it may be based off of lies, is ruining a government that is founded on free speech and expression.
It seems to me that "culture jamming" is a very indignant way of not allowing your opponents voice to be heard. By producing noise when they're trying to express an idea can serve as a way for only your ideas to be heard and dominant.
A candidacy seems to be based on a vote of popularity, the president who wins is always the one who, not only expressed the right ideals, but was also able to put their ideas out there. So, in a way, if you become the more popular, well known candidate the more likely you are to be the winning candidate. Also, it's more than you just speaking the right stuff and being advertised more, but you must also be well liked. The 2008 elections were a bit like this, President Obama not only expressed the right ideals but he also one of the most famous senators with the right backing. Through citizen's being able to express themselves about how the race is going, and how they're feeling, also the way candidates are becoming more and more like celebrities are just a few ways that fan culture and politics are now beginning to coexist.

Convergence Culture Chapter 6: Photoshop and Democracy

2009-05-12T12:11:00.000-07:00

What is the main argument the author is making?

Jenkins main point is that citizens are starting to apply what they have learned as consumers of popular culture to politics; he points out how popular culture in recent years has become an influence of political culture.

What support does he offer?

Jenkins offers support for his main argument by looking at several politically driven websites, like moveon.org and meetup.org. He analyses how these websites allow for people with common interests in this case political interest, to get together and share ideas. Jenkins also explained how the 2004 presidential campaign of Howard Dean used the internet to gain the public’s support in ways that had not been done before. He talks about young voters and how they are using The Daily Show and the Sims game to stay connected and become more politically involved. Jenkins also briefly discusses how convergence would lead to this idea of digital democracy where it is second nature for citizens to be politically involved.

Do you agree or disagree with the main argument?

I agree with Jenkins point that popular culture allows citizens to become more politically involved because from my own experience I know that I do follow popular culture. But when it comes to politics I tend to look deeper into issues rather than just follow popular cultures coverage if the issue. Popular culture tends to skip many important aspects of an issue; to get the full and correct story I wouldn’t just watch the Daily Show or CNN I would probably read the newspaper or search on some nonprofit sites to get more facts.

Is the author’s support relevant and believable?

I believe that the author did in fact use tactics like giving relevant examples that were both credible and easy to keep up with. His argument was not hard to follow because his examples were all things that I had previously heard of and could relate to. I could easily make a connection between his examples and why they were relevant to his argument.

In what ways does this chapter relate to the 2008 presidential election? In what ways did the 2008 election seem different?

Jenkins uses examples from the 2004 election to discuss how the convergence of popular culture and politics took place and how it did and did not work for the candidates. The 2008 election used tactics that worked for the candidates during the 2004 election. They learned from the 2004 election how much of an advantage popular culture can be for a campaign and how involved citizens can become through the use of popular culture. The 2004 election was only the start of the use of popular culture and the internet. The 2008 election differ in the way that it used popular culture and the internet to engage citizens and to get them more involved on a personal level, which had not been done in previous elections. The 2008 presidential campaign become more of a race between celebrities and less traditional then previous years with presidential candidates appearing on popular culture shows like SNL, The Daily Show, and The Colbert Report.

What is digital democracy?

Digital democracy is when technology (websites, video games) and politics are combined and used together to help make the effects of political issues stronger. Digital democracy allows for citizens to better understand politics and become more personally involved in the democratic process and politics.

Discuss your understandings of the term culture jamming.

Culture jamming is a political tactic that reflected the logic of the digital revolution. Culture Jamming is when things are changed and modified to exemplify a thought or idea, not necessarily the idea it was originally intended to exemplify. Jenkins used the Apprentice example that Ben Cohen’s website used during the 2004 election, the web ad took clips from NBC’s the Apprentice and images of Bush and cleverly merged it to show that Bush did a bad job in the White House and if Donald Trump fired Bush then American citizens should too.

Discuss the connections between fan culture and politics.

Fan cultures allows for people who have a common interest to come together and share their ideas about a candidate. Some people like to keep their political views hidden and online fan cultures allow them to express their views and support a candidate without feeling like they will be prosecuted. Fan cultures online or in video games like Jenkins discussed allows the public to get practice and educate themselves prior to getting involved in the real world of politics.

How does the idea of “play(ing) with power on a microlevel” (p.239) relate to the readings and discussion from last week?

The Sims game and Alphaville that Jenkins discussed in this chapter talked about how children were given a voice in the political world through this game which they would normally not have. This same concept of voice was discussed last week with the reading about children role playing and making up alternate lives and stories based on the Harry Potter books. The same concept applies in both instances, in the reading from this week Jenkins spoke about the opportunity that children get by playing this game, the ability to learn about politics which may lead them to become more politically and democratically involved.

4th Hour Blog

2009-05-12T11:58:00.000-07:00

What is the main argument the author is making?

The main argument that the author is making is that popular culture has an influence on politics and how it spreads and affects the people. Specifically, he focuses a lot on how political campaigners use different types of media and technology to reach people and provoke responses from them.

What support does he offer?

He describes how today media is and aspects from popular culture have been integrated into politics to make political issues more existent in people’s lives. Specifically, he discussed how the Donald Trump was used in an anti-Bush commercial in 2004. It was created to urge voters to disallow Bush from being re-elected. The author spins off on the Donald Trump point to discuss how politicians also use television to gain more support for their respective campaigns. He also talks about how different websites have also participated in spreading certain political messages by allowing their users to use Photoshop to recreate important political events and happenings to express their opinions and perspective. Most of these were satirical and had a comedic edge but were ultimately designed to make statements. Another interesting aspect he discussed was how Russell Simmons, MTV and Nickelodeon use their prominence in the entertainment realm to encourage young people to vote. This is an example of how popular culture has influenced the political world and more significantly advocate it.

Do you agree or disagree with the main argument?

I agree with the author. I think that fusing elements from popular culture and the entertainment world into politics is a great way to speak to younger generations and just anyone who does not normally follow politics. I remember how much popular culture and the media was included in the last election between Obama and McCain. During the election, both were on the covers of People, Us as well as other types of popular magazines today. Both also were guests on popular TV shows “The View” and “The Tyra Banks Show”—I thought it was a great idea because it reached more people for each of the candidates, whether in a positive or negative way. I think its also important especially today in peak of technology. So many people rely on the internet, TV and popular culture; it is a brilliant idea to invade this territory and change the ways politics function.

Is the author's support relevant and believable?
Yes, I think that the author’s support is both relevant and believable because he provides the names and URLs of the websites as well as discussing TV shows that are currently popular. All of the examples that he used help illustrate his points.

In what ways does this chapter relate to the 2008 presidential election? In what ways did the 2008 election seem different?

Just as I expressed above, the 2008 election received so much media attention and included so many elements of pop culture and for that reason, it relates to the chapter. The chapter discusses the ways that pop culture and today’s technology are connected to politics and the 2008 election demonstrated this completely; anywhere you went online, there were ads about the candidates or they were being featured for an article or story. Not to mention how many blogs and citizen journalism websites had a huge focus on the election, this is very significant considering how popular blogging is. Also, politics appeared in the entertainment world with all of the public endorsements by the celebrities, benefit concerts and the fact that Obama became a superstar before he was elected as president. All of this also shows how the 2008 election was different. There were not any other election that had so much online coverage as well importance in the media and entertainment world.

What is digital democracy?

Digital democracy is the result of politics and technology being brought together to bring everyday people closer to politics and get a better idea of how it works and the surrounding ideas about it.

Discuss your understanding of the term culture jamming.

Culture jamming is when a message, picture or piece of writing is changed and made into something comedic or satirical.

Discuss the connections between fan culture and politics.

Fan culture and politics can be connected if there were specific fan cultures made for a particular political figure or party just as there are fan cultures for things that a group of people commonly enjoy. Some of them have already been created like with the Sims game in the reading as well as things like Obama support groups on Facebook and other common websites that are popular. This would continue building the bridge between politics and pop culture, making them more familiar with each other as well as it would help reach more people and help them become more politically active.

How does the idea of "play(ing) with power on a microlevel" (p. 239) relate to the readings and discussion from last week?

This idea connects to the readings/discussions from last week because they both deal with people having the power to participate and live in a world that they are separate from in reality. Last week, it was the Harry Potter website where students could put themselves into the world of Harry Potter. This chapter talks about things like the Sims games where people are able to learn about politics and have the chance to govern over something themselves—they both are related to each other because they both discuss the ways that technology allows us access worlds and places that we cannot in reality and in the case of the Sims game, it also is making people more knowledgeable and aware of politics and how it works.

4th Hour Final Blog

2009-05-12T08:22:00.000-07:00

What is the main argument the author is making?
Jenkins argues that pop culture has a growing influence on political culture. Whether it be activist magazines or documentaries, the influence has been more noticable in recent years.

What support does he offer?
He lists a series of websites created that involve certain support groups for a candidate (moveon.com and meetup.com). How the websites either rallied around a politician or an issue, and there were anti-George Bush implications from one of the websites. He mentions Governor Howard Dean's Campaign's use of the internet as well. He mentions gaming, and government through the SIMS game.

Do you agree or disagree with the main argument?
I happen to agree with the main argument, but in a very limited way. I am a registered independent. Seth MacFarlane (creator of Family Guy) made a comment on the show about how Undecided voters are the dumbest people out there. I felt the 2008 Elections were a Catch-22 example. I was not swayed to think McCain was worse than Obama through all the anti-conservative advertising, and I was not swayed to think Obama was better through all of his advertising. The fact is though, on late night TV, George Bush is everyone's punchline. The republican party is in a clear struggle, but it is made known through the John Stewarts and Bill Mahers of the world. The 2008 Campaign also saw Billy Joel and Bruce Springsteen concerts, both endorsing the same candidate. These concerts raise awareness, and I feel influenced more people to vote.

Pop Culture is not always a heavy influence though. Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 released 4 months before the 2004 elections. The movie heavily criticized George W Bush, yet Bush was still re-elected.

Is the author's support relevant and believable?
I believe so. He cites websites that exist, tactics that were used, and other means that are out there. There may be a completely different side to the argument that is not addressed in this chapter, but he uses credible information to help validate his point.

In what ways does this chapter relate to the 2008 presidential election?
As I stated earlier, Bruce Springsteen and Billy Joel hosted free concerts to support Barack Obama. That example is the first thing I think of from the 2008 election. Obama had so much celebrity endorsement, and when you looked into popular culture, you could not find much support for Bush, and Bush was actually bashed so hard, that his party took a fall. The political comic shows were very critical of the Republican Party. In fact, the only joke I ever heard about Obama was how popular he was, and Jay Leno's show scripted an Obama-Mia video (in relation to Mamma Mia's release).

The internet has also been a huge tool. The President is always in focus, and his party follows him. George Bush was a Republican with the lowest ever approval rating. That was a headline constantly on major websites, Bush's approval rating drops. It was told from a neutral and fair standpoint, but you read about him not having support, and the people who are affiliated with him are not gonna have support. So I think the media's and especially late night's portrayal of Bush lead to a Democratic win in 2008.

In what ways did the 2008 election seem different?
There was a lot made about the internet, and I just feel the use of social networking sites had a bigger impact than any pop culture aspect. Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter are all popular, and they were flooded with campaign ads.

What is digital democracy?
The combination of electronics and politics being used together to help effect polotical issues. A very relevant example is Alphaville of the SIMS video game.

Discuss your understanding of the term culture jamming.
A change in the portrayal of media. Given programs like Photoshop and Moviemaker, it is possible for anything today to be changed into a different meaning. Howard Dean's speeches, or another example is a lot of online pictures of George W. Bush. They are often used for comedic purposes I believe.

Discuss the connections between fan culture and politics.
We stated certain support websites for candidates earlier. It is almost a sense of community belonging, if people can share a common interest in a candidate or issue, and then expand their group, then that makes a huge impact. A lot of people are scared to express their views alone, but if they have others that agree, the group grows. This leads to rallies and protests which are huge parts of our country's history.

How does the idea of "play(ing) with power on a microlevel" (p. 239) relate to the readings and discussion from last week?
The idea comes from the SIMs game and Alphaville. Giving children the chance to govern is a unique concept because they are not free to do so in real life (not at the time they're children).

Last week, we spoke about roleplaying based on the Harry Potter series. This allows children also to do something they can not do in real life. In real life, they can't fly on brooms and use wands, but in their roleplaying, they can. In real life, they can't govern over any sort of opoulation, and make big decisions. In the SIMS, they can.

The use of imagination is a link between the readings, but Harry Potter roleplaying also created controversy among ownership rights. Anyone playing the SIMS game legally owns it, and therefore such controversy does not exist.

Photoshop for Democracy: Convergence Culture Chapter 6

2009-05-11T21:44:00.000-07:00

What is the main argument the author is making?

The main argument the author makes is that popular culture can influence political culture; it 'matters politically'. Pop culture is everywhere, on the television, on the internet, in magazines. Its influences are inevitable, and are widespread. Politics can have that effect too, but it has to be moreorless sought out, by those who seek it. There are special news channels (like CNN) that cover politics more, websites that cater to that topic more, etc. This article examines how politics can combine with popular culture, by using the same technologies, and influence people to be more concerned with politics, voting and government policies. This 'concept of convergence' goes beyond popular culture and can affect politics as well.

What support does he offer?

He uses various means of support for these ideas. He discusses how in the 2004 Presidential election, Howard Dean made use of the Internet (with blogging) and television, to the two most popular forms of media, to help get the public more engaged in politics. With the blogging, people were about to give their opinions and feedback, with the hopes that others would read it, and ignite a spark in the public's mind about political affairs and campaigns. With television, the idea was that since almost everyone has access to one, he could capitalize off of its accessibility, and allow the political sphere to connect with the popular culture one. He also discusses how two websites, Moveon.com and Meetup.com, have affected politics, with the former being aimed at moving past Bill Clinton's sex life and extramarital affair, and concentrate more the state of the country. He also mentions gaming, and the ficitional living community, Alphaville, that the Sims live in, have affected the way that people who play the game, namely children, think about the government.

Do you agree or disagree with the main argument?

I agree with the argument in general, but there are parts of it that I don't agree with. I agree that use of popular culture can influence how people see politics, especially with the most recent {Presidential election of Barack Obama, in 2008. His use of Youtube and constant advertising, of course, had an influence on how alot of people saw him as a candidate who wanted to identify with the public. However, that was not the reason I voted for him, nor is the reason that Senator McCain didn't capitalize on the media as much the reason I didn't vote for him. I feel like other forms of media helped people to become more aware, like the free concerts, shows, and parties with or hosted by celebrities that endorsed one or both candidates helped, and was one of the main reasons why so many people of the younger generation were so involved. Also, the posters, constant t-shirts, and ways that people could voice their opinions, similar to the Photoshop effect that was discussed in the chapter also helped.

Is the author's support relevant and believable?

Yes, he lists credible sources and websites and uses good examples to support his claims. Everything he says is believable, simply because they act happened. But there is no real side that gives insight, or just an opinion on the other side of the spectrum. There is no discussion of maybe how popular culture has not helped, or can affect politics in a negative way, which I believe at times, it did for Barack Obama. But everything Jenkins says was believable.

In what ways does this chapter relate to the 2008 presidential election?

It had a lot to do with the 2008 Presidential election. Obama had SO much endorsement to help back his campaign. With his constant video updates, celebrity partnerships and involvement, parties, concerts, merchandise, people were able to get a constant update on everythign he was doing, on and off the political campaign run. McCain, or for that matter, no other candidate or President has had that much backing or influence from popular culture as Obama has, and still does. There is a reason why people call him a 'rock star' and a 'celebrity'. He had popular culture on his side, and to this day, people are still wearing his face splattered across their T-shirts, watching his live updates on Youtube, whether it has to do with his latest bill being signed, or his family's new dog. He capitalized on the very media sources that Jenkins discusses, and its worked out pretty well for him, in most aspects.

In what ways did the 2008 election seem different?

There was definitely more of a concentration on appealing to what was current at the moment, namely Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, Youtube, and other social sites. There were campaign ads all over; even gossip sites like PerezHilton.com had Obama's face as the wallpaper for weeks before the election. This campaign was definitely covered more by the media, from everything to late night shows, to segments on Nickelodeon, where kids staged mock elections. It was everywhere.

What is digital democracy?

Digital democracy is the combination of electronics and democracy. It uses communication technologies, like the Internet, to enhance democracy. One example of digital democracy is Alphaville, the living community in the Sim's Online Game, where people can decide on who they want to govern them; Jenkins discusses how this idea can affect those who play the game, namely children.

Discuss your understanding of the term culture jamming.

Culture jamming is a type of political effort at communication, which takes a political issue, picture or video, and alters it to make it more humorous. It can be used with satire or irony, which can make it more relatable to the public, while also engaging them in conversation about whatever this political topic is. The best example, I think is SNL's take on the Presidential debates, and poking fun at Sarah Palin. Admittedly, initially, I was not as interested in the campaign until I started watching the segments; it got me more interested in the politics, and eventually I started watching the debates myself, even before I saw SNL make fun of them.

Discuss the connections between fan culture and politics.

Fan culture is when people who are a fans of something all go to one website and discuss their thoughts and feelings about whatever the common interest is. They can make comments and suggestions on this topic. This method can help people become more involved in politics; support for a candidate or a party can increase (or decrease) with the more conversation that results from people getting together about something they are interested in.

How does the idea of "play(ing) with power on a microlevel" (p. 239) relate to the readings and discussion from last week?

Both discussion have something to do with children and their efforts at power, namely through fantasy. With the discussion of Alphaville, this is the way that they can have some sort of control over government and politics, since they obviously can't do it in the real world. This same type of issue was discussed last week when we discussed power struggles with the influence of Harry Potter. Children can enter a fantasy world and have control and exert power through their various fan communities, allowing them to have some sort of involvement, whereas, at other times they can not give their opinions or voices. Ault groups and organizations, like Warner Brothers, educators, and some religious groups wanted to stand in their way and ruin that for them, by wanting to sue the children over their Happy Potter fan fiction web sites. Its taking freedom away from them, and both situations deal with that, in different ways.

Convergence Culture Chapter 6: Photoshop for Democracy: The new relationship between politics and popular culture.

2009-05-11T17:30:00.000-07:00

What is the main argument the author is making?
The main argument the author is making is popular culture can encourage political culture. Many people are more up-to-date with popular culture than they are with political culture. However; when the political sphere used different techniques and technology that the popular sphere used more people became interested in political views and voting.

What support does he offer?
The support that the author offers is by using technology and fan communities can encourage voter participation. To increase voter registration the author suggested advertising at concerts and performances because that is what more people are interested in. If you advertise voting at a concert or performance which people enjoy going to then they might see that voting is important because it is being advertised at the event they are attending. Other support the author provides is using films for political discussion and public outreach. He suggests using Photoshop to capture political debates. Games were also built where people could imagine they were governing the world themselves.

Do you agree or disagree with the main argument?
I agree with the argument. Being a young person myself I have a difficult time following politics in general. I try to but sometimes it is just hard to comprehend what is going on and which candidate supports what issue etc. It is much easier for young people to follow popular culture because it is being fed to us everywhere we turn. From waiting in line at the supermarket and seeing a magazine with your favorite celebrity on it to turning on the radio and hearing a new song, popular culture is everywhere. When it comes to politics it is not always in our face, one has to choose to find it. For example if you want to find out what President Obama is doing about the Endangered Species Act then you are going to have to go online and look it up. I think that what the author is saying about using popular culture techniques to address political issues is a great idea. More people would become interested and I think it would make it easier for people to understand the issues.

Is the author's support relevant and believable?
I think the author’s support is relevant and believable. He provides examples and ways to go about converting political issues to being popular issues.

In what ways does this chapter relate to the 2008 presidential election? In what ways did the 2008 election seem different?
I think more people probably voted in the 2008 election because they were more familiar with the political issues because of the mobilization in popular culture. I think more younger people voted than ever before because they saw voting material and presidential news on their facebooks and on the television shows they watched (for example MTV). I am not really sure how this election seemed different I just think that there was more advertising for candidates on the Internet and through other technologies. For example I recently learned that in a video game there were advertisements’ stating to support Obama which I don’t think has ever happened before.

What is digital democracy?
Digital democracy is bringing together electronics and democracy. It involves using communication technologies for example the Internet to enhance democracy. It is a new political development that brings about much debate. An example of digital democracy is creating Alphaville, an online Sims game where people can govern themselves by voting on who they want to represent them.

Discuss your understanding of the term culture jamming.
Culture jamming is a type of political communication. It is taking a political issue and altering it to make it more humorous. Many times they will make a satire or irony story to get more people interested in the political issue. An example is the video of Howard Dean grabbing Janet Jackson’s boob. It is meant to start conversation and be talked about to get people interested in political issues.

Discuss the connections between fan culture and politics.
Fan culture can help people become more active in politics. Fan culture is when people who are a fan of a movie for example all go to one website and discuss their thoughts and feelings about the movie. Sometimes they will make comments and other times they make suggestions. If fan cultures can be started for certain candidates running for office then people can go on and give reasons why they support the person or not.

How does the idea of "play(ing) with power on a microlevel" (p. 239) relate to the readings and discussion from last week?
I think the reading from this week supported microlevel playing while last week’s reading there was more controversy. In both games people were learning. In last week’s game children learned how to become better writers and readers. In this week’s game people learned how government and voting works. With last week’s game there were issues with the website being sued by Warner Brothers but with this week’s game there was no fight for ownership. People can learn and grow through microlevel playing however; I do not think people should only use microlevel playing as there only way to learn.

Photoshop for Democracy - 4th Hour

2009-05-11T17:22:00.000-07:00

What is the main argument the author is making?
The main argument that the author is making is that “popular culture matters politically”, or in other words, the concept of convergence extends beyond popular culture and consumerism and can affect the political sphere as well.

What support does he offer?
He offers support for this argument with five examples. The first is the Howard Dean campaign during the 2004 presidential election. Jenkins demonstrates how his campaign utilized the internet in innovative viral and grassroots ways. In addition to campaigning through the more mainstream and traditional media of television, the Howard Dean campaign also used the internet to start a blog, create a place for supporters to gather online, among others. The second example is an analysis of websites like meetup.com and moveon.org. Meetup.com allows people with common interests, such as a political candidate in the case of Howard Dean, to get together. Moveon.org was created to get people to move past an obsession with Bill Clinton’s sex life and focus on the country. It engaged in various contests that called for people to create short films explaining why Bush shouldn’t be re-elected. The discussion of those two websites led to support through the popular use of photoshop by ordinary people to create images making a political statement. Next, Jenkins tackles the question of whether making politics into popular culture itself affects consumers to be more politically engaged. He points out that young voters feel connected to shows like The Daily Show, and points to an attack on CNN by Jon Stewart in which he accuses the network of being on the side of politicians and corporations instead of helping to inform the public on the topic of politics. He follows that discussion, with support through the fictional world of Alphaville, a community within the Sims Online game. Within the game, players have created a way to self govern themselves, and Jenkins argues that a game is never just a game and what is enacted and learned within Alphaville politics is likely having some effect on the citizens playing the game and how they see and engage in politics, especially children. His last example of support is how the idea of digital democracy can be used to create an ‘achievable utopia’ by which convergence would lead to a better informed population and participation in the political process would be the norm. However, he also points out that convergence has also led to a large political separation between the red and the blue that can be mended through coming out of “digital enclaves” to talk through differences and find commonalities.

Do you agree or disagree with the main argument?
Overall I agree with what Jenkins says in the chapter primarily because my own personal involvement with politics is consistent with his argument. I get a lot of my exposure to politics through various popular culture media. I could relate to each of the examples that were given throughout the chapter and feel that in the future I would be more likely to become a more conscious political citizen through engagement with various forms of popular culture that have converged with politics, than more traditional means.

Is the author's support relevant and believable?
I also agree with him because of the support he used. His examples really made sense with his argument. He was able to cite things that related specifically to politics and popular culture in a variety of different capacities such as an online game, an actual campaign, etc. Each example was right in line with his argument and didn’t really have a tendency to stray in one direction or the other. By using examples that had a nice balance of both politics and popular culture to illustrate his points, his argument became much more plausible. Had he focused entirely in one direction, or used outdated examples, I would have been less likely to believe what he was arguing.

In what ways does this chapter relate to the 2008 presidential election? In what ways did the 2008 election seem different?
Throughout the chapter, Jenkins mentions several times how the convergence of popular culture and politics increased the number of voters in the 2004 election. I would assume then, that as technology has continued to advance and convergence has become more mainstream and popular, that the combination of popular culture and politics would again engage more citizens to go out and vote in the election. In addition, I believe that the evidence cited in this chapter as having affected the 2004 election would have served as a point of reference for the candidates this time around. It would seem to me that the campaign staff for each candidate would have looked back to see what things worked, such as the use of meetup.com, and which things didn’t, such as relying too heavily on the internet, and employing those tactics to be more successful during the campaign. Ultimately, this election seemed different because in my opinion, it seemed like there was a higher emphasis placed on engaging with popular culture during the campaign. One major example that stands out in my mind was when President Obama appeared on The Daily Show during his campaign.

What is digital democracy?
Digital democracy is the concept by which technological media, such as the internet, are used by the public to further the democratic process. As evidenced by this chapter, this can be done in many ways. Some examples would be, websites making it easy for various candidate supporters to get together and organize rallies, online fantasy games preparing children to be more engaged political citizens when they are older, and the use of photoshop and other computer application to create images and videos that support some type of political agenda.

Discuss your understanding of the term culture jamming.
Culture jamming is when people take popular images, videos, etc. and manipulate them to send a different message. Culture jamming most likely manifests itself in the form of satire, humor, and/or irony with the intent to prompt discussion, create awareness, poke fun, etc about the topic of whatever was manipulated. Some examples from the chapter include, a viral video edited to look like a trailer for the television the Apprentice in which George Bush was a contestant being kicked off, several videos of a Howard Dean speech that depicted him “howling as he gropes Janet Jackson, shouting at a kitten, or simply exploding from too much pent up passion” (Jenkins 214).

Discuss the connections between fan culture and politics.
In my opinion, based on what I’ve read in the chapter, fan culture and politics can come together in two ways. The first would be through existing fan cultures. Jenkins discusses in his analysis of the presidential election of Alphaville, how the politics generated in fictional worlds can prepare those engaged in it for a more effective political citizenry in real life. The second would be that politics itself can create its own fan culture. This was evidenced by the disctinct separation of red and blue states, as well as how groups can come together online to create fan cultures based around certain officials, candidates or causes. Each of these connections ultimately has the power to influence its participants to engage more with politics and become more active in the democratic process.

How does the idea of "play(ing) with power on a microlevel" (p. 239) relate to the readings and discussion from last week?
“Playing with power on a microlevel” was discussed in this reading with respect to the self governing that emerged as part of the Alphaville community in conjunction with the Sims Online game. It discusses how children are largely powerless in the world of news and politics. They are not familiar with the language used, are not eligible to vote, and consequently do not feel like an audience acknowledged by the news. The world of fantasy, however, allows this group to exert control and potentially prepare them for a more engaged role in society when they eventually do feel like they are a part of the news and political worlds. The chapter talks about the presidential election of Alphaville in which the two candidates were a twenty one year old and a seventh grader each crusading for things such as increasing information against groups trying to scam players out of money, etc. It argues that these fantasy worlds allow children to rise up and exert more control and have more influence than they ever would enjoy in a more traditional place like their high schools. Ultimately, when issues of corruption came out, it raised many questions about the lessons about politics children were learning in fantasy worlds.

This same type of issue was raised last week when we discussed power struggles within the fan world of Harry Potter. Children were able to enter this fantasy world and have control and exert power throughout various fan communities, however adult groups, such as Warner Brothers, educators, and some religious groups were standing in their way and exposing them to a darker side of power and control such as when children were being sued over their Happy Potter fan fiction web sites by Warner Brothers executives.

However, although it raises the question of what type of lessons children are learning about real world politics within their fantasy play, the chapter from this week as well as from last week point out what good can come from this type of negative exposure. For example, with respect to Harry Potter a teenager rose up and created a group that ultimately got Warner Brothers to drop their lawsuits, and the middle school presidential candidate of Alphaville, as well as other kids of Alphaville, who “consistently described the events as motivating them to go out and make a difference in their own communities, to become more engaged in local and national elections, and to think of a future when they might become candidates and play the political game on different terms” (Jenkins 232).

No Matter What The Letter... They're All Greek Together: Greek Week 2009

2009-05-05T18:33:00.000-07:00

Everyday dozens of Albright students walk through campus proudly displaying clothing items, bags, key chains, etc. adorned with a variety of Greek letters. During the week of April 20 – April 25 the students involved in sororities and fraternities put aside the differences in their letters and joined together for the school’s annual Greek Week Celebration which was revamped this year to include five new elements.

Albright is currently home to six Greek organizations; Alpha Delta Pi, Phi Mu, and Sigma Kappa sororities as well as Alpha Sigma Phi, Pi Kappa Phi, and Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternities. In the past, each of these organizations would participate in a Greek God and Goddess competition, play bingo, attend a speaker, participate in an Airbands competition, and work together to do a campus clean-up. This year, the Greek Council, the group responsible for planning the week’s events, comprised of sophomores Kristine Maravel and Alan Vandegrift and senior Takuya Iwata, decided the Greek Week events needed some reworking.

The group began meeting back in March to plan the week. According to Alan, “last year was my first Greek Week and I thought it was going to be a lot bigger than it was. I expected more events and more enthusiasm that just wasn’t there, so I decided to do something about it when I was elected Sargeant of Arms”. Kristine Maravel had similar feelings stating, “When planning first started I spoke with a lot of upperclassmen Greeks about their past Greek Week experiences, and I got the vibe that people felt like there weren’t enough events, and that they were getting tired of doing the same things every year, that’s what gave me the idea to change some of the events.”

The group worked laboriously for over a month with various student organizations including Student Government Association, Albright Environmental Association, MEISA, Order of Omega, WXAC and AC2 to finalize all of their plans. Ultimately, five brand new elements were added to the Greek Week schedule; an academic Quiz Bowl, a Banner Competition, a comedian, an all Greek picnic, and Earth Ball, a dance in celebration of Earth Week which was coincidentally the same week as Greek Week.

Although five new things were added to the week’s activity list, two events from previous years; BINGO and the 1402 All Campus Mixer were not included in this year’s festivities. “Time and the school’s administration were our biggest problems. All of the 1402 mixers for the year were cancelled because of liability issues and we just didn’t have time for all of the events we wanted to have, something had to go and we figured BINGO would be the least missed event” said Iwata.

The group tried their best to include something for everyone, according to Kristine Maravel, “We dabbled with a little bit of everything to please people, we had something serious, something funny, something academic, something philanthropic, and something athletic. We even included Earth Ball to try to have something comparable to the 1402 mixers of previous years. We tried to cover all of our bases. You win some and you lose some, I can’t guarantee that everything was success, but we tried to change it up and we’ll take what we learned from this year to make next year even better.”

To find out more about all of the events of Greek Week and to learn about independent participation you can watch the video below or click the title of this post. Please note, if you click to listen to the audio component of this blog you must choose to download it to hear the content.

Step. Stomp. Dance. Feel: A Look Into Xion

2009-05-05T11:59:00.000-07:00

Xion, the stepping and dancing team at Albright, has been making a name for itself on the Albright campus for a decade. While everyone looks forward to the two shows that the team annually performs, the group is much more than a bunch of dancers. The team's importance resonates not only through its members, but the Albright campus as a whole, as it undoubtedly diversifies the community. We take a closer look at the team, speaking with various members, Desiree Warren, Jonathan Little, and Laura Nwankwor, in the video portion, entitled "The Voices of Xion". We also spoke with Jassie Senwah, the 2008-2009 president, and Raquel Hamlett, the newly elected president, in the audio component, "Past, Present, & Future." Lastly, we spoke with members of the Albright community who attended Xion's spring 2009 show, Chelsey Miller and Jenae Philips, to get insight into how they liked the show, and what the they Xion means to the Albright community, in the written portion, "A Step Towards Diversity."

"A Step Towards Diversity"

Every year, the Xion Step Team hosts two shows, one each semester. Albright’s Dance Team, and its salsa dancing club, Tumbao, along with a host of other step and dance teams also performed. This year, Alvernia University, Penn State Berks, two Philadelphia based dance teams, X-Men and The Definition of Talent (TDT), and Albright’s Lion Records signed artist, D’Ray Sonshine took the stage to help Xion entertain the audience. The step show is usually held in the Wachovia Theater, however, this year it was held in the Chapel, which undoubtedly, created a different atmosphere for the show. Due to the differences in the sizes of the two rooms, the latter being larger, the teams had to have more energy than ever, yelling, clapping and dancing harder to compensate for the larger room, and thus, seemingly smaller crowd.
Each show has a designated theme, which all teams participating must follow; the theme must be reflected in not only the dancing and stepping, but also in the costumes. Every team, except Tumbao, had to adhere to the theme of “Past, Present and Future”, which featured music starting from 1980, to the future. Xion began the show with rap group Rob Base & DJ E-Z Rock’s “It Takes Two”, with their party walk, the continuous and repetitive dance that the whole team performs at the start of the show, and never stopped with the high paced and energetic music. They performed various songs from the 80’s and 90’s like, MC Hammer’s “Can’t Touch This”, Janet Jackson’s “I Get So Lonely”, rapper Chubb Rock’s “Treat ‘Em Right”, and one current song, pop singer Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face”. There were songs from the past and present that, along with the costumes and dancing styles, were deemed to be 80’s or futuristic songs, like rapper Common’s “Universal Mind Control”, which is a song from 2008, but with the dancers dressed in track suits, and the help of various Albright students who can break dance, the song was transformed to have an 80’s vibe. A similar effect was used with R&B singers Ryan Leslie’s “Digital Girl”, and Miguel Jontel’s “Overload”, which were combined into a skit about robotic girls, who were a group of nerds’ (the boys of Xion) creation. With the help of their outfits, portraying every man’s perfect woman, and robotic dance moves and sound effects, these current songs were made to sound like they were made in 2020, rather than 2008. Along with the dances, Xion performed various steps, some of them created to sound like the beats of famous 90’s songs, notably, rapper Busta Rhymes’ “Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Can See”, which was one of the most famous songs of that decade. The other teams also took the audience back into time, with a lot of break dancing and songs reflective of the 80’s and 90’s, sometimes using some of the same songs as Xion did. However, the dance team brought the crowd to its feet, with all of the current songs that are being played on the radio today, like “Purple Kisses” and “Rockin’ That Thang” by R&B singer, The Dream, “Move (If You Wanna)” by rapper MIMS, and the infectious dance song, “Stanky Legg” by rap group The G-Spot Boyz.

The show featured an interesting mixture of songs, which appealed to different members of the audience; the parents and family members of the performers could relate more to the older songs, while the younger members had that reaction to the more current ones. Junior Chelsey Miller noticed that too, “The show was really, really entertaining and incorporated different genres of dance, which was different from previous years. I have been in two other Xion shows, and I thought they were a little too provocative, but this year was a lot more for family and friends.” Sophomore Jenae Philips agreed with Miller, as well, “The spring ‘09 show was probably the second best Xion show I have been to. Most of the dances and steps matched the theme.” For these two girls, this show is one of many that they have seen at Albright, and each show offers a different aspect of the team for them than the previous one. “I have been to four Xion shows. The best show was my very first Xion show, which was in fall ‘07. The theme was movies, and it was very organized and everything went well with the theme. The spring ‘08 show was probably the worst I have been to. It was very short and some of the steps and dances looked a little sloppy. The fall ‘08 show was also very good and the steps and dances had a lot of energy and kept the crowd’s attention”, says Philips. Both she and Miller look forward to the same thing every year, seeing the teams’ hard work pay off, and the energy that they exude on the stage, “The energy in the dancing really gets my heart racing”, said Philips, while Miller added, “When you see them doing the steps, you can sense the energy and the fun that they are having on the stage.”

Although both girls enjoyed the show, they also noticed aspects of the performance that they didn’t like, both having different opinions. For Miller, it was the energy from the crowd, “I didn’t feel it was as hyped in the crowd as previous years. My freshman year was really, really fun and for some reason this wasn’t as hyped, and I’m not sure why.” Miller’s sentiments can be attributed to the location of the show, most people were scattered around the Chapel, whereas, in the theater, due to its limited size, people have to sit together. The more people together, the louder and more crowded the show seems. Philips’ thoughts were a little more mixed, “I didn’t really like X-men’s performance, and the show was so long, and ended so late. Another negative thing was that the show was a bit unorganized. There were long gaps between the next acts a couple of times, and it made it difficult for the show to have a flow.” Philips’ distaste for the organization of the show can be attributed it starting more than a half hour late, and certain songs weren’t cued on time, causing the DJ, and the dancers, to stop the show. In efforts to help the show move faster, some of the dances’ orders were switched around, which, of course, caused confusion and chaos behind the stage, amongst the singers.

Despite these complaints, there is the shared appreciation for an organization like Xion to be on the Albright Campus, and perform these shows for the community, and both Philips and Miller note that the team improves itself, and Albright College. “I think it diversifies our campus and opens us up to new and exciting sights and also gives people a different way to express themselves giving us a big campus feeling.” Philips adds, “I think the Albright community thinks that every black girl on this campus is on Xion. But its not about race at all, it is a means of entertainment for the whole Albright community, not just blacks or whites. It is for everyone, and that helps Albright to be better by having an organization like that.” As an organization, Xion has been a part of Albright’s community for a decade, meaning that the College has had ten years of these energetic shows, attempting to diversify its students and establishment as a whole. As Xion continues to improve and gain support from students of different races, gender, and classes, it can only become better and stronger, which can only reflect positively on Albright.

One beat at a time.

Food, Glorious Food!

2009-05-05T11:40:00.001-07:00

I interviewed Steve Amore, Director of Dining Services to gain some insight into how the Dining Services Department is run. I also interviewed Julia Scheck, Dining Room Supervisor to see how some one who has worked at Albright for a long time thinks things have changed. Finally I interviewed Katie McFinn, a junior to see how the changes have affected the students. For more information on the Dining Services or to voice your opinion visit the Albright College website or email Steve Amore at samore@alb.edu.

Also make sure to check out the video and written portions of, Food, Glorious Food! for more information.

Food, Glorious Food!

2009-05-05T11:20:00.000-07:00

When I first arrived at Albright college I was told to, “beware of the food, there’s laxatives in it.” As a freshman this comment both frightened and intrigued me. So when the opportunity came for me to dig a bit deeper into the dinning services at Albright I jumped at the chance. Probably the most confusing part as a freshman was figuring out the meal plan options.

Albright College requires all of its residential students, with the exception of those who live in the on campus Albright Woods Apartments, to participate in a meal plan. There are three meal plans that on-campus students can choose from. The Albright Gold 20 plan costs $3,800 per year and allows the student to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner six days a week and also includes brunch and dinner on Sundays. The Silver 14 Flex plan costs 3,350 per year and includes any 14 meals per week. The Bronze 10 Flex plan costs $2,600 per year and includes any 10 meals per week. There is also Apartment and Commuter Flex plan that costs $1,850 per year and include any seven meals per week, the Commuter and Apartment 5 plan which costs $1,200 per year and includes only five meals per week. I spoke to Steve Amore, Director of food services and asked about how Albright differs from other institutions when it comes to food services, “we self operated to maintain high quality and high standards.” Steve mentioned that the food service makes it a point to make sure that the food is fresh for students, “we provide fresh poultry that is brought from facilities 50 miles from the college.” Albright tries to offer its students with a variety of meal options and also provides them with fresh and healthy food options. Albright also has a special bonus dollars program that comes with each meal plan and varies in amount depending on the meal plan. Students can use this money in the dining hall, at Jakes Place, Jakes Java, or the Café at Schumo.
The dining hall offers students a wide range of food choices. There are many sections within the dining hall that students can choose from during breakfast, lunch and dinner. My favorite place is the salad bar. During lunch and dinner there is a full salad bar with different dressings and salad toppings. Included in the salad bar area there is also a large selection of fresh and organic fruits. In previous years the fruits were all mixed together in one tray, “we found out from one of the surveys that students wanted their fruit separate,” said Steve Amore about what led to the change in the fruit selection. Now the pineapples, cantaloupes and strawberries are kept in separate trays to be of more convenience to the students. Some of the other sections in the dining hall are, Aprons, which includes more home style cooking. Little slice of Italy, during lunch functions as a pizza bar and during dinner a pasta bar. The change of pace station changes every day during lunch and dinner. The sandwich bar contains all types of lunch meats and bread during lunch and strictly peanut butter and jelly during dinner. The newest spots in the dining hall, the vegetarian and the stir fry sections offer a new perspective on food.

Since my freshman year the quality, freshness and taste of the food in the dining hall has made a noticeable and dramatic change. So do not fall into the trap of the laxative rumor like I did freshman year, and feel free to enjoy the food in the dining hall like I and many other students do.

Also be sure to check out the audio podcast, Food, Glorious Food! which includes interviews with food service administrators, and an Albright student.

Stress, how do you cope?

2009-05-05T11:05:00.000-07:00

It's that time again, the end of the semester is here, and Albright as a whole is feeling the toll. Both professor and student alike are putting their time in to get in work, and to get it done well with plenty of other responsibilites which also need taking care of. The time is winding down, and there are last projects to prepare, final exams to take, and presentations to make before the time is truly over, so of course there is a level of stress which comes along with all of these responsiblilities. But what is stress? What affects can it have on us? How can we handle it, and get our work done in a more peaceful manner?
Bad stress, or distress can occur from any long standing condition, intense trauma, or any series of events over time. How you cope with this will have either a negative or positive effect on you physical or psychological health.
The signs of stress are physical, emotional, behavioral, or cognitive. Fatigue, nausea, headaches, chills, muscle tremors, chest pain, or fainting are all physical reactions to stress. The emotional side gives off feelings of anxiety, denial, fear, shock, depression, guilt, severe panic, or intense anger. The cognitive aspect makes you blame others, make poor decisions, causes confusion, memory problem, poor attention, and poor concentration. Behavior is changed because of stress, there is a change in activity, emotional outbursts, antisocial acts, change in sexual functioning, alcohol consumption, pacing, and erratic movements.
"Stress starts acute, but if you don't handle the small things it can turn into more chronic problems," says Dr. Susan Hughes, a psychology professor here at Albright College, "Too much stress can mess with your immune system, which would make you more susceptible to getting sick, your mood can become more negative, your views on situations becomes more negative, and you become short-tempered with others."
Stress, however, can be dealt with. There is an extensive list with helpful tips on how one can deal with stress can be found on medicinenet.com/stress.
Taking care of yourself is a crucial component to managing stress, eating a well-balanced diet, getting plenty of rest, setting up stages of relaxation, and maintaining a regular schedule can decrease the amount of stress you feel. How you treat others can also affect how stressed you feel. Medicinenet encourages people who are dealing with stress to spend time with others, and to talk to people, forgetting your support group can add on to the feelings of stress.
Dr. Hughes has her own system to combat her stress, "Sleep," she says, "Don't sacrifice sleep, it will only contribute to your stress. Try putting things into perspective, realize who and what your stressors are and deal with them individually. Take time to do the things that you find relaxing, even if you feel like you don't have time to do it."
Keeping all these things in mind, it is very possible for Albright students, and professors to do the work required of them in a peaceful manner, and in order.

Why Heather Can Write: Literacy Media

2009-05-05T11:03:00.000-07:00

The main argument of the chapter is that people are able to be involved in the storytelling process. They are unable to be controlled by corporations due the fact that people have “lovemarks.” The Media producers now have to find what the audience likes and appeal to them. The other argument that is present is what we are allowed to read and write.

The support shown that society is part of the story telling process is the Harry Potter books. The author appealed to the imagination of little children and even teenagers. J. K. Rowling found what society’s “lovemark” were and took advantage of young people’s imagination. The chapter goes on to talk about the Harry Potter books. There were two groups of people arguing over what should be done about the books. Either band them from shelves in various locations like schools and libraries or allow Warner Bros. to make a move out of the books. The chapter explains how children enjoy “participating in the imaginative world” and how this conflict between film and books makes a challenge for children’s “right to read” and “right to write.”

I do see the point of what Jenkins is discussing. I find it that people should be allowed to read whatever they find pleasing. Since we are talking about Harry Potter, I am guilty of not reading the books and only seeing clips of the movie, and they are very imaginative. I feel all the book can stimulate the mind to make a child or teenagers think and be creative. J.K. Rowling had an instinct to find a “lovemark” for that age group and in doing that Warner Bros. took advantage of Rowling’s wonderful work and made millions. I really do feel people want to control what society reads. We can control what we watch on television but books are still a free way to express ones opinion.

The Potters Wars are that are happening between teachers, librarians, book publishers and civil liberty groups against Warner Bros. The side with the teachers and librarian find it to be a religious right to have the book, Harry Potter, take off of shelves in bookstores, schools and libraries. On the other side, the Warner Bros. side, they find it that they should satisfy the fans and appeal to what they want. Warner Bros finds that making a move is still a way for children and teens to use their creative minds. They find that the Potter Wars are the “heart of the struggle over what rights we have to read and write about core culture myths.”

Literacy is in some ways related to social control. The thing about literacy is that it is hard to define who is in control. There was the historical literacy term of “universal literacy” while other societies have limited literacy to their preference. No the fight over literacy is makes me wonder who is in control over it. I do see literacy related to social control because the argument over the Harry Potter Wars is media literacy battle. The Daily Prophet was started by a girl named Heather Lawver. It is a web-based school newspaper; the writers are 102 children from all over the globe. A Daily Prophet Writer has some benefits to it the kids get to cover what they think is important to them in the Harry Potter series. The Daily Prophet allows for children to escape reality and create their one magical world and character. The group is filled with different racial, ethnic and national backgrounds.

Fan Fiction is when a story about setting or characters is written by fans of the original work. Due to fan fiction, fan writing has finally taken off. A great example of this is Zsenya, an adult who has a leading site for Harry Potter fan fiction, he explains who having a site like the Harry Potter one can make everyone feel equal because you cannot see the person you are talking to. You can also make that person you are talking to a character in your own mind. If someone wants to be in the convergence culture one must have an open mind to the really world and the imaginary. Society is changing and we need to understand that books are now movies or their on the Internet or even television. We have to descried what we should do with the media that we are given. Being educated is a privilege no matter how you learn, but along as you are learning something you cannot say that that form of media was wrong.

The relationship between fan writers and publishers is different. Fan writers have an exact purpose for writing, they was to support their cause. They are from an educational stand point just like a teacher and like to support the creative imagination of children. On the other hand there are people who did not like fan writers because they feel that they are copyrighting. Warner Bros, once they bought the movie privileges went thought the websites and tried shutting them down because of copy write or trademark phrases.
People fought hard to have Harry Potter removed from the shelves. People risked their jobs and reputations. A fundamentalist critic finds the lightning bolts on Harry’s forehead to be “marks of the beast.” They believe that children who want to understand the books more will be drawn to the pagan works. A Catholic writer explains that in the imaginary world there are classes being taught in the real world that relate to those classes; astrology and alchemy but still it is offensive to fundamentalists. There are fan-friendly churches that have discussions instead of beating them down. The Internet has been able to play a role is these discussions because it is the gateway to the real and imaginary. Anyone can read the Internet and right now to have your voice heard it is on the Internet. The Internet allows for both support of the Harry Potter books and anti-Harry Potter people to state their opinions.

Voting for Change with a Change in the Voting

2009-05-05T10:47:00.000-07:00

The voting process for SGA officers saw a very interesting change this year. Normally the voting was done with traditional checkbox ballots that were filled out in the campus center by students who walk by. This change was described by one student as “convenient.” In the sense that it allows all students to go online and vote anytime they want within the two day voting period.

However, not all students are aware of the voting days and times. Many students simply did not vote due to a lack of knowing, and confrontation. In past years, the campus center was filled with a table, and all potential candidates swarming around for votes. This year, we saw a double-edged change.

Another advantage of Blackboard is the security of knowing that each student votes once, and only once. The election is not skewed one way or another as if a student were to choose to present his or herself as someone else. Unless people are giving passwords away, Blackboard is a great change in that sense.

Although, some students thinks this was a negative change. “More people are gonna vote when they are asked in the campus center,” one student said said.

Another student disagreed in a sense. “I think it’s very convenient,” the student said. “You can be home, it can be like 11:00 at night, and you realize you haven’t voted yet. So you go ahead and sign online, and make your vote. You don’t need to be anywhere special to do it.”

However, the same student also replied back with this: “Although it is a convenient change, the reality is I think only a quarter of the students, at most, casted a vote.”

So that is the lying question: Does convenience outweigh numbers? All students have the same chance to vote, putting them in the campus center makes them more inclined, putting it on blackboard makes it easier.

I e-mailed Director of Student Activities Sally Stetler. When asked about the voting numbers, her reply was “she did not have [this] information.” The reason for changing to Blackboard was “students can now vote 48 hours non-stop, as opposed to 8 hours.”

Sally Stetler, along with References worker Rosemary Deegan, tallies the votes. They are conducted as a test, and the highest percentage is the winning candidate. When I asked Sally what she would like to see changed in the system, she stated “a higher voting rate.”

So Albright has seen changes in how voting works. Senior officers are leaving, underclassmen are preparing to fill those voids, and this election saw what many students believe to be a lower voting rate. There are no numbers (as of yet), but if the common suspicion is true, we now have to ask ourselves, is the change being made the change that all students want?

I would like to thank Sally Stetler, Lauren Kittle, Sarah Bruno, and Adam Stamm for their time and contributions. Any concerns about this report can be e-mailed to Kevin.brogan11@albright.edu. Thank you

Why Heather Can Write: Media Literacy and the Harry Potter Wars

2009-05-04T21:36:00.000-07:00

The main argument of this article was about how storytelling has created openings for consumer participation. Corporations think that they can control participation, but consumers are asserting the right to participate when and where they wish. The “Potter Wars” and fan fiction are perfect representations of this. There is a challenge to read and a challenge to write, and censorship and property rights are trying to prevent the ability to fully engage in the central cultural fantasy that is Harry Potter. There is a struggle with literacy and with who has the right to participate, and questions on how media literacy should be taught. No one knows how to live in the era of convergence culture and collective knowledge; it is all a learning process for everyone. The chapter talked about Warner Bros. and how they have tried to rein in fan appropriation of the Harry Potter books and the grounds that infringe on the studio’s intellectual property. The main focus was on a fan-made website called The Daily Prophet. An online newspaper that focused around the world of Hogwarts and Harry Potter, where any child can construct a persona and participate in the magical world and write his or her own stories. This has made learning and writing fun for children, as well making them feel as though they have a special place in the world. This role-playing is used as means of exploring a fictional realm and developing a richer understanding of yourself and the culture around you. However, there has been a literacy struggle over such fan sites by Warner Bros. because of their claims of copyrights and trademarked phrases. The fans fought back, saying that if their sites were shut down it was an infringement of free speech, expression, ideas, and fun in this magical book. I agree with the author and the fans; I think places like The Daily Prophet are wonderful opportunities for all children. It is a learning experience that takes place outside the classroom and without adult control, where they can feel a bond with each other. They are experiencing convergence and media literacy by using the Internet as a tool, and express themselves and share it with others. They are able to pool knowledge and collaborate with others, and I think they have every right to do so. After all, it is just fan fiction.

The Potter Wars are the struggle of teachers, librarians, publishers, and civil liberty groups, who stood by the religious right to have the Harry Potter books removed and banned from libraries and bookstores alike. It also involved the likes of Warner Bros. trying to stop things such as fan fiction, claiming copyright laws. Fan fiction is exactly what is happening at The Daily Prophet; children are creating their own characters and personas and putting them into the world of Harry Potter. They create their own stories, which often involve characters or places that were written about in the books. They are using their imagination to actively participate in literacy and further their writing skills. Literacy is often controlled in schools or by outside groups that try to have certain books banned, or by parents. There are also some things that may be deemed socially unacceptable to read, according to others. I think this is wrong; I believe anyone has the freedom to experience literacy in any way that he or she likes at any time. It is not something that can be controlled. Harry Potter is fiction, and the fans of this are aware of this fact; they simply enjoy escaping into a book for a while.

The Daily Prophet was created by a young girl named Heather, and the writers are 102 children across the world who bring literature to life and explore books and open their minds. Being a writer for the Daily Prophet opens whole new worlds and allows children to bond, help with gender roles, develop cultural literacy, and actively analyze and engage more deeply with popular culture. They are able to mix real-world stories with fantasy, contribute to their learning, express themselves, and learn about themselves. They are learning, creating, and enjoying in a friendly utopian society. There is a sense of real connection, acceptance of everyone, and a sense of safety. Children create their own personas, some saying that are related to Harry Potter or Hermione Granger, two of the central characters. They use their creative knowledge to create back-stories and interact with other personas that have been created by other writers. There was a section which focused on how, although Hermione Granger is often stereotyped as the typical girl, but the children on the website can fantasize about things that were never talked about in the books, giving her more of a personality. This fan writing allows them to delve into a book that they love even when the series may have come to an end. They get to use their imagination, and this is very appealing to young people; there are no restrictions on your their imagination. When you are a passionate fan of something, it is a great opportunity to be able to add your own personal touch to it.

Convergence culture literacy is what is happening now; books have found ways to be expressed on the Internet, on TV, in movies and in many other forms. It is not just printed material that matters, but what we can do with media and what we consume. Learning is celebrated, and so is expressing oneself. There are certain skills involved in participating in this kind of literacy, like the ability to pool knowledge with others in a collaborative enterprise, as in the article of Spoiling Survivor. One also must have the ability to share and compare value systems by evaluating ethical dramas, such as the gossip surrounding reality TV. One has to be able to make connections across scattered pieces of information, and express interpretations and feelings toward popular fictions through your own folk culture. It is also good to have the ability to circulate what you create via the Internet, so that it can be shared with others.

The relationship between publishers and fan writers is difficult to define. Some are supportive because fan writing has educational purposes, and storytelling encourages children to expand their imaginations; it empowers them to find voices as writers. J.K. Rowling, although not a publisher, is completely supportive of the fan fiction surrounding her books; she encourages it. Others feel very differently, however; they dislike it because they feel it is copyright infringement. Warner Bros. tried to, and successfully shut down several fan websites, but their only concern is money, not the benefits that children could be gaining from them.

When groups attempted to take away the right of readers to experience Harry Potter, they did not take it lying down. Teachers risked their jobs trying to keep Harry Potter on the shelves, because they knew it excited kids about learning and reading. One teacher in particular, Mary Dana, organized an opposition to superintendents who were trying to ban Harry Potter. She organized a group called Muggles for Harry Potter, which was then joined by eight other organizations; 18,000 people ended up joining. This was all thanks to the help of the Internet, and the name was later changed to kidSpeak. Anyone can write online, and people banded together in support of keeping Harry Potter on the shelves. Many religious groups claimed the books were anti-Christian, but certain Christian groups made videos and wrote online in support of HP, and used new media technologies to do so. Groups such as the Christian Gamers Guild were created, which did not want people to feel alone. There are fan-friendly churches, which explore the moral options of books instead of just disregarding them. They are asserting their rights through participation. Children can teach each other and adults can learn from this. Heather, of The Daily Prophet, led the fan community against Warner Bros. when they tried to shut down fan sites, and the fan community came to include lawyers and activists, who fought for free speech. Were it not for the Internet, these things would not have nearly as much support or widespread knowledge.

Greek Recruitment Still Important Issue

2009-05-04T19:50:00.000-07:00

It may seem like Greek life here at Albright is the most prominent extra curricular activity on campus because you can always see Greek letters around campus. But in fact only about 30% of the student population is involved in Greek organizations. That is why rush and recruitment are important to all three sororities (Phi Mu, Alpha Delta Pi, and Sigma Kappa) and fraternities (Alpha Sigma Phi, Pi Kappa Phi, and Sigma Alpha Epsilon). Inner Fraternal Council Treasurer Dave Morano talks about how IFC regulates rush for all three fraternities and Panhell President Jessie Curcio talks about how Panhell does much the same thing for all three sororities. Freshman Steve Lamonaca talks about why he decided to rush Pi Kappa Phi and sophomore Amanda Schroeder talks about her decision to join Phi Mu.

Video by: Allyse Wolfinger and Kevin Ayala

We Stood Up for Love

2009-05-04T16:41:00.000-07:00

For our last assignment, a fellow classmate, Talia Didomenica, did a video blog that informed us about how Judy Shephard would be visiting Albright on April 30th. As Talia explained, Judy is the mother of Matthew Shephard, the the Wyoming college boy who was beaten to death essentially for being homosexual, and on which the play The Laramie Project is based, which Albright will also be performing. Much of the campus, myself included, was very excited about these coming events. However, the excitement was somewhat put on hold when one night, a week prior to the event, it was discovered that Judy Shephard would not be the only visitor coming to Reading. The Westboro Baptist Church, an anti-homosexual, anti-American organization from Topeka, Kansas, was also planning on coming to Albright, or at least as close to it as they could get. It seemed they would come to protest not only Judy Shephard, but also the opening night of The Laramie Project, another common protest focus of theirs. The group was formed by Fred Phelps in 1955, and is now carried on by many of his own children. Phelps and the WBC picketed Matthew Shephard’s funeral and verbally harassed his parents and other attendees. The group mostly targets homosexuals, protesting at the funerals of AIDS victims, but also at the funerals of soldiers. They have now taken to following Judy Shephard around the country at the places where she speaks, and I was enraged when I heard they would be making an appearance at Albright; I was most definitely not alone. Within the hour, an event called “Stand Up for Love” had been made on Facebook, which turned out to be a very useful tool in this situation. By the second day of the event page being made, 250 members had volunteered to participate, students as well as non-students. Although many were infuriated by the prospect of the WBC coming to spread their hate, Albright students chose to go in a different direction, and spread their love.

The Westboro Baptist Church presents itself with hateful, cruel signs and vile words. Albright students chose to show how very different we are from them. As a demonstration to be against the WBC, students stood silently and peacefully with signs with quotes and proclamations of love such as “Hate is easy. Love takes courage.” Members of the demonstration wore white shirts with hearts on them and planned to stand united against the WBC’s hateful words that have hurt so many families and individuals. There is already too much hate and intolerance in the world, and so Albright students chose to oppose this in the most peaceful way possible. Louis Yurkovic, president of GSA, as well as Sarah Bruno, both met with Dean Crance, who was completely supportive of the idea, as long as we followed the proper procedures and promised to “keep it classy.” Members of The Laramie Project worried that this might add negative connotations to their performances, but if anything, it only increased campus and community support. Chaplain Paul Clark spoke inspirational words about the power of being silent: “It is not about having a voice, it is about controlling it. There is a beauty in being silent and drawing on every good thing that is in you. It sends out beautiful and power energy. Silence is about being free, silent presence is what matters.” There were also groups from the community, including one called Silent Witness, which participates in silent, peaceful demonstrations by holding up umbrellas in front of the demonstrators as a “spiritual shield from hate”. This can be seen in the video of the event. Albright College President, Lex McMillan, also sent a campus-wide e-mail showing his support and pride in Albright as an open campus. Public safety and Reading police were on hand to make sure that everything remained safe and non-violent. The WBC did not make their much-anticipated appearance, but the proclamation of love in the demonstration did exactly what it was supposed to do. Albright is not the first college to plan to demonstrate against the Westboro Baptist Church, and I am sure we will not be the last. Their hatred and intolerance is relentless, which is exactly why the love and acceptance of everyone else must be just as resilient.

There was a lot of organizational effort that led up to the actual demonstration, and there were a lot of people involved. My podcast consists of interviews with Public Safety Director, Robert Gerken, and audio from meetings that took place to help focus the event and to prevent from losing sight of the true cause, including the voice of Dean Crance. I also spoke with Kaitlyn “Fox” Smith ‘11, a participant and major contributor. The video took place on the days of the actual peace demonstration with footage of the students, Silent Witness, and non-students. I also interviewed Sarah Bruno ‘11, one of the students placed in charge, and Alanna Berger, Executive Director of Silent Witness. I was also excited to hear that when I was all done filming, Silent Witness would love to use my video and credit me for upcoming events that they participate in.

*** The reason for the change in quality during Kaitlyn Smith’s interview was due to camera troubles and having to re-record her interview from one camera to another.

*** I ask you: Please do not try to visit the actual website of Westboro Baptist Church as it is offensive and cruel I have been informed that every time it is visited, the WBC earns a profit.

Video, Editing, and Camera work by: Caitlin Sherman

Annual Fashion Show: Better Than Last Year?

2009-05-04T15:19:00.001-07:00

“This year’s Albright Fashion Show “Peace, Love & Fashion” was the best fashion show that Albright has seen in the past three years,” says Doreen Burdalski. Doreen Burdalski is Department Chair and Advisor for the fashion program. She has been at Albright for three years and has been the woman behind the scenes for the past three shows. Her creativity with the help from Club Vogue really paid off.

Usually the show is ran by Albright seniors and the professors but this year the Albright fashion department decided to collaborate with Club Vogue, which is the Albright fashion Club. Club Vogue helped tremendously by electing senior Chelsey Gross to be head of the fashion showcase. Gross and Club Vogue marketed the show by hanging posters, making t-shirts, and word of mouth. They did an excellent job promoting the show and it was confirmed by looking into the audience to see the seats were filled and people were standing throughout the campus center. It was very clear that the audience had fashion students, parents, and non-fashion students that attended. “I came because my roommate is a fashion major and she told me about all the different and unique designs that were expected to be seen this year,” says junior Sam Kelly. It seemed that many students were curious on what their fellow students had to show. “I have never been to the annual showcase before, but I kept hearing so much about it on campus and decided to come check it out,” says senior Annie McMahon. “My favorite part of the show was Maria Valentine’s dog line, I thought all of the outfits were so cute,” says senior fashion student, Kelly Burn. Kelly has seen many different designs throughout her four years here at Albright, but she has never seen anything as exclusive and creative as “Stella”, the clothing line for dogs. In the fashion show there were about a dozen dogs wearing Maria Valentine’s designs. Maria and Doreen sent out a mass e-mail to the Reading community, asking them if they would allow for their dogs to be in the fashion show, within minutes there were over ninety responses. After talking to a number of people after the show it seemed that the dogs were the main attraction, but that did not hurt the audience from admiring all the different cloths and colors of the rest of the show. Sadly not everyone could attend the show “I really wanted to be there to see what all my friends designs and since I’m a fashion major I wanted to just get an idea of what to create for next year. I just couldn’t because I had to do a paper,” says Kassie Budzinski. It was very unfortunate that some students could not attend.

Over all the show was a hit from the concept to the final production, it was amazing. It would not have been as spectacular without the music, it really brought it together. Make sure you check out live footage of the fashion show for your own experience of “Peace, Love & Fashion.”

The Harry Potter Wars Critique

2009-05-03T09:58:00.000-07:00

The main argument of this chapter is the representation of the Harry Potter Wars as the struggle between many different viewpoints regarding media literacy and how that should be taught to children who are developing their reading and writing skills. The author argues that children are developing a sense of media literacy by reading the Harry Potter books and then subsequently using the tools of the Internet to enhance their writing ability and ability to express their thoughts. The main support the author had was that of the Daily Prophet, a student newspaper that allows children to create their own stories about the happenings of the fictitious Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. This is a good example of children who have read the Harry Potter books using the tools of the Internet to enhance not only their writing skills but also their comprehension on how to use the media to their advantage. This shows that children are not only learning how to write more creatively while enhancing their skills, but also that they know they can use the tools of the Internet to their advantage. The controversy arises when organizations like Warner Brothers, who bought the rights to the Harry Potter franchise, try to shut down these creative forms of expression by children because they claim it is a copyright infringement. I agree with the author that children are developing a more defined notion of media literacy and that there are many people who are trying to damper that. I think it’s a great thing that children are becoming more media literate while at the same time enhancing their writing skills and showing their creativity. I also think it’s a shame that there are so many close minded people who think fantasy worlds are destroying young children or that they are so money hungry they would sue children over copyright infringement without realizing the benefits of their initiatives.

The Harry Potter Wars are those against the book itself for its fantasy world and those against the use of the Harry Potter characters in writing other than the actual books versus those who write the fantasy stories using the characters. Many religious groups and those against the teaching of wizardry have tried to ban the teaching of Harry Potter in schools because the fantasy world message destroys the idea of Christianity in those that are reading the books. In some cases their efforts have been successful making teachers angry because these books actively engage the young children readers in way other more traditional books can’t. Warner Brothers is trying to stop copyright infringement from those who write fantasy stories using the Harry Potter characters. Those who are writing the fantasy stories or those who write for the fictional Daily Prophet are writing fan fiction. Fan fiction stories are stories that fans of the Harry Potter series create using their own imaginations but use the characters and settings of the original work. The initiative to not only read the books themselves but to write stories expanding on the story one just read is expanding the notion of literacy. Not only are these people becoming literate from reading, but they are becoming literate through writing which is an equally important part of literacy. I don’t think literacy is something that should not be socially controlled. Everyone has the right to express themselves and I think the only reason Warner Brothers has a problem with it is because they want to make money off of a copyright infringement. Those from the religious groups are just closed-minded but what they fail to realize it that they are expressing their ideas freely in the same way that those who are writing about Harry Potter are.

The Daily Prophet is a fictional newspaper about life at Hogwarts that was established by a 15-year-old girl named Heather. All of the writers for the Daily Prophet are young fans of the Harry Potter books that have found the site on the Internet. These writers are able to express their imagination while showing their love for the Harry Potter books. They also are given the opportunity to enhance their writing by peer critiques and are able to socialize with fans from all over the world. In their stories the young writers create their own stories oftentimes using themselves or the issues they are facing in their real lives in the context of Hogwarts. One writer even went so far as to create a sister of Harry Potter who is attending the school also. The expression of their problems in this literary form lets them express their feeling and brings ideas from other readers as to how they can fix them. The Daily Prophet is not the only website that is devoted to fan writing. Many fan writing sites are beginning to develop and they are not all related to the Harry Potter books, although they are a large majority. Fans of many different things are beginning to see that the Internet is the perfect place to write about the stories they love while joining other fans that wish to do the same thing.

Convergence culture is the idea that one uses many different forms of media to get information on one or more specific issues or ideas. In order to be an active part of a convergent culture one must be able to use many different forms of the media to their advantage. An example of this is Heather the creator of the Daily Prophet. She is able to read the Harry Potter books and was able to use the tools of the Internet to create a website devoted to fictitious stories about the imaginary school. Not only was she able to read the books, but she was able to recognize that there are ways that she can further her involvement with the books in a different form of media. One of wishes to join the convergence culture of society today needs to possess those same skills.

The relationship between fan writers and publishers is a strained on. Many publishers dislike the idea of fan writers because they are infringing on a copyright. But this dislike is almost also solely about the monetary gain they would seem to gain if they could control fan writers. In the Harry Potter instance, author J.K. Rowling was in support of the fan writers and encouraged them to continue to writing and using their creative imaginations. Warner Brothers on the other hand sued many websites that used Harry Potter references in their addresses despite many of those sites being run by children. The children fought back and eventually Warner Brothers backed down from many of the suits they had filed.

Many religious groups have tried to ban Harry Potter from libraries and classrooms due to their supernatural elements. However, many people have fought back because this is a book that has actively engaged children in reading. Many traditional books fail to create the kind of enjoyment in reading for young children and teachers and parents do not want to take that away from a generation that in many ways are not interested in reading. The Internet has played a key role in this debate with fan writing websites and blogs. The Internet is a public forum in which there is no regulation of the content. Many fans of the Harry Potter books and those who believe in the idea of free speech in regards to the books are able to post their content on the Internet with no regulation from the religious groups who are trying to prohibit their reading of the books.

Program in the Making?

2009-04-27T17:42:00.000-07:00

The lacrosse team at Albright is a club sport. Many players, however, feel there is the potential for more. Some players were told there would be more. An interview with Co-Athletic Director Rick Ferry, Goalie Marty Mack, and quotes from head coach Barty Thompson (due to a very busy schedule and this hectic time of year, the scheduling was not a possibility). Attempts to interview President McMillan and Admissions were unsuccessful.

The lacrosse team has many obstacles to overcome to become a program. It would be a huge investment for the school, but at the same time would be a nice addition for admission's sake. So the question remains, would the risk outweigh the reward?

Photos: Courtesy of Lauren Kittle
Song: "Jump" performed by Van Halen, owned by Warner Bros Entertainment

Survivor Spoilers

2009-04-27T14:34:00.000-07:00

The main argument that Jenkins makes in the chapter centers upon “Survivor Spoilers”. The spoilers take an increase on the fact that Survivor is filmed months before it is aired on television, therefore their main goal is to gather as much information as possible about the show before it goes on television. These people go above and beyond to assemble enough information to be able to put it on the internet before the show is televised. After a couple of seasons of the spoilers trying to ruin the show, the producers caught on to what the spoilers were trying to do. Once they caught word, they started to put information and pictures on their site about upcoming events. The spoilers obviously caught on to this with complete thrill. They would then post the information on their own site, only to find out the producers were playing the game as well and the information was completely false. The argument stands only to be focused on whom the spoilers are, and what connection do they have to the show vs. how true is the information that the spoilers are trying to leak out.

The support he shows throughout the chapter takes a look at both sides of the argument. The first support he makes to show that the spoilers are really getting true information is on the first page of the chapter where he states that, “they use satellite photographs to locate the base camp, they watch the taped episodes frame by frame, looking for hidden information.” (Jenkins, 25). Here Jenkins states that the spoilers are going to the extreme to find out as much information as they can about the television series. One spoiler names himself, ChillOne, he is one of Survivors biggest spoilers. He never identifies himself or gives hints where he gets his information. This makes some viewers very skeptical on how true his information really is. He claims that he was on vacation in Brazil, when he staggered upon information about the next season of Survivor. Most Survivor spoilers identified who they were and all information about themselves and their background. Each person including ChillOne has his own personal reasoning for becoming a spoiler. Another way spoilers support their information is from time zones between the east coast and the west coast. Something may be aired three hours prior to when it is aired on the west coast. This lets west coast spoilers spill some of the information prior to when their viewers will be watching. The main way spoilers get the community to support them is by how correct their information is when the actual show is aired. Wezzie and Dan are one of Survivor Spoilers most trust-worthy spoilers, and when ChillOne tried to prove them inaccurate about some of the information, people did not believe ChillOne. The internet community felt that ChillOne was a little to advance to be a novice spoiler and they really wanted him identify himself, so they could look up his background information, but ChillOne would not budge. The community believed that ChillOne might work for the series, but he kept informing them that he didn’t and that he got his information from the hotel that headquartered Survivor Season 6 and from a local boat worker that transported the losers of the show off the island. ChillOne would not release his information right away and held out until the last possible moment. People believed his information came from an early issue of USA Today or TV Guide. All of this information supports the argument with balance. After all the support the community just needs to find who the “real” spoilers vs. the spoilers who do not extremely look into the information. The community can only believe and trust the spoilers who have been accurate so far.

On page 27 Jenkins states, “The emergent knowledge culture will never fully escape the influence of the commodity culture, any more than the commodity culture can totally function outside the constraints of the nation-state.” I believe this means exactly what his previous quote in the chapter states, No one knows everything, everyone knows something, all knowledge resides in humanity.” Breaking this down “no one knows everything” is knowledge culture. As much information as a spoiler can gather with other spoilers they have combined will never be everything. The next part of the quote relates to “everyone knows something.” The quote talks about commodity culture, which is the individual information that the spoiler knows different from the other spoiler. When the quote states that that “emergent knowledge culture will never full escape the influence of the commodity culture”, Jenkins is saying that there would never be knowledge culture without commodity culture. Individually knowledge culture is commodity culture, and once the spoilers emerge on the internet commodity culture becomes knowledge culture. The final part of the quote is about nation state, which is “all knowledge that resides in humanity.” The quote relates to this quote by stating that commodity culture is the individual knowledge can never escape humanity. After breaking down the quote and putting it all together, Jenkins is saying that emerging knowledge culture (when individuals come together on the internet to put together all their information together) could never be found without the commodity culture (the actual individual getting on the internet to give their information), the same way that commodity culture could never escape the nation-state (all the knowledge known in humanity).

The spoiling community is very similar to other communities, in the fact that everyone is voiced to their own opinion. Not everyone has to agree with the opinion, which is when the disbeliefs and disagreements start to happen. Also another similarity is that communities are filled with surprises and not everyone is going to predict accurately. This is very similar in the spoiling community, because spoilers are going to predict by hints and information given, but not everyone has to believe them and not everyone has to be right. It is different because in other communities, being wrong is accepted more. When a spoiler is wrong, they are bashed and torn apart on the internet. In the spoiler community people expect you to be accurate when you post on the internet and that if you are wrong once then you will always be wrong. In other communities, the act of forgiveness comes in to play a lot more than in the spoiling community. Spoiling is democratic because the power of what they are voices is held by the citizens. It is definitely the “popular” spoilers who run the show and who the viewers tend to lean towards when they are trying to look who to listen too. It also acts very hierarchical as well, because the viewers are not very accepting to new spoilers. They have the ones they like and listen to on top and the list branches out by how trustworthy the spoiler is. Spoiling is based on a relationship status and how well you feel connected as a viewer to the spoiler. This shows great connection to a hierarchical model. Technology plays a tremendous role in spoiling and a very competitive one as well. The way to be a good spoiler is by what extremes you play to gather the information. Technology is a big way to find accurate information about Survivor, especially by using satellite photographs to gather information. Also without technology, such as the internet, spoilers wouldn’t be able to post their new findings and information for humanity to see.

Collective intelligence is a shared intelligence that becomes known from competitive individuals. Since no one knows everything collective intelligence serves a vital role by combining the individual knowledge, so there is enough knowledge to solve a puzzle. This relates to the individual knowledge, because without someone’s information, there could be a vital piece that is missing.

Honestly I have never watched Survivor or other reality shows, I really do not have time to sit down and watch them religiously. I feel if you watch these types of shows then you need to continue to watch them weekly to understand what is going on. I still can relate to this because I have looked up spoiler information about other television shows to see what is going on. I have read ones that seem to be very accurate and some that are bazaar. Most spoilers tend to have the same information, with the television show that I watch and review. I found this reading to be very interesting because of how far people will go to actually find out information before it is aired. It just goes to show you how much of an impatient society we have today.

Albright Celebrates Earth Week

2009-04-20T17:20:00.001-07:00

This week students here at Albright will be celebrating Earth Week. In celebration events such as a movie marathon dedicate to earth movies, days of caring, a go green concert, an Earth Ball, and a go green poster contest sponsored by the Student Government Association are all planned for students to celebrate the environment and going green. SGA Member at Large, Steph Bunce, explains why SGA came up with the poster idea and how Albright being more environmentally friendly is a good thing. Mike Weekley, Vice President of MEISA, the organization co-hosting the go green concert talks about his organizations involvement in Earth Week and why a concert can help raise environmental awareness. Senior Theresa Parrish, a member of the Albright Environmental Action organization that orchestrated Earth Week, talks about why the organization decided to have Earth Week instead of just celebrating Earth Day. Senior Greg Smith explains that he is excited for all of the Earth Week events taking place and that he believes it will be a success. While many students preferred not be videotaped, almost all thought Earth Week and Albright's efforts to be more environmentally conscious were a good thing and were looking forward to this weeks events.

NCAA-Absent

2009-04-16T13:46:00.000-07:00

The lacrosse team at Albright is a group of 25 students who practice and play year round, but are not given the same recognition and credit other NCAA athletes recieve. Co-Athletic Director Rick Ferry stated a lacrosse program would not be put in place unless it was "in the best interest of the college." That is a very understandable approach, but with trainers on campus, 20some players taking out equipment, and locker rooms available for every game, what more is needed? The two big investments appear to be field space and coaches.

Photos Courtesy of Lauren Kittle
Music: "Jump" performed by Van Halen, owned by Warner Brothers Entertainment

Living In A Different World? The Lives and Experiences of Gay Albright Students

2009-04-15T21:55:00.000-07:00

With the recent victories with gay marriage in various parts of the country, much attention has been brought to the lives of gays and their place in society. Even though things have certainly changed, gay people still struggle with being accepted and welcomed into general society. All of this inspired me to sit with four gay students and tell me about their views on the Albright community's acceptance of homosexuality and how they fit into the Albright social spectrum. Three of the students (Lauryn Crawford [sophomore], and freshmen Jamal Ishmael and Randi Mont) all share intimate opinions while Louis Yurkovic (junior) speaks about his experiences as a gay student and how they inspired him to create the Gay-Straight-Alliance (GSA). I also spoke to three heterosexual students, freshman Dave Smith, sophomore Shannon Branch and junior Jonathan Little about their views on gays and their existence in the Albright community. The culmination of interviews made for an interesting video that shows that despite all of the discrimination that exists in the world, there are places where people can see beyond differences and co-exist with all types of people that who are different than them.

An Emergence of Human Expression: Film+ Fest 2009

2009-04-15T19:49:00.000-07:00

Every year, Albright hosts two Student Film Shows, which are organized by the student-run organization, Cinema Club. The turnout for this year’s show was rather disappointing on Friday, April 3rd, although students and community members were given the opportunity to come on two days instead of just one. There were only seven films, but each had its own unique feel and persona. There was also an installation art piece in the lobby, the reason for the “+” in the title. Films shown were those of Chip Schwartz, ‘09, Cinema Club president, and one of my interviewees. Also, Kyle Baughman, ‘10, Cinema Club vice-president, as well as Luis Omar Guzman, ‘09, and John Schlegel, ‘09. I also interviewed Laura Krieger, ’11, who came to the show to support friends and get a new experience. I was also given exclusive usage of two of the films for this video. The festival took place Friday, April 3rd, and Saturday, April 4th, in Klein Lecture Hall.

Seniors And The Unknown Future

2009-04-15T16:03:00.000-07:00

As graduation quickly approaches many seniors at Albright College are preparing for their next big step. Many are currently applying for jobs but are finding it difficult with the current economic situation. Senior Mary Burns has at least the next couple of years planned, as she is set to attend graduate school in the fall. Seniors Chrissy Phillips, Greg Wolfenden, and Brandon Ruppert are all actively applying for jobs, but are having a hard time securing one. Senior Amanda Foulds is moving to Reading, Pennsylvania to expand her job market opportunities as her hometown offers little in relation to her major. Seniors Maria Valentine and Thomas Joseph Kennedy have secured jobs in the fashion and political spectrums, respectively. One thing all seniors have in common is we will be facing a future outside of Albright whether we are ready for it or not.

Texting: Trend or Epidemic?

2009-04-15T14:48:00.000-07:00

Texting has grown since its beginnings and become one of the most widely used forms of technology by young people today. I interviewed several Albright students and an Albright faculty member to see how this technology impacts student’s behavior in class. I spoke to senior and “veteran texter” Daniel Dougherty, Sophomore, Kaitlin Rohaur and Senior Mike Larkin to gain insight on how much texting students are doing in classes. I also interviewed Professor of political science Dr. Elizabeth Freund to see what faculty members think about this latest trend.

Judy Shepard Comes To Albright

2009-04-15T10:45:00.000-07:00

Mindy Cohen, Station Manager of WXAC, Julia Matthews, Professor of Theater, as well as students Freshman Justin Fitzpatrick and Sophomore Rachel McCoun discuss the upcoming visit of National Speaker Judy Shepard. Ms. Shepard is the mother of Matthew Shepard, who was brutally murdered in his hometown of Laramie, Wyoming just over ten years ago for being gay. Ms. Shepard speaks all over the country using the tragedy of her family to inspire tolerance and acceptance. In addition to a speech by Judy Shepard, Albright’s Domino Players will be premiering their latest show, The Laramie Project, which also deals with the Shepard family and the town of Laramie.

Her speech will take place in the Memorial Chapel on Thursday April 30 and 8:00pm and the Domino Players Production of The Laramie Project will premier on May 1 at 8:00pm in the Wachovia Theater.

Artist of the Month

2009-04-14T16:00:00.000-07:00

The Albright A.M. (Arts Magazine) has added a new component to their May 2009 edition called Artist of the Month to which they will nominate and vote on prospective students and their contributions to the arts. For February the winner was Elliot Wallace for his piece "Faith Eats the Soul" which he submitted the "Green and Growing" festival for written and directed theather work made primarily by students. Michael Weekly, president of Albright AM, stands in representation of the magazine, and the Albright community as a whole is excited about this new addition to the magazine.

Why Guster?

2009-04-14T15:31:00.000-07:00

Are you happy with this years Spring concert? If not did you voice your opinion to the Student Government Association when they put out a survey? Listen to SGA President Kyle Bredbenner and Commuter Student Representative Michael Weekley inform us about all the hard work SGA put into choosing Guster. Fellow senior Lisa Proccacini and Ashley Gaynor also give their perspective and opinions on this years concert. Guster is coming to the Soveriegn Center May 2nd and Albright students can see them for a discount of $10.

Music in video is from Guster.

Watch out boys, Women are Fighting Back!

2009-04-14T15:23:00.000-07:00

Every fall and spring semester Albright College offers the RAD (Rape Aggression Defense) classes. Over the past nine years, this self defense class has been taught to over 600 women in the Albright Community . Each class consists of risk awareness, risk reduction, and risk avoidance. Physical moves are also taught during the classes. At the end of the RAD program the women have the opportunity to try out what they learned during an attack simulation. I interviewed Officer Robert Gerken, Director of Public Safety and one of the RAD instructors, Lauren Cooley, the Special Events Coordinator, Megan McGrath, Director of Alumni Relations and Rachel Caminsky, an Albright Senior for their opinions on the RAD program.

For more information about the RAD classes e-mail Officer Gerken at rgerken@alb.edu

Dance the Night Away Old School Style!

2009-04-14T11:29:00.000-07:00

How would you like to learn to dance the way just like people did back-in-the-day? Well that is what Dana Wilcomes, Julie Crandle and Andrew Hettinger did in the Victorian Ball Room Dancing Workshop. The Workshop was held on Saturday April 4th in the Life Center. Unfortionally the director and the assistance's did not want to be interviewed so i went to the next best source; students. I hope you enjoy the blast from the past!

Local Easter Egg Hunt Brings Out the Kids

2009-04-05T19:03:00.000-07:00

This past Saturday, April 4, an Easter egg hunt took place at a local school, Robeson Elementary. The event took long to prepare and there was a buzz around the school before the event was even held. In the end the approximate number of kids that showed up was 250, and they were delighted with the candy and prizes that they received. The whole event was planned and organized by Holly McDaniel, a kindergarten teacher at the school.

Units, Credits, Courses...Oh My!

2009-04-03T16:16:00.000-07:00

Course Registration is underway this semester as underclassmen prepare for the fall 2009 Academic Year. During this time, many students and faculty are using words such as ‘unit’ and ‘credit’. Albright uses a course unit system as opposed to a course credit system that can be found at many large and state universities. This system is not often discussed around campus yet many members of the Albright community possess varying opinions on the issue. Albright Registrar, Dave Ballaban, and Professor of English, Dr. Richard Androne, provide commentary on this issue and a student perspective is provided by Freshmen Becky Kinkead and Stephanie Babson as well as Seniors Frantz Armand and Chelsey Gross.

For more information on the course unit system used by Albright or the credit system used at other schools you can e-mail Albright’s Resistrar, Dave Ballaban, at dballaban@alb.edu, or visit the Registrar’s office Monday through Friday.

Can you tell me how to get, how to get, to the Writing Center?

2009-04-03T14:27:00.000-07:00

Under the guidance of Dr. Melissa Nicholas, the new director of the Albright College Writing Center, there has been an attempt to make the center a more vital and respected part of the Albright campus. Beginning with her taking over the reigns in the spring semester 2009, Dr. Nicolas has attempted to help the Albright campus realize that the Writing Center is not a "fix it" shop, but a place where students are encouraged to receive help and guidance with their papers to become better writers. It has been a transition that has not been easy, but with the help of an interim class helping students to learn how to become better tutors AND writers, the Writing Center is well on its way. I interview two tutors at the Writing Center, senior Christine Phillips, who has been working at the center since 2007, before Dr. Nicolas arrived, and Meghan Wheeler, who joined this semester, after taking Dr. Nicolas' interim class, Dave Smith, a freshman, who is a frequent Writing Center visitor, and Dr. Nicolas.

Journalism: keeping up with the changes

2009-04-03T10:51:00.000-07:00

I spoke to Deborah Horan, a journalist previously working with the Chicago Tribune who spoke at the "Changing media landscape and careers in journalism" experience event that took place Monday March 30, 2009. I also spoke to Dr. Jon Bekken, associate professor of communications, Brandon Ruppert, a senior communication major and Tyler Parmer, a freshman communication and business major to gain their insight on how the field of communications and journalism is changing.

To gain more insight from a faculty professor you can email Dr. Jon Bekken, Assoicate professor of communication at jbekken@alb.edu.

Housing Selection Follow-Up

2009-04-03T10:15:00.001-07:00

The Housing Office side of the arguement. Because of complication of dates the previous post of the Housing Selection for Fall 2009 did not provide Housing an oppurtunity to speak out. This post, with an interview with Amanda Hanincick the Housing Director, gives Housing the oppurtunity to be heard.

AC Gospel Ensemble Members Speak Out on The Importance of Spirituality on Campus, Choir Experiences and Their Road to Building Relationships with God

2009-04-02T21:47:00.000-07:00

The members of the Albright College Gospel Ensemble come together every week to do one thing—praise God through song. I sat down with three members, Brittany McLaughlin (the president), Adrie Neal (choir director) and Antoine Stroman (SGA representative) about their relationships with God, the difficulties of temptation and the importance in being members of the choir.

For more information:
http://www.albright.edu/campuslife/clubs_and_orgs/GospelEnsemble.html

And don't forget to check out the Albright College Gospel Ensemble Spring Showcase MAY 3RD!

The Few, the Proud, Albright College Supports the Yellow Ribbon Veterans' Award

2009-04-02T19:14:00.000-07:00

Albright College's new Yellow Ribbon Veterans' Award will allow qualified veterans of the U.S. Armed Services to earn an Albright degree free of cost. The Post-9/11 GI Bill and the Yellow Ribbon GI Education Enhancement Program provide subsidies to veterans who have served at least 36 months of active duty after September 11, 2001. I interviewed Mary Ellen Duffy, Director of Financial Aid, Greg Eichhorn, Vice President for Enrollment Management and Dean of Admission and Kathy Cafoncelli, Executive Assistant to the President. I also interviewed Junior, CJ Jewell and Senior, Kim Thompson to get the students perspective.

To find out more information visit http://www.albright.edu/ or call 610-921-7799 or 888-253-8851.

Experience: More Than Just an Event

2009-04-02T16:43:00.000-07:00

Albright College is a liberal arts school, which focuses on broadening the knowledge of students in many areas. A way Albright feels this is beneficial is making a requirement of experience events in order to graduate. There are some students that believe this is beneficial and some that think it is pointless. While listening to this interview baseball player and SAE member LJ Robinson, commuter Roxy Rothermel, senior Valerie Busz, and Experience Event Coordinator Gerald Ronning inform you of their opinions of experience events at Albright.

For more information or suggestions on experience events feel free to contact Professor Gerald Ronning at (610)-921-7716 or visit him in Masters Hall Rm. 107.

An American Journalist's Experience In Iraq

2009-04-02T09:30:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday, March 31, 2009, award winning journalist Deborah Horan spoke at Albright College about her time as an American journalist covering the war in Iraq. Horan talked about her struggles to find reliable information to report in a war struck country. Professor Gerald Ronning, chair of the experience event program, gives his opinion on the turnout of the event and whether the war in Iraq is still an issue that resonates with students. Albright students Katie Donaldson and Mitch Nathan, who attended Horan's speech, give their opinions on Horan's experience and the on-going issues with Iraq.

Nytimes.com - 4th Hour Critique

2009-03-31T11:28:00.000-07:00

For this critique I chose to look at nytimes.com which is based on the major national traditional print publication, The New York Times. It’s been a while since I’ve gone to this particular web site and I found myself looking at it differently based on a lot of the things we’ve gone over in class. One of the first strengths of the site that I found was its incorporation of various media. We talk a lot about that practice in conjunction with blogging, and I started to take for granted that the use of multimedia on a site was unique to it. I was pleasantly surprised to notice that nytimes.com used the practice as well. Before this class it was probably not something I would have taken the time to focus on, but now I’ve realized how much the use of different media can add to a news site. On the home page alone there are videos posted, as well as links to other stories based on the current story posted, slideshows, and audio. As you go deeper into the site clicking on various tabs or topics, the use of multimedia is carried on demonstrating that the site uses the practice for all of its stories and not just the home page.

I found one particular article that seemed to encompass many different forms of media within it, ‘Foreign Ways and War Scars Test Hospital’. The article is part of a series called Remade in America: A series about the newest immigrants and their impact on American institutions. The article had a basic written story, a video, a slideshow, several images including charts and graphs, as well as links to outside sources to explain certain things that were discussed in the text. After taking the time to read or look at all the multimedia options the article presented I feel like I know a lot more about the issue than before. I liked that I was able to get the information in many different ways because I focused on different things and picked up on different things depending on which media I was engaging with. For example, when I read the text I focused a lot more on the facts that were being presented, when I watched the video I focused a lot on the viewpoints of the subjects of the article, and when I looked at pictures I focused on the emotional aspect of the piece. In that respect I really enjoyed the use of multimedia in a story. I felt like I really got a lot out of the article.

However, there were some things that I didn’t like. I found that the story started to get very repetitive. The same facts were presented in each different use of media with the exception of the charts and graphs. I would have liked to see different angles of the story or an expansion of something discussed in the written text. I think that would help readers get more out of the story than they do. But that criticism is also a double edged sword because I also feel like the use of multimedia makes it easy for readers who don’t have the time or don’t care to explore all the different media to pick a format that they enjoy most and get the information that way. In that sense I think it is a good thing that the same information is presented in each form of media.

This use of multimedia to present information isn’t something that can be seen in traditional print. Even though there were a few things that I didn’t like about nytimes.com’s use of different media, I firmly believe that it gave news a lot more dimension than can be found in print. The Newswars videos that we watched pointed out that today’s consumers of media like to ‘infosnack’ and take in media in small doses in ways that most appeal to them. The online version of The New York Times allows users to choose how they get their news and overall I think they’re doing a good job at it. I personally don’t seek out news very often but I know that when I do in the future, an online news source is probably how I’m going to do it because of the many ways I can choose to get the information.

The Philadelphia Inquirer: A Little Too Much Clutter

2009-03-31T11:16:00.000-07:00

Long ago, when I was just a young girl, my parents used my make me read the newspaper with them, to help my literacy skills. It was my responsibility everyday to buy the Philadelphia Daily News everyday after school; my mom would give me an extra $3.00 every week, so that I could by the (at the time) 60 cent paper, Monday through Friday. I would read it on the train on the way home from school, turn it over to my parents, and after they read it, we would discuss a couple of articles from it. On Saturday, I was released from my duties, and usually my dad would get it, and I felt like I had more important things to do with my Saturdays than to read any paper. But Sunday?! Sunday became my favorite day to read the newspaper, and still is, but it never was the Daily News, but the Philadelphia Inquirer. Yes, this paper came out on the other days of the week too, but my father liked the Daily News better Monday-Saturday, but the bulkiness of the Sunday edition, so we would get it on Sundays. I always loved the plethora of sections, filled with local news, international news, circulars, magazines, dining reviews (which for some reason, I faithfully read, as if I really knew what some of the foods were), and my personal favorite, the comics. Since I now am in Reading for the majority of my time, I hardly ever get to read to Inquirer anymore, but its still my favorite newspaper, and naturally, I chose its website for my post.

On the newspaper’s website, it is easily to tell that it isn’t an over-the-top fancy website. Its very simple, very similar to the actual paper; it is mostly white with the titles of the articles in blue. It has a couple of pictures on the sides of the site, but not very many, and it seems like they are simply for the article that is headlining the site. There is a section for videos and pictures, however, that gives pictures that are in the daily edition of the pictures, but obviously, the reader would have to click on that separately. Each type of news, like business, sports, and dining, is split up in to small categories, and scattered on the page, and is also outlined at the top of the page in red, which I assumed was to make it easier for the reader to find a particular section. It has a breaking news section, which has articles and stories, that obviously happened after the printing of the paper; one was as recent as 1:28, and it was 1:35 when I went on the site. The one thing that surprised me, and I actually found to be interesting was the “Online Extras” that the site offered. One of them was called the “Interactive Map”, which allowed people to map and trace homicides that have happened in Philadelphia since 1988; with the increase of the crime rate in Philadelphia over the last few years, I found it to be not only surprising that it would be up there, but in a way, helpful too, as an effort to curb the homicides, but letting people see the effect visually. The red dots that littered the map, certainly scared ME.

When I clicked on an article, one that was about 69th street, an outdoor shopping strip, and a popular alternative to Center City Philadelphia, which I happen to live close to, I was pleasantly surprised at the length of the article. I assumed that it would be a short and concise blurb taken from the article that was published in the paper. But judging from the length (3 pages), it probably was directly from the paper. However, even though its clear that I could read a large number of the articles from the printed paper, on the website, I realized that I still like the printed version better. I like how everything is spread out more, in contrast to the bunched design of the website. The paper simply is more aesthetically pleasing, with the large headlines, the more organized flow of everything. And of course, I don’t have to click on the headline to read the article with a printed paper, which may seem a small task, but I prefer to just read the article rather than having to be taken to another part just to see that, then click out of it, and go back to the homepage, and do the same for the next article. I find the fact that the Inquirer has such a website to be great, and it may work for some people who prefer this type of news, but me? I’ll spend my 75 cents and read it on the train, like old times.

The New York Times Website: Minimalist Style

2009-03-31T10:42:00.001-07:00

I often visit the New York Times website Style section to get updates on fashion events and news and also to watch the audio slide show that Bill Cunningham posts about trends appearing in major cities. The style section of the website is easy to get to since it has a section tab at the top of the New York Times homepage. The content on the website is great. It is credible, and holds up to all the standards that the rest of the New York Times website sections as well as the content of the print paper. The articles in the style section always relate other aspects that one might not consider which in turn makes the articles well rounded. I like the audio slide shows presentation because it is a visual version of an article. The only downside to the audio slide show is that they do not have a comments section on it. There is a feedback link at the bottom of the audio slide show box; that link pulls up an email server so the audience can make email comments. But the comments are not displayed anywhere visible. The style section is split into different sections and each section has a feature article and then links to other articles that were printed in that section for the day. I like that the page is kept to a minimalist style. Visually it makes it easier to look through the page because it is not bombarded with links, articles and photographs. In a way it is smart that they have their site set up this way because it forces the audience to navigate through the different sections of the site to get to different articles. The style section also gives the audience a search portion where audiences can find restaurants in New York City, directly from the dinning & wine section of the style page. That function is placed in a great spot since audiences that would be reading articles related to food and wine would like to know where restaurants are located. The Style Magazine section of the style page is also helpful because although I don’t have a subscription to the style magazine I would still like to know what the content is of the current issue, and perhaps if there is a certain spread or topic discussed in the style magazine by being exposed to it on the style page I might be inclined to buy the magazine. With the exception of the lack of audience participation I think that the style page of the New York Times website is very easy to navigate. It provides all the information that an audience who is interested in the section would want while presenting it in a minimalist style.

The New York Times Online

2009-03-31T09:05:00.000-07:00

The New York Times is one of the most popular major newspapers. The New York Times has been around for a number of years. I will be honest and say that I have never visited this site until today. Just skimming over the page I find that there are a large number of different topics ranging from Supreme Court appeals to a company’s bankruptcy to sports. Their website is just like there newspaper; full of information.
When you first visit the websites homepage you see that the title of the newspaper and site have the same font, which I think keeps the connection between the website and the paper. Under the title you have the date and then there are the articles. The one good thing I did find about The New York Times site is that with all the information they give you, you have to find something that intrigues you to read. Also on the left had side of the page is a list of topics that the website has which makes it easier for the reader to find what he or she wants to read about.
The website does not just have photographs of the story they are covering but it has videos that you can click on and watch. One thing that the New York Times does very well is balance the stories between the newspaper and the website. They still want people to read the paper and enjoy the articles that are in that, that may never have made it to the web.
The thing that I found I did not like about the website was how everything was bunched together. I do agree that they had a lot of information and most all of it seemed like very useful knowledge but they seem to compact it all and it was just too much for my eyes to look at. Due to all the cluttered articles I did not know where to click I felt like I was bombarded with information. In the end I find the Internet to be a great thing but I still prefer to pick up a newspaper to get my information.

USA Today Online: Good Content, Busy Design

2009-03-30T20:56:00.000-07:00

For the online news source critique, first source that popped up in my head was USA Today. Since it’s my favorite newspaper, it was a no-brainer for me to critique it. USA Today strikes me differently than other newspapers because I appreciate the style of the writing and the fact that there is a section for everyone’s interest. Also, the articles always have interesting topics and always are appealing to me.

The website is designed in the same way that the paper is—everything is laid out in front of you. As soon as you get to the website, there are several stories that you can click on to read, videos, and pictures. Basically, the things that will immediately grab your attention. While, I understand their method of design, it is a little overwhelming to have so much jumping out at you. Even though it is constructed this way to gain your attention, it actually is distracting and makes it difficult to decide what to click on first. Because, there are videos, picture galleries and articles all existing in the same place, it is too much and makes it difficult to focus.

I noticed that the website included some of the features that we have discussed in class in the past couple of weeks. For example, the structure makes it a priority to integrate the opinions and voices of readers. On every article, there is space for readers to leave comments and “communities” where readers can join a group that focuses on a specific thing (for example, there are fantasy football, gossip and travel communities). Another feature from class is the fact that there are several blogs that USA Today sponsors and supports. This is significant because blogs are one of the biggest phenomenon online at the moment and to have this feature on the website will only increase their readership and popularity. Also, there are photo galleries and videos which are two mediums that represent a useful, current type of normality on websites today.

While, the content of the website is still informative and well-written, it’s the design I have a major issue with. I like the community ideas and blogs as well as the separating of section, like, travel, sports, money and entertainment. The content is some of the best out there—but how will people know if they cannot get through a messy, disorganized website?

New York Times critique

2009-03-30T20:17:00.000-07:00

The New York Times is one of the biggest and most popular print publications that exists. Their website as well is a wealth of information and gets just as much, if not more, traffic than the newspaper itself. The New York Times has been around for a very long time, and remains one the most-read newspapers in the country. Albright even has copies of the NY Times everyday in various buildings all over campus. Although this is a great opportunity that should be taken advantage of, many people still prefer to read online.

I have been to the NY Times website before, and have found it a useful source of information. When arriving this time, and looking at it analytically, I realized it is actually very cluttered, and the amount of information coming at you is almost overwhelming. However, I did notice that the website does update itself automatically without refreshing the page. This is a great way to stay up and current on the news, whereas with the newspaper, it only comes out once a day, and the stories there are the only ones you will get from the paper that day. The website is also good because you can search for particular news items or articles up at the top, and it gives you the options of Articles or Multimedia, and can pick the time period within which you wish to search.

The home page has all the headlines and important news, but if you scroll down the page there are also things like videos, which a newspaper would obviously not have. A newspaper is divided into sections, but there is a very easy navigation of subjects along the side, on which you can click, depending on what type of news you want to read. It will first give you the top news of the section, and then smaller or less popular articles underneath this. The website has many things that a newspaper does not incorporate, and many more articles than you would find in just one issue, including old articles. However, a website may not necessarily have all the articles that were published in the paper that day, or ever. The New York Times does not want its own website to put the newspaper out of business. A newspaper is something you can pick up almost anywhere and bring with you, while online access is not always available or convenient.

Personally, I would prefer to go online than pick up a newspaper any day. The website may seem cluttered at first, but it is easy to navigate, search, and find what you are looking for. You can find things from weeks ago, and the headlines and breaking news are constantly being updated. There is also a wide variety, from videos to articles to images, and many categories from which to choose.

American Landscape: For Amber Waves of Song

2009-03-30T20:09:00.000-07:00

I had never been to an Albright Choral Concert before this past Saturday, and I was slightly wary of the American Landscape theme, but I found the whole thing very enjoyable. I recognized almost all of the songs, and the program even provided lyrics for “The Star Spangled Banner” and “America the Beautiful.” This was a good event that was featured on Albright’s campus in Memorial Chapel. The conductor, Mr. Binger, even said that this was one of the biggest crowds that an Albright Choral Concert has had. There was a great mix of students, as well as family and friends from off-campus. The music had a good range that incorporated American history, and songs that went from slow and angelic to lively and upbeat. After the concert, I spoke with Mark Smith, a resident of Wyomissing, and a non-Albright student who came to support one of the singers and to enjoy the show. I also spoke with Fawn Lindsey, a freshman at Albright, who told me that this was her first choral concert as well. I was then able to speak with Heather Martell, a junior at Albright, who is part of the Women’s Choir. Through my own eyes and ears, and those of others, I was able to get a multitude of views on the concert that will hopefully encourage people to attend more of them in the future.

The Philadelphia Inquirer critique on leaving comments on a news story

2009-03-30T17:39:00.000-07:00

For my critique I analyzed The Philadelphia Inquirer’s website. Overall, the website was easy to navigate. There were headlines and tabs which helped me find the stories I was interested in. The story I read was ‘Philadelphia Archdiocese to close two schools’. I chose this article because I attended Philadelphia Catholic school from first to twelfth grade and was curious to see what comments people left. When reading the article I noticed it was simple for readers to find the post a comment icon. On the right side of the article there was a separate box that included reader feedback, post a comment as well as a save and share section. In order for one to leave a comment it was not as easy as I would have thought. If one wanted to leave a comment about an article they first had to register and if they were already registered they had to sign in. To the left of the register box there is a comment from The Philadelphia Inquirer explaining why they are now asking people to register. Their reasoning is to increase the quality of the user experience and dialogue, as well as reduce the number of unsuitable or offensive comments (www.philly.com). I think making people register will decrease the number of people who would leave comments on a story. Commenting on a news story is something that is unique to the web. Readers can not leave comments for articles in newspapers so they post them on the Internet. I think because commenting is a distinctive feature to online media it should be easier to access and leave a comment. Today, people are always in a hurry so if they want to leave a comment they want to do it quickly. Many people do not want to have to log in and/or register. Also, if the website is only allowing certain comments to be posted the comments may be biased and non objective. Everyone I think should be able to leave comments without having to have user name to have peoples voices heard.

http://www.philly.com/philly/hp/news_update/20090330_Philadelphia_Archdiocese_to_close_two_schools.html#comments

Was She Funny?

2009-03-30T17:10:00.000-07:00

Michelle Buteua is a women who makes her living telling jokes. She is a comedian that had the chance to make her star appearance on Comedy Central and be able to travel the United States telling jokes. Michelle's show took place on Thursday March 26 at 8p.m. in Jake's Place. The question to look at is was she really funny. Jocelyn Smiley had a opinion that will shock you and Andrew Hettinger had an opinion that you would expect when someone talks about a comedian. So listen and enjoy.