A topic that has recently had decent media coverage is the fatal hit and run on South Park avenue where a 19-year-old was killed. The print source of this article was called “Lawyer Pleads Guilty to fatal hit-and-run” from the Buffalo News (Gryta, Buffalo News). The article concentrated on the lawyer mainly, John P. Duffy, having no quotes from the victim’s friends or family. It showed as unbiased as possible what Duffy’s experience had been and what he had to say about the incident. The article was presented professionally and very factual with appropriate quotes from Duffy and his lawyer as well as the judge who has Duffy’s case. In the online news article that I found on the same incident; both were written on the same day as well, October 30, 2008, on msnbc.msn.com and the article was titled: “Fatal Hit and Run Victim Remembered”(2008, Borsa). This article took a depressing but fairly professional outlook on the incident. It focused more on the victim with a few facts about Duffy and a quote from his lawyer. As I read the article I felt so bad about what happened to this girl as it described how the incident took place and the article from the Buffalo News did not, it just claimed what Duffy thought he had hit. Both of these articles I noticed contained some bias but it was just enough to influence the reader to give them Duffy’s perspective vs. the victim’s perspective.
I found that reading both of these sources I was amazed on how bias things can be written now. I took a Journalism course and they kept pushing that everything you write has to be objective and not biased because you can get into serious trouble. Now everything you read seems to be biased in a way whether it is low key bias or not. I think it also depends on what source you receive information from. Its amazing that looking at how far we have gone with the internet and a lot of people have changed from print to online articles. In an article online titled “Web vs. Print: Online success at one Newspaper Raise More Questions Than They Answer” stated that from the Washington Post print source, they lost 3% of their prescribers, 4% of their ad revenue, and 14% of their recruitment revenue . Also the Washington Posts online subsidiary gained revenue of 28% and online visitors went up 11% (2007, http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=1699). I think that even now online sources have become much more prominent and according to the article “Online vs. Print Media” being online allows for more promotions and more options for people(2008, Pandy). What I took this to mean is that if a person wants to get a different perspective on the same news article it is much easier to do it online instead of with print. With print you have to go and buy another newspaper and they may not have the one you want. It may be quite difficult to find a Washington Post newspaper here in Buffalo.
Both print and online sources are very different and can offer the same things but structurally I don’t find them that different. I find that how much information that you want to know is the difference between them.
References:
Web vs. Print: Online success at one Newspaper Raise More Questions Than They Answer. 2007. 4 Apr. Received from: http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=1699.
Pandey, Sandeev. 2008. 29 Aug. Online vs. Print Media. Received from: http://www.articlesbase.com/online-business-articles/online-vs-print-media-540885.html.
Borsa, John. 2008. 30 Oct. Received from: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27415446/.
Gryta, Matt. Lawyer pleads guilty in fatal hit-and-run. 2008. 30 Oct. The Buffalo News.
Friday, October 31, 2008
Friday, October 24, 2008
Assignment 9: Internet Politics
The title of the political blog I researched is Bloghillary and the URL is http://blog.hillaryclinton.com/. The blog was written by Kate Sokolov and her picture is presented with all of her posts. She uses no pseudonym and her occupation would be considered a citizen blogger. Kate Sokolov’s blog was created in June of 2008 in reaction to a letter sent by Hillary to all of her supporters. This blog has no technorati rank; there were no comments to the posts I viewed and no links.
Kate Sokolov is clearly a large supporter of Hillary, as to all her posts are a positive liking of Hillary. Unfortunately she is receiving no feedback from outside sources on her posts. The tone of this blog is rather upbeat and Kate Sokolov is completely behind the Democratic Party. She keeps up with her posts to almost every other day about Hillary’s whereabouts, what she is accomplishing, and what she wants to. Even though she supports Hillary and she is no longer on the ballet, most of the posts focus on Hillary in an indirect way through using Hillary’s advice and ideas to help the Democratic Party and Obama. Kate Sokolov also posts several videos and news stories on Hillary to help back up her positive posts. On Kate Sokolovo’s blog, there are links to click on if you want to help contribute to Hillary and join the team.
I think that on a whole blogs do affect local politics, they provide both positive and negative feedback and being able to comment on blogs provide even more insight for many political blogs. According to a study, “46% of Americans have used the internet to get political news and share their thoughts on the campaign…” (Smith & Rainie, 2008). People have a need to find out what they don’t know so they have a tendency to research a topic. The internet makes it easy and it provides a way for people to communicate. If a person reads a blog post they agree or disagree with and would like some feedback they could comment on the post. If a person were to comment on one of the posts from the Hillary site that I researched, because the writer is an involved Hillary supporter a person may be provided feedback that would be quite accurate rather than if it was a Hillary supporter that wasn’t involved in Hillary’s support groups.
However, the article The Internet and Power in One-Party East Asian States, they make an excellent point that allowing people access to information and being involved in platforms for discussion can help politically empower populations but could threaten regimes (Hachigan, 2002). I think the same could be said for local politics here in New York. Having people being able to blog and comment on politics empowers them to a degree and depending on the politicians actions in campaigning the feedback provided by blogs it could influence people’s opinions. I thinks its possible that if many people are influenced it may harm certain politicians campaigns with the information that are provided in blogs.
References:
Smith, Aaron & Rainie, Lee. Pew Internet. 2008. The 2008 Election. Retrieved from: http://www.pewinternet.org.
Hachigan, Nina. 2002. The Internet and Power in One-Party East Asian States. Retrieved from: https://ublearns.buffalo.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_id=_2_1&url=%2fwebapps%2fblackboard%2fexecute%2flauncher%3ftype%3dCourse%26id%3d_61661_1%26url%3d.
Kate Sokolov is clearly a large supporter of Hillary, as to all her posts are a positive liking of Hillary. Unfortunately she is receiving no feedback from outside sources on her posts. The tone of this blog is rather upbeat and Kate Sokolov is completely behind the Democratic Party. She keeps up with her posts to almost every other day about Hillary’s whereabouts, what she is accomplishing, and what she wants to. Even though she supports Hillary and she is no longer on the ballet, most of the posts focus on Hillary in an indirect way through using Hillary’s advice and ideas to help the Democratic Party and Obama. Kate Sokolov also posts several videos and news stories on Hillary to help back up her positive posts. On Kate Sokolovo’s blog, there are links to click on if you want to help contribute to Hillary and join the team.
I think that on a whole blogs do affect local politics, they provide both positive and negative feedback and being able to comment on blogs provide even more insight for many political blogs. According to a study, “46% of Americans have used the internet to get political news and share their thoughts on the campaign…” (Smith & Rainie, 2008). People have a need to find out what they don’t know so they have a tendency to research a topic. The internet makes it easy and it provides a way for people to communicate. If a person reads a blog post they agree or disagree with and would like some feedback they could comment on the post. If a person were to comment on one of the posts from the Hillary site that I researched, because the writer is an involved Hillary supporter a person may be provided feedback that would be quite accurate rather than if it was a Hillary supporter that wasn’t involved in Hillary’s support groups.
However, the article The Internet and Power in One-Party East Asian States, they make an excellent point that allowing people access to information and being involved in platforms for discussion can help politically empower populations but could threaten regimes (Hachigan, 2002). I think the same could be said for local politics here in New York. Having people being able to blog and comment on politics empowers them to a degree and depending on the politicians actions in campaigning the feedback provided by blogs it could influence people’s opinions. I thinks its possible that if many people are influenced it may harm certain politicians campaigns with the information that are provided in blogs.
References:
Smith, Aaron & Rainie, Lee. Pew Internet. 2008. The 2008 Election. Retrieved from: http://www.pewinternet.org.
Hachigan, Nina. 2002. The Internet and Power in One-Party East Asian States. Retrieved from: https://ublearns.buffalo.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_id=_2_1&url=%2fwebapps%2fblackboard%2fexecute%2flauncher%3ftype%3dCourse%26id%3d_61661_1%26url%3d.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Assignment 8: Web Application Review
I recently explored Google’s Google Calendar, for the web application review assignment. The URL I is: https://www.google.com/accounts/ServiceLogin?service=cl&passive=true&nui=1&continue=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Fcalendar%2Frender&followup=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Fcalendar%2Frender.
As I was evaluating it, I had no idea that there was anything like this out there. What it is able to accomplish is really very interesting. The site functionality is “Organize your schedule and share events with friends.” Using the online application you can coordinate your events with friends and family, add events through e-mail, see your friends or family’s schedules next to your own, create invitations, and keep track of RSVP’s. It can also set up automatic event reminders, including mobile phone notifications, and instantly bring up anything on your calendar using the search tool.
The site itself is designed simply with lots of organizartion that provides Google Calendar pictures, bold lettering, and brief and clear descriptions. It’s set up like an instructional manuel; providing easy access and understandable phrases that an 8-year-old could understand. Color is also dispurted systematically throughout the website on each page. However, not so much color is used to take away from the descriptions, but just enough from keeping it called plain. The appearance of the Google Calendar is very fair. I will say that the pictures are a bit too small and blurry. You have to squint to try and decifer what is on the calendar and what the picture is trying to convey. The problem I forsee is that people respond well to pictures and not so much to writing no matter how simple and clear it is written. People like to use both the image and descriptions to formulate ideas in their mind and if one or the other is not clear the ideas won’t be clear and people may pass up the chance to use the Google Calendar. Also if they have set up an account with the Google Calendar and they are confused on how to match events up with the rest of their families, if they go to look back for instructions they may not be able to understand what they need to do using the pictures as help. But all in all, I think most people would be fine being able to use it.
The social aspects of the site is that you can be in contact with your family and friends through events and you can even match them up right next to your own to avoid scheduling conflicts. You can also create invitations and send them out to friends and family as well. In addition, if your mother has e-mailed you about a family reunion coming up you can go into your e-mail and add it to your Google Calender from your e-mail. Google Calenders can be searchable for other users as well. If a professor wants to use the application for class, the class could easily search for it and find it. As a precaution Google Calendar allows you to control who you want to share this information with so there is a privacy factor there.
I think this site can be useful and beneficial in a way that if you have trouble keeping up with family and friend events this would be a good way to keep track of things. I found the site pretty interesting because it wasn’t just a calender. It provided much more small applications and choices to choose from and you could control how you use it. You could see that it also made contact with others and events much easier to access and maintain. It accordingly provided feedback on all the choices you could add to your calandar which in turn I think made it very appealing to a user.
As I was evaluating it, I had no idea that there was anything like this out there. What it is able to accomplish is really very interesting. The site functionality is “Organize your schedule and share events with friends.” Using the online application you can coordinate your events with friends and family, add events through e-mail, see your friends or family’s schedules next to your own, create invitations, and keep track of RSVP’s. It can also set up automatic event reminders, including mobile phone notifications, and instantly bring up anything on your calendar using the search tool.
The site itself is designed simply with lots of organizartion that provides Google Calendar pictures, bold lettering, and brief and clear descriptions. It’s set up like an instructional manuel; providing easy access and understandable phrases that an 8-year-old could understand. Color is also dispurted systematically throughout the website on each page. However, not so much color is used to take away from the descriptions, but just enough from keeping it called plain. The appearance of the Google Calendar is very fair. I will say that the pictures are a bit too small and blurry. You have to squint to try and decifer what is on the calendar and what the picture is trying to convey. The problem I forsee is that people respond well to pictures and not so much to writing no matter how simple and clear it is written. People like to use both the image and descriptions to formulate ideas in their mind and if one or the other is not clear the ideas won’t be clear and people may pass up the chance to use the Google Calendar. Also if they have set up an account with the Google Calendar and they are confused on how to match events up with the rest of their families, if they go to look back for instructions they may not be able to understand what they need to do using the pictures as help. But all in all, I think most people would be fine being able to use it.
The social aspects of the site is that you can be in contact with your family and friends through events and you can even match them up right next to your own to avoid scheduling conflicts. You can also create invitations and send them out to friends and family as well. In addition, if your mother has e-mailed you about a family reunion coming up you can go into your e-mail and add it to your Google Calender from your e-mail. Google Calenders can be searchable for other users as well. If a professor wants to use the application for class, the class could easily search for it and find it. As a precaution Google Calendar allows you to control who you want to share this information with so there is a privacy factor there.
I think this site can be useful and beneficial in a way that if you have trouble keeping up with family and friend events this would be a good way to keep track of things. I found the site pretty interesting because it wasn’t just a calender. It provided much more small applications and choices to choose from and you could control how you use it. You could see that it also made contact with others and events much easier to access and maintain. It accordingly provided feedback on all the choices you could add to your calandar which in turn I think made it very appealing to a user.
Assignment 7: Communities
Amanda Walker claims that “Every advance in communication changes the nature of reality and the way we experience it… The internet is yet another revolutionary method of communication. For the first time in the history of the world I can have an ongoing, fast-moving conversation with people regardless of their physical location, schedule, or other such contraints… The world is changing, and we are the ones doing it, whether we realize it or not” (Wellman & Gulia, 1997). The internet, having so much communication going on at once through different mediums available via the internet, has become so broad and involved that communities have developed. I am personally apart of the Facebook community. I have not had my Facebook account for long but I remember that when it was first introduced it took off in popularity. It used to be only allowed to college students but the rights to use it were recently relinquished to high school students so as a result, communication via Facebook has increased.
The different applications that Facebook has allowed are different ways to communicate at different levels. There are many levels of self disclosure and an individual has set different standards of self disclosure depending on different situations. I myself am a private person so my Facebook profile is rather plain but it has enough of my interests and hobbies listed to give a rough sketch of the type of person I am. I did this so that when others view it, it wouldn’t be completely boring. Being a part of the Facebook community, it almost has a set of standards to go with it. You should have a lot of friends, even if you don’t stay inconact with all of them, lots of interests and hobies, as well as status should be listed, as well as the groups that you belong to. Having filled out all of these things communicates a first impression to the reader. Another form of communication via Facebook is posting messages on “walls.” It’s almost like an IM but you won’t necessarily receive a response rigth away. You can also send your friends “gifts” as it were. They come in all forms of virtual things like an American flag to a zebra. You can also give your friends bumperstickers, post-its, or poke them. They even have a “rate your friends” or “top friends” application. Its showing who is most important. Not all of these things are recieveing verbal communication; in fact most of them can be considered non-verbal responses and not just to the people involved.
All of these things can affect your relationships and social ties with other people who are in the Facebook community. The virtual community’s article emphasizes that even though people can find many social resources on the internet, there is no evidence that points to whether or not the relationships are narrow or broad based even though it fosters many specialized relationships (Wellman and Guilia, 1997). I know that I have many friends on Facebook that I have ablsolutely no connection with anymore, but I don’t think I will ever delete them from my friends list because I did once know them and I will never know what may happen in the future to me socially.
“For many, the category of friend carries an aura of exclusivity and intimacy unlike the categories acquaintance or contact, which suggest familiarity but not closeness” (Boyd, 2006). Facebook field’s communication but it doesn’t provide closeness between people. If my boyfriend and I could only communicate only using Facebook there is a high possibility that we would drift apart. It does not provide constant communication at times and the applications used can give off many of the wrong impressions to people. A lot of it is based on assumption so that is why I think it is very hard to try and gauge relationships and social ties on Facebook.
References:
Boyd, Danah. 2006. Friends, Friendsters, and Top 8: Writing community into being on social
network sites. Retrieved from https://ublearns.buffalo.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?
tab_id=_2_1&url=%2fwebapps%2fblackboard%2fexecute%2flauncher%3ftype%3dCourse%
26id%3d_61661_1%26url%3d
Wellman, Barry & Gulia Milena. 1997. Net Surfers Don’t Ride Alone: Virtual Communities As
Communities. Retrieved from https://ublearns.buffalo.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?
tab_id=_2_1&url=%2fwebapps%2fblackboard%2fexecute%2flauncher%3ftype%3dCourse%
26id%3d_61661_1%26url%3d
The different applications that Facebook has allowed are different ways to communicate at different levels. There are many levels of self disclosure and an individual has set different standards of self disclosure depending on different situations. I myself am a private person so my Facebook profile is rather plain but it has enough of my interests and hobbies listed to give a rough sketch of the type of person I am. I did this so that when others view it, it wouldn’t be completely boring. Being a part of the Facebook community, it almost has a set of standards to go with it. You should have a lot of friends, even if you don’t stay inconact with all of them, lots of interests and hobies, as well as status should be listed, as well as the groups that you belong to. Having filled out all of these things communicates a first impression to the reader. Another form of communication via Facebook is posting messages on “walls.” It’s almost like an IM but you won’t necessarily receive a response rigth away. You can also send your friends “gifts” as it were. They come in all forms of virtual things like an American flag to a zebra. You can also give your friends bumperstickers, post-its, or poke them. They even have a “rate your friends” or “top friends” application. Its showing who is most important. Not all of these things are recieveing verbal communication; in fact most of them can be considered non-verbal responses and not just to the people involved.
All of these things can affect your relationships and social ties with other people who are in the Facebook community. The virtual community’s article emphasizes that even though people can find many social resources on the internet, there is no evidence that points to whether or not the relationships are narrow or broad based even though it fosters many specialized relationships (Wellman and Guilia, 1997). I know that I have many friends on Facebook that I have ablsolutely no connection with anymore, but I don’t think I will ever delete them from my friends list because I did once know them and I will never know what may happen in the future to me socially.
“For many, the category of friend carries an aura of exclusivity and intimacy unlike the categories acquaintance or contact, which suggest familiarity but not closeness” (Boyd, 2006). Facebook field’s communication but it doesn’t provide closeness between people. If my boyfriend and I could only communicate only using Facebook there is a high possibility that we would drift apart. It does not provide constant communication at times and the applications used can give off many of the wrong impressions to people. A lot of it is based on assumption so that is why I think it is very hard to try and gauge relationships and social ties on Facebook.
References:
Boyd, Danah. 2006. Friends, Friendsters, and Top 8: Writing community into being on social
network sites. Retrieved from https://ublearns.buffalo.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?
tab_id=_2_1&url=%2fwebapps%2fblackboard%2fexecute%2flauncher%3ftype%3dCourse%
26id%3d_61661_1%26url%3d
Wellman, Barry & Gulia Milena. 1997. Net Surfers Don’t Ride Alone: Virtual Communities As
Communities. Retrieved from https://ublearns.buffalo.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?
tab_id=_2_1&url=%2fwebapps%2fblackboard%2fexecute%2flauncher%3ftype%3dCourse%
26id%3d_61661_1%26url%3d
Friday, October 3, 2008
Assignment 6: Identity
As soon as I started to explore the world of AIM in High School, I thought it was the best thing ever to be able to talk to your friends and not rack up a huge phone bill while doing it. Also, the fact that it was a new form of communication made it that much more exciting. Being able to talk to people and not respond right away; being able to think about how you want to answer a question made it great to work with. I have had my screen name identity for many years now and I probably will keep it for a few more at least. Now I don’t tend to use it as much because I don’t feel the need to create a new online identity and I only keep mine for communication purposes, which is why I think most people create theirs too but after a while it tends to get more involved than just having a basis of communication. In today’s society there is not only one way to accomplish these online identities; we have MySpace, Facebook and so on. I recently created a Facebook account which I am very eerie of and keep it as private as possible. I may never fully understand why people feel the need to create a new online identity. All I know is that there can be several pros and cons to it.
MySpace and Facebook have become so popular that they are essentially internet societies/communities. They allow not only to talk to people, but provide news feeds that connects you to your friends and to the groups you belong to. They leave it up to you to put down whatever personal information you want to provide to others. I remember that with AIM it was never like that, you could leave away messages telling others what you were doing but there wasn’t an in depth profile created for others to view. In comparing the two, they both allow free communication and response on your own time. Both of them also establish online reputations. It’s hard to find other people on AIM with out asking where as on Facebook you can be easily found by doing a search and you don’t have to be in the same Facebook community to find them. These internet identities can be set up in a way that can be unfair. An example would be that if I am on AIM, I don’t have to act like my real self; I can pretend to be someone else. On Facebook you could easily embellish your personal information so it can be someone else and not the real you. It’s amazing that by simply reading what someone else wrote we are able to get the jest of the type of person he or she may be by noting the tone and words used. A reputation is established when others trust you and continue to contact you via AIM, Facebook, or so on.
However reputations can go wrong. Identity theft may be an issue as well as the creation of fake identities. By representing yourself virtually, you take that chance of identity theft. People may have a lot to benefit from stealing your online identity and precautions should be made in case that ever happens. I try to make my Facebook profile fairly uninteresting and I feel that if a person wants to really get to know me, they can’t do it through a Facebook profile. Creating fake Facebook profiles I think can be highly deceivable and dangerous. I had a friend that created a fake Facebook profile so she could keep tabs on her ex-boyfriend’s whereabouts and his latest conquest(s). That is a huge ethical violation in my book, and how would you think a person would feel if they were Facebook friends with a fake identity? What if someone found out? What does that do to you? The trust that you had established with that person is gone and you will definitely be more aware of yours and other online identities.
As much good will come with online identities as bad and it depends on the ethics of the individual. It’s up to individuals and their ethics of how they go about using these societies.
MySpace and Facebook have become so popular that they are essentially internet societies/communities. They allow not only to talk to people, but provide news feeds that connects you to your friends and to the groups you belong to. They leave it up to you to put down whatever personal information you want to provide to others. I remember that with AIM it was never like that, you could leave away messages telling others what you were doing but there wasn’t an in depth profile created for others to view. In comparing the two, they both allow free communication and response on your own time. Both of them also establish online reputations. It’s hard to find other people on AIM with out asking where as on Facebook you can be easily found by doing a search and you don’t have to be in the same Facebook community to find them. These internet identities can be set up in a way that can be unfair. An example would be that if I am on AIM, I don’t have to act like my real self; I can pretend to be someone else. On Facebook you could easily embellish your personal information so it can be someone else and not the real you. It’s amazing that by simply reading what someone else wrote we are able to get the jest of the type of person he or she may be by noting the tone and words used. A reputation is established when others trust you and continue to contact you via AIM, Facebook, or so on.
However reputations can go wrong. Identity theft may be an issue as well as the creation of fake identities. By representing yourself virtually, you take that chance of identity theft. People may have a lot to benefit from stealing your online identity and precautions should be made in case that ever happens. I try to make my Facebook profile fairly uninteresting and I feel that if a person wants to really get to know me, they can’t do it through a Facebook profile. Creating fake Facebook profiles I think can be highly deceivable and dangerous. I had a friend that created a fake Facebook profile so she could keep tabs on her ex-boyfriend’s whereabouts and his latest conquest(s). That is a huge ethical violation in my book, and how would you think a person would feel if they were Facebook friends with a fake identity? What if someone found out? What does that do to you? The trust that you had established with that person is gone and you will definitely be more aware of yours and other online identities.
As much good will come with online identities as bad and it depends on the ethics of the individual. It’s up to individuals and their ethics of how they go about using these societies.
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