useful..

"bad" site: http://www.stxmomsblog.blogspot.com/
"good" site: http://www.sdo.nihr.ac.uk/files/project/78-final-report.pdf

In truth, I don't think either site is better than the other, they just serve different purposes. And since the assignment was to find credible and non-credible sources for writing a paper, I chose one site that would be perfect for research information, and one site that wouldn't.. so much. The first site is a blog, of someone I know actually, and it is kind of like a campaign for midwives and homebirths.. all natural with herbs sort of thing. The blog is set up quite nicely and very organized, but it is filled with personal stories, opinions, and specific personal experiences--not and ideal source to write a detailed argument-based research paper with hard facts to support your claim. The second source is very organized with research, experiment analysis', graphs, footnotes, and other useful things. It's full of information that can be helpful in forming your own unique argument and using hard facts for support.

This is not the title of my blog post.

http://moonty.blogspot.com/2004/09/what-makes-music-popular.html

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0254/is_4_58/ai_58496771/

The first website is a personal blog. The author is merely providing an opinion. He has shown no credibility. His thought may be intriguing, but it would not work as a source on an academic paper. The design is minimalistic and sparse.

The second website hosts an article from the American Journal of Economics and Sociology. The article is a good 20 pages long and includes deep, statistical proof. While the sight may be plagued with advertisements, the design of the website is significantly more professional. I would cite it on a paper, but perhaps use it as a portal to other research.

do these pants make my butt look big?

I chose to look at sites that might pertain to my research. I found one about a study on how negative comments on body image affects the mind and perspective. I think as background research this study can be useful, although it doesn't exactly give me the information I need on my issue. The site that I found that is not helpful was one about what usually comes up when I enter my topic into Google. It is about gay men and internet dating. It doesn't give the right information. It doesn't pertain to the relationship between the internet and body image.



good site: http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/abstract/118/2/731
bad site: http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_research_citation/2/4/0/6/7/p240674_index.html

The good...the bad

The two websites that I chose were, a site that I found using Google scholar and Wikipedia. The main difference between these two websites is the credibility that each has established. Google scholar is a reputable and well-known tool to find scholarly articles. Wikipedia is advertised as an online encyclopedia, but it allows any users to edit information in any way they choose. Because of this, Wikipedia loses credibility and is not able to be used as a reputable source. If you didn’t already know that Wikipedia is not a valid source, you could scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on “Disclaimers”. This takes you to a page that tells you that Wikipedia articles are not peer reviewed or even looked at by experts in that field. In contrast, the Google scholar article lists the authors at the very beginning of the article and tells what their qualifications are. This article has a list of references after the article and also has a visible citation available.

Credible source: http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol12/issue4/ellison.html
Not credible source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook

Internet

Topic: Internet addictions

Bad Source:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_addiction

Oh the joys of Wikipedia. It can be a great place to get some background information and lead you to some good websites to further your research. But it is really not reliable in the least bit. If you have a Wiki account you can add/alter/change/delete anything on almost any Wiki page. Some of the information on those pages can be straight up lies or misleading in any way. It is just better not to rely solely on Wikipedia.

Good Source:

http://www.apa.org/monitor/apr00/addiction.aspx

I find this website to be a reliable one. The copywrite is 2010, which means it is being updated reguraly. It is supported by the American Psychology Association. There is a given address in Washington DC and a phone number to contact the Association. The only advertisements that there are, are the ones that are supporting psychological disorder research. Overall, I think it is a website that can be reliable because of the contact information that is given and becuase of how well kept the website is.

Research Ideas

1. I would love to talk about how online sources has changed how we use maps. I don't know if I can find enough information on such an obscure thing however.
2. I would also be interesting in how new media, be it the internet or just regular movies, has changed how we train for sports. I know that now you can watch a movie to learn just about anything, rather than having an actual class or coach.
3. I'm also curious about how much the internet sight for investigators really has impacted the church. I see all the website links, but do they really work?

better late than never...

1. The myth that feminism killed chivalry... more like saved equal rights! I really don't know how I'll research this... But there is plenty new media involved with this. Plenty of false perceptions goin' around.

2. I'd like to talk about the whole issue of midwifes vs. doctors. Or maybe it should be homebirths vs. hospital births. Why everyone has babies in hospitals, what its pros and cons are.

3. I'd LOVE to talk about the negative connotation connected with the term "feminist." New media has really influenced it and tied it to some false traditions. Media links fiminism with sexism, not okay.

New Media Issues

1.) Historical movies-Movies that portray historical events (such as "Glory") have actually had a positive effect on the learning of history rather than create a historically inept society.

2.) Internet gaming addiction-Yes, I know that I am kind of stealing this a bit from Chelsea but this is something that interests me too. I think it would be interesting to look into gaming addiction (to games such as World of Warcraft, Everquest, etc.) and research how the development of MMORPG's (Massively muiltiplayer online role-playing game) has impacted society. I don’t really know how to describe the new media connection though other than they are online games. (So literally as I was writing this Ty posted his as well, just in case anybody was wondering)

3.) Blogging-This would be focused around how blogging has either helped or hurt communication or writing. I could focus on political or personal blogs.

Hey you want to go on a virtual date!? :)

1. World Of Warcraft... I have never personally played this game but had plenty of missionary companion that did that filled me in more than enough! haha but really would be interested to see the effects this has one especially the raising generation and 1. obesity 2. anti socialism from the "real world" 3. social disorders. (everyone that plays this game seems to be heavy addicted)

2. Facebook and its effects on relationships between people. It seems that in some cases it can be used as a positive tool to stay in contact with lost friends and to see Pictures of Family and Friends far away.... yet haha sadly its used more to simply have a "relationship" with your friends that live down the street!

3. Cell phones. It seems like everyone (including myself) cant live with out a cell phone. And particularly with their texting abilities. And I think that this had big effects on the youths and young adults abilities to have actually "real conversation" (especially on dates, haha I have met people who are great talkers with a girl over text, but when they don't have time to think of what to say and its real time... they collapse lol)

I hate thinking of new titles

Target advertising – way back when the only way to advertise was to newspapers or fliers. These were very limited in their audience and had limited appeal. Nowadays there are a lot of way to target a specific audience and get them hook on your ad. From videos, to games, to interactive. How has that changed advertising?

2) Apple Design – apple has perhaps the most unique approach to products. As David Pouge said “apple makes you need something you never knew you wanted”. They don’t take product surveys rather they try and stay ahead of the market. And design is so important to them. Why is there strategy effective?

3) Economic theory of free trade- there has been a lot of controversy over protectionism versus free trade, especially with china. People wonder how that will effect our economy. Will it be harmful or helpful in the long run?

Issues? Maybe we will see

First off I need to say something. This is weird. I procrastinated doing this post until the morning before class. This is definitly not normal Chelsea behaivor. Wow. I am scaring myself here.

Ok moving on to more important things:

1) Interent Addictions: More and more I have been hearing about people who are basically living on their computer, living in virtual reality. People are spending pointless hours on a pointless game or web site, but often they can't stop. Look at Facebook for example. You log on for only a couple minutes and next thign you know you just wasted 3 hours of your life. Or better yet there are those people who are cvhecking their Facebook constantly. Either way I think there would be a lot of examples and material out there to support this topic.

2) Interent and Body Image: So I had analyzed the Dove Campaign thingy and after doing that I am very much convinced that new media has greatly distorted people's perception of body image. Those boggers are always up in your face telling you that you need to lose some weight. Liars. I am perfectly content with the way my thighs are, thank you very much.
I think if I could, I would want to compare this topic to people with eating disorders and how this topic has afftected them.

3) Church and the Internet: Not sure how I could make this into a strong arguement yet, but it would be interesting to research how the Church is using new media to carry the gospel to all nations, kindreds, tongues and peoples.

so much cooler online...

1) It has become a rising trend to build alternate realities online and living through them, rather than living in the world around them.

2) The internet has allowed people to become extremely anonymous and allowed people to break the "social contract" between people. Because they feel that they won't have to face the consequences because nobody know who they are.

3) In contrast the internet has plenty of personal information allowing people to stalk one another easier.

Potential Research

1. Development of Human Image-I believe that I could find a lot of psychological and possibly some anthropological research about the development of human image in the heavily media-based world. Human image is already such an interesting and intriguing subject (one with potentially a lot of research) and one that is greatly influenced by society and personal interaction.
2. Indian Music-I am in a Humanities of Asia class and have studied, rather deeply, the concept of classical music of India and the affects of the modern world on such a tradition. This is very interesting because I am sure that the classical music of India is now being heavily affected by new media.
3. Internet Popularity-This is just interesting to me because often I see something on YouTube or something on the news and think to myself "Really? That person became famous AND got a T.V. show because they were popular online first?"

Three questions.

I've already decided my topic: How has recording technology influenced the music industry?

In the 19th century, going to a symphony was the hot social venue. And it remained that way until recordings boomed in quality with invention of magnetic cassette tapes in the 1950's.

What are the consequences?

Live performances are becoming more and more infrequent, and often enough they are heavily aided by the use of technology.

The ease of distribution pollutes the music industry with low quality music, and over time, America has become numb.

Classical professional symphonies are going broke because of lack of interest.

The act of listening to music itself has been reduced from soul moving moments designed by a composer to mere background noise.

The music scene changed once again once distribution of the internet became commonplace. Artists and labels can no longer make justifiable profits. They are further hampered by piracy.

Research Questions

1. New media seems to be partially, if not majorly, responsible for the deterioration of spelling and grammar these days. With the free landscape of the internet and mobile texting, people seem to be much more concerned with how short they can make a word than how much sense they are making. Also, I can't even begin to recall the number of times I've seen the word "then" mistaken for "than".

2. Is new media subtly setting in stereotypes? Too many ads nowadays drive the notion of "emo" teenagers and stick-thin supermodels. Only extreme examples of any niche seem to garner attention. A pathetic plea for attention of an example here, but hey, I played videogames as a youngin', and I think I'm adequately literate and physically fit!

3. Are parents relying too much on new media in raising their children? I speak in reference to the recent onslaught of such "educational" media such as "Baby Einstein" and other learning programs. Personally, I don't believe a television set makes a good baby-sitter; research suggests that children who are raised on educational programs turn out to be less advanced than their peers who learned through more conventional methods.

I'll be devoting hours to one of these.....

Topics

1. The main topic that I was thinking of writing about is suicide connected with the internet. I do not know what all is true, but I have heard some pretty interesting things about this. If research backs it up I am going to write about how the internet is increasing suicide rates. I don't know if that is true yet, but I am willing to bet it is.
2. It would be interesting to also write about the church and how it is using the internet and new media to its benefit. I'm not sure what I would argue yet, maybe just that it has been of good use to the church in some specific ways.
   
3. I think it would also be interesting to research internet addiction. Things like people basically living life virtually and wasting time on role playing sites and such. I do think new media is great in many ways, yet for this one I would argue how using the internet in excess (well like anything really) is doing a lot of damage.
   

Final Draft Link

Here is the link to my rhetorical analysis for Sister Cowley and whoever else wants to take a look at it.
http://geicogoodorbad.blogspot.com/

Research questions

1.How is new media affecting the physical activity of children (and adults)? I think all the different things an the internet like games. youtube, facebook and such are effecting our physical activity. With the wii and x-box children are spending more time playing with that instead of playing outside or doing other active things. With all the different comercials for the television, the children are always seeing the new games comming out, or Mcdonald's happy meals, or junk food, which all affects the physical activity of children. As you gain more weight you do less active stuff.
2.Does new media help elementary children learn better? As I have been helping in the elementry I havce noticed that they use computer games to do reading practices. I wonder if they are really learning better, or is it the same or worse.
3.Something about orphanages in third world countrie. See if by using new media it will help spred the word. If it would help people know what condition they are in and be able to help more, or know how to help more.

Jake's Site

I didn't think to post a link to my website on the blog because I hosted it separately. Check it out!

http://ihateoldpeople.000a.biz

It's Raining Brains

1. Body image and the internet: I think body image is still a huge issue and continues to be so through the advertisements, pop ups, and links to sites. The women seen all over the internet are portrayed as "beautifully" thin. They are electronically crafted images of women that are seen as the perfection of beauty. Another contributing factor would be the amount of dieting pop ups I keep seeing all over the internet. "Try this and you will lose 5 pounds!", "Want to know how to lose those few pesky pounds click here!"...it goes on and on.

2. Time Wasting endeavors all over the internet: Games, facebook, myspace, youtube...yes these are all useful and have a place. They also seem to be giant time sucks. People spend hours on them for no reason.

3. The use of the internet taking over book reading and decreasing the level of literacy among children: Kids spend hours playing video games and internet games and no longer sit down to read a book or play games that require imagination. The children are losing valuable spelling and grammar skills that can be gleaned from books. It creates a facade that everything must be fast and enjoyable. It also makes them think books are less enjoyable because it takes longer to find the enjoyment in them.

Questions

1. How is new media influencing civilization? Science fiction writers and sociologists have written countless jeremiads about the damage that technology is doing (or will do) to our civilization, but I'm not so sure that's true. We're different than our grandparents and great-grandparents, certainly, but I don't think the change is all bad.

2. Is new media destroying the English language? One of the terrors of George Orwell's dystopian novel 1984 was the deliberate abbreviation and simplification of the English language, in order to diminish the citizens' capacity for abstract thought. If one's language is insufficient to express ideas like justice, freedom, or faith, then the mind has no symbols around which to organize such thoughts, and no means of conveying them to others. In our world, these words have not been eliminated, but by overuse and misuse they have almost lost their meaning. It seems likely that modern Americans' inability to speak or write intelligently is linked to their increasing inability to think intelligently.

3. What is the impact of new media on the public discourse? One of the great challenges to American democracy is the massive expense of disseminating one's ideas to a population of 300 million people spread across a continent. New media enables political candidates and pundits to spread their ideas without vast reserves of cash or Mephistophelian deals with special interest groups. This equalization of opportunity has its cost, however; for every great thinker who is empowered to communicate in this way, there are a thousand bigots and lunatics with exactly the same power, drowning him out.

Issues Brainstorm

Got sick over the weekend, so this one's a little late.

Things that matter to me:
1. People-watching.
2. History, which is just macroscopic people-watching.
3. Good music. You'd better believe I judged that Miley Cyrus post.
4. Language. I like knowing what words mean, what they imply, etc.
5. The way men and women interact.
6. Economics, because the question of "who gets what" is pretty important.
7. The scriptures, and other good books.
8. Civilized discourse (which is why I don't watch cable news).
9. Thoughtful science fiction.
10. The gospel, which is the only reason any of the other stuff matters.

Research Questions

1. Teaching history using new media. Because I'm a history teaching major, I would like to see how new media can be incorporated into the classroom to enhance learning. Practical? Yes. Instersting? Uh....debatable.

2. How social networking has changed our interactions and relationships. I'm not sure how much research has been done on this topic but think about how much something like facebook has changed "normal" relationships. You're not friends until you're facebook friends, you're not officially in a relationship unless it's facebook official, once you become friends with someone you MUST creep through all their pictures, and how many times have you had to pretend not to know something that you already did because you facebook stalked them? I could see this being really interesting.

3. How texting has changed communication. How many times have we avoided awkward situations by texting instead of calling or even better, pretended to text so we don't have to talk to the weird-o next to us. Also, has texting negatively impacted grammar and speech? Another potentially interesting topic.

Glenn Beck, A Man on a Mission

Glenn Beck, A Man on a Mission

Rhetoric: the art of using language to persuade. But can it be used too much one might ask when listening to Glenn Beck…. Or does he use it just right for what his purpose is? Glenn Beck has been the talk of much controversy. Becks has been on the radio sense he was 13 years old but His TV and radio program has aired for the past 10 years now and especially recently has become very popular whether that be popularity because of liking and agreement or popularity of disgust.

Beck uses many areas of rhetoric on his show! With Beck you either really like him or really don’t like him. He is often found using irony, sarcasm, pathos, which is drawing upon emotion to present and persuade, and logos which means he uses logic with his audience to persuade. The area of controversy is the amount of these literary tools Beck uses. Many will say that he does to much over kill of those literary tools and can come off very annoying or overwhelming, Thus bringing headlines like the image to the left of a TIME magazine. While at the same time many really enjoy not only the news coverage that he gives but also the very entertaining way he presents it. Later we will be looking into a specific episode of Becks and the rhetorical recipe he uses which consist of 6 cups of appeals to Pathos and Logos, A very healthy handful of persuasive irony and sarcasm, 1 cardboard cut out of John McCain, a dash of video clips on the issue, and some strategically placed kairos.

The Glenn Beck show reaches over six and a half million people daily. But his listening audience mostly consists of Conservatives, but even some Conservatives not favoring Beck. So why would He continue to do things the way he does with such overwhelming amounts of rhetoric… Why wouldn’t he gain the favor of those many Conservatives who share his own views…. Because that’s not what Beck cares about. Beck is one who does not care what others say about him. All can agree that he truly believes what he talks about. He is a man on a mission and is not worried about offending people who may be easily offended.

Some times watching Glenn Beck’s show is like sitting down at a very unpredictable restaurant were the main course is different everyday. Like before mentioned Glenn through out his show uses a lot of irony and sarcasm to keep his audience interested and being able to follow him, but he also uses many different new media tools to help. You will often find Beck writing on chalkboards to help him explain by writing information on them like names and numbers, using pictures of political figures, even cardboard cut outs of them at times, he also will use web cams, videos, video conferencing and many other props. But today we will look closely into a main entrée of Glenn’s. One of his particular programs showed on February 13, 2010 entitled “Progressives Are Targeting Your Kids”. This like almost all of Glenn’s “main courses” it’s a recipe that either is a huge hit with or leaves a bitter some times disgusting taste in the consumers mouth. Lets look at the rhetorical recipe for “Progressives are Targeting your Kids”

-Drawing upon Pathos and Sarcasm to draw in your audience

Like almost all of Glenn Becks programs he starts if off with something to connect with his desired audience and here he does that again in “Progressives are targeting your kids”. By drawing upon Pathos and Sarcasm to relate to the older generation of this nation, the parents. He does this by sarcastically saying he sometime feels now like he is becoming like his grandpa. He says in a grandpa voice; “You kids today! You just don't get it. We used to sleep on razor-wire beds and eat nails for breakfast. And we liked it!”. Drawing upon humor and making the program instantly more personal he draws his audience in wondering why Beck brings that up while chuckling to themselves. Another example of Beck using pathos and sarcasm in this episode is when he is introducing Meghan McCain who he refers to as a “Useful Idiot” in talking about Americas “20 something year olds” as Beck refers to that age group. Beck introduces her with this sarcastic introduction; “She's John McCain's like, totally awesome, like, daughter. And she was, like, so waxing like poets about ideas or idealogians or something like U.S. Americans or something, on "The View." It was wicked awesome “. Here Beck talks like a “ditzy 16 year old girl” thus as he does this drawing emotion out of you. For most they think its funny, and entertaining; as were for others this is were Beck can get offensive or annoying. With this particular many young adults could be offended because he generalizes Meghan McCain and many other “20 something year olds” as ditzy and slightly educated, needless to say many feel it is very politically incorrect. Beck shows very strongly right from the get go and through out his episode, his strong appeal to pathos. This is one area were Beck either hits it off with this audience are really turns them away! His very strong (and sometimes over the top) emotion and expression into what he says tends to in return bring strong feelings of opinions in his audience.

-Keeping your Audience Entertained with props and new media while at the same time using Irony and Logos to persuade them

Throughout the text and the show, Beck is constantly spoon-feeding irony and logos to his audience in a very entertaining way…. Although sometimes some feel his spoon is a shovel. It keeps his audience interested and paying attention and many times learning more and understanding something for them self’s. In this program Beck uses video clips to show the audience real life instances were children are being manipulated and after uses a lot of irony as he comments on it to help lead his audience to seeing what he sees. An example of this is seen in the episode as Beck shows a video clip from BarackObama.com, which has a youth talking about how her Parents are “uneducated” in current politics and how she has to teach her parents slowly and persuade to see that Barack Obama is what America needs. Then after Beck comments on the video Clip saying: “That should frighten every parent in America. Why in this video from BarackObama.com, do the children have to explain things to the adults? Well, because parents just don't get it. It's not enough for the kids to disagree on something and discuss it — oh no. Mom and dad are stupid. They believe in that crazy Constitution and stuff. They're so old school. But you — in all your 10th grade wisdom — you get it. And the president says you must educate your dopey parents”. Here Beck uses a new media to show his Audience the actual footage then he uses irony by saying the comment “They're so old school. But you — in all your 10th grade wisdom — you get it.” He also uses logos helping the parents see the logic by saying simply “That should frighten every parent in America.” The things like this help Becks audience more clearly see the point he is trying to make.

Another tools Beck loves to use it props! His props range from dressing up like in the picture to the right to the great and effective example of this is in the episode we are looking at, when he pulls out the card board cut out of John McCain after McCain’s daughter had just previously said in a video clip that old 65 year old people talking about literacy test don’t start revolutions young people do. And Beck makes the ironic and rhetorical question of “Yeah. What do Those 65 year olds know anyway?”. As Beck does this he gets his audience laughing and while doing so they find themselves even subconsciously then agreeing with the things Beck is saying because of the logos he then uses afterwards.

-And now for a little bit of strategically placed kairos.

Beck has always been great at the use of kairos, which is the significance of a moment in which something it presented or the “the opportune moment”. Becks Episode of “Progressives Are Targeting Your Kids” could not have come at a better time. There has been quite a bit of focus in the nation lately on the family and the importance of it! Many of today’s Americans feel very strongly on importance of the family or the role of the family. Some evidence of this is the recent super bowl commercial on the family, which has become one of controversy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BIOTItUwvk. With the raise of interest and opinions in the family, many will be more interested in this episode of “Progressives Are Targeting Your Kids”.

Beck defiantly is a man on a mission! He says what he wants and he says it in many different and creative ways, not worrying what others think about him! And this is very evident in his episode of “Progressives Are Targeting Your Kids”. Over all in my opinion Glenn Beck is he is a mastermind in making sure people know what he feels and believes…. One of his strong points is his conviction in his language… and at the same time it can lead to his loss in audience. Personally sometimes I really enjoy listening to Beck! I can find him entertaining and yet very informative. But every now and then he can turn me off with is extreme appeals to sarcasm and pathos. But all can tell, Glenn doesn’t care, he simple wants people to know! And he does it in a very entertaining way.