Keep Blogging
Hello out there! I thought I'd speak up on behalf of all the "lurkers" and shout out to the SHU blogosphere: keep on blogging in the summer or after you graduate! We like reading your stuff!
-- Dr. A.
May 1, 2004
December 10, 2003
A Lurking Voice
I am not in any of your classes, but I wanted to thank all of you who put energy into your blogs this term. I've enjoyed reading your posts and will miss them if you don't keep blogging. So KEEP BLOGGING! I, along with dozens of lurking friends, parents, faculty, prospective students, journalists, academics and various anonymous weirdos, are all out here reading you and hoping you'll continue. We learn a lot about your needs and daily lives; we learn a lot about 'breaking' local news or the impact of national news on your local lives; we learn from you. We don't always leave comments, and we don't always read you the same day you post, but we find you and we read you and we want to keep reading you. Surely this wasn't just another class homework assignment for you, was it? Surely this meant more to you than just doing time? Surely you won't abandon us, your loyal readers, will you?
Don't tell me to get a life. I've got one. Reading you makes it richer.
Keep writing!
-- Dr. Mike Arnzen, lurking English Faculty at SHU
November 3, 2003
The Earthworm Saga
It has come to my attention that some of you are painfully unaware of the earthworm situation.
Basically, they're bad for the environment (sometimes). On top of that, they aren't even native to our area...they traveled over from Europe and Asia. A bevy of news people have been all over this, and I corresponded with an invasive plant ecologist from UMass who keeps a weblog. She linked to my stellar reporting. ;)
Sure, you may believe a certain professor who claims that I am "creating" a news issue and not simply "reporting" on it, but this earthworm thing is for real.
October 30, 2003
Oral REPORT Cloning
Introduction
Thier has been possible talk about human clonning raised by a Scotish scientist at Roslin Institute that aroused a worldwide interest and concern because of the scientific and ethical implications. The word clonning is actually and unbrella term traditionally used by scientist to describe a different process of duplicating.
Three different kinds of clonning: Recombinant DNA, Reproductive clonning, and Therapuetic clonning. Clonning technologies can be used in different ways it can be used in Recombinant DNA and Gene Therapy. Thier also have been many animals that have been cloned the first animal was clonned in 1952 and it was a tadpole. Large animals have been clonned as well lkie sheep, goats, cows, mice, pigs, rabbits and a guar.
October 20, 2003
Forced Blogging for EL227: Research on Marriage
Based on what you have learned so far in "It Ain't Necessarily So," respond to the following USA Today article. On your be sure to explain to a casual reader what you are doing -- applying a particular book to a particular article. When you introduce the topic, emphasize your own observations, rather than the assignment instructions.
Yahoo! News - Trend to live together, not marry, puts kids at riskDivorce and out-of-wedlock birth rates leveled off years ago, but families in which parents cohabit are on a steady climb. More than 40% of all live-in households in 2000 included a child under 18, up from 21% in 1987, according to the latest U.S. Census figures.
October 17, 2003
Go bananas.
*phew* my presentation went well, I think, (thanks for all the nice comments, my fellow EL227 Journalism friends :) and here is my blog entry. I wrote it while I was doing the research into the extinction of bananas, so it's a bit more comprehensive than anything I could get out verbally in the respect of why this could have been thought a hoax. Also, as noted in the entry, the "continued reading" part is merely a list of the links I used in research so you can check them out on your own--it is fascinating, really 8-)
October 15, 2003
Ann Widdecombe is Killing Our Children
Britain needed a scapegoat...they found Ann Widdecombe. Why would you single out someone and say "Blondes like THIS PERSON may be to blame?" Probably because if you're going to make a statement as stupid as "Blondes to 'die out in 200 years," you need someone people can hate in order to distract them from the fact that the article you just wrote is pure bullshit. The Globe and Mail has actually quoted an officer from the World Health Organization, who apparently did the research about blondes, as saying ""We really are in the dark. But it does seem like a semi-hoax, or at least somebody making something up." Brilliant. The World Health Organization themselves actually deny doing any research at all on the topic of blondes dying out. Amazing. Yet another example of why people need to check ALL their sources.
This isnt as bad as it could have been though, since Ann Widdecombe really is Satan.
October 14, 2003
Oh, bye bye blondes!
Read up on my opinion about this ridiculous article for Journalism class on how "blondes to die out in 200 years."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/2284783.stm
October 13, 2003
Is "Lurking" a breach of ethics? Or just a new way to prove you have a bad case of Stupid?
Comon, throw your ethics out the window, everyone else is doing it. Defenestration is where it's at. All seriousness aside though, this is getting ridiculus. Why one earth would you quote someone that you can't see, can't hear, and don't know anything about? It's not about ethics, it's about stupidity. If you're reading this now there are a few things you should know about me. My real name is Jonathan Swells, I'm 37 years old, and I have a thing for middle aged Asian women. Gimme a break. Seriously.
October 11, 2003
plain as the lies on your face.
I finally got around to reading the article posted about lurking...
Do people actually do this?! I'm appalled, but not surprised. I guess that I never really thought about it much. It's the fact that there are so many lies involved that has me strapped. We're not even supposed to trust Internet sources to use in research papers much anymore, and somehow (I'm fascinated how) journalists think that visiting chatrooms, message boards, and private sites is a viable way of gathering facts.
How is that viable? People on message boards and chats don't have to be experts in the area discussed in order to be members. It's more than likely that all they really had to do was supply a name and email address to be signed up for an account, so how is it that the "general public" (using the term loosely) is a wonderful source of information, all of a sudden?
And that's not even the beginning of the spindles of lies that could be held within this kind of reporting!
I mean, the reporters have to lie to stay hidden (or "masked") and the people on the sites replying to the reporters could be lying, as I stated above. The example given in the article about the reporter Egan doing the study on gay teens was really risky. (Lucky for the newspaper, they had a female on this topic and not a male, because I can guess what would happen if someone got ahold of a story of a reporter calling up gay teens that he met on a website to meet for an "interview." Yah, that'd go over about as well as a lead balloon, if you know what I mean...) Honestly, (ha! I make joke, no?) she could have gone wrong so many times in compiling her interviews and reports that I can't even count them! (Personally, I'd like to know what idiot kids agreed to meet with a person they met online, because it's only all over the news that people are abducted, tortured, raped, or murdered resulting from meetings with people they met on the Internet. How stupid!)
Should journalists lurk? In my humble opinion, absolutely not. Given: nothing (and I mean nothing!) on the Internet is truly private, it shouldn't matter. Saying it's okay for journalists to lurk just gives serial killers and other sick-minded members of the human race a cover for their next scheme to round up some innocents for their pleasure.
Not to mention that giving journalists the right to lurk, even if it wouldn't involve false identities and all that jazz, would really begin to demoralize the quality of the news. You're telling me that I can't use Internet sources in my research for school, but it's okay for professionals to quote something I may have posted in a message board online. Riiiggghht... that makes a whole lot of sense...
October 7, 2003
Let me lurk.
Can I lurk? Absolutely.
October 6, 2003
My Term Project
I am thinking about doing my term project dealing with my website ideas. I would only make it more detail and add links to help aid my ideas and thoughts. I was thinking about including a gossip column and other interesting blurbs. but check out my website . I was even thinking about adding some stuff about me.
Should Journalists 'Lurk' Online?
I'd like all my 227 and 230 students to read the following article and post their reaction on their own blogs. Your blog entry should at least include a link to the original article; I encourage you to find other things online to link to (such as your classmates' entries, or any similar issue). Remember to read and comment on what your "blogging buddies" are doing.
(For those of you in 227 who noticed the "TBA" in Monday's homework column, don't worry -- I'm dropping that assignment.)
OJR article: Is It Appropriate for Reporters to 'Lurk' in Online Chat Rooms?Lurking is practically impossible to prevent, though it does raise some ethical questions. For example, should journalists, academic researchers or public relations professionals gather information by lurking in chat rooms? If they do, what are their responsibilities with regards to the privacy of the other participants?
Should journalists identify themselves accurately and state their purposes upon entering a chat room or logging on to a message board? Is it OK to lurk for a while before identifying oneself? Is it OK to quote from a message posted in a chat room?
October 3, 2003
The Dullest Blog in the World
Don't you want to read The Dullest Blog in the World?
Sample entry:
Blinking at least once April 28As I was sitting down this evening I blinked once. I may have blinked again after that, but if I did I didn't notice myself doing so.
This site is a popular parody (otherwise, how do you explain the 45 comments that the sample above received?!). But sadly, too few people have learned its lessons. I've seen far too many blogs like this one that 'mean' it.
Brought to you by Wibsite
September 29, 2003
Questions 8 & 9
Read on further for the answers to questions 8 & 9 on page 162 of NRW. . .
September 25, 2003
Heres some more journalism work for ya.....
September 24, 2003
Forced Blogging
When I introduced about 25 SHU students to blogs last week, and devoted a couple of hours to in-class blogging and troubleshooting, I was thrilled to see your personalities and voice coming through.
But since some students don't know what they want to write about, I did assign a few entries -- mostly posting their answers to traditional textbook exercises online.
I found that several students disliked my disruption of their personal space... see for yourself:
So... what do you think, students... how can I make "required blog" assignments more interesting to write, so that they feel more like what you want to do in your own blogging space?
What topics would YOU like everyone in your class to blog about?
Journalism exercises 1-4 Kind of long....
Journalism Exercise
My favorite thing is the world is to do homework the day that it is due (which was Monday) and when I arrived to class, IT WAS NOT DUE! Grrr, well check this out...
Journalism exercise......of the wonderous and all powerful Lori Rupert.
September 23, 2003
Jounalism Exercises 1-4 (Chap. 7)
1) Identify the who, what, where, when, why, and how in the following:
The United Jewish Appeal is sponsoring its first ever walk-a-thon this morning in Springfield to raise money for The Soup Kitchen, a place where the hungry can eat free.
WHO: United Jewish Appeal
WHAT: a walk-a-thon
WHERE: in Springfield
WHY: to raise money for The Soup Kitchen
HOW:sponsoring a walk-a-thon
2) Here are four versions of the same lead. Which of the four answers more of the six questions basic to all stories? Which questions does it answer?
My answer is "A": "What began twelve years ago with a federal staff investigation and led to hearings and a court fight culminates today with a Federal Trade Commisiion rule to prevent funeral home rip-off." This version of the lead answers the questions how, when, who, what.
3) Rewrite two of the leads in exercise 2 as "you" leads. Which are better, the third-person or second-person leads? Why are they better?
I rewrote choice "C" to form the new lead: A new disclosure law going into effect today will make it easier for youto determine the cost of a funeral.
I also chose to rewrite choice "D" to form the new lead: Twelve years after first being proposed, a federal regulation goes into effect Monday to require funeral homes to provide you with an itemized list of services and materials offered, along with the cost of each item, before you choose to agree or disagree.
I feel that the second-person approach is more effective because it allows for the writer to speak directly to the reader; it allows the writer to tell the reader why he or she should care, and what kind of benefits are in it for him or her.
4) From the following facts, write a lead.
WHO: A nuclear weapon. . .
WHAT: Detonated
WHERE: 40 miles from a meeting of pacifists. . .in the Nevada desert.
WHEN: Tuesday
WHY: To test the weapon
HOW: NA
My lead: On Tuesday a nuclear weapon with a yield equivelent to 150,000 tons of TNT was detonated 2,000 feet beneath the surface of Pahute Mesa in the Nevada desert as part of a weapons test.