Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Thousands of Newspapers Online
On the site onlinenewspapers.com, you can access online newspapers from around the world. You can search amoung the states in the union, north america, europe, south america, asia, africa, south pacific, and even the specific coutries within each region.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Postcard: Bangalore
Indian IT workers want to become part of the global economy. For them, it means brushing up on their interpersonal skills for online, phone and face to face communication. I read this article in the may 5th, 2008 issue of time magazine. In Bangalore, India, techies are taking classes at the new Dale Carnegie Training Center. There they are being taught concepts ranging from English skills to confidence. Where does the curriculum come from you ask? Why what place other than Carnegie himself's landmark 1936 book How to Win Friends and Influence People.
In four months people can gain a certificate in Executive Excellence. "I was overwhelmed when i moved to Bangalore last year. I saw all these people who looked so smart and spoke perfect English" says Pallavi Deshpande. Four months later she was more skilled in English and knew the intricacies of interviewing for jobs. "I learned that at an interview, you must talk in terms of the other person's interest and show respect for the other person's opinions" she remarked.
This school plays a big role in the global market because so many firms use indian workers to staff their tech and call centers. In India there are huge numbers of young people with cutting edge tech skills. However, many of these workers lack the soft skill to be able to communicate properly with the customers they have to deal with making them inelligable for employment. when tailoring their curriculum, the founders of the school spoke to companies, educational institutes and students acroos three states to determine the skill most needed for new workers in various fields.
As the global marketplace grows, it is evident that people who enter it will need the proper social skills to navigate the waters. For better or worse it seems the current language and customs are western. Look for more of these schools to pop up around the world...
In four months people can gain a certificate in Executive Excellence. "I was overwhelmed when i moved to Bangalore last year. I saw all these people who looked so smart and spoke perfect English" says Pallavi Deshpande. Four months later she was more skilled in English and knew the intricacies of interviewing for jobs. "I learned that at an interview, you must talk in terms of the other person's interest and show respect for the other person's opinions" she remarked.
This school plays a big role in the global market because so many firms use indian workers to staff their tech and call centers. In India there are huge numbers of young people with cutting edge tech skills. However, many of these workers lack the soft skill to be able to communicate properly with the customers they have to deal with making them inelligable for employment. when tailoring their curriculum, the founders of the school spoke to companies, educational institutes and students acroos three states to determine the skill most needed for new workers in various fields.
As the global marketplace grows, it is evident that people who enter it will need the proper social skills to navigate the waters. For better or worse it seems the current language and customs are western. Look for more of these schools to pop up around the world...
Mapping the Blogosphere
1) Research topic and researchers: Mapping the blogoshpere: Professional and citizen-based media in the global news arena, by Stephen Reese, Lou Rutigliano, Kideuk Hyun, and Jaekwan Jeong, in Journalism 8 (3), 2007, pp. 235-261. Retrieved from Communication and Mass Media Complete, on February 23, 2008.
2) Rationale of the study:
Blogs are a relatively new feature in the field of media. They are usually much more interactive than traditional news sources and give non-professional citizens the chance to voice their opinions. The researchers of this study wanted to better understand the relationship between blogs and traditional news media. They focused on how the two interact through links on the blogs themselves and discovered that they are rather deeply intertwined. A major facet of their research was political affiliations and how the affiliation of a blog affected what news links were displayed.
Specifically, the researchers studied six of the most popular blogs and asked four research questions. 1) To what extent do blogs link to the professional news media, and how are those references characterized? 2) How is political affiliation of blogs related to their linking to professional news media? 3) How is political affiliation of blogs related to the affiliation of their linking choices? 4) How is political affiliation of blogs related to their linking to international sites and authors.
3) Literature Review:
· The internet has increased the speed in which news is readily available as well as its speed and how much is covered.
· It is easier for people across borders and seas to receive news they would not normally have access to. The study cites Giddens (2000) on page 237, “the intrinsically open framework of globalization has a natural relationship with democracy, leading many to attach great hopes to the internet’s potential for advancing more engaged and active citizenship around the world.”
· …sources and perspectives permitted by professional news gatekeepers establishes the limits of the public sphere they manage…we may conceptualize the blogosphere as a conversation distributed more broadly across citizens and journalists (p.237).
· …globalization and technology have produced a broader and more fluid journalistic conversation, a new global public sphere (Habermas, 1992).
· “…our research questions are related to three particular boundaries: professional, political and geographic…(p.238).
· The most important concept is between ‘professional’ and informal citizen-based non-traditional forms (p.238).
· Professional is defined as those trained in the field of journalism, are paid through a news organization and have access to events as ‘the press’. Walls surround the conduct of these professionals.
· Citizen-based media is defined as media that originates from anyone who wants to express ideas or positions. Any motivated individual can take part and need not follow any code of journalistic integrity.
· Blogs display an unprecedented level of interactivity for citizens. Blogs and news outlets can be viewed as complementary.
· Bloggers receive most of their news information from traditional sources. “50 of the top blogs account for 50% of the links (Shirky, 2003).”
4) Research Method:
The researchers focused their effort on news and politics. They selected blogs that mainly are associated with either liberal or conservative views, three from each side of the political spectrum. In doing so, they picked only the most popular ones as rated by Technorati ratings. They wanted to figure out on what level are the blogs linking to other sources of media, what types of media they are linking to, and where the media is that is linked. In order to classify this information they devised a system. The original blog would be classified as level 1; the second, two sites or posts represented by posts referred to in the first. The third level was those sites or posts referred to in the second. They took the findings and classified them along the lines of their research questions i.e. wider connectivity to other media, political affiliation, and geographic zones. The time period was a week selected on the basis that there were no major news stories ongoing at the time. An example of a major news story would be 9/11 and would undoubtedly dominate discussion on most any blog.
5) Research Finding:
The researchers totaled 410 posts in all; each blog had significant numbers of links to other sites. 154 or 38% had two or more links which supports their hypothesis that blogs are a gateway to a larger cyber network (p. 247). Most of the bloggers garner their information from other sources they briefly mention (38.5%), or analyze other news stories and make comments on them (60.5%). On scene observation was low at around one percent. It was found that most of the references on the blogs studied were to professional media sources (47.6%) and only 38.5 percent was to other blogs. This finding serves to confirm that professional media is complemented by blogs, and not hindered as some previously believed. Professional news is typically taken at face value, used often and used to articulate larger points by that of the author of the blog. Of the blogs studied, about the same number of authors would be considered as citizen as those who could be classified under professional news media.
The researchers did find echo-chamber type results as they expected with political affiliation. The conservative bloggers led predominantly to conservative voices, while the liberal bloggers lead predominantly along the lines of their political views. However, given this find, a large number of sites that were linked on the blogs could be considered as having no political affiliation at all (60%). As to the geographical evidence, 92.7% of the links were to those in the U.S. as well as the location of the authors who 92% of the time, were presumed located in the U.S. However the location of the authors could be a little skewed because they could be posting in a different country, and because the server is in the U.S., the location comes up as such.
It was found that the blogs promote circulation and ground themselves to traditional news media. It is obvious to see that the two forms complement each other. There is a wide representation of non-partisan elements within the network, a sign that may predict a less politically polarized future.
6) My Position:
The article’s authors did well to convey clearly exactly what they aimed to accomplish through their research. However, I thought their selection of the time period may have been detrimental to their findings. They took careful consideration to not have the week in question coincide with any major news stories, yet they selected on in which one of the major bloggers was on “partial hiatus.” This may have skewed their results somewhat. I liked that they choose to tally the number of links and classify them under what category they were. It was a good way to quantify results and ultimately answer their questions.
There are many different types of blogs out there so it is smart that they focused on those political and some of the most popular. The coding of only linked information was a drawback to the research because it did not consider cited sources on the blog itself. Future studies may focus specifically on the writings and cited sources of the blogs; in turn, determining how the bloggers are putting to use the discourse from traditional media. One major problem with the study was that half of the bloggers could be considered professional journalists. I think the researchers should have studied those less trained in traditional media. However, this may have lead to a study of less popular blogs. The study of bloggers in different occupations is crucial to future research undertakings. The possibilities and permutations of blog research are positively limitless and it will be interesting to see new developments and findings on the subject.
2) Rationale of the study:
Blogs are a relatively new feature in the field of media. They are usually much more interactive than traditional news sources and give non-professional citizens the chance to voice their opinions. The researchers of this study wanted to better understand the relationship between blogs and traditional news media. They focused on how the two interact through links on the blogs themselves and discovered that they are rather deeply intertwined. A major facet of their research was political affiliations and how the affiliation of a blog affected what news links were displayed.
Specifically, the researchers studied six of the most popular blogs and asked four research questions. 1) To what extent do blogs link to the professional news media, and how are those references characterized? 2) How is political affiliation of blogs related to their linking to professional news media? 3) How is political affiliation of blogs related to the affiliation of their linking choices? 4) How is political affiliation of blogs related to their linking to international sites and authors.
3) Literature Review:
· The internet has increased the speed in which news is readily available as well as its speed and how much is covered.
· It is easier for people across borders and seas to receive news they would not normally have access to. The study cites Giddens (2000) on page 237, “the intrinsically open framework of globalization has a natural relationship with democracy, leading many to attach great hopes to the internet’s potential for advancing more engaged and active citizenship around the world.”
· …sources and perspectives permitted by professional news gatekeepers establishes the limits of the public sphere they manage…we may conceptualize the blogosphere as a conversation distributed more broadly across citizens and journalists (p.237).
· …globalization and technology have produced a broader and more fluid journalistic conversation, a new global public sphere (Habermas, 1992).
· “…our research questions are related to three particular boundaries: professional, political and geographic…(p.238).
· The most important concept is between ‘professional’ and informal citizen-based non-traditional forms (p.238).
· Professional is defined as those trained in the field of journalism, are paid through a news organization and have access to events as ‘the press’. Walls surround the conduct of these professionals.
· Citizen-based media is defined as media that originates from anyone who wants to express ideas or positions. Any motivated individual can take part and need not follow any code of journalistic integrity.
· Blogs display an unprecedented level of interactivity for citizens. Blogs and news outlets can be viewed as complementary.
· Bloggers receive most of their news information from traditional sources. “50 of the top blogs account for 50% of the links (Shirky, 2003).”
4) Research Method:
The researchers focused their effort on news and politics. They selected blogs that mainly are associated with either liberal or conservative views, three from each side of the political spectrum. In doing so, they picked only the most popular ones as rated by Technorati ratings. They wanted to figure out on what level are the blogs linking to other sources of media, what types of media they are linking to, and where the media is that is linked. In order to classify this information they devised a system. The original blog would be classified as level 1; the second, two sites or posts represented by posts referred to in the first. The third level was those sites or posts referred to in the second. They took the findings and classified them along the lines of their research questions i.e. wider connectivity to other media, political affiliation, and geographic zones. The time period was a week selected on the basis that there were no major news stories ongoing at the time. An example of a major news story would be 9/11 and would undoubtedly dominate discussion on most any blog.
5) Research Finding:
The researchers totaled 410 posts in all; each blog had significant numbers of links to other sites. 154 or 38% had two or more links which supports their hypothesis that blogs are a gateway to a larger cyber network (p. 247). Most of the bloggers garner their information from other sources they briefly mention (38.5%), or analyze other news stories and make comments on them (60.5%). On scene observation was low at around one percent. It was found that most of the references on the blogs studied were to professional media sources (47.6%) and only 38.5 percent was to other blogs. This finding serves to confirm that professional media is complemented by blogs, and not hindered as some previously believed. Professional news is typically taken at face value, used often and used to articulate larger points by that of the author of the blog. Of the blogs studied, about the same number of authors would be considered as citizen as those who could be classified under professional news media.
The researchers did find echo-chamber type results as they expected with political affiliation. The conservative bloggers led predominantly to conservative voices, while the liberal bloggers lead predominantly along the lines of their political views. However, given this find, a large number of sites that were linked on the blogs could be considered as having no political affiliation at all (60%). As to the geographical evidence, 92.7% of the links were to those in the U.S. as well as the location of the authors who 92% of the time, were presumed located in the U.S. However the location of the authors could be a little skewed because they could be posting in a different country, and because the server is in the U.S., the location comes up as such.
It was found that the blogs promote circulation and ground themselves to traditional news media. It is obvious to see that the two forms complement each other. There is a wide representation of non-partisan elements within the network, a sign that may predict a less politically polarized future.
6) My Position:
The article’s authors did well to convey clearly exactly what they aimed to accomplish through their research. However, I thought their selection of the time period may have been detrimental to their findings. They took careful consideration to not have the week in question coincide with any major news stories, yet they selected on in which one of the major bloggers was on “partial hiatus.” This may have skewed their results somewhat. I liked that they choose to tally the number of links and classify them under what category they were. It was a good way to quantify results and ultimately answer their questions.
There are many different types of blogs out there so it is smart that they focused on those political and some of the most popular. The coding of only linked information was a drawback to the research because it did not consider cited sources on the blog itself. Future studies may focus specifically on the writings and cited sources of the blogs; in turn, determining how the bloggers are putting to use the discourse from traditional media. One major problem with the study was that half of the bloggers could be considered professional journalists. I think the researchers should have studied those less trained in traditional media. However, this may have lead to a study of less popular blogs. The study of bloggers in different occupations is crucial to future research undertakings. The possibilities and permutations of blog research are positively limitless and it will be interesting to see new developments and findings on the subject.
Cell Phone Fatwa
Recently an Imam at a mosque in Saudi Arabia was giving a Taraweeh prayer (extra prayers given by Sunnis at night in the Islamic month of Ramadan) when a cell phone playing an Arabic pop music ring tone went off. The Imam turned to the crowd and issued a Fatwa. A Fatwa is a legal pronouncement in Islam made by a Mufti, a scholar capable of issuing judgements on Sharia (islamic law). His Fatwa declared that the next time a member of the congregation disrupted the ceremonies with a cell phone, they would be stricken from the mosque indefinitely.
I found this amusing. I think that teachers at Hamline University should declare their own Fatwa on cell phones in the class rooms and libraries. I can't tell you how many times a lecture or my study time has been interrupted by one of those incessant little things.
l
I found this amusing. I think that teachers at Hamline University should declare their own Fatwa on cell phones in the class rooms and libraries. I can't tell you how many times a lecture or my study time has been interrupted by one of those incessant little things.
l
Suicide Girls Critique
After reading the article of the site Suicide Girls.com I agreed with the author that it does not really promote a feminist outlook. However, the site is at heart a pornography site and should be looked at as so. When examined in this light, we can see that the site is much better for female models than other sites of the same genre. The girls are able to have their own photoshoots and decide which pictures are posted online. Also, along with the photos there are profiles in which the models can describe themselves and their belief systems. The feminist part comes into play because their is a group within the site which is called "feminist". It is easy to see that it would be hard for a pornography site to have anything resebling traditional feminist outlook.
The author suggests that the site may be racists because there is overwhelmingly more white models than models of color. She fails however, to take into consideration the ratio of white applicants to those of color. Maybe there simply are more white models applying. Yes, the models of color are described using racially loaded adjectives but the creators of the site are not trained to be completely politically correct. They are simply trying to make money from a nude model site. It is good that the author is questioning the feminist aspect of the site but viewing it should be taken with a grain of salt. The site "is what it is" so to speak, a pornography site.
The author suggests that the site may be racists because there is overwhelmingly more white models than models of color. She fails however, to take into consideration the ratio of white applicants to those of color. Maybe there simply are more white models applying. Yes, the models of color are described using racially loaded adjectives but the creators of the site are not trained to be completely politically correct. They are simply trying to make money from a nude model site. It is good that the author is questioning the feminist aspect of the site but viewing it should be taken with a grain of salt. The site "is what it is" so to speak, a pornography site.
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