PS:

Mark this day in history... Sister Arts is *not* on Gmail currently.

~V~

Presentation Updates and a Pointless Revolution

So... we're rockin' and rollin' on the presentation. It's in Tyler's capable hands right now, getting edited. We should have it done by Friday's meeting, so we'll need to make sure we have a computer to watch it on.

Sister Arts did speak with us this morning, asking if we could move our presentation day. Apparently she'll be in Europe this next week and doesn't want to miss it! YAY! I figure this is good - she'll preview it Friday, we have a week to tweak, put together a gag reel, make it fancy, and get our hand outs and things together. Then present the Monday before the Holiday - making sure everybody knows what to be grateful for. ;)

Meanwhile...

We walked into class today and were shocked to find our Front Corner occupied by foreigners. We let it slide, didn't say too much, but now that we've had a chance to discuss this matter, we'd like to make a public statement:

We do, indeed, live in a free country and attend a fairly free University. This means students are entitled to sit wherever they'd like, provided that the Professor has not prescribed a seating chart.

That being said, however, if your intention is to simply occupy space, not pay attention, and ultimately disrupt the learning of others, we do not find it humorous. Most of us sat in that Front Corner from day one because that is where we learn the best. In fact, that's how Group 9 was chosen in the first place... it's the first place I walked to and I pointed at the first people I found. We gravitate to that Corner and to each other because of a shared desire to learn. The people, wonderful students that they may be, I feel missed the point of class altogether today. Instead, they watched The Office, surfed Facebook incessantly, and chatted about non-course related subjects for an hour and a half.

We feel the move was unintelligent, discourteous, and immature at best. We will not retaliate thereby debasing ourselves. Nevertheless, if the aforementioned persons are continuously disrespectful to the learning environment facilitated by Sister Arts, we may be forced into drastic measures.

~V~

Happy (post) Halloween!

A few notes for this evening...

1) I find it extremely difficult to type with long, fake, witchy nails. I wouldn't recommend it. ;)
So, please excuse typos...

2) Class discussion today was interesting. It was also heated enough that I won't say much about it here... just that I found it fascinating.

“We are taught as members of this Church to be tolerant, to bring about good results, not to give in on our doctrine, not to give in on our standards, but to be tolerant in a way that will move forward the cause of peace and righteousness and goodness in the earth. May the Lord bless us so to do, and may each of us have happiness in our hearts and that peace which we can have even in the midst of conflict, which comes of a testimony and witness of the truth of this work.”

President Hinkley

3) Being egged - as in, I was walking to work and some people threw an egg at me from a speeding car - is not a pleasant experience. Even though it happened several hours ago, I'm still not sure how I feel about it. Needless to say, it was painful. I called into work, returned home to wonderful roommates, took pain killers, did laundry and watched a movie for the rest of the evening. In addition, it was mentally and emotionally jarring. Logically, I could not for the life of me sort out the logic, amusement, whathaveyou behind throwing eggs at people. Emotionally, I felt like the lowest life form on the face of the planet. It was humiliating and degrading. I cried more from how it made me feel inside rather than the physical pain. Not to mention it totally ruined my plans for the evening... and a pretty awesome pair of jeans.

Now, this may an extreme analogy, but go with me...

I thought about terrorism, terrorists and victims. While the physical loss as a result of terrorism is horrific, it is tangible and therefore manageable. After a length of time, the pain lessens, things are replaced or lived without, loss of life is mourned but eventually accepted and dealt with. However, the mental/emotional/spiritual impact of terrorism, and in fact what gives it its name and makes it effective, has yet to be accurately measured. The thought that at any moment your entire world can be turned upside down because someone was making a political statement, pulling a cruel joke, or is just deranged dictates absolutely everything you do... whether you admit it or not.

4) I knew a girl freshman year who I just removed from my friends on Facebook. That is, indeed, the only way we kept in contact, so I've effectively removed her from my life. Why, you ask? Well... I saw that she recently joined a Facebook group called "Communism should be listed as a Political View on Facebook." I checked her profile more thoroughly, and realized she'd gone completely nuts. I posted what I felt was a fair, polite, and pointed message on her wall:

"Before you espouse communism too quickly... please ask yourself if you have ever lived in a communist country. If you haven't, don't stand in your free country and pretend to know anything about it, promote it, or take it lightly. "

and deleted her from my friends. We'll see how it goes, I guess.

Those are my thoughts about the happenings of today. What a strange day.

Freedom Quotes

"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it" - Voltaire

Finished Research!

The group meeting went extremely well, today! It was totally in a random part of the library, though, so not everybody could find it. Ah well. We still need research from Kevin and Rebecca (I couldn't open the format you sent it in - sorry!), but other than that, everything looks great.

We brought the notes from Sister Arts and went over the questions she asked. I was afraid, as I think Leinani was, that incorporating answers to those questions would take our presentation in an entirely different direction... Jonathan saved us, though! He's got an epic ending in mind that makes everything fit together so well. YAY!

I'm working on the script so we can record voicing at the next meeting, while everybody else gathers images to support their text. We've also decided to start meeting at 12, before class, because none of us have anything going on. I'll allow us to touch base, especially on the script. I want to make sure that even though I'm drafting the text (for sake of continuity in literary voice), that I treat everybody's thoughts accurately.

In other news... Kevin went to the PRSSA national conference this weekend. As soon as he gets back, I'll have him write a couple paragraphs to post up here. I'm stoked to hear about what he learned!

~V~

Group Meeting...

... productive, but sparsely attended. Guys! If you're not going to make it - even if you call me five minutes before it starts - I need to know! Thank you to Rebecca who told me ahead, Kevin, Jonathan, Leinani, Emily, and Tyler who came.

I brought my friend Katy along to this meeting. Her coming had two purposes (purposi? ;) ): her family lived in Germany at the time the Berlin Wall came down. Kevin captured her interesting memories, so look for an appearance during our presentation! She is also a film major and therefore interested in the media industry, restrictions, freedom of expression, etc.

Here's a breakdown of how our research groups (thank you Kevin for that wonderful title!) are doing:

History: Going great! It's definitely the smallest (time wise) section, so it doesn't take a ton of work. Poor Leinani - I promise we've got more for you to do!

Abroad: Good job Kevin! We're focusing on personal stories and experiences that illustrate the cost in other countries, adding a splash of what's going on in Burma for current flavor.

America: y'all definitely had the best, most productive meeting today! Great! I'm glad Tyler was there, too. He definitely adds to the group and I know y'all are moving along wonderfully.

For some all-encompassing news... Kevin is a friggin' genius. We've got stuff down for our research group (what's the cost abroad), so we started discussing how we were to present. He felt the need to use one channel to tie everything together... basically avoiding the idea that we broke our group into three groups who did independent projects. We decided this was brilliant and have drafted a production schedule that's realistic and would put us completely finished (with special effects, even!) by the 9th. That gives us a weekend of cushion time and leaves us all unstressed. Beautiful. I'm basically so stoked about this project that I can't see straight.

That would be enough for now.

~V~

Reid Speech

BYU Speeches published early... yay!

http://news.byu.edu/reid.pdf

What do we think? What was Reid's intent? Does he have a valid position? If not, why not?

~V~

Meetings, Galore!

First off - happy birthday to Rebecca! Congratulations on being old... er. ;)

Secondly - here's a video from our most recent meeting. It was a ton of fun, and yes, quite productive. Just in case you were wondering.

(coming soon?)

Thirdly... what's going on in the NYTimes:

Live Blogging of debates.

Google's answer to the iPhone?

Reality TV poses ethical dilemma.

And a few stories from Google News:

A little closer to home: Harry at the Marriott Center. Unfortunately, I was unable to attend this forum. If anybody from Group 9 went, I'd love to hear about it. Until then, I'm waiting for the transcript from BYU Speeches.

An interesting note on the RIAA and recent developments in the illegal downloading crack down.

Also, this is the first I've heard of this story... but it addresses the bias (alleged?) of the Supreme Court.

Lastly... I appreciated our Guest Speaker on Monday. I wish we'd had more time to talk to him about the defamation process, responding to it, seeking retribution, etc. It was fun to realize he was citing Dr. Carter - whom Jonathan and I heard speak about this very issue on Thursday.

~V~

Just FYI

Date	Thursday, October 04, 2007
Start Time	11:00 AM
End Time	11:50 AM
Category	Organization (HP2-ORG-1)
	Dr. Ed. Carter, Communications Department, will address the topic: "1st Amendment Rights and Responsiblities" in 350 MSRB.

NY Times & A Junkie's Fix

In light of Monday's group presentation and BJ from Group 8 talking to me about my newspaper reading habits, I'm posting a couple of my favorite articles from today... this may, in fact, turn into a "favorite article (that is pertinent to this class) of the day" thing.

Before we get too far into that... here's Starbucks main page for the iTunes music downloading thing. Apparently, in response to that awesome girl who sits in one of the front rows who asked if Starbucks is charging or not, they are giving away a bunch of songs. Makes me wish we had more than one in this town.

Now, for the Times...

This article is fascinating! First, the fact that the phrase "I ran a website" is showing up as a legitimate - even highly valuable - skill/form of employment is a miracle. Secondly, the editor of a mainstream news outlet is a pretty powerful position to be in. Morgan, I don't feel, will be the last big name to make this shift from "mainstream news gate keeper" to "editor of a website that, yes, delivers news, but willingly admits and even advertises its opinion. Check out the headline on their main page. Then scroll down to the sidebar on the left, where all the blogs are. Check out who is posting, look at what they're saying, and ask yourself... is this going to be "news" from now on? This"[taking] a news story and build[ing] a community of debate around it?"

“Huffington Post has a lot of smart editors working for it,” she said. What the site does well, Ms. Morgan said, is “take a news story and build a community of debate around it.”

Segue into our economics of attention discussion. I loved our group's impromptu furthering of the discussion. I promise, Sister Arts, that we'll save plenty of opinion for the second half of the presentation. We're very interested in where you're going with it. Here's what we've got so far:

• We live in an information age. Some would coin it an "information economy," however, information is not at all a scarce resource that needs allocating. The human attention required to make that information usable, accessible, productive, etc. scarce. Conclusion: we've created an "attention economy."
  
• Human attention isn't being fully realized by the individual. As discussed in the Television chapter, et al, a good majority of human attention is being monopolized by the TV. While good, thought-provoking programming does exist (facilitating this allocation of human attention to productive pursuits), it's definitely in the minority.
  
• Therefore, the problem becomes breaking this cycle of non-thinking-ness (is there a better word for that?) that's gripped America since the advent of the TV.
  

I think that's where we left it... and I'm sure my opinion is in there more than Kevin's or Jonathan's. Gentlemen, would you please comment and straighten me out?

Back to the Times... This piece covers a number of topics. I'll pull out the freedom of speech stuff and the Op-Ed Editor's, Andrew Rosenthal, response to "is NYTimes biased?" The questions were submitted by readers/critics of the Times and all answers are from Rosenthal himself.

Q. Where does The New York Times stand on the Iranian president and his talk at Columbia?

— Steve Kochoff

A. I'm so glad my first question was not on a controversial topic.

Having not heard the Iranian president's speech yet, I naturally don't have anything to say about his comments. In general, I don't plan to use this forum as a space for editorializing about the issues of the day.

But, there's an easy and obvious answer to the question, "Should he be allowed to speak at Columbia?" The answer is, yes.

Free speech is one of the founding principles of our republic. How can we deny him the right to speak simply because we don't like what he has to say, or what he has already said? Isn't that one of the biggest things that sets this nation apart from nations like Iran in the first place?

The right of free speech cannot be parceled out based on whether we want to hear what the speaker has to say, or whether we agree with those views. It means, quite often, tolerating the expression of views that we find distasteful, perhaps even repugnant. There is much that the Iranian president has to say that is loathsome, about Israel, about the Holocaust, about terrorism, about the United States. Are those views going to disappear because we cover our ears? Are we better equipped to counter those views if we don't hear them? We think the answer to those questions is, "No."

Then, just for Group 8:

Q. Has the Bush administration pursued any policy, nominated any officeholder that you support editorially?

— Andrea and Martin Sattler

Q. It is a rare event, extremely rare, of the editorials criticizing a Democrat. Is there any policy of "balance" in your editorializing?

— Mike Young

A. The answer, Andrea and Martin Sattler is, yes.

We supported the No Child Left Behind Act and the Medicare drug benefit. We supported the invasion of Afghanistan, the creation of the Department of Homeland Security and the Office of Director of National Intelligence. We support the two-state approach to the Israel-Palestine dispute, and we join Mr. Bush in opposing the Iranian nuclear weapons program, as well as the North Korean program. We agree that free trade is vital to the development of the United States, as well as the rest of the world. We believe that terrorism is a dire threat to American national security and American lives.

We supported the nomination of Bob Gates as secretary of defense and Henry Paulson Jr. as treasury secretary, which we called "a master stroke."

To Mr. Young, you are of course right when you say there is more criticism of the administration and the Republican Party on our pages than of Democrats or the Democratic Party. Remember, the president is a Republican, and for most of the last six years, the Republicans had a lock on both houses of Congress. When an editorial page comments on the government, it makes a lot more sense to comment on the party in power than the party in opposition. That said, we criticize the Democrats when criticism is due. We have done so on a number of issues, including most recently their failure to restore habeas corpus rights to foreign detainees and to pass legislation that would hold the president accountable for his policies on Iraq. We criticized Democrats who voted for the Military Commissions Act of 2006, and we have written critically of Harry Reid's conduct as majority leader of the Senate.

It would be ludicrous for me to suggest that we're equally sympathetic to Republican and Democratic values and platforms. We are not. We generally find more in the Democratic Party's policies and approach to governing that we support and are particularly critical of Republican taxation and government spending philosophies. But if you look, you will find criticisms of Bill Clinton when he was president and of Congress when it was controlled by Democrats. The focus of all newsgathering tends to be on the party in power.

No, we do not believe that the editorial page should be balanced in the way you seem to suggest — that if we write two editorials critical of Republicans, we should write two editorials critical of Democrats. Editorials in general are not about balance, they are about opinion, about the taking of positions. That's an inherently unbalanced business.

There you have it. And now I'm incredibly tired. I have finished my Analysis, though, that I believe is due tomorrow. Good to know. ;)

~V~

We <3 GoogleDocs

Business first...

We held our first meeting on Friday and it was a success - a lot of brainstorming and idea gathering. We did manage a rough outline by dividing up the whole presentation into three sections: History, What's Out There?, and Focus at Home. We divided up responsibility for research according to topic... that made no sense. Basically we've got three-of-nine people working on each section.

On the way out the door, Rich had the most brilliant idea ever: let's use Google Documents! I expanded on that today by adding events to our calendar (mostly our presentation meetings, although I'm sure Jonathan and Emily will eventually post quiz reminders and study group meetings there, too), and creating this blog. YAY!

Now, for the fun stuff...

The picture to the right is of my friend Li and I in Tiananmen Square on the anniversary of the Massacre. Please note the lack of anything signifying what day it was. According to the Chinese government, it never happened. However, interesting fact, my dad was online (in America), and came across a news story about a candlelight vigil held that night. It was very hush-hush because any Chinese citizen (or tourist for that matter) giving any kind of recognition of that day could be thrown in jail... but, to show your support and reverence for those who lost their lives, you were to put a single candle in your street-facing window for half an hour at something like 10 pm. All this was communicated among Chinese citizens using the Internet - somehow circumventing the Government's filters.

~V~