Blog Reflection

            It's hard to believe that this year is coming to a close! I can fortunately say that I have enjoyed blogging and have learned a lot about the medium through my experiences. My favorite post for this quarter is entitled Arizona's Immigration Law. I picked this post because it demonstrates a better usage of the blogging style than some of my other posts. For example, I used bolding and included a source quote for my readers' convenience. I tried to focus on debating multiple sides so I can further analyze the issue and do not appear polemic. That post is 380 words long, so it is more compact than my favorite post of the first quarter, which was 434 words long. Instead of shortening my analysis, I tried to shorten my source summary in order to make my posts more interesting and reader friendly.
       An issue with my blogging in general is that I am afraid to post my own opinion. When reporting,  showing opinions in writing is unprofessional, but blogging is more personal. In the Arizona post, I made the decision to put out my own opinion on the issue itself. By posting my opinion, my goal was to let my readers see inside my mind a bit, and offer them the chance to disagree with me.
       Another thing I need to work on is putting voice into my blogs. Because blogs are more personal, I have the opportunity to be a little humorous and share personal anecdotes. At first I felt that my readers don't care about what I say about myself, but when reading my peers' blogs, I realized that posts with personal insight are far more interesting and entertaining. Although I haven't been entirely successful with this, I try to inject humor and personal stories into my blog posts whenever appropriate.
        Whether or not I will continue this blog is unclear, but I know that I wish to continue the blogging style in some shape or form. I like blogging because of it's conversational qualities- it's not a one way lecture or a serious paper, but a discussion about real-world issues with a general audience. This form of writing is more interactive than the other forms of writing we have done in class, and that is one of the reasons why I enjoyed doing it.
       Whether this is the final post or just the beginning, to all of my readers, thanks so much!
-Molly

Questionable Photojournalism

     One thing i've seen a lot lately is article photos (particularly on websites or the covers of newspapers) that are very unflattering. They pop up everywhere, and I'm beginning to think just about every major political and social figure has had really bad photos of them published in the press.

For example, one political figure facing political scrutiny is Governor Jan Brewer of Arizona. This article, which we discussed in class today, has this photo of her in it.

Now, I don't know about you, but I wouldn't want that photo of me put in the paper.

How about putting up a photo of her that looks like this? See, that just looks wonderful, doesn't it? She's smiling, and I think that photo is airbrushed as well.









Let's take a look at another governor in the news. The Chicago Sun-Times posted this photo of Rod Blagojevich:

In my opinion, the way his mouth is open and his general facial expression makes him look stupid. Here is the article if you would like to look at it.

This is a photo of him published in CBS news' celebrity news outlet (link here). He may not look fantastic, but in my opinion, he looks a little bit better than in the other one.








      The thing I'm wondering, is WHY news outlets decide to use particular photos of politicians? One thing that Mr. B suggested is that the news sources want to ignite controversy. Another reason is probably to just make the politicians look bad in the literal sense, as well as bashing their reputations and images. What effect does posting a good photo or bad photo of someone have on the reader? On the surface, I just laugh or feel sorry for whoever is in the bad photo, and probably stare at and ignore the good photo. If other people also just ignore good photos, than Mr. B makes a good point- I will be more likely to notice a story attached to a terrible photo because of the photo itself.
       Another thing that I noticed is that perpetrators of crimes almost always have bad press photos, while victims have beautiful photos posted. One possible cause is that mugshots are accessible, and almost always look bad. However, if news agencies have to go to the trouble to find a beautiful photo of a victim of a tragic accident, can't they find a beautiful photo of the perpetrator of the crime? No. Why? My guess is that news agencies want to arouse disgust of the crime and sadness for the victims. But why is that? What do you think?

Arizona's Immigration Law

          The news about Arizona's new law is all over the place, so I wanted to take the time to examine the situation. If you haven't heard about it, here is a link to a NY Times article providing background. Here's the summary of the law that this article provides:

     It requires police officers, “when practicable,” to detain people they reasonably suspect are in the country without authorization and to verify their status with federal officials.

      This law also makes it illegal to be caught without papers such as a green card or drivers license for citizenship. This in itself has several implications- for example, a girl in the AIS day discussion told others that she, like many other people, often forgets things, and that it might not be fair to place misdemeanor charges on someone who is forgetful or disorganized. That being said, I'm not arguing that immigration reform isn't needed; it takes 15 years for some people to legally enter the country, and millions of people try to enter illegally every year. 

     The argument of people that disagree with the new law is that it might encourage racial and ethnic discrimination because border patrol and immigrations officers ("la migra") will only be looking for people who can't speak English fluently or look Hispanic. Now, I suppose that means that only a select group will be pulled aside. However, in my opinion, just because someone doesn't have my blond hair and pale complexion does not mean that they should be questioned by the police. This law has the potential to cause significant Hispanic discrimination. 

    My belief is that the key to deterring illegal immigration is in better enforcing the law that prevents illegal immigrants from being hired. Some people think that making the borders impossible to cross solves the problem, but instead that creates thousands of horrible deaths for people who try to do it anyway.  Constantly checking IDs won't help either because not every illegal immigrant will be caught, or plenty of legal immigrants will be unfairly questioned. Not giving jobs to illegal immigrants will hopefully end up shifting those jobs to legal immigrants or other Americans. However, I acknowledge that there is a lot I don't understand about the issue. What would you do? 

Junior Theme Post Four: AHH!!!

Sorry for the delay in posts!

My interview with Professor Vaughn went really well- he was very helpful and knowledgeable, and he gave me some great info for my paper.

However, the paper... is due THIS FRIDAY.

I currently have five pages, although I would like seven, and my intro, conclusion, and general organization need serious work. I'm currently having a battle: Do I arrange my paper thematically or chronologically?

I rearranged my paper to be thematic this weekend, but in my opinion, it makes a lot less sense that way. A friend of mine read my draft just for comprehension purposes and asked me why the dates were jumping all over the place. I tried to arrange it by religion, censorship, and economic themes, but the three are so interrelated on this topic that it just sounds dissorganized.

Also, I can just feel that it's not my best writing, which makes me nervous. And i'm not sure if I am fulfilling the assignment either, because i'm not sure how well I am anwering the why.

Thankfully though, I have all of the required sources and a surplus, which is good, but I just need to make the paper more analytical and more cohesive. 

How are you all doing? 

JT, Number Three

      I found a person who is willing to be interviewed for my paper- Professor Stephen Vaughn from UW-Madison, a communications professor who has done extensive research on film ratings.

     However, I'm still stuck with some elements of my paper; I wrote some history components, but that's not really the point. I'm supposed to answer my why question, and I think I need a better thesis to keep moving forward. Here's a couple ideas;

        MPAA ratings protect the film industry from government censorship and help parents shield their children from immoral content.

       MPAA film ratings classify films by what is morally appropriate and what is not, and are instated in order to teach americans appropriate moral behavior.
         
    My introduction is in an inadequate draft form, and needs revision, and most of my current history components will probably not be used. However, I'm very excited about the interview, and am hoping that will help point me in the right direction.

I know this is a short post, and i'll say more at another time. Thanks for reading!

Second Junior Theme post

      So far i've been reading from some books and on the internet, and I feel that I have a basic understanding of when and how the MPAA ratings system has been created. However, I am not sure why yet- and that's the most important part, so I'm a little stuck.
      I've emailed Northwestern's Film/TV/Radio division of their communications department, asking if any professors would be willing to be interviewed. I'm going to wait until monday or tuesday, and if I don't hear back, I will call the MPAA office in Los Angeles.
     I haven't written very much of my paper yet, so I'm in that transition point, and I think I'm going to write down a bit of the history component as I understand it, and hopefully I can add the why parts later as I come to a conclusion. I feel i've been doing a decent amount of work, but i'm concerned that I will have a really rough crunch time if I don't make some more progress.
    Additionally, I'm not sure how to go about answering my why question yet (as in how to map the paper out) so that's adding to my general uncertainty. Do I start with what the rating system is currently, and then describe how we got there? Do I start with when the hays code was first instated, and then say how it progressed to our current system? 
    I'll keep posting as I start writing components, and i'll let you know how my interview search is coming. Thanks for reading!

First Junior Theme Post

Hello Readers!
     I'm not exactly sure how the posting about junior theme thing is supposed to work, but all I know is the function of this blog is shifting gears for a bit, and i'm just going to roll with it.
    For those who don't know, Junior Theme is the big paper of junior year- the uber paper, the head honcho, or whatever you want to call it. For the next month, i'm focusing on one topic and writing a paper on it.
   Thankfully, I have an approved topic- film ratings. I knew I wanted to write about film, but I didn't know what I wanted to focus on and how I would keep the focus on American films. Doc OC asked me if I knew what the Hayes code was, and I didn't. A google search later, I realized I knew little about and would be interested in writing about film ratings. My current why question is;


     Why are films rated by the Motion Picture Association of America's (MPAA) standards?

     As I learn more about my topic, I can refine the question, but that's what I have. And here's what i've learned so far:

      The Hays code was enforced starting in 1934, and was a strict set of rules prohibiting subjects in films such as nudity, the ridicule of laws or religious officials, drug use, and interracial marriages. After that was abolished in the late sixties, the letter rating system was created, starting with G,M,R and X.  M then switched to GP and again to PG, PG-13 was added in 1984, and soon after that, X was changed to NC-17.Then they added explanations for why a film got a rating, which takes us to our current rating system.

So, that's about where I am now, and I'll post more at another point. If there's anything you'd like to hear more about, comment and let me know.