Perspective

I choose to analyze Mary Gordon's perspective on writing.

http://www.nytimes.com/library/books/070599gordon-writing.html

In the first parts of the article, Gordon mentions that she writes on paper and not by using the computer. I can relate to this because usually when I just start writing, I brainstorm on paper as well. Also, her friends dislike her handwriting, I am the only one who likes my handwriting!

I love writing on paper because I love the smell of ink on paper, I am fascinated by the way the ink dries on paper.

"I buy notebooks wherever I go in the world. Just as each country has a different cuisine, each has a different notebook culture." I couldn't have said this better.

This article does not talk about online writing but there is one thing I would like to say, it doesn't matter if the piece we write is published online or offline it will still influence the public, therefore we should be careful about what we write and we should ALWAYS dounlecheck our sources.

Multimedia

Multimedia tools make a blog more interactive and appleaing for the reader. This does not mean that multimedia tools alone are enough to classify a blog as good; the content is just as important. Also, multimedia tools do not necessarily mean that a blog is credible.

Moving on, I think some of the effective multimedia tools are videos and images.

Here is an example of a blog which uses images and video.

http://ldvb.blogspot.ae/

This makes the blog more personal and grabs the attention of the reader. Note that this blog is by a personal who edits photos and shoots videos; however images and videos can be used in blogs discussing any topic.

Analyzing a blog

The blog I chose to analyze is:

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2013/07/qa-what-works-for-websites-today.html

The author of the blog is Seth Godin, who graduated from Tufts University with a degree in Computer Science and Philosophy. Godin also earned his MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business. Godin is the author of 11 books, one of his popular books is Permission Marketing. I am providing this information about the author to build his credibility, it is obvious that he is a Marketing and Computer expert.

In the blog post I chose to discuss Godin talks about a design book he wrote, The Big Red Fez. Basically, he is using his blog to promote the book and inform the audience about the content of the book. I like the fact that Godin mentions the thesis of the book in his blog, this summarizes what the book is going to be talking about.

Godin talks about the increasing number of bad sites and he mentions some sites are unnecessary. In my opinion this is true because at least once a day I come across a malfunctioning site. If people were to follow Godin's guidelines while building a website the number of unnecessary websites would decrease.

Mourning the Loss of a Sports Legend

Mourning the Loss of a Sports Legend

The longtime Penn State Coach, Joe Paterno, aged 85, who won more games than anyone in major college football passed away on January 22, 2012 at 9:25a.m.

The Pennsylvania hospital where Paterno died confirmed the cause of death as a spreading lung cancer.

ESPN reported that the Paterno family released a statement to announce their beloved  Joe's death:

"He died as he lived," the statement said. "He fought hard until the end, stayed positive, thought only of others and constantly reminded everyone of how blessed his life had been. His ambitions were far reaching, but he never believed he had to leave this Happy Valley to achieve them. He was a man devoted to his family, his university, his players and his community."

Paterno had been hospitalized in December after breaking his pelvis in a fall at his home. In January he was hospital bound once again for what his son called "minor complications from his cancer treatments."

Peterno had a very tight bond with his player and football fans who used to call him "JoePa". He was admired greatly for what he called his "Grand Experiment" - this experiment high-lights his expectations that big-time college football players can succeed on the professional fields while not compromising their academic and moral standards.

All of America mourns the death of an exceptional coach who became the winning coach in major college football history in 2011 with 409 victories. It is truly a devastating loss for everyone.

                                                                   ***END***

Facebook status post:

Our deepest condolences go to the Paterno family for the loss of Joe Paterno's life, the Penn State Coach who won more games than anyone in major college football. He was announced dead on January 22, 2013 at 9:25am. The Pennsylvania hospital where Paterno died confirmed the cause of death as a spreading lung cancer.



New Media

Nowadays we have many media tools that help us share information quikly and easily. Before discussing the tools I would use to share information if I worked at Dubai Cares, I'll tell you what Dubai Cares is all about.

"Dubai Cares is a philanthropical organization working to improve children's access to quality primary education in developing countries. Launched in September 2007 by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates and Ruler of Dubai, Dubai Cares expresses the UAE's commitment to achieving, by 2015, United Nations Millennium Development Goals (UN MDG) 2 and 3 - namely, to guarantee universal primary education and to promote gender equality, respectively. Dubai Cares is also helping to forge a global partnership for development, as represented by UN MDG 8."

Target audience: general public

Message for the audience: encourage the public to volunteer in projects that will help children to get a better education. By helping for an hour, you're saving a child's future.

The media tools I would use are:

1- Twitter
Twitter is very convenient and it has a limit of 140 characters per tweet. I think that is good because the message will be brief and to the point. It is a great tool for an organization like Dubai Cares because it is free and it has a very high reach. People on the go can access it through their smartphones. It is also possible to post photos on twitter. Also there is the hashtag tool and if enough people hashtag Dubai Cares then it will be trending and that in itself is great publicity.
2- Social Networking Sites (Facebook)
Almost everyone, young or old, is a Facebook user. Different people use it for various purposes. Some use it to stay in touch with friends and family who are far away, others use it to make new friends, still others use it to share information. I think Facebook has a very high reach and the great thing about it is if you post something you want to share with your friends, it appears on their newsfeed and it is hard for them to ignore it. Also, Facebook is very convenient since it is available on smartphones as well and can people on the go can access it. In the case of Dubai Cares, the organization can post about upcoming events and inform the public how to register to become volunteers. Also, they can post pictures of past events and the public will be more interested in attending their future events.

3- Mobile
I think this is one of the most effective tools to share information because:
I) people travel with it and check it regularly
II) there is more than one way of sharing information (Text messaging/whatsapp/BBM/Bluetooth)
III) sharing videos, audios and texts are possible
IV) most of the methods of sharing information is free
V) most people have internet access on their phone, which means they can check their emails, blogs etc...
Dubai Cares can send a simple SMS to its database regarding a project and ask interested people to register as volunteers. It's simple, easy and convenient.

Credibility of Sources

For this blog post, I decided to choose an article from The Huffington Post. Below is a link to the article:

Supreme Court Rejects Petition To Halt Gay Marriages In California

The first thing that I noticed is that the site is a commercial site, a newspaper, which means it has to make profit and not everything written should be considered true.

The second thing that grabbed my attention is that the article is written under "Gay Voices" which states that this piece is an opinion about issues related to gay people. This clearly shows that the article might not be completely factual.

To further clarify if the source is reliable or not, I decided to research the author: Mollie Reilly. She has a BA in Political Science, and English from Colgate University and she graduated magna cum laude. She has also held many posts before becoming the Deputy Politics Editor at The Huffington Post. She used to be an Assistant Editor at Washingtonian Magazine, a Politics Intern and so on. This shows that she has worked her way up the career ladder. 

Moving on, I decided to review some of the other articles she has written; most of her articles are under the political section and she has a few under "Gay Voices". 

Some of Mollie's sources include:

- The Wall Street Journal's Law Blog: even though I felt the language is harsh in the article but it provides the compliant filed, which adds to the credibility of the article.

- Los Angeles Times: a commercial newspaper but the story is compatible with the first source.

- adfmedia.org (In The Supreme Court of the United States): an organization site; this source is a research that enlightens the reader about some of the laws of the U.S.

- The Sacramento Bee: another commercial site; but once again the facts mentioned match.

- The Huffington Post: 2 articles from the Politics section of the Huffington Post are cited as well.

After all the information provided, I think the story is accurate since multiple sources are provided and the story checks out. 

The only other thing that I would love to know is Mollie's sexual orientation, just out of curiosity. 

YOU HAVE ONE NEW NOTIFICATION!

One of the things I learned today via Facebook is the following:

"Dennis Sammut"

Retweeted BBC Breaking News (@BBCBreaking):

The Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, hands over power to his son"

Dennis Sammut is on my friend's list on Facebook and he tweeted about the ruler of Qatar. However, I saw the news on Facebook because he has synced his Twitter account with his Facebook account. Technology nowadays works like magic. 

Social media can be reliable to obtain news sometimes, however it should not be our main source for information. As we discussed last week, there are no hard guidelines for new media and this allows the public to post all sorts of information on such sites. This does not mean everything on social media is false but it means we need to be cautious and assess the information we get from there.

In general, I don't log in to social media accounts to acquire news, I log in to see what my friend's are up to and entertain myself. When I want to know about a specific incident then I visit news channels like bloomberg, reuters and so on. 

"Whoever controls the media, controls the mind." - Jim Morrison

New media has become a constant in almost everybody's life. The reason behind this is that it's free and it allows the public to express their opinions freely. Another advantage of new media is that it is very fast, almost instant! A person updates their Facebook status and all their friends are aware of that update because nowadays Facebook can be accessed through smartphones, not only computers.

I use Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, and Blackboard through my laptop and smartphone. Also, I use the iPod in the gym. These are the channels that I use on a daily basis.

The influence of new media is tremendous on all people; people do not only rely on newspapers for the news and TV is not their only source of entertainment. New media has made instant communication possible even when there are thousands of miles between individuals. In addition, it is changing the traditional education system by making online education possible. Students are more likely to pay attention when technology is used in education because it is something they can relate to.

However, this does not mean that there are no negative influences of new media. It is easy to manipulate children and media-illiterate people using social networking websites. At the end of the day new media is just a tool and how you use it makes all the difference in the world.