#en3177 Project Proposal…. the begining of the end.

Okay, guys. This is my first attempt at my project proposal for my Weblogs and Wikis class, the class that forced me to fall in love, for better or for worse, with electronic media of all sorts. My iPhone is a godsend and a curse, but I go on Facebooking, Twittering, Instagramming, Pinteresting, and etc.ing…. You get the drift. Anyway- if you’re reading this, you should know that I intend to keep this blog well after I finish this class. I want to alway update my FIRST EVER BLOG. I don’t even remember what my first email address was. I want to not only remember my first blogosphere experience, as rocky as it has been, but to KEEP UPDATING MY FIRST EVER BLOG REGULARLY, for as long as I possibly can. I know. I’m weird.

 

So here’s the proposal. My poli sci roots are so tingly

This is what I will be working on for the rest of the semester. I welcome any and all feedback, but please- I spent two days in an airport in Houston this week, so go easy on me:

 
Project Proposal
ENGL 3177

Email Address and URL for project

My Email
Project Blog
My Twitter

Title

Discovering Bias Patterns in Old and New Media

Executive Description

I will watch MSNBC and Fox News at 6 am and 10 pm daily and post intriguing events to my Twitter and Facebook. I will review my Twitter and Facebook feedback and record it on my WordPress blog; the conclusion of each WordPress blog post will reflect on how the project and posting/feedback process oon Twitter and Facebook affects me personally (how keeping up on current events affects my life).

Narrative

I am going to watch the 6 am news and 10 pm news on both MSNBC and Fox News. Historically, these news channels are on different ends of the politcial spectrum, with MSNBC on the left and Fox News leaning fairly into the hard right.
I intend to document and record the reports that I see on my personal Facebook and Twitter accounts so that I can track my feedback and possibly detect patterns in Old and New Media. I will see if my New media posts are attracting attention via my left or right posts (depending on which news channel’s reports I will post about.)
I believe this experiment is possible, as there are individuals on both my Twitter and Facebook whom I have not met face to face. For example, there is a friend on my Facebook account that I have never met face to face whom has far-right political views, while I personally have fairly id left views. For this reason, I am going to keep my WordPress blog conclusions for recording how the project is affefcting my personal life.
This project will be unique in the fact that I am integrating it into my personal life. I know that I have Facebook friends and Twitter followers, whom I do not know, who have very differnet political views and will comment on my posts. I will follow the bias that I notice in the old media (news channels) and track my feedback from my new media, in order to track the political bias in both types of media.

This project is going to affect my personal life, as I have always wanted to be hyperaware of current events. Too often I feel myself absorbed into the Bemidji Bubble. It will be nice to branch out. However, I am prepared to deal with any backlash the project may cause, because my political science background is quite interested in the main idea of the project: new and old biased media.

Weekly Report

I will watch MSNBC News at 6 am and 10 pm and Fox News at 6am and 10 pm ( I have a DVR, a necessary tool for this type of research, so this is a realistic proposal).
I will post on my personal Twitter and Facebook accounts on various news content from the news channels I will be observing.
I will keep a weekly blog for recording any and all bias patterns that I may find between the two news channels, any and all patterns I view in feedback from Twitter and Facebook posts and also how this project is affecting my personal life. I think that this will be the most unique part of the project,. It will give my writing a personal touch that may connect with any readers the posts may attract. These blog posts will be once per week, on Sunday,

Contract for Grade

•750 pts (B) for a focused blog, including searching for subjects to blog on (online or off), with links to online material when appropriate, 3 – 4 times a week, about 500 words or so a day. For a wiki, focused, well-linked.

I will post on Facebook and Twitter 4-5 times per day and write a well detailed weekly report on WordPress.com. On the side, I will be keeping very detailed notes in order to find any patterns in my posts/feedback.

Calendar

I’m getting a late start, so starting from tomorrow March 15 to Monday April 2 I should have a culmination of 95 posts between Facebook and Twitter, related to the news I watch at 6 am and 10 pm. I will most likely do two posts in the morning and two posts at night, one on each Facebook and Twitter.

I will have three well detailed blog posts reflecting on my observations and how the project is affecting my personal life.

By April 16th I will have doubled the posts on all media sources and begin to work the observations into a
well sorted conclusion.
By April 25, because I the late start, I will try to have made an additional 20 posts while finalizing the project and drafting a final WordPress blog on my observations in any bias patterns I have found between my old and new media sources.

My presentation on finals day will consist of a background of how the project started, how it progressed and what I got out of it. I will review my final WordPress blog, which will be 1000-2000 words.

Wikis and Levinson on Wikipedia

Levinson informs us that Wikipedia came online in January of 2001 by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger, the former still playing a huge role in the administration of the site.

Levinson gives us an idea of what is good and what is bad about Wikipedia. He uses ideas and terms such as Inclusionists vs Exclusionists, informs us of identity problems on the site, gives an overview of how you can become banned from the site, tells us how to look at the history of a post and compares this form of new new media to old media in its ability to reach around gatekeepers.

Inclusionists vs Exclusionists:

Inclusionists are those editors that feel all posts should be kept and expanded upon, even if the post is in need of mass amounts of editing.

Exclusionists: There are two categories here: An exclusionist will want to limit entries based on their relevance. Deletionist are interested in completely deleting a post that they deem irrelevant rather than having it edited by those who do deem it relevant and necessary information to obtain. It is a case of Knowledge Vandals vs Keepers of the Truth. In my opinion, exclusion is necessary in order for posts to remain clutter-free and as factual as possible.

 

Levinson on Twitter

 

 

 

In chapter eight of New New Media, Levinson moves from a mutual love of Myspace and Facebook an onto a brand new obsession.

Levinson is convinced that Twitter is the greatest thing since grape gum and I must say that in this case, I agree!

I held off from joining Twitter for a long time. I thought that Twitter was better left for the celebrities who could Tweet about a hair cut or a particularly horrible experience they have had with the press. They could keep their twitter-wars. Facebook has always been my social medium home. But, alas, my electronic writing courses demanded that I make a Twitter account. I did it, just so I could check for cancelled classes.

Now I am a Tweeter. A Twitterer? Well, you know.

AND… I love it. I enjoy following others more than I enjoy being followed right now, but I also am secretly excited when I notice that I have new followers. It’s exciting to think that someone saw me because of something that I posted and they liked it so much that they just had to follow me around and wait for me to say more  cool things. Its a fun form of communication.

Anyway- Levinson talks about Twitter being the  bee’s knees new new media, bringing mini-comm to justice, and generally allowing mass communication and interpersonal communication to flow harmoniously in one fantastic feed. It’s lovely, really.

Levinson also suggests that Twitter resembles its ancestor, the telegraph. He also comments on how old and new media work together, ie the talking heads tweeting on Fox.

Levinson Chapter Seven: Facebook

This chapter should have been titled How Levinson Loves Myspace and Facebook Equally.

I disagree with the point Levinson makes about humans enjoying their first experience more than subsequent experiences. I started using Myspace in 2006, at the end of my junior year in high school,  because my best friend  had moved back from Minneapolis and decided one day to show me how much work fun it is to “decorate” your profile page. I will admit that this was exciting to me, because at the time I was obsessed with scrapbooking (give me a break, I am a mom you know). Myspace allowed me to “scrapbook” in a sense, without the mess and with a large audience to enjoy and complement my hard work. At the time, this was fun. A year later, I was bored. I made a Facebook page and slowly stopped using Myspace, as I had all the same friends on Facebook. I deleted my Myspace page by the end of 2007 and never looked back. I use my Facebook page ono a daily basis. To me, Facebook is important because it allows me to keep up with friends and family from long distances. I also favor the simplicity of Facebook over the cluttered feel of the  profile pages on Myspace.

 

Levinson says that he has thousands of Friends on both Myspace and Facebook, but he only knows a few hundred on each in “real life”. This is telling me that Levinson and I used the social mediums in very different ways, so what he is saying really has nothing to do with the way I personally use these mediums. Perhaps a reason for this is the fact that the text is presently four years old, but I am not sure. What do you think?

Levinson suggests that if you do not want something embarrassing online, do not post it in the first place. This is maybe not as easily done as he may be suggesting. Any malicious idiot with a basic understanding of the internet can take an embarrassing photo of you, tag it with your name and post it on the internet. In this case, what can you really do about if/when you decided to become a Professional Internet User? Levinson is correct when he points out that some amount of any online cleanup you attempt to perform is in vain, but to say that you should not post it in the first place is to say that you will be the only person posting things about yourself, ever. This is simply untrue in my opinion.

Getting My Proverbial Bearings…

So this is taking some time. As everything does in my life. Having two kids means that my full time college demands go on the back burner and going to the laundromat, making dinner and bathing the baby come first. Also, my son Aden’s first grade class sends a ‘homelink’ to be completed every night. If your kid turns their homework in on time, their name is entered into a drawing  every week. I don’t know what the prize is, but you can be damn sure that his homework is done every night, while mine often times is not. Fear not, my fellow #en3177 and #en4169 classmates. I promise to catch on quickly.

So far I have become addicted to Twitter for this class, and will soon be getting an iPhone to fuel this addiction. For this, in my opinion, I deserve an A.

I’ve become hyperaware of the SOPA/PIPA problem, and have engrossed myself in tweets by Anonymous. Like I said, addicted.

Breakin’ Dishes

There is a song by Rihanna about a woman who finds that her partner has been unfaithful. So she decides to pour bleach on his clothes and light them on fire, all while breakin’ dishes, breakin’ dishes. I encourage you to review the lyrics if you feel the need.

There was, believe it or not, a point to that introduction. This was my  theme song this morning. This is not to say that I found my husband to be unfaithful,  I am simply not, and never will be, a morning person. This is alright with me. However, I am also not a thrower of things. When angry, I try to walk away from my own possessions. I work hard for the things I own. But sometimes, Rihanna’s words sneak across my mind and all of a sudden most of my kitchen plates are in tiny shards across the floor and I am hyperventilating and snotting all over.

No matter what hip hop diva makes it seem like a good idea to relieve your anger by breaking dishes, it really is NOT a good idea to break your own dishes. Walk away, take a deep breath.

Unless, of course you would like to bash your head against the proverbial wall all day because of it.

Remember that you WILL have to replace pay to replace those broken dishes when you’re done breakin’ them.

Testing.. One, Two.

First blog post.

EVER.

So…

… Here we go!

I’m kidding of course. It’s the middle of the night.

To be continued.