Interesting theory about news April 17, 2009
Posted by midnightzimadreams in Education, Grad school, Media, New Media, Superfluous musings.add a comment
A friend had an interesting point about newspapers today. We were talking about the speed with which newspapers are closing up shop these days; how 2-3 years ago the expectation was that the huge dailies (NYT-caliber) and the ultra-local small papers will survive, while everything else will be extinct thanks to declining subscriptions and advertising rates (cragislist killed the paid classifieds, which is – surprisingly – even more important than glossy ads for many print publicatons). Today, it turns out even older generation readers are canceling their ultra-local newspaper subscriptions because they get all their “news” online. Even highly educated friends of mine are enamoured with the “news” they have access to at their fingertips, 24/7, video virtually as-it-happens, and they like being able to participate in the “news”-shaping and read mostly blogs, etc. But then I have to stop and think about it – are they really getting “news” in the strict definition of the term? They are certainly getting a lot more commentary and even pure value-deprived entertainment… at least based on what I was taught in j-school just four years ago. So why are people so quick to embrace all of this other stuff that’s marketed as “news.” Well, partly because it’s tailored to their world view and interests (narrowly focused topic-based blogs, entertianing vidoes, slanted media outlets (read: Fox, MSNBC, Air America, etc.). But partly because it’s all become so ubiquitos and we’ve all become so impatient.
When the plane recently crashed in the Hudson, I remember a PR colleague say he specifically experimented with tracking all the blogs, i-reporter style web sites, various other online outlets and the big ones – i.e. the old school journalism outlets… Turns out NYT.com was the last of the bunch to upload a story. Why? Because their reporters, despite witnessing the event as-it-happened, did some journalism – they called sources in the mayor’s office, the fire department, first responders, etc. and tried to gather and confirm facts. Everyone else beat them – eyewitnesses with video-capturing cell phones who uploaded nearly real-time, etc.
At any rate, I have recently been wondering a lot about how quickly things are shifting in the communications industry. When I started in PR 2.5 years ago, we were targeting top outlets for the highest impact, most top-tier readers reached, etc. Now, we tout targeting the narrowest of publications, the most niche blogs, because readership continues to splinter into interest groups and that’s where the most powerful impact can take place.
My friend’s point was that perhaps it will take a cataclismic event, a rock-bottom of sorts, that will help people see what they’re truly being fed as “news” and only then will we as readers and consumers revive our thirst for fact-checking, balanced journalism. (The real kind, now “fair and balanced” as in Fox branding.) It’s interesting isn’t it? She even compared it to the economy with a metaphor – both will hit rock bottom (as they are spiraling out of control now) before we see a curve toward recovery.
I think this is fascinating time. Part of me wants to be in grad school to observe and analyze… but perhaps a bigger part of me wants to be in the business itself, participating, being part of the changes, truly working in, with, and during these unprecedented and increasingly faster changes. Fascinating.
BBC World Have Your Say discussion on language March 19, 2009
Posted by midnightzimadreams in Civics, Education, International Relations, Language, Life, Superfluous musings.2 comments
This is driving me crazy! The discussion stemmed from a postmaster in England, who (himself an immigrant) refuses to serve customers who can’t speak English because they tend to slow down the line and infuriate English-speaking customers who are in a hurry.
There are so many ignorant assumptions going into the argument for “forcing” immigrants to learn English (or whatever the local language of the host country is). First of all, you cannot force anyone to do anything they don’t want to do. After all, these host countries pride themselves in freedom of choice and expression, right?
Another assumption is that those people who do not speak the local language are choosing not to learn it. From my own immigrant experience I know that there are a million invisible reasons but very rarely is the reason that the individual is stubbornly refusing to put in an effort. Some of the discussion did go into the issues of cultural supression – for example in some instances women who are in forced marriages are held back by their own compatriots in order to control and suppress them – because language is power and liberation and would allow them to seek their rights.
People are just lazy?! Really!? An immigrant who took the plunge into moving to a new country (and often a new continent) went through a lot of trouble to get to where they are and have immense goals and aspirations. But the problem actually is that they work minimum wage jobs (like my father who started his career in the US working in a wood shop, wearing ear plugs 8 hours a day in the midst of loud machine noise). After a communication-deprived job for sometimes over-time, long days, they come home beaten and defeated, go to a restaurant where an arrogant owner sends them rudely away… well, what more in terms of motivation, energy, and drive do they need to keep defeating the continuing and omnipresent negative feedback and discouragement. How about some positive reinforcement and encouragement?
People are just stupid!? Wow! This has got to be the most ignorant (and stupid) assumptions! My parents were both engineers when we first arrived in this country, with nearly a decade of experience in the field. And I, at 15, was the only person in the family who spoke enough English to enroll my sister and myself in school. That was hurtful to my parents but they kept on pushing themselves and it did take them much longer to learn the language then their intelligence and already existing education would suggest simply because they had a family with young children to look after and they had to take those hard jobs that required no langauge skills and therefore offered to opportunity to learn English during the majority of their time in the work week.
People don’t want to learn it if they have been here for many years and don’t speak it yet!? Are you kidding? It took my father several years to become comfortable ordering a meal at McDonald’s simply because of the stigma of speaking broken English with an accent and because of his innate shyness. Nowadays, he is completely comfortable in any social situation and works as an engineer communicating constantly by e-mail, phone and in person with colleagues and customers. Should he have been kicked out of the country a few months, a few years into his experience because he was lagging according to some people’s standard?
People should go back to where they came from if they don’t speak the language after x amount of time? Hmmmmm… What if they are not here by their completely free will (the forced marriages come to mind, the elderly people whose children have brought them here, etc.)? What if they are a productive member of society within an immigrant community (essentially an island of culture and language within the greater host country)?
I dispise the argument from some who say “if I went to another country, I would definitely learn the local language.” It’s laughable because in my experience 99.9% of the time such assertions come from people who’ve never been abroad for longer than a vacation and when they did travel for vacation they went to places where English (or their comfort language) was spoken. And sure, maybe they picked up a dictionary and tried to order a meal in the local tongue. I wish they tried to get a job with a dictionary in hand. Or register their child for school. Or apply for healthcare insurance.
Oh, I also hate the “it’s simple, they just need to know how to order a (insert a culturally typical meal choice here).” Really? Well, I’d like to see that commenter go to Turkey and order a local customary meal, if that’s so simple. How about the fact that the “simplest” of things are foreign and completely strange here – cereal simply does not exist as a breakfast food (or any other kind of food) in many corners of the world. That’s pretty simple and basic, right? Microwaves. Clothes dryers. Dishwashers. Big Mac. Commonplace, simple things, right?
These arguments don’t even touch on the fact that we live in a global village today. The Internet, television, phones, satellites, etc. have brough US culture to the farthest, most remotes part of the world – or so Americans like to believe (don’t even get me started on the term US citizens like to use to describe themselves, ignoring the fact Canadians and Brazillians are also, technically, Americans). So, since our culture is so ubiquitos, why shouldn’t everyone else learn our ways? What about us learning all the other ways? I bet we’d get smarter, our lives will be more enriched, we will be more sympathetic, respectful of, and impressed with those of our compatriots who grew up speaking Swahili or German.
There was a gentleman who owns a Philly cheese steak food place and who hung a sign in his establishment that if you cannot order in English, you’d be served whatever was next on the grill, even if it isn’t what you intended to order. He thought that refusing the serve a customer because of language barrier was going too far, but his other customers would grow frustrated during rush hour if he tried to help one of the non-English speaking folks in line. OK, so those customers should take the effort to learn how to order a Philly cheese steak (the owner says it’s very simple – just choose what cheese you want on it and if you want onions or not, but then again, as someone who’s lived in the US for 12 years but only on the west coast, I’d be far more confused the immigrants who’ve lived in Philly for a few weeks and have had that local delicassy). OK, fair enough. But did the owner put in the effort to post that sign in the several languages that are most common to the local immigrant communities
? That’s an actual question, I didn’t hear that detail in the discussion on the radio.
I could keep ranting on, but these are just a few of the conversations racing through my head (with myself and with some of the discussion participants while I was trying to calmly listen to all points of view in this radio broadcast.
Take it for what it is… November 4, 2008
Posted by midnightzimadreams in Civics, Education, Elections 2008, International Relations, Life, Reminiscing, Superfluous musings.add a comment
This is an excerpt from the personal testimony I submitted with my last tiny contribution to the Obama campaign sent online this weekend. I know there are a few typos and probably other errors, but I think it’s a good summary (albeit way too short) of reasons why I am so excited for tomorrow!
“I am saddened by the turn the country has taken since 2001. Sept. 11, 2001 was my first day of college classes and I was gripped by the attacks just like any other American, except I wasn’t yet a citizen and I felt the coldness toward recent immigrants almost paradoxically intertwined with the solidarity the country was experiencing. Today, I once again see hate and disillusionment bubbling up in the face of war, economic collapse, health care system deterioration, job loss, etc. This time, I have been inspired by the messages of hope and unity that the Barack Obama Presidential campaign has brought forth. I am confident an Obama/Biden administration will restore the world’s confidence and favor of the United States and in turn that will mean growth for the economy in this increasingly globalized era. I also know the health care plan from the Obama/Biden camp is the best (not the ideal, as there is no such thing) solution for that crisis. Growing up in one extreme (socialized medicine) to living my high school, college and professional life thus far in the other (the closest thing to free-market health system with insurance and drug companies), I know the answer must be in a balanced system somewhere in between the two.
There are many other reasons why I admire the Obama/Biden ticket, not the least of them because they are honest with the American people and encourage us to take personal responsibility and make smarter choices in our daily lives – from parents actively engaging in their children’s education to re-learning how to live within our means… But ultimately, I am simply lifted by the future-driven direction an Obama/Biden administration would take the country, by the unifying power of the messaging (bringing together all Americans, from all walks of life, experiences, backgrounds and aspirations), and by the positive, issues-focused political campaign so successfully run (with new and social media tactics that speak to the globalized, digitized youth)!”
Shotgun weddings are OK, but birthcontrol is not? September 1, 2008
Posted by midnightzimadreams in Education, Elections 2008, Family, Life.add a comment
Gov. Sarah Palin taught her daughter well. Birthcontrol is sinful. Shotgun weddings are face-saving. I have all the respect for the family’s decision and unconditional love for their 17-year-old kid and the kid’s baby. But, how can Palin be “proud” – her words – of her daughter when the teenager had premerital sex… Hmm, Palin is pro-life and anti-birhtcontrol, but obviously failed to teach her own children abstinence before marraige. That sounds to me like parental failure and even more poignant when it comes from a pro-life, anti-pill mom who advocates these two views for all women. It’s merely the hypocricy of the situation that bothers me. I understand the plea for privacy and I don’t care for this announcement to put the spotlight on the candidate’s daughter. What saddens me and what I think people must take into consideration is that this vice presidential candidate highlights her family values as possibly her most compelling asset and yet her own child seems to have been in need of more education on family planning. If she can’t instill these values within her own family, what gives her the right or the skillset to advocate them for everyone else.
Non-fiction summer reading July 8, 2008
Posted by midnightzimadreams in Education, Life, Reading, Superfluous musings.add a comment
I doubt I’ll get to these myself, but I heard interviews about them on NPR at lunchtime today and picked up a couple of interesting morsels, so I’d recommend at least exploring them:
I also heard an interesting story on the housing market in Bulgaria on NPR’s Day to Day show. Listen here.
Belated Obama speech notes April 24, 2008
Posted by midnightzimadreams in Education, Elections 2008, Family, Grad school, Life, New Media, Reminiscing, Superfluous musings, Writing.add a comment
Been meaning to translate the few notes I had jotted down about Obama’s speech on race in the United States into typed words… and the notepad sheets have been sitting on my desk for weeks now. First of all – note that video on the Barack Obama web site is a YouTube video of the CNN footage – just pointing that out as a new media enthusiast and Wikinomics reader. 
Now to my thoughts, randomly jotting down about the time of the speech – mid-March:
I would love to have analyzed the speech from pure rhetoric theory because his speeches are usually written as textbook examples of following basics that enhance the message and complement an otherwise inspirational delivery (starting with a hook, weaving through reoccurring themes, starting and beginning with the same topic to frame the speech in a whole and bring it to a natural conclusion - and a slew of other techniques (like anecdotes, jokes, etc.) that make the speech so much easier to follow and engaged with). But I won’t go down that path because I am rusty and to begin with I only had the 101 speech class knowledge to rely on.
The white grandmother anecdote make some cringe. They wouldn’t do that to their grandmothers – embarrass them like that in front of the whole nation, critics said. The story was genuine, it was about “covert” racism, the kind that is not on the surface or even recognized by the person wielding it. I wondered about that too. There is a person in my immediate family who I could say a lot of the same about, on a very similar, close-to-heart story. But would I? Actually, I would. I don’t see why not. I don’t see how making the anecdote public is condemning them as a bad person. Everyone has some bias or another. But all has to be put in context of each person’s unique world view. Otherwise, we would all be hypocrites.
Obama did put the story of his white grandmother in context. And I am glad he did so. It is a much more common story nowadays with so many mixed couples of so many different backgrounds, and certainly not just in the United States.
Obama put the story of his grandmother in context like he put the story of his pastor in context – he grew up in an era of suppression of black people’s potential and opportunities. There are certain attitudes in my family I dislike as well, but I am not about to disown them. I know the context in which they were raised and their world views formed (in Bulgaria), my world view is a product of theirs and my own experiences – it’s a new prism (Bulgaria, the United States and brief trips to many other countries only since 2004 – until then I only knew these aforementioned two countries… odd isn’t it?).
I took issue not with his mention of his grandmother’s bias, but with his comment about jobs abroad. The thought of a protectionist president in today’s global and vibrant economy just leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
Listening to his speech gave me a new wave of ideas for a book or thesis – perhaps something I can work on after grad school acceptance when I’m more relaxed about my future but still with some buffer time before I tackle it head-on.
racism/Obama’s experience & world viewe/speech/immigration/my experience & world view/global economy
I look back at my own past attitudes and the growth and learning I’ve experienced consciously and subconsciously and it scares me somewhat. I tell the anecdote of the African exchange students (college level) at the public transportation bus stop outside the English language high school and my classmates’ hurtful comments; I also frequently share the story about a journalism teacher who really pushed me to look inside myself and recognize those learning moments in my first weeks in the United States when I met people of different ethnicities and cultures for the first time. Those memories are insightful but also bitter and painful because they prove I wasn’t perfect and by extrapolation it means that I may not be at the end of that journey yet – and that’s what truly scares me.
Wikinomics inspiration April 17, 2008
Posted by midnightzimadreams in Education, New Media.add a comment
When I grow up, I want to be like Don Tapscott (or Thomas Friedman). I’m fascinated by new media, new technologies and how they are changing the world – how we communicate with each other, how we collaborate, etc. I want to look at the anecdotes and zoom out to the true bird’s eye view and paint theories and make futuristic predictions. I want to write in an accessible way (like Friedman) with a depth-academic and analytical approach (like Tapscott). Wikinomics is much for an academic text (an organized so, definitely reads as if written by a think-tank CEO). But Tapscott himself is a dyanamic, funny, and engaging speaker. He got back to his perceived absent-minded, distant writer-self that I imagined while he was going the booksigning after his talk.
All in all, a very inspirational experience. A lady I talked to afterwards also agreed – she started reading his book, first chapter only so far, as part of a grad school class and thought he was a much better speaker than his book was written in (as far as voice/tone of the book and dynamic nature of the presentation).
It’s been a great two weeks of inspiration, attending events, networking, connecting and reconnecting with people, trends, academia and I am drinking it all up! Hope the momentum keeps up as I go forward with a GRE class later this month.
Girls vs. Boys March 2, 2008
Posted by midnightzimadreams in Education, Grad school, Life, Superfluous musings.1 comment so far
Why is it usually we say “boys vs. girls”? It comes natural, like man and woman, husband and wife, brother and sister. But that’s all a tangent … heh, I’m starting this entry with a tangent to the actual entry.
I’ll admit, I didn’t read the full article yet, but I have to put my thoughts down before I finish or else my mind will wander into so many different facets of the issue, I will forget some of my original reactions or get discouraged by realizing just how many arguments I would like to bring into my writing…
One of the things I’ve thought about studying in grad school is education – comparing education practices and results from different cultures, different nations, different continents. I was very curious in the motivation for a certain school district superintendent (I covered the education beat at a community newspaper for about a year) required all of his administrative staff, including all principals at all schools – elementary-through-secondary level – read Thomas L. Friedman’s “The World Is Flat.” I read it sometime after I left my newspaper job, and I took up his enthusiasm. I loved that a U.S. superintendent was inspired, motivated, and ambition-driven thanks to a parallel of education elsewhere…
But this New York Times article really did take me by surprise. I am certain there is research supporting what is commonly known already – that girls and boys, in the context of a gross generalization, learn differently. After all, they are socialized differently (and arguably hardwired differently). Makes sense. But separating them in classrooms by gender?!
When I was growing up in Bulgaria I was always in the most competitive schools, in the most competitive class in my grade (in great part owing to a stubborn and relentless mother). And in many ways I was a typical girl, I suppose. I was shy around boys, painfully so in parts of my childhood (~5-7 grade… with few exceptions and a bit less so in the first two years in high school – prep year when we studied only a foreign language and few other subjects, and 8th grade). Girls, I believe one of the arguments goes, are less likely to be vocal in class and are called on less frequently. Well, the school system I was brought up in is based not only on tests (not multiple choice, mind you!) and essays you write either at home or in the classroom as a sort of test, plus consistent homework that is corrected and graded, but also at least one, sometimes more of your several grades per class per term are based on oral examination. If you are being examined (oh, such a dreaded thing, but inevitable), you and maybe one or two more students, are on the spot all day in that class. The teacher drills you with questions on back lessons as well as the most recent one; lectures on the new one, and still might throw a few questions your way just to keep you unnerved. All the while you’re standing up while the rest of the class is sitting – or, if it’s a math, chemistry or physics class, you are on the board solving a problem in front of everyone and answering questions on theorems and formulas (or showing the path of such and such khan on an ancient map that doesn’t look anything like the country you’re familiar with (history) or pointing out different locations and talking about their climate, etc. on a current map (geography). Such an experience was dreaded by everyone, but it meant that it put everyone on the spot at some time or another and there was a lot of shared sympathy and no one was ever mean to anyone who did poorly on an oral exam.
The system meant girls got to talk in class and it really did break us into the bravery of raising our hands even when we weren’t examined. I thought back to those trying years and I don’t want to imaging what it would have been like if girls and boys were separated. I liked having an equal number of both in class – it taught me how boys reason by listening to their answers, it created lasting bonds and friendships with both girls and boys, for this shy girl. Overall, I think it was a rounding experience and I wouldn’t trade it in. Being in co-ed classrooms with boys also taught me how mean some of them can be and I am glad I learned a lesson like that as well, which gradually dissipated as I got into the higher high school grades and college.
However, that is my singular experience. And perhaps it skews my point of view much too much. Of course I also haven’t really studied the issues enough, and am not a trained educator myself. It just seems that if one of the arguments for separating girls and boys at school is that they have different social experiences, I have to wonder why that isn’t a reason for keeping them in the same classroom – to learn from each other and about each other as well as from their teachers.
