Bubbl.us map of debate over C & I moving to St. Paul

College of Education and Human Development, University of Minnesota

74-365 - 3/14/08 South Minneapolis Sunrise

74-365 - 3/14/08 South Minneapolis Sunrise
Originally uploaded by The Joy Of The Mundane

This photo is about south Minneapolis; it has a Creative Commons copyright.

College of Education and Human Development, University of Minnesota

Minneapolis Skyline from Dinkytown

Minneapolis Skyline from Dinkytown
Originally uploaded by dgwallick1

This photo was taken on September 9th from the 14th St. bridge in Dinkytown looking at the Minneapolis skyline,

Photo taken by Doug Wallack, Minneapolis Skyline from Dinkytown, Creative Commons copyright

Competing media perspectives on the facts

It's interesting to study how different groups' perceive the same information differently. One factor in this process has to with what could be defined as the balkanization of groups into niche media audiences.

Arguments in the media often revolves around persons’ identification with the values of certain groups as “one of us” set against the values of opposing groups. For example, in her acceptance speech for the Vice-Presidential nominee of the Republican Party, Governor Sarah Palin identified herself with the values of rural, small-town people as contrasted with the values of urban liberals. Focusing on one’s identification with certain values shifts the focus away from analysis of the validity of policy positions to audience’s emotional identification with a speaker as “one of us” or not “one of us” associated with certain constituencies, rather than learning about and accepting or rejecting policy positions that might lead to changes in their own positions.

Acquiring knowledge about and accept alternative positions is further limited by media audiences identifying with and believing only those media outlets or blogs whose perspectives are consistent with their own beliefs. While American audiences largely acquired their news from the same outlets in the 1940s to the 1970s: CBS, NBC, ABC, the AP, and major newspapers, since the 1980s, the news has increasingly been channeled and filtered by outlets such as Fox News, Russ Limbaugh, the Wall Street Journal or MSNBC, CNN, or the Huffington Post targeted to certain niche audiences who then adopt the beliefs espoused by these outlets (Manjoo, 2008).
Audiences therefore construct their beliefs about information on issues according their identification with their particular values groups—“conservative Republicans,” “environmentalists,” “libertarians,” “liberal Democrats,” etc., associated with and constructed by specific media outlets. An analysis of Fox News, Russ Limbaugh, the Wall Street Journal, characterized these outlets as “echo chambers” in that these outlets restrict access to alternative, competing news sources and negatively portray political opponents (Jamieson & Cappella, 2008).

These different audiences then adopt opposing beliefs about the same empirical information. A study by the Pew Research Center (2006) compared beliefs about the economy by Democrats’ and Republicans’ earning over $75,000 (Manjoo, 2008). While two-thirds of Republicans believed had positive views of the economy, only one-third of Democrats had positive views, views that echo the perspectives they obtain through their particular media outlet.

When faced with proposals to change the status quo, audiences then judge these proposals not according to an objective analysis of evidence, but according to their media outlet’s filtered presentation of that evidence consistent with that outlet’s values stances. While any media presented is always going to reflect certain biases, the construction of competing media world views has created polarization of how people understand societal issues, undermining achieving of consensus on how to address those issues.

Jamieson, K. H., & Cappella, J. N. (2008). Echo chamber: Rush Limbaugh and the conservative media establishment. New York: Oxford University Press
Manjoo, F. (2008). True enough: Learning to live in a post-fact society. New York: John Willy & Sons, Inc.
Pew Research Center. (2006). Democrats and Republicans see different realities: Profiling the voters. Retrieved September 14, 2008 from http://pewresearch.org/pubs/86/democrats-and-republicans-see-different-realities

Interesting photo

This photo of a woman's gravestone was taken by my wife (who granted me permission to use it) in a graveyard in Johnstown, PA, when she was visiting the graves of her parents.

What's interesting about this photo is that this woman, Carylyn Clark, is still alive--she was born in 1959--so she is currently 49 years old. What's also interesting is that her sister--who is 48 years old, is also included.

The woman also includes that fact that she was the "5 time PA. state baton champion," as evident in her picture holding one of her trophies.

I'm wondering why someone who is relatively young would have already created a gravestone for herself, as well as for her sister, as well as written part of her obituary that references her primary achievement in life as being a baton champion.

Perhaps she wanted to make sure that when she does die, that her gravestone has already been created so that no one else need to do that for her or spend the money on a gravestone. Perhaps she wanted to make sure that she will be remembered for being the "5 time PA. state baton champion," certainly no mean feat.

How people think about or cope with their inevitable death is always a complex mystery, but we do know that when Carolyn Clark does die, that she will be remember for what she was, "5 time PA. state baton champion"

Kate's Use of Small Group Blogs

In her Sept. 9 post, Kate talked about the idea of having small groups of 5 students create blogs, some that would work really well. This serves to foster collaborative writing that goes beyond just one student blogging, yet with five students, the collaboration should be manageable. It may also work better than a single class blog, which can become overwhelming for students if you have a large class. And, it fosters the use of small-group work.

Evernote for keeping track of items

Ray on The Tech Teachers was raving about the use of Evernote for keeping track of a lot of different material from the Web stored in notebooks. For example, if one wants to buy an item pictured on the Web, Evernote stores an image and information about that item in a notebook such as "things to buy" that can then be called up on a computer or iPhone. It can also be used to store pictures taken with a cell phone, for example, some notes taken in class or at a meeting.

These notebooks therefore serve as storage folders for use in storing material on the web--a nice features as opposed to storing them on a computer (in case of a computer crash).