The Blurring of Lines

Eric Trager's blog "Palin at Fox Will Blur the Line Between News Analysis and Politicking" is an engaging article meant for those with their own strong political views. The blog also caters more to the democratic side of politics. The title of the blog mentions Sarah Palin, later mentions Mike Huckabee's show as terrible, and indicates that Fox News' integrity should be questioned with three republicans on its payroll. The blog brings up an evermore popular idea, having politicians as newscasters. The blog criticizes this trend because the author, Eric Trager, says that it would be difficult to discern between real news and the newscasters political agenda. Because the blog is written in an informative but casual tone, the blog becomes very compelling and the author seems more believable. This is also enhanced by the layout of the webpage. The page is set up like a newspaper article, with links on the sides and bottom to other political articles and videos. These other sources of information create a sense that this blog is a trustworthy political blog. Because of all these factors, the fact that this article was a blog does not affect my belief that it is trustworthy. In this case, since the blog is published on a news website, it is no different than an editorial in a newspaper. The analysis of this blog is very similar to the ones in class as in every analysis we've done, we have looked at different aspects of the media and talked about how they can be interpreted and who they are meant to be interpreted by.

Refrigerator Impressions

Everyone has heard that you can tell a lot about a person based on the contents of the refrigerator, right? Well, maybe no one has heard that before, but you are able to guess a lot about someone based on these contents. Lets consider the contents of my refrigerator for a moment: milk, water, pop, with tv dinners in the freezer. From these, people would be able to tell that I don't really cook much, but when I do it usually involves sticking a frozen tray into the microwave. It would reasonable to think that I am lazy based on only having tv dinners, and one wouldn't be completely wrong to think that. Of course I am lazy, what human isn't to some extent? I am not lazy in every aspect of my life, just in things that do not really matter and therefore are not worth exerting matter, like cooking. The milk might suggest that I like cereal, which I do, but when I eat it I prefer to eat it without the milk (the milk makes the cereal too soggy). The food found in my refrigerator does not tell my entire store though, I actually do enjoy a variety of food. The contents of my refrigerator might suggest that I am a bland person because I do not have very much variety in my refrigerator, but I do not think I am a bland person. So if you ever go over to someone's house and see their refrigerator, do not make any quick judgements because they might be wrong.

First Day

The Time person of the year in 2006 was a very interesting choice compared to David Brooks' article "The Outsourced Brain". Brooks' article brought up an interesting point, but a point that cannot really be pursued. In the article he basically said that technology was making the younger generation of people lazier and stupider. While this may be true, no one is going to stop technology from eventually taking over peoples' brains. The contrast between the article and the Time cover is what makes Time's person of the year in 2006, "You." so compelling. The cover implies that everyone has the power to do what they want and can influence future technology, differing from the article saying technology controls us. In the end, you can't stop the growth of technology, so why not just try to make the best of it and maybe discover the technology that will totally take over brains and make David Brown, I mean Brooks, happy.