Citizen Journalism

"Blogs provide a means of publishing and distributing that is cheap and simple enough for everyone in the Western world to use directly, whether from home, school, the library or even a mobile phone." (pg. 85 Blogging) Before blogs the mainstream media was very much in control of the information that the public was receiving because they were the only entity that could pay for the costs of distributing the information. But blogs have become almost a check to the mainstream media by constantly questioning and disputing what the mainstream is presenting. Some people thought that blogs were a threat to journalism but I see them as a positive for a couple of reasons. Blogs have the big advantage of giving you first-hand reports from people that are experiencing the events as they are unfolding. Blogs can also give you more in depth information about a specific topic that the news has chosen not to cover or simple didn't cover enough. Finally blogs can also help you find information about a specific topic in one place through filterblogs.
Yoani Sanchez takes full advantage of all the possibilities a blog offers through her blog Generacion Y. She blogs about her life in Cuba and has a very critical stance towards her government and how they treat the people. She posts videos about her daily activities and gives people an inside look into what life is like in Cuba. Cuba is a country where the government controls much of what mainstream media distribution so Yoani Sanchez's blog gives insight into questions that aren't asked by the mainstream media. In this sense she is taking advantage of the freedom blogs give you even though often times it is not easy for her to post something she still updates her blog constantly.
Blogs have a lot to offer but you should not rely solely on blogs for all your information because that could be doing an injustice to yourself. The reason is that if you break it down blogs are usually run by people who don't have an specific training in the news sector. So these are normal people like you and me. That is not to say that there isn't valuable information in blogs but you should try to back up the information found in a blog against a credible news source if possible. For example if your rely solely on Yoani Sanchez's blog for information about Cuba you will have a very specific idea of Cuba as a country. Because it is her blog she can write whatever she wants and she has chosen to use her blog to talk about issues that the Cuban government either ignores or doesn't represent the right way. Her blog paints the Cuban government in a negative light most of the time. I am not saying her blog should be ignored but you can not rely on her blog alone for information about Cuba especially if you don't know anything else about Cuba.
I think that blogs are good for the mainstream news because they can question them but at the same time you need the mainstream media as a credible source. Blogs are not going to go away so we have to learn how to use them correctly because they can be a huge asset in obtaining information.

Black Friday

So this year i finally did the midnight madness thing for black friday. me and a couple of my friends decided to go out to the Tanger Outlet mall in Deer Park. Now i live in Queens so we had about an hour drive to get out there. But it was really fun and i saved a ton of money. i always wondered if it was really worth all the hassle to actually go shopping early black friday morning. i wondered are the deals really that good. this year i finally found the answer to that question and the answer is yes. i saved about $70 overall and my friends saved even more.
If you have never gone shopping on black friday i suggest you try it next year and save a lot of money because trust me you will wish you brought more money when you see the deals. How many of you guys did go shopping on black friday? Anyone have any good stories or really good deals that they found?
hope everyone had a great thanksgiving

Vacation Mode...

so for like a week i have been in a vacation kind of mode which means i have been putting things off that i should be doing specifically schoolwork. this little thanksgiving is a nice break from the school work but at the same time it is not good. what i mean is that after this week i really have to get into finals mode, i can't believe finals are almost here where did this semester gooooo. but if there is one thing i hate about little vacations within a semester it's trying to get yourself back into school mode again. i know that it is only a couple of days but for me those couple of days throw me off just enough.
anybody else get this same feeling? how are you guys feeling about finals being like right around the corner AGAIN?

Government Being Held Responsible For Katrina

In the New York Times on Thursday there was an article about a court case ruling that occurred on Wednesday. "A federal judge found that poor maintenance of a major navigation channel by the Army Corps of Engineers led to some of the worst flooding after Hurricane Katrine." If this ruling is upheld then the government could be forced to pay tens of millions of dollars to homeowners whose property was damaged from the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet known as MR-GO.
Here are two links to the articles that I read from the New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/19/us/19orleans.html?_r=1&sq=katrina&st=cse&adxnnl=1&scp=2&adxnnlx=1258761780-WYRV8lRtzps2N3+31mFpfg
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/20/us/20orleans.html?scp=4&sq=katrina&st=cse

I thought that these two articles came at a perfect time for class because we are about to get into this topic. I think that this ruling is a definite step forward for the people that lost so much because of Katrina. I think you guys should check out the articles if you have the time because they have some cool illustrations that show what happened and kinda what went wrong at least from one side of the issue. I think that the government should help these people out because a lot of them lost EVERYTHING. But like it said in the article the government is probably going to appeal the ruling so nothing is concrete yet. But the fact that one judge ruled in favor of the homeowners gives them a fighting chance and also brings the issue to the headlines again. This should be interesting to see where this goes and what the result ends up being in the long run.

The Office

ok i want to know if anyone watches the show the office?
i love this show i think it is hilarious. i work in an office which is why i think i find it that much funnier. if you've never watched this show i think that you should give it a shot because the cast is really funny together. steve carell is the main character in the series and he really ties everything together. he was made for this role and whoever did the casting on the show deserves some type of reward because not only is he perfect the rest of the cast is just as perfect. check this episode out and leave some feedback on it. i want to know what you guys think and be honest.

Voice Impressions

One thing that always gets me is when people can do really good impersonations of famous people. it never gets old for me especially if someone that i personally know is doing the impersonations. but her is a video from youtube and this guys is pretty damn good. i never really heard anyone do a morgan freeman impersonation before and his is right on. if you close your eyes you forget its an impersonation. hope this gives everyone a little laugh and some entertainment.

Internet

So there was a line from that movie that we watched that i just cant get out of my head. the line was the internet has caused the biggest generation gap since rock n roll. this statement sums up the way i have always felt about me and my parents in terms of technology. technology has always been a part of my life so im pretty good with it and i am interested by it. i like to have the latest gadgets and i consider myself pretty good at figuring out technology. but my parents on the other hand are completely different. my dad is pretty good with computers as long as he is dealing with the stuff that he knows how to do. what i mean by that is he uses computers at work (who doesnt) so he knows word and excel stuff like that. of course he knows how to use the internet too but that takes him a little longer to use. he is not as good with the internet as he is with those other programs. my mom can just turn on the computer and go to my younger brothers school website to get his homework assignments, thats all that she can do and i am not exaggerating. both my parents are around 55 and the differences in our generations is staggering.
i understand that parents want their kids to be careful online but once they are online there is really no way to stop them from doing what they are going to do. yes there are parental controls and locks or whatever but the kids will eventually find a way around it, i know i did when i was younger. i dont think the internet is different then the real world meaning that you raise your child with certain ideals and teach them right and wrong and then you let them go on their own know they are going to make the right decisions. the internet is no different from that so as long as you raised your child in a loving way and instilled values and perspectives in that child then you have to trust that the child will be able to make the right decisions. the story about the boy ,ryan i think his name was, was really sad and i feel really bad for his parents but the internet does give kids this opportunity to live another life in a way. the only thing i could say is that parents need to make sure to still have contact and talk with their children everyday. ask them how they are doing or if they want to talk about anything and dont immediately flip out on them if its something that you get mad when you hear it. it really pays to just listen to your child sometimes because if you dont their is a whole internet world that will and they might not say the right things to your child.

Cool Way to Lock Your Door

I am a person who is very interested by technology and this video kinda caught my eye when I first saw it. let me know what you guys think.

Blackberry

I have a blackberry like I'm sure half of you in class do as well and I'm pretty happy with it overall but it has been driving me crazy lately. I have the 8830 world edition by sprint and it just doesn't come with as much memory as the other models so I'm constantly running into memory problems. I don't have that many things on it like maybe 5 apps or so. But my memory is just about full and I have to restart my phone a couple of times a day. Also it seems to cause I problem when I go into the subway then come back out it usually can't reconnect without me restarting it. If anyone has the same model let me know how its treating you. If anyone has any general ideas or hints for me I would appreciate it. A memory card will not help cause you can't save apps to the memory card only the internal memory. Oddly enough I'm writing this from my blackberry so hopefully it works.

Introduction

So this is my first blog and I just want to give a little information about myself. I'm a senior at baruch hoping to graduate sometime next year and i am majoring in accounting. i live in Broad Channel, Queens a place that a lot of people dont really know about. its a small island right near rockaway, its basically 20 blocks of houses. im a huge Mets fan and love baseball so im pretty depressed with the world series right now but its been a couple of good games so far should be interesting tonight.