sure do hope this works... final essay.

here is the link... i think...

http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AYUopT0KUpNHZDVzOWhwOF81YzZ4djh0ZHQ&hl=en

the end...

I would have to say that the most memorable thing I learned this semester has been just how powerful and influential the internet can actually be to literacy and writing. As I will admit in previous posts, blogging never really appealed to me, and I never gave blogs any credit for being anything of worth. However, as we continued through the class and incorporated blogging and internet literacy into our classroom discussions and assignments, I started to appreciate what people can post on blogs and what can be written online. I always understood that the internet was a prime source for communication via email or social networks. I now know – thanks to this class – that the internet is also very powerful in the exchange of ideas, the promotion of discussion, and the growth and spread of information and stories all over the world. A specific event I remember talking about in class that demonstrates how the internet promoted discussion and the growth of a story involved the class of children that sang a song about Obama. This story made news all across the nation and turned into a topic of controversy and haste. Sadly, the video possibly could have just started out as a post on YouTube by a boasting and proud parent, but with the big powerful internet, or at least the users of, the children were being seen on televisions all across America… ha, they are famous now!

I guess that also goes to show how my views on reading and writing on the internet has changed as well. It is powerful and can be effective. I no longer view it as just postings by any ole’ person online who just wants to post something – these people actually know what they are talking about and present good points. My reading and writing in general has changed by being able to write something on the spot with a short amount of time and actually have it mean something. Before, it would take me hours to come up with an idea, and days or weeks to really get down on paper (or Microsoft word, haha) what I wanted to say. Now, through this blogging, I am able to have an idea, organize my thoughts rather quickly, and write. I try not to accredit this to my procrastination and being forced to come up with a decent post at 10:45 in the morning, but whatever works I guess!

Essay #2...

One Very Active News Story

When I usually read an article in a magazine or a story in a newspaper I do not focus on the viewpoint, or ask myself how the story or point of view may have been changed from the original story. That is typically not something you ask yourself while skimming through The New York Times or an edition of People. I don’t ask myself what facts may be distorted, if the story is being blown out of proportion, or if anything is being sensationalized. I just read the story and left it at that because I never knew you could look so deeply into the different aspects of it. However, I now know that a news story can change and can develop into something different or something completely new over time. A news story can have a life, and through the different forms of reporting and blogging, a news story can develop multiple lives.

Recently, celebrity and talk show host Oprah Winfrey announced she is ending her daytime talk show after 25 seasons. This indeed was a huge story that made headlines in all the tabloids and even newspapers from all across the globe. However, the different view of the situation among people, and the different ways the story has been used to create new ideals about uprising stories has lead to a plethora of posts across the internet and across the press.

The story started when Winfrey first announced she was retiring her show to her producers and staff. She then announced on her talk show that she was ending the hit program and the news stories rolled of the press before the ending of the episode. The first few renditions of the story simply stated that Winfrey had chosen to end “Oprah” in 2011 as reported by major news sources such as the New York Times. In an edition of the New York Times it states that Winfrey “is ending her successful daytime talk show in September 2011,” to do new things. The New York Times does not get into the personal aspect of the situation, just presenting the information that she is ending the show after the contract expires and venturing out to do new things. “She is expected to concentrate on OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network, a cable channel” even before the contract for the talk shows ends to show that Winfrey’s “programming can sustain an entire cable channel and that she’ll remain a central cultural figure.” The facts presented by The New York Times had no opinion attached to it and had no slanted information.

However, as we venture to the Pacific Coast, the Los Angeles Times based in Los Angeles, California has a very opinionated view of the situation. As the article reports for this press you are able to pick up that the author believes Winfrey is just setting herself up for failure. The author, Kelsey Ramos, asks leading questions about whether Winfrey is “jumping the shark” and questioning whether she will be able to attract celebrity guests and ‘big wigs’ on her new network. The story has developed from one being just about the end of the show to one of entertainment for people wondering if she will be successful in her new line of work. Questions begin to rise about possible different reasons behind why she is actually calling it quits on the show. In the Los Angeles Times Ramos quotes different people speculating Winfrey’s ‘actual’ reasoning about her change in plans. “I predict Oprah running for president in 2012,” one man states, clearly voicing his opinion and implying how powerful Oprah Winfrey has become in the world over the years. This shows that the story has gained a personality and is not just about the facts anymore. The story has become one of entertainment and gossip. The story from this perspective has a negative tone to it as the author seemingly bashes Oprah Winfrey.

This story also has had positive coverage from different sources as well. The life of the story has gone from one of just facts to a life with different perspectives, such as the negative standpoint discussed earlier. This story is getting coverage all across the globe. According to David Usborne, a writer for the London based newspaper The Independent, Oprah Winfrey is a “monarch of daytime chat,” who has had success for upwards of a quarter century. In this article, the life of the story has grown and progressed to something that is praising Ms. Winfrey, unlike that of The Los Angeles Times. It is also more than just mere facts as we can sense the authors feelings toward the matter as he speaks lightly of the subject without any harshness when he says “the sun will set on the Oprah show,” leaving no negative connotation to the subject. In the Los Angeles Times author Ramos has taken the story and turned it against Oprah implying that she will be unsuccessful in her new line of work because she has done it for so long and knows nothing else, contrary to what Usborne is implying about Winfrey success and how she can only push herself further through the different paths she is now taking.

The life of this story has also developed in a new sense due to the different rhetoric different sources have used in reporting. CNN was successful in relaying the basic facts about the ending of the Oprah show when first presenting the information to the audience, however, through different forms of forwarding CNN illustrates various opinions about the event. CNN quotes Ellen DeGeneres “I think she has blazed a trail. She is an amazing woman,” which promotes the audience to see Oprah as a positive figure and now gives a nationwide approval of her, or at least whoever is watching CNN. FOX News also promotes a positive life to the story of Oprah’s talk show. As the title hints by making the reference to a classic movie, the ‘Yellow Brick Road’ is indeed coming to an end, but Oprah’s success is emphasized in this story, which makes it more about the entertainment of her life and success rather than just the news story itself of her show ending. This presentation reviews over Oprah’s life and how she came to such success and what to expect in the future. FOX was able to take the story about the show ending and came up with a new idea that opened up the discussion and promoted conversation about what to expect from Oprah in the future. This again is broadening the life of the story and making it grow.

We are also able to see the different life the story about Oprah has taken through the use of blogs. It is easy to see the mixed emotions among bloggers as you skim through blog after blog concerning the issue. Some people are rather happy to see the show off the air while others seem to be so bothered therapy may be necessary. Nonetheless, blogs have created a whole new life for the story entirely. One blog doesn’t even focus on the Oprah show ending, instead, the blog is mainly about what is going to come of daytime television and who will take her place. This blog, by Andrea Reiher, focused on Ellen DeGeneres and the possibilities she had with her talk show. But the thing that really interested me with this blog was the various comments left by the other bloggers. One comment read “The end of Oprah's show almost coincides with the end of Obama's presidency,” which now turns the life of the story from being about the end of the show to one about the rumored connections between her and President Obama. Something entirely new was able to spark a conversation that has roots linking back to the main idea of her show; however, the main idea is now about the speculation of relationship between Winfrey and Obama.

As you can see, a news story can take up a life of its own based on who reads it, who reposts it, who edits it, and what ideals make spark from it. Anyone can take a news story and make something new and different out of it. As the story of Oprah ending her hit daytime talk show entered the news “sphere”, it became subject to all sorts of reinterpretations, distortion, gossip, and other forms of reporting and relaying the information and facts in different manners (Jarvis). When I first read an article concerning Oprah Winfrey’s talk show ending, I gained basic facts about when the show was ending and a simple explanation behind why, nothing more. The more I read, the more I began to realize just how much the story itself can change, and I saw how an author is able to take something and by ‘taking an approach’ is able to create new conversation and new discussion about something that is related to the primary story, but had a topic about something else (Harris). To me, the life of this story has been taken just about every direction it could possibly have been taken. The different sources have restated information about the ending of the show, as well as give personal opinions as to why the show is ending. They have had different viewpoints and feelings about the issue, and have even created a new story involving Obama. The life of a news story very active, I guess you could say.

Works Cited

Harris, Joseph. “Rewriting.” Logan, Utah: Utah State University Press. 2006. Print

Jarvis, Jeff. “The Press Becomes the Press-Sphere.” Buzz Machine. 14 April, 2007. Web/

“Oprah Ending Talk Show in 2011.” CNN. 20 November, 2009

“Oprah Winfrey Tells Audience Her Show’s ‘Yellow Brick Road’ Is Coming to an End.” FOX News. 20 November, 2009

Reiher, Andrea. “Oprah Winfrey Ending Her Talk Show, Plans ‘To Make History.’” ZAP 2 IT. 19 November, 2009

Ramos, Kelsey. “Oprah to End Her Syndicated TV Show in 2011.” Los Angeles Times. 19 November, 2009. Print.

Stelter, Brian. “A Tearful Winfrey Explains Her Departure.” The New York Times. 20 November, 2009. Print.

Usborne, David. “Oprah Winfrey quits TV show after 25 Years.” The Independent. 20 November, 2009. Print.

the end.

In Harris’s chapter “Taking an Approach,” he discusses a type of writing that is rather different from the different techniques he wrote about in the earlier chapters. Coming to Terms, forwarding, and countering “are ways of marking out your words and ideas from those of the texts you are working with”, or as I see it to represent information, whether agreeing with the text or challenging it (Harris 73). However, this new way of taking an approach requires a writer to transform a text and the various ways of another writer, or as Harris puts it “the moves and interests of another thinker (74).
This new concept was hard for me to grasp at first. I did not really understand what it was asking me to do and what technique it aimed for me to pick up and use. The different examples that Harris gave bettered my understanding, especially the example involving the Aretha Franklin song. The idea of the first song by the male was able to evolve into the well known song “Respect” by Franklin working in the ‘mode’ of Otis Redding, but just taking a new approach to the matter: a feminine standpoint.
In the different blogs that I am reading I am able to see this technique quite often once I started looking. The way the various authors of the blogs used news stories, events, or even pictures with captions to talk about something and express opinions or just elaborate on an idea used this technique. The way the author of the blogs or even the author of the news stories in The New York Times depicts a writes style of thinking, and demonstrates how they take an approach to the texts.
This way of writing can either do many things to texts. Opinions are just that, merely opinions, but when an author can transform a story to something that has been worked through their opinions and evokes an idea that is that of the author, the facts can be distorted and viewpoints can change.

from the start...

After looking skimming through all of my blog posts from the first half of the semester, I found it very suiting to make this blog a revision about my very first blog post I wrote. This blog was about our reaction to the assignment and what we thought of the blogging experience. I chose this blog because I feel as if my view on blogging has changed and I am able to have more of an input now on the blogging experience as a whole being more experienced.
In my first blog, most of the details I mentioned had to do with the ‘physical’ or ‘technical’, I guess you could say, aspects of blogging. I discussed the different issues I had with learning how to simply set up the blog, and the different decisions I had to make when it came to appearance. In this blog I seemed to stress that appearance was important and really focused on what others would think about me and what others would view me as depending on the physical appearance of my blog. I remember thinking that I wanted to seem interesting; therefore, I chose polka dots as my background and came up with a ‘cute’ little title. (This seems ironic to me, considering the discussion we had today on the blog post about America and ‘cute’ things...) However, after looking at all the blogs I have read in this class, I notice that I in fact do not notice the appearance of other blogs. I simply focus on their content. I believe this has to do with the growing understanding I have of blogs now, and the appreciation I have now for their different ideas and opinions, rather than their creative side.
Also, going along with my first blog, I still agree that blogs are a way to express your opinions, but I see now that there is so much more to blogs than just opinions. Through the course of this class, I see that actually useful information can be presented in a blog, and through different techniques, such as linking or forwarding, we are able to find other means of information, making blogs a very useful resource.

reen(counter)

When I think of countering, I think of the simple way people argue another point which is opposite what another author has wrote about or demonstrated. I just think of people arguing or debating upon a point or about an idea that is different from one another. In a way, that is indeed what Harris is trying to say countering is in his book: that a person used another person’s idea and presents the other side, but Harris’ countering has a different point, I guess you could say.
Harris states that the reason he thinks a writer should counter another piece by someone else would be to move the conversation in new directions. He talks of how when people debate or argue about their viewpoints or ideas, they do just that, argue. The point is not to just state that the other person is wrong and that their text is faulty or to criticize them. Harris seems to be saying that if you find a well written text that has good points and does put up a good argument, but are able to offer a different viewpoint and are able to counter their text in a way that opens up new discussion and converts the conversation about the text in a new direction, you have successfully countered something, and done so with a purpose.
An interesting article I found on The Huffington Post involved an author discussing the different viewpoints of creationism and evolution. The author discussed the viewpoint of a Muslim and their beliefs, and then countered that viewpoint with the uprising belief of creationism in Turkey…which was then main focus of this article – Turkey’s beliefs. The author offered both viewpoints as part of his argument and depiction of Turkey’s beliefs, but used the different techniques that Harris mentioned (Arguing the other side, uncovering values, and/or dissenting) to push the conversation and discussion along the path of his argument.

straight forward(ing)

When first approaching this assignment, I of course had my own ideas and expectations of what it would be about. When relating the word ‘forwarding’ to writing, I specifically and technically just think of using direct text and ‘forwarding’ it in your paper to help make a point of to demonstrate something. Although Harris’ idea and explanation of forwarding somewhat touches on that meaning and definition, I would say that the point he is trying to make is that forwarding is more about using the work -whether in print, picture, video, song, or some other form of displaying an idea- to focus more on what your project is and how to forward something to extend its uses, not so much on a text and “what its author has to say,” as Harris puts it.

Harris mentions four different ways in which an author can forward another document: Illustrating, Authorizing, Borrowing, and Extending. He goes into detail of each, describing and giving examples of how each can be incorporated into your own work to push ideas and push discussion, which was also a main point in this chapter: discussion.

Harris mentions quite often about how important it is to write a piece of work that will evoke discussion and conversation. He seems to be saying that by forwarding something by another author, you are creating a conversation about their work and analyzing the meaning and using their source to enhance your ideas or develop them, just as what you are writing will allow other writers to do; to use your work to open yet another discussion or carry on the conversation.

In one of the blogs I am following, Hot Air, I remembered a specific article I had read about Democrats in New York City. In the article “Dems miss an opportunity in New York City,” author Ed Morrissey uses the technique of illustrating when he directly quotes from another source about the topic of the race for mayor in New York City. In a nutshell, the article was about how democrats didn’t do enough and push their campaign to win the election over the less favorable republican. Morrissey develops his own idea and strongly argues or defends his opinion by using an excerpt from the source and then pushing his own ideas of why the election had such a result.