Learning Some Common Sense

This sunless and fog filled summer was a memorable one. I turned that longing age that every college student counts down the days for, moved into a new apartment, and had my first “I hope I don’t get hit” bike ride around this beautiful Bay City. But the most noteworthy experience didn’t involve champagne glasses or moving boxes or even bicycle spokes, rather it was my internship with Common Sense Media.

For the past three months I have been fortunate enough to be the PR and Communications Intern for Common Sense Media, a non profit non partisan media organization that provides tools and reliable information for families and kids as they navigate their way through our vast media world. Offering ratings, reviews, and an independent forum, CSM focuses on teaching families to be savvy media interpreters.

Having worked first hand with kids in the past, CSM was a different perspective, as I learned how to benefit kids and families indirectly while still providing a service. The need for the service that CSM provides is more prevalent than ever before as cyberbullying (13% of online teens reported that someone had sent them a threatening or aggressive email, instant message, or text message), online predators (32% of online teens have been contacted by strangers online), and media violence continues to rise in numbers.

Through this internship, I've learned the ins and outs of Public Relations, the significance of staying current on the news that affects your organization, and the need and importance for such an organization to exist. Most importantly I’m taking away the understanding that a company who is dedicated to a cause and making a difference provides for a positive and productive work environment that isn’t stuck in a monotonous, “just trying to make it through the day” routine. As soon as you walk into the vibrant office with lime green carpets and splashes of bold orange paint it is evident that CSM cares about what they’re doing and how they’re doing it. From the foosball table in place of a desk in the front hall to a good luck cake for a colleague’s first marathon, CSM’s distinct style motivates its employees to make a difference and have fun while doing so.

Thanks CSM, it has been a great experience!

Computer Class to Every Class?

I remember it like it was yesterday… Applying a little lip gloss subtle enough to look like I had just sucked on a watermelon lollipop, saying a cool “hey” to friends that were – gasp- boys! While circling the florescent halls linked elbow to elbow with my four best friends.

For me, those menacing middle school years weren’t as bad as most had made them out to be. Instead, they were spent making friendships in a time when boy’s voices were squeakily transitioning from a high to lower pitch and girls were moving away from their perfectly parted pigtails. It was a time to be social. Learning to interact and become articulate from the timid elementary schoolers we were just two years ago.

So when I read a story about laptops for middle schoolers in Maine, I was skeptical. Take away the crucial time for kids to develop socially and stick them in front of a computer screen? I can picture it now… No more mini adrenaline rushes during algebra of, “will the teacher see me pass this note?” Because now I can talk to you through my screen name, “Cutie234.” And not just you, but five other of my tech savvy classmates. But if I’m not responding to your message right away, I’m probably googling Miley Cyrus, my hero, having the latest scandalous photos appear. "Uh oh," the teacher is starting to look my way! No worries; I have enough time (four seconds as she walks over) to “X” out of my aim chat and google image windows and safely return to my word document of algebraic formulas, the answers to which I already looked up because I am a child of the 21^st century.

Laptops in the classroom better for learning?

Maine seems to think so. Beginning in 2002, Maine’s laptop program started with 7^th graders and later expanded to 8^th graders and one-third of the state’s high schools. Spending $90 million through 2010, Maine is working with Apple to provide 43,500 students and teachers with their own ibooks.

Despite my skepticism students and teachers are enjoying the benefits of the laptop learning. As stated by the msnbc article, many teachers who were surveyed said that students using laptops are becoming better at combining information from multiple sources and expressing their thoughts. More than 80% of instructors say the laptops help them make lessons more personal to students, make it easier for students to study problems from the real world and to dig deeper into certain topics. Students in the program report that they understand the material better.

Some critics of the program say the hardware hasn’t made an impact in the state's test scores, where improvement needs to be seen. “What we need to look at is the broader impact of student improvement,” said Timothy Magner, the director of the Office of Education Technology, in the msnbc article. “One of the key metrics is test scores. We’re keenly interested in that.”

Put aside the advancements made with the laptop program, and consider the risks. According to a Pew 2007 study, about one third of all teenagers have been contacted by strangers online. One Third of teenagers who use the internet, also said they have been targets of a range of annoying and potentially menacing online activities.

Sure, laptops are great. The media is great. I am, after all a Media Studies Major. This web 2.0 world excites me as technology continues to flourish. We now have friendships created and maintained solely in cyberspace, we have video games that allow us to get up off the couch and move, and cell phones that give us everything we could ever want at the touch of a fingertip. But shouldn't somethings be experienced and learned rather than simplified and stimulated? So my question is, are twelve year olds ready for a constant online flow during a six hour school day? During a crucial time when kids should be developing socially in preparation for the big leaguers of high school, when their most vulnerable to peer and media pressures?

It seems to me the kids of Maine would benefit more from the old school methods of middle school teaching… you know, listening to the teacher and writing in their five star binders. And by keeping the 21^st century teachings to computer class. Not every class.

The Best Education is Found Outside of the Classroom

This past spring semester I was far from the bay breeze and routine I had nestled myself into at USF. I was now eating gelato daily, avoiding eye contact and causal smiles with men, laughing with friends amongst some of the world’s most celebrated sites, and every so often checking my purse to insure a gypsy hadn’t emerged victorious with my wallet and passport in hand. For four short months I was wandering the cobblestone streets living and learning in the Eternal City as I studied abroad at The John Felice Rome Center.

My experiences in Rome, all throughout Italy, and the three other countries I visited, can't be given justice with even the most extravagant and heavy hearted words. Sure, when your asked, “how was your time abroad?” It’s fun to say, “I skied the Swiss Alps, went to a famous Flamenco bar in Southern Spain, swam in the Mediterranean, took a gondola ride in Venice during Carnivale, went wine tasting in Tuscany, and even popped champagne underneath the Eiffel Tower.” But as I learned early on, the exuberant and giddy feeling that you get from sharing stories of abroad comes off as arrogant and showboating to others. I now tend to reply with a simple and understated, “amazing. Indescribable.” Because going abroad cannot be explained but rather must be experienced.

Luckily, students throughout the United States have started to take advantage of the study abroad experience. According to the Open Doors report in 2007, the number of American students receiving academic credit for their study abroad has increased 150% in the past decade, from fewer than 90,000 students in 1995/96.

Below, Vistawide provides reasons for students to get those visas approved:
-It is the optimal way to learn a language
-Study abroad provides the opportunity to travel
-Allows you to get to know another culture first-hand
-Will help you develop skills and give you experiences a classroom setting will never provide
-Study abroad helps you to learn about yourself
-It expands your worldview
-Gives you the opportunity to break out of your academic routine
-Study abroad enhances employment opportunities
-Study abroad can enhance the value of your degree

For me, studying abroad truly was the epitome of the overstated yet underrated cliché, “time of my life.” Besides, how else are you going to learn how to say “cheers” in several different languages…

“Prost!” “Cin Cin!” “Salud!” “A Votre Sante!”

Our Time at the University of San Francisco

Check out an audio slideshow about the University of San Francisco produced by my fall '07 Photojournalism class.
Photographed and produced by:

Eva Erickson
Christina Kho
Michael Vick

Jacob Marx

Samantha Blackburn

Carly Perez

Kate Elston

Lulu McAllister
and professor Brant Ward

Charming the Reporters

With a 64 percent disapproval rating on how President Bush is handling his job as president (American Research Group, Inc.), it is rare to find an enthusiastic Bush supporter nowadays especially in the liberal loving city of San Francisco. But in Journeys with George, a 2002 documentary about Bush and his gang of reporters on the campaign trail, it is hard not to find President Bush (Governor, at the time)…as hard as it is to admit…likable.

Pushing all bad Bush politics aside, I found myself laughing at the boloney loving Bush, and thinking he’d be a fun guy to throw a beer back with. Throughout the documentary it is clear that the filmmaker, Alexandra Pelosi, Nancy Pelosi’s daughter, likes Bush too, as she falls under the charming spell of the relaxed cowboy from time to time. But in the end, despite Bush’s best rhetoric, Pelosi still ends up voting democratically (good girl). Pelosi didn’t allow her vote to sway from politics to personality, but it makes me wonder, how much a good joke or a friendly smile figures at the ballot box? According to Max Brantley, editor of the Arkansas Times, the charm factor is dishearteningly significant as a slew of national journalists find it more relevant to report on personality rather than policies.

“I’ve really been surprised at the utter absence of reporting that’s been done on Mike Huckabee,” said Brantley in an On the Media interview last week. “There are very legitimate issues on the national stage, whether it’s his fair tax proposal or his stance on some social issues, that deserve some examination, but they’re been put to the side to focus on his jokes and his charming manner and his pardoning of a Rolling Stones guitar player.”

Brantley has reason to be concerned, as he feels that his former Arkansas Governor and current red-hot Republican Presidential candidate is unfairly avoiding national criticism due to his likability factor. In the interview with Brantley, Bob Garfield host of On the Media, summed up Brantley’s complaint by saying, “Huckabee, he says (Brantley), has become the newest darling of the National media without any due diligence. He (Brantley) cites, for instance, a laundry list of Huckabee’s brushes with the Arkansas Ethics Commission, something he wishes those national columnists would take the time to learn about.”

These national columnists include the New York Time’s David Brooks who called Huckabee “funny and engaging,” while New Yorker magazine’s Hendrick Hertzberg finds Huckabee’s rhetoric, “almost impossible not to like.” Brantley finds the lack of actual reporting on Huckabee, a politician he is all too familiar with, to be a disservice to the public. After all, shouldn’t we, as the potential voters, be more concerned with Huckabee’s past mishaps (i.e. using his mansion operating account as a personal expense account when he first become Governor) rather than if he is funny or not? “I think the Bush record didn’t get fully and completely reported until his second term,” said Brantley, who is hoping that history doesn't repeat itself. The last thing the United States needs is to vote for another “funny” president who would be fun to have a beer with…look how well that turned out.

Are Bloggers Journalists?

If you are a part of the conversation in the new web 2.0 world sooner or later you will journey into what is becoming a classic debate (at least in the study of journalism)- should bloggers be considered journalists?

The debate crept its way into my Journalism Ethics class this Wednesday as we began the discussion with Rebecca Blood’s guidelines for bloggers:
1. Publish as fact only that which you believe to be true.
2. If material exists online, link to it when you reference it.
3. Publicly correct any misinformation.
4. Write each entry as if it could not be changed; add to, but do not rewrite or delete, any entry.
5. Disclose any conflict of interest.
6. Note questionable and biased sources.
Blood believes that these six standards are the “sufficient” means to which blogging should be conducted and considered credible. A particularly nice point that Blood makes on the difference between blogger and journalist is, “rights have associated responsibilities; in the end it is an individual’s professionalism and meticulous observance of recognized ethical standards that determines her status in the eyes of society and the law.”

In other words, if you are going to fancy yourself a journalist than you better conduct yourself in an ethical and professional capacity (in which you can be held responsible) by not only Blood’s standards of “believing” what you write to be true, but by knowing what you’re writing is true through a systematic approach of researching your topic and gathering sources and opinions just as any other print journalist would.

Furthermore, I find it outlandish for someone to completely dismiss the idea of bloggers being considered journalists when there is no clear distinction of what constitutes a journalist. There is no journalism license as there is for lawyers or doctors there is no bar to pass or MCATS to Ace, so why discount citizens who are responsibly reporting relevant and provocative information via a blog?

Ultimately, you cannot label all bloggers as journalists or all bloggers as non journalists. It should be viewed only on a case-by-case blog by blog distinction. You can label Joshua Marshall of Talking Points Memo a journalist, but I would be hesitant to say that my friend’s anonymous blog about their weekly routine is up to journalism’s standards.

The Ethics of Privacy

Privacy…an aspect of life that us “ordinary folk” often take for granted. Typical America isn’t plagued by fears of someone rummaging through our garbage and analyzing our latest Safeway purchases. Nor are we in a constant state of worry over what people are saying about us, thinking about us, and seeing of us. But this isn’t America. This is Hollywood, where nothing is typical. It is where celebrities are flocked by herds of ferocious photographers and reporters, as the aspect of privacy goes straight out the door. But how far is too far? What are the ethics of invading the privacy of the rich and famous?

Perez Hilton, a blogger who has become famous for blogging, would say they are fair game. He happily flaunts the flaws and misfortunes of celebrities by showing the latest panty-less party of Britney Spears and the naked naughtiness of Vanessa Hudgens. Hilton isn’t the only one, as the industry of celebrity obsessing has grown to an obscene degree with the Usweeklys, Peoples, and In touchs of today’s newsstands. Last March, the celebrity news blog Gawker.com began taking advantage of the Google Maps tool to show exactly where and when a star was spotted just moments after a sighting.

But for celebrities, the industry of obsessing over their everyday routines is invasive and often dangerous. Earlier this month, video obtained by tmz.com showed George Clooney scolding paparazzi for driving recklessly while following him on his motorcycle. "What they're doing is illegal," said Clooney in an interview on Entertainment Tonight. "It's high-speed chases and they're competing with each other. They're not trying to catch me doing something stupid, they're trying to create me doing something stupid. You don't get to break all these laws and then say, 'I'm just doing my job.'" And although some would argue that they asked for this, because they are in the spotlight, it is the degree to which it has been taken, that has gone to far. "You can drive all you want, you can take my picture all you want, but what you cannot do is put people in danger," said Clooney.

I admit, that the consumption of these magazines can be a guilty pleasure (only People for me!), in which the average girl can phase out the stresses of their daily lives and contemplate that of others. However, I fundamentally disagree with the lengths to which it has been taken and believe that the youth of today’s generation should be concerning themselves with issues of true importance (like the Iraq war, our upcoming election) in which the invasion of privacy is a necessity in furthering our social education.