Political Blog 3

Upon arrival to my voting place in Bethesda, MD, there were numerous signs and banners for both presidential candidates as well as other people involved on the ballot.  This came to my suprise partially because in my area (Montgomery County) the majority of the vote is blue by a massive portion.  There was a group of older women about 20 feet the spot where laid a sign that no media or people helping candidates could pass.  The group of people tried to all talk to me at once, probably because nobody was there.  I think they were trying to sway my vote through innuendos, but they had no success.  I asked several of my friends from other counties (Baltimore, Anne Arundle, Carroll, and Howard) and all of them reported that there were absolutely no people or signs outside their voting place.  The only "media" I witnessed on my way back home from voting was a NBC 4 van on the main road outside my house.

Throughout the day, I followed various websites and television news stations to see what was happening in the election.  Though from the beginning, I was fairly sure what the outcome would be but I still watched with some faint hints of hope.  Regrettably and unfortunately, one of the best sources to see what was happening was through Facebook Status Updates.  

In the early afternoon, there were fairly decent posts, nothing too obnoxious.  One of the main ones I saw early in the day was "GObama".  I must have seen that on at least 20 friends pages.  On the opposite side, there were also things like "Vote for reason, country first"....and I did.  Needless to say, there were a considerably smaller amount of status' as such.

Then at night, things started to get nasty.  I would refresh the page every few minutes and there would be something new and disgusting.  One in particular was full of colorful language and lack of intelect on the matter, and it told me to "get the ***** out republicans! nobody wants you here anyway!"  Typical of a brainwashed college student.  Someone else also informed me that I, like all conservatives, was a homosexual and should move to france.  Contrary to their accusation, I am not homosexual, and I hate france.

The little news media I followed seemed to be fair.  They commended both parties speeches, and congratulated the victor.  I watched his speech, and I as a citizen of the US, am ready to follow him, despite me voting for the other party.  Sometimes you just have to know when you've lost, and to accept it.   It was hard to accept it, due the the drunkards outside my apartment chanting Obamas name until wee hours of the morning.  But I have accepted it, and I hope our country will be OK for the next four years.  I'm happy I vote for the first time in this historic election.

Debate

From reading my blog, you should know where I stand politically. Many of you probably have made your decision for your pick for president before even watching the debate, looking to hear the facts and ideas that you have agreed with from the start.

I have somewhat closely followed the political process for the past few years- the candidates, the issues, the “truth” as seen and judge by both sides, etc. This campaign has had all of those, not so different from many previous elections.

Many of us watching the presentation of the candidates was our first real exposure to both men applying for the job to lead the country. I tried to watch how each candidate might be perceived by those just now viewing, the “Swing” voters.

Perception carries a lot of weight in helping undecided people decide which candidate will win their confidence and their vote. What struck me most visually was the fact that McCain would not look at Obama. At points it seemed that he was in charge and knew what he was doing, while Obama seemed somewhat naive. While Obama made his various points, McCain grimaced, smirked, looked directly at the audience, being somewhat disrespectful. On the other hand, Obama was constantly interrupting both the moderator and McCain.

McCain was highly in control of his facts of how things are, and how he will not be just “another 4 years of the same” as claimed by ignorant liberals. Obama had no back up to McCain’s accurate accusations other than saying “that is not truth”. McCain never acknowledged that Obama could be right on anything, but Obama said on numerous occasions that McCain was right. This could be considered a good or bad thing for Obama, but I felt it showed even more of his weakness and inferiority.

McCain constantly told the audience that Obama doesn’t know what he is talking about, or doesn’t understand the meaning of something. Yes, at times this seemed immature, but when it came time for Obama to respond, for the most part he just floated on the talking point, rather than responding the accusations.

Obama had many occasions presented to him to throw in a cheap shot or a low blow, and he took them. McCain outlined a more constructive way that would not anger or alienate foreign leaders, but rather hear what they had to say and work from there. Obama just made connections to what Bush has done and how McCain relates.

So, what I saw boiled down to watching a powerful, experienced candidate, and a novice, unsure “smooth talker” rambling on the talking points and using the uneducated accusation of “another 4 years of the same”.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D93F59S00&show_article=1

Orality vs Literacy

Communication is life. With it, the world can function with ease, and make advancements or corrections as needed. Without it, we would not be here right now. In ancient times, there were primitive versions of language and writing such as notched bones and tokens (image on page 19 of the text Communication in History) that were used for quantitative data. Then things advanced with the invention of the alphabet, and writing and spoken word were more like they are today. The question is, which is better? The answer is subjective, but in my mind orality and speech win this argument hands down. Needless to say, this argument can’t be proved until both sides of the spectrum have been thoroughly analyzed.

Although writing is the precursor orality, speech is the most important technology in the realm of communication, and it does have quite a history. For example, jump way back in time to 1500 BCE at the invention of the Phoenician alphabet. This alphabet contained phonograms, which were parts of the alphabet that corresponded to making a certain sound which was usually the main syllable of a word (page 44 in the text Communication in History). Later in 700 BCE the Greek alphabet emerged, which was far more advanced and primarily based on speech. It was more advanced because of the invention of vowels, which made speaking far less complex and also made writing and speech parallel. From this, schooling, psychology, and memory were introduced. Eric Havelock, a British classicist professor discussed these three things under the title of “The Greek Legacy”, and proved that the Greek alphabet is responsible for them.

Moving on to more modern times, it is quite evident that effects of speech on society are far more prominent than the effects of writing on society. Seeing a person speak with power and emotion is far more effective than reading the same thing that was spoken. The proper term for this is secondary orality, which is basically a process that makes originally spoken things into print. This is ineffective in attempting to prove something to the consumer or reader, because there is no visible emotion in writing. A perfect example of this is Martin Luther King Jr’s “I Have a Dream” speech. In his speech, one can see how emotional he is on the subject. The tone and speaking patterns in his voice grab the listener’s attention. The hand gestures and facial expressions further more advance his point. Another perfect example of this is any speech from Adolph Hitler, during his rule in Germany. If one watches THIS VIDEO with English subtitles, it proves my point further more. If you listen to the video with out reading subtitles, you can clearly see how much emotion and anger is in his voice. You can pretty much tell the type of person he is just by hearing his voice, even though it is in a different language. If the video is muted and only the subtitles are read, it looks like a boring speech that has some, but not a lot of emotion.

Writing is a useful and important form of communication, and it was the precursor or speech, but I still strongly believe that orality is the most dominant and important factor of communication. In our world today, people are remembered for what they said and how they said it. Martin Luther King Jr and Adolph Hitler would never have been as effective as they were if everything they said was just written down and then handed to the public. If the phonogram was never invented, then we wouldn’t even have speech today. If you think about it, what would your life be with out speech? Everyone would be walking around with a pad and paper (assuming that was even invented) writing things down and showing it to people that they needed to speak with. Everything would be a much slower process, and mass communication would be nearly impossible. If mass communication didn’t exist, then nobody would know anything that went on outside of their limited area. There would be no communication between countries, and far more feuds and disagreements because of it. For this assignment, I attempted to go just 12 hours without talking to anyone, and I couldn’t go for a half an hour. That I think proves my point the most. Day to day life relies on speech, so with out it we would be in an extremely difficult lifestyle.

Drilling in ANWR, and rebates revieved by Alaskans.

One aspect of the current race for president that I feel very strongly about deals with drilling for oil, whether it be on the continental shelf, or in the ANWR in Alaska. To me, there is no reason not to do this, but there are multiple sides to each argument.
Environmentalists use the acronym "ANWR" to define the 19.5 million acre refuge will be developed for energy. Actually, the area at issue covers only 1.5 million acres and it is termed the "10-02 Area" refering to a section legislation expanding ANWR -- the Alaskan National Interest Lands Conservation Act, which designated land for "oil and gas exploration." Only 2,000 acres of the 10-02 Area are to be used for the permanent "infrastructure", that meaning the pipelines, oil wells, etc. The10-02 area is neither a refuge or wilderness, and definitely not that "pretty" despite constant claims by the environmentalists.
The United States Geological Survey has estimated ANWR holds a mean estimate of 10.4 billion barrels of recoverable oil. I heard the statistic on the radio show I worked for this summer that that would be enough oil to supply us for at least 50-75 years.
I'm not saying that we need to completely rely on oil, because obviously it is a limited supply that absolutely can't be relied on. I'm saying that it doesn't do anybody any good just sitting there not being used. Assuming that my statistic is correct, it would give us that much more time to come up with other alternatives to be distributed to the public. I'm also not a fan of huge gas prices.
Finally getting to my article that I found on the Drudge Report several days ago, it shows that we can atleast get some temporary relief from prices, get some money back, and buy more time for more alternatives, and get people to get these alternatives. There are some people that don't have easy access to gas and the such, and there is a good quote in this article about that.

"Sam Shields, who lives in the Kuskokwim River town of Bethel, said the state money is desperately needed in his community, where he recently saw a whole chicken selling for $23 at the local grocery store."

and

"When it gets real cold in winter, it can take five gallons of fuel for heating overnight," said Wanda Sue Page, who lives in the Arctic village of Noatak, where residents pay more than $9 a gallon for gasoline and nearly $10 a gallon for heating oil."

To sum up my argument, I'll finish with the final line of the article, which shows that the money that these people are getting is going to go right back to where it came from.

"Everyone around here was happy to hear how much we're getting," he said. "Mainly everybody here is saying they're going to use it on fuel."

Bibliography
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D930QBHGA&show_article=1 -main article
http://www.aim.org/guest-column/drill-anwr-realism-over-emotion/ -stats and numbers on ANWR

Blog # 1

Blog # 1

Hey all,

My name is Luke Solomon, and I’m a Media Communication Studies major with a minor in English. I would like to have a career in broadcast, particularly radio. This past summer I interned at CBS News radio in DC where I did production work for two nationally broadcasted shows, each show going out to over 400 radio stations. Currently, I am an intern at 98Rock – a Baltimore rock station working in the promotions department, going out to events promoting the station. I am also a Host on WMBC’s “Guerrilla Radio”- the campus radio station, where I have a weekly show that includes talk, music, and sports discussions. I am also the bassist for the band Mother Nature’s Recipe, you may have seen us play at the Commons, the talent show, Eco fest, and Quadmania.

Being a MCS major, and wanting to have a career in radio, media is and will be a large part of my life. My view of the media is that the majority is bias, but sometimes it is ok because people like to have views that they can relate to, or they just can’t stand the opposing views position. I like being able to relate with my own group majority of the time, but it is impossible to understand everything without looking at both sides of the spectrum.

The Blog I have chosen to follow is the Drudge Report. This summer at my internship, I went to this site a lot to find current events and news for both shows I worked for.