The First Internet President?

We all know that Obama used the internet in every way possible to his advantage during his campaign. But how will he be using it now that he is the new president elect? Maybe you've thought about it before, but I really hadn't until I came across this article from the NY Times. It talks about the bully pulpit which has been used since the days Teddy Roosevelt created it and it asks the question, how will Obama use the internet as his bully pulpit, when the bully pulpit is one-sided and the internet is obviously two-sided? It talks about the difficulty he will have getting through to the people who don't support him. I guess you could better understand if you just checked out the article: A Rewired Bully Pulpit: Big, Bold, and Unproven.

So now that you've read it, you can probably understand why I find it interesting. It shows all the options the internet gives him, all the ways he can get the public to support his policies, all the ways he can get through to the people. You probably know how well he used the internet in his campaign, but what this article asks is how well will he use it as president?

Once again I am amazed at how much the internet can do.

Going Green.

Oprah's doing it!!


Since "going green" is an increasing trend these days I just thought I'd talk a little bit about it. We all know what it means and I'm sure we all think it's a great idea. What I'm wondering is, is it possible? There's tons of media coverage on it, there's internet sites dedicated to it, it's talked about on hit tv shows, and there's lots of celebrities supporting it. But for most of us, can we even afford it? Saving the environment is expensive. I mean really, I do my part the best I can, I recycle, I use the energy efficient light bulbs, and I turn off the water when I'm not using it. But what else can I do? I can't afford to buy an electric car, or even a hybrid for that matter. I ask people to recycle and not to litter. I do my best at spreading the word, but even if everyone does this will it really make a difference? Think about it this way, how can I personally help the United States' dependence on crude oil? I can't not drive my car, I can't make other people not drive theirs. As individuals I just don't get what we are supposed to do? Sure we can try and spread the awareness, but like I said what is this going to do? I mean I guess the MN clean air act did just pass, so maybe people are getting the point to a certain extent. I just feel like there's not that much we can do other than rely on our politicians to get the job done for us. Don't get me wrong I'd love to feel like I'm making a difference by not filling up the landfills as quickly, but really, how big of an impact am I actually making?

The Bandwagon

I came across this interesting little background about the term bandwagon, which we all learned in class as a form of persuasion. I'm not really sure how true it is, but if it is true, it's kind of interesting... so I thought I'd share it. I found it on the website, fallacyfiles.org. Which kind of makes it sound like it wouldn't be true... Anyways it basically said that the term bandwagon comes from past political campaigns when candidates would ride through town on the bandwagons and in order to show support people would "jump on the bandwagon." We all know that these days the term refers to a form of persuasion that basically tells people, "Everybody's doing it." Anyways just thought I'd share that, if anyone happens to know if it's actually true or not please do tell.
Here's the link to the article Bandwagon Fallacy.

I also found an interesting video on youtube about the Obama bandwagon, which was pretty prominent in the recent election. Here's the link if you want to check it out: Obama Bandwagon

Naming your baby: How can the internet help?

Joel Stein needs help naming his baby!

So, what does he do? Goes to the internet for help. He not only searched website after website, but he even went onto facebook and emailed people who actually had the names he was interested in. If you check out the article you can even vote on which name you like best! He's definitely doing his research.

In case you have no idea who Joel Stein even is, here's a little background. He's a columnist for the Los Angeles Times and he regularly contributes to Time Magazine. That's really all you have to know for this...

I came across his article on Time.com, you should definitely take a look.

I thought this article was too funny. It just shows how important the internet is becoming these days, in basically every aspect of our lives.

I guess I have to admit that I use the internet for basically everything these days too. I even browsed the baby names sites when my friend was pregnant. Also when my friend was trying to name her dog we browsed the internet.. yes they have sites for dog names. So it's not like I blame him for using the internet to name his baby, I just think it's funny how much we rely on the internet these days.

I wonder what we will be relying on the internet for next....

Can Obama Save the Media?

I came across this interesting article on Newsweek.com. It's about how Obama helped the sales of magazines and newspapers. Check it out for yourself.

It obviously relates to a lot of what we have been talking about in class about how the internet is basically killing print media and becoming more and more popular. But because of his historic win, Magazines with him on the cover were selling out and news retailers actually had to make waiting lists for the election issues.

The article talks about how the print media plans on banking on this reversal of their fortune even beyond Obama's inauguration. About how they had to go back to press several times just to meet the demand for the election issue.

The most interesting statement in the article, that basically explained the whole sales spike was, "You can't save and treasure a PDF file off of your computer. That's the transcendence of print that everyone in print has talked about, a certain tangible quality that can't be translated online for certain big momentous events."

At the end of the article though, it basically explains how these spikes in sales always occur during historic events. So even though Obama is giving print media a temporary reprieve from their hard times, he won't be the one to save them for good. The print media will still be facing a tough economic future.

I thought this article was interesting but it leaves me wondering, what will the future of the print media be? Will they soon fade away or will their be something that swoops in and saves the failing industry? Will the internet take over as the main source of news? What will this do to our news?