On a different note. I just finished my final paper… Yea for some reason that was the hardest thing I have ever done. I dont know if it was because it was the last paper of the semester or because I procrastinated, or perhas it was the subject content… I dont know, all I do know is that I died a little on the inside while writing it. And that I have never wanted to murder the girl next to me on myspace more.

I am typing up a petition now.

End.

O. Quimbly Melton

English 206

4 May 2006

The Blogoshpere and Polemicists

            "The median political blog reader is a 43 year old man with an annual family income of $80,000. He reads 6 blogs a day for 10 hours a week. 39% have post-graduate degrees. 70% have contributed to a campaign. 69% have bought music, 87% have bought books. 58% say blogs are 'extremely useful' sources of information. 52% leave comments on other people's blogs." ~ Henry Copeland 

          These statistics jump out at the American public letting it be known that the art of blogging on the internet is no longer something that will fade away in a 1980’s fashion kind of way. Every time we access the internet for information, whether it be through “Google” or any other search engine, we are bombarded with blogs. After searching feverishly through all of the results we ultimately end up clicking on the most appealing blog, reading through this un-creditable strangers words for knowledge that we did not have before. However the main question is why? Could this information source really be teaching the American Public something or is it just false information that is readily available and easy to find so we accept it? Online blogs are typically just a façade that people use as a medium to portray their bias part of the spectrum, never actually giving the entire view, so why, as the educated American public, are we so inclined to read these blogs?           

           Politicians are constantly searching for new ways to reach their constituents and reach out to new younger demographics. In their endless search they found a rather interesting medium in the blog. A forum, to speak the issues in an un-interruptible rant giving the general public a chance to really “get to know them”. Politicians, lobbyists, and just big-mouths in general are able to display their opinions and thoughts for the whole web to see. Of course their goal is accomplished through any inquiring mind trying to find facts on an issue stumbling upon their blog to see their opinions. In a journal-like attempt to seem personal, a blog comes across to the public as a politician coming down to their level. Opening up a portal to the “truth” for their constituents to see a blog is the politician’s best friend. However it can also be the ignorant citizen’s worst enemy.         

             When taking into account who writes a blog and for what purpose it is obvious to see that blogs are not written for others. Blogs are written solely for the writer in a narcissistic attempt to let everybody know just how smart they are. Then there is also the polemic blog writers, those who write in an extreme one sided manner, leaning to one side and not speaking of the other, unless in a negative tone. This exceptionally common situation makes it impossible for the reader to establish a truly unbiased opinion, unless they search for a blog that is the polar opposite. Blogs are written on just about every political subject and political personality, you can find a blog in favor or against everything. You could either read a blog that subscribes to all of your beliefs and makes you happy in a state of ignorant bliss, or you can read a blog that goes against all of your beliefs and enrages you. Blogs are never giving the full truth and therefore they are false in their educating, so why do they continue in their popularity and numbers?The American public is bored. It is obvious, we watch mindless reality TV, read books about the same subject just different locations, and watch movies that always end with smile. It becomes obvious that the blogosphere is there for our sheer entertainment. We do not read it to learn, because that would not be education that would be conforming. We read the blogoshere because it gives us subjects to bring up at our next dinner party, we all love to talk about how Bush is such an idiot, and this way we have more ammunition. The blogoshpere is just another television channel that feeds us information of our choice. It convinces us it must be true because it is one man supposedly writing for himself. But in all actuality it is a man with an ego to feed and a rant to type.

            Never really understanding the blogosphere leads one to hating the blogosphere. Never understanding the ideas, the drive, or the need is something that many suffer from. However in a time of ignorance and war, the blogosphere is necessary to keep the people thinking. Whether it is for entertainment, infotainment, or ego feeding, the blogosphere is helping inform in a rather odd form. Online blogs are typically just a façade that people use as a medium to portray their bias part of the spectrum, never actually giving the entire view, so why do we read them? Because the entire view is out there to find, it just takes more reading. They inform those who usually do not care to be informed and they make a “C” average public think on an “A+” level.

References:

Blood, Rebecca. The Weblog Handbook.Cambridge, MA: Perseus Publishing, June 2002

Campaigns & Elections Magazine. Political Blog Directory. May 4, 2006 http://www.campaignline.com/blogs/

Copeland, Henry. “2006 Blog Reader Survey Results” Blogads: For Opinion Makers. April 26, 2006. May 4, 2006 http://weblog.blogads.com/comments/P1246_0_1_0/

Galen, Mullings Rich. “Who Reads Political Blogs?” The Political Wire. April 26, 2006. May 4, 2006 <http://politicalwire.com/archives/2006/04/26/who_reads_political _blogs.html> 

I mean I guess the metamorphising of words is the least that we all have to worry about. But still. It is silly to just make up words in the english language so that everyone will flock to you as a media souce. Why not just use real words then have people who dont know what they mean look them up.

I swear this nation is only going down in grade averages which is sad, but if wekeep on making up words then sorrowfully it is true.

This is exactly what bothers me about blogs so much. Sure I am down with new media and the like, but diary online… oh man. Puh-Leeeeze.

It is attention seeking and this whole new wave of bloggers love the attention. These kids will write about their most "inner thinkings" and put them on display for all to see, but then pretend to be mad if you look, it is a train wreck do you honestly think people will pass by without glancing. To be honest I think that this is so stinking popular because we are all exhibitionists. That is right I said it, every last one of us loves the attention, and to think that someone is going out of their way to look up something that you wrote is enough to make anyone giggle like a school girl.

Oh this is dangerous though, this paper could potentialy be one swear word short of a rant. How do I approach this professionally yet passionately? Such a dillema, I guess I can wallow over it in my blog hoping for attention.

But in all honesty this blog is cheating because I know that you (the professor) are reading it. Maybe I should just be an advocate for streaking on busy roads. There is always attention to be gained that way.

So I want to take this time to pay a tribute to the fact that Time Magazine has this new section in it called "Blogwatch" this is cool because they peruse through random blogs and write about interesting stuff going on. I think that this is kinda hilarious because it just goes to show how our times are a changing and Time is right on board. I learned about this guy that works for Nasa who lied on his resume saying he graduated from Texas A&M and it is funny because he never really graduated but his excuse for the lie was that he wrote his resume before quitting school with his intentions of graduating. I think the best part was when time quoted the guy who wrote the original blog who said "I am going to write my resume with intentions of owning my own fortune 500 company." Haha ZINGA!

Maybe if I write some random piece of information Time Magazine will quote my blog eh? Yeah I am going to make a bold statement.

So I think Myspace.com should be banned from all school computers. Here is why; everytime I have some important business to take care of when at school I head over to the school library during its peak hours only to be angered. I would not be upset if everyone occupying a computer were really busy with homework as well however approximately 79% of students are freaking on myspace, literally taking up a space that I could be using to do my homework! I hate that freaking website, and everyone should boycott it with me. Ban it from school computers is what I say.

Word.

ENG 206

Paper Topic #3

Movies, the Internet, and Why I am a Thief          

  The internet today provides it’s users with so many different faucets of information and entertainment, it boggles the mind. Any wish can come true by using the internet and by knowing exactly what you want it is actually easy to come by. People across the world are making small businesses and selling items on the internet using resources such as e-bay, and auction.com, among many others. It would be almost silly to not take advantage of this era’s technology, and I am sure that many others agree with me. However this statement draws the question of just how far should we take it? When do we realize we are no longer using the internet for our own good and start to use it wrongly towards others? In this paper I am going to try and define a very fine line that I think should be drawn to illustrate just how far one should take file stealing and sharing. It is a very thin line that draws on questions of ethics and property, but one that many prance over and back again many times.            

 Downloading a movie is no easy work for any average person. It takes time, the proper equipment and money to buy such equipment. When you look back in time at how we have progressed so rapidly in technology, it would be obvious to any just how much money a hobby in the technology world would require. According to Conner-Sax in The Whole Internet progression in technology since 1992 has been through the roof in statistics, and not only that but children are becoming more and more internet savvy that it has become a danger to families. Who is to say that the internet savvy genius that just spent upwards of two thousand dollars cannot use it to download the films they want to watch. It is amazing to witness how much tickets to the movie theater prices have gone up, therefore why spend double when you can just watch the movie at home with the equipment you purchased for specifically that purpose? You can pay by using such sites as vongo.com or you can do it for free or “illegally” using sites such as kazaa.com. It is a grand idea, I feel. Piracy is defined as “downloading movies and music without the authorization of copyright holders” (www.mpaa.org) and the copyright holder usually is not the original artist. Therefore if an artist wants to get their work out to the public they must go through a copyright holder that only increases the prices of their art making the general public only want to steal it. If that is the way that someone can get their work out there for all to see then I doubt that the true creator has a real problem with the situation.  

            This is where the line comes into play, on a personal level I feel that if someone is going to go through all of the trouble to download these films then they might as well be able to watch them in peace with some company. However if they proceed to duplicate the downloaded material then sell them to others only profiting themselves, that I find to be crossing the line from acceptable to intolerable. Taking a profit from another’s hard work and creations is stealing. It might not be as punishable as stealing a car, as the MPAA would like you to believe but it is still thievery. The MPAA states that anyone who “sells, acquires, copies or distributes copyrighted materials without permission is called a pirate.” Going by their own definition then I suppose a person who just downloads without doing any of the above is in the clear. Reinforcing my point that downloading and enjoying a film on ones own time without any intention to copy, duplicate, or sell is completely tolerable.

            On the MPAA website it boasts about catching movie thieves’ everyday red-handed, and that over 76 million counterfeit DVDs have been seized. This takes us to the idea of bootlegging a film and why it is so despised by the MPAA. A film that took about 20 million dollars to make, being copied and sold for pennies makes the major movie corporations such as Warner Bros angry because they are not seeing the royalties of these films being seen at full price. I agree that it is wrong for the people who bootleg the film to sell it for their own profit, however if the major movie corporations had a reasonable price then I feel downloading would be on the decline. On the MPAA website it is also stated that piracy hurts everyone because it puts our economy on the decline. I feel that is a complete farce. It only hurts the MPAA film makers that make the movies, it is stated that “6 out of 10 films never recoup their original investment.” On www.MPAA.org. However being a movie fan in
America the six failing films are usually the terrible films that they want you to pay full price to see when really they are terrible. How is that fair to the working man?

            Stealing a tangible item from the store is not that same as downloading the contents of the item from a website, the money that the major company is losing mainly comes from distribution, and if there was no need to distribute it because it is on the internet then there was not much money lost. The internet and all other technology are advancing rapidly for out benefit. I feel that it is about time we all embrace it and start using it more towards our advantage. I do not feel guilty why I watch a movie on the internet that I downloaded. However if I was to cross the definable line and sell that movie for profit then I would feel pangs of remorse. 

Conner-Sax, Kiersten, Krol, Ed. The Whole Internet: The Next Generation. O’Reilly Media: 1999
 www.vongo.com © 2006 VONGO^sm ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

www.kazaa-gold.com

www.mpaa.org

Well maybe not this though.

The thing about poetry is that it can be changed in that way (with just one click of a mouse) and yet mean something completely new but make some sense. Is this because what we think of as art cannot make sense? I think so. I think that it is sorta funny how we all think that just because we dont understand something it automatically becomes art. I mean really Jackson Pollack? yea I will agree with the next guy that he was a genius, and I heard that bologna that every drop on his canvis was intentional. I also saw tha movie starring Ed Harris that completely immortalized him as an artist. But still when I see his work compared to that of my five year old brother, I still do a little smirk and think hmm.

However the internet is taking new learps and bounds really getting literature to all new levels, and I do appreciate it, it seems to help culture our wired youth of today. The codepoetry was very interesting to browse over. I think that making it interactive keeps people interested more. So it is a good attention grabber.

People, music industries, the man, whomever are always saying that when you steal songs or movies from the internet it is the same as stealing a car or jewelry. I say not so. In that you cannot compare a song to an entire movie. Think about it takes years, and millions of dollars to produce a film that an audience can lose themselves in and adore for years to come. And to make a song? Okay I give it a day and a few grand for the next "right now" pop star to spit out someone elses words and try to imply emotion into it. Ooh, can you feel that tension?

So forget the music situation in this entire essay it is in no comparison to the mpaa problem.

Ripping a movie off the internet is the same as stealing a car. Well maybe not quite so dramatic in terms of the law however it takes a lot of work and intent to take tha tmovie so possibly they are in the same boat.