My Opinion of The Obama Tax Cuts

I just watched the live press conference held by Obama to address the tax compromise reached between the President and Republicans. If you haven’t heard, Obama agreed to extend the Bush-era tax cuts on the wealthy for two years in return for the following tax breaks desired by Democrats:

1. Parents raising children and paying for college tuition

2. Small-business tax cuts

3. A cut in payroll taxes

The compromise also prolonged unemployment benefits for 13 months, a provision pressed by Democrats, opposed by Republicans.

In the weeks leading up to this deal, the Republican majority in congress made it clear they would obstruct any form of tax legislation unless the President extended the Bush-era tax cuts. Obama caved to republican demands recognizing the impending damage of not letting taxes rise amid the economic recession. The President’s parable was, we typically don’t negotiate with hostage takers, but if it’s clear the hostages are going to be harmed, and those hostages are the majority of Americans, a negotiation is necessary.

I’ve been a Republican in the past, but I can’t in good conscious align with a party that will sacrifice all in the notion of one ideal, especially when that ideal is harmful in the current economic climate. Trickle-down economics does not offset deficits, does not create jobs, and does not help the neediest. Period.

Conversely, certain Democrats chafe because they view Obama’s compromise as his acceding to Republican obstructionism. These Dems say he’s stepping away from his principles, that he’s teaching Republicans to wield the power of blackmail. They ignore that failure to compromise would have left the economy, middle-class Americans, and poor Americans further crippled. This, as our nation claws itself out of a slick-walled recession pit.

As a result of this compromise, all Americans are taxed less than under W. Bush, Clinton, and H.W. Bush, when the tax cuts were first enacted. This is good because, for the time being, we need to grow our economy out of the recession. To do that, American people need money in their pockets (tax benefits for mid-class). Businesses need money to grow and hire (business tax cuts). Students need specialized education and training (tax breaks for parents paying their children’s tuition). The jobless don’t need additional hardship in this country, which we laud as humane and developed (unemployment benefit extension). And perhaps a little bit of the money saved amongst the the richest will trickle down through the economy too (Bush-era tax cuts). And therein lies the genius. As we battle the slump, a capital infusion will grease the economy's gears and hopefully give Obama some political capital for the next election.

The danger is that the cost of these tax breaks is tallied at $900 billion. Lay that beside our $14 trillion deficit and it’s no big sum, but it marks what's close to the last pilfering our nation's coffers will withstand.

Obama explained that a lot of those millions, billions, and trillions were warranted. “We’ve had two years of emergency, but we’ve got to have a larger debate about how we’re going to compete in the 21st century.”

To compete, as he said, we need to focus heavily on infrastructure, education, and green energy. These are the programs that will root America in 21st century economics. Unfortunately, they're all primarily funded by the government. The government gets money from taxes. That is a truth. There's no way around it. Starting in 2011, the government is getting less tax revenue than before, while our debts and deficits are greater than ever. The bottom line is, we can’t climb out of the deficit, we can’t compete in the 21st century without a greater tax base.

To keep the tax breaks, as the Republicans so desire, the government would have to make corresponding cuts. The first programs to go: infrastructure, education, green energy. These cuts will bleed or kill us in the long term.

Education – The most popular story running in the New York Times today was about Test Scores From Shanghai Stunning Educators because they’re astronomically better than ours. We rank 24th in the world for quality of education. That’s a harbinger for a power shift.

Green-Energy—Our dependence on oil and coal destroy the environment. Foreign oil funds the terrorists who attack us here and in the Middle East. The US could use tax revenues to fund programs for clean energy: domestic natural gas, electric cars, nuclear, wind, solar. A dramatic shift would be precipitated by governmentally funded programs. A dramatic shift would give the US political clout for bullies like Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Iraq because we would no longer need their oil. A dramatic shift would save our planet.

Infrastructure—The biggest economic lead possessed by the US now is in telecommunications. The tech sector gives the US billions of jobs and distinguishes our nation abroad as other countries look to us for innovation. China-based companies such as Huawei, however, are quickly growing, gaining revenues, and building out telecom infrastructure due largely to consolidated funding efforts from their governments. There’s no political bickering in the People’s Republic of China. Agreed? Cutting our telecom infrastructure will debilitate our communications, usurp our lead, and help usher a power shift.

So the danger is that, in the torrent of Tea Party tax furor, Americans will be blinded to what’s really happening.

The Republican tax cuts for the wealthy and the estate tax proposal ( which helps only 39,000 Americans) are piling onto a deficit by adding to China’s credit in treasury bonds while draining funding for programs that will make the US competitive in the future.

Query Letter

David Leavitt, editor

Subtropics

P.O. Box 112075

4008 Turlington Hall

University of Florida

Gainesville, FL 32611-2075

Dear Mr. Leavitt,

My 15,000 word story is as deeply philosophical as it is fast-paced, and as it deals with interesting and psychological subject matter, your audience will likely find it an enjoyable read.

In reading several of the stories in Subtropics, I realized that your readers enjoy complex narratives involved in expounding the machinations of complex characters’ heads. Additionally, I noticed that Subtropics editors have fatigued of first-person fiction and are skeptical of second person; fortunately, "The Inversion" is written in third.

The story tells of a young man, grown weary of his life, who decides to commit himself to the task of his own undoing. In a delusional pursuit of infamy through what he calls, “a higher ideal,” James Wallace Bently tries to make himself as miserable as possible. The story follows his tragic journey, taking readers through the labyrinth of his mind, the influences of his past and the consequences of his actions. A surprise twist at the end brings closure to the story, while leaving readers enlightened but somewhat saddened.

Thank you in advance for considering "The Inversion."

Sincerely,

Chilton Tippin

(915) 637.4360

Chilton.l.Tippin@tcu.edu

Encl: Manuscript and SASE

Nitesh Kalwar

Three years ago Nitesh Kalwar lay in his bed in the Nepalese hamlet of Birgunj and fretted about his future in America.

“I didn’t know many schools here in the U.S.,” Kalwar, a junior business and finance major, said. “I was so worried that I corresponded with over 800 schools, sending e-mails.”

Of those 800 schools, Kalwar somehow narrowed it down to TCU.

“To be honest, I didn’t come to TCU on purpose—it wasn’t my first choice,” he said. “I thought the brochures they sent to international kids were kind of stupid.”

However, the generous financial aid and the allure of a small community won him over, he said.

“I expected more tall buildings,” he said. “Even my town has some four-story buildings.”

Kalwar said he now feels at home.

“I truly like TCU because the faculty and staff and the students are very friendly,” he said.

Since his arrival, he has excelled in his classes and founded or joined over seven clubs.

“Freshman year I wasn’t involved in anything,” he said. “Later on I realized that I wanted to get more involved.”

Kalwar said the there was a lot to learn about Fort Worth when he first got here, and the culture shock was overwhelming.

“I remember they asked, ‘Why do you think we’re called cowboys,” and I said, ‘Maybe because you eat cows a lot.’”

In Nepal cows are venerated as sacred animals, he said.

“The first thing I needed to figure out was what do I eat; it was hard for me to figure out what to eat.”

After the uneasy first-year, Kalwar’s transition became easier and he started to immerse himself in the culture and society of the university.

Kalwar joined Frog House, Students for Asian-Indian Cultural Awareness, student government association, and Financial Management Association. He later became president of SAICA and treasurer for Habitat for Humanity. After that he started the Cricket Club. Kalwar also works part time for the help desk in the library.

“Getting involved has made my experience here at TCU so much more rewarding,” he said. “I’ve met so many more people.”

Kalwar said that due to the instability of the Nepalese government, there are not many opportunities for students in his home country. As a result, most of his friends from back home, like him, moved abroad upon completing high school.

“A lot of students study accounting and nursing because there are markets for these in Australia,” he said. “They study these even if they don’t want because they can have opportunities.”

Since arriving at the university three years ago, Kalwar has not returned Birgunj or seen his family.

“I have missed them very much,” he said. “But I’m finally going to see them this summer, so I am excited.”

Jennifer Kowalewski

Jennifer Kowalewski, assistant professor, brought two things with her to the university: her love for teaching journalism and her desire to research political communication.

Kowalewski teaches the reporting and copy editing courses at the university, and she created and instructs a political communication course for upper-level students.

“I love being in the classroom,” Kowalewski said. “But I also love doing experimental and survey research on how the media influence public opinion.”

Kowalewski completed her doctorate in Mass Communication at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and came to the university in 2009.

Prior to that she instructed a news writing course at the UNC-CH, worked for 10 years at daily newspapers in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Michigan, and got her masters in Journalism and Mass Communication at Ohio University.

She got her undergraduate degrees in journalism and political science from Ohio University.

As a reporter, Kowalewski covered everything from dog-sled races to political stories.

Her favorite types of stories were political stories and breaking news stories.

“I didn’t like the stories where people died,” she said. “Overall, I liked the stories where you had a happy ending—where nobody dies.”

After several years as a reporter she decided she wanted to teach her craft, Kowalewski said.

“When I went back for my masters, I really wanted to teach journalism,” she said. “However, in my masters program I was involved with some very research-oriented people.”

Now she focuses her research on the media’s influence on public opinion, conducting surveys and experiments on public opinion formation, she said.

Kowalewski looks at shows such as “The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report” to see how they affect people’s knowledge and cynicism of the news. She also tries to determine whether people who watch these shows feel they have can have an affect on politics themselves.

She plans to teach during the school year and do research during the summer, she said.

In addition, she will be overseeing the first group from the Schieffer School that is going to Washington.

The Schieffer program affiliated with the Washington Center to send five students for almost full-time internships in the nation’s capitol, she said.

The students can earn up to 18 hours of credit, Kowalewski said.

“It’s an exciting time to get that program up and running,” she said. “It will be nice to show the students what D.C. is all about.”

Overseeing that program includes going to D.C. several times throughout the semester to make sure the students are keeping up with their internships, she said.

Jeff Ferrell

Jeff Ferrell, professor of sociology, criminal justice and anthropology at the university, finds solace in trash, beauty in graffiti and love in the streets.

Ferrell has spent his life studying about, learning from, and writing on the scrounging-fringe groups of America, and he has done so from within their ranks.

“I’ve always kind of enjoyed living on the margins, even when I was a kid,” Ferrell said. “Combine that with my Ph.D. in sociology and I was compelled existentially and drawn to people in the margins.”

Ferrell has written 10 books and dozens of articles about his personal plunges into the margins, and that body of work culminated in the field of study he pioneered, “Cultural Criminality.”

“It is, at its most basic level, the study of people in the margins and how they live and how they survive,” he said. “It’s bringing together their culture and their values to be studied.”

His most recent work, “Empire of Scrounge” chronicles his experience as an urban dumpster diver.

After quitting his job as tenured professor at Southern Methodist University, he spent eight months rummaging through dumpsters, collecting metals, and literally living off of other peoples’ refuse.

Along the way he encountered a culture of what he calls “scroungers”—people who live entirely from what they collect from dumpsters.

“From being immersed in that society, I learned a lot about how they operate,” he said. “You learn when grocery stores no longer want stale produce, you learned which metals are more valuable and to collect aluminum cans. I had to figure out how to survive.”

Ferrell’s modus operandi for research is called Ethnography—a type of research in which you immerse yourself in the field.

“What I have realized is that it is a much more honest way to go about conducting research,” he said. “You get a real feel for what is going on, and you aren’t just observing from a non-invested position.”

Before “Empire of Scrounge” Ferrell did similar studies while writing his book “Crimes of Style: Urban Graffiti and the Politics of Criminality.”

In studying that book he immersed himself in the culture of graffiti, traveled with a “crew” that scurried through the streets of Denver at night, spray painting murals and tagging walls.

“It’s illegal,” Ferrell said. “But it’s not gangs or violent—usually.”

Ferrell teaches a class on Ethnography at the university, where students get to learn about and partake in field studies of their own.

“The students do this kind of stuff but, of course, not the dangerous stuff,” Ferrell said. “They do things like go out and observe social situations to learn how to pay close attention.”

One of the tenets of ethnographies is learning to be attentive, he said.

“Most of my colleagues who got Ph.D.’s usually went the way of sitting in classrooms studying books,” he said. “It’s very important that people do that, don’t get me wrong. But I always felt drawn to the margins.”

Final Feature Story Post-Mortem

This last feature story was an interesting one. It was about the culture of alcohol that some experts in the community have been noticing and warning about. For this story I got to talk to a lot of interesting people and even went to a Town Hall meeting at a high school in Arlington. I enjoyed writing the piece because I got to evoke the tone of the Town Hall meeting, which was a rather sober one. So, it was sad, but at least I got to use some description and imagery.

The challenge in this piece was tying the Town Hall meeting to the actual premise of the story, which was the culture of alcohol. I wanted a gripping intro that would lead readers into the story. I thought the subject matter was interesting, I just needed a good intro. That is why I thought an alternative lead that displayed the headings of the PowerPoint that the officer gave would be a good one. The headlines were rather cold, stark and to the point, and below them were the photographs of mangled cars. At the town hall meeting the PowerPoint really touched me, so I wanted to convey that sentiment. At the same time, the story itself was not about DWI's, so I didn't want it had to be sure underline that fact with the nut graph.

Refrigerator Piece Post-Mortem

The refrigerator piece actually proved to be somewhat daunting for me. Writing an article usually comes very easily for me, but the hard part is simply getting ahold of people. For this piece I had to contact several students, all of whom were busy, and organize their information in sub-heads that didn't have the same flow as a story. So, the difficulty lay in getting ahold of so many people. It was somewhat of a nuisance having to mold my schedule to fit the schedules of the persons I was contacting. Once I figured out how to organize the piece and had all of the interviews, it was really just a matter of plugging all the information in. That was no big deal.

Chatroulette Comments

This story was about Chatroulette. It had several purposes, but the main focus was about how the site has become a haven for sexual predators, and how children at the site are being subjected to objectionable material. To flesh out the story I talked to several experts from across the country. I first explained how the site works, then I gave evidence suggesting that perverts were on the site, then I gave evidence suggesting that children were on the site. From that point, I described how the children could be adversely affected by what they were seeing, and I described the reasons that perverts were using the site for perverse purposes—even though the site was not intended to be used in that way.

Most of my interviews were located on Profnet.com, which actually worked quite well. I posted my query on the site and had several experts contact me, so I chose the ones that seemed the most qualified. Everyone was helpful and willing to talk.

The hard part was focusing my story after I got all of my information. There was a lot about this site that I found interesting: a 17-year-old made it, it exploded in popularity more quickly than Twitter and Facebook, and many users quickly exposed it.

I decided to focus on the fact that perverts and children were using it. Though I had to explain quickly how the site was used, I then geared my story to illuminating the harm caused by the perverts and the psychological reasons for such lewd acts. The rest of the interesting stuff I tried to work in on the fringes to add description and so forth.

5 more tips from Roy Peter Clark

Tool 20: Choose the number of elements with purpose in mind. This tool teaches you how to utilize numbers when listing adjectives or descriptions. It points out that one element is power. It is meant to make the reader feel that what is listed is powerfully true. Two elements is for comparison and contrast. Three elements is for completeness, wholeness, roundness. Four or more elements is for a descriptive list, inventory, compilation and expansion.

Tool 13: Play with words, even in serious stories. This tool says that writers should be playful or poetic with their words. Clark says the reading vocabulary of the average citizen is greater than the writing vocabulary of the average writer. Basically, he says not to be afraid to get creative with your language and word choice. Try to use unique and descriptive words.

Tool 16: Seek Original Images. This tool tells authors to avoid cliches. Clark says cliches are just phrases strung together that have become common, so they are easy and help writers to avert thinking. Rather than cliches we must always strive to be crafty with our images.

Tool 17: Riff on the language of others. This tool means that you should use other language that writers use to build up your own writing. The tool does not advocate plagiarizing, but says you should create your own variation of what other people in the media have used.

Tool 31: Build your work around a key questioin. This tool basically tells you to develop a good focus. Keep readers questioning, and do so by creating an engine to drive the story. The engine is the question that readers will continually be asking throughout the story.

Writing Tools 5 Entries

Entry 8: Use parallel structure then give it a twist. The tool says to build a pattern in your writing, but break the pattern to give a nice little twist, which will lend more emphasis to what the sentence is about.

Entry 9: Punctuation is meant to be used as tools not as rules. This chapter goes over the uses of punctuation--specifically the use of the comma, semi-colon, colon, dash and period.

Entry 10: Cut Big, then small. This tool teaches you to write concisely. It gives you guides on how to trim the fat from your work. It says to start wordy, but always plan for rewrites, which are used to cut. It says to cut adverbs that intensify rather than modify, prepositional phrases that repeat the obvious, phrases that grow on words, abstract nouns that hid active verbs, and restatements.

Tool 11: Prefer the Simple over the Technical. This tool teaches you to turn hard facts into simplified prose. It says that this can make complicated subjects artistic and easier for your readers to read. It says simplicity is a craft that a writer must develop as a craft.

Tool 12: Give Key Words their Space. This rule says writers should be mindful of the words they are using. They should try to avoid using key words repetitively. Clark says key words deserve their territory, and using key words too frequently dilutes the meaning of them.

Story Ideas From Palko

1) The education building hosts workshops every Tuesday and Thursday from 4:30 to 5:30. These workshops cover a wide range of academic subjects and are simply to help students perform better as students. I talked to a couple of people who say they come at least once a week.

2) There is a center within the field of education called the Center for Urban Education. This center focuses on recruiting and preparing teachers for working in urban schools, helps to improve teaching methods in urban settings, and helps conduct research regarding best practices at schools. One of the programs works with high school students in an attempt to get them excited for college and to recruit them as future educators.

What I learned from story 2

My second story was about a biologist and his extensive work on freshwater ecosystems. Since the article dealt with subjects of scientific nature, it was both complicated and informative. I was overwhelmed by the amount of information I needed to condense into the story. Dr. Drenner has done a ton of things in his life, and there were several different angles I could have put on the story. I decided that I wanted to focus on the amount of research he has done, what research he has done, and what he has done as an educator and Department Chair. I used the other things I learned about him as anecdotes to draw up the image of the man. I was challenged by the scientific jargon, since I learned in my previous piece the hard way, I wanted to make it as simple for readers as possible. I tried to keep scientific terms out as much as I could, and I tried to explain in laymen's terms.

Book Store Field Trip

10 Helpful Books for a Writer
1) On Writing--Steven King
2) Line by Line: How to edit your own Writing--Claire Cook
3) How to Write and Sell Your Novel
4) The Elements of Nonfiction--Peter Rubie
5) Putting your Passion into Print: Get your book published successfully
7) How to get a Literary Agent--Michael Larsen
8)How I got Published: Famous Authors tell you in their own words--Ray White and Diane Lindsay
9) Thinking Like your Editor--Alfred Fortunado
10) The Elements of Style--E.b. Strunk and White

Magazines with Feature Stories

1) Esquire had a profile on Blake Lively
2) Men's Health is full of stories on how to get stronger, how to cook, how to pick up attractive women
3) GQ had an interview with Rihanna and it was listed in Q and A format
4) Adventure Magazine had a section on how to survive in a post-apocolyptic world
5) CNN Traveller had articles such as: Istandbul: What to do in a day; India: Trekking in Darjeeling; Okinawa: Secrets of a Long Life; Utah: Finding the Old West

Writers Market

I actually purchased the Writers Market immediately. What a world of opportunity contained within this book! I've never know how much magazines pay, nor that there were so many different magazines and journals and such looking for people's work. I like writing fiction in my spare time, and have actually built up a portfolio of short stories. I never really even thought about selling them, but now that I have this book, I may give it a shot. There are several literary magazines that I went through and highlighted that may be interested in some of my work.

I also think it would be fun to write for a travel magazine, and though I am sure many people try to do this, maybe the next time I go backpacking through South America or Europe I will try to think of some entries to send off to a travel mag such as CNN traveller or Coast to Coast Magazine.

Another genre I find interesting is thePolitics and World Affairs genre. I could see myself writing some pieces about happenings in various places. I grew up in El Paso, right next door to Juarez, Mexico one of the most dangerous cities in the world, and I have thought recently about doing some reporting on the situation that is unfolding with the drug cartels and all of the violence. Perhaps, work such as this could fit in in one of these political or world affairs magazines.

Writing The Profile Piece

This was the first feature story I have ever done, and I've got to say that from the get-go I was a little more excited than I had ever been on my dining services beat during reporting. I was excited that I was finally able to unleash a little literary fervor that had been long-repressed since writing only hard-news stories.

My story was on an artist and the artist's aesthetic is, of course, visual. Therefore, I knew that I wanted to try and capture all of the visually stimulating aspects of his work; I wanted to mirror his work in my story and to try using words to encapsulate not only the actual art itself but the artist's style and methodology. For that reason, I knew that I would have to spend some time just observing him work. This is the first story for which I have scheduled multiple interviews with my subject, but I decided I would have a primary interview session and then follow up with an observation/interview session. The first one I used to get all the logistics: his inspiration, his life-story, his goals, a foundation upon which to gear my story. The second one, where I observed, I used to actually ask him about his technique; while he was painting I would ask what he was doing and why. I felt that in this way I had a real feel for what his style was. I got to catch a glimpse of what it took to create these paintings. I also got to go to his actual studio, and that was what gave me the inspiration for my lead. Had I not seen his place of work with all its colorful chaos, crammed with canvasses finished and unfinished, paint on the floors and walls, I would have never fathomed much of the lead or my story. It allowed me to see the shear volume of his work, which led me to inquire about his work ethic, which led me to realize how much of himself he actually put into the painting. The dude works incessantly!

Afterwards, I wanted to talk to one of his professors to get a feel of how he measured up in comparison to other painters in Moudy. I also wanted to get a professional opinion of his work, and to just dig around and see what further commentary I could acquire.

Finally, I spoke with one of the artist's patrons. I thought this would be a good way to show the audience that the artist was generating some response within the community around him. This person I talked with had purchased three of DJ's paintings, so it was good to get a patrons point of view. She told me why she liked the paintings and gave a little emotional appeal to the story.

The only challenge I had was in trying to explain the sometimes abstract and technical descriptions artists use to describe their work. The professor I interviewed especially used strange and obscure references that I would have to decode so that the typical reader could understand.

Media Final

1. “The medium is the message” is a phrase used by Marshall McLuhan meaning that the medium itself should be perceived as the message.  The content that a particular medium carries should not be the focus, rather the medium itself is of greater importance.  This is because the characteristics of a given medium often define the way it effects society.  The “message” is the personal and social consequences of a given medium.  An example using the medium of television is helpful.  A television, according to McLuhan, is not only the medium, but the message as well.  Televisions are a visual medium.  They tell stories and engage their audiences through visual displays.  Therefore, the characteristic of being a visual medium becomes imbedded in the message itself.  Since televisions need to engage their audience through stimulating visual displays, this affects the message or the content.  So, take for example, a news story: Michael Jackson died.  On the television, while the news is breaking, the program may play clips of Michael being rushed to the hospital.  After it is discovered that Michael died, they may play clips from his music videos or controversial life.  In a newspaper, however, the content or means of displaying the content is going to be different.  A newspaper cannot play visual clips, so they would likely rely on more in depth reporting.  Their story may go deeper into the causes of his death, or try to explain, in words, his success as a musical performer or controversial life.  This exemplifies how the exact same story (Michael Jackson dying) is displayed differently on either given medium.  Therefore, the medium plays a big role in shaping the message; the medium is the message.  Furthermore, he said the medium is the massage as well.  That is, through the content of the medium, we become distracted and do not realize the greater social implications of a particular medium.  The content “massages” us into apathy. 

 

2.  Movies as a medium act as a message in many different ways.  To clarify, when I say message here, I mean personal and social consequences of movies as a medium.   Of course there are several ways that movies influence people.  For example, one thing characteristic of movies, is that it puts somewhat strict time constraints on how long it takes for a story to be told.  Most movies are around two hours, and it has become the preference of society to attend movies that are around two hours in duration.  Of course, there is no law limiting movies to a certain time, but this is simply how the medium works.  People go to a movie and expect the entire story to be told within around a two hour timeframe.  It seems plausible that many stories would take longer than two hours to convey all that the particular story has to convey.  However, these time constraints undoubtedly affect the content.  What is the message or societal implications?  Perhaps that society  begins to prefer  condensed versions of stories that fit within the time constraints rather than getting the in depth details.  Another example is the absent mindedness that comes along with movie watching.  As the popular saying goes, “I’m just going to ‘veg’ out and watch the television.”  Movies do not take a lot of mental concentration, yet they do often take up a lot of our time.  The message here, then, could be that society is becoming stupefied by movies which do not stimulate any positive cognitive functions.  The messages of the web could be countless as well.  One salient message is that it tends to play to our notions of instant gratification.  With the internet, and especially search engines such as Google, you can easily blast through research and find answers to questions almost instantaneously.  A wider societal consequence could be that this is quickly undermining the virtues of patience and diligence.  Also, the internet could possibly be detrimental to our attention spans.  Since so much information is constantly bombarding people on the net, it is easy to quickly click through sites, take in vast amounts and disparate pieces of information, rather than stick to a since subject and take in all the important details.  A positive aspect of the web as a message is the fact that it has given everyday members of society a voice.  Through websites such as twitter and youtube people can let their opinions be heard.  This could have galvanizing affects on our civil society and democracy.  Today, for example, Barack Obama is responding to web posts by citizens in his health care town hall meeting. 

 

4.  E-mail has many profound messages as well.  As a device for communication it allows people to send direct and detailed information to whomever they please (so long as they have their e-mail address).  This can have many societal consequences.  One consequence is that it increases the speed with which we can orchestrate group communication.  People in the work place can send out electronic memos to everyone in the building.  Consequently, information is shared more quickly and efficiently.  Therefore, each worker is more quickly and efficiently informed and should presumably have greater output as a result.  Another consequence however is that society as a whole is likely to replace direct person to person contact with email.  For example, the president of my fraternity recently started having e-meetings, where instead of attending chapter at the fraternity house, he simply e-mails out all of the points he wanted to discuss.  For many people this is very convenient—they don’t have to quit watching Sunday night television to come to the meeting—but many say that it breaks the intimate communication shared amongst physically present peers.  The medium of social networking represents a strong message as well.  One commonly referred to societal consequence of the social network facebook is that it can be detrimental to those seeking employment.  Employers, it is said, have been known to request to see potential employees’ facebook accounts.  Often these accounts contain pictures of the employee engaged in various acts of debauchery, and upon viewing them, the employers opt against hiring the potential employee.  Another message through social networking is the connectedness that it can help maintain.  For example, I went abroad and studied in Argentina for a few months.  While I was there I met many people from all over the world.  Facebook and myspace have helped me to keep in touch with all of these people on a much more intimate level than I would be if it did not exist.  So the broader message here could be that social networking as a medium is conducive to an increased interconnectedness amongst friends from all over the world.

 

5.  If I owned a newspaper right now I would take quick action to save it.  The first thing I would do is hire reporters who were specialists in the particular fields that my newspaper is reporting on.  For example, for the crime beat, I may hire someone who has a degree in criminal justice; or for the entertainment section I would hire journalists who have spent a long time immersed in things such as theatre, pop culture, cinema, travel and the like.  These people would be seen as experts in their particular field.  I would then allow them to not only report on a story in the traditional-objective fashion of a news reporter, but I would have them give analysis as well.  So, instead of merely a story about Obama giving a speech on health care, they would write the story and then follow it with some informed and insightful analysis.  As we have learned this semester, the competition for the news is quickly rising.  It is going to be hard to profit only from news gathering because news gathering has become easy.  With the internet, news is dispersed quickly and cheaply, so the origins are not quite as important.  The only way to give my paper an edge then, will be to provide insightful analysis.  This will set my paper apart from the rest of the news sources.  Second of all, I would require each of my reporters to shoot some sort of multimedia with any story they are doing — this could include a video, slideshow, graph or the like — and they would need to post it to our freshly created internet site.  The site would be much like MSNBC.com:  extremely engaging and interactive.  We would include slide shows, allow people to comment, and have videos and graphs explaining complex stories.  We would monitize the site through several different types of advertisements.  For example, if a person wants to watch a video, a quick commercial will play right before the video begins.  Also, we will have sponsored question and answer sessions with our reporters who are experts.  So, citizens who may be concerned with the aforementioned Obama health care plan can get online and ask questions at a predetermined time.  For example, It could be called The Harris Hospital Town Meeting for the health care.  Our experts would be on video chat, or in a chat room, that is sponsored and heavily advertised on by Harris Hospital, and concerned persons can get on and ask them questions.  All of this will be hosted on our site.  The site will be mostly free.  However, if a person wants to access the analysis of certain stories they will have to pay a “circulation fee.”  This fee, will grant them access to all of the analysis, and will be paid once every 3 months.  The fee would be around $10.  Also, for those who still prefer a newspaper to be held in their hands, they too can pay a circulation fee which will allow the paper to be delivered to them.  The paper will include all of the analysis.  The important thing is that the analysis, not the news, comes at a price.  So, the news on the site is free to the public, but hopefully, if it is presented in an attractive way, it will lure people towards the expert analysis.  We will also have extensive social networking accounts on myspace, facebook and Twitter.  Each of these will be used to help leverage the news site, and try to draw people towards the analysis.  The expert reporters will be the background, and will themselves be advertised.  Each week we will have a “featured expert-reporter,” where patrons of our news paper and site can learn about the person feeding them the news.  Hopefully, this will help to generate followings around certain reporters within the paper.  They will be followed and read much like your tradition opinion columnist.  Each reporter will also be responsible in promoting themselves; they must have active twitter, myspace, and facebook accounts which they post on regularly.  They will be instructed to post comments and links on twitter which should allure people back towards our news site.  All of these facets working together should hopefully generate enough buzz around my newspaper that it will maintain its profitability.

 

6.  TV news and TV campaign advertising affect the political process in many ways and on many different levels. TV news is the medium that supplanted other forms of informing the public within years of its inception.  So, it has a very direct effect because most people are informed through television.  Therefore, such important political feats as garnering public support for bills going through congress, campaigning, and public policy debates have all come to rely on the television.  TV news affects the political process in that certain networks are said to be biased on partisan lines.  It is often held as general knowledge that Fox is a conservative station while CNN is more liberal.  This means people who watch Fox news are likely to become further entrenched conservatives, while the opposite is true of CNN.  Furthermore, TV news is a very visually dependent medium.  To convey a story on television it needs to have a visually stimulating component.  Therefore, television usually employs the usage of talking heads on the television screen or can resort to argumentative debates on certain political issues.  It is often the case that in depth accounts of important political occurrences and policies are often pushed aside in TV news.  In their place are the more shallow and sensational aspects.  Above everything else, television news exists to connect public consumers to advertisers.  A consequence of this is that television news is in a race for ratings.  The news station with the highest ratings is most attractive for advertisers.  Therefore, there is great incentive to sensationalize news and show stories that pander to the publics’ emotional side.  Stories about celebrities or crime often take precedence over politics.  This can possibly result in a poorly informed public, which undoubtedly affects a democratic political system which relies on an informed public.  As we saw in the 1952 election campaigns between Eisenhower and Stevenson, the television is a very important campaign advertising tool.  Eisenhower’s intelligent use of electronic campaigning through quick spot commercials and officious jingles likely helped him to gain much popularity.  Since Eisenhower’s success, TV ads have been used throughout the entire latter half of the 20^th century and throughout the beginning of the 21^st to battle for public support.  What has resulted is that candidates have been dropping exorbitant amounts of money on television ads, and the cost of campaigning has sharply risen.  However, television advertising is absolutely necessary because it reaches such a wide audience.  So the political process and the medium of television advertising have become intertwined, so that no candidate could possibly win an election without paying dearly for television advertising.  

The Invasive Internet: Death Blow to Chinese Communist Party?

Last may I was in Beijing for a delegation on foreign affairs.  Upon arriving we were given a briefing by the program we were traveling with which explained, among other important trip-related necessities, the nature of the Chinese government.  We learned that the Chinese were governed by an autocratic single-party system that had had a history of being oppressive; we learned that beginning in 1978, under the leadership of Deng Xiaoping, China opened up their markets, and for the first time in decades, China engaged in wide scale trade with the global market, and the citizenry were able to freely start businesses, search for new jobs, and move and live where they pleased; we learned that the opening of the economy had lead recently to massive economic growth: “For three decades the economy has grown at an average annual rate of nearly 10 percent, and more people have been lifted out of poverty than in any other country, at any other time” (Hessler, 2008).  Soon my fellow students and I became aware of a certain contradiction; how could an authoritarian regime wield such political preponderance while at the same time allow free market exchanges?  With such growth and innovation, wouldn’t a middle class rise up and demand political freedom?  After all, wasn’t that how it happened in Europe? 

That night I returned to my room brimming with curiosity because another question began to manifest in my mind as well;  with the pervasiveness of global media coupled with the burgeoning Chinese middle class, how could the authoritarian regime possibly keep the flood gates clamped shut, damming up the often ornery and invasive concepts of basic human rights, liberty, and public dissent? As I had unpacked my bags, I noticed a computer sitting on a desk in my room.  I sat down at the keyboard and connected to the net  with a mission in mind to poke around, and see what the Chinese people could have access to on the internet.  On Google I typed in such queries as “human rights,” “freedom in Tibet,” “freedom of the Press,” and “two-party system.”  In doing so, I learned how scrupulous the government’s firewall could be.  Most all of the pages I attempted to click would say, “This page cannot be displayed.”  After a time I went to Google News and clicked on a story regarding Tibet that had been added four minutes ago, and to my delight, the page opened up.  I quickly scanned through the article and realized that I was definitely reading something the Chinese government would not want their citizens to read.  I had circumvented the firewall! However, suddenly something terrifying occurred.  The screen went black and flashed some Chinese characters in red, and with a loud popping sound, the monitor shut off.

Though it seems plausible that the Chinese government has bitten off more than it can chew — that allowing such economic freedom and opening its heretofore isolated populace to the outside world will irrevocably cause the great wall of insularity and repression to come tumbling down — my personal anecdote does well to illuminate the challenges that political change and reform will face.  In assessing the different implements that are necessary for democracy to rear itself, there are several circumstances that suggest technological connectedness, media influence, and free market economy—though important stepping stones—may not be sufficient to bring about the necessary reform.

When China opened up to free markets and global trade there was a general expectation that this would lead to political reform.  “The argument, in its simplest form, runs like this: economic growth produces an educated and entrepreneurial middle class that, sooner or later, begins to demand control over its own fate.  Eventually even repressive governments are forced to give in” (Bueno de Mesquita and Downs, 2005).  However, evidence points to the fact that autocratic governments do not sit idly by and allow political change to occur.  In fact, the ones achieving the most success in maintaining their heavy-handed control always take a very active role in suppressing and vanquishing any fledgling intimations of dissent.  To illuminate how an incumbent government stays ahead of the competition, Bueno de Mesquita and Downs describe a term called “strategic coordination.”  “Strategic coordination refers to the set of activities that people must engage in to win political power in a given situation.  Such activities include disseminating information, recruiting and organizing opposition members, choosing leaders, and developing a viable strategy to increase the group’s power and to influence policy” (Bueno de Mesquita and Downs, 2005).  It seems that the internet would be the perfect medium for an opposition party organize such measures of strategic coordination.  However, a closer look reveals that autocratic governments exercise mighty power in curbing these efforts.  A plethora of examples exist, but to name a few: “China has periodically blocked access to Google’s English language news service and recently forced Microsoft to block the use of words such as ‘freedom’ and ‘democracy’ on the Microsoft software used by bloggers” (Bueno de Mesquita and Downs, 2005).  Additionally it is notable that China has created a special internet police unit and limited the number of internet gateways into China. (Bueno de Mesquita and Downs, 2005).  In order for a democracy to formulate, it is apparent that any opposition party must be allowed to coordinate.  With the government keeping such a close eye on what is available on the internet, it seems unlikely that this will happen anytime soon.  In a study conducted by Jason P Abbott, a search was conducted in which common progressive keywords were entered into Yahoo.  The same keywords were entered in the Asian version of Yahoo as well as the general version of Yahoo.  The findings shed some light on the Asian filters:  “Civil Rights revealed 11 sites at Yahoo! Asia and 1270 at Yahoo.com; Press Freedom revealed 1 site at Yahoo! Asia and 37 at Yahoo.com; Women’s rights revealed 22 at Yahoo! Asia and 177 at Yahoo.com” (Abbott, 2001).  The list of progressive terms is vastly more extensive, and in each instance, Yahoo! Asia revealed significantly less sites.  Though, this study was imperfect it shows just how tightly filtered the Asian net can be.

Another factor that has obstructed the internet’s being used as a coattail medium for democracy is the “fear factor.”  “Indeed one should not underestimate the use of fear of arrest and imprisonment as a means of enforcement” (Abott, 2005).  When the computer screen shut down in my hotel room in Beijing, a veritable fear came over me.  Two of my friends in the room even left for fear that a Chinese version of the Gestapo was going to come breaking down the door.    “Correspondent Lorien Holland commented, ‘there are a number of surveillance groups checking out the Internet, but none seem to have been particularly effective… [however] most sites that operate inside China (ie chat sites and discussion forums) police themselves so that they stay out of trouble’” (Abbott, 2005).

While it may be hard to believe that fear and heavy-handed control of such access necessities as portals and search engines can allow the Chinese Communist Party to rule without fear of reform, other factors have contributed in bolstering the governments ability to stymie dissent on the net.  “Questions must be raised about how effective the internet can be as a vehicle for political transformation when it is clear that across Asia as a whole only a small minority have access to it” (Abbott, 2005).  The degree of poverty in China is one that many Americans and Westerners would find hard to fathom.  For this reason, the internet appears to be accessed predominantly by very elitist groups — groups that aren’t necessarily disenfranchised by the rule of the communist party.  With the current economic growth many people are in fact happy with the government, and as such, have no reason to put themselves at risk expressing political dissent. 

While all of this may be the case, it is hard to say that the internet will not have some sort of liberalizing effect on Chinese civil society. “The incipient yet dynamic character of Chinese civil society is evident at various levels.  There has been an emerging rights consciousness related to the notion of citizenship rights” (Yang, 2003). A strong civil society is often seen as the basis for a democracy, and as Chinese civil society is said to be in its fledgling levels it appears to be dynamic and open to change.  “The relative ‘young’ age of Chinese civil society may thus meant that it is more responsive to technological change, especially those technologies that may meet its needs.” Furthermore, “Studies of Chinese mass media have consistently revealed a tendency toward the loosening of political control and the parallel trend of commercialization” (Yang, 2003).  This correlation between the liberalizing of civil society and the pervasiveness of a liberalized mass media seem to be hard to avoid.  Yang further argues that social organizations have been burgeoning and have made gains in independence despite strong governmental control.  All of these signs seem to point towards the gradual build up toward democracy.  However, it is important to realize that the internet is not likely to spark any rapid upheaval.  “The internet will probably not bring ‘revolutionary’ political change to China, but instead will be a key pillar of China’s slower, evolutionary path toward increased pluralization and possibly even nascent democratization” (Yang, 2003). 

With a sprawling population of over 1.3 billion people and a fast track toward economic prosperity, it seems evident that political reform will come to China.  The seeds seem to have already been sown.  However, it is important to note that open economic markets and the advent of such seemingly invasive media as the internet are not likely to cause rapid change.  The Chinese Communist Party has in the past proven to be malleable, and they have adroitly taken measures to ensure any efforts of reform remain innocuous.  Though a more educated middle class is undoubtedly coming through the ranks, the Party still has great influence in shaping their rise.  Many look at the children in China today, and see a greater individuality, a break with traditional Chinese values, and predict that they will someday demand a say in how they are governed.  However, “Raised and educated within the system, they are just as likely to accommodate themselves to it, as they have done all along” (Chang, 2008).

 

                            

           

Literature Cited

Bueno de Mesquita, Bruce and Downs, George W., “Development and Democracy” Foreign Affairs, Vol. 84, No. 5 (Sep. – Oct., 2005), pp. 77-86; Council on Foreign Relations http://www.jstor.org/stable/20031707

 

Yang, Guobin, “The Co-Evolution of the Internet and Civil Society in China” Asian Survey, Vol. 43, No. 3 (May – Jun., 2003), pp. 405-422; University of California Press http://www.jstor.org/stable/3557845

 Abbott, Jason P., “Democracy@Internet.Asia?  The Challenges to Emancipatory Potential of the Net: Lessons fro China and Malaysia” Third World Quarterly Vol. 22, No. 1 (Feb., 2001), pp. 99-114;  Taylor & Francis, Ltd.http://www.jstor.org/stable/3993348

 Hessler, Peter, “China’s Journey; The Great Nation is on the Move” National Geographic Magazine, Vol. 213 No. 5 (May 2008), pp. 34 National Geographic Society.

 Chang, Leslie T. “Gilded Age, Gilded Cage; A New Middle Class Means Aspiration—and Anxiety” National Geographic Magazine, Vol. 213 No. 5 (May 2008), pp. 78 National Geographic Society.

Five Contemporary Journalism Issues

1.  Mental Health and the Mass Media. This issue explores the effects of mass media on the public perceptions of those with mental illnesses.  Often persons with mental illnesses are portrayed as dangerous, unstable, and strange; ought these stereotypes be dealt with in a way that will cause for mental illnesses to be portrayed in a less negative light?

 2.  The effectiveness of mass media campaigns in helping the prevention of smoking.  With the Obama Health Care Plan bent on preempting health problems, a general public mentality more focused on health, and the increased knowledge of the dangers of smoking have there recently been more mass media campaigns against smoking?  How effective are these campaigns in actually dissuading the use of cigarettes?

 3.  Does the media support or sabotage health?  The mass media seems play opposing roles in health.  Many of the messages put forth through commercials can definitely have detrimental effects on the health of individuals.  Examples include fast food commercials and advertisements for fatty foods.  Likewise, media can often promote a sedentary life as many of the mediums for mass media must be utilized in a stationary position (television, computers).  However, many of the messages put through the media try to promote health, healthy eating, exercise and the like.

 4.  In an article called  “All Together Now” in the Columbia Journalism Review the author describes a process by which newsrooms and newspapers are banding together in attempts thwart the death of the newspaper.  Since revenues are down and the internet poses a threat in that it grants access to the information much more expediently, a number of news outlets have began to collaborate.  Is this a last ditch effort to save the industry?  Will it work or just prolong the inevitable? 

 5.  In an article called “The Death of Slow Journalism” in The American Journalism Review the author Candy Cooper, talks about the death of in-depth journalism that often takes time to research and compose.  She talks about how news has grown away from in depth stories and how newspapers are going by the way of television; short stories enhanced with graphics and pictures.  Example: USA Today.  How might this trend have come about?  Does it reflect the publics insatiable need for quick news bites, fast action, and instant yet shallow stimulation?  What impacts might this have on society?

I think Obama's idea to implement a government sponsored insurance plan which will be available in the \"exchange program\" is actually a savvy idea. Though many citizens cry for a single payer system, this is not politically feasible. Adhering to the lessons of the failed Clinton Health Care Plan requires keeping new health care policy from being overly contentious. Any plan as comprehensive as the one Obama is offering will surely encompass many different views and fierce opposition resulting from these disparate views, so it is important that the Obama administration make compromises if the plan is ever to be adopted. A single payer system would prod the embers under far too many interests for it to be considered viable at this point.

Obama was right in saying that staying our current course will result in an ever-burgeoning deficit; so it must be that health care is reformed and done so in a comprehensive way. Therefore, I see the exchange program wherein private insurance competes with a government sponsored plan as an important stepping stone. This will provide the most needy with coverage that they currently are unable to receive, allow us to keep a competitive market, and lower everyone's insurance premiums while at the same time taking some of the power away from the insurance companies — which are often concerned with profits rather than the lives of those humans who need coverage the most. Of course, it does not go as far as the single payer plan (cutting the insurance companies out of the deal) but it manages to accomplish some of what single payer aims to provide while, presumably, keeping some of the more vehemently controversial issues at bay.

A substantial amount of money is wasted when uninsured people go to the ER. Hospitals are required to admit these people, and the federal government is burdened with the funding. A hidden perk in Obama's idea comes from the fact that it proposes to provide insurance to millions of people — the CBO estimates 39 million who are currently uninsured — thus alleviating this problem almost in its entirety. Why?  Well it's obvious; those who used to arrive in ER’s uninsured will now likely be insured.

The biggest albatross in the plan is the funding. The Obama administration is going to have to banter, barter, and bounce through a myriad of interests and their constituencies and figure out how to come up with $1 trillion to feed this massive beast. Just like Clinton’s plan, it will very likely arise that the president once again has bitten off more than he can chew.

However, it may be the case that Obama has even more support in congress than did Clinton, and these proposals have been around a bit longer. I think Clinton's health plan failed for several reasons: it was too big, congress was splintered, and health care reform of this magnitude was unprecedented, among others. Though Obama's proposal may be just as vast, he presides over a strongly democratic congress that, presumably, has learned the lessons from Clinton's democratic congress. They may be more apt to back Obama's plan than Clinton's because they saw how Clinton's failed when they did not maintain their solidarity. With the economic climate at hand, politics seem to be moving somewhat faster than their usual geologic pace. The collective mentality of America seems to have changed as a result of the drastic economic climate; congress sits on the precipice of a time where we have a monumental debt like none ever before witnessed in history. Congress members and laymen alike know that the health care system has played a big role in creating this debt, and its reformulation or the failure to do so will largely determine how this debt is dealt with or not dealt with. So, I think that Obama's plan being adopted will rely heavily on the estimates from the CBO and the plan's likelihood of providing for savings on down the road. If the CBO sees that the Obama plan will result in savings in health care spending, then it will likely gain in popularity, and will therefore be more likely to pass.

The Meaning of My Blog's Title

El Aleph is a story written by Argentine author, Jorge Luis Borges.  An aleph, which conventionally is the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, took on a new meaning under the witty patronage of Borges.  In his story the aleph is an object within which is the point at which all knowledge comes together.  Sounds kind of crazy, I know.  But it's equally interesting, I think.  So if one is looking into the aleph, they are simultaneously seeing every inkling of knowledge.

Aporia is quite the opposite.  Aporia is a Greek term utilized frequently by Plato.  In Plato's round about dialogues in The Republic, aporia means the feeling of helplessness.  Aporia is the moment at which no further conclusion can be reached;  it is beyond the fringes of knowledge; it is the point of sheer frustration, often despair, and where our wits are confounded.  

I thought these two terms might serve well in my title because they are polar opposites.

Tutelage is a term that — aside from its convenient alliteration with my last name — is used, in this sense, to convey the meaning of teaching or instruction.  So "Tippin's Tutelage" is the same as "Tippin's instruction" or "Tippin's Teaching."  This is to convey the idea that my blog, like the myriad out there, will serve to impart the little bit of knowledge that I do contain within my humble repertoire.

Thus, the product:  Tippin's Tutelage: El Aleph or Aporia