Hamlet's Blackberry

William Powers perceives a kind of "flattening" because of what he calls hyper-connectedness. How is his sense of flattening different from Andrew Keen's? To what characteristics of being connected does he attribute flattening? Please respond by Monday, Nov. 29, at 4 p.m.

ADVISORY:

Those of you who've missed responses to previous posts can compensate by doing your "personal" blog. When it comes time for me to calculate final grades, I will be taking into account the following:

1) Papers (on Postman/Idiocracy, Web page, Streitmatter/Goodnight, and Good Luck, Hamlet's Blackberry)

2) Blog responses (frequency, quality)

3) Class participation (attendance, of course, affects this)

4) Extra credit via personal blog

History Is. . . (Mightier, Chaps. 6-10)

Relevant? Irrelevant? Using Mightier Than a Sword as a reference, please argue for which every position you believe most. Your response is due by 4 p.m., Monday, Nov. 15.

Mightier Than the Sword (Chaps. 1-5)

What, in reading about the history of American journalism, surprised you the most? A particular incident? A particular personage? A particular development or trend? Briefly explain why (but in more than one hurried sentence). Please post your response by 4 p.m., Monday, Nov. 8.

I Started a Joke. . . That Went Viral

For Thursday at 4 p.m., please consult the article below and relate it to Keen's concerns in THE CULT OF THE AMATEUR.


http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/08/us/08duke.html?emc=eta1

The World (Wide Web) Is Flat

In his book, Cult of the Amateur, Andrew Keen complains about "a flattening of our culture." What do you think he means by that phrase and why does the phrase -- or, more precisely, what it represents -- seem to scare him so much?

Blog Links

Please place links to your blogs below. Everyone should follow everyone else's. Thanks!

Amusing Ourselves 3

Describe what Postman means by the term "information-action ratio." Now answer his question: How often does it occur that news causes you to alter plans, take some action, etc.? (He's not talking about weather or traffic news, but so-called "serious" news, the kind that shows up on the network evening news or the front page of a newspaper or as the lead item on a news Web site.) What does your answer tell you about the nature of what passes for news today? Please respond by 4 p.m, Sunday.