I haven’t really delved into news blogs. I think there is something there I need to know more about. My feed reader is just tuned to mainstream media, most of which I take with a grain of salt. I get CBC, BBC and Manchester Guardian. Once I ran across the blog of a woman in Turkey, a journalist with a personal blog, very interesting and intelligent voice. I think there is something to be said for reading divergent voices, people telling us their stories from within the ‘news’ story.

I want to take my students into that world of producing their stories to show their own viewpoint and realize that in fact we can be more than monkeys. We are more than monkeys, particularly when we stop taking the mainstream-handed-to-us view and look at things from a variety of angles thereby being able to add our own angle and know that it is significant, even valuable.

Here’s a great picture that made me laugh last July. Finally, a post where it “fits”. Keep up the great work!

http://bumpontheblog.etowns.net/?p=72

Brian Grenier
http://bumpontheblog.etowns.net

As to music and other entertainment media, of course some people are sharing files illegally. Ever since the tape recorder was introduced this has been going on. A small fraction of the population will always get their media for free or cheap if possible.

However, this is a very small part of the problems faced by the big media companies. Users don’t want to buy a whole CD for two or three tracks so we are seeing the return of the single. When I buy an “album” on iTunes it’s usually fifteen tracks by ten or so artists, some of them on independent labels not the biggies.

The DVD business isn’t suffering as much because the pricing is much more flexible. Wait a couple of months and that $20 new release will probably be in the $9.99 bin. Plus most studios load up their releases with extra features to attract buyers. Maybe the music companies need to look at adding value to their product instead of whining.

I think that they are writing something that some people want to hear and unfortunately, many people are listening. It is a dangerous message but one that is welcome in a free society. What is unwelcome is the lack of exchange, reading, and discussion, and blogging is very, well, democratic.

Blogging has connected Julie Lindsay and I and allowed my predominantly Anglo Christian classroom to connect with her predominantly Arab Muslim classroom and let the kids see– “Hey, we like each other — the NEWS MEDIA IS WRONG.”

And guess what, many of us in the blogosphere – (eg. Dan Rather, Trent Lott) are finding that the news media is getting it wrong.

The news media is aghast and setting up blogs as quickly as possible — I think with some of their own out to pasture, that neither the media nor the politicians like the power wielded by this new blogosphere.

So, let us continue to act wisely blog well. The arguments set forth by the author is those of transparency and most of us are very transparent.