Revision-America The Illiterate

Originally when I wrote about America The Illiterate I was strongly against the idea that America could be so illiterate but after taking this class for a longer time and thinking about it more I have realized the illiteracy that really takes place.

It may be true that people are writing more and reading more in the current times, but what have we gained from it? One thing we have got is a new sort of language that is taking over internet posts and texts (lol, ttyl, ect.). As I have been reading more articles on the internet it makes more and more unbearable for me to go onto Facebook and read the posts from people and the irrelevance to life that most people post about. A lot of things I notice are people posting controversial topics about famous people that have no relevance to most peoples daily life and yet they allow into their lives and put to much effort into thinking about these topics. I think if people began using Facebook as a place to talk about the news and important current events it could make Facebook much better and keep interested with their controversial topics while keeping involved with the real world and think about things that effect them on a daily basis. There are great resources on the internet to get news from sources that are reliable and still written in an entertaining way now. It is possible though that me noticing this is just apart a life and realizing what is really important, and my friends on Facebook may be a little behind me in realizing the things that are most important in their lives. 

Countering

Harris’ writing about Countering almost sounded very similar to debating but when done in the way Harris explains, it will add to the conversation rather than making it like a win/lose debate. With Countering instead of justifying what you have just read you take the idea and add your own spin on it that may disagree with what the writing is saying but done to add new ideas to the conversation and to get the writer to possible think differently about what they originally wrote. Harris justifies this idea when he says countering, “suggest a different way of thinking.” This idea seems to be key when powerful writers in blogs are talking about something in the National news or about something from a reliable source, because if the writer just refuses the original idea in all ways and does not explain why he thinks the way he does, and how his ideas are better than others, then the blogger may seem ignorant and closed minded so no one will want to go there to get a full perspective on a topic. In a way Countering can help try to stop bias and help people look at things from a more similar view. Countering gains a lot of new ideas about a topic and helps give it a lot freedom to go in many different directions, but Countering can possibly lead to the loss of ideas and may get people looking in too many different directions leaving people with no idea what to believe. 

Forwarding

After reading the section "Forwarding" it was a pretty clear message of what Harris was trying to say, because he continues to use many metaphors to help get the reader involved and help them understand what he is trying to say. What I got from it is that it works how a lot messaging systems now a day work because you are forwarding someone else's work to other people, but adding your personal opinion and touch on the idea. Many things work like this now, like on forums, Facebook, E-mail, and other forms of communication because when someone posts something or send something to you, you can comment and add your own ideas to it. Harris explains this when he says “…you are less entering into conversation with him than with fellow readers of his work…You are recirculating his writing.” It is as if you are not thinking so much about what the writer has to say, but rather commenting on what others have to say about it and continuing the conversation from there. This stays with the original idea Harris talked about earlier in the book about writing being more of a conversation and rewriting others work.

This is a very common thing in blogs because they are taking ideas from the news and other places and putting their own spin and ideas in on the topic and posting it for others to read and comment back their ideas they have. Forwarding adds a huge amount to the possibilities about a subject, but does not seem to have a lot of room to expand to new different ideas, and instead just keeps you focused on one main topic. Forwarding also does a great job of spreading the ideas of others to large groups of people.

Blog spare part 2

The blog I have been following, as you may know, is The Huffington Post and it is set up in a very similar way to The New York Times but written in a very different way. As you know The Huffington Post is a blog so this would make it obvious that the writing would be different and have a more satirical or bias vibe. That is what makes the press sphere, because the press can now come from anyone and anywhere with an bias opinion they have. This puts many different spins on the news that comes out and makes for different stories for where ever you are reading the article. Each person hold their own opinion and with the Internet not having an editor when ever somebody posts something it may lead to flaws and false information. That is why the major press companies are so important because they check their sources and try to make sure they telling the reader the truth. This means now when I find news on Facebook, Twitter, blogs, or other sources I go Google and check it with a reliable news source such as The New York Times. This creates the press sphere that Jarvis talks about because all the sources begin to become intertwined. And the final step that also goes in is that after I have read the story I am able to go back and post my thoughts about the event and put my spin on what evidence I have collected and allow it for the world to see. We have the possibility now to create huge conversations and get the thoughts from so many more people, which can either help our understanding or create huge fights between people on Facebook. We all now connect in a huge way of checks and balances on each other.  

About The Huffington Post

The Huffington Post is a huge blog with very many different topics to read about and is set up very similar to a news website. The Huffington Post is largely Liberal and attracts that audience who are looking for a spin on the news favoring liberal beliefs. The purpose is to get their message out and in a very large since the site has so many different sections it can attract larger crowds and have different purposes for each section. This website uses many tools to help spread its message, through pictures, videos, and other sorts of new media.

Blog Following

The blog I have been following is The Huffington Post. I have been following this blog because it has news that is related to what I am interested in as a teenager, but also has a large enough variety if I ever have a random interest in some other news.

Jarvis

Jarvis describes the “News Sphere” in a very logical way and I would have to say I agree with a lot of what he is saying. I have noticed myself that news stories are changing all the time and press is always releasing new things by the hour as they gather new information from other sources. This causes a lot of confusion among the public because some who heard a story yesterday could have a different story than what some one else heard about that story today. People are able to put there own spin on the news and change it to who they want an audience to perceive it, but now many people who many know other details or “the real story” can give others a different idea and cause divides between people. Such as how many people use Youtube to try and make it seem like the Gov’t set up 911 and think the media helped alter videos to make it believable. It is much easier for everyone’s opinions to get into the news now and change what other people think. It’s harder for someone now to find a trustworthy site about a news story, but the fact that stories can now be altered forever is hard to believe because they will either become irrelevant to people or someone may finally find evidence to prove what really happened. But what does this all mean? To me not a whole lot, because I think that this goes to show how unimportant the news may be when a hard story first breaks because we all know new details will continue to come out and by then people begin to lose interest and were only interested in a poorly detailed story when it first came out. This means we should focus on more hard facts that’s can be proven with facts, other than that things will always be up to the readers opinion.