In my term paper I want to explore the influence blogging has on society, as a scholarly tool used for collaboration, as well as the effects it has upon news media. I need a better understanding of what a blog is outside of the basic definition of " a web log." I question how do we separate fact from opinion, what is credible information, and can any blog be used as a scholarly reference? Even some of the major news networks seem to have a biased opinion based on a political point of view. Does this alone invalidate the credibility? Or is it considered fact based opinion?

I find it hard to extrapolate information from scholarly text. I have no trouble reading the text; however I find it difficult to understand and formulate my own opinion about the information. Reading text alone is not enough for me to fully understand some theories. Discussion helps me to gain a better understanding of a particular theory and enables me to formulate my own opinion. With nobody to discuss issues with I feel lost and overwhelmed. I have know idea why this is it seems the definition of new media changes depending upon the person defining it at the time. It is extremely frustrating to read all the information given but then still struggle to complete an assignment. Each assignment for 418 takes me more than 4 hours to complete and it is not necessarily translated into a good grade.

What is that?

It has brought to my attention that I have not explained the resoning for the random Pandora poasting. Iwas exploring the random interaction we have with new media every day when I came accross this interactive advertizment for the movie. I thought it would be interesting to share because of the many interacrive tabs and in fact; it inspiers me to produce that level of quality.

Skype

Today marks the day of my first ever skype call. I have experience skype before during a lecture I attended. So this is the first solo run with skype. I have to say I am a little nervous. The call will be with a professor of mine so I hope all goes well. (I hope I provided the proper name ) I am excited to use skype I am excited to think I can have a face to face meeting with my professor who is thousands of miles away. This application will be useful when collaborating with my colleagues in Europe as well. It will be nice having the ability to see the recipients reaction during production meetings. This will provide a better sense of familiarity between us and take away some of the guessing that happens because of the many context issues inherent with text.