Week 8 group presents to you Campus Progress. Unlike the blogs from previous weeks, this blog covers a wide variety of issues such as activism, religion, women’s issues and many others. Their slogan “young people working for progressive change” conveys that they’re calling to action young adults and encourages them to get involved by either donating, hosting an event, looking in to campus and local activism, as well as many other ways.
This blog caught our attention because it has something to offer for everyone. It has an abundance of information on multiple topics that are relevant to people our age today. Furthermore, Campus Progress offers a variety of ways to get involved. We hope that you’ll find something that interests you and are looking forward to hearing your responses!
Enjoy!
Group 8
Sarah Tirrell, Susan Pollack, Aaron Cunningham, Sean Tennant
I read the article called, "Justin Bieber Takes A Decidedly Unprogressive Stance on Abortion." First of all, by reading the article it is very clear what the author's opinion of the issue is. She also tries to make it sound like everyone who blogs on this site would agree with her when she says, "He'll certainly come to find that many of his fans, including some of us here at Campus Progress, are pro-choice." The article was interesting and controversial, but the comments after were even more interesting. When I read the article, there were 20 comments. One of the comments said the author is "truly pathetic." Many of them consisted of people arguing back and forth. Some of the comments are very harsh and it is clear that the readers of the blog have different stances on the issue. For example, there is an ongoing argument between a blogger called "Tea Partiers are Nazis" and a blogger named "Keriama." It has basically turned into the pro-choice vs. pro-life debate again. Mixed in with the debate is the argument over Justin Bieber's opinion. There is definitely some fierce debate on this blog between people with very strong opinions. The blog allows some rude comments, which shows that it is open for debate. While the blog has a "progressive change" stance, not all of the readers necessarily do. If you have strong opinions about either side of the abortion issue, read the comments on this article, and you will get "fired up."
ReplyDeleteI also read the article "Justin Bieber Takes A Decidedly Unprogressive Stance on Abortion." I found it interesting, because as a blog that is geared toward college students, I don't see the topic as being too relevant. Even so, as stated in the blog, not a lot of people really care what Justin Beiber says about abortion. He is a music star with an young demographic and I'm pretty sure his opinos on this topic aren't relevant enough to make front page news. The author takes a pretty strong stance in the article and at one point he states and opinion from the whole blog saying "we here at campus progress believe". The author is trying to categorize the website into one mind and reading through the posts, I'm pretty positive that there are many different people with many different opinons on this blog. That being said I think he should have read over his post more carefully before putting the authors into a group, just to make it seem like people sided with him on this arguement. His rhetoric is not compelling, and his arguement and topic are somewhat juvinile compared to all of the other important blog post on the campus progress website.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed wondering around on this tidy and fresh blog. Its utilization of light colors and simple design makes me feel relaxed. I read the article "When Americans Volunteer Abroad, Who Really Benefits?". It introduces an intriguing idea that short-period volunteering may only benefit volunteers themselves and will probably mentally jeopardize the growing of kids who receive their help. Truly, some volunteering programs actually look more like a tour. They are sponsored by organizations and provide cheap or even free accommodation and meals for volunteers. The volunteers somehow deviate from fulfilling the true destiny of volunteering. The article kind of avoids direct reference to specific services and lack evidence. However, the quoting from the geographer from UL definitely strengthens the author's point. If the article could provide more data and examples, it will be more persuasive.
ReplyDeleteI also read the article entitled, "When Americans Volunteer Abroad, Who Really Benefits?" The rhetoric in this article was very bleak and peccimistic. The article questioned the effectiveness of volunteerism in the third world. Right from the start of the article, the reader is certain that the author is not too impressed by American aid abroad. He argues that the impoverished or needy people who are "helped," really just develop bad habits and harmful views on life from their American helpers. The author states that the cost of the trip is usually not worth the reward. The reward for the needy, that is. He argues that the American volunteer will be a beneficiary, experiencing fun times as a tourist more than a volunteer, being more concerned with video taping the village as apposed to actually aiding it. I agree that perhaps this is often true, but the morality of an action is does not lie in the result, but rather the intention. The author does not talk about this at all, but instead is consumed in his cynical rhetoric against American volunteers. The authors pathos, however, is well developed. And he will thus earn some followers. He appeals to peoples' love of children, claiming that children are being permanently damaged by American volunteers. Tho his credibility and professionalism is not established, the author might find a way to ride his emotional rhetoric to sway an audience.
ReplyDelete@kelsey-I think you bring up some great points, as it is pretty clear how the author feels about abortion. Do you think the author does this on purpose or do you think she accidently lets her emotions get in the way? I also think you bring up a good point about the comments made between "Tea Partiers are Nazis" and "Keriama." While they do seem to be rather hostile wouldn’t you say that the author succeeded then in bringing about debate? Do you think having these comments are a positive or negative to this blog?
ReplyDelete@Heather-While I personally share your opinion on Justin Bieber and believe that his opinion is neither more nor less important than any other person’s opinion; do you believe that the rest of his millions of fans who follow him feel the same way? Don’t you think some will reevaluate their stance on this issue since there pop idol has spoken? Having said that I would agree with you and say that this is probably not geared for college students; can you think of any reason why this might have been posted then if it does not really fit the targeted audience of Campus Progress? I also feel that you, like Kelsey, bring up a great point about the authors labeling of the readers of Campus Progress as pro-choice. Do you think that she does this for any reason? It seems as though it may make the blog somewhat less credible as the author is in no way objective, or do you feel she does this to steer her readers in the pro choice direction? Could this offend certain readers who may not be pro choice?
@Meng-I’m glad you feel relaxed, and was personally intrigued by the blog you decided to read as I had never thought of the possible harm or lack of fulfillment, for those in need, some volunteering experiences have. I would have to agree that the lack of support and evidence is most disappointing, especially having seen that the author himself spent the last year in third world countries. It would seem to have been most useful for the author to include some personal experiences, however can you think of some reason he may not have wished to include any? Maybe he feels that he might have negatively contributed? After reading this article do you agree or disagree with what the author finished by saying? “A physical presence, in a desolate village or understaffed orphanage, is worth much more to these unfortunate communities than a single monetary donation could ever be.”
@Mike-I think you bring up some great points especially when you talk about the morality of the action. While the author maybe right about the outcome in certain instances I would agree 100% that people volunteer for other reasons beside the free meal and place to stay. I would also agree that their intentions are good which makes me wonder why the author might have approached this from such a negative angle? You are also absolutely right about his use of pathos as well as he appeals to peoples love of children. By doing this what do you think he achieves? It seems as though he uses emotion as the base of his argument, do you agree?
The blog “campus progress” is quite different from those previous ones, which mainly focuses on a group of people instead of a certain topic. As a blog for college students, it is very timely and relevant to our daily life. Though named “campus progress”, the articles are never limited on campus, most of which covers almost every aspect related to young people’s daily life, from struggling for better living condition to women’s issue. Compared with other blogs, personally I like this one better because it is closer to me and it presents things in a way more diverse and insightful. For example, there is an article named “Why Lesbian Porn is the Better Porn”. The first time when I saw it on this blog, I was kind of surprised since it has nothing to do with “campus progress”. However, after reading it, I found the author wrote this article through the lens of feminism and what she’s tried to present actually plays a role closely related to today’s college students. The blog aims at translating college students’ everyday life with a new perspective. That is what I find interesting about the “campus progress” blog.
ReplyDelete@colleen-I think you bring up some excellent points, I also found it interesting that the blog while named Campus Progress, deals with a wide range of topics. By presenting the article through a feminists point of view what does the author achieve?
ReplyDeleteWhen going onto Campus Progress, I was impressed. Yes, it is a different site than what we have seen so far. That is actually one of the best parts about these blog projects. Every group presents something different and I like to see the diversity in activism that is present. On the website, I read an article titled "Facebook Adds Domestic Partnerships and Civil Unions". It talks about how recently, Facebook added two new relationship statuses to its selection: 'in a domestic partnership' and 'in a civil union'. The author talks about how he is happy that one of his friends can finally express his true relationship status, but also wonders if enough people would be bold enough to adopt these new statuses. I agree with him. I think that even though Facebook is showing its stance on the issue in a way, it is not erasing the social norms that have stood in human society for thousands of years. I appreciate Facebook's initiative towards making their relationship statuses more open, but I ponder when people will begin accepting people that are 'in a domestic partnership' or 'in a civil union'.
ReplyDeleteI really like the overall layout of this site. I think that it is fresh and modern and has a really great vibe. Campus Progress also listed tons of different topics that most any college-aged student could find interesting. It was an easy to navigate website, and very current. I chose to read a post entitled "San Francisco Church Welcomes Openly Gay Clergy". It was a pretty cool post to read because issues of homosexuality have been a very hot topic in recent years. I enjoyed it because it talked about the merging of the Catholic church with clergy members of a gay sexual orientation. Many more "modern" churches these days do accept gay members, but it is very, very rare that one may be a pastor. However, when such a strict denomination of Christianity such as Catholicism openly accepts gay clergy members, more interest is raised. I really enjoyed this post, and definitely think it is the step in the right direction not only for gay rights supporters, but also for the Christian religion which is founded on the principles of loving God and loving people. That means ALL people.
ReplyDeleteI read the article "Facebook adds domestic partnerships and civil unions." I choose this article because the title in itself sounds interesting because facebook is very popular.I liked the article because it cleary reflects the theme of the site itself. The article describes how young gay and lesbian people help make a change in the way facebook looks at relationships by adding domestic partnerships and civil unions as options to their list of relationship status. I also liked the article because it does give a different insight on how gay and lesbians often feel neglected by society not just with the government but with social networks such as facebook as well. Because facebook added these options to the list gay and lesbian couples feel a little more accepted.
ReplyDelete@Rishab-It seems like a very interesting article, can you think of other way people or companies are thinking of ways to express this domestic relationship?
ReplyDelete@Codie-You bring up a great point when you say all people, i think often many people forget this. Did the article talk about church's anywhere else?
@Nia-Its interesting that you bring up how gay and lesbians feel neglected by society, it would they would have a right to be frustrated. Does the article say what possible effects this is having in regards to their outward acceptance?
The article that I read was the one about Lesbain porn and why it was better then normal porn because it sounded interesting. They actually brought up some good points about regualr porn because it is mostly about men basically seducing women into sex making it male dominated. the points they bring up about girl on girl porn is better suited for the male audience because they focus on certain body parts and zoom in to empahsize it. I can see why someone would believe that lesbain porn was better because it is seen as sexier and it would be as agressive as men on women porn. But overall the article was interesting to me
ReplyDelete@Rishab: I had to reply to this post because I found it so fascinating. We truly have to look at what made Facebook decide to do this (their rhetoric!) I think it doesn’t make sense to say Facebook is doing it in order to gain more of a gay following, since I’ve never heard any kind of struggle between Facebook and the gay community over “marriage” being the only relationship status above “engaged.” Personally, I wish “marriage” would cease to be a legal status, and everyone would get “civil unions”…but that is for a different discussion. At least this action by Facebook promotes their ability to be flexible and cater to their users – which is important in Facebook’s situation because it always seems that they ignore user requests (just think about the community uproars when a new feature/design is introduced. As far as I know, they have never caved in and returned to a previous version.)
ReplyDeleteI got the blog of "Facebook add partnerships and civil unions". As we know,facebook is going to get lots of people attention and time. More and more companies now use the website on facebook to advertise themselves. This is a result after enough search and long time action research on that. And also facebook get much more attention than twitter. If more and more people get into facebook, we can find more and more information about these people. And we are going to be caculated by number.
ReplyDeleteI thought that the colors and layout used for this blog were very cool and catchy. They draw you into certain articles that this blog feels are important such as the Maryland Civil Marrige Act. I believe that this helps the site attract more readers and keep them interested while making them aware of the issues they feel are important.
ReplyDeleteI read "GOP Campaign Against Birth Control Officially Too Crazy for Scaife." Republican Richard Mellon Scaife believes that the GOP is attack on planned parenthood is getting too crazy. The campaign that's attacking planned parenthood are supposedly the same people who are anti-abortion activists. They want to de-fund planned parenthood because they believe they allow abortions but that is only a small portion of their organization that they spend 0% of their funds on. Planned parenthood helps women with unplanned pregnancies which is very important to them especially if they have no where to turn.
ReplyDeleteI read "When Young People Run for Office".(http://campusprogress.org/articles/when_young_people_run_for_office/). The article talks about 3 persons experience in their political activities, and I am interested in the first girl,Kesha Ram , who is the candidacy for state representative in the Vermont House of Representatives. She shared the experience that her work in college provided a great resource her election, and working as a legal advocate for an organization that helps women who are victims of domestic violence is a wonderful complement to her work in the legislature.” After reading her story, I found that it is important to build our own network in school, because those people around you will be your source of help in the future. Moreover, it is necessary to start knowing policy, to realize how important it is, and try to find their own effect on policy. It is perfect if college students can get involved in political activities, as Ram said, college students are perfect candidates for political office because there are fewer things holding them back. Thus, when it comes the political issues, we can know how to face it, or at least, who we can turn to for help.
ReplyDelete