Week 9 group chose to present you http://studentactivism.net/ This blog website (like one or two of the past ones) is very plain and simple. When you first get to the website, the screen that you are on is where all of the posts are located. There are not different pages for different topics, but there are tabs on the top to find out more about the author. The author, Angus Johnston, is trying to inform the readers and educate instead of persuade or advertise. Angus is a credible source because he is "a historian and advocate of American student organizing."
We picked this blog because we felt that Angus Johnston had a lot of good things to say. His audience is focused more towards college students like us and he frequently speaks on campuses. He also talks at "conferences on the history of student activism and student government and on the state of the American student movement today." He seems very interested in getting young adults involved in student leaderships positions and engagement on campus. We hope you find something informative and maybe you could compare this blog to "campus progress" because they have some similarities in common.
Group 9
Chao Wang, Tyler White, Colleen Zhu, and Rosie Zimmer
I think the use of ethos on this blog is interesting. There is only really one guy who writes the articles, so it makes the blog kind of biased to his opinions. Although it is called "Student Activism," it doesn't seem like he is getting much response from college students. There are very few comments to most of the articles. He tries to establish his ethos by saying he is an historian and advocate of American student organizing, but that seems like kind of a vague response. I feel like this blog is more like just one man's ideas under the title of a campus/student blog to draw attention to it. The blog's interface is also very plain, so I liked Campus Progress better. I also think Campus Progress was a more reliable blog simply because it had more contributors and a variety of viewpoints.
ReplyDeleteThe first thing that stands out about this blog compared to all of the other blogs is the appearance and scheme. It is very plain as mentioned in the introduction. The writer of the blog is not using gimics or color to draw attention to articles, and the only photo on the blog is of him. His choice of plain background shows that he is not trying to stir up arguments or heated debates on his blog but mostly just wants to voice his own opinion and hope someone reads it. The titles of the posts are also very different from the other blogs. They are not captivating and he is not trying to get your attention. This blog is not very inviting or exciting and I don’t think it is really trying hard to get the message out to students. It may be called student activism, but it is not written by students or for students. Nothing about the design of the blog is going to attract college students or keep them interested long enough to actually follow the blog and the articles. The author is trying to keep the blog very subtle and calm and I think his audience is a more mature person who wants to be informed about student activism, but not actually students themselves.
ReplyDeleteIn opening this blog, the first thing I notice is its affiliation with WordPress, a software used to create blogs. The credibility of the website is already in doubt, but the author saves himself by declaring that he is a historian of student activism. On the blog, I read an article called "British Judge Orders Assange Extradited to Sweden for Rape Questioning". This article is about the founder of Wikileaks, Julian Assange, who has been charged with rape in Sweden. The article describes the previous posts on the issue made by the author, which is basically a summary of the events that have taken place regarding this situation. That is another thing that I have noticed about the blog. Its purpose seems to be informing the public, instead of actually pursuing activism by proposing action or analyzing the situation. Overall, I feel like the blog is a newspaper channeled towards college student issues, and this is an area where it might gain or lose support depending on what college students are looking for.
ReplyDeleteI believe this is simply a blog created by a man who simply wants to let his voice be heard. His blogs educate the readers of the current events going on around the world and also states his opinion on the matter. That's all I believe this man really wanted from this blog. His plain background and simple format obviously shows that he is not writing blogs for popularity. I believe the man just wants a place where he can discuss current event topics of his interest. However, the title "student activism blog" seems misleading. I do not think that students understand many of the facts that he throws at the readers.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with what Heather said about the colors and layout of the blog. It is very plain, uninviting, and overall not exciting. Other than this; however, I do believe that the issues and articles are interesting. The first post that I saw was regarding the March 2nd Day of action to defend education. This is a very cool idea to bring up on an activist blog because it calls everyone to action on a specific day for one specific cause. I think that if there were more days like this regarding causes that many people wanted to fight for it would incite much more activism and prove to have great results.
ReplyDeleteThis blog was completely uninteresting for readers. It was not stimulating and did not catch my eye. While it was easy to navigate and had a wide variety of topics to choose from, I did not find that I was compelled to read any of them. Even for a more adult audience, pictures and color are inviting and help to entice a viewer. I like what this blog is trying to accomplish in that it wants to draw in a younger community of activists by targeting the student population, however little may be accomplished if there is nothing exciting that will draw in a reader.
ReplyDeleteLike what my other classmates has said, this blog is very dry. Although the author uses ethos in his articles, none of them are alluring enough for anybody to read it. If this blog intends to attract the younger audience, it would need a more exciting layout and a less boring scheme. It was hard to choose which article to review because there were not many to choose from but I read "On, Wisconsin!" Governor Scott Walker is trying to pass a budget bill but Wisconsinites are completely against it so they decided to protest in front of the capitol building. Authorities had to come by and evacuate the citizens, and luckily, no arrests were made. I don't know why the police had to disassemble the rally if citizens of America have the right to protest.
ReplyDeleteThis blog apperance does not appeal to a younger audience yet alone college students. I agree with kelsey that the blog is more biased toward the author opinions because he writes most of the articles so the audience does not really recieve a different stand point on some of the issues he points out. Also the blog is called student activism but the creator is not a student and the blog does not really have student ideas or topics. There are some interesting articles on this blog but most are centered around education but there are various topics that students care about besides education.
ReplyDeleteI checked out the blog and the first thing i notice when scrolling down the page is that many of the blogs are interrelated. for example, several blogs on the first screen involve the issues about wisconsin's budget. i also see that this site is relatively plain and would only really appeal to people who are truly interested. Is it just me or is Angus Johnston the only one posting the blog posts? not that this is a bad thing, i just fear that some of his views may not agree with everyone and there doesnt seem to be any conflicting views.
ReplyDeleteVisually, this website didn't grab my attention because it's very dull in color and the layout is very plain. Also, this website is based on one person and his opinions so I see this as biased, even though one can comment on his posts but it isn't open to the public for their choice of what to share with the viewers of this site. I don't see how this is student activism when the author isn't even a student. I think it would be an improvement to see students generate posts and arguments on the blog so it's more open to opinion.
ReplyDeleteI got the passage named:The Myth of Student Apathy. The topic is very interesting. I think the apathy is not only happen in campus, but also in the society among the adults. It can represent in different ways. Apathy can indicate what the author said. There is another condition of apathy is lacking social trust. When one see someone lie on the ground, the better choice is not to come to ask. There is one possible that days later you will be charged with the suspect of bad.
ReplyDeleteWhy is every article in this blog about Wisconsin? I managed to find something not about Wisconsin, and I read an article entitled, The National Review Slams the For-Profit College Industry. The article talks about how the college industry is targeting vulnerable students, milking them of every dime they have. It appears the industry is more concerned about profits than educational value. The article is really short and provides no real information. I think that this blog lacks in content. It is not very user-friendly, as I was unable to find any topic closely relating to myself. The articles appear to be very informally written and they do not contain professional, rational arguments.
ReplyDeleteThis weeks blog appeared to be extremely simple and straight forward in comparison to the blogs we've looked at in past weeks. The only pictures/symbols that appear on the page is the blue star that appears in the title of the blog and the picture of the man associated with it. The topics written about in this blog are geared towards students like us, similarly to how Campus Progresses articles were. The simplicity of the blog may not provide a variety of issues for people to look through but it encourages more people to respond to the resent issues that apply to us today.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed this blog. It was very easy to navigate and I loved the material within it. I liked that it had a lot to do with activism that was going on in this world today. I read an article called, 'on wisconsin!' I really liked this article because it is an updated of what is going on with the teachers union anmany other unions. In the article it stated that even after protesters were ordered out of their capital building they remained peacefully protesting and there was not any unlawful arrests or confrontations. Keeping up to date with this information is really important to us college student because some of us who are planning to be teachers will be effected by how this vote turns out. Again I really liked this blog.
ReplyDelete@Kelsey Your comment brings up some crucial points about the validity of the blog, and I love it. It is always important to recognize that we should criticize all sources of information that we come across. Also - its great to see how you bring up the rhetoric, the reason WHY the blog's author would present himself that way. By appearing to be geared toward a student audience, and acting like he knows stuff, students are likely to pay attention.
ReplyDelete@Heather You mentioned how the plainness of the blog is not enticing to college students. I believe that is an interesting find because perhaps the author intends to steer away college student on purpose in order to have a mature discussion about student activism, not embracing student activism.
@Codie Many people have mentioned the blog's lack of excitement because of the simplicity of its design. However, it is puzzling to think about why the author has structured his blog in this manner. If he is indeed targeting students, why not utilize images and colors to gain their attention? As you said - even adults like some visual references. This may be something that we could delve into deeper.
Just from looking at the layout of the blog it is too simple. And with it looking very simple makes it looks unprofessional. Its just nothing about the blog that jumps out and catches the attention of the reader. Something simple as an different background could make it somewhat complex and interesting to see when making the decision to read it or not as an reader.
ReplyDeleteI found it a personal blog rather than what we looked through for the last 7 weeks. It shows from another aspect of how individual makes his/her voice heard. The articles are generally informative rather than analytical, and ethos are used very often. The topics are generally about Wisconsin and history of student activism. It is not quite relevant nor timely. I would only comment it as a change of style for what we did.
ReplyDeleteAs it is said above, the blog should be a personal blog that the topics I can find in the blog is limited. However, by comparing with previous blogs we have done through the past whole quarter, this blog has one advantage that the simple and plain design of the blog's web page directly force the audience to read the articles that contain creator's opinion. The creator wants his voice to be heard, instead of letting the audience interested in other things such as pictures. We have to agree that some blogs are too "well designed" that some audience are attracted by the pictures instead of the contents.
ReplyDelete