My internet connection at work is whack today.
January 31, 2008
It’s super slow, killing my productivity, and it’s giving me the same feeling of frustration as I get when I see faded black jeans.
Naked Conversations Ch 10-13
January 27, 2008
Honestly, if I were to play word association with the title Naked Conversations, I would have to say the first thing that comes to mind is “Pillow Talk.” I realize that Naked is referring less to exposed human flesh and more to an emerging paradigm of PR and consumer blogging and the more lucid relationship that is being created between the two. The independent PR firm Edelman has a website with podcasts highlighting how trustworthy Edelman is as a business to people. The firm’s namesake, Richard Edelman, has his own blog called 6 AM where he writes his take on things like what to expect from China in the New Year to the bad press by Financial Times reporter James Mackintosh whose article reported that Edelman was not meeting the guidelines as part of the UN Global Compact. Mr. Edelman explained that his company actually met the guidelines, but the UN did not have a record. This blog entry was insightful for reasons explained in the chapter Blogging in a Crisis (13). Although Edelman does not appear to be a frequent blogger, he followed the blogging savvy of communicating on his blog that this mishap was due in parts to lack of follow up and disorganization. He was candid that his Edelman people should have followed up with a phone call to double check that the UN had their report (duh). Instead of being closed-lip about the bad press, Richard Edelman subdued potential naysayers on the CSR of Edelman by communicating to his readers the back story on why the FT reporter wrote what he did. Edelman blogged about this to defend his company, but it is also helpful to see how journalists can print misinformation because of the way things appear while doing investigations. It’s always good to call for background, especially when you’re reporting on big names. Edelman’s blog gave another perspective, despite its stance, for his stakeholders and consumers of the media so that consumers could know the truth.
It’s apparent that a blog like this is an extension to the main focus of a profit-making company for web-using consumers to see a human side to companies like Edelman. Edelman posts the apology letter on his blog from George Kell, the Executive Director of the UN Global Compact. Toward the end of the letter, Kell mentions, “See you in Davos!” What’s held in Davos? The World Economic Forum’s annual conference. Since reading chapters in Naked Conversations, I can now tell you that Robert Scoble, Richard Edelman, George Kell, and Israeli techie Yossi Vardi were in Davos at the WEF this month.
I knew of Edelman’s work with Dove’s Campaign For Real Beauty and wanted to find out more about this marketing strategy. Personally, I am surprised that not more big brands are using “real beauty” for their advertisement. While looking into how marketers are slowing deciding if advocating for size 12’s is effective, I ponder what else I can find in the blogosphere. It is certainly an economy of information, full of niche blogs. I found an interesting woman named Jessica Weiner who has made a career out of being an advocate for women’s self esteem. Weiner has a number of different blogs on body image for girls. She has given expert advice on the Tyra Banks Show, she is on the Dove’s CFRB Advisory Board, and she has a blog called jess’s body peace blog for Seventeen Magazine. I’m going to follow up on her enterprises, especially as a blogger for women. Note: Although I am interested in body image issues as a young woman, I’m also interested in how she incorporates blogging into her career that endorses healthy body images to hit her market of mostly young women.
Noteworthy connection. But makes my head hurt.
January 26, 2008
Good thing she’s the only female governor in NJ. If she had to explain who she was, she’d probably have to throw that tongue-twister around explaining the Bush connection.
From her wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christine_Todd_Whitman
“..Whitman retains her maiden name of Todd in part to continue the connection with Republican voters. Whitman is related by marriage to the Bush family; her brother, Webster B. Todd, married Sheila O’Keefe, the stepdaughter of James Wear Walker, whose sister Dorothy Walker Bush was the mother of George H.W. Bush and grandmother of George W. Bush…”
A few reasons why…
1. Recent Whack quote about Hillary on Hardball:
“…the reason she’s a U.S. senator, the reason she’s a candidate for president, the reason she may be a front-runner is her husband messed around.”
2. According to Media Matters, sometime in late 2006, Chris Matthews told Republican pollster Frank Luntz that Clinton gave a “barn-burner speech, which is harder to give for a woman; it can grate on some men when they listen to it — fingernails on a blackboard.”
3. Chris Matthews had George Packer, a lame journalist at The New Yorker, on last night’s Hardball. George Packer had a feature article in this week’s magazine that also happened to lambaste MPS Journalism’s Assoc. Dean Barbara on her work with HRC’s book It Takes A Village. I consider BFT a mentor and I like HRC for her trailblazing. I don’t like journalists who revisit a 12 year-old controversy to make… what point? It should also be noted that Packer’s mean words were not backed up for background by a comment from BFT. She signed a confidentiality agreement. Fair reporting? No. Relevant to the HRC campaign? Not really.
I especially don’t like Chris Matthews lauding lame journalists. The transcript for Harball is not out yet (will be out Monday, Jan 28). Now I like Chris’ fast talk and good points, and I remember last night he did say he liked the article, but it was tough. I don’t think he meant it was tough on Barbara, though.
Article on Sanibel Beachfront Property
January 26, 2008
Not sure how I feel about the school’s paper editor endorsing Obama…
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/living/2008/01/26/levs.paid.to.learn.cnn
Let’s Face It
January 25, 2008
Democrats Facing the Change — You might be able to look to the news to find out where the Democratic candidates stand, but you can certainly count on some good coverage of the Clinton-Obama face-off. There’s the clip getting all-too-familiar of HRC shifting her weight, a furtive glance over to Obama while he speaks and Obama with his pointed finger and equally pointed gaze into the audience. They might as well be fifth graders in a cafeteria dodging soggy fries and hiding behind Cloroxed tables. Both of them call each other by their first name. I wish Obama would sing “Hillary, I’m rubber, you’re glue…” A clip of one of their debates ends and the talking heads begin: How did the issue of race get used today? Radio Personality Michael Reagan said on Hannity and Colmes that the Hillary team could join the WWF the way they’re tag teaming him. Reagan is referring to one of Bill Clinton’s recent remarks, inflated by the media, about Obama while Bill spearheads his dual role of husband and campaigner to Hillary. The bottom line for all conversations is that Senator Obama is change. But then so is Senator Clinton. What I do not see is the issue of Clinton’s sex being brought up so carefully as is Obama’s race. It seems that when Hillary is being examined as a woman, she is often getting kicked or hailed. Sure, Obama gets called an inexperienced, junior-senator. Obama also gets the lofty appellation of Visionary. She’s not so much Senator Clinton in the media as she is the former First Lady, or perhaps the future Madam President. Most times it’s just Hillary.
What I find intriguing is as a young woman I see two individuals who, regardless of the presidential outcome, are harbingers of the progress of leadership in the West. It’s like America is going through a sort of puberty to allow a precedent of leading opportunity for all people. The issues of gender and of race are growing pains. Obama’s poise and eloquence complement his nifty ability to reassure many people who were just learning his name a year ago. Both candidates are different from the “meat and potatoes” presidential dish of old white guy. What I have observed and am not as comfortable with the media’s coverage of HRC is their love-hate stance on Hillary as a woman. Can we ever get over the aversion of woman-in-charge? I am not trying to generalize that all men cannot handle a female president. It could have been worse if the sexist disruptor at one of Hillary’s New Hampshire Primary speeches yelling “Iron my shirt!” ended up getting his name out there to influence those that may share his fallacies about women. Chris Matthews does not yell out primitive or enslaving demands, but his quick comments about Hillary’s voice sounding like fingernails on chalkboard and her success as a senator whose popularity is garnered by her husband’s infidelity echo a man’s need to assert his superiority in pre-Feminism times. It’s true that Hillary as a frontrunner for president will get smacked by the camps of opposition. She is a lawyer who, once upon a time, served on the board of directors for Wal-Mart. Bill is quick to defend her ties to Wal-Mart by casting her in the light of pioneer in the corporate world as a woman in the male dominant board and as an undertaker of environmental initiatives. As a former researcher assistant to two economics professors on the effects of local economies with entries by Wal-Mart, I can tell you that there is no black or white on the big box employment doubly responsible for the economic giving and taking away. Hillary’s association with the negative of anything Wal-Mart may be the new flavor for non-supporters, but why does her sex have to be a point to defend it?
How on earth are we going to deal with black voters and women for supporting candidates that share the same skin color or reproductive organs with them? We can be thankful that all of our votes retain the same value, but this obsession with change has changed the value of political dialog between black Obama supporters and women, especially white, Clinton supporters into occasional vapid conversations about demographics. A radio D.J. casually talks about Obama’s name being one letter away from the most-wanted Muslim terrorist. A blogger mentions Hillary’s dark circles under her eyes while he watches her on T.V. as she gears up for a speech. I am worried that we are not getting enough reliable information on the candidacies’ platform on national issues because we’re drinking too much of the race/gender Kool-Aid. I am a proponent of responsible discourse on these once-taboo issues because they have arrived and they need addressing. At a former internship, I was taken aside by an older male colleague to be informed that I should be aware that what I wear could be distracting to men at my workplace. He reasoned with his observations that I’m young, blond and tall. A frequent choice of outfit for me following that un-welcomed meeting: turtleneck and slacks. I still often wonder why a man I used to work with felt like it was his duty to forewarn me that I may attract some males in the office because they would consider me attractive when I had never walked in wearing short skirts or low cut tops. I do not think that it is my problem to quell a man’s attraction to me. Neither do I think Hillary is awaiting some kind of validation from men on whether she can serve as a president based on how soothing her voice is or her daily complexion. Some university textbooks on organizational behavior studying leadership approaches have created nouveau topics on the differences between men and women leaders. What I learned from one of these textbooks is that women are more nurturing and likely to say sorry more often than men. The climate for discussing men and women leaders has certainly changed, but are women on display for males to cast their values and judgment on attributes that are inalienable to females? I am reminded of an excerpt of Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali explaining why women should cover up in a conservative Muslim nation. Of course, it’s to not distract or flaunt their sinful parts, you know, like a woman’s wrist. Let’s make sure Muslim women feel remorse for their daintier bone structure and their abilities to stimulate the most primal responses from a man. Ideally, the media should inform us and boost our autonomy to choose a leader for their actions and promises, but it is also informing us on just how black Obama is and how important it is to know that Hillary is not a man. On NPR’s Kojo Nmandi Show on January 24, Kojo ran a segment on the many faces Obama has to his black voters, his white voters, and those in-between. But no matter how many faces Obama has to black or white voters, something he does not have to worry about is whether the public will scrutinize the black circles under his eyes or where the neckline rests on his chest.
Pearl Project on NPR
January 24, 2008
Asra is on NPR discussing Georgetown’s Pearl Project:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18372974
Gerard
January 24, 2008
This is a very short tip for all MPS students, especially Journalism:
Gerard Walker’s name is pronounced as Jared.
A pinnacle of one young man’s life, the denouement of another
January 24, 2008
Obama’s speechwriter is young and cute:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/20/fashion/20speechwriter.html
Heath Ledger’s masseuse called MK Olson first about the news of his unconsciousness:
http://www.examiner.com/a-1176279~Olsen_part_of_Ledger_timeline.html?LFS=y
