28. Here's to a happy 2010

'Mulled wine for the party' by fieldtripp, licenced under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0.

Well, everyone, we've made it to the end of 2009. I'm going to make some lovely mulled wine in a little while, and kick off the evening with some gentle drinking. :) I've had a wonderful day so far. It's amazing to know there are some people out there who show true commitment, who prioritise things in a way that others don't, who are thoughtful and kind in more ways than they can imagine. It's something that must not be underestimated, and it is far, far beyond average. (You know who you are, so thank you.)

My message to you all today is never to squander your potential. You will have to trust me on this point: you will never be able to recover the sensations and possibilities of these early university years. Every moment is precious. Don't let a bad attitude or a lack of faith in what can be pull you down.

We have just one more week together - at least for now. This time will be missed, but not forgotten. Next semester is already on the horizon. I am already wondering who will elect to take the journey with me again...

Have a happy (and safe) New Year.
Sonja

27. Marked woman

On Christmas Day I walked up to Taksim. I had some time before meeting my dinner/drinking companion, so I wandered up and down Istiklal Street for awhile, then I went to sit on the railing in the little park in Taksim Square. It was dark and there was much activity, as you would expect on a Saturday night in central Istanbul, so I felt as I normally like to feel when I'm out in the city: anonymous, merging with the lights. I only sat on the railing for three minutes or so as it was greatly hurting my backside. I got up and started to walk towards the meeting place - the tram stop. As I got up, a young guy - he couldn't have been any more than university age - passed close to me, and half-breathed, half-crooned in honeyed tones into my ear (in English) "Who are you waiiiiiiting for?"

(The first thought that stormed through my head was, "How would you like me to rip off your **** and shove it down your throat?" If only I could have overcome my shock and rage in time, I really think I could have made him run. :)

Well, you wouldn't have thought I could be so conspicuous in the busiest part of a city of 15 million people, but there I was, a yabancı woman alone in a park, and this is marked in Turkey. I really love walking, but I don't do it much anymore. I have slowly become somewhat of a recluse and a hermit. I have periodic anxiety attacks. I don't understand why in my life I have to feel like a bug under a microscope.

This incident in itself is minor, but it comes on top of years of memories of old men throwing themselves half out of trucks and thrusting their tongues out, the gropes and 'rubbing ups' on the tram, the humiliation of trying to walk in a skirt past a group of watchful men in a windy city, the incessant interest in my tights, the men passing close enough to brush my body, the men trying to pin me against the wall at the bus stop in the morning, trying to force me to take up less space, the men stopping in their tracks, turning and staring - and walking on, stopping, turning and staring, the men staring out the bus windows, raising their eyebrows expectantly before they understand the meaning of my middle finger, the young men circling me in the shopping centres, the workers on campus looking and laughing and looking again with their mates in the cafeteria, that unblinking lizard look, all the sleaze and intrusion of this endless, endless staring, I am Truman in the fishbowl, I am marked.

26. A Christmas message for you all

Dear Sıla, Begüm, Emin, Metin, Ali, Tuğçe, Simge, Hazal, Ece, Denise, Selen, Serra, Mali, Mehmet, Fatih, Onur A., Duygu, Nil, Arda, Can K., Emir K., Ezgi O., Cem, Janbek, Beri, Hasan, Alican, İzzet, Atalay, Bahar, Burak B., Erman E., Erman K., Emir G., Burç, Elif K., Can M., Onur O., Meltem, Baran, Ayşe, Yavuzalp, Ezgi Y., Albert, Erdem, Yalçın, Elif D., Egemen, Koray, Cemre, Burak Y. and Gamze:

(Watch me dance for you here)

Thank you for this semester: for all the hard work, for the laughs, and yes, for the (minor) frustrations. Obstacles are what push us forward and help us grow.

Lots of love, Sonja x

25. Lots of little Sonjas

This week I've asked you all to brainstorm possible questions for the final essay, and you've come up with an impressive list. I do hope you will license your work under Creative Commons 3.0 so that I can use these questions with future students. ;-)

I also said that you have the opportunity to choose one of these questions and do a practice essay - on your blog. Please also mention how much time you spent planning, writing and proofreading. I will give you a 'grade' and some feedback so that you are fully aware of what to expect in the final exam. You can also visit my office and look at some of the in-class essays from last year.

Here are your marvellous questions:

Section A3:

• Explain voyeurism by using "The enormous radio" and "A woman on a roof."
• Discuss the idea of women's place in society by using "TV: the plug-in drug" and "Marked women".
  
• Compare and contrast how men and women are marked in "Marked women".
  
• In the story "The man who was almost a man", the protagonist Dave associates manhood with a gun because of cultural and social values. State and explain what values these could be.
  
• Criticise the effects of media and ads about marking women by considering "Killing us softly 3".
• Enumerate the facts why Dave in "The man who was almost a man" applied to power that came from a gun.
  

Section B3:

• What is a 'man'? Define and explain with specific references to "Tough guise" and "The man who was almost a man" by comparing and contrasting the two.
  
• Explain the relationship between "TV: the plug-in drug" and "Reality TV: a dearth of talent and the death of morality".
  
• Analyse the symbols in "The man who was almost a man" and "A woman on a roof".
  
• Examine the notion of voyeurism in "The enormous radio" with reference to Peters' text "When reality TV gets too real".
  

Section C3:

• Compare and contrast Cheevers' story and Winn's article by considering the effects of the technological instruments.
  
• Define masculinity and enumerate its qualities according to Katz and Wright.
  
• Apply the concepts in the texts by Kilbourne, Lessing and Tannen to your culture and analyse which motives could be behind these concepts with reference to your own experience.
  
• Define how women are marked in Tannen's article and Kilbourne's film and apply these concepts to Turkish culture.
  
• Discuss whether Dave from "The man who was almost a man" fits the figure that Katz was talking about.
  
• Define voyeurism and evaluate whether it is ethical or not by giving examples from the Cheevers story.
  

Section D3:

• Analyse the woman on the roof in Lessing's story according to Tannen's text "Marked women".
• What are the reasons that encourage people to be voyeuristic? Support your answer with "The enormous radio" and "The woman on a roof".
  
• Argue how the media encourages male violence with reference to "Tough guise" and "Killing us softly 3".
• Discuss your views on whether reality TV is good or bad by referring to the ideas of Winn and Poniewozik.
  

24. Virtual blogging awards

Looking down my blogroll, I see that many of you are doing an impressive amount of work on your blogs, far beyond the 'call of duty'. I enjoy reading your blogs so much. You really are a creative and insightful bunch!

At the end of the semester, I will be giving some virtual blogging awards here. These will include the top blogger as well as those who deserve honourable mention for the number and quality of their posts and comments.

What's in the box, do you think? ;-)

'Gift' by mrjoro, made available under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 Generic

23. Feedback on my first presentation

I blogged previously about a joint presentation I gave for teachers on the trainer education course in the School of Languages. I told you that I was strangely nervous (probably as a result of not having prepared enough!), but I also think it could be because my boss (tutor) was also in the room. She was writing notes during all the presentations, and at the end she offered to give us some feedback. Well, I hadn't known in advance that she would do that, but who's going to refuse feedback, right?

I have just received her feedback. First of all, interestingly, she recorded her feedback as a sound file. That was a first for me. She has a very pleasant voice. I would like to share her feedback with you, as it may help you with your own final presentations.

Strong points:

• It was good right at the beginning to give a rationale as to why I chose my particular article. Similarly, it was important to mention the article's relevance to our teaching situation.
• I outlined the goals and methods of the research study reported in the article.
  
• The two interactive tasks generated good discussion.
• It was good to weave in stories from my own teaching experience.
  
• My use of Powerpoint was effective - the diagrams in particular were mentioned.
  
• I seem to have an "effective presentation style".
  

Suggestion:

• Since this was a joint presentation, it would be good to refer forward to what my partner is going to present.

I was surprised by all the positive points she mentioned; all I could think of was why I was so nervous and how I couldn't get my voice to work! It just shows how different the experience of presenting and being presented to really is. Always remember that the audience has no idea of what you're going to say... ;-))

22. Testing MyStudiyo

(There is just one question for the moment, as I'm just playing with this to see how it works). :)

21. Presentations yaaaaaa

Dear students,

In the last 2 weeks or so, in addition to your 15 practice presentations, I have watched 11 other presentations by teachers! Tomorrow I will watch 7 more teacher presentations! And in Week 14 I will watch your 15 final presentations! I have presentations coming out of my ears! :)

And on top of all that, I am spending this Friday night finishing up my own presentation (the second one in a week!) Tomorrow is the final session of my Teaching English with Technology course. 40 hours of this course have taken place online, and 10 are face-to-face. We have each been asked to present two Web 2.0 applications to the other teachers in the group. We need to cover the main features, how we might use them with students, and any limitations. It's a great idea, as it means that by the end of the session, we will have learned 16 new applications!

But wow...it takes a lot of time to prepare this sort of presentation, and I have been stupidly busy these past two weeks with the courses I teach and the three other courses I study. First you have to learn the application yourself, to the point that you feel quite confident with it. Then you have to condense the main features down into a mere 10-minute presentation. I had difficulty deciding whether to use my Macbook or my SU laptop, since one of my applications works differently in both (Much as I adore my Macbook, in the end I decided on the PC). We also have to create handouts, and I insist on mine looking professional, which also takes time. My tutor advised me "not to be too perfectionist", but come on, this is Sonja we're talking about...!

I don't know how it came to the point that I'm still working on this, literally at the last minute. Perhaps students' habits are rubbing off on me? ;-)

If you're interested, I will present on Evernote and MyStudiyo. Evernote could be endlessly useful to students; MyStudiyo allows you to create interactive quizzes and embed them in your blogs!

I will report back on how the presentation went. In the meantime, wish me luck!

Oops, The Simpsons is starting and my water is boiling...more later!

20. Pub quiz

I've been inspired by the fact that some of you are blogging about the pub quiz (and I'm under pressure to stay ahead of Beri's impressive blogging spree), so I thought I would share some of my reflections on the pub quiz.

First of all, you can check your team score in the 'league table' below. Out of 40 questions, the final scores were:

31.5 (79%)
30 (75%)
28.5 (71%)
28 (70%)
27 (68%)
26.5 (66%)
25 (63%)
25 (63%)
25 (63%)
21 (53%)

I was happy to see that many groups answered the practical questions correctly, such as those about due dates and blogging requirements. Of course I had a not-so-hidden agenda in including such questions: I'm always trying to promote time management and blogging.

I think short answers were what could be improved. When you answer this type of question, it's important to give an explicit answer without any ambiguity, and to ensure that your grammar and vocabulary are correct. (This is a useful exam tip for our class and for your other classes as well). You should not expect the quizmaster/marker to "figure out what you mean", or to wade through unclear language in search of the meaning. There's an old saying which goes "You don't really know something until you can teach it." Here we can interpret 'teaching' as giving a clear and concise explanation. The other thing to mention here is not to include two or more answers and 'hope' that one is correct. I can tell you that teachers are often trained to completely disregard such answers.

The competition was close in some sections, and this was exciting. However, it was also evident that many of you had done no review at all in preparation for the quiz. I do hope you realise that the main purpose of the quiz was to get you to review the semester, and not just for extra credit...

I must include a final point. I think it's no exaggeration to say that I was astounded that a number of groups who did not win the quiz asked me for an extra credit prize anyway! What exactly do you understand by the word 'competition'...? :)

Congratulations again to our winning teams and thanks to everyone who participated!

19. The gift that keeps on giving

'For the love of books' by Chocolate Geek, licenced under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 Generic


As you probably know, Christmas is coming up, and as part of that tradition we usually exchange gifts with friends and family. It is also a time of charity to those who are less fortunate than ourselves.

A colleague of mine has a friend working as a teacher in Afghanistan. Can you imagine, despite 30 years of war and destruction, students at Kabul University are still making a great effort to claim their education. The problem is this: they have no books, paper, pencils or even chalk. The library has 147 books.

We are requesting that you donate your stationery - pens, paper, folders and so on - as well as any books in English you will no longer use after this semester. If you have photocopies or printouts of reading texts, don't put them in the bin - these would be greatly appreciated by people who are struggling to improve their lives.

I will keep a box in my office for anything you can spare. We will collect materials until the end of the semester.

Thank you so much in advance for your generosity. All contributions make a real difference to real lives.

18. Reflections on my presentation

I am currently studying for a Certificate in Trainer Training - in other words, I am doing a qualification that will enable me to teach teachers. On Friday all 8 of the participants on the course - all of whom are teachers in the SU School of Languages - were asked to do 10-minute mini-presentations. We worked in pairs to choose two related articles on any aspect of teaching and learning, preferably ones that had some sort of research dimension. We could present individually or together within our pairs. The two presentations, along with questions at the end, were to last no longer than 25 minutes.

I was not at all satisfied with my performance. Firstly, although this project was assigned before the Bayram, because I went to Egypt for 5 days, I was unable to locate suitable articles until after I came back. It was much more difficult to find good articles than I had anticipated. My partner and I were not very enthusiastic about our initial choice of topic, andragogy, and I was unable to find any good research articles on it anyway. I finally came across two interesting articles on Freshmen students' conceptions of essay writing, and how student-teacher trust influences how students act on feedback comments. This was on Monday; the presentation was on Friday. Because my partner and I have very different teaching schedules, and because I also had two translations due during the week, we were forced to prepare separate presentations. I realised once again how poor my Powerpoint skills are, and how much better my students are at creating nice slides. We met up Friday morning just to briefly talk through our respective presentations.

I was strangely nervous during the presentation itself and I kept stuttering! I cannot understand why I felt this way; perhaps because I was presenting in front of my peers, rather than in front of my students. I realised that I should have perhaps made better notes; I had assumed I would just be able to talk off the top of my head. I have no idea about my timing, but I seemed to go for too long. No one asked questions at the end, which I found discouraging, although one teacher did say that my presentation had been very clear.

I know that I didn't put in as much effort as I would have done had it been assessed; I get motivated when the stakes are high, and I tend to get de-motivated when expectations are low.

I am writing this here because I felt a strong sense of empathy for all my brave students who did their presentations in a second or even third language; this is a psychological as well as an intellectual experience, and it made me appreciate your efforts even more. I was also reminded of how difficult it is to work with someone else.

It also made me realise that my April presentation at the biggest international conference for English teachers is going to be terrifying indeed, and I will need to do a lot of preparation if it's going to be successful!

17. Thinking ahead to the final essay...

'All your sensual ways' by Thomas Hawk, made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 2.0 Generic Licence

We've seen a lot of interesting presentations these past two weeks, and heard a lot of fascinating interpretations and criticisms of the texts and stories. I would like to encourage you to think even further about these texts, bearing in mind that they could form part of the final in-class essay at the end of the semester. It would be great to see your blog posts. Here are some suggestions:

1. To what extent does the concept of women being 'marked' apply to Turkish culture? Are men 'marked' in any way? In what ways have gender roles changed since this text was published in 1993?
2. In what ways does the Turkish language 'mark' women?
   
3. In what ways can we apply the concept of 'markedness' to the woman on a roof? Tough guise? Killing us softly?
   
4. How persuasive is Winn's argument about TV as a 'plug-in drug'? Does she use good evidence? Does she limit her claims, or does she overgeneralise? Can you counter her argument in any way?
5. There are two articles on SU Course which challenge Winn's argument about TV; "Is TV really the plug-in drug?" and "Questioning the plug-in drug". To what extent do you accept these counterarguments?
   
6. What connections can you make between Katz's thesis in Tough guise and Dave in "The man who was almost a man"?
   
7. Did Dave actually become a man at any point in the story? If so, at what point? Justify your interpretation.

Happy blogging!
:-p

16. What I've learned so far in ENG 101

'Riverboat' by ebergcanada, made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 Generic licence

We always talk about what students are learning in our classes, but did you know that we teachers learn from you, too? I constantly improve myself through interacting with you, from observing you, from trying to understand you. So I thought I would add my own reflections on what I have learned about teaching in this university so far this semester in ENG 101:

- APA citation format is a lot more difficult than it seems, and we need to practise it as often as possible. I think it requires more knowledge of the research process and the types of sources used in research.
- It was a very good idea to teach you how to find and cite Creative Commons images.
- It was a very good idea to talk about ways to avoid plagiarism and how to use source material properly.
- Blogging can be a daunting task, and we need to start more slowly. We should work on it more in class at the beginning. The notification emails need to be set up straight away. I have learned so much about how to implement future blogging projects, thank you!
- Blogs allow you to express your creativity and show off your analytical, reflective and citation skills. They also enable you to make links with your other classes (SPS, TLL).
-An element of competition can make blogging more lively.
-I feel absolutely delighted when someone comments on my blog, and even more so when one of my posts inspires one of yours.
- We need more writing practice and more exposure to various genres of academic writing.
- We need more practice in avoiding generalisations/limiting our claims in academic writing.
- We need more practice in effectively incorporating source material into academic writing.
- We need more class time to discuss the core essay texts.
- Reading worksheets need to be completed for the core essay texts.
- You are endlessly creative in preparing and delivering your presentations.
- Practice presentations are a good way to prepare for the final presentation, and you value the feedback comments you receive.
- You ask quite good questions at the end of presentations.
- Even when I start projects well in advance and encourage organisation, many students still wait until the last minute to do things.
- You do your practice presentations even though you are not receiving a grade. This shows that you can rise to a challenge, and that you can meet the high expectations I have of you.
- Most likely, classes at Sabancı University are never going to start on time and students are not going to stop arriving late.
- Students are more likely to bring a laptop (when reminded) than pen and paper.
- Some students never seem to check their email accounts, SU Course or my blog.
- Some students actually do take notes!
- Time management remains the biggest obstacle to student success at SU.

No doubt there are many more things I've learned, but I wanted to share my initial thoughts with you.

Please feel free to give me your feedback on any of the things mentioned here.

15. A sensible approach...or just reverse gender discrimination?

'Purgatory' by D2 Photography, licenced under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 Generic

I have just read a rather disturbing article on the BBC News site.

In it, British Justice Secretary Jack Straw (an idiot, in my humble opinion) argues that male offenders should be punished 'more harshly', whereas female ones should be rehabilitated and reintegrated into the community. This is based on the very 'scientific' statement that 'male prisoners are very different to female ones.'

Uhhh, how?!

The article mentions that many women offend because of issues of low self-esteem and a lack of self-respect. I would argue that the exact same things can lead men to offend. Isn't that what Jackson Katz was arguing in Tough Guise? Certainly people with healthy self-esteem would not become child abusers, would they, whether male or female? The article mentions that since women are usually the primary caregivers, it would be wrong to incarcerate mothers. But don't children need the love and support of both parents? We should not assume that children do not suffer when their fathers are sent away. In the summer when I was in America, I watched a news programme about a charity that works with African-American children whose fathers are imprisoned. It was difficult to see the suffering that entailed.

One of the reasons for the explosive growth of the prison industry in the UK and especially in the USA is a lack of commitment to true rehabilitation and an overemphasis on (often mediaeval) forms of 'punishment'. So advocating support for one sex over the other just seems to be blatantly discriminatory; all offenders should be given the requisite support.

* By the way, if you're interested in these issues, I HIGHLY recommend the book Prison Nation: The Warehousing of America's Poor. Shocking and mind-blowing don't even begin to describe it...

14. Gender equality in Turkey? Not in our lifetime...

I thought I'd better post something, otherwise Beri might catch up with me and I'll have to buy him a Coke. :)

This week we've begun the transition from media to gender by examining the film Tough Guise. Many interesting points about gender have already arisen in our class discussions, and I'll blog more about these a bit later. But first, I thought you might be interested in some information on the status of women in Turkish society.

In the recent Global Gender Gap Report (2009), published by the World Economic Forum, Turkey was ranked 129 out of 134 countries surveyed - in other words, Turkey is at the bottom of the world league table when it comes to promoting and protecting women's rights. To make matters worse, its position has fallen over the years - it ranked 123 out of 130 in 2008, 121 out of 128 in 2007 and 105 out of 115 in 2006. As you can see, its position has changed only relative to the bottom. You can see the country profile by clicking on Turkey here. Can you guess which country was ranked first? Have a look at its country profile and compare.

The report looks at equality in terms of economic participation, education, health and political empowerment. You can read Gila Benmayor's opinion piece in the Hürriyet Daily News here. The HDN also lays claim to being "Turkey's most feminine newspaper."

Once you've had a look at the report, I hope you'll start trying to answer the obvious question: Why? I look forward to reading your analyses...

13. New bloggers and new blogging ideas welcome

Embryonic Journey by onkel_wart, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Non-commercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic License

This week, for the first time, I gave you a blogging task to complete in class. This resulted in two students posting for the first time, so welcome to Erman Ece and Egemen Kaftancıoğlu. We look forward to reading more posts from you.

Two students have also come up with a great idea: Hasan Can Saral and Beri Pardo have devised a blog 'race'. Why not visit their posts to see what that's all about, and consider trying it yourself? This would be particularly useful for those students who find self-motivation to be a problem; when you race, your friends help you stay motivated. I think it's absolutely brilliant; I never would have thought of it in a million years.

This week in class I introduced you to the idea of Creative Commons materials. Hasan Can Saral and Beri Pardo have expressed strong views on the issue of copyright, and I encourage you to debate them in order to make them think a bit more deeply. :) I was absolutely amazed to see that Onur Olgaç immediately applied his new knowledge of Creative Commons images to his blog, flawlessly citing his most recent image. I would strongly encourage you to follow his example and cite all blog images you use in future.

This week you've all left a lot of great comments on my and other students' blogs. Let's keep this momentum going. Interacting with other blogs is part of your overall blogging grade, and of course from a human perspective, we all love to know what people think of our work.

12. (Photo)journalists and the conscience of a nation

Photo of John Pilger by Maggie Hannan, licensed under Creative Commons attribution licence

I wanted to share with you a recent article by Australian whistle-blowing journalist John Pilger (I've blogged about him before) about the aftermath of the destruction of Cambodia in the 1970s by the Americans and then the Khmer Rouge. Pilger was one of the first journalists to enter this poverty-stricken country, where 2 million people had been murdered. He describes what he witnessed in haunting imagery. But what really caught my eye was when he mentioned that his news reports, along with the photos taken by Eric Piper, prompted readers of the British newspaper the Daily Mirror to send aid to 70,000 children in the first aid convoy from the western world.

In 1979, Pilger made a documentary about Cambodia, Year Zero: The Silent Death of Cambodia. The ordinary British public donated £20 million to the Cambodians. Not the government - the people. This is a lot of money, but it was a HELL of a lot of money in 1979. The support helped to end the American/British blockade of Cambodia.

What I'm seeing in some of your blog posts is that you think a photographer has an ethical duty to publicise suffering so that people will act. I personally feel the same, and I think this amazing story provides outstanding support for that thesis.

I highly recommend reading this article - I think you will see why I admire Pilger so much.

11. Blog feedback

We are about to have a nice little holiday, so I thought it would be a good time to make a few points about the blogs overall.

• Remember that you are expected to post to your blog at least once a week. In most cases, I'm not seeing this; in fact, some of you haven't posted anything at all.
  
• By the end of this week (Week 5), you should have a minimum of 4 posts on your blog related to our course themes and/or texts.
  
• It is your responsibility to develop a system of reminding yourself to post to your blog. 50-200 words once a week is certainly not too much to ask. Do not wait for me to remind you to do this assignment; at Freshman level, you are expected to direct your own learning to some extent.
  
• This is a graded assignment, worth 20% of your final mark, and if you don't do it, you greatly increase the likelihood of failing this class. If you wait and post all the assignments at the end of the semester, you will fail the Coursework component of this class.
  

A big thank you to the few students who are posting regularly, you know who you are. ;-)

I look forward to reading a lot more blog posts.
Have a good Bayram,
Sonja

10. Why not leave a comment?

I've just finished reading and commenting on everyone's latest blog posts. I'm seeing some really good stuff! You are adding images, linking to articles, raising thought-provoking questions and inviting your readers to respond.

I wanted to invite you to visit a couple of other blogs and leave your comments. Remember that interacting with other students' blogs is part of your grade; it also helps to start a potentially very interesting conversation and gives the blogger a bit of moral support. After all, everyone likes feedback on their work, right?

So here are a few recommendations to get you started:

• Alican Timur has prepared a well-researched blog on reality TV. He has linked to some articles which cite survey research on why people watch reality TV. He has also found an academic article on the topic, which some of you may like to make use of in process essay question 1.
  

• Sean Smyth has written a blog packed with interesting observations and analyses of how media operates, which values it focusses on and how it crosses ethical boundaries.

• Burak Yalçıntaş poses a very pertinent question for you about the ethics of news photography, which could lead to an interesting debate and help you sharpen your ideas for process essay question 2.

• Elif Kırçuval has applied the method we used in class for responding to news photographs to some images she has selected. This is a good way of thinking through process essay question 2.

• Onur Olgaç has posted some thoughtful explorations of ethics and the role of photojournalism, which could help you to gather your thoughts for process essay questıon 2.
  

You will notice on my blog roll that I have listed all the students in alphabetical order by their first names. So you can find friends and classmates easily.

How will you know when someone has left a comment on your blog? It's easy; just go to Customise, Settings, then Comments and scroll down the page. Type your Comment notification email into the box and save the settings. The next time someone comments, you will receive an email! This is also described on page 8 of the blogging guide.

As always, I look forward to reading your posts/comments.

9. Writing Centre workshops for Freshman students

8. The government bans again!

I have just tried to access the Internet Movie Database, which we will need to use to prepare our final presentations. Guess what - it's been blocked!!

Grrgrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

7. Watch my Big Brother movie! :))

I created this using Dvolver, quite fun...

6. Media lies and war

I thought you might like to read a blog by John Pilger about how the corporate-owned media manufacture lies in order to comply with warmongering government agendas. Yes, I'm talking about the United States, the sole military superpower. For those of you who have never heard of John Pilger, now is the time to get to know him. He's an Australian journalist who reports on the plight of the downtrodden and cuts through the lies and deceptions of so-called democratic governments with extraordinary clarity and insight. It is no exaggeration to say that reading Pilger in any depth will permanently change your view and understanding of the world - and ensure that your prior naivete never returns!

5. Freedom of the press in Turkey?

I wonder if any of you have been following the ongoing "battle" between Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Aydın Doğan. You may be aware that the government recently imposed a $3.9 bn (!) fine on Doğan Media Group, a move which has been severely criticised in the European Union's recent progress report on Turkey. The levy has also been condemned by press associations around the world, seen by many as an attempt to strangle criticism of the government.

And I have just opened the newspaper to read this ridiculous statement by Ahmet Davutoğlu: "There is no censorship in Turkey." Yeah, right. Try to open YouTube off campus, or any other web sites deemed to contain "offensive" material. Oh, but Tayyip Erdoğan is allowed to access YouTube! Let's not forget that. And last year, my class blog was suddenly and inexplicably banned for several days. No doubt my readers can provide many more examples...

One of the biggest concerns when we consider the notion of press freedom in Turkey is still Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code, which makes it illegal to "publicly denigrate" (how do you define denigrate?) the Turkish nation. This latter wording was changed from "Turkishness" in 2008. Numerous writers and journalists have been prosecuted under this law, including such high profile cases as Orhan Pamuk, Hrant Dink and Elif Şafak. Note that Elif Şafak was put on trial for something one of the characters in her novel said. You can read the EU's outstanding concerns about Article 301 on page 18 of their recent report.

These are just three issues that immediately come to mind when thinking about how much freedom of expression there is in Turkey today. I would encourage you to explore this topic, and to blog about the results of your research...

4. Students are blogging!

It's nice to see that at least a few students have started blogging about our course texts. Since this activity is new to most, I suppose some of you are wondering exactly what you should blog about. Here I may be able to help:

• Ayşe Şen has shared some very interesting observations on our first short story, "The enormous radio". She has also included some images and even a YouTube video.
  

• Can Mutgan has blogged about reality TV. You may like to respond to his argument.

• Arda Durmaz and Serra Örey have both blogged about this week's topic, ethics in photojournalism. There are some interesting explorations here of the proper role of the photojournalist.

• Simge Güzeliş has already posted 4 times to her blog! She has some thought-provoking posts as well as links and images.
  

Why not check out some of these posts and leave a comment...?

Happy blogging!

3. Reality TV: the "death of morality"?

Photo of Salman Rushdie by kwc licensed under Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial Share Alike 2.0 Generic License.

We had some interesting discussions this week about Salman Rushdie's article "Reality TV: a death of talent and the death of morality".

I particularly like Rushdie's idea that our societies have become "an inverted ethical universe". In other words, empty values such as wealth and fame are now at the top of the hierarchy for many people, and more traditional and fulfilling values such as family and happiness are at the bottom. His phrase is very relevant to the book I'm reading at the moment, Affluenza by Oliver James. The author's thesis is that Selfish Capitalism infects societies with a virus called Affluenza (affluence + influenza). Individuals who chase money and success tend to catch this virus and to suffer deep emotional distress as a result.

I was quite surprised (and rather disturbed) to hear what students had to say when I asked: What is the most important thing in your life? In each class, at least one boy immediately shouted out, "MONEY." Well, I hope it wasn't entirely serious, but I wonder. And how can money be the main value when students don't even earn their own money yet? I guess to be more precise, such students would have to say "MY FAMILY'S MONEY." A little bit sad, don't you think? And since Turkey has traditionally been such a family-oriented society, doesn't that show that Affluenza has arrived on these shores as well?

2. Class discussions on The enormous radio (1947)

Photo by Ian Hayhurst licensed under Creative Commons Attribution Noncommerical No Derivative Works 2.0 Generic License.

In today's one hour block we discussed the short story "The enormous radio" by John Cheever.

I was quite impressed with these discussions overall. Many students were well-prepared and had a lot to say. I wanted to share some particularly insightful interpretations I heard today.

As we know, the Westcotts shared a love of classical music, yet they didn't often mention this to their friends. Many students said that music is the only thing they share, since there has been a communication breakdown in their marriage, and Jim is always working. Several students also mentioned that classical music has a perfect rhythm - the Westcotts' marriage seems to have a perfect rhythm, but by the end of the story we have come to understand that this is just an illusion.

I was so pleased that some students picked up on the theme of the postwar American Dream: owning a big house in the suburbs, two children, economic security, the "perfect life". Here we can definitely see the irony of the story: the Westcotts have financial problems, Irene has stolen from her family and treated her friend badly, and moreover she has had an abortion, which Jim clearly did not agree with. The abortion is not really shocking to modern readers, but in 1947, when the story was published, abortion was illegal in America and shocking indeed. In other words, their family life is far from perfect. Cheever may even be criticizing the very concept of the American Dream as a naive illusion, always unattainable.

I think we need to be a bit careful about the cause and effect relationship in this story. The enormous radio doesn't actually cause the marriage problems; rather it reveals them. So is Cheever primarily criticizing the media? I'm not so sure. The problems existed long before the enormous radio arrived. I loved the way one student mentioned that the enormous radio represents postwar life, the new life. Irene's addiction to media and voyeurism are certainly themes in the story, but the overall theme is probably hypocrisy and the lie of upper middle class American life at that time.

Some students complained that there wasn't much 'action' in the film. Students had some difficulty overall defining the genre. We can describe this story's genre as realism with a touch of fantasy, or even as psychological realism since most of the action takes place in the internal lives of the characters.

There are dozens of very interesting interpretations of this story, and I encourage you to read some of them. You can find some short explanations here.

I hope some of you will write on your blogs about this story!

1. John Cheever

John Cheever, the American author of our first short story, "The enormous radio".