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!