FEATURED BLOG(GROUP 6) THE HUFFINGTON POST

The Huffington Post is a blog that focuses on every aspect of American life. It offers different topics of choice from politics and business to sports and style. This website is unique because it is relatable to everyone regardless of ethnicity or gender. Although the website offers information from different news sources and columnists the founder of the website is Arianna Huffington. What I would like for everyone to pay attention to is the credibility of the blog, are the creators of this website utilizing specific forms of rhetoric to try and sway the audience? I hope you guys enjoy :)

link:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/

Featured Blog (Group 5): The Fiscal Times

The Fiscal Times is a blog focused on the economic and fiscal issues in the U.S. We chose this blog because their goal is to promote awareness of all things monetary involving the U.S. government. A LLC funded by Peter G. Peterson, they utilize a very credible set of reporters who have worked for various prestigious publications such as The Washington Post, New York Times and The Chicago Tribune. A small amount of contributing authors post on the blog and they all tend to be qualified in the subjects discussed. It includes a research center where you can access opinions, academic papers, surveys and charts. The “5 Questions” interview section is particularly interesting. We find the cartoon section very amusing as well.

Featured Blog (Group 4): Care 2

Everybody out there wants to make a difference in the world, right? Well, this site here provides a way for all people to support the cause they feel most strongly about. Care 2, created by Randy Paynter, is a site that offers postings supporting causes from politics to health policies to women's rights. Paynter aims to, as he states, "make it easy for everyone to live a healthy, green lifestyle and impact the causes they care about the most", and, last but not least, "restore the world's balance". For this week, we will focus specifically on and discuss one of the causes provided by the site - animal welfare.

http://www.care2.com/causes/animal-welfare/

Featured Blog (Group 3): The Consumerist

The Consumerist is a blog dedicated to informing consumers about products that may be scams or advise about any good deals available in the market. It is published by Consumer Media LLC, a non-profit subsidiary of Consumers Union. Users can also share their experiences on the site. Some hot topics for discussion deal with bad customer service like early termination fees, warranties, and customer service in general. Every year they hold a Worst Company in America contest.

www.consumerist.com

Featured Blog (Group 2): Gay Rights- Change

The topic blog that our group chose for this week is called Gay Rights: Change. This blog deals with creating equality for gay and lesbian couples across the country. Topics within the blog range from anti-gay hate crimes, to gay marriage, and even news stories related to gay rights. Various aspects of the blog can be studied such as the credentials of the others, the way the information is presented, and even the topics covered.

Link: http://gayrights.change.org/blog

Featured Blog: The Lazy Environmentalist (Grp 1)

Our group decided to go with a blog called The Lazy Environmentalist. It not only follows the course theme of activism, but it goes along with the Buckeye Book Club and No Impact Man. The blog delves into the topic of environmentalism and ways to correct climate change. Also, the author discusses ways to protect the planet. We highly suggest that you first look at the author's credentials and then look at how she presents the information.

Link:http://thelazyenvironmentalist.blogspot.com/

Lil' Wayne sexist?

http://feministing.com/2010/09/27/lil’-wayne’s-sexist-and-misleading-song-“gonorrhea”/

In Lil' Wayne's new song "Gonorrhea", he has a sexist hook and uses the word "bitch" many times in the song. The blog is saying that Lil' Wayne and most rappers use the word "bitch" in their songs and it is sexist. The word "bitch" is "a word that has become a synonym for women". In many rap songs, the word "bitch" is thrown around to insult opponents by comparing him to a "bitch" or a "woman". His hook is also sexist because it implies that women have gonorrhea and give it to men. Obviously, this is wrong because anyone with gonorrhea can give gonorrhea to anyone. There is another lyric that disrespects Zeta Phi Beta, a historically black sorority. I understand that these lyrics are disrespectful and sexist but I don't think it should be held against all rappers or all men, only the person committing the act.

The Status Quo is not ok

In order to shed light on the very controversial issue of abortions; the blog brings in an expert on the subject to submit a guest post. Before the guest post even begins, the audience is made aware of this individual's (Karen Leiter) knowledge of the subject because she is described as the Human Rights Researcher for the Center for Reproductve Rights. This is an obvious use of Ethos because Ms. Leiter clearly has knowledge of the subject and can be trusted to make truthful statements. Ms. Leiter begins her post by pointing out that she is going to attack an amendment called the Hyde Amendment instead of abortion as a whole. She then uses stories of woman who are having financial issues due to this amendment to draw on the emotions of the target audience. Finally, Ms. Hyde notes other steps that could be taken by the Republican Party to extend this amendment and describes the danger this can have on women's rights. In order to rally the target audience (young women) to this debate, Ms. Leiter clearly uses Ethos and Pathos.

Featured Blog: Feministing

Dear Class,

In keeping with our course theme of activism, I have chosen this blog (aptly called Feministing) for our first discussion. In an article on the website Take Part, Giulia Rozzi ranked this cite as number one for feminist blogs, saying that this cite gives women a platform to speak about issues on which the media and society normally silence them.

Remember: you are not to focus your comments on what this cite says; rather, you need to analyze HOW this cite presents information (see handout on Carmen).

Please follow this link to the blog: www.feministing.com.

Remember, part of your doing well on this assignment is leaving meaningful posts.

Good luck,
Nick White

Welcome!

Dear Class,

If you've made it this far, then--Congratulations! You have successfully joined the class blog. Please stay tuned for featured blog posting.

Best,
Nick White