Political Prison

Not by the hair of my chinnie-chin-chin

2008-03-27T09:26:00.000-07:00

Issue 3 of U dot Conn, a thematic online magazine run and published by UConn students, centers around guns on the university campus. While working for this publication, I was charged with finding all the guns stored and carried at UConn. I was informed that only police officers could legally have lethal weaponry on campus by Capt. Craig Rich of the UConn Police Department. (Rich later qualified this statement, suggesting UConn's ROTC program may have guns. They do not, according to LTC Tony Esposito.)

So the story grew unnervingly close to a non-story. The police have guns, no one else does, case closed.

But within this simple statement are questions of real security. Is it wise to have a segmented population, where a small body of authority is armed while the general populous is defenseless by law? My worries were less about trying to arm students than about protection of private citizens.

In an extreme situation, could UConn result in another Kent State Massacre (Four Dead in Ohio), or would it be more like the University of Florida ("Don't taze me bro!")? Part of living in an open society is knowing how the government may react to (or overreact to) what it deems impermissible behavior. If things ever got out of control, will there be tear-gas and bean-bag bullets or swift suppression and automatic weapons?

With this scope in mind, I decided to find out exactly what capabilities the UCPD has. If they ever used "excessive force" in dealing with riotous students, it would be in the student body's (the public's) interest to know what to expect.

I was scheduled to meet with Capt. Rich on Monday (March 24, 2008) afternoon. When I called ahead to confirm the interview, Rich explained that he had spoken with the department's public relations division and would not "be participating in this story." I asked him if the department maintained an inventory of their firearms. Rich told me they did, but that such records would not be released to the public.

So I huffed and I puffed and I called Connecticut's Freedom of Information Commission. After a brief telephone conversation and a detailed email, I was informed that my "request is for public records that would be covered by the FOI Act."

Unfortunately, the UCPD didn't agree. According to Rich, and presumably public relations as well, the department would not release specifics for security reasons. Rich explained that most situations in which the police would need heavier armament would be times when advanced knowledge of those capabilities would help the aggressor.

The Freedom of Information Act favors disclosure, but as a nation of laws this is a decision for a court, not a counsel. With threats of FOI intervention and bad PR, Rich offered information about handguns and the everyday strength of UConn's police force, but refused to delve deeper.

The story is scheduled for publication on Thursday April 3, 2008 and will run without the full inventory -- Deadlines don't account for court time. The people may have a right to information, but strong-willed authority won't be blown over easily. The UCPD hides in its brick house... for now.

The King's Language

2008-03-26T11:59:00.000-07:00

Colonial America followed the British policy of keeping all documents in duplicate, both in English (the language of the people) and German (used for all state business). The American revolutionaries decided this was unnecessary when the use of German was defeated in convention. In a country of many people and tongues, English was chosen to unify the newborn nation. In this sense English has always been our official language.

But to now force English-only policy through the legislature is divisive and regressive. How can we look at countries imploding over ethnic diversity with reproach when we try to install similar xenophobic policies here at home? The very basis for English as our national language is rooted in the needs of the nation. The founding conventions created a statute, not for English-only policy, but for the defense against aristocratic government.

Those who wish to learn English should have every opportunity to do so. But force by will of law should be the last resort in all circumstances.

We are certainly a nation of immigrants and a nation of liberty, which from its inception has fought for the true freedom of mankind -- not to legislate the scope of our nation's diversity. We are also a nation comprised mainly of English speakers, and to be an American is to combine cultural heritage with a certain amount of conformity (there can be no progress without unity).

Laws that dictate cultural progress and define cultural identity would be naturally exclusive and unconstitutional. Those without English skills will learn the value of conformity on their own.

Online Ethics

2007-12-03T16:08:00.000-08:00

I had trouble seeing the difference between journalism ethics and online journalism ethics. For the most part, it seems to me, there is no difference between good journalism online or good journalism in older media.

However, the ethics of archiving is a different sort of problem. Ethically, the original stories could be clean, perfectly well-researched and attributed stories. But when the story dies and is lost in time, something that happens more quickly online, it remains online forever. Centuries from now people will be able to call up stories about indictments and crimes that have been cleaned up and paid for with time or money or whatever penal code was imposed. But when these stories reappear, it is generally unclear that these happened in the past. Worse yet, a man could be charged and reported on, then acquitted without being reported on, and the first story will stay online for eternity without being updated. People will forever be remembered in a bad light.

As far as I'm concerned, this isn't a big deal. Assuming a story is accurately reported and written correctly there is no fault on the journalist's part. The reader needs to be sure of the date of publication for whatever they are reading, and if a story leaves questions, an active reader needs to keep digging to find the answers. Good reporting and follow-ups can help limit this issue, but in the end, there is little anyone can do for now. Archives exist and will exist forever.

At the end of the day, reporters publish police reports, they publish convictions, indictments, acquittals and arrests, all without apology. And if they have reported accurately, there really is little else they can do.

Promises from the Fed

2007-11-07T19:45:00.000-08:00

Ben Bernanke, Chairman of the Fed, will go before the congressional Joint Economic Committee tomorrow to testify on the state of the economy.

Recent market problems have led to concerns of recession, and in the past the Fed has tried to quickly squash threats of recession by cutting rates (see 90s Greenspan). The recent housing crisis led to a half-a-point cut by Bernanke in September, which temporarily righted Wall Street.

Now, as Wall Street wobbles again, Greenspan would like to see Bernanke come to the rescue and cut rates. Bernanke has said he will not cut rates again, but promises from the Fed are as fickle as the markets themselves. This time, however, rate cuts could potentially be disastrous.

Rate cuts help banks but hurt the consumer.
Here is what has been going on: The housing market was blossoming, costs were low, people were buying homes at astonishing rates and banks were giving out cheap money loans in the form of adjustable rates. If an individual defaulted on their loan the adjustable rate would jump and the bank would take them for what little they were worth.

Unfortunately for everyone, this scheme only worked if the economy continued to boom like it did in the late 90s. When too many new homeowners couldn't pay both their shark mortgages and their outrageous credit debt the markets dropped. Consumers weren't buying and the marketplace clammed-up. Without consumers pouring money into the economy, investors became increasingly shy about giving out money, cheap or otherwise. Inter-bank lending and foreign investments dried up and the same banks that gave out cheap money found they didn't have any to reinvest of their own, let alone give out to others.

Their first reaction was to try and turn over their bad housing investments. This, of course, caused the burst in the housing bubble as banks liquidated foreclosed homes too quickly, undervaluing them and losing most of their money.

So to keep the flow of American money moving, the Fed cut rates half a percentage. This freed up cash for banks, at the expense of the discriminating saver. The rate dictated the percent gained on savings accounts yearly. Since banks would now have to pay out half a percent less, cash was freed to use in investments and inter-bank loans. This seemed rather democratic, everyone takes a small hit but the economy continues on smoothly. For a short time this was true as the stock markets rebound, but the consumer price index jumped up 0.3 percent, again placing the strain on the average American. And the burst bubble leaked on and now defaulting loans and bad credit are once again plauging Wall Street and big banking.

Cutting rates usually hurts consumers, but now it could cripple the economy.

Currently the U.S. dollar is losing value in the global marketplace. Traditionally, this is where the Fed would raise interest rates, inflating the worth of saved money and helping foreign debt-collectors remain content with keeping our "IOU"s. If the Fed does not raise rates and the dollar continues to devalue the debt will be sold off with earnest and the dollar will drop further.
Lowering rates now would further devalue the dollar.

In the past this has led to other kinds of investment within the United States. Again the 90s provide a perfect example. After the dot-com bubble burst the Fed slashed rates repeatedly and land became the stable investment. The housing market opened up, fed by the American dream and a seemingly unfailing consumer.

Today the housing market is the problem, not the solution, and while Wall Street is screaming for the Fed to cut rates again it's hard to imagine where liquid capital will come from. Even if there was money waiting in the wings, watching the dollar fall so quickly will likely keep investors shy and easily spooked, looking elsewhere for stability.

So what now?
Bernanke is in a tight spot. Either way it seems like a recession is around the bend. The Joint Economic Committee is similarly worried and hopes the chairman has a trick or two, or at the very least a plan. The hands-off approach may be the only chance the American economy has of fending off a recession (especially with Christmas season coming, the old faithful of American consumerism), but if congress trusted hands-off we wouldn't have a Fed. Maybe Mr. Bernanke can convince them they don't need one.

Behaviors

2007-11-05T15:48:00.000-08:00

These were particularly difficult to implement using DreamWeaver. The first, swap image, is a more sophisticated (long for complicated) form of rollover images. Using the swap image behavior on my web site I was able to add to the rollover images along the upper left side. Now, instead of just switching to the "Go Here" buttons when the mouse is moved over it, the "Get It Yourself" box gives a brief description of the site you are about to venture to as well.

I wasn't able to figure out how to use scroll bars in my text boxes through DreamWeaver (nor was Meave), but I was able to use pop-up windows instead. Now I keep only the most recent article on the homepage, and keep the older articles archived in pop-up windows under the "View Past Stories" button.

Lastly I added some sound. Unfortunately the music isn't currently working, but hopefully I'll have it up and going again soon. Music may not be particularly journalistic in nature, but it can be. Not only does it keep people entertained while they read, but songs like "Hurricane" by Bob Dylan is arguably a journalistic endeavor. I think it adds much to a web site.

Using Flash

2007-10-29T15:36:00.000-07:00

9.1
There was supposed to be a link to Macromedia's web site on the online version of the textbook, but I couldn't find it. Instead, I'll use Newsweek's web site as a great example of using flash to keep readers involved. To begin with, at the upper right corner of the homepage is a flash box dedicated to news leaders. The box has movement, pictures, information about each story and most importantly, the ability to move backwards and forwards through the series of stories and images.

9.2
Interacting with information ensures that the user gets the information. I'm skeptical about the draw of games, especially ones like the Enron Blame Game, to the average user. But it seems clear to me that anyone who does play such games would gain a better understanding of the topic immediately, forcing the user to interact with the information, not just read and move on.

9.3
I wrote a story last year about a Greek-style amphitheater being built on the UConn campus. Using flash I could have added a guided tour of the construction plans. This would have complimented the story very well, especially when I discussed the physics behind how amphitheaters worked. It would have been much easier to keep the reader interested.

2007-10-22T19:12:00.000-07:00

This week in our class we placed a RSS feed on my web site. The feed brings in stories off The Economist's web page based on specifically chosen keywords, much like the Google Search feed at the bottom of this page.
Creating the RSS feed on my page was more involved then just typing in keywords, however. First, we had to create the XML file so that it can receive the every expanding list of related stories. Then, using the flash media button for the RSS we placed it on my homepage.

The Huffington Post Post

2007-10-08T21:31:00.000-07:00

I really liked Scott Paul's blog on Huffington Post. He was referring to a policy shift in the Republican party on fair trade and open markets. Early on in the blog Paul used hyperlinks very well when referencing a Journal review and a town hall meeting, but later on he became lazy and missed good opportunities to draw readers in deeper. In the latter half of the blog he writes about documented harmful effects of free trade on our current economy but doesn't give direct links to reinforce his statements. This is mostly Paul's shortcoming, but the Post's website is excellent as well.

On the right hand side are a series of helpful links directed towards the subject of the blog. Even though the article was politics based, the Post gave precidence to related business topics, which I thought was a good idea. The average reader of a political news site would likely want to know more about the background of a business article, likely already being familiar with the political repercussions. And, just in case the reader needed that extra information it is waiting just below.

The setup is good, but unfortunately this day's link's weren't as useful as they could have been. I don't always agree with the stronger political views, but I do like the way the website is designed, and I will probably go back more often and browse around.

Writing Online

2007-10-01T19:01:00.000-07:00

At first I had trouble defining "original journalistic content" in this specific context. There is a lot of original journalism on the web, but not all of it pertains directly to online journalism. Newsweek's website offers examples of both original journalism and online-specific style. The first thing I noticed upon arriving was the F-shape pattern Nielsen discusses. The pattern is based on an eye-tracking study which showed that online readers scan across a page horizontally across, then quickly across in lower successions. Newsweek's homepage is clearly set up in this manner, with the lead story at the top left, then the second story, shorter and more succinctly displayed, just to its right. Below this the stories shorten to thumbnail pictures and descriptive links meant to keep pace with the reader's swiftly falling eyes.

Along the left hand side of the homepage are links to the various news departments of the magazine. Under the tab marked Blogs, Etc. are links to blogs and other online based multi-media. The most innovative of these is the link to MSNBC's FirstPerson, an interactive page that allows users to send in their own content and assist making the news. This very direct tactic is an excellent way of getting people involved in the website.

The jumps to stories are short and concise with great multi-media versatility.

Defining Quagmire

2007-09-25T17:06:00.000-07:00

The “Simple Solution” is not all that simple.

Joe Biden is running for president, once again, on a “common sense” platform. His solution for Iraq? Split it up. Three separate powers sharing oil revenue in a peaceful and fair manner. Kurds to the North, Sunni in the West and Shi’a to the East. The sane politician need only look at NATO’s efforts in the former Yugoslavia to see the simplicity of it all: tear down imperially formed mutt-countries and re-form them along cultural and ethnic lines. Simple.

But this area of the world does not mirror the Slavic conflict of the nineties. True, there is an ethnic divide fanned by powerful leaders who drive minor wedges so deep into society that the only way to excise them seems to be letting it bleed out of your neighbor. And it’s also true that greed over lucrative natural resources (the Kurdish oil fields can’t help but remind us of the Kosovar coal mines) seems to be behind the bloodshed. Just this past week in his new memoir, Alan Greenspan, former chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, said the war was all about oil, both for the U.S. and powers in the Middle East. But in Iraq the fight on the ground is about more than dwindling resources.

The Set Up

As Mark Lilla said in a recent New York Times article, the sectarian divide is more typical of the religious wars in the West during the Middle Ages. “In the Wars of Religion... doctrinal differences fueled political ambitions and vice versa, in a deadly, vicious cycle that lasted a century and a half” (The Politics of God, August 19,2007). The religious rift at the root of conflict in Iraq is deeper than the comparably short history of ethnocentric atrocities found in the Balkans. While Russia may still be salting old wounds in Kosovo, the outside influences driving the in-fighting in Iraq are fed by deeper aspirations. The Kurds in the North, the largest ethnic group without a country, see persecution on every side and will need support no matter what the final solution is, as owning the richest oil fields in the area will make them a prime target. The Shi’a in the East are backed by their Iranian neighbors, the only other Shi’ite government in the world, with plenty of reason for helping their comrades including a militant anti-American agenda. Saudi Arabia to the South is a Sunni theocracy and directly borders the Western, Sunni dominated sector of Iraq. Both sides are fighting for dominance of the Middle East and the Muslim world.

The Problems

On the surface the continued conflict seems to be one of politically based grudges and retaliation. With a Shi’a led government, the Sunni factions feel left out and suppressed. In the heavily Sunni areas of Baghdad leaders have emerged who preach violence as a means of social protest. At the same time, Shi’a clerics like Moqtada al-Sadr urge their militias to respond in kind and defend the Shi’ite government, causing more animosity and bloodshed.

So, back to common sense: Split them up and let each faction rule itself; no one steps on anyone’s toes. But the sectarian divide is not a recent development. After the fall of Saddam Hussein’s secular Ba’athist government an ancient ideological struggle began anew in the streets of Baghdad.

Political progress in Iraq is necessary, but, as Lilla points out, not inevitable. In the West politics was made possible only after religion had agreed to a secondary position in society. We cannot assume that the liberalization religion went through in the West will happen to the same degree in the Middle East. Especially because the two factions are fighting to keep their traditional views of religious politics in tact, views which historically have been at odds with democracy.

A Moral Choice
With the scene fully in view the outlook becomes bleak. Can America be expected to referee a religious war in which they represent the very diaspora between God and Politics that both sides are determined to eliminate? It seems like an impossible task. The future will be a weighing of the costs of war against the likelihood of forcing peace in a region of impassioned fervor. America must now decide if that kind of battle can be won at all.

2008 Online

2007-09-24T21:00:00.000-07:00

MSNBC's website includes a 2008 Campaign section under politics. By moving the cursor over the option the user is provided with a list of all the democrat and republican nominees. Clicking any of the names brings you to a profile page with a list of archived stories and MSNBC interviews with the candidate.

FOX News takes a different approach, including all the candidates on one page with relevant stories beneath each name. This list, however, is at the bottom of the page. The top is issues oriented, focusing on specific topics with interesting views from a single candidate.

Of the three major news channels, CNN had the best 2008 campaign page. At the top of the page were two boxes, one for democrats and one for republicans, with pictures of each candidate and full profiles when clicked. Unlike MSNBC's profiles, CNN's has information about the candidates, not just archived news stories. CNN has taken the opportunity to process the information and use it's website to deliver it correctly.

Searching in Google the first thing I found was Comedy Central's Indecision 2008 site. It's slightly off-mainstream, but has one of the best campaign sites I've found. Not only does it include all the candidates equally, the use of video and user input draws people in and entertains while informing.

Most other sites I found through Google were less than useful. Most were just a jumble of news stories and uninformed opinions. Some better ones were Real Clear Politics and The Huffington Post, which is a well known online publication but nonetheless fails to give true news coverage for the campaign, preferring to stick with opinion commentary.

2007-09-17T19:38:00.000-07:00

Jakob Nielsen's article about navigation was useful. It made me realize that if I want my side links to be useful I have to be sure they stand out, which I'm trying to do with the colorful logos and rollover links. His other article on putting the most important content up front wasn't all that new, the inverted pyramid and copy editing both teach a journalist that early on.

Myndy McAdams and Dmitry's sites give good tips on the physical look of the site, but not enough about the style and layout. Color and font size are well and good, but how should the site really be structured.

The link to Web pages that suck is useful only so as not to make similar mistakes, but doesn't go into real detail about how to improve your own site.

All together, the sites all had useful information on text specifics and color combinations, but only Nielsen talks about how to organize a website and actually uses his own advice. The other sites use links and and monotype while telling you never to do the same. Nielsen, on the other hand, talks about being simple and direct, then gives use a ten point, large print, straight-forward page of advice. I found him the most useful.

Mid-East in a nutshell.

2007-09-05T20:14:00.000-07:00

In the Middle East we see all the potential social philosophies stand ground against each other and strongly rooted religious influences, in many forms and variations. Iran and Turkey struggle to form the first legitimate Muslim Democracy; Iraq, under the current Bush Administration, is attempting to create an economy based on liberal Capitalism and hyper-privatization; Jordan and Saudi Arabia are grappling with how to manage a kingdom in a time of nation-states and superpowers; Pakistan fears separating the military and the presidency, wondering if unrestrained democracy can truly lead them to peace; India demonstrates the struggles of an underdeveloped country trying to catch up, while China flexes superpower muscles at pre-industrialized rates, trying to balance Socialist morals against corporatist greed; all the while Israel and Palestine fuel the feud between East and West in their quintessential argument over what makes a sovereign nation and what rights they deserve; and Mother Russia looms large above them all, pulling the strings.
How these questions and dynamics resolve themselves will be the next great political revolution. Whether Western Capitalism will again prevail or if new ideas are given the chance to try their hands to the flame. Whatever the case, I find it important to carefully watch the developments that will be our future, and I hope this site can help others do the same.