Why am I even writing this? Its not like anyone can read anymore!

This article by Thomas Washington out of the Times Union really hit home for me. The article was titled, "Searchers, not readers, on overload." The main gist of the article was that the number of kids these days who read books regularly is decreasing steadily. Not only do I believe that this is a growing problem, but I have lived through this new Internet age, and am a prime example of these findings. Throughout my years in elementary school, middle school and high school, I hated reading. I would never have chose to read a book over watching TV or going on the internet. I remember in third grade my teacher gave out a "reading contract." This was a document that you had to sign saying what books you have been reading. This reading contract

used to give me freaking nightmares because I hated reading so much. I was in advanced english classes all through high school, and I barely ever finished the books that were assigned. I read half of Huck Finn before sparknoting the rest, and of course did very well on the test, (which of course is all that mattered to me). The summer before 11th grade I had to read the Great Gadsby and the Scarlett Letter and write a paper comparing them. I actually read the Great Gadsby in its entirety, but never even opened the Scarlett Letter for a second. I got an A on the paper. This brings me to the reason I did not read any more books in high school. PinkMonkey.com was brought to my attention when you had to start paying for Sparknotes. PinkMonkey was more indepth and almost always enough information for the test/paper. Thats how it was, when I got a book to read, instead of reading it I would let it sit on my desk gathering dust for a few weeks, then I would figure out how to know that book inside and out without reading a word of it. I was so good at this system no teacher ever knew the difference. Then I came to college. I played this little game freshmen year too. A's quickly turned to C's though, and my time faking to read books was over. Now, three years after that, I love to read. I get so much satisfaction from finishing a book. I still get that urge to turn on the TV or do something else while I'm reading though. I think this article brings up a very important problem in our society today. I think one way it can be solved is to take away all tests on reading in grade school. If teachers would spend more time talking about the books, and evaluating how well a student understands it, rather than just testing them on little pieces of information throughout the text, kids will be more likely to read the material. Kids in school have one agenda and one agenda only, and that's to get a good grade. Most kids aren't interested in learning, and to most its that letter grade that means everything.

picture: http://library.exeter.ac.uk/infoskills/images/pile_of_books.gif

A New Era of Journalism

A blog, short for web log, is a new type of Journalism that has grown out of the internet age. Merely twenty years ago, Journalists were bound to the newspaper, radio or television, and receiving jobs in those fields always required a high level of education. The main criticism of blogs today is that anyone can write them, and there is no way to verify the facts that they portray. This has started a new era of "citizen journalism" where anyone with a camera phone and an internet connection can be a Journalist and have their voice heard.

There are positive aspects of blogging though, they can do things that newspapers and radios could never dream of doing. They can interweave articles with streaming videos, graphics, and links to thousands of other sites that may be of interest. While the fact may be harder to come by in the growing age of Internet Journalism, the interactive nature that the news is being portrayed is changing the way we see the world.

So many people today are uninformed, they aren't reading the newspapers, and they aren't listening to the news on the radio. Blogging may very well be the future for an informed American citizen. In this age, reading, thinking and learning have given way to blogging, clicking and surfing. For a person who is against the institution of blogging i would ask, would you rather have a person who is informed by a blog, or not informed at all?

A Brand New Blog!

My name is David Caliguiri. I am a senior at the University at Albany. My major is history, but my minor is my current concentration, which is Journalism. I set up this blog for my intro to news writing class here at the University. What better of a time to get started into Journalism than the year of a Presidential Election. This being my first election that I can vote in, I narrowly missed the 2004 elections, I was only 17. This isn't just any election though, this will surely prove to be the most important election of my lifetime so far, and maybe even for the rest of it. Barack Obama stands under a slogan of "Yes We Can", as a black man with modest roots trying to change a conservative regime that has brought this nation into senseless war, and into one of the worst economic crises in our nations history, and it's only getting worse. As a Journalist, I will put my own beliefs and values aside when covering the news. On this blog though, you will hear what I have to say, and how I really feel. Barack Obama represents the direction this nation needs to head. I'll leave you with a poem that I wrote on the topic.

Can One Man Change the World?




Sometimes I wonder
what the world will be
like
with you
at the helm
of the most magnificent military machine
the world has ever known. Yet
you are not a soldier,
you are not a warrior.
your opponent on the other hand,
he is a man who is comfortable
with a shotgun
in his hand and his heel firmly pressed
on the back of your neck.

An avalanche
of smoldering red hot states are
looming overhead.
Though California and New York always keep a
cool blue, will it be
enough to
save you?

When you take your campaign to an inner-city
park, do you look at that little girl
on the swing and think of Ohio and Florida
and beg for her to swing
to the left?

You’re a black man trying to lead a white nation.

You’re a pacifist in a time of war.

You are nothing that they want,

yet everything we need.


One man can’t change


the world.