Week Fourteen

In this blog entry, I want to talk about my future. Mostly because it won't require me to do any research and it's something that's fresh on my mind right now.

I took my last spring semester final exam the other day, and although I'm on my way to Mexico to study abroad this summer before I graduate, I can't help but thing about what's to come next.

I wonder if I'm ready. I wonder what type of person I'll be in the workplace. I wonder about what my next group of friends will be like. I wonder if my college years were the best ones of my life.

I just look at my parents or my elders altogether and am amazed that they have lived so much longer than me. It's crazy for me to think about how much more they have been through than I have and how much stronger they are than me. They've gone through heartbreak, the loss of loved ones, separation from some of their friends, maybe money problems, maybe they've witnessed something horrible, etc. I just think I've experienced a lot, but then I think about people who have lived three, four or five times my life span and just am floored to think what will have come through my path.

It's just coming more of a reality lately; now that I'm about to end an important stage in my life. Not only am I leaving college, but I'm ending my softball career, and that's something that's been a huge part of my life since I was 10 years old. It's kind of surreal, and it hasn't hit me too hard yet.

I just wonder what affect it will have on my first career. Will I work in PR? Is it really even for me? I really just picked this major because one of my friends (whom I am not even that terribly close with) told me that was what she was doing on the phone one day. I was like, "That sounds cool." And that was it. Easy as that.

I know it'll all fall into place; I'm not worried.

Week Thirteen

I’m excited about our class party. I think it’ll be a great time. I have really enjoyed my time with our class, and I think we’re a pretty good group of kids. It makes me anticipate working one day, because I figure my co-workers will have a similar feel to what our class had. It will probably be mostly girls, and the people will be educated and well-spoken. They’ll have their opinions, which won’t always mesh with one another, and you’ll always have those personalities that are unforgettable. I enjoyed this class largely because of its small size; I think it’s a healthy number. We have had our ups and downs, and I think with a different teacher, the class would have had a dissimilar atmosphere. I think with another teacher, things would have been forced more.

You got out of this class what you put into it, and I think that’s how the real world will be. Nobody is going to really force you to do anything, and when you choose not to apply yourself, you’ll learn the hard way that maybe you should have went about something differently. I learned more in this class than any other one I took this semester for that very reason; I applied myself more in this class even though it was the one I missed most often.

I really hope to stay in touch with everyone, and I’m sure by some weird twist of fate, I’ll randomly run into one of my Ethics classmates down the road. I look forward to that. We’ll talk about our masterpiece Wikipedia assignment or the trip we took to Golin-Harris. We’ll laugh remembering something someone said in class one day, and it’ll be nice. Really, when I think about it, I think the tipping point to enjoying this class so much was because we made one another laugh. Also though, I really had a sincere interest in the material. Deciphering between right and wrong is really what life is about, and that made me anticipate coming to class every week. I applied myself to this class because I know it will help me in the long run. I know I can hold on to something from Cosmopolitanism or our case studies that will help me out someday, and it may not even be in the workplace.

Like I said earlier, I really hope we keep in touch. And hopefully, I remember to bring the chips Monday.

Week Twelve

I haven’t done much research on it, but it seems lately that a lot of corporations are hitting this “go green” idea really hard. I think it’s great; it’s awesome that companies in America are making an effort to help save the environment and doing their part, but there’s something else about the whole movement that kind of gets on my nerves.

I guess just since it’s all coming out at once, I feel like one of the main reasons corporations are jumping on this fad bandwagon is because they feel pressured into doing so, not so much because they know it’s the right thing to do. I just feel like they, as someone in another one of my classes put it, are “going green to get green.” It just irks me. I have no proof to back my theory, and maybe I’m just being a pessimist, but something about it just appears fake to me.

Another concern I have about this is how long it will really last. Being environment-friendly is a lifestyle change. I think about diets in the States that people test out, and look at where that has taken us. It’s fine for a couple of months, but after that, things are back to the way they were. It’s just easier to do what you want; it’s easier to go to the drive-thru instead of park and go inside, and it’s easier to give in to that tempting hamburger instead of eating a salad. I’m just concerned that America as a whole lacks the will power to stay committed to this, in my opinion, vital trend. Americans want things that are easy and more importantly not time consuming, and going green requires a time commitment and a sort of training, if you will. I just don’t know if it will really happen.

Week Eleven

This past Friday, the majority of our class took a trip to Golin-Harris in Dallas. It was great for me because I had never been inside a PR agency before.

There wasn’t one thing I didn’t like, other than the fact that I feel so behind in furthering my career compared to all of my classmates.

I liked being dressed up in business stuff for a day. It’s not what I‘m usually dressed in, but I know that I’ll get used to a new wardrobe once this school year is over with. It’s weird to think that one day I won’t be the girl who wears sweats and a t-shirt every day.

I enjoyed the atmosphere; there was some feeling of professionalism and yet a laid-back kind of vibe that made me feel comfortable.

I liked the people there. They seemed educated and friendly, and I could see some people had a good sense of humor. I’m going to need to be around people who can make me laugh. I can’t be around a bunch of stiffs every day.

It’s exciting to know that soon things are going to change in my life… in a big way. But it is scary. It’s because I’m just unfamiliar with anything different, and I realize that. Sitting in that office Friday, something I thought about a lot was just how things are going to be in a years time or five years time.

I thought about all the mistakes I will have made at work and wondered what friends I will have made. I thought about who will be “that person” in our office. You know? Like the “Dwight.”

Anyway, those were just some of my thoughts throughout the day.

Week Ten

I’m right in the middle of my season for softball, and for this week, I’m going to talk about how my team has issues that could be solved using PR tactics.

For the most part, we are a very healthy group of girls. I would challenge anyone to find a set of 18 females who get along as a unit as well as we do. They’re my best friends in the world, and I think they always will be. There’s something about being a part of a team that makes you have closer friends I think than you ever will have from another group of people. The "something" is the amount of time you spend with one another.

Along with the time commitment, though, comes tension and disagreement and personality clashes and a little bit of drama. We’re with one another six days a week for four months, and after a while I guess it’s inevitable that claws are going to come out.

During the games now, some of the non-starters bicker on the bench about how they could be doing a better job or how things are ridiculous or whatever. It makes me think about how I could fix the problem through some of the things I have learned in class.

I think the best way to handle a team is to think in communitarianism ethics. We have to work for the betterment of the majority and within our community. We have to do what’s best for the most of us. Not everybody is going to be happy all of the time.

And we are doing that. The majority of the team doesn’t bitch all of the time and isn’t negative. But it’s those couple people who hold us back from something more that we all deserve.

How do you handle co-workers who aren’t on the same page as the rest? How do you get them on the bandwagon? Is it best to get rid of them? Is it best to let them go and have them wear themselves out? What if you have done too much mentoring already and your words fall on deaf ears?

It's wearing.

Week Nine

I got this from Brian's blog. I don't know how to better write this one than to look at direct quotes from the article he provided and give direct feedback.


When water providers find pharmaceuticals in drinking water, they rarely tell the public. When researchers make the same discoveries, they usually don’t identify the cities involved.
There are plenty of reasons offered for the secrecy: concerns about national security, fears of panic, a feeling that the public will not understand — even confidentiality agreements.
“That’s a really sensitive subject,” said Elaine Archibald, executive director of California Urban Water Agencies, an 11-member organization comprised of the largest water providers in California. She said many customers “don’t know how to interpret the information. They hear something has been detected in source water and drinking water, and that’s cause for alarm — just because it’s there.”


Problem: It's a cause for alarm because most people in the States are 1. uninformed 2. uneducated and/or 3. lazy. People don't care what's going on around them enough. I know that I'm stereotyping and not all people are like this, but I'm just saying that a lot of people have pre-conceived notions based on stupid pretenses. That, and people are way too damn paranoid.


As The Associated Press documented in a five-month investigation, drinking water provided to at least 41 million people living in 24 major metropolitan areas has tested positive for trace amounts of pharmaceuticals.
Reports don't reveal all. Most Americans probably think they have a good idea of what’s being detected in their water. Federal law requires water providers to distribute annual “consumer confidence reports” that reveal levels of regulated contaminants. Providers are not, however, required to tell people if they find a contaminant that is not on a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency list. And there are no pharmaceuticals on the EPA list.


What is logic in not requiring providers to tell the public if they find a non-EPA contaminant? Are those reasons ethical or are they just put into effect to save their own asses? That'd be nice to know, and I'd like to not believe the latter theory.
In Philadelphia, the water department has not informed its 1.5 million users that traces of 56 pharmaceuticals or their byproducts — like the active ingredients in drugs to treat depression, anxiety, high cholesterol, fever and pain — have been detected in the drinking water, and that 63 pharmaceuticals or byproducts had been found in the city’s source watersheds.
Initially balking at the AP’s request to provide test results, Philadelphia Water Department spokeswoman Laura Copeland said, “It would be irresponsible to communicate to the public about this issue, as doing so would only generate questions that scientific research has not yet answered. We don’t want to create the perception where people would be alarmed.”


I get that. You're not going to release incomplete information to the public. It would be stupid to let people know that stuff is in water and not be able to answer with conviction the heavy load of questions about safety concerns and what will happen to the people who are drinking it and so on and so forth. The problem here though is, they already have created the perception where people are alarmed. They already have unanswered questions and paranoia has already risen. Maybe unjustifiably so, but nevertheless, it's present.


New York City water officials declined repeated requests for an interview and waited more than three months before participating in an AP survey, supplying information only after being informed that every other major city in the nation had cooperated.

This makes sense; they were making sure everyone was on the same page so they wouldn't dig themselves a bigger hole.


The AP learned that the New York state health department and the U.S. Geological Survey detected heart medicine, infection fighters, estrogen, anti-convulsants, a mood stabilizer and the active ingredient in an anti-anxiety medication in the city’s watershed upstate. And the city’s Department of Environmental Protection ultimately said that it does not test its downstate drinking water.
Officials in Arlington, Texas, said pharmaceuticals had been detected in source water but wouldn’t say which ones or in what amounts, citing security concerns. Julie Hunt, director of water utilities, said to provide the public with information regarding “which, if any, pharmaceuticals or emerging compounds make it through the treatment process can assist someone who wishes to cause harm through the water supply.”
Mayor Robert Cluck later said a trace amount of one pharmaceutical had survived the treatment process and had been detected in drinking water. He declined to name the drug, saying identifying it could cause a terrorist to intentionally release more of it, causing significant harm to residents.
“I don’t want to take that chance,” Cluck said. “There is no public hazard and I don’t want to create one.”
Ron Rhodes, water treatment plant supervisor in Emporia, Kan., explained why he wouldn’t disclose whether his community’s source water or drinking water had been tested for pharmaceuticals. “Well, it’s because of 9/11. We want everybody to guess.”
How, Rhodes was asked, could it endanger anyone to know if Emporia’s water has been screened for traces of pharmaceutical compounds?
“We’re not putting out more information than we have to put out,” said Rhodes. “How about that?”
Milwaukee’s water department is an anomaly, posting on its Web site an 11-page detailed drinking water quality report that includes test results for 450 unregulated contaminants, including pharmaceuticals. While they found minute concentrations of cotinine, a nicotine derivative, they didn’t detect hundreds of other contaminants including estrogens and other hormones, acetaminophen and ibuprofen.
When asked what power the EPA had to require public disclosure when pharmaceutical contamination is discovered in a water provider’s supplies, Benjamin H. Grumbles, the agency’s assistant administrator for water, said, “We work very closely with utilities across the country and we encourage them to share with their community information they find out about their source water.”
But there’s no such requirement if the detected contaminant is not regulated under the Safe Drinking Water Act, he said in response to a question.
'More work to do'
Grumbles was asked how he thought water providers have been responding to the EPA’s “encouragement.”
“I think we have more work to do,” he said.
Several hours after the interview, Grumbles issued a statement: “As head of the National Water Program, I will do everything in my authority to make certain that public water suppliers inform their consumers if they detect pharmaceuticals in the drinking water.”
It’s not just the water departments that have failed to disclose such information.
The AP spoke with many scientists, federally funded researchers, university professors and private drinking water experts who have detected pharmaceuticals in drinking water, but would not say where they had obtained their samples.
Archibald said her organization joined an American Water Works Association Research Foundation study with the understanding that secrecy would be assured.
“We agreed ahead of time that no specific agency would be mentioned in terms of which place had detections,” Archibald said. She insisted that even she didn’t have the test results. “It’s all being held very carefully. Water agencies were assigned numbers so none of us would even know what was detected in each other’s water.”
Robert Renner, the foundation’s executive director, said AWWARF study participants are routinely promised anonymity. “Being involved in a study, they don’t want this information blown out all over,” he said.
Fearing public will overreact
Citing confidentiality agreements, he declined to name the 20 different drinking water treatment plants around the U.S. where pharmaceuticals have been detected in water heading to more than 10 million people.
“It’s a hard topic to talk about without creating fear in the general public,” Renner said.
Some said those fears could lead to much larger problems than the actual contamination.
Doctors “don’t want people to be afraid to take their medicine because of environmental concerns,” said Virginia Cunningham, an environmental executive for drug maker GlaxoSmithKline PLC.
But what about on the flipside? What are the health concerns if people do continue to drink the contaminated water? Do they just want to cover themselves and hold off lawsuits of people who would claim to have health problems? Sure, but what if the water is the problem. Then, there's a big ethics concern.
Utilities also generally only allow scientists to test their water if they ensure confidentiality. In order for research to progress, scientists “need the confidence of utilities and other public/private stakeholders to allow us access to waters which we can study without any negative implications for those stakeholders,” said Howard Weinberg, an environmental chemist at University of North Carolina. “Without this confidence, such research could not be undertaken.”
John Vargo, program manager at the University of Iowa’s University Hygienic Laboratory, said he found traces of pharmaceuticals in the finished drinking water of several major Midwestern cities but, under terms of those contracts, he could not disclose their identity.
Peter Rogers, Harvard University professor of environmental engineering, said improvements in detection techniques could help fuel fears among the general public.
“We’re chasing this down to molecular-sized measurements, so the more you look, the more you find,” said Rogers. “I think the government and utilities are quite right to be very skittish about telling people their results. People will claim it is causing all sorts of problems. If I were a water utility, I would stop those measurements right away because if you measure something, it will get out, and people will overreact. I can just imagine a whole slew of lawsuits.”

I definitely agree with Rogers here. Like I said above, people will overreact. People will sue. People will probably make up conspiracy theories. It's a problem that stems from something else; a number of things. There are many ways in which this "problem" bothers me.
1. It's amazing to me how many people take medicines today. And I truely believe that a lot of people who take medicines for things like depression or anxiety or restless leg syndrome or whatever could get over it if they weren't told by the media or people they're surrounded by every day that they may have it. I just think people are a lot tougher than they ever allow themselves to be. I don't mean this for all people. Medicine cures and I get that. I had the flu last week and some medicine made me better sooner than all of the people I was around who had it. I'm just saying that for some people, some simple mental health exersize could be the solution.
2. People who are sick would try to milk every cent from whoever they think they could sue. That pisses me off. Greed is a horrible sin.
3. You're not even supposed to flush your left over medicines down the sink or toilet. Didn't people's moms teach them that?
4. Who knows what we consume every day without our knowledge. And I'm pretty sure that most of us live.

A lot of problems we come across today are so avoidable if they were dealt with earlier. A little education, a little knowledge and know-how. Maybe even knowing a little less about things to avoid paranoia could work. This stemmed from so many things.



I hope everyone has a great Spring Break.

Week Eight

This past week was the Texas Primary (or is it “were the Texas Primaries”?) so I think that’s an appropriate subject to write about. I did not vote because I don’t feel like I have know enough on all of the candidates to make the most educated, well-rounded vote. However, I plan on being confident in my vote for President come Nov., whether that will be picking a candidate I am confident in or choosing between what I feel is the lesser of two evils.

Politics really interest me. I’d like to learn more about the psychology of it all; what makes people be left- or right-winged, outside influences, strategies for politicians, what goes on under the table, etc. and I know that public affairs people are right in the middle of all of that. I hate the stereotype politicians have; I think it’s pathetic that things are like that in the States. Those people make decisions that dictate our safety and future as a country, and I know I have heard in class that the government is one of the least trusted industries in the nation. That just doesn’t make much sense to me. Where did that distrust stem from, anyway?

This morning, I was talking to one of my friends about Obama, and she was saying that she didn’t fully trust him because he reads the Koran and attended a Muslim public school for a couple of years. One of my other friends had overheard us talking about it and printed off an article (from what I consider an unreliable source mind you… It was from an urban legends Web site) acknowledging the claims and telling the “truth” of it all. Apparently there were also rumors of him not putting his hand over his heart while the National Anthem was playing at some function he was at and that he was a radical Muslim.

Despite what is the truth, I just thought of how his campaign team had to “right the wrongs” of the rumors flying. I thought of the research they had to do and the ways they had to present the facts of Obama without stepping on any Muslim organization’s toes. And I thought about how quickly they had to present and distribute all of this information.

I imagine if rumors leaked out and they were completely false, I would enjoy having a job where I was supposed to set the records straight and be the one who said, “No, you‘re wrong, and this is why…” and sound really smart after those ellipse

Anyway, if we get class time, I’d like to talk about the presidential elections. I’d like to see what everyone thinks. Last Tuesday in Wells’ nonprofit class, a few students pitched the person they were voting for and why, and I really enjoyed hearing everyone’s differing opinions. I liked the tension.

Week Seven

I know I’ve said this more than one time, but I really am enjoying this class. I don’t feel like the required readings are chores - I take that back; those two chapters about governmental and pharmaceutical advertising dragged on and were a battle for me - and like I have mentioned before, a lot of this stuff can be applied in everyday life.

For this entry, I just wanted to talk about choosing your ethical strategy. In the little red book, I remember it mentioning that it was chosen on a case-by-case basis. But then I started to think your motives for choosing one of the ethical ways could be unethical.

The reason I hate subjective matters has the same grounds for why I love them; there is more than one explanation and more than one way to make things work. I don’t think I could ever be a philosopher; there is no question in my mind that I would go clinically nuts. How are you supposed to give one reason to something so complex and justify something no one will ever agree on? There is always more than one way to go about a situation and there is always an exception to the rule.

However, having more than one way of dealing with situations and ways of thinking allows room for adjustment and compromise. It’s why I enjoy all of the readings and all of the discussions we’ve had thus far; it permits creativity.

Week Six

http://eightbar.co.uk/2007/07/19/virtual-art-is-real-too-watch-the-worlds/
"It's less about writing than it is about conversation and dialogue. You can misspell words. It's about self-expression. That's what really makes a good blog.
It's not Strunk and White," Kim said, referring to the authors of the popular grammar book, Elements of Style. "It's more about whether a person has passion."
But before tackling a blog, the writer should know his audience and conform to the unwritten rules of blogging, or face the backlash of the blogosphere.
The biggest demand is that the blog be honest and transparent.
David Berger, an executive involved with new media at IBM, said Big Blue has about 4,000 active blogs, but it doesn't assign them. That would be in direct conflict with the way blogs work outside of corporate America. Personal blogs are written by people who talk frankly about their world.
"If you overtly try to use blogs to advance some sort of corporate end, you've already lost the battle.
There's a smart way to capitalize on the medium.
It's in the authenticity of the bloggers themselves," Berger said.
Despite its short history, there have been some celebrated gaffes in the world of blogging.
Last year, Sony was exposed for a " flog ," or fake blog, about two "friends" who hyped the company's PlayStation Portable video game console at alliwantforxmassisapsp.com, which has been taken down. Sony fans were outraged when the site was traced to a marketing company in St. Louis.
A blog earlier this year titled "Walmarting across America" followed a happy-go-lucky couple, Jim and Laura, as they drove their RV across the United States, parking in Wal-Mart lots. Later, it was discovered that the flog had been staged by Wal-Mart's publicrelations firm, Edelman. "The biggest mistake is to try to shade your identity or your product," IBM's Berger said. If you're blogging to create awareness and lure potential clients for your small business, you're on the cutting edge when it comes to marketing your firm.
For many others, blogging is something they've only vaguely heard about. But that is about to change. "We're at the early stages of blogging, which I believe will be a powerful marketing tool," says Josh Linkner, founder of ePrize, the Pleasant Ridge-based marketing company that handles company sweepstakes and other things. "Today, most businesses have a fax machine but that wasn't the case 20 years ago. And today most have an Internet site or e-mail. Blogs are a way to reach people and I believe will be next thing you'll have to have," he adds.
Linkner is practicing what he preaches; he plans to launch a blog in the next 50 days that will be available from his company's Web site at www.eprize.com.
Blogs - or weblogs as they are sometimes called - have been around since the late 1990s, and today there are millions of them. "Blogs are different from an Internet site in that they help position you as an industry expert, as it is more of a conversation," Linkner says. "Most people think of blogging in terms of MySpace or think it is something only for their kids, but that is not the case," says Andy Leff, adding that MySpace has more than 170 million users. Leff, 25, of Philadelphia started IncPlace in January along with Seun Olubodun, 25, also of Philadelphia. It offers a place where businesses can go for free advice on blogging and other ways to market themselves over the Internet. The company is based in Philadelphia. Most people he has helped are over 40. "They know about the Internet and how to look for information there, but they don't know much about blogging," Leff says. "I want to change that."
Good flexibility
An effective blog can make it easy to add and update content, so there's always something new. And that can draw interested parties in, Leff explains. Despite the benefits, not everyone is jumping on the bandwagon just yet. "I sent a call out to our members last fall" asking for anyone who was blogging to be included in an upcoming survey on the topic, "and it drew a blank," says Michael Rogers, vice president of communications for the Small Business Association of Michigan (SBAM). "My sense is that a lot of small business owners barely have time to make Web sites, let alone create blogs," Rogers says.
John Truscott of the John Truscott Group, a Lansing-based publicrelations and consulting firm, says some of his political clients are blogging to generate awareness. And Truscott fully expects more businesses to add blogs in the future. "I participate in other people's blogs and will likely have a blog myself at some point," he adds. If you are considering starting a blog, there are some things to keep in mind.
Setting it up can take several hours to several days and you might want to hire an outside firm to help, Leff says.
And the cost can range - from setting it up yourself through free services such as www.blogger.com to spending a few hundred or even thousands of dollars.
Then there is the time involved once your blog is operating. Leff spends about an hour each day on his blog posting articles or comments. "As a small business owner, you are selling yourself every day. This is just another way to brag about your products and services," he says. (SIDEBAR) Andy Leff's tips for business owners
*Passion makes perfect. "Don't even think about pursuing a blog strategy if you have no real passion or excitement for the topic."
*Go at it regularly. "Write on your topics daily, weekly, monthly - whatever works best with your schedule."
*Write well. "If you hate writing, hire someone."
*Be transparent. "The blogosphere will tear you limb from limb if they discover you're a ' flog ,' or fake blog." access world news www.libraries.unt.edu
Blogs are web logs.
Splogs are spam blogs.
Flogs are stealth public relations blogs.
Social media marketing-wikipedia
Strategic public relations
Transparency
Disclosure
Blog controversy
Fake blogs in: hotels, restaurants, online shops, authors of books
Other examples of flogs have been found through hotel, restaurant and online shops where good reviews are posted under false identities.
Criminal prosecution

Week Five

I hope we have time to talk about the school shootings on Monday. I'm interested in hearing people's opinions and possible solutions. Something has to be done about things like this. I don't get it. I don't understand what's wrong with some people. It absolutely floors me and scares me to death to think that people justify horrifying acts like this in their minds. It had to stem from somewhere, right? Was it how they were raised? Was it a life-changing experience they lived through? Were they beaten or abused or sexually violated?

Why are people like this? Is it appropriate for PR professionals to act as counselors as part of their jobs? Because I want to be a person who prevents things like this from happening. The world we live in is terrifying.

I was reading an article about the shooting, and they had interviewed a Senior journalism student who had witnessed the shootings. That could be me. No... that crap gets to me. That makes me want to stay in my house every day, lock my doors and get in the fetal position. It's crazy that all of us are forced to invest some degree of trust in complete strangers every single day of our lives and trust them not to injure us or our loved ones. And the truth is, you can't trust people. So what are we supposed to do?

I just don't get it. I wish there was a way to live life without the fear of the worst possible scenario becoming a reality. Things can't keep on going on like this. The world isn't learning; the same mishaps and wrongdoings keep on occurring. It just blows my mind.

I think every one of these "terrorists" could've been helped at one point. This stuff doesn't manifest in a 24-hour time period. This is built up aggression and depression and anger and whatever else inside a person. I don't care if the guy hadn't been taking medication. People weren't always so dependent on medication, and stuff like this didn't always happen.

And I bet it wouldn't have taken much to prevent this man from killing five other people and injuring 16. It may have just taken someone taking them out to lunch every now and then, or asking "how are you?" and really meaning it and listening to what he had to say. People are instinctively selfish, and I think that has a lot to do with it.

I just want something to change, and I don't want stuff like this to be in the headlines anymore. I just want answers.

Week Four

I'm just thinking about the Cowboys article we got in class Wednesday, and there were a few thoughts I had...

1) The media is always going to attempt to produce a story that may bring in more publicity and therefore money

Locker room scuffle in NFL spring training locker room=Something different from business as normal=A story=The juicier the better=Media trying to squeeze or fabricate or maximize to the highest degree possible

We talked about how whether or not the Cowboys organization was ethical, but what about the journalists?

Journalists automatically go on the defensive, and like you said in the handout:
If it was accidental by-product of horseplay, why not tell details? If not, why not identify guilty parties as a part of punishment?

But how about this...
If it was accidental by-product of horseplay, why tell details? If not, why identify guilty parties as a part of punishment?

Why can't it work the latter way?

Who is to say that a come-clean strategy would have been better? It's something the world will never know for sure. What I do know is, each party (Cowboys and media) had something to gain by taking opposite approaches. I think what the Cowboys organization did was the "right" thing to do in order to minimize the after effects. I think what they did was the "wrong" thing to do in relation to treating everyone equally and bringing complete justice to McIver.

The weird thing is is that if this were to happen in a business building between co-workers, there would've been such a different outlook and strategy to the situation. The fact that Michael Irvin has the God-given talent to catch a football and run fast changed the whole strategy.

It may be pathetic or sad or unfair, but true.

Week Three

I have to say so far that this class is the most interesting journalism course I have taken in my college career. I think I feel like this because it has a lot to do with opinions and discussion and right and wrong rather than papers and deadlines and cut-and-dry rules. The class number helps all of us get to know one another pretty well, too. I really love hearing other people's opinions and broadening my own horizons. I look forward to coming to this class, because I know we're all going to learn something about one another and maybe even ourselves.

Another reason I am enjoying this class so much is because of Cosmopolitanism. I am all about trying to figure the world out, and I've never been required to read a philosophy book in college. It really does intrigue me.

I think this class is making me realize some of the things I want to incorporate in my everyday work life, and that gives me a little peace. Sometimes it's frustrating not having a vision of your future (whether that vision really becomes a reality or not), but it's always calming to find something in life that excites you, and I have this class to thank for that.

Week Two

I just read the article about Vytorin, and I don't know what I think about it. I don't have much expertise in the PR field or about pharmaceutical companies, so this entry is mostly based on my personal feelings. I just know it made me feel disgusted.

I know there are always two sides, if not more, to a story. I'm just trying to understand this drug company's motives and hope to God that there is more wisdom and information and value to their current advertising tactics than merely bringing in more money.

It makes me so uneasy to read things like this. It makes me sick to think that corporations throw their personal and comapny morals out the window for monetary profit.

This article told me that morals are in the shadows of money, and to one day be a part of something like that scares me. I know that people in those companies know that what they're doing is wrong. I can't imagine that they think otherwise. I wonder if they feel trapped in their own bodies, because i can't imagine any of those people have a clear conscience with this issue.

I refuse to believe that people are heartless. I know that people who have been involved in this cover up have lost sleep and been in a type of emotional turmoil. I just wonder what it's like for them. I wonder how hard it would've been to be stand up and go against the grain, risking their careers and reputation and so forth. I'd like to believe that I would have been that person. I just wonder what's still covered up and what has gone on behind closed doors the past two years.

Week One

I never really think about who I am, I just am. I like writing and thinking about stuff like this, because it allows me to learn about myself. Sometimes I need physical words on paper or a computer screen to come to a realization of things.

No matter what people say, they're always interested in themselves. And although I've known myself for 22 years, I know I still have much I don't know about my aspirations, fears, strengths, weaknesses, etc. I think that's part of the reason I don't have a specific vision of where I see myself going after I graduate. Then again, maybe my unanswered questions are just a part of who I am.

I am an optimist. I try to find the good in people. I believe that life is what you make of it. I think that things are as bad as you make them. I have faith. I think that if you don't have friends, you don't have much of anything else. I know you have to laugh every day of your life to be healthy. I always try to view situations from more than just my perspective, and I don't mind admitting that I'm wrong. I always try to take the high road, but my immaturity still has a voice. I haven't come across much adversity yet in life, but I'm waiting for it. Knowing that, I realize that my ways of thinking about the world will one day be tested.

I guess that the way I see things in life dictates how I handle all of my relationships and dealings. I don't stress too much, or I don't think I do. I know that things will always work themselves out. However, I try to be active in making sure that they will work. It just makes sense that my attributes and personality quirks mirror my decision making process. And it has worked out O.K. for me thus far.