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Thanksgiving Redefined
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“When a human being becomes a set of data on a website like Facebook, he or she is reduced. Everything shrinks. Individual character. Friendships. Language. Sensibility. In a way it’s a transcendent experience: we lose our bodies, our messy feelings, our desires, our fears. It reminds me that those of us who turn in disgust from what we consider an overinflated liberal-bourgeois sense of self should be careful what we wish for: our denuded networked selves don’t look more free, they just look more owned.” — Zadie Smith in a review of the movie ‘The Social Network’
I am in love with a sofa.
(Source: Anthropologie)
* NY Times magazine did an article on this new brand of anti-feminist evangelical Christian woman. It centers on one apparently famous woman who holds to the adage that women must submit to their husbands but the article then takes a broader look at this new cultural norm. The basic thrust of the argument is rooted in gender roles and Biblical teachings of women versus historical and social changes as time has gone on. The most interesting part for me was that I hear this argument all the time and have had a hard time articulating what I think about it. I think the journalist did an excellent job in pointing out some inconsistencies with the message these women are trying to send.
* Gawker posted a great blog on ‘New Rules for Media Ethics’. Transparency is king in these new rules and the false premise of objectivity is thrown out the window. I found it refreshing actually and as I plan to take my research in the direction of ethics, this proves to be a good starting point.
* Robert Niles over at the Online Journalism Review wrote an articleabout how news orgs should start restructuring their beat systems. Instead of headings like ‘Government’, ‘Sports’ and ‘Business’, he suggests ‘Food’, ‘Education and ‘Labor’. I love when journalists think outside their self defined boxes.
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“I said, ‘Well I guess you Pasadenans are pretty glad about Ike’s election results.’
‘Glad? I should say we are!’ Big John thundered. ‘Why, who wouldn’t be? Everybody’s glad! But of course you people over there, you wouldn’t know how the country feels—all your news is slanted.’
This was hard to take, especially from the man who read only the right-leaning LA Times. For the record, Paul and I were avid devourers of the New York Times, the Herald Tribune, Le Figaro, Time, Fortune, The Reporter, Harper’s, The New Yorker, even L’Humanite, not to mention the flood of embassy cables, intelligence briefs, and twenty four hour wire-service and ticker sheets pouring in from around the world. So—whose news was slanted?”
— Julia Child
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