What to read...

1. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins is the third and final book in The Hunger Games trilogy. After reading the first two books, the natural idea would be to read the last book. Although there is something about me and not wanting to finish a good series (of anything really)...

2. I am Legend by Richard Matheson was recommended to me by El Drunko (*cough* *Lauren G* *cough*). What also interested be in this book was that I had seen the movie, which I enjoyed. However, after reading just a few pages into the book, I realize that the book is nothing like the movie, though that is not exactly a bad thing.

3. I first heard about the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson over the radio when the speaker spoke of the author's background and how he hadn't intended for his writings go become books. Later, my English teacher gave a short book talk on the book and got me interested in reading it.

2nd Quarter Annotated Reading List

Matheson, Richard. I Am Legend. New York: Tom Doherty Associates, 2007. Print.

The book I read, I Am Legend, is actually a number of stories by Matheson. However, in the main story, Robert Neville is the last man on Earth. The rest of the human race has been wiped out by what he could only describe as a vampire virus. Neville deals with the pain of losing his wife and child as he looks for something to do to keep himself from going insane. At times, Robert is enraged at himself and at others, he mourns the loss of his family. As my mother pointed out to me, Robert Neville goes through most of the stages of grief. Who wouldn't be a little unstable after realizing they were the only rational person on Earth who didn't want to drain the blood from people? Neville's story is a very interesting one that I found myself feeling emotions for and is a good book for just about to read (probably not small children). (two books worth)

Orwell, George. 1984. New York: Signet Classics, 2000. Print.

In the world of 1984 the three super states, Eurasia, Eastasia, and Oceania, are in a perpetual war. Each super state uses the war and other methods such as propaganda and even self-mind alteration (Doublethink) to control all aspects of their citizens lives, even their thoughts. This control was later compared to that of "a boot stamping on a human face--for ever." The duty shown by the residents of the super state of Oceania could only be considered fanatical by our modern day society. Something I always wondered was, "How can these people take this abuse?" The answer is, they don't know any different, if there isn't something to compare an item to, what you have originally seems best just because you have something. However, some of Winston's Smith's old memories begin to surface and he starts to remember what life was like before the Purges. This leads Winston down a path of "unorthodox" thoughts, which lead him to question everything around him. If you would like to find out what happens to Winston or if you like Dystopia/Utopia or fiction books, I would recommend this book. (2 books worth)

Independent Reading: In Development

Between Odyssey, band, Beta club, NEHS, and work I'm finding difficulty in reading consistently. I still read the required minutes each week, but sometimes that consists of 120 minutes in a day. That's my best excuse, but that's still an excuse. What might help me to read more consistently is to have a designated time of the day to read. Even with that fault, I am doing decently on practicing a balanced reading diet. I read a candy fiction, deep fiction with themes that could relate to modern society, and a nonfiction book about the inner workings of TV News and how facts can be distorted (Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins, Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, and How to Watch TV News by Steve Powers and Neil Postman respectively). I didn't read Catching Fire with deep thought, besides to paying attention to the storyline. However, I did read Brave New World and How to Watch TV News with analytical thought simply because they were much easier to relate to modern day society. To some extent, I do ink my thinking. I find inking my thinking to be both advantageous and burdensome. Inking does help me to go back and reflect a little on what I read in relating something I just read back to something I read much earlier. Stopping to write something down, especially a longer thought, can cause me to lose my train of thought. For the next nine weeks, I will try to read more consistently and have most of my books read before one week to due date.

Annotated Bibliographies: How to Watch TV News

Tingle, Greg. "Journalistic Plagiarism Is out of Control." Greatreporter.com. 17 Feb. 2005. Web. 15 Oct. 2010. .

Plagiarism is a problem for many people. There is not only plagiarism in school reports but also in the news. This article describes how "journalistic plagiarism is out of control". Big time journalists, such as Jayson Blaire of the New York Times, even plagiarize and falsify documents. Some reporters will even plagiarize reports from little known sources such as students. A TAFE student in Sydney wrote "article on a historical society issue involving the local council in Sydney's Hill's district." He then pitched his article to a local newspaper, who replied: "'Sorry, not very interested, but you can send over your ideas if you like'". Four weeks later, an edited version of his article was printed in the newspaper. How to Watch TV News describes how VNRs (video news releases) are plagiarized by the general media such as CBS News. CBS News used a VNR by the Institute for Injury Reduction to show defections in safety belts and rollovers without giving credit to the Institute. If people in the news can't come up with something and have to revert to stealing someone else's work without giving credit, how trustworthy can they be in reporting news in the first place?

Jury, By Louise. "An Overpaid Airhead? Not Me, Katie Derham Tells the 'old-timers' - Media, News - The Independent." The Independent | News | UK and Worldwide News | Newspaper. Web. 18 Oct. 2010. .

Many people claim that news anchors are overpaid for "simply to read[ing] an autocue." Both new and old employees in the news agree. Most people say that being an anchor requires very little intelligence. John Humphreys even went to the extent of saying that he thinks his "four-year-old will be ready in a couple of months." However, Katie Durham claims that an anchor must be able to "think on [their] feet." She also claims that if they were not able to think on their feet "the product would be crap and we would be taken off-air." Many newscasters and anchors today are not getting out of the office and into the field to do actual reporting. Jon Snow explains that we are seeing the rise of a generation of anchors who have never been in the field" and that "there are people now who are saying 'Sorry, I don't do that', and 'I don't know how to do that' - and as a result never left the studio." How to Watch TV News explains how anchors are payed ridiculously large amounts of money to capture viewers with their good looks and nice suits.

Lee, By Douglas. "Firstamendmentcenter.org: Press - Topic." Firstamendmentcenter.org: Welcome to the First Amendment Center Online. Web. 18 Oct. 2010. .

There is debate whether cameras should be allowed in courtrooms. Some say that when cameras are let into courtrooms, they hamper the ability of the judge and jury to pass a lawful decision. This has many people to claim that they have been denied a fair trial. However, cameras are now being allowed in most places, so long as the policymakers of the federal and state courts allow it. How to Watch TV News explains how many defendants are claiming they were denied a fair trial by the presence of cameras. One person explained that when you add a camera to a courtroom, you turn the "courtroom into a circus." The debate has changed slightly since cameras have modernized. One argument about whether to have cameras in the courtroom was that they distracted everyone. Now, cameras have become much quieter and pose less of a physical distraction.

Dreisbach, By Shaun. "TV News Too Violent for Children? - Parenting.com." Parenting.com - The Home of Parenting and Babytalk. Web. 18 Oct. 2010. .

All parents (or at least the good ones) care whether their child watches violent TV at a young age, but what if TV news were just as terrifying and corrupting? In TV news, children are exposed to the base of human life (murder, muggings, and crimes) in it's truest form. According to this article "a recent study found that children actually find the news far more terrifying than anything they'd see on a blood-and-guts drama." "The researchers showed nearly 600 kids ages 8 to 12 disturbing TV content -- things like war images, people shooting at each other, house fires, and plane crashes -- then told them what they were watching was either a fictional "Hollywood show" or an actual news program." They found that "children who thought they were seeing real events had significantly higher fright responses -- they showed a greater emotional reaction -- than those who believed they were watching a fictional show," said study coauthor Brad Bushman, Ph.D. How to Watch TV News expresses a kind of worry about children who watch TV news because they are exposed to such acts.

"Fake TV News: News Release | Center for Media and Democracy." Center for Media and Democracy | Publishers of PR Watch. Web. 17 Oct. 2010. .

There are many TV News stations that play video news releases (VNRs) and do not mention their source or that they are VNRs to the public that they show them to. This brings up problems with plagiarism and the possibility that the VNR is fake. Most TV news stations find it irresistible to take an already made news report, say it is their own (or fail to mention that it isn't theirs), and show it to the general public. Most people take these reports as facts because they are not told that the report is a VNR. How to Watch TV News talks quite a bit about VNRs and their ability to be easily stolen by TV news stations. There are a few VNRs that are fake news, which leads to concern in showing these reports to the public when they aren't researched by the TV news station.

"Is Linking an Antidote to Plagiarism in Journalism?" Publish2 Blog. Web. 18 Oct. 2010. .

Even in small states, plagiarism is present. Tammi Marcoullier writes of how she found out that one of her blog posts had been plagiarized by a competing news source. What caught her attention was that the person who she interviewed had said a specific quote which was also included in the other person's report. When Marcoullier called the person she suspected of plagiarizing her blog post, he apologized in a "backhanded way, as if he really didn’t believe he’d done anything wrong." Marcoullier suggests a simple way to avoid plagiarism on the Internet by simply linking sources. Journalistic plagiarism is mostly represented in How to Watch TV News in the use of video news reports (VNRs). Plagiarism is the "worst crime" that can be committed by news sources simply because they do not give credit to the people who actually worked on the reports and have all the credit for themselves.

""What Do We Need Professional Reporters For?"" Small Dead Animals. Web. 18 Oct. 2010. .

This article deals with the growing number of citizen and free-lance journalists and photojournalists. People in the news business fear that many more people will go to the local news by citizens instead of the highly paid anchors for factual, reliable news. Who wouldn't go to someone they know personally for news (and I don't mean gossip) instead of some good-looking anchor behind a desk reading an autocue? The citizen journalist may have more incentive to get his or her facts straight. If a citizen journalist reported on a major event only to be found out that his/her facts were completely wrong, the journalist would loose much respect, thus less people would trust that person or listen to him/her. How to Watch TV News shows examples of how citizen journalism is being used more often. For example, hundreds of people filmed the events of 9/11 in the streets and around the city. These videos were used in reports about the event and give a different view than one of the mainstream widely known TV news sources.

"Cameras In Courtrooms: Information from Answers.com." Answers.com: Wiki Q&A Combined with Free Online Dictionary, Thesaurus, and Encyclopedias. Web. 18 Oct. 2010. .

Whether cameras should be allowed into courtrooms is still debated in various degrees. Now, all US states "allow some type of camera coverage." Even though some people argue that having cameras in the courtroom violates due process rights, experimental studies have, in some courtrooms, suggested that cameras do not interfere with due process. First, the Supreme Court "enacted Rule 53 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, prohibiting all photography or broadcasting of federal criminal cases". The Supreme later reviewed the case of Chandler v. Florida (1981) and unanimously decided that "states should be free to develop their own procedures for broadcasting trials, and that such television coverage was not an inherent violation of due process". Even with Rule 53 not being upheld any longer, the Supreme Court "does not allow photographic or broadcast coverage of proceedings." How to Watch TV News explains the debate about whether or not cameras should be allowed in courtrooms, which they leave up to the policymakers of the federal and state courts.

"Children And The News." American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. Web. 18 Oct. 2010. .

Children are exposed to news very often and without the reports being sugar-coated for the children, negative effects can occur to the children. Children watching news are prone to "imitate what they see and hear in the news," which is "a kind of contagion effect described as 'copy cat' events". Children who are constantly exposed to violent news are more likely to be fearful and suffer from other such negative effects. With the increase in coverage of crimes ("240%" according to this article) children are much more likely to be exposed to such acts. This article also has suggestions on how to reduce the negative effects of violent news such as "monitoring the amount of time [the] child watches news shows" and "provid[ing] reassurance regarding his/her own safety in simple words emphasizing that you are going to be there to keep him/her safe". Worry is expressed about this subject in How to Watch TV News because TV news stations do not soften violent reports for children.

"Why You Need To Be Careful About Watching The News." Citizen Warrior. Web. 18 Oct. 2010. .

Many TV news stations leave a negative or depressed feeling on the viewer because most feature acts that are out of the control of the victims. People who watch these kind of reports feel a sense of helplessness and hopelessness because "the problems shown on the screen are too big or too far away or too permanent to do anything about". This coupled with our brains having a "negative bias" leads many people into a kind of depression (mild or severe). TV news can more easily impact how a person feels than news in print because "you have no choice over what you take in, and visual images remain in the mind more easily". How to Watch TV News explains how people are attracted to events such as murders and muggings because they think about how they have survived another day or "I'm glad that wasn't me".

Socratic Seminar Reflection

Late last week and early this week, my English class participated in Socratic Seminars about different themes from the book Brave New World. One of the groups I was in discussed the irony of John the Savage's name and the significance of the names of the various characters. The other discussed the power of language in the book, and the power of the word to influence thought and behavior.

I really did not feel as though I encountered any striking new ideas (or at least ones that would stay with me through the weekend and other school work). I felt as though much of what was said were confirmations of many of my own thoughts. The idea that John was more civilized than the "civilized" world and John's emotional understanding but not comprehension of Shakespeare were already thoughts to me. There were not very many challenging of ideas during our talks (though I think that is mainly due to people being respectful to one another and not wanting to have a bad grade). Even though I did not find drastically different points of view from my classmates, I did found out a little background about background such as character name origins when preparing for the seminars. Interestingly, Bernard Marx somewhat exiles himself from society by going to the Savage Reservation. Similarly, Karl Marx (who Bernard is partially named after) is expelled from Paris at the end of 1844 but then returned when a revolution first broke out (or Bernard returned to society). Also, the name Lenina Crowne is said to come from Vladimir Lennin, who supported Karl Marx. I tie this to Lenina trying to understand Bernard and supporting him.

In retrospect, I think I did fairly well on my parts of the conversation. The most difficult part, I would say, would be trying not to interrupt someone who is speaking when an idea pops into your head that feels as though it must absolutely and positively be said at that moment. Even though we had eight minutes to discuss our topic, I felt as though I hadn't said all I wanted to during that time. During the conversation about the power of words to influence thought and behavior, we did not get to talk about Newspeak from the book 1984 by George Orwell. Nearly all of my research for that discussion was about Newspeak (which included quotes from 1984). Even with my negative comments, I enjoyed sitting down with a group of my friends and mutually being aware that we were about to engage in serious and deep conversation. I would invite people into the conversation more often who weren't given much of an opening during the conversation to speak if I had a do-over. Overall, I enjoyed our Socratic Seminars though I would give a little more time to discuss than eight minutes to let everyone say what they wanted to and cover most everything.

That information about Karl Marx being exiled is from http://www.historyguide.org/intellect/marx.html.

Annotated Reading List

Collins, Suzanne. Catching Fire. New York: Scholastic, 2009. Print.

Suzanne Collins supplies an atmosphere of oppression and rebellion in her book Catching Fire, which is the second book in the Hunger Games trilogy. Katniss thought she would no longer have to deal with the Capital and its calmly insane president after her Hunger Games. She was wrong. There is unrest in the districts due to Katniss' defiance of the Capital, and who wouldn't be angry at a government that made you send your children (or you) to entertain the masses by killing one another. Trust is a major theme in Catching Fire because Katniss has to determine who her allies are and who her enemies are. "Remember who your enemy is" Haymitch says to Katniss before stepping into the arena. In the world of Catching Fire, there is the all-powerful Capital to oppress the other districts in a tyranical sense. I can tie this idea back to Brave New World in that there is one tyranical person who controls almost everything in the resident's life. I believe that if the world described in Catching Fire were our world, we would find it to be our "duty to overthrow the government that has not acted in the general public's best interest". However, many people claim that today's government is terrible, yet they do nothing. So if something truly horrific happened similar to the events of Catching Fire, would people be too indifferent to rise up?(400 pages)

Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World. New York: Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2006. Print.

What is a utopia? Is it a place where everyone gets along well? Is it a place where no one is biased against another person for their physical looks? Is it a place where everyone enjoys their work? The Brave New World in which Huxley writes of is a utopia he believes we will one day become. However, unlike the typical connotation of the word utopia, Brave New World is not exactly a perfect society (or at least at this point in time we would not describe it as such) with its loose sex, approved use of hallucinogenic drugs, and genetic predetermination. Huxley prophesies that a decay in moral values will lead to his (dystopia)utopia. Some of this decay in morals can be spotted in our society such as many people now considering it normal to have lovers in a year numbering into the double digits. Soma, or the drug of Brave New World, is used by the people whenever they want an escape or are feeling too much emotions. Taking a gramme of Soma sends the person on a "holiday" away from reality to a feeling that is described as being "Christianity without the tears." This drug can be related to the want to legalize marijuana in the US. Utopia may not be pretty, but it's "perfect", right? If you wanted a utopia, what would you be willing to sacrifice for it? (259 pages)


Postman, Neil, and Steve Powers. How to Watch TV News. New York, NY: Penguin, 2008. Print.

How to Watch TV News will enlighten you on how to... well watch TV news. How to Watch TV News is both informative and a warning to the general public of what TV news is all about. Money (well, maybe some news too but that's back seat to money). Postman and Powers describe how TV news expose their viewers to ads. One technique is for the anchor to grab a person's interest just as they are going to commercial break so that that person stays with them. Also, "breaking news" may get many people's attention (which equals more viewers, which equals more people watching commercials, which equals more money), even if those first reports are not exactly solid facts. With the age of technology that we are in now, reports can be sent instantaneously back to the studio. These first reports may not be as accurate as news stations would have you believe. If something catastrophic happened five minutes ago, how do you know so much about it anyway? How to Watch TV News describes the inter-workings of TV news and how it affects our perception of certain events. (169 pages)

The annotated bibliographies are here.