Sunday, February 25, 2007

post #7

Photobucket - Video and Image HostingThis is the photograph which was published by famous Chinese photographer Xie Hailong in 1991. It was named “Big Eyes”. Also, it has been used for “Project Hope Education” (China Youth Development Foundation) as an official propaganda picture poster. It gives us a powerful sense of their living condition and academic environment. It is a spotlight of the students who want to go to school, but unfortunately are not able to afford it. A pair of big eyes gives us a strong feeling for them. The sight and the entire picture have brought us to a world which we have never got touched. A little hand is holding a pencil; an old book is under her hand. From the background of the picture, you probably can see what kind of studying environment they had, there is no TV; there is no heater; there is even no electricity or running water. A dark,run-down classroom with some old disreputable desks. A few tattered books are not even enough for everyone. Most of the time, they don’t even have pencils or papers to write on. That’s all they have for class. But the hope of going to school has not decreased, they want to read, they want to write, they want to be a person who can understand the world, they want to get to know the world. “We need help”. That’s what the pair of eyes has been telling us.

Post #6

The New York Times is one of the most famous public propagates in the nation, especially considering with “New York”, one of the most famous cities with lights turned on all night. I think “The New York Times”blog-Screens is a good example to show the nation and the world what “New York” truly means, as well as New Yorkers daily life and local culture.

This particular blog has provided “The New York Times” into several different parts. Each one of them represents different contents under a particular title, such as “World”, “US”, “N.Y/ Region”, “Business”, “Technology”, “Science”, “Health”, “Sports”, “Opinion”, “Arts”, “Style”, “Travel”, “Jobs”, “Real Estate”, and “Autos”. From the macro world, then concentrates to people’s daily life.

White background color with dark blue or black context, everything looks simple and seems so dull. But all the article’s titles have caught my attention. This site is more considered with information, messages, and news by giving up the fancy decoration of the blog. The news has covered through different areas and levels on the site. For example, the “Arts”, I have discovered lots of interesting information on there. On the right top corner, there is a paragraph about “screens”. “With television and the Internet converging at last, who's going to watch all this here-goes-nothing online video? Everything from political propaganda videos to pseudo-candid celebrity rants seems to expect an audience. "Screens" will find, review and make sense of all those senseless new images: web video, viral video, user-driven video, custom interactive video, embedded video ads, web-based VOD, broadband television, diavlogs, vcasts, vlogs, video podcasts, mobisodes, webisodes, mashups and more.”

Those information give us a little background about their blog, gives readers (especially a new reader like me) some ideas about the blog. What is the blog about? Is there anything interesting that audience would expect to see?

Also, there is a spot that under the “screens” named “Popular Tags”, there are more than hundred tags are arranged in an alphabetical order, they have made for audience to find the information that they need much easier on this blog.

Like what the “screens” says, those articles are all attached with one or more short videos (most of them were copied from Youtube).

Considering with my own blog, “The New York Times” blog is much more popular of course, also it’s fun to visit. Also I think “The New York Times” blog is more like a blog which is belonged to a group or an organization, although my blog is more like a person as an individual. “The New York Times” is representing the ideas or opinions of the entire “The New York Times”, but my blog only has to response for myself (or the engl 1020 class).

However, there are lots of great things for me to draw on the experience of how to actually create an interesting blog, such as content choosing, images choosing, and video choosing.