Final Post!

When I first heard we had to do this large social media part for the class, I was reluctant. I knew about Twitter and often search through and use twitter for social media content and news, but I had never used a blog as a means of expressing my thoughts and critical analysis of news content as it relates to political science. After doing so, I realized it is a great way to really analyze the news and politics in depth while also seeing other viewpoints of other students’ ideas on the same subjects.

            My blog is called ‘Mass Media and International Conflicts: War Games.’ The blog’s purpose was to focus on the intersection of American politics and how it relates to international policies and intervention in international affairs. I tried to focus on as many different news outlets as possible to get the information I used to analyze international affairs that relate to U.S. politics. It was challenging to use so many different sources for this, because there are different viewpoints of our domestic political policies overseas. I think this ended up being for my benefit though, because I was able to compare and contrast a lot of these sources and summarize them and make an educated analysis from the knowledge I gained. Like I stated before, I linked these news articles to my blog for others to also read and analyze my analysis as I did for others’ blogs as well.

            The theme of the blog is also about international intervention of politics and its interception with mass media coverage. Most of the focus ended up being in the Middle East even though it was a pretty broad topic I could cover with international politics. There were a few stories that were in Asia and Europe, but for the most part, I focused on the Middle East and civil wars, domestic intervention internationally, and the media content that held all of these things.

            The most interesting content on the blog was specifically based on Syria and the country’s civil war. There was a lot of different information on this topic, and it was interesting to see the different aspects of reporting and information on the country. It was also interesting to research and read the media content on the U.S. intervention in the country and the reactions of Americans, Syrians, and other international communities. This was one of the more controversial interventions under the Obama Administration.

            Overall my blogging experience has been very helpful. It was interesting to read so many different sources on different topics for the blog and really analyze and learn from the different ideas and compare the same ideas these media sources had. It was also interesting to see other peoples’ blogs and read and comment on other different topics these peer blogs covered. If I had to go back and do it again, I think I would be more persistent about doing it every week at a certain time, as I could not seem to find a specific schedule to find topics to blog about.

85-year-old tourist pulled off plane in North Korea

A Vietnam veteran and his friend took a trip/vacation to North Korea. After all was said and done, they were about to leave from the country when- five minutes before the plane took off- the man was detained.

"The U.S. State Department declined Thursday to confirm Newman's identity or whether he had been detained, citing privacy issues. North Korea has not publicly acknowledged that it is holding Newman."

Questions of the man's military services in the  Vietnam war have also been questioned as to why he has been detained. There are just so many questions as to why this man is being held in the country. This has become a major issue with North Korea and other countries as well in the past and will be in the future. North Korea's lack of communication and compliance to other country's questions has been a major factor in the understanding of the country's doings.

Back in 2009 another American was arrested and sentenced to 15 years of hard labor. This was because the American was said to be a threat and tried to topple the government. 

It is interesting how different political systems work. I think that North Korea has one of the more strict especially against those from America. 

What do you think about these different international political systems compared to the US? Do you think these events by North Korea compare to any the US has done in the past two or so decades?


http://edition.cnn.com/2013/11/21/world/asia/north-korea-detained-american/index.html

NSA Troubles

Privacy has been a recent issue that has come up in the media and politics. The NSA scandal has almost filled every news outlet. There have been questions concerning the privacy rights of citizens and the violation of that privacy by the NSA.

Now the concerns continue. A privacy group petitioned to the Supreme Court wanting the NSA to stop collecting cellphone records of Verizon users/customers. This has been one of many examples of petitions the Supreme Court has gotten over these questionable actions taken by the NSA.

There has also been some uproar about the NSA's privacy concerns on an international level, too. Germany Chancellor Merkel's cellphone was also allegedly a target of the NSA. I find this extremely disturbing since Germany is one of our allies. There is no reason to be curious- if this is true- of what Merkel has been doing. This only makes the US look like we have doubts of our allies and there is cause for tension and unease between the two countries who previously have not had a great track record with each other.

What do you think on the international allegations of the NSA's spying?

Do you think our allies will become more weary of the US's polices and the NSA now?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/23/merkel-phone-tapped_n_4150812.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/supreme-court-wont-hear-challenge-to-spying-program/2013/11/18/9bfcd45a-506c-11e3-9fe0-fd2ca728e67c_story.html?Post+generic=%3Ftid%3Dsm_twitter_washingtonpost

Syria Weapons Inspection Deadline Missed

The inspectors in Syria have missed a crucial deadline. They were supposed to go in and check on the schedule of destruction of chemical weapons that Syria was suppose to be compiling with. However, this deadline was missed by the international inspectors while going for a scheduled visit to Syria. They were unable to access the areas due to security concerns.

“The chief of the global chemical weapons watchdog disclosed for the first time in a report obtained by The Associated Press that Syria has declared 41 facilities at 23 chemical sites where it stored approximately 1,300 tons of precursors and agents, and over 1,200 unfilled munitions to deliver them.”

It is hard to really know what is going on in a country like Syria. It is in the middle of a civil war and people from both sides report things that everyone has to take with a grain of salt. There are vague reports and understandings of what really is happening. This is true for their count of chemical weapons which is why the international inspectors have to go into the country in the first place.

I think that it is interesting they announce their deadlines publicly- via media. I would suspect that this would have some implications to their security and to the stockpile of weapons Syria might have. There may be some that are hidden when these inspectors come in and people know when they will be in the country-causing targeting to become much easier.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/10/29/syria-weapons-inspectors-miss-deadline-for-visiting-declared-weapons-sites/

How does this effect the international community as a whole in a political way?

Maybe that is just me, but what do you think about this?

Website Issues

Kathleen Sebelius was under fire after the Affordable Healthcare Act website had some major issues involving signups and crashes. The website continues to have problems after its launch. It has crashed many times despite maintenance and many people have been unable to signup to obtain their healthcare.

Sebelius is head of the U.S. Health and Human Services and responsible for the creation of the website. 

There has been much debate about the process of the new healthcare and the changes it will cause. The website launch fail has not helped those who are doubtful of the new Obamacare health plan.

Many have responded to this launch failure directly on Sebelius and have called for her resignation. Even though this is happening, she still continues to promote Obamacare and insures the website will be working correctly soon-for her sake and those trying to receive insurance.

Many have also commented that the websites lack in technical stability is just foreshadowing how the Obamacare product will really be. There has also been backlash on Obama, and now his approval ratings are very low compared to his start of the second term in the oval office.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/24/kathleen-sebelius-health-law_n_4160222.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000003

What do you think about the website crash? Do you think this foreshadows problems with Obamacare itself?

What are your thoughts on the reprimand of Sebelius? Do you think it is deserved?

Malala Yousafzai

You may have heard of Malala. Back a few years ago she was shot by the Taliban for educating young girls under the Pakistani Taliban. This was illegal under Taliban rule. She was targeted and shot in the head/ face for refusing to stop teaching these women. Today she is only 16 and still living. After being shot, she was taken to England for surgery and recovery where she lives now.

Now the Taliban are after her again. She continues to stand up against the Taliban’s beliefs that girls/women should not be educated.  I can’t imagine the courage this teenager has. She was shot in the face before by the Taliban and knows how threatening they can be, but she still continues to stand up for what she believes in.

What do you think about Malala's stance? Do you think her efforts are going to be short-lived or do you think she will start a major social change in the Middle East?

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/10/07/malala-yousafzai-pakistani-girl-shot-by-taliban-under-new-threat/?cmpid=cmty_twitter_fn

Border Patrol

This article is very interesting. According to a report by Breitbart News, these reports state that the stand-downs are due to budgetary restrictions. The report also says they are paying thousands of dollars to other departments for coming up with ways to cut Border Patrol pay and save money. This could mean bad news for the states and their security against people who illegally smuggle drugs and humans.

Also this could mean some bad news for other types of illegal aliens. This article makes a really good point in addressing the existence of people who don’t just smuggle drugs and are illegal traffickers. There are also some people who illegally want to get into this country to commit acts of terrorism.

Citizenship and illegal aliens have been a big debate in recent history. There are lots of questions to the ethics of the Border Patrol and services.

What are your thoughts?

www.breitbart.com/big-government/2013/10/02/exclusive-border-patrol-management-orders-agents-to-stand-down-while-tracking-smugglers

Kenya Claims Upper Hand In Mall Hostage Crisis

Recently in the news there has been coverage of the Kenyan mall attack/ hostage situation.  Five gunmen including at least one woman came inside Nairobi’s Westgate Mall with multiple different guns and grenades. After the lights shut off, the gunman continued to shoot only allowing Muslims to leave. Multiple people from various nationalities were at the mall during the time of the shooting and a festival was also being held where 50 children were in attendance.

Later in the day, Kenyan officials say the attacks could have been terroristic in nature, and later that afternoon a Twitter account that is reportedly associated with al-Shabaab claimed they were the ones responsible for the attack. As of now forces continue to secure the perimeter of the mall as they close in on the shooters. Many still remain hostages.

Officials also told Embassy workers to stay home and only monitor the local media for updates. These officials who could be in danger in their own homes turn to the media for guidance. I think this has been pretty typical in the past with domestic situations. Everyone turns on the news when they hear about some breaking news, but for an American living overseas to be able to turn on the news and find out what’s going on around the corner from their foreign homes is amazing. To think about how media coverage has grown—and so quickly—is something very interesting to think about.

http://abcnews.go.com/m/story?id=20334295&ref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=227433191

Control Room

I have been posting links to websites and things we hear on the news, but I would like to take this blog time to write about something I found to be very inspiring and useful from another class I had last semester. Like I said in my introduction paragraph, I am a Communication major. There is so much I find interesting with communication and how and why and the types of communication available, but I really enjoy news and journalism the most.

Like so many other Communication classes we go over these other types of  things, but what really tied it all together and my love for international affairs was the documentary Control Room (link below). If you ever have a chance to watch this, it is very well done.

Control Room is a documentary made in 2004 from the news organization Al Jazeera's point of view- relevant because they just opened Al Jazeera America.  Al Jazeera headquarters are based in Doha, Qatar. In 2004, America, like so many other allies, was at war in the Middle East and news coverage of the war was picked up from around the world. The documentary walks us through how news coverage in war is conducted. I thought the most interesting thing about the documentary is that it is from Al Jazeera's view point. Our cultures are similar yet so different, and seeing their point of view about war and media and other's media coverage was quite interesting.

One thing I found most interesting was the critique of American coverage of the war. Al Jazeera is known in America for their more graphic depiction of the war. While we can fight about whether the scenes with children suffering and so on is from an American strike, no matter it is still a chid in distress or people dead lined up along the street curbs. At the time Bush was president, and he went on air and demanded Al Jazeera stop displaying to captured, tortured, and dead America soldiers on their air for everyone to see. As Americans we get upset by these images. Now this is where the interesting part comes in. We get upset with Al Jazeera for showing these Americans, our own citizens, in distress, but we show these images of children, men, woman of the Middle East dead, hurt, distraught all the time without double thinking once.

They interviewed the Communication Director at the media base in the Middle East where all the media base in the coverage of war, and he had the same reaction I did. He had never thought of it that way and the cultural difference just goes to show the type of thinking that goes on between the two cultures. Now, of course any newsource you have to take with a grain of salt, because as we all know, there are biases everywhere.

What are your reactions? Have you seen this documentary before?


Link to documentary: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmPUx7OH1T8

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/357051/al-jazeera-comes-america-clifford-d-may

How a Military Strike Might Unfold

I choose to look at this article because it deals with the crisis in Syria that has been in the news a lot lately. There has been a lot of talk about another war and debates about whether or not American interference in yet another international country dealing with a civil war should happen.

This article brings in both international politics and predictions of the mass media on strikes that could possibly be carried out in Syria.

I think international coverage of politics is very interesting. After reading this article, I realized that international predictions are so different than domestic political predictions. Internationally, there are so many countries with deep rooted histories and ties with each other and relations that these countries have goes back decades if not centuries before America was even named.

These political leaders, especially in the Middle East, are in control and very powerful. Also the media availability in most of the counties is also state run. Therefore, everyone is not privileged to freedom of media as a lot of other European countries and America are.  There is not a freedom of the media to investigate the actions of their government; therefore, more goes unknown until it is publicly carried out and too late- i.e. Syria chemical weapons attack. I do think that one of the main reasons for journalism is to be able to flush out what needs to be flushed out like in government and politics in order for the American citizens to make an informed decision for themselves, even though this usually doesn’t happen unfortunately.

http://security.blogs.cnn.com/2013/08/31/how-a-military-strike-on-syria-might-unfold/

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/08/31/statement-president-syria

Introduction

Hello everyone,

My name is Elizabeth Copeland. I am a senior at Kennesaw State graduating in December 2013. I am a Communication major and also freelance at CNN. This class- Political Science and Mass Media- is very interesting in that it incorporates the two of the more important things in society together and studies how the two interact and function together.

This blog is for the Political Science and Mass Media class. I hope to look into more of international politics and its interconnection with mass media- more specifically news in the broadcast medium.

I hope to gain more insight into the workings of both international politics and news coverage of international affairs by learning about both the process of news coverage and political science through this class and outside readings.