Zcom_simple

Hello,

Blogs are a familiar feature on the internet - where users post content in an accumulating manner, with comments, and search options, etc. They facilitate expression and exploration, and via attached comments, also debate and synthesis.


Reading and
Navigating Blogs

Our blogs are quite powerful. Each writer can post, as is typically the case. Sustainers who have the option can also post, however. All Blogs appear in the blog system, and sometimes also in content boxes the top page of ZNet - and always via the left menu of the top page - and can be found via searches, etc.

Commenting on blogs follows the blogs, attached at the bottom, and blog comments, like all others, are also visible in many places that show comments including in the forum system. In addition, the entire blog system gathers content for everyone - but one can look at the accumulating content in many ways.

  • For example one can look at one writer's efforts - so one is seeing what is effectively a blog system for that one writer, or Sustainer.
  • One can also look at the content by topic, seeing blogs that are tagged as being about a certain topic - or place, as well. Thus, when doing that, it is a blog system about a topic, or a place, with many contributors.
  • One can look at only writer blogs, or only sustainer blogs, as well.
  • One can look at blogs for particular Groups, too.

All this is easily done using the left menu. Searches allow even more variables and refinements.


Creating Blog Posts

If you are a Sustainer with permission, and are logged in, you will see a link in the left menu for you to post a blog - and you can use that to post one, and then tag it various ways (such as with a topic or place, or a group tag), and once you do, it is in the system with you as the author.

You can also use the console button to the left to post a blog - anytime and from anywhere in the site, as long as you are logged in.

Meanwhile, enjoy the blogs - and, by the way, if you are a Free Member or a Sustainer with a ZSpace page, of course you can put one or more content boxes on it, pulling blog links of any sort you may want to filter for, for example, by you or by your friends or by others - and by topic, about places, for groups, etc.

Blogs

667599

Y. Brody's Blog

Web Address: http://www.zcommunications.org/zspace/yobro
Bio: Born in New York City in 1972, the author is a clinical psychologist. To pay the bills, he helps people understand themselves and their environment, and encourages them to imagine all possible cha... (More)

All Brody Blogs

Media, Culture, and Society

By Y. Brody at Nov 16, 2008


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Excerpts from my course syllabus for "Media, Culture, and Society":

 

"Once you have learned how to ask questions--relevant and appropriate and substantial questions--you have learned how to learn and no one can keep you from learning whatever you want or need to know." --Neil Postman

 

How does our media-environment shape the way that we perceive,  think, feel, act, and relate to each other?

What is media? We talk about "the media" a lot, whether it's the news, or cultural entertainment, or advertising. But what is it exactly? and what is the relationship between media and the human mind and behavior? Do media have any influence on how we think, feel, perceive the world, relate to others, or behave day-to-day? Or is the media we consume essentially apart from us and psychologically insignificant, a lot of noise without much consequence? And are there any meaningful relationships between media, democracy, and equal rights? 

While we don't have all the answers, research over the last four decades has begun to shed some light.  However, first we must start asking questions...

For example:

    -Is freedom of speech a human right? Are human rights the same as corporate rights? Do you believe in freedom of speech for all views, or only views that you agree with?

    -Who decides which news stories and facts are important and how are these stories and facts presented? What is the difference between news and propaganda? What are the interests and perspectives of news media organizations?

    -How do images of different groups (e.g., gender, race, religion, ethnicity,...) get portrayed in commercial and entertainment media? How much do they reflect society and culture and how much do they influence society and culture?

    -Are there any known psychological or behavioral effects of exposure to media sex and violence? What about playing video games? Watching television? Using pornography? Advertising to children? Surfing the internet? Using an iPhone? Joining Facebook? How will new media in the future affect us?

 

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