Dr. Oldakowski taught us that the Middle East is a “vernacular region”.  Meaning that it wasn’t really a set place; it’s more of a mental place than anything else.  It’s like Jacksonville’s First Coast.  The First Coast isn’t on a map, but we still know what we’re talking about when we say that.  (And I learned that the First Coast was named because St. Augustine was the first city.)

The Middle East got its name because of Europe’s ethnocentrism, the idea that you’re the center of the world.  I never really thought about the Middle East’s name itself before, but it was interesting to learn that.

Then we talked a lot about population, economy, and the treatment of women in Middle Eastern society, which I am not going to detail in this blog post.  But basically, the Middle East is a force to be reckoned with.  They’re not only growing but they’re growing powerful, if not together.

Personally, I think it’ll be a very long time before the Middle East is able to function together as a unit because there’s so much there to pull them apart and not a lot there to bind them.  It’s like the US before it became the US.  Everyone hated Britain, but the colonies didn’t think of themselves as hating it together.  They thought of it as hating Britain separately (and it was Britain that ended up unifying their mindsets, ha).  Because of this it was hard for them to come together.

I liked Dr. Oldakowski throughout this lecture.  He even acknowledged that he was losing us, and this started a conversation about the Middle East’s view of the US.  Which is, by the way, not very positive.

* For your information, the Middle East is [this] not [this].  I wouldn’t have thought so much of Africa was included in it, but I suppose I was wrong.

So I put the Humanities creativity seminar up on Flickr.  You may peruse at your discretion. [Here]

And I’m really sorry, but half of the pictures were blurry, so I had to cut a lot of them out.  If your group didn’t get features very much that’s why.

It’s a post full of pictures!  Enjoy.

As for the science posts…I don’t know yet, but if someone else would please contact me about working on the blog, that would be nice.

I’ll delete this after the real post is made.

I could list all of his qualifications/achievements, but it would take up a lot of room.

The editorial editor caused some discussion among the Humanities students, including questions on “is it right to run a photo taken by someone who might be personal to the family?” and “do we endorse the man who has admitted to smoking pot or the one who has seemingly lied about working as an agent for realtors when he believes that what he did was not agent work and he is innocent according to court?”

Many voted for the one who smoked pot over the liar, but that isn’t the only opinion.  Does anyone else want to continue that discussion?  (Through comments should work fine.)

Journalists are supposed to try to minimize harm, but at what point does the harm end and the reporting have to begin?  Is it better to tell the story that upsets someone but reveals truth and knowledge to all, or should you hide the story to help the family feel better but not reveal something that you must have felt was important?

Personally, I would support spreading the truth.  One person’s decision made while they’re emotional, unhappy, and not willing to let people get into their business, as indirect as it may be, should not effect the right of the rest of the world to learn that information.

What does anyone else think?

Mr. Clark also brought in a the front page of a newspaper for from 1993 us to look at.  I found it remarkable to see something almost the same age as us still preserved FOR us.

Clinton!

Sorry for the low quality of my pictures.  If someone else wants to take photos, I definitely won’t mind.

But aside from that, we also discussed the internet and news.  Is the internet causing the newspapers to deteriorate?  Somewhat.  Is that a bad thing?  Not necessarily.  I think being able to share news through any media is a good thing, and professional journalists will always be better served to report honest news than a regular man off the street, but at the same time, can a reporter, even a group pf reporters, cover everything?  Of course not.  Can a layman be trusted to get the right information out all the time?  Of course not.  I think people have to decide whether they want the accurate source or the easy source, and there will always be a place for the written word, for a while anyway.  Until our generation grows up.

That’s how I feel, but anyone can feel free to disagree.

When you finally get down to the core of the matter, of journalism itself, it’s an art of balance between sources, reporters, and how far you want to go with information.  Personally, I think it’s a beautiful art.

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Anyone who wants to express an opinion on anything, leave a comment.  Anyone who wants to help edit the blog, send me an e-mail.  I can insert long opinions/observations into the post itself if as well if need be.  Please contribute, guys!

It’d be really nice to get some people registered with WordPress so that we can get some feedback on this. Registering is extremely simple and does not take long.  To make an account, just go to this URL and fill in the information.  Be sure to click “Just a username, please”, unless you want to start a blog (which isn’t entirely out of the question).  The process does require a valid email address, which can be created for free using Gmail, if you don’t have one already.  WordPress will send an email with an activation URL to the address you provided, after which you can log in and comment on posts.

By all means, please feel free to comment on this post to test it out, if you so desire.

Another point of interest to those who use news readers with RSS feeds: You can subscribe to the Joe Berg blog using the address http://bergsouth.wordpress.com/feeds/rss2, and it will add this blog to the list.

To me now, the program is a great thing.  I’m glad to be able to learn about careers and general information that I didn’t really think about before.  This program really got me thinking about journalism, and I’ve actually picked up a camera and used the manual setting a few times, though not with any sort of great result.

It’s a time consuming thing, but I think it’s worth it.  What do you guys think?  And what did you first think about the program?  What do you think now?  How did you hear about it?  How did you feel about taking the test?  I remember being nervous coming into it because I’d heard it was a difficult test, but in the end it wasn’t as bad as I expected.

As for the future, well, I suppose only out surveys and, of course, time  will tell.  I’m looking forward to our first meeting, personally.  Anyone else?

You can respond with a comment.

My hope for this blog is to bring Joe Berg into the light of day and let people know that it’s not only a program that exists but a program that can provide serious knowledge to the participants while still balancing it with enjoyment.

Once seminars start I will update the blog to follow them, but until then we can at least look to the future, right?  Joe Berg: Experiencing the 21st century.