Tuesday, March 31, 2009

"Well I don't know who Edward Bernays is...."

Good morning. 
"Well... I don't know who Edward Bernays is." These were the words that my Public Relations Writing teacher said this morning at 8 am. In Jakki's "CEO Bio" I wrote that her influences were Edward Bernays, "The Father of Public Relations." And points were deducted from my paper because  she said that the title, "Father of Public Relations" was inappropriate and unprofessional. I challenged this because Edward Bernays is the Father of Public Relations. My teacher almost laughed at me when I explained to her that he founded public relations she looked at me blankly. As a PR professional and a PR teacher, I think you should know who, at least started your profession!!! As I am sitting in her class, I keep having to minimize my blog so she doesn't come over, see that I am writing about her ignorance and force me to challenge her again.  

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Podcasts

Today I was thinking about all the new ways we get our news... the New York Times online, news applications on our iphones and blackberries, the Kindle, etc. What I haven't thought about are podcasts that we can download straight to our ipods. Podcasts have been around for several years and are very easy to download and listen to or watch. According to apple.com (http://www.apple.com/itunes/whatson/podcasts/) a podcast "is a free free video or audio series — like a TV or radio show — that you download from iTunes and play on your computer, iPod, iPhone, or Apple TV." You subscribe to podcasts and they are automatically downloaded to your iTunes library. Podcasts can be updated daily, weekly or monthly. There are podcasts available for pretty much any topic or interest. On the iTunes Top 100 Podcasts list are almost a dozen different NPR podcasts, The New York Times: Front Page, The Economist, 60 Minutes, Global News by BBC, NBC Nightly News, ABC Nightly News, and President Obama's Weekly Address and Key Speeches. All of these are available to watch at your leisure and can be saved or deleted whenever you want. The best thing about Podcasts is that they are FREE and can provide you with extra info about endless topics and interests.
Customizable news has been talked about as a thing of the future and the direction that news will eventually take. But, podcasts are pretty much that. They can be used for entertainment or your source for news. NPR, The New York Times, The Onion, Reuters, and CNN all have podcasts. In between listening to Anderson Cooper you can watch a "The Best of YouTube" video or learn Spanish. You can quickly find out what's on the front page of the NYT on your way to work, without picking up the paper. 
Podcasts are another source for information readily and easily available to us. We should all utilize this feature of iTunes and our iPods.



Googled myself

After reading Ariel's blog I decided to find out just what was out there about me on the World Wide Web. To my surprise it wasn't much. 
First, I googled "Lizzie Walker". Nothing about my real self turned up on the first 3 pages of the google search. But, at the bottom of the first page, this lovely blonde, who shares my name had this to say about herself. 

"I like laughing at fat people, ugly people, old people falling over. That sort of thing." 





Next, I googled "Elizabeth Walker". Again, nothing about my real self. 
Lastly, I googled my full name, "Elizabeth Ashley Walker". And on the 4th page, after looking over Elizabeth Ashley Photography, Elizabeth Ashley the actress and Elizabeth Ashley poetry,I found  my real name, associated with my real self on App's Dean's List from previous semesters. 
Even though this simple Google search didn't come up with easy-to-find information on me, I am in no way convinced that it isn't on the Internet somewhere. I may have done a good job protecting myself from being found now, but that doesn't mean it will last forever or that someone actually looking hard enough will not find me. 

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Response to NYT article "Strip-Search of Young Girl..." (3/24/09)

After reading this article i was infuriated. The terms in which the search was conducted of this 13 year old girl were completed unwarranted. Strip searching a child for possession of advil?! it is completely ridiculous. The school system had absolutely no right to strip search her, especially without the consent of a parent. The school should have contacted her parent if they had suspicion her having possession of a drug. The school system said that the search was "not excessively intrusive in light of Redding's age and sex and the nature of her suspected infraction." First of all, this statement very simply shows that the school profiled Redding. Secondly, the "nature of her suspected infraction"?!?! Her suspected infraction was having prescription advil! Not, marijuana, vicadin, or heroine. A strip search was in no way warranted for her "infraction".