I keep finding myself cracking up during class. I’m taking a communication technology class and every day we watch youtube clips and other videos. Inevitably, my instructor has a problem getting the technology to work. I just think that’s ironic. The class has undergraduates and graduate students. The graduate students all use the technology in the classrooms on a daily basis when we’re teaching, so it’s interesting and frustrating to us when we see our instructor struggling. Of course, none of us say anything because we don’t want him to look foolish, so it’s not like we’re helping much.

I am a little upset with one of my officemates. Today, in class, we were talking about the problem of global warming. My professor showed us a BBC article that stated that global warming saved lives because more people die from cold than from heat. When class got over, my officemate was complaining that some people in class were disrespectful of the professor because they told him that the article’s argument was poor because there are more people living in cold regions than in hot regions, and therefore it makes sense that more people die from being cold. My officemate said that this was disrespectful because the professor has studied this material and it is horrible for someone to tell him that it was stupid. I guess she didn’t realize that this wasn’t necessarily his opinion, but that he was using this article to create an interesting discussion in the classroom.

As we were talking in our office after class, I brought up an article that was published by the World Health Organization that said climate change causes 150,000 deaths per year. Before I could continue talking about the article, my officemate said that she didn’t see how that was possible and she made it very clear that she didn’t want to hear what I had to say. I think that she was doing the same thing to me that she was complaining others did to our professor.

I wrote two papers for graduate school over the past few days. The first was about online campaigning. I think this topic is fascinating. I talked about how online campaigning first became prominent in 2000, but didn’t really take off until 2004 and now we’re seeing further growth in the 2008 election. It’s interesting how strategies have changed. Here’s my introduction:

In the 2000 presidential election, Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona) stunned political analysts when he raised several million dollars online following his challenge against George W. Bush (R-Texas) in Iowa. This was a feat that could not have been accomplished in the offline world. It is not surprising that the internet has come to play such a large role in American politics. Approximately two-thirds of urban and suburban publics are connected to the internet, as are about half of rural publics (Bell, 2004). Since then, the internet has become a primary battleground in the American electoral system. Online campaigning is becoming a critically fundamental tool in the presidential electoral process. This can be seen by examining the development of online campaign strategies between the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections, as well as the role the internet has played thus far in the 2008 election, and what we can expect to see in the future.

Bell, P. (2004). Rural Areas and the Internet. Washington, DC: Pew Internet & American Life Project

On Monday night, a student at Miami University student was found in his room at his fraternity house. He had died earlier that day, but they still don’t know the cause of death. His name was Cliff Alexander, and he was a Sigma Nu. That’s the fraternity that I belong to, so it got me thinking.

From what I can tell, Cliff was an awesome guy. When he was in high school, he organized a program where students could get backpacks and school supplies for free if they couldn’t afford to buy them. As a member of Sigma Nu, he was the Lt. Commander, which is the Vice President. He was expected to be elected Commander (President) of the chapter on Monday night. When he didn’t appear at the chapter meeting, they went looking for him.

A year ago, I was the Commander of my chapter. I can’t imagine what it is like for their Commander. He is having to lead during this horrible tragedy that is coinciding with the close of the semester. Moreover, he is having to lead when he just lost a great friend who was his right-hand-man. My thoughts are with Cliff’s family, friends, and fraternity brothers.

Really, I do. I absolutely love “I Love Lucy.” My friend Bryan sent me a clip of Lucy and Ethel when they were working in the chocolate shop, saying that he feels it sums up graduate school life perfectly. I must say that I agree. It is so easy to feel overwhelmed, only to have even more work piled up on you. The clip really made me smile, so hopefully it will make you, too.

In class today, we were talking about Media Dependency Theory, and I found it kind of interesting. It talks about how things like education, socioeconomic status, crises, etc., effect our dependence on the media. I agreed with a lot of aspects of the theory, but I do not believe one thing. It states that The greater your social capital, the less you are media dependent. I definitely disagree with this. I don’t think it’s related. Just because I’m popular, that doesn’t mean that I don’t watch the news on a regular basis. Personally, I am a fairly popular person, but something I’ve noticed is that I will often watch the news because I want something to talk about to my friends, or because my friends have told me about something that will be on, or a plethora of other reasons. I understand that popular people are often busy people and therefore don’t have a lot of time to watch the news, but that doesn’t mean that they don’t use the time that they have. Ultimately, I think that the two are not related.

I’m in class today and my professor was trying to get a video to play and she said, “How do I make this go?” and another student said, “You push play.” I was thinking to myself…”duh.” But then the student started helping and he asked, “How do I get the sound to work?” The professor replied, “You turn the speakers on.” Again, I was thinking, “duh!” I love it how people ask questions and then others reply with obvious answers, because the college professor/master’s student clearly isn’t smart enough to think of the basics. It’s the little things that keep life interesting.

I took my first-ever graduate school test last Thursday, which I got back yesterday. I got an A!!! The scrores ranged from a 68 to a 96%, and I got a 95%!!!! I was very excited to learn that. It really helped me out because I was having a bad day. The CD/DVD on my computer died, it was raining and someone stole my umbrella, and a lot more little things that just added up.

I had to give a book report today. I feel like I’m back in middle school. I think I did a good job, but I’m always second-guessing myself. This is the first assignment I’ve had for my PR class, so I’m not very sure of what my professor’s expectations are. She didn’t really explain the assignment, she just kind of said “do it.” I want to start off on the right foot (although my marching band tendencies tell me to start with the left foot), so I hope I got a good grade.

I just presented an article about Cognitive Dissonance. It’s a pretty interesting theory. The article, from 1967, discusses the dissonance involved in people’s decisions regarding buying a car. The easiest people for a car salesmen to persuade to buy a car are those that know a bit of what they want, but aren’t totally committed to anything specific. If they have no idea what they want, it is difficult to sell them a car because they don’t feel comfortable buying one without more knowledge. If they know exactly what they want, it is difficult to sell them a car because they are difficult to satisfy. So, the goal of communication is to use a paradoxical approach to discovering where individuals fall when it comes to their persuasibility. Once we know where they are, how do we best communicate with them? I thought this was an interesting theory.