SURF Experiences Summer 2011

Well, folks, I met with an expert. He is the director of the Center of Journalism Ethics based out of UW-Madison, as well as the assistant editor of a periodical that focuses on issues of journalistic ethics.

Dr. Stephen Ward was kind enough to agree to meet with me to discuss both the methods used in my research and provide any information he thought would be helpful and relevant to my research project.

I must admit, I was a bit nervous going into this meeting, because some professors are intimidating and you never quite know what they’re going to think of you, but in the first 10 seconds of the meeting, I could tell the meeting would go smoothly and he would be a tremendous help.  The initial focus of our conversation was just on the history of political journalism and some of the ways it has changed in recent history.  In the time of John F. Kennedy, any aspect of a politician’s personal life was virtually untouchable to the news media.  It is a well-documented fact that JFK was regularly involved in extra-marital affairs and there is much speculation that he was addicted to painkillers.  In modern America, it would take probably less than a week for a blogger to catch wind of the story and if it were validated, major newspapers would be printing front page stories every day.  These days, every aspect of a politician’s life is interesting to the news media, even stories which some find not interesting.

When asked about this phenomenon, Ward explained that journalism should, in its purest form, minimize harm, but that there is certainly an economic component to all things media.  If writing a story about Hillary Clinton’s pantsuits, Sarah Palin’s hairdresser, or Mitt Romney’s Mormon faith will sell papers, it is difficult for a paper to reject such a story, particularly in a time when the print media in particular is struggling to stay afloat.

As for minimizing harm, Ward explained that the primary component of this rule is to minimize, NOT eliminate.  Most stories will cause some harm to someone, but minimizing that harm is critical.  Ward used the example of a gang informant sharing information on a bike gang. To reveal the identity of the informant may be interesting to readers, but it could also lead directly to bodily harm for that informant, thus, the story should be printed because the public should know, but to reveal the identity would be irresponsible.

We also discussed the candidates upon whom I have based my research and his first comment was simply on the sheer volume of news media dedicated to Sarah Palin, which took approximately 20 seconds of research to determine.  Palin has become a figure of sheer fascination to the press, which Ward believes in based somewhat in her “sexual” nature.  While Palin’s conservative ideology does set her apart, most would conclude that Palin is indeed an attractive woman, thus, more interesting to the public.  Ward also explained that this much coverage can be beneficial and that Palin has likely learned the best way to use this coverage to her advantage.  As for the other candidates, Hillary Clinton has long been a figure of interest, but she is also an intimidating woman.  She is also not new to the national political scene, and thus, somewhat less of a novelty than Palin, whose position as Alaska governor did not provide nearly the national stage of a former first lady and US Senator.

Ward, who is the author of global journalism expert, expressed great interest in the project, particularly because this type of research has not necessarily caught up with modern political figures and ideas.  Blogs, cable news, and constant wall-to-wall coverage, has changed the news, because in order to stay afloat, papers need to provide different substance than other sources, without violating the concept of what a newspaper should be.
I was planning on sharing some pictures with you from my adventure to Madison, but I have to be completely honest. I got very, very lost on campus.  If there were a way to teach someone how to have a sense of direction, I would pay a great sum of money for that opportunity. I thought it was probably better to find his office on time than to take pictures, but I can tell you that it’s a beautiful campus.  That being said, I still prefer Whitewater and its small town charm. 

I am planning on taking Dr. Ward up on his offer to continue providing support and information as my project evolves, as I’m sure it will long past the conclusion of this summer research experience.

Take care!

Greetings Readers!

This week, in addition to the scrutiny of many newspaper articles, is all about expert input on my project and its various facets.  I will be meeting with some experts from different places, including two experts from Canada.

UW-Madison will be providing insight from two of its professors, both of whom are actually in the Department of Journalism.  Initially, I had expected to spend more time in Political Science offices, but in reality, much of my research has more to do with journalistic ethics and practices.

The Canadian experts actually appear most likely to provide the best information for the project.  Their specialty lies in gender bias in media, which has proven to be the turning point of this research project.

Just thought I’d provide a brief update (My goal to myself is to be better about blogging!).  Once I have more information from the experts, I will provide some more insight!
Thanks for reading!

This has been a fantastic month for my project, a good month for me (had a great Birthday on the 29^th) and I hope it has been for everyone else too. With that said the project continues to be a great experience. Thus far and looking very far forward even beyond summer. This project has brought a variety of things to my attention, including projects that I can do separately and as continuations throughout this year and further.  On to the posts below: 

(Backlog and catching up to speed)

My project in brief is about how changes to the interest rate of time deposits impact the demand of the certificates of deposit from financial institutions through elasticity. The literature required for the project has ranged greatly, although the literature in use can in general  be summarized to Elasticity (Supply and Demand studies), Time deposits, Currency studies, and a variety of  studies of goods (Commodities, inferior, superior). In addition much other literature was required for other regards (double checks and possible concerns) with the project.  The literature review has been extremely useful in nearly every way it could have been.

(Exert from Interm Report: By develop a literature review I’m referring to using sources available to find research and literature related to the project. Then reading to make sure that the literature found is relevant and understandable; followed by cataloging the articles with excel, and including brief summary of particular information in the article to quickly find articles. When gathering a lot of literature different articles may have very similar names, since a lot of the literature is going to be intertwined and or related, which is why cataloging the articles is important. After gathering and going through the literature then checking to making sure the literature review covers the key information in the article, such as how their project was done, the formulas used, sample used, and much more. Then using the information as an advantage to improve, add value, and save time on my own project. Then the final step of the literature review is writing the literature review, by putting all the useful information together making it readable, understandable and has a constant flow of the information.)

More recent

The data due to the massive size of (the file containing) observations and information has taken longer than expected to go through organize and then even longer to get results. (Referring to the hours it takes to open certain files and from hours on up to days to run the files with programs.) On the better side the model has been developed, although is still subject to possible changes.  The results from the current model have been very interesting and show the potential that there are important happenings with the market of time deposits that can be looked into through the elasticity. The current results have provided a lot of information that has furthered the project and work. There is still a list of things that are heading towards completions. 

The things currently being worked on and finished are running the data, using the data, getting more statistics from the data and interpreting the results that have already come through and been gathered. After all the information is gathered and interpreted and there are a lot of checks as this is still another lengthy part of the project.  Overall the project is going well and on track. Even though there is a lengthy-ness to working with the data, working with the data and interpreting it is a part that I enjoy very much. Also soon I should have a computer that will be able to work with the data in a timelier manner (there isn’t a computer on campus remotely fast enough to work with the data for: technical reasons).

Thank you for reading (or scrolling down to read this),

-Neil

Greetings Readers!

I have learned from this experience so far that I am terrible at blogging, so I intend to remove that from my list of future career options.
Right now, I am in the process of reading and coding hundreds and hundreds of articles about the various politicians upon whom I have chosen to do my research.  Along the way, I have encountered a few unexpected road-blocks in the process:

• Bristol Palin: Much of my research centers around Sarah Palin’s claims that she is treated unfairly by the media. In fact, she frequently refers to them as the “lame stream media,” which is part of how we were inspired to investigate just what kind of coverage different figures receive from different news sources.  During the 2008 campaign, Bristol’s pregnancy fueled a national discussion on teen pregnancy, abstinence and raised questions about Governor Palin’s ability to lead.  During that time, much of the press attention given to Bristol was the result of her mother seeking political office.  Since that time, Bristol has become a media figure in her own right, appearing on “Dancing with the Stars” and releasing a book.  The media coverage in these situations has little to do with Palin and is thus not all that relevant to the research.  In sorting through the articles, we deemed that any article about Bristol that refers to Sarah Palin only in regards to being Bristol’s mother would be excluded from the statistics, but that any articles about Bristol detailing her relationship with her mother or discussing her mother’s political ambitions would be included.
• Media Attention: While I did expect to see some variation in the amount of coverage given to the different figures, I did not expect it to be so wildly noticeable.  Both Palin and Clinton appear in print much more frequently than their male counterparts, which must be taken into consideration when drawing conclusions about the statistics.
• Grammatical and Title Differences: In my literature review, I spent some time looking at the different ways men and women are treated in regards to how they are referred.  In terms of generic pronouns, all men are referred to as “Mr,” while women have multiple of these titles from which to choose.  It is also important to look at the frequency with which these figures are referred to by political office instead of simple generic pronouns.  I initially expected that Hillary Clinton would likely be referred to by her title more frequently than Sarah Palin.  What I am instead discovering is that, not only is Hillary referred to as “Senator” very infrequently, she is very frequently referred to as “Mrs. Clinton,” while Palin, who is again not frequently referred to as “Governor,” is often called, “Ms. Palin,” removing her husband from the equation.  In referring to Hillary Clinton as “Mrs. Clinton,” it is impossible to forget that she is married to a former President, and may detract from the fact that she is a former U.S. Senator and current Secretary of State.
• John Kerry: Kerry, while continuing to serve as a US Senator, appeared very little in the news media, even immediately following his defeat in the 2004 Presidential election.

What I am beginning to envision my final project as is more of a discovery of a gender bias in news media than a bias that is solely against Sarah Palin.  While the statistics do point to different treatment for Palin, they also suggest that Hillary Clinton is no stranger to this different level of scrutiny and treatment by the press.  Palin and Clinton both appear in the “Style” sections of the newspapers where fashion critics assess their ability to dress themselves, apply makeup, and use accessories, while neither Romney nor Kerry appear in this section of the newspaper.  While there is something to be said about how little variation there is in the clothing worn by these male political figures, it also seems irrelevant to either a national election or to reflections of either Palin or Clinton as individuals whether their wardrobes met what was expected of them.  An article referring to both Clinton and Palin was entitled “Politics and Pantsuits.”

I also realized very early in my research that I would have to compile separate data for articles appearing in opinion sections of these papers versus articles appearing in the sections of the paper meant to report strictly on news and am, at this point, curious to see whether or not there is as strong a presence of gender or party-based bias in hard news as there could be in opinion articles.  While there may appear to be a bias in editorial writing, it is just that, editorial, and meant to be a reflection of the opinion of the individual writing the piece.  That being said, if an editorial page only runs (or mostly runs) negative editorials about an individual, perhaps the hiring or publishing processes themselves are inherently biased.

Hello everyone,  I was able to get more storage space for the blog. When you upload pictures, a new plug in will allow you to resize them so you can make them smaller and reduce the resolution (resolution doesn’t need to be very high for websites).  So keep the notes and pictures coming.

I am glad to report that I am really getting into the swing of things up here! Every morning, I wake up and dedicate at least 2 hours to preparing for class. I also get in some exercise either riding my bike or going to the beach for a swim or both! I always make sure that I arrive to class an hour early where I review my plan for that day. After class, I take note of anything that can be changed for next time and what I think would most benefit the next class. I am also keeping in touch with LOLA and reporting to them anything new. I am meeting a lot of people, which makes being away from home a lot easier. There are a few things here that are a lot different from being at home in Milwaukee such as having to drive your garbage to the dump, every store in town closing at or before 5 pm, and having to drive to the next town over for shopping.  Other than making a few adjustments, Land O’ Lakes is a beautiful town with a bunch of welcoming people and I am glad to help them get a dance program up and running!

Since the last post I have learned a lot about the area and it’s geology. I have made some important contacts in the area including the hydrologist at Pine Ridge, Kat Converse. She has supplied me with GIS information and helped with navigating the sometimes treacherous roads that can be more like trails in the grass to find testing sites. The roads here can turn to slippery mush when wet and have ruts that can snap an axle. Being able to read the weather has turned out to be a very important ability. I got to meet a man named Bud Waters at the Lands Office whose experience with the reservation’s roads and lands greatly improved my understanding of the area and he had some funny stories of the weird places he found land markers. We also got to meet land owners who turned out to be wonderful contacts and were very cooperative and one even gave us a tour of his ranch and opened up a huge area of testing area that is essential to our sampling. speaking of samples, taking my first ever samples has also been an interesting task. The first day we ran into many fences whose line we could not cross but the second tested my ability to find the best way into steep sided creeks and I learned how to warn rattle snakes I was coming as not surprise them and get bitten. Some locals thought it was funny that people from Wisconsin wanted to go jump in their creek. Today I was scared off by a rattle snake in the grass who sounded like it was getting angrier the longer I was there. Thankfully it was hot and it didn’t want to venture out of the grass to get rid of me before I had the chance to retrieve the sample and I even managed to find a cool rock on the way back to the jeep.

-Cat Botzum

Barb and I arrived to Land O’ Lakes Wednesday evening. I got a little sick on the way up, but am feeling much better now. A lot has happened already since we have been here. I am really getting to know the area and the people. Everybody is very welcoming and supportive of the dance program that begins on Monday. Barb and I met Wendy from the Land O’ Lakes Arts Alliance and she showed us the dance space in the school as well gave me more information about who my students will be. I am working on typing up rosters and lesson plans and making sure that everything is ready for class! I even had the opportunity to meet one of my students at the local coffee shop. She was with her mother and their excitement made me even more eager to get the program up and running. Luckily, there have been no encounters of bears yet. I have see a couple deer while riding my bike, large woodpeckers, a family of ducks, and even caught a toad while moving some logs. The only place for me to get internet is at the library in town which has really sporadic hours so I am doing my best to stay connected and update. I will post pictures as they come! I get to move into my permanent summer home tomorrow morning! Until next time!

Hi all!

The day that we have been looking forward to is coming soon! Barb (my mentor) and I are heading to the great outdoors of Land O’ Lakes, WI. The excitement is building as I am completing my packing. My supplies arrived last week consisting of a dance rubber dance stamp, child parachute, colorful electrical tape, hula hoops, a survival whistle, and a bear pepper spray! That’s right- bear pepper spray! We have to make sure that I am prepared for anything! We have been talking with the Land O’ Lakes Arts Alliance almost daily and everything is looking great and ready to go. They have built a portable ballet barre and have a nice space for me to teach! Stay posted for lots of pictures of where I will be teaching, my housing, and the great outdoors!

My project is studying the geology of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation primarily the Arikaree formation and it’s uranium concentration.

The 2 layers at the top are sandstone and the layer between is volcanic ash as well as the base.

Although this is my first post this project started even before the semester ended with contact making, preliminary data and mapping. The maps consisted of data collected from the USGS site plus information from articles and maps written by others who studied the Pine Ridge Reservation area in S. Dakota. This data included locations of springs, wells, fault lines, water bodies,  general ground-water flow, and as much sample data with natural uranium contamination from the wells and springs in the reservation area as I could find which wasn’t much. These maps were the first of their kind for this mostly unstudied region and provided us with a couple good places to start taking samples. We left for the Hudson-Meng archaeological research site in Nebraska, just south of our study area, on June 14th at 11:00am and arrived around 5:00pm on the 15th. Upon arrival we met our contact Hannan LaGarry, co-chair of the department of math, science and technology at the Oglala Lakota College, who has been showing us around and getting us familiar with the geologic formations in the region as well as tons of other useful information. The lack of good information in S. Dakota makes visiting the more studied region of north-western Nebraska a must because many of the different formations are located in a small area and easier to recognize than they will be in the study area to the untrained eye.

The first night at camp I heard the story of a Lakota Indian college student who’s dad died of cancer and aunt is newly diagnosed because of the uranium in their drinking water. She said that the area hotels are warned when levels are high and provide their guests with bottled water but the community itself is not. We also learned a lot about some of the geologic history of the area and got to enjoy the scenery while studying it along with a group of Lakota Indian high school students and their college mentors.

On day 2 we went to Toadstool park with LaGarry and the high school group to learn more about the stratigraphy and how to recognize the different layers. Toadstool park is named after the formations there that look like toadstools because of a layer of sandstone that sits a top a layer of volcanic ash that weathers far faster than the sandstone. At Toadstool park we were allowed to take blue agates, the Nebraska state rock, which I was warned that licking is like getting 5 x-rays at once since they are formed in uranium rich ash, we got samples and will test for uranium.  I also got to borrow Dr. LaGarry’s personal field notes to aid with my own field work which I will begin to read and take notes on myself starting tonight. The end of the day came quick due to heavy rain that made roads impassable but we were able to visit the nearby uranium mine before the rain. That mine is located near faults and cracks and is due to expand into more of the region.

Today we will be visiting the White River fault near Chadron, Nebraska to further expand my knowledge and train my eye to terrain very similar to the area we will collect samples. In the coming days I will meet with Kat Converse a hydrologist with the OST Natural Resources Regulation Agency among possibly others, start sample gathering in the study area and exploring the mostly unexplored area. Today, Fri. the 17th, is the first bit of civilization I’ve had since arriving so I don’t have photos ready just yet but I will. This really is a very beautiful area!

~Cat Botzum