11.

How do the three trends discussed this week -- media fragmentation, decline in associational life, and blog polarization affect how your issue is discussed and policy related to your issue?


In terms of the trends discussed this past week in class my issue is definitely a little bit different on how it's being affected because it's not a widely addressed issue, which is why my activism revolves around awareness and getting people interested in the topic. Obviously hard as we discussed. Instead I am going to aim to how, if and when my issue because discussed, our society's technology and mass communication forms can either help or hinder the situation.

First I believe that the media as of now, only displays the negative aspects of at risk youth. We always hear on the news and read in the newspapers about the 16 year old that harmed someone else. We hear about the group of 14 year olds that decided to do drink excessively instead of going to class one day and then one died. We never hear about the positive things like the kids who are born in these families with the backgrounds of at risk activity and find their way into programs that help them grow and live the life they have the potential for. We have tons of commercials for activism towards cancer research, donating blood and body parts, adopting animals, sending money to kids in foreign countries...but where are the commercials for these kids? Where are the commercials that tell you about how to become a big brother or big sister? Where's the news about the L.A. Works who helps hundreds of at risk youth every week in programs at flight shelters and local schools? It's not there, just like we only see the bad stuff about the war on terrorism and our soldiers in Afghanistan. It's a viscous cycle in the media, and I don't know if we are capable of bringing ourselves out of it.

As for blog polarization I haven't really come across any blogs but I would assume that it'd be the same issue wtih online newspapers. We would be allowed to comment on these blogs, but people would be bashing what was written like they do with anything in online newspapers. Critics always have to sit there and find the bad in something. It doesn't allow for hte right kind of discussion, it's easy for tones to get mixed up and for people to become angry about what is written and focusing on that other than the issue at hand.

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Sunday, April 25, 2010 Posted in | | 0 Comments »

10.

Would more deliberation improve policy on the issue you're working on this semester? Why or why not? What are the strenghts and weaknesses of a deliberative approach? Would a system like the ones in the Brazilian examples be effective? Would deliberative polling be effective?


The whole week we spent discussing deliberation I had a really hard time grapsing the concept for my issue. I feel as though it is constantly deliberated, but the policy just isn't coming. So would more improve it? I don't really know, I mean how much more deliberation can there be? Deliberation is an issue in itself because not everyone is always heard, and not one person can just make change happen over night. Taking us back earlier in the semester deliberation isn't successful unless we gather the masses, but how do we make the masses care? The only way I could see deliberation helping solve my issue is if it was based around a "how can we fix this" type discussion, where the end means was to have a policy to implement.

The strengths of having a deliberative approach is that it allows for more people to have input and not necessarily always from those that are experts in the area. Another strength is that it allows for multiple ideas to be floating around and each of those could come together as one for a policy. Deliberation allows for a diverse discussion and solution with multiple perspectives. On the other hand, it's very hard to control conversation, who sets the agenda? Is the loudest person always going to be in charge? Deliberation fails to allow for a solution sometimes, it almost doesn't usually have a point. We somehow find ourselves going around in circles discussing topics, discussing in a way to inform others or say how we feel about the situation but never stating our own solutions to it, so is it really productive? Sometimes yes, other times no. I've found most deliberation processes to be quite unproductive, which is why it's hard for me to say that I think this could help my issue.

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Sunday, April 18, 2010 Posted in | | 0 Comments »

9.

Is citizen knowledge used on the issue you're working with? How? If not, why not? How could public knowledge be better used on the issue you're working with? How do Fung and Wright's model apply to your issue?

So on Wednesday, I went to volunteer at Angel's Flight in Los Angeles. Angel's flight is a place where teens are welcome with shelter, food, clothing, mental health care, counseling and education. The program includes a drop-in center an outreach component, reaching at least 3,000 adolescents each year, with services focused on emotional healing, growth and empowerment. Substance abuse treatment and recovery, mental health counseling, food and toiletries, job search guidance, gang prevention and intervention, tutoring, art, dance and music instruction are important program services they provide (from website, a lot easier to put into words than what I gathered and learned from the guy working). The experience was really great and perfect timing for what we learned about citizen knowledge because I feel I gained a great insight into the lives of these teens after talking with them and hanging out with them. It was great to see how the program is helping their lives but also how our assumptions are very wrong about these kids. Most of them have goals after they finish school, I spoke to one in particular about his life after he graduates this year. He is going to go to design school in Florida where he got a scholarship, and knows he wants to own his own store in the future. Another girl wants to be a police officer and has already been a cadet with the LAPD for quite some time.

I think citizen knowledge is widely used through out my issue. A lot of these programs are based out of non-profits a majority of the time. There are hardly any government funded programs, although they can apply for grant money. People that work in these organizations definitely develop knowledge in the area, which can be used in the future as they continue to go to other jobs in the same field. I think because this is such a tough issue that the use of public knowledge is used all the time. People share ideas and organizations are created through out all of the United States. I think that Fun and Wright's model is important in my issue. Who is considered the expert though? Someone who has worked in organizations with lots of experience around at risk youth, or someone who has done research? That's a tough call, sometimes experience is a much more useful kind of knowledge than research or having a degree in psychology. This is where I find Fung an Wright's model a little challenging because how do we measure who is an expert? Isn't it different for everything? I think while we gain experience after a degree we also can gain it in other ways. In this situation, I would take the word of the people who work at Angel's flight over someone who is fresh out of college with a B.S in Psychology focused on juveniles.

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Sunday, April 11, 2010 Posted in | | 0 Comments »