Opinion THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THE NEXT INSTALLMENT OF NOTES FROM ABROAD
COMING WEDNESDAY
United States First Amendment
WEDNESDAY, JULY 1, 2009
WWW.KANSAN.COM
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
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--story, he or should would have known that the suspect is 88 years old, but that's not the point. I want to know why CNN is broadcasting false information?
Ben Folds is my hero.
If I ever have a pet frog, I'm naming it Rosie the Ribbeter.
I think going to college has made me less mature.
Forget about MJ, Billy May died!!!
Is anyone else obsessed with Indiana Jones like I am?
--story, he or should would have known that the suspect is 88 years old, but that's not the point. I want to know why CNN is broadcasting false information?
I want to buy some super adorable stationary. Does anybody know where I can buy any?
I feel like I am betraying Lawrence. My best friend lives in Manhattan, so I've visited there more so far this summer.
Wanna know what sucks more then an entire semester of Western Civ 1? A summer of Western Civ 2!
Apparently the person who choreographed Dirty Dancing also choreographed High School Musical.
USA! USA! USA! I hope more people start paying attention to soccer!
In hindsight the midnight run for McDonald's hamburgers, coffee, donuts, and Lost Trail rootbeer may not have been such a good idea.
COMMENTARY
Twitter shouldn't be used to draw viewers
Twitter users, bare with me.
It's not how you use Twitter
that bothers me — it's how
you're being used on Twitter.
I am not a Twitter user. I am plenty aware, though, of its uses and appeal from friends' descriptions, stories of Ashton Kutcher's tweet cult and lampoons on "The Soup". What doesn't appeal to me, though, is how news organizations are using tweets from Twitter users as a way for people to watch the news.
When the June 10, 2009 United States Holocaust Memorial Museum shooting happened, a news-savvy friend informed me that CNN was broadcasting tweets about the shooting at the bottom of the screen. One of the tweets read: "what is an 87-year-old doing with a rifle?!?"
If the Twitter user would have taken the time to actually read the
Most likely, it's to get Twitter users more "connected" to the news. Thus, more people will watch the news to see if their tweets get airtime.
This theory, though, is a wash. According to an April 2009 Nielsen Web analysis, 60 percent of Twitter's U.S. users don't return a month later. And though there are
no official statistics from Twitter, Compete.com says Twitter has about 6 million users.
I would hate to think newsrooms are determining newsworthiness based on "Twitter-ness." If 60 percent of users are dropping Twitter like a bad habit, it is worth the risk of perturbing avid news watchers who are watching the news to see more than just their tweets on screen?
Instead of tweets, why can't local news updates scroll across the bottom of the screen? Or even the weather? Just some kind of useful information would be more stimulating than an opinion from a viewer.
There is a saving grace to this Twitter takeover, though. On the weekend of June 13 to 14, when Tehran exploded in protests after Iran's presidential election, another explosion occurred on Twitter.
According to a June 14 "New York Times" article, thousands of Twitter users criticized CNN's coverage of the event. For a time, Twitter users added new tweets criticizing CNN's coverage at a rate of one a second.
CNN has defended its coverage thus far, but bucked up and got the news ball rolling after that weekend.
Twitter users: You do serve a purpose. You can serve as a watchdog for media outlets, because even they can get lost in the news maelstrom that surrounds them every day.
But when it comes to commenting on how a white supremacist has killed a security guard, please don't tempt news networks with inane and false tweets. Just keep it to yourself.
Edited by Hannah DeClerk
NOTES FROM ABROAD
LGBT community struggles for rights in Ireland
When I got the e-mail saying I was placed with Gay Community News for an internship, I was thrilled.
I researched the Dublin gay scene a small community that is, for the most part, widely accepted by the traditionally Catholic city.
The friend who took us to the bar later found out "the gays" were upset because "so many straight girls" were there that night.
When I walked in on my first day,
I probably should have guessed that
The first night I moved into our apartment, a friend of one of my roommates took us to a gay club. After an hour, I started to notice that a good number of the bar's patrons looked as if they didn't like us.
This "straight girl" stigma followed me to work.
my Midwestern charm screamed "I CAN TOLERATE YOU"
From what I've noticed, the majority of straight people here tolerate the LGBT community, but many have yet to accept that homosexuality doesn't challenge their own way of life.
When you leave the city, it gets worse. A friend was on a work trip to various small Irish towns. In one of
those towns, he told me a little boy walked up to him and asked him if he was "a fag".
"Yes,uh,I am,"he had replied.
He said the bill was not and would never be a step toward gay marriage. He said that the bill extended all the rights to the LGBT community that the Irish constitution would allow.
What followed, in the most technical way possible, was the boy asking my friend if he wanted to have anal sex with him. The boy then ran off laughing with his friends.
On June 26 Dermot Ahern, The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, published a civil partnership bill to show his commitment to equality, which was soon followed with a public statement to calm the straight people of Ireland.
He said they shouldn't ask for more.
As Ahern spoke over the radio, my coworkers could only stare at the floor, and then at each other.
One of them wanted to adopt a child with his long-time partner. Dream nixed.
Another hoped to extend medical insurance to her girlfriend. Denied.
And another just wanted to get married to the person she loved. Not happening.
A very real division exists here. Although I'm sure progress will be made, I really have no idea what the next step will be for the Irish LGBT community.
I am, after all, the American straight intern.
Edited by Ross Stewart
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