Elsewhere in J713 3: Global spread of cancer

Classmate Amanda Toler's Global Criss Cross blog has primarily focused on cross-cultural experiences students have while travelling and learning abroad. In a bit of a detour from her main topic, she's posted about Time Magazine's recent issue on the global spread of breast cancer. Timely post and timely article for October's Breast Cancer Awareness month. Amanda's remarked about the impact of the interactive graph that accompanies the story.

Which all got me to thinking... what causes a non-communicable disease to spread around the world? I tried thinking about some possibilities before reading the Time stories: women living longer, better reporting of cancer statistics worldwide, better access to health care and treatments around the world. Here's what the story had to say:

"Thanks to better sanitation, more food and improved public health, the average life expectancy in low- and middle-income nations has risen from 50 in 1965 to 65 in 2005. Women are simply living long enough to reach the age at which they're most susceptible to breast cancer. With Westernized life spans, however, can come Western habits too — fatty foods, lack of exercise and obesity, all of which may raise the incidence of breast cancer."

Gulp. Not only are our reading, cultural and political interests spreading around the world, but so are some of the bad habits and crazy lifestyle changes. Is this the kind of global impact we want to have on the world?

Elsewhere in J713 2: Useful Spins on Consumer Health

I'm enjoying reading classmate Marcie Barnes' Feeding Blackmail blog, where she's examining health issues in the context of every day life. She's providing useful consumer information in a manner that's easy and fun to read. Marcie's doing a good job of providing the facts in her posts so her readers can make informed decisions on their own, but she's also including enough of her opinions to give readers a sense of where she stands.

What I love most is the tone of the blog: Marcie comes across as a real person who's sorting through the food information just like everyone else. She does so in a manner that doesn't leave me feeling guilty for not always being green or organic. However, her writing is persuasive enough to suggest I try.

I've not been swept into the organic health food craze, but it's nice to learn more about it from someone who's already navigated a great deal of the information that's out there.

Elsewhere in J713 1: The impact of tags

Colleague and classmate Andria Krewson's blog is blowing up. She's been getting traffic reports through her sitemeter feed showing dramatic traffic numbers (well, dramatic in comparison to the traffic I'm seeing on my blog, where most of the readers appear to be my classmates). A closer look at some of her sitemeter statistics shows that readers are clicking into her blog from the permalinks attached to individual posts.

So, how did the readers get to her Global Vue blog if she hasn't done much publicizing of the site? Tags seem to hold the key.

For example, look at one of Andria's posts from 10.09. She includes the tag "Google Ads." (If my hits go off the charts for even including that phrase, I'll be amazed.) If you click on the tag at the end of this particular post, you're taken to a Wordpress page, Blogs about: Google Ads. The permalink to that particular post is currently the 3rd blog listed. Viola! Big hits when you're a top search result.

The lesson: use tags to help you not only organize your blog and help readers find what you're talking about, but to help you expand your audience and your reach in the blogosphere.


Fun cool site to look at: wordpress.com/tags to see what people are reading.

Worst Sites 1b: Wednesday

somehow I skipped tuesday. or at least I think I did. no matter. I'll have 5 great and 5 not so great sites to share in a wrap up post by the end of the week. But for today's finds:

Worst: African Womens Blogs.
I really wanted this one to be a gem. Alas, not so much in the way of great blogs relating to women and the political blogosphere. This site purports to be an "aggregator of african women blogs," and asks readers to join the forum. What I found was several blogs written by women, but not necessarily women living in Africa. There were several African women who were blogging, just not about politics. The site also generated several errors when I clicked on links to see "Top Users" and "Listed Blogs." Thumbs down for a site that doesn't help this user easily find content on the site and for generating errors on links that should work.

Evaluating Web Sites 3: Relevance

I'm learning a tremendous amount about women in the blogosphere, U.S. women on politics, and about international organizations that are focused on promoting women's rights around the world. I'm having a little trouble keeping focused on the combination of international women blogging on politics. I confess, it's easy to get off on tangents and go tumbling down the rabbit hole on any one of the subjects. And, in doing so, I've stumbled onto some pretty good resources that are on topic. But, the goal here is to be specific and find sites that support t

How unique is the content and the opinions of the authors/commentators? Do they write about politics around the world? Are the writings focused on politics or is political commentary an occasional component of the blog or website? Does the site broaden the scope of the topic or does it target the specific goal of the topic?

I’m looking for are sites that can succinctly direct me to a wealth of information.

Evaluating Web Sites 2: Timeliness

Information from earlier than 2007 won't be the best information for the current impact of women bloggers. While some information pre-07 may prove useful to see how a blogger or website has developed as a resource, it's not the best way to find out what's happening in current political arenas. As far as looking for information relating to what women are writing now and what they're doing to influence the current election and political climate, I need websites that provide the most current and up to date information.

Studies that examine historical data can prove useful for studying trends over time. But information needs to be updated to include statistics from recent events. I've already found one international women's rights group that stopped publishing in 2005. Some of the information on that site might still be relevant in that it was pertinent at that point in time. However, the two year time gap is significant in that much has happened politically - both domestically and abroad - in that time period.

Out-dated material, posts, studies, discussions can be useful for background research. Current materials provide the most relevant picture of the impact women are having on today's political landscape.

Evaluating Web Sites 1: Accuracy

Accuracy ranks as the most important issue for me when I'm evaluating the quality of a website. I've found volumes of information about women and politics; women and international politics; and political blogs written by women. If the information found on these sites isn't true or is filled with spelling and grammatical mistakes, I'm not likely to believe what I'm reading. Likewise, if the information on a site is erroneous, I'm not as likely to use that site's links to additional resources. If I can't trust the validity of the source, why should I trust the source's recommendations?

Additional questions: Does the site provide the most accurate information available? Does the site incorporate a variety of accurate information? Does the site frequently spell words incorrectly or have serious flaws in grammar or editing? Does the site link to existing sites or have the links expired? Has the author updated the website recently to include more recent statistics and information? Are links to information that is also still relevant to the topic?

Best/Worst Sites 2: Monday

Best: Women's eNews.
This site, funded by several leading U.S. think tanks and endowments including the Carnegie, Ford and Rockefeller Foundations, has a strong list of links to national and international women's issues. There are also a significant number of original articles and research on the site. Thus far, it's been one of the best spring boards to finding both domestic and international sites related to women and politics. I'm adding Women's eNews to the list of the best sites relating to my topic on the strong credibility of its sponsors, funding and endowment as well as its links to other quality websites.

Worst: Jagriti International
Adding this site to the list of worst is a little bittersweet as I'm adding it here mostly because the group has not been active since 2005 when

"On-going civil and political strife in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nepal have made it impossible for us to safely send Bridging Worlds volunteers to these countries. The U.S. Patriot Act and visa restrictions have also forced us to suspend our Bridging Worlds Emerging Leaders program because it is nearly impossible for women from grassroots organizations to meet stringent U.S. visa requirements. Therefore the board has sadly decided to indefinitely suspend our active programs."

The group has some good links to women's groups that are active in many developing nations. But, given Jagriti's lack of it's own recently updated information relating to women's groups and political advocacy, I'm reluctant to assume any of the links and contact information for the linked groups are active and accurate.
It's terribly unfortunate that violence and the Patriot Act are among the chief reasons this group had to discontinue assisting women in developing nations.

Best Sites 1a: 100 Women Political Bloggers

Lisa Bistreich posted about my blog, and a commenter there pointed me to this blog and a post of 100 links to women political bloggers. Talk about a gold mine! Thanks to Lisa and her commenter for the tip. I'll have to spend some serious time scouring this list. I think the bulk of the ones listed here may be domestic. But, I'm hopeful these 100 ladies will direct me to even more useful sites.

Updated 10.10.07: I'm updating this post to include this site as one of my 5 best for the assignment requirements. It makes the cut because of the volume of links related to the topic. While the list contains numerous U.S. bloggers, it's a tremendous link list to use to find others. It's relevant, timely and accurate. Better still, readers have been submitting their own links giving the site points for dynamics and reader interactivity.

Women in the Political Blogosphere

I’ll be spending the semester following women who blog about politics, specifically learning how women are blogging about the upcoming elections and female candidates. In short: women covering politics in the blogosphere. I’m also curious to know how women around the world participate in political coverage online. In this coming election year, the opinions of women bloggers could help define political landscape like never before. I see the research developing over two main themes that I brought up in my preamble:

• Women and the international blogging community. How do women stack up online in international communities? Are women taking the lead in the blogosphere?
  
• Elections and bloggers. What impact have women bloggers had on international elections? How have their opinions changed and defined campaigns around the world? Do international candidates turn to blogs and the web the way U.S. candidates are doing?

I’m hoping to learn more about the impact these women publishers are having domestically and abroad. The topic is one that could have significant interest to political followers as well as women with a keen interest in their role in the political world. I’ve grown up in a family who’s never shied away from a political discussion around the dinner table. I’ve helped develop election coverage at my newspaper. I’m not seeing a large number of women candidates in this election year (besides one very notable former first lady). I’m hoping I won’t find women’s voices absent in the online arena.

USEFUL KEYWORDS: women, bloggers, politics, gender, international media, blogosphere, influence
Also, I’ve found it worthwhile to search Google for specific domains, like .uk. I need to expand to include other specific country domains, .in (India) and .au (Australia). For the time being, I’ll stick with English language blogs, at least until I get a better sense of where I’m going. So far, several of the articles and blogs I’ve found have referred me to other non-English speaking blogs.

SOME INITIAL USEFUL SITES:
1. Blogs by Women
A moderated directory of more than 5,000 blogs published by women, on subjects ranging from politics to business to gardening to gender and sexuality. A good starting point for locating some off the beaten path blogs by women.

2. Blog Sisters
Founded by Jeneane Sessum, this one’s worthwhile for its extensive blogroll. I’m not sure all of those listed links will prove fruitful for my research, but it’s a strong starting spot to see what women are writing about. Sessum’s name has come up in several searches and in a couple articles I’ve started reading. She’s done a great deal of work in public relations and as a communications consultant.

3. Salon’s Broadsheet: Women’s Articles, Women’s Stories, Women’s Blog
Lots of links and stories to read on this online publication. There’s a fair amount of sass and humor, but also serious stories about political issues as well. From the about the site section: “Our aim is to cast a spotlight on news that puts women in the center … whether that means tracking news about how our rights are holding up, how well we're representing ourselves politically, or how the advertising world has decided to address us. …”

4. Google.com/scholar
Google’s academic journal search function. I’ve already found volumes of papers, theses and journal articles written about women bloggers and their impact on the blogosphere. Including papers from the journals like Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies and Journal of Gender studies as well as publications like the Guardian. I’ll also need to spend some time with UNC Libraries to see what Lexis/Nexis holds.

5. Arab Media & Society
Stepping a bit into classmate Justin Martin’s interest in The Arab Free Press, this particular article on Egyptian women bloggers gives some basic overview as well as links to some specific Egyptian women. The site also looks to be useful for its links to recent Nieman Reports on similar subjects as well as links to article by country or to topics like “Women in Media” or “Media and Politics.”

Welcome Aboard!

This is the last blog to complete my classwork for UNC's Graduate Certificate in Communication of Technology. What do I do next? Well, there's a couple different ideas floating around. But before I go jumping into '08, there's the matter of global perspectives to address.

My "blogging preamble," an essay proposal for this blog, was written the week before I went on vacation. So, it needs a bit more polish and revision before the topic makes an official debut. Couple things that I'm batting around to study this semester:

1. Global Access. Bandwidth and speed and access of different socio-economic groups. Also, global access in terms of what information is available in different countries and how that access is monitored.
2. The future of Newspapering. A theme I researched last semester for JOMC 710, lesliejwilkinson.googlepages.com, and continue to research at oinnovate.blogspot.com with newsroom colleagues. Perhaps the global focus looks at developing international newspaper resources, expanding on last semester’s domestic approach.
3. Women and the international blogging community. How do women stack up online in international communities? Are women taking the lead?
4. Elections and bloggers. What impact have bloggers had on international elections? How have their opinions changed and defined campaigns around the world? Do international candidates turn to blogs and the web the way U.S. candidates are doing?

Revisions in the works and a new preamble and research subject coming soon. I'm leaning towards doing something with a non-newspaper topic; I spend so much time at work thinking about papers as it is. I'm thinking a slight change of pace will be refreshing.

In the meantime, links to my J-713 classmates and my other certificate projects coming up soon. Here's to another great semester of online learning!