Research Paper Summary

Well it has been awhile since my last post and that is probably because I haven’t been actually required to do one in a while.  At the end of my last quarter of college was also the end of blogger lifestyle.  Why am I back you ask? Good question and you can probably already guessed the answer, it is because I have to write again.  After my quarter of blogging class I took another writing class that involved researching the online MMORPG World of Warcraft.  I had never played WoW but I was intrigued by the community that did play.  My friends and I were required to research and write about an aspect of the game that we found interesting. We ended up focusing on the social features and aspects of the game. What follows is some of our findings about the game and what we thought about our experience playing. 

            We started by coming up with a set of interview questions for players that have been both been plying the game for a while and those who had just recently started to play.  By doing that, we found a division in the social uses of the game between the lower level, new players, and the higher level, more experienced players.   We then differentiated between team play with socializing and solo play with a lack of socializing.  Two of the members of the group including myself were new to the game and were what you might call “noobs” (New Players).  This was one of the main reasons that we decided to do our research about the social aspects of both newer and older gamers.  Our third partner was very experienced in the ways of WoW and he was all for the socializing and guilds while the two of us just ran around and did our own thing without a  care in the world for what other players were doing in the game. 

            At the end of our research, we found that other players were not so different from those in our group in regards to what the two lower level players in our group wanted to do versus what our higher level friend did.  This did not come as much of a surprise because through interviews that we conducted, the players reaffirmed our belief that the higher level characters were more involved in the social aspect of the game.  Now this does not mean that we didn’t have a few answers from lower levels that said they started playing the game because of friends but the majority of players fell within our hunch.  We also found out that a lot of people like to socialize with friends in real life while playing in a virtual world and that it is not that uncommon for groups of players to be all together in one area in the RLS (Real Life Server) while playing together on a virtual server created by Blizzard in the game. 

            Some of the players that we interviewed gave us some pretty good quotes about the social aspect of the game.  On player said, it “adds a lot of fun to it because everyone has a job to do. Dps (damage dealers) have to do their jobs, while watching out for the mechanics of the boss at the same time. Tanks (high health players) have to keep their agro by taunting and making sure the boss isn’t attacking anyone but them. Healers have to keep everyone alive.” He concluded his point by saying that “The boss cannot be killed with the teamwork of every role.” We can see here that the player is saying that teamwork and socializing are vital aspects to complete higher level challenges in the game. Another player mentioned how when he was a lower level “I was just dipping my toes into the social aspect.” He was basically saying that he didn’t really socialize when he was low level and now that he is a higher level, (90 I believe) he is much more into it. 

 So, if there are any WoW players that happen to follow this extremely unpopular, un-followed blog then please feel free to leave a comment or two about your feeling on the social aspect of World of Warcraft.  Our full research paper can be found at, https://docs.google.com/file/d/1kA_4XzYNnH4AwXc96VGVwwYQsdfNoJmtE8LV-Fpl-fOcs4scxELbwgYjAbTy/edit?usp=sharing

Final Blog Posdt

At the start of this class I wasn’t really sure what to expect.  When I first heard that we were going to be keeping a blog, I thought it sounded like a very time consuming and pointless task.  I had never written a blog before and I had never really followed or read any other blogs so I’m really not sure why I thought this.  After learning about blogging and reading articles pertaining to blogging and literacy, I found that I really like the writing style of blogging.  I learned that I myself believe that blogging is a writing style and that I really like to put my own feelings and emotion into what I am writing.  I feel that if I am writing about something with passion I can better get across the message that I am trying to send. 

            In regards to the news, I have actually always really followed story that I am interested in.  I like to read about what is happening in our world and have found that I have very strong opinions about things that are happening in it.  This class helped me to focus more on different sides of news stories rather than just what I heard on one website. Now I tend to look at multiple sites in order to obtain the largest amount of information possible so I can form a better opinion about a subject.  I also learned that even blogging is news to some people no matter how opinionated the blog.

Final Essay 2 Draft

            Charlie Mullen

March 1, 2013

Writ 1122

Extended Essay 2

Multiple lives of a News Story

            News stories can have a life of their own. Once a story gets started, if it is big enough, it can spread to the far corners of the internet taking on new forms and inspiring new ideas in the people who read the stories.  These stories are often taken by multiple different news sites and written in the way that they think their readers would want to read them.  On February 7^th, a story broke in The Telegraph which is a London based news site about a manhunt for a former LAPD police officer who has allegedly killed three people and is on the run in California.  The story talks about a “manifesto” if which Dorner talks about his grievances with the LAPD and how it is their fault that his reputation was ruined.  Dorner writes, “When the truth comes out, the killing stops” (Telegraph).  Dorner was fired from the LAPD after allegedly lying about a trainee officer who he alleged kicked a schizophrenic suspect.  Dorner was eventually found dead in a cabin that was burned down from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.  For a few weeks this story has been a huge part of the media and the idea behind Dorner has changed based on perception of the media. 

After the breaking of this original story, the basis of which sounds like a crazy man hell bent of revenge, the media started to look into the motivation behind what would make an ex-cop want to turn and threaten to kill his fellow officers.  In an article on the CNN website that was published on February 12^th, five days after the original story in The Telegraph, further insight into Dorner’s manifesto was taken.  The article is quoted as saying, “he blamed racism and corruption in the department for his removal and vowed to wage "unconventional and asymmetrical warfare" against LAPD officers and their families. He called it a "last resort" to clear his name and strike back at a department he says mistreated him” (CNN).  This article shows the point that Dorner is trying to come from.  It provides more insight into the motives behind why the ex-cop would want to kill his fellow officers and harm their families.  This article also goes into details about the thoughts of the LAPD.  It provides insight into the way that the LAPD is viewing Dorner and his actions and how they are going to handle the situation.  Las Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck makes a statement that paints Dorner in a very different light than his manifesto does. He says, "This is an act -- and make no mistake about it -- of domestic terrorism".  "This is a man who has targeted those that we entrust to protect the public. His actions cannot go unanswered" (CNN).  I think that Dorner’s story about how racism is the reason that he lost his job resonates a little louder because of the LAPD and their history with racism and mistreatment.

After this manifesto was more widely read and interpreted, and Dorner’s statements that he was wrongfully fired, people start to sympathize with Dorner’s situation.  Another article on CNN that is titled, “Ex-LAPD cop gains sympathizers on social media” talks about how followers on facebook pages have been siding with Dorner posting about how he was fired for trying to expose corruption within the LAPD.  These Facebook pages “take an approach” as Harris would state it, in siding with Dorner.  They approach their posting on Facebook with the idea that Dorner is right and that the LAPD is just another racist, corrupt government organization.  They are trying to appeal to people who also share this same view.  There are posts that highlight these beliefs such as, "He killed CORRUPT cops, cops kill INNOCENT people!" and "it's a shame we the people couldn't help dorner against these government forces" (CNN).  These pages on social media portray Dorner as a hero that is just taking matters into his own hands because no one else will fight the corruption that is taking place in the LAPD.  There is also a story on Fox News Insider that talks about Dr. Marc Lamont Hill who made comments on the O’Reily Factor that make Dorner look like some sort of a Hero.  He stated on the show,

“He’s been a real-life superhero to many people. Now, don’t get me wrong, what he did was awful, killing innocent people is bad. But when you read his manifesto, when you read the message that he left, he wasn’t entirely crazy,” Hill said on the network. “He had a plan and a mission here [...] and many people aren’t rooting for him to kill innocent people. They’re rooting for someone who was wronged to get a kind of revenge against the system. It’s almost like watching Django: Unchained in real life. It’s kind of exciting.”

This statement shows that people can see Dorner in a different light, that he just is not on a random killing spree but has a motive and a goal, and is actually fighting for something that he believes is good and right.  This is why it resonates with people and that is why people are taking his side and defending him.  Although it is a small group of people, they still feel for his cause.  These few readers have taken their own approach to the idea that Dorner is actually a hero and is fighting for good.  The idea was spawned from this story and didn’t have anything to do with the original story in the first place.  At no point in the original story did it talk about how Dorner is a hero.  This is just an interpretation of the story that has taken hold because people have chosen to believe it. 

            In a final transition of this news story, there was a story posted to InfoWars.com titled, “Imagine if Christopher Dorner was a Tea Party Member”.  It was very interesting to read because he is not a Tea Party member but is, according to the article, “is an Obama-supporting, gun control advocating, NRA hating, Piers Morgan loving, big government liberal” (infowars).  The article focuses on the fact that he is in fact favor of most of the things that Obama is doing and it accuses the media of not focusing on this aspect of the story.  They argue that if he was a “Right-Wing Extremist” he would be torn apart by the media.  The article also argues that if he were a “Right-Wing Extremist” then his support of the second amendment would be used by the media as a huge argument to support stricter gun control.  This article, unlike the previous ones, focuses on the part of the manifesto that talks about Dorner’s support for Obama and how the media is not focusing on these issues because he supports Obama.  They bring up an interesting argument about how the news is portrayed in today’s society.  The purpose of this article does not focus on what Dorner has done but rather uses his manifesto to bash the media that this article says is downplaying the story because of Dorner’s political stance.  One of the final things that is written is, “Most news outlets are publishing a censored version that is only 11 pages long,” leaving out Dorner’s political stance, which was cited through the site Twitchy.  This story was spawned from a story and it has started an entirely different debate that really does not have anything to do with a cop on the run with an agenda. 

            After reading and interpreting these news stories on different sites and how they change, it seems like the greatest change occurs when the largest audience is reached.  In other words, when a story is as big as an ex-cop killing people and is on the run based on his beliefs that he was wronged by the people that he has targeted to kill, millions of people are going to hear about it and have an opinion about it.  When the story reaches these millions of people they are all going to have interpretations about why this man is doing what he is doing.  They can even write stories that target audiences that agree with them and even take on entirely different stories that might be related to the original as seen in the transition of the stories above.  I think that the life of a news story is based on what people believe about the story.  The story can change based on when new information is gathered but that isn’t the type of change that I think is the biggest kind.  The biggest kind of change occurs when people write stories that are interpretations of the original action or story.  The interpretation of Dorner has a hero is story in and of itself and the interpretation that the “liberal media” is leaving out Dorner’s political sections of his manifesto is another interpretation.  In essence all of these stories have taken an approach to the original story that there is an ex-cop on the run who has allegedly killed three people. 

Hariss, Joseph. Rewriting: How to do Things with Texts. Logan, Utah: Utah State University Press, 2006. Print.

"“I Get to Decide Here, Doctor, I Get to Decide!”: Bill O’Reilly Takes on Dr. Marc Lamont Hill Over CNN Comments Comparing Dorner Manhunt to ‘Django: Unchained’." FoxNewsInsider. N.p., 15 Feb. 2013. Web. 1 Mar. 2013.

Martinez, Michael. "Ex-LAPD cop gains sympathizers on social media." CNN. N.p., 14 Feb. 2013. Web. 1 Mar. 2013.

Smith, Matt. "Los Angeles puts up $1 million reward for Dorner." CNN. N.p., 12 Feb. 2013. Web. 1 Mar. 2013.

Watson, Paul. "Imagine If Christopher Dorner Was a Tea Party Member." InfoWars. N.p., 8 Feb. 2013. Web. 1 Mar. 2013.

Short Essay 2

            When trying to decide what article and pictures I wanted to write about, it occurred to me that one of the largest media events of the year had just occurred and there were bound to be countless photos and articles about the Academy Awards.  Every year I see magazine articles titled best and worst dresses of the Oscars and headlines about who won what awards so I thought it only fitting that I write about what has just happened. 

            I did not in fact watch the Academy awards last night because to be honest The Walking Dead was on television and I was much more interested in that.  It was odd however not watching because for as long as I can remember I have always watched the Academy awards with my mom and sister on Oscar Sunday.  Instead, this year, I read about who won what awards the morning after.  I went to CBS news and one of the first articles was about the previous night so I decided to read it.  I saw that within the article there were a few slideshows that could be watched that had pictures about the previous night.  One was titled, Oscars 2013: show highlights.  I decided that before I read the article I was going to look through the slide show at the pictures to see what information I could gather.  I knew many of the actors and actresses that were up for various awards and after viewing the slide show I could with confidence tell you who won what awards.  I noticed Christoph Waltz had an Oscar in a picture and I assumed he won best supporting actor for his role in Django Unchained.  I also saw Ben Affleck holding an Oscar but there where many people on stage so I assumed Argo won best picture because I knew that Mr. Affleck was not nominated for best director.  I could make educated guesses about who won what just based off of the pictures that were shown to me, after all the slide show did say highlights.  After finishing the slide show I proceeded to read the article and picked up on tidbits of information like who won some of the lesser awards that I frankly wasn’t interested in.

            It goes without saying that the pictures told me a story of the night but as I previously stated, I assumed that the actors and actresses had won these awards. Although I was later proven to be correct by reading the article, it was all assumption until I actually read it.  There was also a picture; I believe number 47 on the first slide show that showed Jennifer Lawrence laying the stage steps.  I did not know if she was hurt of had fallen or was just crying or something.  Later on I discovered that she had tripped over her dress and was completely fine.  Another thing that could not be told from the pictures was opinions of people.  Did the people think that these people deserved to win for their performances or not, and most importantly, who did a good job presenting?  It was only after reading that I was filled in on the gaps that the pictures left out.  The pictures can tell a story but like the article we read by Morris, the picture really does not mean much without the viewer knowing background about the image itself.  In the case of the Oscar photos, my background was that I knew which actors and actresses were up for awards and I could make an educated guess as to who won what based on the pictures. 

            I think that the famous saying a picture is worth a thousand words because without prior knowledge the picture could tell a thousand different stories, a perfect example is the picture of Jennifer Lawrence.  Pictures can be very helpful when trying to get a point across but the picture is only as good as the context of which it is being shown. The viewer also needs to know what is happening in the image and even who the image is off to get a proper understanding of what the image is trying to convey.   

Stories with Pictures

After reading the article about images it made a lot of sense to me what Morris was trying to say.  The idea that images can tell a story is and make it believable is something that I find to be true.  I think that a story can be told with a series of pictures but it has to be with a series of pictures.  For example, if I was to show someone a picture of my family, I would assume that they would know it is a picture of a family and if they knew me they would recognize that it is my family.  Although they may know that it is a family they wouldn’t know anything about me or my family or what we have done.  One picture cannot tell a whole story but if I was to show many pictures of my family and things that we have done it would better be able to tell a story of what we have done.  I have attended a summer camp for the last ten years of my life and I could go on and on about the stories that I have.  There is also a flickr page that has hundreds of pictures that tell the story of life at camp.  I can get a story from the life that the pictures represent.  http://www.flickr.com/photos/campwarren/

Taking an Approach

            After reading Harris’s “Taking an Approach” I think that taking an approach I taking a piece of work and writing it with a new life.  It is giving the same story but with a different approach and or audience.  Harris gives an example about how most of the ideas behind Shakespeare’s plays where taken from already used ideas.  Shakespeare just added a new twist to the story.  Harris also writes, “Think of Aretha Franklin turning Otis Redding’s macho demand for “Respect” into an assertion of female independence, or Jimi Hendrix interpreting the “Star-Spangled Banner” as an anthem for destruction.”  These artists all took something that was already around and re-worked it into something new with a new meaning.  When reading the Times I find it hard to find it hard to find a good example of this concept.  I see the times as writing a story in respect to the way that it has happened and I also find it more or less unbiased.  In comparison to other sites though we can find examples of “taking an approach” After reading a blog site like the Huffington Post we can see that the Post takes a story about a subject and portrays it in a different way that the times would.  The Post talks a lot about a rally that is occurring in Washington D.C. in order for Obama not to sign the legislation that will allow a pipeline to be built between the U.S. and Canada. The focus is on global warming and the Post is focusing on how people feel about the pipeline and a lot of anger about the pipeline.  The Times however focuses of the news factor of the story.  They talk about how it is a tough decision for Obama politically.  I didn’t really see any mention of the protestors or global warming at all, both sites took a different approach to the pipeline legislation.  

Short Essay

            When choosing the style that I wanted to use to rewrite my news story, I found it hard not to choose blogging.  I wanted to be able to tell a story but at the same time give my opinion about that story.  I feel that an opinion about a news story is just as important as the story itself. I choose to do this essay with consecutive posts as the story progressed.  I wanted to be able to show that a story can be stated without great detail.  A blogger can then go back and continue posting, adding more and more info as either they hear it or they research it[O1] .  I chose to rewrite the story about Christopher Dorner as I heard about it on CNN. http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/10/us/lapd-attacks/index.html?iref=allsearch   

Post 1   

            So what’s up with this Dorner guy? Apparently he shot and killed two people and is now on the run? Man that’s crazy.  From what I understand he was fired and wanted revenge against whoever fired him.  I mean if he was fired it was probably for good reason not just because somebody didn’t like him.  No one has the right to just start shooting people because they are pissed off.  I hope they catch this guy.

Post 2

            So Dorner is still on the run and apparently now there is an award out for his capture, one million dollars.  Man what I would give to have some info to catch this guy.  After hearing about this story originally I did some research into why Dorner was fired.  Apparently in 2009 Dorner and his partner responded to a call about a mentally ill man creating a disturbance in a hotel.  A few weeks later Dorner reported that his partner had kicked the man but an IA (internal affairs) investigation concluded that this wasn’t true and Dorner was fired for disciplinary reasons.  He appealed but to no avail.  Apparently, he targeted the daughter of the man who represented him at his termination hearing.  Cruel way to get revenge, it’s really sad.  I’m really starting to hate this guy.

Post 3

So I have been following the guy Christopher Dorner’s story ever since I heard that he is accused of killing two police officers.  We all know that he is on the run and to be honest I am kind of impressed that he has lasted so long.  I just got an update on my iPhone that told me that a body was found in a burned out [O2] cabin that is believed to be Dorner’s.  Authorities aren’t able to identify the body because it is apparently to badly burned.  I heard that he even got into a shootout with more cops and even killed one of them.  I find it pretty crazy that some guy would do this I mean he was fired, yea that sucks, but it doesn’t mean you should go and kill people because of it.  I think that this guy ultimately got what was coming for him; after the cops that he shot and killed.  If it happens to be Dorner I will be happy they got him, he has killed four people, and I honestly wouldn’t feel bad if he was in the cabin when itI burned down.

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 [O1]I think you need to talk about what you are rewriting and where the original article came from just to give a back ground I guess for the introduction.

 [O2]What do you mean “burned out”