(Now, for the respondents--here are the prompts you can choose to comment on after you visit the blog and read some entries, etc.)
1. Analyze the interface of the featured blog. Focusing on visual elements on the home page, make an argument in your comment on the class blog about what the interface implicitly suggests about the blog's central theme(s), values, or identity (see Writing Analytically on how to make the implicit explicit). Make an inference that could be a topic for class discussion and debate.
2. Look for an argument or disagreement occurring in the comments on a particular post on the featured blog. In your comment on the class blog, analyze the key issues and points of contention in the comments. Based on your observations, develop a theory about what blog’s readers value as a community. Use the following questions to get you started:
• What issues or ideas do people seem to agree upon despite the larger disagreement?
• Do people on the blog think some comments are rude or inappropriate, and if so why do you think this is?
• What rhetorical strategies do commenters use to construct their arguments?
• How do commenters reference other comments, and what does that suggest about the nature of interaction within the community?
3. Look for an argument or disagreement occurring in the comments on a particular post on the featured blog. Respond to that argument with a comment of your own on the featured blog. Explain your comment on our class blog and ask our class how they might respond. If you receive a response to your comment on the blog we're analyzing, post an update about how readers responded to your presence or ideas.
4. Look through several posts for any claims about a writer's or several writers' ethos on the featured blog. In your comment, develop an analytical theory about how ethos is working on the blog. Here are some questions to get you started:
• How do writer(s) invoke their education, status, experiences, beliefs, or identity? Do these methods ever backfire (do readers ever respond negatively to a writer's identity, education, etc.?)
• If there are multiple writers contributing to the blog, do you see any similarities or differences in appeals to ethos across posts? What assumptions can you make about the community based on what appeals to ethos bloggers seem to rely upon most? (For example, is education seen as particularly important? Political beliefs? Gender? Anything else?)
5. Look through several posts for any direct references or appeals to the audience on the featured blog (you might look for the use of the pronoun "you"/"we" or for more subtle techniques, such as posing a question to the audience or inviting the audience to respond). Write a comment on our class blog that states your theory about what those appeals to the audience suggest about who the writer believes the audience is, what they believe the audience values, or what the relationship between the writer/audience seems to be (for example, does the writer ask for the audience's opinion or position herself as an authority, or something else entirely?).
6. Look for one instance or several instances in which an author of a post makes a claim or introduces a new idea on the featured blog. In your comment on the class blog, write an interesting analysis of the rhetorical techniques the author uses to make this argument. You might consider the following questions:
• Are any of the ideas particularly controversial, and if so, how does the author attempt to persuade the audience or account for the controversy in advance?
• Look for whether readers generally agree or disagree. Formulate a theory about what the trends you notice suggest about the nature of the community, their values, the purpose of the blog, etc.
• Does the author cite any evidence or an authority on the subject, and if so, who or what is considered persuasive? Do the readers agree? What kind of knowledge does the community seem to value or disagree upon?
• Does the author introduce a new idea by referencing or attempting to improve upon someone else's idea? What might we learn as writer's about how arguments can be built off of or proceed from other arguments? (What's effective and what's not effective?)
7. Read through several posts and comments and formulate a claim about whether or not you think the featured blog actually does anything. In other words, does the blog seem to have any effect on people's knowledge, values, ideas, etc? Provide evidence for your claim in your comment on the class blog.
7. I think that this blog has had an impact on people's actions and beliefs, just by increasing their knowledge about certain products. In the post "Test your knowledge of cosmetics safety: 8 myths debunked", facts are presented in a logical, organized way. According to user's responses, their knowledge has been increased and they have adjusted the cosmetic products they purchase. Another example of how a post has affected people is in the comments of "Cell Phone Radiation Series - Part 2: 8 Ways to Reduce Your Exposure". Users have commented about their fear of this and appreciated the ways to avoid radiation from cell phones. They seem to have applied these suggestions to their lives. They also know more about how dangerous it really can be, and are beginning to ask questions about laptops and other technology. Overall, I think this blog is effective in spreading knowledge and decrasing harmful behaviors in the users.
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ReplyDelete7. Enviroblog has had an impact on people's knowledge and actions. The post "So what CAN we use?" gives readers a link to a site that calculates toxin levels in a product and just how hazardous said products are. This increases the readers' knowledge of the products that they use on a daily basis, such as shampoo, body wash, baby wipes, lotion, make up, etc. The post also gives readers a buying guide for parents to purchase products that will be safe for use on their children. The knowledge gained from both the link to the toxin calculator and the buying guide allows people to change their purchasing habits to better improve their health and lives, and those of their children. The comments on the post show that people are grateful for such resources. An example of the gratefulness to the post would be when Darcy Starr stated, "Thank goodness we can get a list of what to use" and another user said, "Great topic. Instead of inform on what we can't use we need to know what we can use." The post makes people less fearful by posting a list of products with fewer to no toxins instead of a list of products full of toxins. It gives the post a more positive outlook and gives hope to people that want a toxin free life. Enviroblog is very effective when it comes to informing readers and giving them ways to change how they are living for the better.
ReplyDelete2. I read a comment on the blog post "Hexavalent Chromium: 11 Answers for Water Drinkers" by a user named Historyscientist. The blog post is about how chromium vi is contaminating our water sources. He claims that the chemistry involved doesn't make sense. Historyscientist says that the ingestion of chromium VI would get instantly reduced to chromium III almost instanly in the stomach. Historyscientist goes on to say that while he agrees that it is preferable to avoid hit doesn't see much harm in so few parts per billion of chromium III. Historyscientist then recieved a response by a user named Lisa Frack. Lisa Frack explains that new studies hae shown that some chromium VI can pass through your stomach and cause harm. She even goes on to site sources of her information. Historyscientist responds that he checked her source and finds that the chromium VI levels are so low that it couldn't cause much harm at all. Lisa Frack then replies that the California EPA made these studies to make decisions to better protect the community from gastrointestinal cancer. According to her this study has been peer reviewed. Historyscientist remains skeptical saying that he is unwilling to simply agree with the authoritative figures who reviewed the article.
ReplyDeleteI only write summarization of the responses of the two users of the blog to give context to my analysis. This conversation between Historyscientist and Lisa Frack leads me to believe that the community of this blog is healthy. By this I mean that the subscribers do not simply believe the legitamacy of the information supplied in the article but instead openly debate. It should be noted that while disagreements were had everyone was polite and no insults were made. Although this is only a discusion between two people I believe that this is a good representation of the Enviroblog community.
7. As i read through the blog posts, the majority of the topics that were covered were stories that i hadn't heard anywhere else. This gave me the impression that the blog does indeed do something and that is to inform its readers on the dangers they face that the mass media may choose to ignore. For example, of the ten events covered in the blog post "EWG's Worst Environmental Stories of 2010", the only one that I had any prior knowledge of was the BP oil spill. The fact that the "worst environmental disaster of the decade" is the only event on the list that made mass media suggests that we, as a society, need to rely more heavily on alternative news sources like this site because they can (and do) make a difference.
ReplyDelete7. I read "Why, oh why is there plastic in my aluminum bottle." This was a piece about how many aluminum bottles have plastic lining. Toxins from this lining can dissolve into the water that is put in the bottle. On the page, they had a video which showed how an aluminum bottle is made. Before being baked in, they put a coating on the inside. This is the problem. The article said that people should use stainless steel bottles, because they have no plastic lining on the inside.
ReplyDeleteMany people commented on this post. People started asking others if what they had was acceptable, and where they could by a water bottle without toxins. In addition, one commenter wanted to know if there was any lining in aseptic boxes because she used them a good amount of times.
All in all, through reading this post and seeing the reaction by other peoples' posts, I feel like this blog actually does something. Many people do read the posts and are interested in what others have to say, and even ask other people for opinions because they want to live a healthier life. In addition to becoming more knowledgeable.
7.Enviroblog has had an impact on peoples action and knowledge. The post "Why, oh why is there plastic in my aluminum water bottle?" describes how aluminum water bottles made by Sigg and Gaiam contain epoxy resin liners made with BPA, which is poisonous. The post also contains Youtube video that shows how Sigg bottles are made. One user responded by commenting about a different brand, Klean Kanteen Bottles, that are not lined with epoxy resin or BPA to inform others about a safe new water bottle. Another user commented with a question concerning whether aseptic boxes contained a plastic liner. A different user later responded to her question and provided a link that leads to the basic information for aseptic packaging. These people along with other users have used the information from this post to try and improve their health and the health of others that may currently be using plastic lined water bottles. These people learned about the danger of the Sigg and Gaiam aluminum bottles and learned about how to obtain safer ones. Overall I think the blog is very effective at informing the readers.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading through several posts on Enviroblog, I definitely believe that this specific blog has an affect on people's knowledge and values. In the "Support the 2010 Safe Cosmetics Act" post, people are brought to realize that chemicals in products they may use everyday may contain a cancer-causing ingredient. Who knew that cosmetics had that harmful of an ingredient in them? This causes people to value safer cosmetics instead of their harmful, everyday products. All in all, this blog does a great job at bringing attention to the readers that more of their everyday products and lifestyles are more dangerous to their health and environment than they thought.
ReplyDeleteI think that this blog does an excellent job at bringing attention to people who do not necessarily know a whole lot about the environment. All of the posts on the blog are quick and easy to read but they still do a good job at sharing enough information. The post "Plastic Pollution is Everywhere. Including you" brings awareness to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. It also mentions that many poisonous toxins derived from plastics are inside all of us. What people do not realize is that pollution is not only killing the environment, but killing ourselves as well. I find this blog to be very helpful and informative because you can learn a great deal about news in the environment in a very short amount of time.
ReplyDelete1. The first picture of the ENVIROBLOG is a thumbs up which immidiately portrays the blog as a positive read. The columns on the left side of the actual blog take away from the actual text of the blog and are very distracting. This may be the point for advertisement, but is somewhat distracting for the reader to focus on the blog content. Some of the wording and pictures do a good job of using the Fear Appeal to draw in readers. The picture and quote about getting cancer from tap water, for example, affects all readers since everyone uses tap water and noone wants to get cancer.
ReplyDelete7. I think Enviroblog does a great job of providing its readers with knowledge about it's posts. I have read through "So what products CAN we use?" and several comments on this post. The post talked about a how a previous post, "Toxic Tub Report," talked about how there were so many bath products for kids that contained probable carcinogens and which products to stay away from. This post was asking what the safe products were because "Toxic Tub Report" only pointed out which products to stay away from. This post had a link to several one page summaries of how to shop as parents for your children. Each summary was focused on a different type of product. From all of this it is apparent that Enviroblog provides further knowledge and ideas to its readers and followers.
ReplyDelete5. I read several posts on the blog about topics like cell phone radiation and BPAs in plastic. One article urges the audience to "Support the 2010 Safe Cosmetics Act. It's Urgent." It tells the audience to support this legislation for the sake of their families and their children. It says the fact that this legislation is not already in place is "ludicrous". Based on this article, the writer believes the audience consists of people who buy products for their families. It is geared towards educated middle class adults, because these are the people who do the shopping and have the money to buy higher quality goods. The article has a links so readers can learn more about the bill and toxins in their cosmetics. The links indicate that the writer believes the audience is educated enough to not take statements at face value; readers are encouraged to find out more by themselves. The fact that the writer provides the links makes her claims seem more valid. The blog has a strong focus on providing resources to allow consumers to make informed decisions.
ReplyDelete7. In my opinion Enviroblog definitely has an impact on readers’ beliefs and ideals whether they realize it or not. I think Enviroblog provides people with knowledge about certain issues and readers interpret it however they choose. Some posts such as one titled “Ditching plastic bags, coast to coast” may raise the reader’s awareness about how harmful plastics can be and laws surrounding the use of plastics and disposing of them, etc. Other posts such as one titled “Climate change bill dies in the U.S. Senate” may worry readers. The title uses the word “dies” making it seem as if there is no chance for the bill to pass and no hope for stopping global warming. Posts like this catch the readers’ eye and although clever, they may also be exaggerated and therefore may be causing extra fear for no reason. Another example of a post that may scare people into reading it is a post titled “Carcinogenic chromium-6 in your water”. This title uses “your water” to make readers feel at danger; like they are currently drinking contaminated water. Upon further reading though, one can see that only 35 cities in the United States were tested. This means people may have reacted and could have been frightened by this post before learning the facts behind the post. In conclusion, I think Enviroblog influences us because after reading the posts we formulate opinions based on what we read. It may be subliminally, but it does affect how/what we think. If anything, it informs us and makes us think about certain environmental topics. Also it forces us to formulate beliefs about these topics and/or challenge and wrestle with the beliefs we already have concerning them.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading Enviroblog's various articles, I felt that the blog was extremely informative and appealing. This blog had a range of environmental topics including BPA in formula, harmful chemicals in cosmetics, and water treatment tips. The articles gave me a new perspective and insight on the many harmful effects certain products retain. I read through the article, "Test your knowledge of cosmetics safety: 8 myths debunked," and discovered a lot more about cosmetics that I knew before. Before reading the article, I did not know that there were harmful chemicals in cosmetics and the United States' standards were significantly low compared to other countries such as Japan or Canada. Readers' responses were also very agreeable with the message the article was giving. The TV article, "BPA in baby formula & safe cosmetics," was interesting as well because it provided more insight on the BPA chemical that is present in baby formula and bottles. This is an important issue to be discussed with mothers who use bottles and formula that contain the chemical BPA because they should be informed of the harmful effects. Enviroblog provides great, informative issues that are backed by other articles shown in the media. Overall, I think the blog relays important messages and makes the reader more knowledgeable on environmental issues that are not necessarily shown on TV or in the newspapers. I think this allows readers to think differently about products he or she is using and ways they can avoid harmful effects.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading Enviroblog, I felt very alarmed at the information that I was reading. In my opinion, it is a very useful and helpful blog. It allows readers to attain dangerous facts about products they use. The first blog I read about was "Is Mineral-Based Makeup Safer?" This blog was about whether or not mineral makeup is worse than department store or drug store makeup. The blog says that mineral makeup contains nano-sized particles in it and therefore are able to be absorbed into the skin more easily. When these particles are absorbed into the skin they can get into yoru lungs and cause emphysema-like symptoms and are toxic to some cells. Some people commented asking whether or not it was safe to use a certain brand of mineral makeup such as Bare Minerals. Also people commented that they "loved the information they were getting." This tells me that this blog IS helping people out there. Another blog I chose to read was "So What Products CAN We Use?" This blog told readers what bath type products you should use. In the "Toxic Tub?" blog all they told you were products that you shouldn't use. I feel like this blog benefited readers tremendously because of the list of products they put on the site. One person commented "Thank goodness we can get a list of what to use, what NOT to use." "I am glad we have organizations like Environmental Working Group to help us through this maze of who is doing what to our food, our water, our air." Another wrote about how this was great information. As you can see this blog obviously is helping readers. One other blog I read was "Why, Oh Why Is There Plastic In My Aluminum Water Bottles?" This was about how aluminum water bottles also have plastic in them. A blogger said "This brings up a concern of mine: do stainless steel travel cups have a plastic liner, too? We tend to brew our tea in them in the morning, so they are getting boiling water poured directly into them. It keeps the tea nice and hot, but, are we getting a dose of BPA along with our tea???" These blogs are helping people realize what they are using could be harmful.
ReplyDeleteI think Enviroblog has a definite affect on peoples knowledge and there subsequent actions regarding this knowledge. These articles bring to the attention of its readers important information regarding topics that affect peoples everyday lives. For example the article, "Test Your Knowledge of Cosmetic Surgery: 8 Myths Debunked," takes some popular myths regarding cosmetic surgery and gives the facts about these myths. I think articles like this are important because cosmetic surgery is a very important topic today and its essential for people to have the facts regarding something as serious as cosmetic surgery. Unlike some articles I came across, this article was posted in a non threatening way that did not instill fear in the readers minds, but merely informed the reader in a subtle way. Overall, I think this blog is a positive thing and its important for people to become more informed on important topics and this blogs allows people to do that.
ReplyDelete7. In reading through a couple of the posts and comments, I noticed that a lot of the articles cause other questions. For instance in the article "Why, oh why is there plastic in my aluminum water bottle?" by Lisa Frack, the article goes through the manufacturing of brands Sigg and Gaim metal water bottles. Because she used two specific brands of aluminum bottle, questions like "Does such and such brand contain this poison?", etc. What this blog basically does is instills fear of one particular thing into people's minds that then causes them to worry about one hundred other things that could possibly be affected by this initial fear. This blog isn't the only site that chooses to use this technique so obviously it is very effective.
ReplyDelete7. After reading a few of the posts and comments I can see that the information given does affect the readers in a way. This blog tells the readers what could potentially be harmful or a health concern, as well as safety tips. In the post, "So what CAN we use?" it gives a list of the 'best' or 'better' products we as consumers should buy for ourselves. Most people that commented were concerned about the fact that there are so many unsafe chemicals in many of the products sold in today's economy. In another post, "Cell Phone Radiation Series - Part 2: 8 Ways to Reduce Your Exposure", warns the readers about radiation in cell phones. It says 'research has not yet established whether cell phone radiation is harmful', but it tells us tips on how to receive the least amount of radiation as possible. Both these posts use ideas that naturally a person reading the blog would be concerned about. When somebody sees titles like these they become curious and read, learn, listen, etc. to what the blogger has to say. Enviroblog, as well as many other blog sites, use a tactful technique to affect people by showing them things to fear in our environment.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading such blog that closely relates to our daily life, it gave me a strong urge that made me wanting to protect our environment better. The blog introduces many features that affect our life every single day. For example, water pollution has been a major problem of human beings, more contaminated reports broke out, which rises more of our concerns for healthy drinkable water. There are stern evidences and reasonable sources for every fact that the blog provides. Such as EWG, which is a legitimate support for environmental issues. It is also why this blog is so popular and can be a strong voice for many problems of our habitat. Moreover, the blog not only takes about the current matters that we are facing, but also deliver insights and advices to protect our health. For instance, cell phone usage has become inevitable for us today. Radiation has also become inevitable everyday. However, the blog gives us so tips and guides on what to purchase and how to prevent as much radiation as possible. That is exactly what we need to learn from this era of convenience. We can not rely too much on the government or institutes to protect our health and our planet earth. The only thing we should do is to start from ourselves. The Enviroblog also becomes a incentive for those who read it.
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