Web Critique 15

Website Name:  http://amnesty.org
Operated By:  Amnesty International
Funded By: Donations

The website of Amnesty International is a very good resource to people who would like to have their eyes open to human rights violations around the world. I believe the best feature of the website is the ability to look, by country, at current human rights violations. There is also a downloadable PDF file titled “The State of the World’s Human Rights”. Amnesty publishes such a report each year outlining the state of human rights by region and by country. They offer the report in a good number of different languages. There are many fantastic education resources on the site, many of which are in other languages than English, such as “Human Rights Bingo”, education blogs, the link to Amnesty’s site www.respectmyrights.org which has two great interactive tools, the Poverty Trap, and the Housing Journey regarding how lack of housing affects human rights, and more. Overall, Amnesty International is doing good work. I don’t personally agree with all of their stances, but they are a loud voice for many many good causes and their website is a big part of their movement. 

Web Critique 14

Website Name:  Office of Family Assistance
Operated By:  Administration for Children and Families
Funded By: Administration for Children and Families

The OFA administers several key federal grant programs, including Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), Tribal programs, Healthy Marriage and Responsible Fatherhood, and Health Profession Opportunity Grants. Their website has a professional, streamlined look to it and has a simple, easily navigable layout to summarize the assistance offered to families from the government. I liked that among the information on the site (which is generally about federal aid to families-often in the form of block grants to states/tribes), they also had links to state and tribal organizations which are the main way that federal aid is doled out to needy families. That is obviously a very helpful service of the website-directing people to where they can actually get the help they need. There is also access to different reports listed by fiscal year among other data. Their programs tab has an extensive listing of their programs and also the associated policy and laws. At the top of the page there are also links to the Administration for Children and Families, the umbrella administration over the OFA, and also to the Department of Health and Human Services, which is over both. Overall this site is pretty good! I can’t really come up with too much to criticize.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

Web Critique 12

Website Name:  Black Voices
Operated By:  The Huffington Post
Funded By: The Huffington Post- most likely advertising money

This website is a part of the larger Huffington Post website. They provide a plethora of different articles on things related to black people. I was impressed that they even include many articles on issues in other countries relating to the subject as well. With the typical amount of liberal bias that Huff Post exhibits, however, I wish they would assume a more balanced reporting style. Also I really don’t like the layout of any of the sub-sites on Huff Post. They put different posts into the page as smaller thumbnail pictures with a blurb and title, which in itself is enough to make my eyes strained after a while of scrolling through. In addition, they place thumbnail links to unrelated articles and advertisements on the page too, making it hard to focus in on what you’re actually looking for. They obviously are employing click-bait to get more reads on other articles and advertising traffic, but it makes their website more difficult to read. It also makes the page look disorganized and messy. 

Web Critique 9

Website Name:  www.usa.gov
Operated By:   Federal Citizen Information Center, a division of U.S. General Services Administration’s Office of Citizen Services and Innovative Technologies
Funded By: Annual appropriation from U.S. Congress

USA.gov is a website dedicated to making it easy for citizens at any time to access any type of information they could ever want (and much that they don’t even know exists!).
This website is truly an impressive accumulation of information from the U.S. government. An incredibly complete collection of information, it really astounded me when I explored the website. It is honestly difficult to describe the website simply because it includes so much information. However the website is describable in a few categories: Services and Information, Government Agencies and Elected Officials, Free Publications, Blog, and easy contact-email, phone, facebook, twitter, etc. One more thing to note is that the website directly links easily to whichever government website includes the information you’re searching for. Lastly, in light of our study this week about bureaucracy, this website underscores how truly humongous our government really is. On that note, when you look at the A-Z Index of Government Agencies, it really makes this apparent. In conclusion, this is a new bookmark on my internet browser and it should be on yours too, because it is really a great resource for any American!

 

Instructor Notes - Equality & Civil Rights

Instructor Notes for Week 12 - Chapter 16 - Equality & Civil Rights It is amazing to many that the hard won civil rights we are studying this chapter this week are now being questioned by some in our society. Beginning with the issue of race, there is an excellent book entitled The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander, the former director of the Racial Justice Project of the ACLU in Northern California. She also served as a law clerk to Justice Harry Blackmun on the U.S. Supreme Court. In it she says, “Recent data shows, though, that much of black progress is a myth. In many respects, African-Americans are doing no better than they were when Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated and uprisings swept inner cities across America. Nearly a quarter of African-Americans live below the poverty line today, approximately the same percentage as in 1968. The black child poverty rate is actually higher now than it was then. Unemployment rates in black communities rival those in Third World countries. And that's with affirmative action! When we pull back the curtain and take a look at what our "colorblind" society creates without affirmative action, we see a familiar social, political, and economic structure--the structure of racial caste. The entrance into this new caste system can be found at the prison gate.” An excellent synopsis of the book can be read athttp://www.econ.brown.edu/fac/glenn_loury/louryhomepage/teaching/Ec%20137/The%20New%20Jim%20Crow-from%20The%20Nation.pdf (Links to an external site.)  If you have not read it, I suggest you put it at the top of your list. If you don’t have time to read the book, watch this video - THE NEW JIM CROW Online Documentary   (Links to an external site.) During the 2012 election cycle, we heard and read about irregularities with our various state voting systems and the number of voter suppression laws that have been passed in numerous states. It was not really that many years ago that women finally got the right to vote in this country and now many are being disenfranchised by these new laws. Once again, the issue of affirmative action is before the Supreme Court of the United States. After integrating our schools with the famous Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka case in 1954 and the Civil Rights Act of 1964, we now see many of our schools walking back their integration policies used for years, i.e. here in the city of Wichita. The 2012 election cycle has also highlighted class wars between the top 1% and the 99% and the “War on Women” concerning equal pay for equal work and personal health choices for American women.   All of the above issues are still relevant today so pay close attention to this chapter this week and you will be better able to discuss these issues and make decisions about who you want to represent you and your family at the local, state and national levels. Finally, with the most recent issues being raised about local policing and our civil rights, I'd like to share this video with students so that you will be protected if you are stopped by the police. Most of our officers follow the rules and will not use undue force with the public. But, it is good to know how to behave in these circumstances and hopefully have the best possible outcome.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDptsf81lVc&list=UUV3Nm3T-XAgVhKH9jT0ViRg (Links to an external site.)

Instructor Notes - Order and Civil Liberties

Instructor Notes for Week 11 – Chapter 15 - Order and Civil Liberties Again, we are studying a very important chapter about a topic that can directly affect your lives. The textbook does a thorough job in describing the separation of church and state, freedom of the press, the 2nd amendment and others. It also discusses your Miranda rights but I think it is important for students to fully understand those rights. Everyone has heard Miranda recited on television numerous times and often seen the person detained talking verbosely to the police.  This is not a good idea as many find when they later go to court and do find that their own words are held against them. Privately owned prisons are now a big industry in this country and they often contract for quotas that local law enforcement must meet. Yes, that is correct – the police need to send a minimum number of people to prison.  Therefore, I strongly suggest that each of you take time to watch the video linked below and never forget what it says. Share it with you friends and relatives. You are an American citizen and you have rights. Don't Talk to Police  (Links to an external site.)   Dana's Note:::I really do recommend the video in this post. Good information!!!

Web Critique 4

Website Name: CSPAN  http://www.c-span.org/ (Links to an external site.)
Operated By:   National Cable Satellite Corporation
Funded By:  “C-SPAN (Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network) is a private non-profit company, created in 1979 by the cable television industry as a public service. C-SPAN receives no government funding; operations are funded by fees paid by cable and satellite affiliates who carry C-SPAN programming.”

CSPAN, or Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network, was not an oft visited channel in our home growing up. I have memories of flipping through the channels looking for Disney channel and coming across some government proceeding on CSPAN. I inwardly groaned, repulsed by how boring the channel seemed to me, a child, then I flipped quickly on to the next channel. Now that I am an adult, and I have been to the CSPAN website and observed a few video clips and have read the history of CSPAN, I feel a bit more welcoming of the organization which as a child I would never have enjoyed. This week in investigating the website, I watched a video of a Gallup representative discussing the current 40% mass media trust rate, and I watched/listened to a 30 minute video of the director of the U.S. Botanic Garden discussing the history of the Garden. Truthfully, CSPAN has actually developed since my childhood, as has my understanding and interest in the government and our country.  In 2001, CSPAN launched its third associated channel “CSPAN 3” in addition to the others, “CSPAN” and “CSPAN 2”. CSPAN also has a radio station available on Sirius XM. The website is very expansive, with a large video library free to watch, many podcasts, a blog, and among other various types of information, there is an interesting website about the First Ladies of the United States. There is also a Series A-Z page that helps you find helpfully grouped information. One of the major collections of information is regarding Congress. They have gone to great lengths to provide a lot of info on our lawmakers. One more major item on the site worth noting is “CSPAN Classroom” which has a lot of helpful resources for teachers. The website has a corresponding free Android/Apple app that lets you listen live to all three of the stations and CSPAN radio. This is nice, but it is regrettable that the app only allows the audio and that the main website only allows for streaming of the channels if you log in with a cable provider. I think that they put off a lot of viewers by requiring cable service. Many citizens don’t have cable service anymore, but rather opt for online news and subscription movie and tv service, like XBOX video, hulu, or Netflix. We are one of those families. In any case, CSPAN is still a great resource for Americans because they provide unedited raw video of many US court, Congressional, and public affairs proceedings without bias or interruption, and also provide American history programming and non-fiction book and author events from around the country, much of this free on their website. 

Web Critique 3

Website Name: Political Compass, www.politicalcompass.org
Operated By:  Pace News, Ltd.
Funded By:  Sponsorships, seminars

The makers of this website have done a great job creating a test to help you see where you fall on a chart similar to the one in chapter 5 of our book on p. 135-136. Although not exactly the same, both our book and the Political Compass show a way to classify people in a two-dimension manner rather than unilaterally from Left to Right. Many people don’t fit the overly simplistic classifications of Left/Liberal or Right/Conservative. The Political Compass test classifies test-takers based on two continuums: Left to Right and Libertarian to Authoritarian. This site has a lot of information regarding these continuums for those coming to the website who may have a limited understanding of the topic. 

The website shows you where you lie on the scale immediately after you take the test. There is also an option to create a group-chart where you and family or friends can plot your points together. There are plots of famous leaders on the site as well, so you can see how you compare. 

There is a separate smaller quiz called “Iconochasms” where you can “see how well you know your political icons”. I discovered that “iconochasm” is not a word. I think they might actually have meant to say “iconoclasm”. The word “iconoclasm” seems to have the meaning they were trying to construe. That would be one thing I could “constructively criticize” about the site. 

Another few items to critique: the site looks and feels low-budget. The site is low-budget most likely, however there are many free resources to utilize on the internet to make the site look more modern and appealing. Overall, its appearance is not too bad, though. It is fully functional and easily navigable. Their reading list includes writers from the four separate quadrants, but I would have liked to see a list of readings from writers that fall right in the middle of all four. 

Overall, this website and test are a great way to assess yourself and have a starting point for political discussion with others.

Web Critique 2

Website Name: The Charters of Freedom
Operated By:  The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)
Funded By:  The President’s Budget with authorization each year by Congress₁

This website is a virtual museum exhibit. Many Americans are unable to visit the National Archives Museum, so naturally a website resource is a good thing for NARA to provide. The website has a museum-like feel, with the title and tabs at the top of the website appearing to be carved in stone. The rest of the navigation occurs within a smaller box within the larger webpage. A visitor may navigate through 5 particular topics: the making of the charters, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the impact of the Charters. Thorough, yet succinct, the website offers many interesting subtopic pages along with corresponding pictures and documents. One of my early complaints with the website was that the images of documents such as the Declaration and Constitution were not clear enough to be read. However, I found after a bit more time on the site that these documents were available for download as a high-resolution file making them a bit more readable. I enjoyed the works of art that were included as well as poignant quotes from founding fathers and others. Another helpful feature of the website is its linking to the NARA website which has even more resources and historical information, and also information about visiting their museum. Overall, I was hard-pressed to find anything which may make for a strong critique. I really recommend the website as it is a wonderful resource about our founding and treasured national documents.

₁ http://www.archives.gov/about/plans-reports/performance-budget/

Web Critique 1

Website Name: Politics1.com 
Operated By: Ron Gunzburger-“attorney, journalist, businessman, civil servant, and owner of the sole-proprietorship that is Politics1.”
Funded By: Paid advertisements on said website; funding likely handled by Ron Gunzburger

I definitely plan to use this website in the future, for it is truly a great resource! On the website, one can find listings of current candidates for elections and outstanding lists of resource websites organized by Issue topics, among other additional types of information. I am impressed by the website operator’s willingness to include a balance of resources from both sides of the major arguments. Even the descriptions of all the offshoot parties are respectful and factual. One critique I would give for this site is that it is not very aesthetically pleasing. Its navigation menu, and whole website, really, is incredibly simplistic. It was also not very easy to navigate, because in the Directory I could not find any option to direct me to the ideological debates I was trying to find. For some reason after using the search bar, on the search results page I was presented with a slightly different Directory with more options, one being “Issues” which, of course took me right where I wanted to go. But that was only after searching all the home page options to no avail. The site has got great information but to truly optimize its potential, it needs a face-lift and a revamp of the site map.