Maria Shriver

In our discussion about Maria Shriver's book, "The Shriver Report: A Women's Nation Changes Everything," we talked about the role women have in our society today. As women have become more recognized in the professional world, it has changed the dynamics of the traditional American family. This is what I found the most interesting about our discussion. Instead of stay at home mom's that raise children, women are becoming more integrated into the workplace, so family life has changed. This is both a good and bad thing I think. I think it is important for children to be raised by their parents instead of baby-sitters but I also think it is important that women be given the same opportunities to have a career that men have been given. It comes down to what is best for a person in their particular situation.

Class Discussion Feb. 1.

I thought we had a very interesting and eye opening discussion about sexism and racism and how it is used to bolster the entertainment value of a movie or television show. The most interesting thing to me personally, was the examination of the Judge Judy show. The judge treated the man on the show differently and with more respect than the women. In fact, the women on the show came across as uneducated party animals who could not be trusted. After we examined these shows, however, it was obvious that both sexism and racism are just used as tools to the entertainment factor of a show. In the article we received titled, "UK Show "Top Gear" Enrages Mexican Ambassador," the hosts of the show frequently say controversial, occasionally racist things as part of their shows appeal. This is both alarming and eye opening as we go forward in this class and study more about women and minorities in the media.

Review of the 5 articles

1 – “The Ballad of Big Mike,” has become a well-known story thanks to the movie, “The Blindside.” It is the true story of a boy named Michael Oher, who goes from a life of poverty to a life of fulfillment. It concludes with his selection in the NFL draft by the Baltimore Ravens, where he still plays, today. This story of “Big Mike” is great storytelling. We are shown a complete picture of Mike, from a child who the school system has abused to a man that the nation embraced.

2 – The article about virtual violence explored violence in video games. It explored the part violent content played in how well these games sell and also how the content affects the minds of the youth that play them. The violence has become quite realistic and is being linked to feelings of aggression exhibited by the players. The article also touches on the role women are given in today’s video games. They are usually portrayed as objects of sexual desire. Male characters are the heroes while females are, at best, side characters in most games.

3- The article by Kimberly L. Bissell focuses on the way the body image of modern female athletes is amplified and distorted by today’s media. In collegiate athletics, sports such as gymnastics and cross-country have uniforms that make a woman’s body more of a spectacle. The looser fighting clothing used in sports such as basketball do not cause the same problems. Of course, collegiate men’s sports feature female cheerleaders and dance teams, so colleges have found a way to add feminine appeal to just about every athletic event.

4 – In the article focusing on gender equity, a key component to the study is the coverage of women’s sports at the collegiate level. Gender domination is enjoyed by men with women receiving fair coverage, but not nearly the quantity of the coverage that men have. While over fifty percent of the population of most colleges are women, men still get much more coverage. So while the quality has risen over the years, the quantity has not followed suit.

5 – The article, “Spreading Global Consumerism: Effects of Mass Media and Advertising on Consumerist Values in China,” focuses on the Western cultural model of consumption that is becoming more prominent in China. The Chinese people are having their purchasing assumptions influenced to fit more of an American model. This has led to more defined social classes and an emphasis on peer-compared status and luxury items. This study suggests that the impact of this is not going to be completely understood for quite some time because of the massive size of the Chinese market.

News clips about a certain group.

The two stories I picked for this assignment were, "Chinese-American mayors overcome Bay Area's shameful past" and "US author stirs 'Chinese' values debate."

By far the more interesting of the two, in my opinion, was the story about author Amy Chua's book "Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother." In the book Chua discusses the differences between Chinese parenting and the parenting practices more commonly used here in America. This raised debate because many people found Chua's parenting preferences to be cruel and uncalled for. Even Chinese readers both praised Chua for being true to tradition, and criticized her for going overboard. Overall, the story was an interesting look into a culture that is at times, so very different from our own.

MLK Jr Day

Dave Traube

MLK Jr Day

For my Martin Luther King Jr. Day assignment I chose to study the Washington Post and its coverage. The Post had several articles devoted to the life and legacy of King on its website.

The content varied, from articles with such titles as “Maine gov. who blasted critics changes MLK plans,” and “Taking to roads to find Martin Luther King’s Legacy,” to blogs from various Post writers. There were also many photos on the site to honor Dr. King, including a photo gallery titled, “Life on Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue.” The coverage seemed respectful and positive when talking about the past accomplishments of Dr. King, and the blogs focused on the county’s progress in education reform, church life, and racial interaction. The article about the Maine governor was even positive in the way it presented the governor’s reaction to backing off of comments he made about skipping on the festivities of the day.

The coverage of Martin Luther King Jr. today differs greatly from the coverage he received during his lifetime. Today, King is a rock star. His quotes are used in positive ways, and nearly every story written about him seems to make the author into someone who likes or even admires King. While I am in no way saying this is a bad thing, it is at times a polar opposite to the media coverage King received during his life. King was an idealist. His purpose was not to make everyone feel good about themselves, as he can be often presented today, but to challenge and change limitations of the status quo of the times.

While today’s media coverage seems much more tolerable and fair minded then the coverage of King’s time, it was because of King’s life and his untimely death that this is so.

Diversity Post

Dave Traube

Blog Entry 1/13/11

1 – Define Diversity

- Diversity is understanding and being sensitive to the fact that people come in many colors, shapes and sizes and also not letting these factors affect your opinions and views of others. People are different.

2 – Which of the following elements should be considered by journalists when writing? (choosing the right words, avoiding stereotypes, omission)

- All three should be used by a responsible journalist.

Choosing the right words is important in not only effective writing, but also in making sure to maintain the proper respect for your subject.
Avoiding stereotypes is important because they can easily paint a subject in an unflattering light and also make a generalization about someone that may or may not be true. Stereotypes are a must to avoid.

Omission is also important. Omission can actually help to prevent stereotypes from becoming a factor or from entering the conversation at all.

Sanitary Board Investigative

No Time to Waste: Current Challenges Facing the Huntington Sanitary Board.

Dave Traube

JMC 414

4-27-10

William Shakespeare once wrote, “Delays have dangerous ends.” With sewer lines crumbling and the entire sanitary system struggling to meet the demands being placed upon it, the city of Huntington may find the words of Shakespeare sadly prophetic if the current problems get worse and the cost of solutions grow more expensive.

The Huntington sanitation system laid it first lines in the 1880’s but, despite 130 years of ongoing maintenance and improvements, the question now is how much longer can it effectively function without major modernization upgrades?

Maintenance work on the current system is presently underway in the Hal Greer Boulevard area, Sanitary Board CSO Coordinator Travis Bailey recently confirmed. Still, he says, more needs to be done in a short amount of time.

“As soon as we move on from there (Hal Greer) we have two sewer lines that we need to replace immediately,” Bailey said. “That will help our community with some of the flooding problems we have, as well as sewer basement backups.”

Aside from a decaying underground system, an even larger issue for the sanitary system is the city’s incinerator, which reduces raw waste by burning it into a substance called ash, or sludge, even though it does not actually destroy the waste. Huntington is the only city in West Virginia that still operates with an incinerator as a main component of its sanitary system. In 2008 the incinerator broke down, forcing the city to use its landfill for waste storage without first burning it into the smaller volume ash, which it continues to do. This causes the landfill to receive a much larger amount of waste than it normally would, which ultimately reduces the functional life of the landfill more quickly.

At the latest board meeting two solutions were discussed – fix the incinerator or buy a new one. Both approaches, however, come with concerns. If the apparatus were to be fixed, the city could continue to operate under the original environmental laws for incinerators that were enacted in the 1980’s, but would face an almost certain future of increasing repair and operational costs. A new incinerator would not need repairs any time soon, hopefully, but the concern of the board is that a new machine would force the city to operate under current incinerator regulations, which are much more stringent than those that would apply to the original machine.

While both options have their drawbacks, the larger issue is the city’s continued reliance on an incinerator at all, as the remaining waste by-product still needs to be disposed of. Sanitary Plant Manager Ed Romans says other ideas are being explored so that the sanitary board can ultimately move completely away from the problem of waste storage.

“Incineration isn’t disposal – it’s just reduction,” Romans said, “which makes your final product ash instead of nothing. It comes down to the volume and production of sludge and, because we are not considered a large city, we don’t have a lot of disposal options available to us.”

The only reasonable disposal options that the Huntington Sanitary Board, or any sanitary board of its size, can consider are either an agricultural disposal, which would distribute treated waste to farmers for fertilizing crops, or to put the material in a landfill. To date, the landfill has been the most feasible choice. The landfill is typically only used for the leftover ash from the incinerator, but it has to handle the full waste volume the area produces while the incinerator remains broken. Over-reliance on the landfill has led to the creation of what is called the “ash lagoon,” which is actually a pond of sludge.

This lagoon is a concern, not only because it houses wastes which eventually still have to be dealt with but because it could cause a major health risk to the public if it is not constantly maintained properly. Since, according to the sanitary board’s mission statement, “the primary purpose of wastewater treatment is protecting the health and well-being of our community,” this has forced the board to look for more stable and permanent solutions for the sludge than in the on-site waste lagoon.

“We’re trying to take a green approach on our bio-retention basin (ash lagoon) at the treatment plant,” Romans said. “We’re working with engineers to try and develop an area of trees and plants that would put the run-off water into the ground instead of having it sit where it currently does.”

Flooding is another issue the sanitary board has been dealing with, albeit very slowly. The incidences of area flooding have become so common in recent years, however, that the issue has moved up the list of the city’s priorities, making a resolution to the issue perhaps more important to the area’s long-term health than sewage pipe replacement has become. While flooding is not a new occurrence, how cities deal with the issue has undergone a metamorphosis.

At the beginning of the 20^th century, not many cities yet understood that putting raw sewage directly into a water supply could cause health problems. While the development of modern sewage-treatment facilities in the mid-1900s were planned to more completely contain waste, excess rainwater still caused flooding and allowed sewage to occasionally overrun into a municipal water supply. Many of those facilities are still in operation around the country, including in Huntington. Bailey said the long-term plans for the sanitary board continue to deal with this dangerous issue.

“As sewer pipes decay, our infrastructure and roads are going to start collapsing,” Bailey said. “So we’re going to start decreasing our combined sewer overflows, which means we need to improve the quality of the sewage and water flow that we release into the river.”

With 31 pumping stations in the city of Huntington and 350 miles of sanitary and combined sewer lines to manage, the task that lies before the sanitary board is not an easy one. As head of the board’s long-term planning team, Bailey admits this is true.

“It’s going to be an ongoing process and for the most part we try to put out the big fires first, like a sewer line that has already collapsed,” Bailey said. “It’s all very difficult. Everything is underground so we have to tear through the ground to even make any progress.”

To be fair to the sanitary board any repair or upgrade, not just a total system overhaul, would require money that is hard to find, even though the recent budget cuts in Huntington did not affect the board’s operating budget. As an independent organization it gets its money from customers. Still, a city with a population hovering around 50,000 does not have the customer base to make every needed improvement on a sanitary system that is staffed 24 hours a day and operates 365 days a year. Executive Director of the board, Loretta Covington, said that the only option left for the board to raise funds to do the necessary upgrades is a very unpopular one.

“Unfortunately, the only way to raise the money is by raising fees,” Covington said. “Right now, the City of Huntington has one of the lowest fees in the state of West Virginia (see chart, below) and we pride ourselves on that, but I don’t know whether that was to our benefit or not and, because of that, it has hurt us. It’s come to the point where we may have to (raise fees) because the city needs a lot of money pumped into it.”

So, the sanitary board will continue to focus on completing needed repairs and maintenance, as the budget allows, and to look for new and creative ways to improve the area’s sewer system. Time is the issue, however, and with a crumbling infrastructure and the ultimate solution for the incinerator unclear, the future direction of the entire sewer system is also uncertain – which makes concern for the modernization of Huntington’s sanitary requirements a growing problem.

Literally and figuratively.