Blog Two.

Dan Rather on the Crisis Facing American Media.

In this video Dan Rather speaks about how he believes that as the old media world is collapsing, the outcome of new journalism is in doubt. He goes on to stress that there is a crisis of diminishing quality in American journalism and how journalists are lacking "guts and grit."

What caught my eye the most in this video is how he says how we "desperately need creative thinking" in journalism. This is something I believe as well because so many media sources are putting out the same, in my opinion, tired ideas.  Just today I saw four magazines with essentially the same cover page feauturing the young girls of MTV's "Teen Mom".

The most important thing, and the idea that is emphasized most clearly, is that our media is in a time of dangerous transition.  Rather asks the the question of "How do we maximize this new media world?" while keeping it independant and not corporate.  I found this video to be very thought provoking because while I think many agree with Rather that good journalism on the web adds value, there is currently so much on the web that how to we filter the good from bad? This poses a big question as the the internet is becoming the main news source for more and more people.

Blog One.

"Speed Dating, Muslim Style." NY Times.

     Finding your dream match is often an exciting and personal quest but how would you feel about speed dating for marriage with your parents watching from the sideline? This is becoming the case for many single Muslims seeking suitable others of the same faith.  Written on February 11, 2011 by Adam Ellick of the New York Times, one Muslim father from the article really stood out to me. Mr. Baig.

“I don’t like a hobo,” Mr. Baig said. Then, shrugging toward his 21-year-old daughter, a nursing student, he added, “But it’s her choice. She has to like him, too.”
As his daughter approached graduation, Mr. Baig, a Queens wholesaler whose thin black beard adorns a pudgy face, had been on the lookout, going to the mosque more often, asking more acquaintances about their unwed children. But he had had little luck, so one Sunday last fall, he sat on the perimeter of a hotel conference room in Bayside, Queens, and watched as bachelor after bachelor sat across from his daughter, a beige veil draped over her plump face, for a few minutes of stilted conversation.

     I choose the article and excerpt to write about because I feel that I could really imagine who Mr. Baig is and visualize the situation fully as if I was there. I could put his facial features together in my mind and hear the accent I imagine him having in his quotes which really gave me the desire to keep reading. I find myself intrigued by other cultures and was initially drawn to this article because of the dramatic difference in Mr. Baig's daughter to my personal dating life but became ultimately more interested in this article simply because of Mr.Baig.