Videogames, Culture and Propaganda

This report from Russia Today further convinces me that there is an MA or undergrad sociology essay in the use of Digital Media and Digital Entertainment  to  foster politico-cultural beliefs (i.e. propaganda).  The modern media machine, including the children of the digital age such as social media and Youtube,  are potentially the most powerful tools of propaganda the world has ever seen.   The Gaelic Revival in Ireland was primarily through literature and poetry, and helped foster the growth of Irish Nationalism.  In the 21st century, I would be very surprised not to see the introduction of nationalist messages into the plots of video games.  I would be particularly surprised in fact, because I have seem examples of such nationalism in games with my own two eyes.  Video games are now a part of our culture.  The Irish Independent carries reviews of the latest games in the same supplement in which it reviews books.  So too, to my knowledge, does the Irish Times and indeed the Sunday Times.  The plot of a modern video game is far more advanced then what the casual observer may detect.  Many games of the first or third person variety now carry plot lines and cut sequences that are easily of Hollywood quality.   They have outpaced Hollywood in terms of profitability and in terms of capital invested.  The most expensive film of all time is James Cameron’s Avater, at $500 million.  The marketing alone for Modern Warfare 2 came to just under half this amount.  This is a huge amount of capital and with such capital comes ideological restrictions of the designer’s creativity, ideological restrictions on the theme of the game, which will eventually become part of the cultural landscape that players of the game will experience, and perhaps have their world-view shaped by.  This may appear fanciful.  But according to this 2006 AOL/AP poll 4 out of 10 Americans play video games.  Even adjusting this figure to attempt to estimate how many gamers play games with a story line and potentially, an ideological message, still leaves a huge segment of the population who will be exposed to a game at one stage or another.  Put it this way: 1 in 10 Americans is still at least and probably greater than 30 million people.

Whether we like it or not, video games are undeniably part of the cultural landscape.  For academics to ignore them is unforgivable.  A wave of hysteria will occasionally seep over the population of some aspect of this or that game, usually related to video game violence and exposed as hysteria by the quality of most programming on television, where the violence is every bit as widespread.  But those issues of the game, whether the maker of the game is in American terms a liberal or a republican, are rarely discussed but usually to some extent detectable.  Grand Theft Auto 4 was designed by a liberal team I am willing to wager.  It attacks and ridicules, amongst other things, the War on Drugs, the War on Terror and the American double-standard toward illegal immigrants.  Modern Warfare 2 features a rogue American general, who is eventually defeated by a British character who spouts an awful amount of doggerel.  The aggressor is Russia, as always appears to be the case in these American designed games, although the ever trusty Arabs did make an appearence in the first Modern Warfare, albeit as stooges of Russian ultranationalists, and a surprise appearance from Brazilians.  The point is that the game reinforces cultural stereotypes and in doing so shapes the culture of the one doing the stereotyping by portraying this as the ‘norm’ in the areas the game is meant to be located.

It is so much like Hollywood that it would make you want to weep.  Check out the following link. Watch the movies and trailers. Then tell me that this isn’t the glorification of US Special Forces during the course of an ongoing war.

http://www.medalofhonor.com/

Microsoft Access Database as an Organisational Tool

Microsoft Access Database is a program that allows you to enter information into a database that can be used to organise data.  Accordingly I dug out the 1911 census that has featured in earlier posts in my blog.  Access allows you to import information into the database from outside programs such as Word or Excel.  Since I already possessed the 1911 census in Excel spreadsheet format, it was relatively easy to import this information into Access.  The initial database, which was going to act as the starter information for Access’s other features looked like so. As you can see, the format of the initial database is very similar to Excel.  Information is divided into columns, with each column having a heading which explains what kind of information is in each column.  As I said, all very similar to Excel so far.  Where Access differs is in the other features it allows the user to quickly generate forms, reports and queries using the information provided to the initial database.  Creating a form is likewise a relatively easy experience.  Firstly the database from which the pertinent information is to be drawn is selected, then by clicking the create tab and selecting form the form is automatically generated using the information provided.  The forms seem to me to be similar to flash cards that one could use as an assistance to teaching or giving a presentation.  They also can be used to create a record of the individuals entered into the database.  In the image to the right you can see an example of what a form would look like, using the information from the 1911 census.  As you can see, the information regarding each individual is inserted into the form format, allowing the user to quickly access information pertaining to a specific individual.  This is an excellent way to breakdown  surveys, censuses etc. into component individual cases, with all the necessary information organised into the form for easy retrieval.

Access also allows the user to generate reports from information provided to the initial database.  Reports function as a method of presenting all the information in a handy printable format that can allow for such information to be displayed in a common location for those working on a group project or otherwise.  In other words, a report is a hand kind of thing to thumb tack to a noticeboard. Various editing techniques can be applied to the report, such as the insertion of a company or university logo to give the report a more professional appearance, should you wish to do so.  There is also an option to link tables in the initial database together, meaning that such information will always be related to other information that can help make sense of the information provided.  Technically this has very little to do with the report but for the sake of aesthetics I felt I should leave a bit of space or text before I inserted the next image, which is of the query form.  Here it is.  Query is one of the shining examples of how useful a database can actually be.  Queries are created in a similar way to forms and reports, by accessing the create tab and selecting query.  Doing so will open the query wizard, which will ask you to select the fields of data relevant to your query.  I wished to find out which Roman Catholics in the data provided were Irish speaking.  Therefore the pertinent fields were first name, surname, religion and Irish speaking.  The first two fields I left alone:  These were the fields whereby the program would provide the information to answer my query.  In the third field I set the criteria to Roman Catholic, and in the fourth the criteria was set to yes.  This ensured that the program would gather all details of Roman Catholics who were also Irish speakers.  As you can see the query was a resounding success.

Microsoft Access is a tool which I could see myself getting good use out of.  As a way of collating information from spreadsheets it is unparalleled.  It’s manner of presentation and the theory function mean that it is tidier then Excel.  Information is easier to find and as a result easier to work with.  The query function allows for time consuming research to be done quickly an efficiently.  The information provided may not necessarily be census like.  Lists of military purchases from one state to another for example could be quickly analysed or the membership of a historical group or organisation quickly arranged to allow easy access for a research project.  With Access the clue is in the name.  It simply makes accessing uploaded information so much easier.

Mind Mapping

Personally I have never been one for spider diagrams.  They always reminded me of the Michael Collins despairing reference to DeValera “How could one argue with a man who was always drawing lines and circles to explain his position”.  Still after using Freemind I am ready to reconsider.  My initial distaste for spider diagrams and mind maps has probably something to do with the way my mind works: I am the kind of character who likes lists.  The great thing about lists is that you can keep them tidy and logical.  Mind maps and spider diagrams on the other hand usually ended in a kind of disaster of erased ideas, crossed out lines, scribbling and branches going off the edge of the page and on to the other side.  Not the best way to come up with a logical plan.  Freemind however eliminates all this messiness.  For a start there is literally no edge to the paper (because there is no paper, one could frame a few faux-philosophical Zen questions based on the change from paper to digital form).  Below is my first effort at using Freemind.   I decided to use a mind map to illustrate the factions involved in the 1953 Iranian Coup and the principle characters involved in the coup.Personally I think it’s pretty good.  It makes it easy to see the principal actors involved in the event.  (If you can’t see the full mind-map, just right click on the image and have it open in a new tab).  I also developed a mind map to plan out the issues I will tackle in the course of writing my thesis.I have only made a small use of Freemind so far but already I can see that it is potentially a fantastic tool for organizing and planning ideas to shape into a thesis.  Frankly I wish I had done a bit more much work on the thesis so that I could Freemind a few more ideas.  Freemind also allows maps to be exported in different formats including HTML like so.  A seperate option allows the map to be save as the files for a webpage, although I haven’t quite figured out how to make that work yet.  Still the potential for Freemind is great.  The following statement has been a common theme throughout my blog post but I feel it is worth repeating again.   I strongly feel that the use of programs such as Freemind should be taught to undergraduate students at an early stage in the first semester, preferably during the first week before alcoholic fatigue sets in and they, inevitably, stop turning up to lectures.

Lonely as a cloud.

administration (9) american (37) become (9) bring (11) communist (9) forces (20) freedom (9) nation (19) negotiations (13) north (9) paris (8) peace (34) people (21) plan (13) policy (17) president (17) south (28) states (11) united (12) vietnam (53) vietnamese (12) war (45) withdrawal (18) world (12) years (13)

created at TagCrowd.com

Above is a word cloud I created using Richard Nixon’s address to the nation on Vietnam.  Well it was meant to be a word cloud but for some reason its presenting itself in the format above.  I’ve taken a screen shot of the tag cloud here.  Notice that the words most commonly mentioned are in a larger font then the other words.  The word cloud generator that I used to create this cloud also allows for the frequency at which the word in question appears to be shown.  Smaller words such as ‘the’, ‘and’, ‘or’ etc. are left out of the tag cloud.  The tag cloud thus acts as a quick way to analyse a policy speech or document by simply feeding it into a tag cloud generator and seeing the frequency at which thematic or ideologically loaded words are used.

If you want to get the best of a tag cloud generator, you are best deciding which words you consider to be important.  Take the example above.  As we can see, Nixon repeatedly uses the word ‘war’, often in conjunction with the word ‘Vietnam’, which would seem to make sense as the topic under discussion is the Vietnam war.  However the word ‘peace’, which only appears 12 times in contrast to ‘war’s 45 mentions.  You could interpret this as meaning that Nixon is far more in favour of war then he is of peace, although in fact almost the opposite is true.   Nixon wants peace but on his terms.

Tag clouds are a nice way of visualizing a speech.  As a teaching and training method, word clouds do allow the teacher to greater engage the students and encourage interactive participation.  However, as a policy analysis tool, word clouds are limited.  What they do provide is quick and handy word counts, but separate from proper analytical study the word counts are somewhat pointless on their own.

Facebook

Facebook is the largest on-line social networking community in the world.  The idea is intriguingly simple.  Facebook provides each of it’s on-line user’s with a noticeboard, similar in nature to any of the noticeboards in the academic departments.  The purpose of both is identical: to provide a surface, either digital or physical, where to a note (or video, or link, which if to text, is still just a note) may be added either by another for the attention of the user of the board or by the user to their audience.  Now one may consider that the use of the departmental notice to deliver a sick note is unacceptable, but that is merely a matter of etiquette and not purpose.  Also like a notice board, a controversial posting, be it marks for the year or,  for example, a proposed additional fee to be charged by the university, will encourage a gaggle of on-lookers and concern parties to gather about it, making pronouncements on the subject.  These pronouncements can be interesting and insightful, or alternatively bland, inane or irrelevant.  Sadly in the case of Facebook, the latter is often the case.  Below is a prime example.  The still is taken from BBC World News’ Facebook page.  By becoming a fan of the page one can receive updates from the page’s administrator.  In addition, on some pages fans can add their own posts or videos.  BBC World News does not allow this: BBC World News is an old fashioned professional news agency.  BBC World News does allow and indeed encourages it’s fans to comment on posts by the page’s administrator.  As can be seen from the still, the quality of comments, or if you will, the crowd sourcing on the matter, can be somewhat.. erratic.  But then BBC World News is a popular service, that appeals to a wide variety of people, differing in terms of analytical skill from one commenter to the next.  The global natures of the topics discussed by BBC World News mean that they affect a great variety of people with a variety of different opinions, some more well thought out then others.

Facebook also acts as a method for interested parties to further various political causes.  Take for example this Facebook page which I set up myself.  Titled ‘For the People?’, the page is a catalogue of news stories and articles compiled to follow Ireland’s banking crisis.  It also gave me an opportunity to use and test Delicious, which performed admirably.  The page is little more then an unsubtle propaganda effort, but has attracted 56 followers, the reasons of why will continue to remain a mystery.  If I was to identify problems with the page, I would point first to the name of the page, which is probably too abstract for Facebook.  Ideally the name of a page should contain a synopsis of the issue you wish to highlight, ideally a statement of intent.  Nevertheless, as amateurish an attempt as this may be, it does demonstrate the potential of social media for political/propaganda purposes.  The more important issue however is if Facebook can act in the same way in areas such as education.  As a quick test I joined a Facebook page dedicated to International Relations.  Again the format was the same.  User’s could post comments and links, sometimes useful, sometimes not so.  The page allows for discussions and provides a forum like application (app) for the discussions to take place.  Discussions take place on a variety of subjects relating to International Relations.  A recent discussion for example discussed the Clinton Doctrine.  As well as this, posters to the International Relations page sometimes introduce themselves or ask questions relating to International Relations, perhaps hoping to get information from other students of the subject.  In this way the International Relations page does allow for a certain amount of crowd-sourcing and allows for students of International Relations to try and recruit a community of practice, perhaps globally.

Facebook also allows users to creates pages for upcoming events.  Users can be invited to events, allowing Facebook to act as an efficient method of advertising conferences or other academic gatherings. The posting below shows the time, date and subject matter of a conference due to take place.  I was alerted to this post by an alert from the Facebook homepage where the recent activities of your Facebook friends are displayed.  As the poster in question decided to attend the advertised event, I was alerted to the existence of the event.  In this way Facebook can be considered an excellent resource for advertising an event and raising consciousness amongst possibly interested parties.

In conclusion, Facebook is best used as a resource for promoting events and specific causes.  It acts as a message board which allows user to communicate with friends i.e. linked users and organisations.  However as a discussion platform Facebook can be hit and miss.  Like much of the internet, it may require some trawling before one can dredge up useful information.  Facebook may have some limited uses as a learning tool, allowing the user to be informed of conferences and academic events, but other then this it it provides little that can have real use in learning.  If you are looking for a discussion on a specialist subject, you are best finding an internet forum dedicated to the subject, rather then discussing your subject on Facebook.

Birds Tweet as a Show of Force

Celebraties tweet to raise their profile.  Politicians have began to Tweet to take scalps (Congratulations to Dan Boyle on the first successful political assassination using the new medium).  Sometimes both find themselves in trouble as a result of their tweets, as they fail to understand that their tweets are as good as if they nailed their thoughts on the subject in question to the doors of Wittenberg Cathedral.  Social networking is an ever expanding phenomenon.  Advances such as the iPhone mean that some social net workers are literally never off the grid.  They can communicate with a network of followers at any place, at any time.  All very good and technologically wonderful, but what are the uses of Twitter that can be applied to the world of digital learning?  Mike drew our attention to a project under way via Twitter whereby historical situations are recreated in real time, allowing one to follow the American War of Independence for example in real time.  A project such as this has its advantages in that it allows students and historians to gain a sense of the progress of such historical events.  Take for example the ride of Paul Revere.  A tweet will inform of Revere’s departure and arrival, allowing the student to appreciate the length of the ride, and allowing them to suppose something of the mental process undergone by the likes of Revere.  It is easier to empathise with someone if you can see progress through their eyes.  So as a tool for learning it does indeed have it’s advantages.

Twitter has another, less discussed advantage, and that is that you can Twitter for yourself.  What I mean by this is not that you can begin to Tweet about your private life in some sort of act of group counselling, but rather that it is a handy way of taking notes in situations where you may not have the resources to take a note in the traditional manner.  Put it this way.  I do most of my best thinking while walking or driving.  In these kind of situations, with no notebook or pen available, I may well have forgotten my epiphany by the time I reach my destination or complete whatever task I was on my way to do.  However if I simply take out my phone (making sure to pull on to the hard shoulder first), I can send a 140 character synopsis of the idea to my twitter account which I can check later in my own time. Brilliant, yes? Well actually no.  Twitter will only accept updates from Vodafone and O2 and I, unfortunately, am a customer of meteor.  Likewise the majority of people I would contact on a day-to-day basis are also meteor and I am loathe to abandon my free calls and texts to meteor.  This, I realise, is entirely my fault.  Still, I do actually see this as a great prospects for myself to avoid forgetting ideas in the future, as soon as my student poverty eases and I can afford an O2 sim card.  Until then, I’ve taken to carrying a notebook and a pen in my inside jacket pocket.  Unfortunately last week my pen leaked and destroyed my inside pocket, which my phone, despite it’s faults, has yet to do. Some day, some day….

A Visual Tour of Askeaton Friary

Slide shows are a good way to provide a selection of inter related images.  As an undergrad student I did a project of the architecture of Askeaton Friary in County Limerick.  The Friary is a fine example of a fourteenth century ecclesiastical settlement, and showcases some of the most complex building styles of the time.  The easiest way to upload the slide show was to use a program specifically designed for doing so.  A quick browse of the WordPress forums informed me the slide.com, a slide show hosting website, was compatible with WordPress.  Images uploaded  to Slide can be arranged into a slide show format.  The site contains many different methods of presenting slide shows from the traditional gallery style as seen above to the ‘old time film’ style seen below.

Whatever style suits your fancy, Slide makes it extremely easy to add a slide show to a blog.  The question that follows is of course a consideration of the practical advantages of adding a slide show to the blog.  Aesthetically it looks good, as the slide show application allows you to have all the photos of a particular event or subject compiled in the one location which a reader can easily flick through, rather then have separate images scattered throughout the text.  The downside of the slide show is the same as it’s strengths funnily enough.  Since the slide show is so compact, a large slab of text underneath can be off putting to the casual reader, but there is no other suitable way of adding some of your own commentary to the slide show, although one could add an audio track discussing each of the images.  Nevertheless, slide shows remain an aesthetically pleasing learning supplement that can be used to brighten up even the dreariest lecture on a topic by providing visual stimulation for the student and allowing the teacher/lecturer/tutor to engage more parts of the student’s brain to speed and strengthen the learning process.

Expanded Bibliography

As the year moves on and it gets closer and closer to the thesis writing D-Day, I have expanded the bibliography of sources I intend to use for the thesis, complied easily and efficiently with Zotero.  So far it’s primarily secondary source material, I am finding it difficult to source electronic information for primary source documents.  This of course is the one downside of Zotero, someone else has to compile the information before you can capture and if the source material is particularly obscure you just might not be able to find the necessary information electronically.  Nevertheless, I am happy with the bibliography and source material so far, which has been greatly expanded since I first posted a bibliography earlier in the year.

Below you can see the bibliography, captured by Zotero and automatically compiled in the correct format using the Zotero create bibliography feature.

Ali, Tariq. The Clash of Fundamentalisms: Crusades, Jihads and Modernity. New edition. Verso Books, 2003.

Ansari, Ali M. “Review: [untitled].” The International History Review 27, no. 3 (September 2005): 681-683.

Axworthy, Michael. A History of Iran: Empire of the Mind. Basic Books, 2008.

Azimi, Fakhreddin. Iran: The Crisis of Democracy: From the Exile of Reza Shah to the Fall of Musaddiq: 1941-1953. First Paperback Edition. I B Tauris & Co Ltd, 2009.

———. The Quest for Democracy in Iran: A Century of Struggle against Authoritarian Rule. Harvard University Press, 2008.

Bamberg, J. H. The History of the British Petroleum Company 2 Volume Set: The History of the British Petroleum Company: Volume 2. Cambridge University Press, 2009.

Bamberg, James. British Petroleum and Global Oil, 1950-1975 : The Challenge of Nationalism. Cambridge University Press, 2000.

Barrett, Roby C. The Greater Middle East and the Cold War: US Foreign Policy Under Eisenhower and Kennedy. I. B. Tauris, 2007.

Bayandor, Darioush. Iran and the CIA: The Fall of Mosaddeq Revisited. Palgrave Macmillan, 2010.

Behrooz, Maziar. “Tudeh Factionalism and the 1953 Coup in Iran.” International Journal of Middle East Studies 33, no. 3 (August 2001): 363-382.

Bills, Scott L. “Review: [untitled].” The International History Review 12, no. 2 (May 1990): 425-427.

Brands, H. W. “The Cairo-Tehran Connection in Anglo-American Rivalry in the Middle East, 1951-1953.” The International History Review 11, no. 3 (August 1989): 434-456.

Brown, L. Carl. “Review: [untitled].” Foreign Affairs 83, no. 6 (December 2004): 158.

Chapman, Peter. Jungle Capitalists: A Story of Globalisation, Greed and Revolution. Canongate Books Ltd, 2007.

Chaqueri, Cosroe. “Review: [untitled].” Iranian Studies 22, no. 2/3 (1989): 142-143.

Charmley, John. Churchill’s Grand Alliance: The Anglo-American Special Relationship, 1940–1957. Faber and Faber, 2009.

Cuddy, Edward. “Vietnam: Mr. Johnson’s War. Or Mr. Eisenhower’s?.” The Review of Politics 65, no. 4 (Autumn 2003): 351-374.

Eden, Anthony, and Dwight D. Eisenhower. Eden-Eisenhower Correspondence, 1955-1957. The University of North Carolina Press, 2005.

Ervand Abrahamian. “Review: [untitled].” Middle East Journal 57, no. 3 (Summer 2003): 499-501.

Fisk, Robert. The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East. Vintage, 2007.

Gasiorowski, Mark J. “The CIA Looks Back at the 1953 Coup in Iran.” Middle East Report, no. 216 (Autumn 2000): 4-5.

Gasiorowski, Mark J., and Malcolm Byrne. Mohammad Mosaddeq and the 1953 Coup in Iran. 1st ed. Syracuse University Press, 2004.

Hahn, Peter L. “Securing the Middle East: The Eisenhower Doctrine of 1957.” Presidential Studies Quarterly 36, no. 1 (March 2006): 38-47.

Heiss, Mary Ann. “The United States, Great Britain, and the Creation of the Iranian Oil Consortium, 1953-1954.” The International History Review 16, no. 3 (August 1994): 511-535.

Hiatt, Steven. A Game As Old As Empire: The Secret World of Economic Hit Men and the Web of Global Corruption. Berrett-Koehler, 2007.

Howard, Harry N. “The Regional Pacts and the Eisenhower Doctrine.” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 401 (May 1972): 85-94.

Immerman, Richard H. “Eisenhower and Dulles: Who Made the Decisions?.” Political Psychology 1, no. 2 (Autumn 1979): 21-38.

Jahanbakhsh, Forough. Islam, Democracy and Religious Modernism in Iran, 1953-2000: From Bazargan to Soroush. Brill Academic Publishers, 2001.

Jentleson, Bruce W. “Discrepant Responses to Falling Dictators: Presidential Belief Systems and the Mediating Effects of the Senior Advisory Process.” Political Psychology 11, no. 2 (June 1990): 353-384.

Kandiyoti, Rafael. Pipelines: Flowing Oil and Crude Politics. Illustrated edition. I B Tauris & Co Ltd, 2007.

Keddie, Nikki R. Modern Iran: Roots and Results of Revolution, Updated Edition. Updated. Yale University Press, 2006.

Kingston, Paul W. T. Britain and the Politics of Modernization in the Middle East, 1945-1958. Cambridge University Press, 2002.

Kinzer, Stephen. All the Shah’s Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror. 2nd ed. Wiley, 2008.

Kuniholm, Bruce R. “Review: [untitled].” The American Historical Review 94, no. 3 (June 1989): 895-896.

Lenczowski, George. “United States’ Support for Iran’s Independence and Integrity, 1945-1959.” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 401 (May 1972): 45-55.

Limbert, John W. Negotiating with Iran: Wrestling the Ghosts of History. United States Institute of Peace Press, 2009.

Marsh, Steve. “The Special Relationship and the Anglo-Iranian Oil Crisis, 1950-4.” Review of International Studies 24, no. 4 (October 1998): 529-544.

Petherick, Christopher J. The CIA in Iran: The 1953 Coup and the Origins of the US-Iran Trade. 1st ed. American Free Press, 2007.

Ramazani, R. K. “Review: [untitled].” Middle East Journal 42, no. 2 (Spring 1988): 311-313.

Roosevelt, Kermit. Countercoup, the struggle for the control of Iran. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1979.

Sadr, Houshang Keshavarz, and Hamid Akbari. Mossadegh and the Future of Iran. Illustrated edition. IBEX Publishers,U.S., 2004.

Samii, Kuross A. Involvement by Invitation: American Strategies of Containment in Iran. Pennsylvania State University Press, 1987.

———. “Truman against Stalin in Iran: A Tale of Three Messages.” Middle Eastern Studies 23, no. 1 (January 1987): 95-107.

Ward, Steven R. Immortal: A Military History of Iran and Its Armed Forces. Georgetown University Press, 2009.

Wilber, Donald N. Regime Change in Iran: Overthrow of Premier Mossadeq of Iran, November 1952 – August 1953. Abm Komers, 2000.

Yapp, M. E. “Review: [untitled].” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, no. 2 (1990): 396-397.

Organization, Bookmarking and RSS

One of the fascinating aspects of the internet and one of it’s most useful features when it comes to electronic learning is the sheer vast amount of information and analysis that one can find.  Everybody has an opinion and with the confidence that the anonymity of the internet brings everyone is willing to share.  Still, it takes a certain amount of experience to separate the gold from the dross.  Once, however, you have found worthwhile sites for information and analysis, it is well worth the time bookmarking these sites and setting up subscribing to RSS feeds where applicable.  I have made use of the bookmarking and RSS reader functions of my Firefox browser to set up bookmarks allowing me to find my favourite sites quickly and efficiently, with the mere movement of a mouse, eliminating my previous pattern of typing the web address , attempting to remember the name of the site, swearing at the laptop, trying to google it, failing, swearing again, trawling through search results, screaming in frustration and kicking the dog/ house mate.   By setting up book marks and RSS feeds, the organizational process becomes a lot quicker allowing me to quickly access and analyses new posts, articles or whatever.

I have split the various sites I am subscribed to in to four separate categories: Blogs, Forums, News and Websites.  Each category is contained within a separate folder on the browser, allowing me to easily find what I am looking for and in the case of those links subscribed to RSS feed to quickly scan the headlines in search of interesting material.

As you can see from the screen shot I am subscribed to a good few blogs, some concerned with Digital History, such as Dan Cohen’s excellent Digital History blog, some concerned with current affairs, in these exciting times we live, and some being little more then the deranged ranting of extremists, mostly for entertainment.

The forums folder contains all those forums I have found that concern themselves with history and politics.  Forums can be a great resource for discussion and analysis, as well as offering a platform for historians, amateur and otherwise, to provide links to new discoveries and sources of information.  Still, it is important when using forums, and the internet in general, to check, recheck and double check the sources used by the poster.  If I find a poster making a claim on a forum that I haven’t heard before, I immediately approach the claim with some suspicion.  I check the replies to the post, to see if another poster has identified any problems with the posters statement.  I check Wikipedia.  Then I check the source Wikipedia has used by feeding the title of the source into a search engine along with the word ‘review’ to see if I can get a review of the source.  Then I google the reviewer.  Seems like a long procedure, but once you’ve done it a couple of times it becomes second nature.  The point is that you have to be sure of the authenticity of the sources used.  Don’t believe everything you read, particularly on the internet.

The news folder draws RSS feed from some of the major news outlets worldwide, the BBC, al Jazeera, CNN and such forth.  I include others like FOX to attempt to see all sides of an issue, or rather to see what kind of a spin each side is putting on an issue.  Mind you, this is as true for CNN and the BBC as it is for FOX.

Finally the websites folder contains all the other sites that are useful but don’t quite fit into the other categories.  The miscellaneous, if you will, which includes the Irish Times since they decided that they were going to charge to view the paper on-line and cancelled my RSS feed in the process.  As punishment they will remain in the websites folder with the universal translator, the currency converter and several on-line archives. Bookmarking has proved an extremely effective way of bringing some order to my surfing of the web.  It has allowed me to turn what exists as a chaotic mass of digital information into an easy to use communication, discussion and information gathering tool.  Yet in schools and universities up and down the land, many students are ignorant of the potential benefits that maximising their browser use and organisation can bring them.  Unfortunately there are dangers there for the inexperienced web user.  You have to develop your critical facilities so that you are in a position to judge the worth of whatever information that you find.  In using the web as a learning tool, you must be aware of the dangers as you are of the advantages.  Currently however,  the amount of training given to students at both secondary and undergraduate level concerning the use of the internet is quite frankly dismal.  Academia needs to embrace the internet and make it their own, so that it is easier for the sole traveller to detect the light of learning and safe haven rather then plunge into the morass of conspiracy theory and conjecture.

Photoshop Tutorials

Link here for 30+ Photoshop tutorials.  Essentially, free knowledge.