tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-60726272011-09-18T19:47:33.345-05:00Small thoughts about large issuesJordan Stalkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03956947954014562790noreply@blogger.comBlogger251100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6072627.post-52922772502642607592011-08-16T14:10:00.000-05:002011-08-16T14:10:31.666-05:00

I have decided to start using this blog again to help my writing. I've been experiencing significant, prolonged problems with focus. One of my strongest supporters, James Sosnoski, encouraged me to resume writing as a way to focus my research and intellectual development.

Jordan Stalkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03956947954014562790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6072627.post-9588781439678617072008-05-18T22:03:00.001-05:002008-05-18T22:03:50.068-05:00

My thesis plods on. I've decided to take a Foucauldian approach to discussing the formation and structure of academic departments. I think my most interesting contribution (not to say it is unique to my work) is my vision that the "docile body" of the perfectly trained infantryman is analogous to the graduate student. The soldier is charged with the task of defending and representing the kingdom.

Jordan Stalkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03956947954014562790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6072627.post-62193462129642228212008-04-22T17:36:00.001-05:002008-04-22T17:36:29.934-05:00

I haven't made the time to write about the process of my thesis. In a certain sense, this is good because that means I've made significant progress on the thesis itself. I believe that's true enough in my case.What it also means is that I haven't allowed myself to sit back and examine what I've actually done since February when I began compose my first thesis draft. I haven't taken the time to

Jordan Stalkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03956947954014562790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6072627.post-82474463136304401712007-12-19T00:19:00.001-06:002007-12-19T00:27:01.681-06:00

I'm headed back home to the Pacific Northwest in a few hours. I'm co-teaching a course that I hope will be an ethnographic study of Second Life. My students will explore the online environment and report on their findings each week. They'll discuss social and technical issues related to the technology and the built world. I admit that I had only messed with Second Life briefly about a year ago. I

Jordan Stalkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03956947954014562790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6072627.post-40305693900224144172007-11-29T00:49:00.000-06:002007-11-29T01:10:51.946-06:00

From the time I made my last post to now, Blogger has changed irrevocably. I don't know what this will mean for my compositions and my postings. I hope my stolen and altered design scheme remains intact. I've been inspired to take up blogging again by two graduate school colleagues who are also my friends (the two things aren't synonyms, usually to the determent of all involved). The blogs are

Jordan Stalkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03956947954014562790noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6072627.post-1166478090911686122006-12-18T15:40:00.000-06:002007-03-04T04:33:01.843-06:00

I've started to wonder if dogs enjoy prunes. I like prunes.

Jordan Stalkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03956947954014562790noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6072627.post-1153500245557027482006-07-21T11:43:00.000-05:002006-07-21T11:54:02.663-05:00

Though I’m coming to a review of The Search a year too late, I can explain why. I bought the book on its release, very excited to read some good journalism about the hottest business topic of the day. I was sure that Battelle, who had been chronically his progress on the book on his own blog, would deliver. Halfway through the book (in a matter of three days – a possible sign pointing to its lack

Jordan Stalkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03956947954014562790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6072627.post-1108943453928527102005-02-20T17:42:00.000-06:002005-02-20T17:50:53.930-06:00

http://www.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/Movies/02/20/dee.obit/index.htmlCNN is currently running this obituary about movie star Sandra Dee. Now, normally I'm all for people using the Internet as a means of getting a new piece of information, but this obituary is different. The only source CNN uses is the Internet Movie Database, an essentially user-created Web site where those who watch movies can post

Jordan Stalkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03956947954014562790noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6072627.post-1108155071453668102005-02-11T14:39:00.001-06:002005-02-11T17:33:23.876-06:00

Lawrence Lessig, a law professor at Stanford and arguably the most important figure in the rhetoric of intellectual property law, wrote a column for Wired on why he felt that the band Wilco, through its use of new media and the Internet (streaming their mp3s and doing live Web casts, for example), best exemplified what will be, in Lessig's words, "The future of music." Lessig hopes that more

Jordan Stalkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03956947954014562790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6072627.post-1107789490966415472005-02-07T09:13:00.000-06:002005-02-11T14:56:47.600-06:00

From my "hometown" newspaper, the Star Tribune, comes one of the few puff pieces, certainly the only one in recent memory, that I actually felt like ">reading. Apparently a debate is "raging" over whether an apostrophe ought to be included in the title, "Scholars' Walk" for a construction on the University of Minnesota campus. The reporter interviewed the English department and it is suggested in

Jordan Stalkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03956947954014562790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6072627.post-1107498356352011612005-02-04T01:09:00.000-06:002006-08-04T04:42:50.670-05:00

Tonight I was inspired. After several great conversations with very smart people, I decided to return to the blogosphere once more. The Institute for New Media Studies at the University of Minnesota, where I serve as a research assistant, hosted a screening of Chuck Olsen's Blogumentary documentary. A discussion followed, featuring panelists Olsen, Dan Gillmor, easily considered the one true ally

Jordan Stalkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03956947954014562790noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6072627.post-1107389305081989242005-02-02T17:53:00.000-06:002005-02-02T18:08:25.083-06:00

I was watching the Eastern Caucus for the Democratic National Committee this weekend. Howard Dean, former governor of Vermont and candidate for the Democratic nomination in 2004, (for those of you who have already forgotten) is gunning for the chair of the Democratic National Committee. The first thing he said when he reached the podium was, "I hate the republicans and I hate everything they

Jordan Stalkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03956947954014562790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6072627.post-1098217457143929162004-10-19T15:16:00.000-05:002006-11-08T18:57:57.556-06:00

My hiatus is taking longer than I originally expected. I haven't had any time to devote to a serious essay for this site in quite a long while. I've been busy with my research project on the car radio and volunteering as a precinct leader for MoveOnPAC. After the election, I hope to have some interesting material to share. About what, I'm not sure. But there will be something. Some day. I'm in

Jordan Stalkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03956947954014562790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6072627.post-1092808468861395912004-08-18T00:41:00.000-05:002004-08-18T00:54:28.860-05:00

I met some friends at a bar tonight and, as will always happen with me if I'm in a good mood, we began to talk about politics. One of the people at the table asked me, "I don't think I'm informed enough to vote. Do you think I still should?" "Get educated!" I said to her, raising my voice slightly. "There are two things that one must do as a citizen. The first is to get educated about the

Jordan Stalkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03956947954014562790noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6072627.post-1089600804252670152004-07-11T21:43:00.000-05:002006-09-17T12:46:34.660-05:00

I purchased Herbert J. Gans' Democracy and the News the other day and I've started to read it. I read his Deciding What's News a couple years ago and was deeply saddened to see that the massive media corporatization I talk about today started in the 1970s, when the book was published. The sadness comes not from ignorance, but from a depression that there's nothing unique about the business

Jordan Stalkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03956947954014562790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6072627.post-1087871359681530892004-06-21T21:22:00.000-05:002004-06-21T21:29:19.683-05:00

I guess it's the liberal egghead in me, but there's something amazing about the people who use the Republican phone line on any given C-SPAN call-in show. I can't quite wrap my head around the notion that the same person who would make a comment like "John Kerry's got a big belly... He looks like Santy Claus," would actually watch C-SPAN. There's always the possibility that the person making

Jordan Stalkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03956947954014562790noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6072627.post-1085125120552428132004-05-21T02:29:00.000-05:002006-07-28T05:02:20.433-05:00

Another more personal and less serious post this time around. I've decided to write an article justifying the role of the Web log in the scope of the media communications industry. Guys like Geoffrey Nunberg and John Dvorak don't seem to want to believe that the blog is a viable means of information relay. Both of them have written decent columns on the subject, though I think their ideas are

Jordan Stalkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03956947954014562790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6072627.post-1085034809626871882004-05-20T01:23:00.000-05:002004-05-20T12:27:52.376-05:00

While browsing around AlterNet.org, I saw a link to an interview of an ex-Marine who was part of the Iraqi liberation campaign, done by Paul Rockwell, of the McClatchy Company's Sacramento Bee newspaper. After doing some searching, I found out that the Marine, SSgt. Jimmy Massey, had been quoted in several different stories during the course of the second conflict in Iraq. He had an epiphany (

Jordan Stalkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03956947954014562790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6072627.post-1080620684102794822004-03-29T21:55:00.000-06:002004-04-03T00:59:12.450-06:00

I was quoted in an article in the Minnesota Daily, the campus newspaper at the University of Minnesota. The article, which covered the appearance of CNN’s Aaron Brown’s speech and reception in St. Paul, grossly underestimated both the importance and the crux of the statement I made. I’m not entirely certain if this was a conscious editorial decision, or if it was an arbitrary way for the copy

Jordan Stalkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03956947954014562790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6072627.post-1080432158316602152004-03-27T18:01:00.000-06:002004-03-27T18:06:10.733-06:00

This is a short (placeholder) post to welcome my newfound friends and colleagues. Expect a much longer post to be made by the Sunday night.

Jordan Stalkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03956947954014562790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6072627.post-1079932666528781922004-03-21T23:07:00.000-06:002004-03-23T16:00:54.170-06:00

In keeping with my bimonthly updating schedule, here's a post. I've been busy reading research material for a project I'm undertaking, starting next Fall; A History of the Car Radio. Two and a half years of cultural studies courses have taught me to use the article "a" instead of "the" when talking about an historical work. Anthro(a)pology, indeed. I'm very excited to avoid reading Jayson

Jordan Stalkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03956947954014562790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6072627.post-1074830760739297242004-01-22T22:02:00.000-06:002004-01-22T23:56:44.996-06:00

Short update today, as I'm actually infuriated enough, as opposed to being amused enough to write something. Today, Bill Janklow, former Representative (Republican) of South Dakota was sentenced for killing Randy Scott while the former was speeding through an intersection. The sentence is one hundred days in a county jail in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. One hundred days for murdering someone.

Jordan Stalkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03956947954014562790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6072627.post-1074399968021730332004-01-17T22:26:00.000-06:002004-03-21T23:11:06.826-06:00

Being the glutton for punishment that I am, I decided that it would be a good idea to watch Your World with Neil Cavuto on the FoxNews Channel while on vacation in Seattle. The segment I was most interested in was his interview with Ken Auletta, a contributor to The New Yorker, and author of several books on the business-end of the media profession. I have yet to pick up his latest book,

Jordan Stalkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03956947954014562790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6072627.post-1069522633384563522003-11-22T11:37:00.000-06:002003-11-22T11:51:34.700-06:00

Laura Ingraham, the newest conservative darling, did a book signing in my store last night. There were hundreds of very white, very conservative middle-aged white people in the store. The good part was that the store made several hundred dollars more as a result of her appearance than it would have otherwise. The bad news was that I had to play nice with a bunch of people who couldn't be farther

Jordan Stalkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03956947954014562790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6072627.post-1068701304795886022003-11-12T23:28:00.000-06:002003-11-12T23:28:29.820-06:00

It will probably take me a few days to get this blog formatted the way I want it. Then I should be able to post something interesting every few days thereafter. I've just noticed that there's some kind of "community" feature so perhaps I will be able to persuade some friends of mine to contribute something, as well. I can only hope that I'll be able to keep a regular update schedule, with

Jordan Stalkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03956947954014562790noreply@blogger.com0