Vox/Sandusky

I chose the stack on Transgender myths because honestly, I live a rather sheltered life and love taking any opportunity I can to learn. I was particularly intrigued by the card that explained gender identity in children, which I was honestly under a different impression of. I did not know that a child could determine a gender identity, considering their brains are not fully developed and they have experienced so little life. In terms of presentation, there are things that I both like and dislike about it. I like that the presentation is unique by the means of cards and that the colors blend well and seem appropriate for what the site is being used for. I also liked that you could see all the headlines in one screen so that you could easily pick what you wanted to read. However, I went to vox.com and could not find the cards from there, so if they are trying to gain attention and reads, it may not be the best idea.

When I first heard about the Sandusky situation, I did not know what to think about the situation. The news broke when I was in high school and if I’m being honest, I was not huge on the news in high school as I was too involved with my own athletic career to really spend time doing anything else. Pathetic excuse, especially considering where I am now. When I really took the time to learn what happened, I was disgusted. Purely disgusted. How could someone do that and how could someone else, someone so loved by so many, just let it happen? I was curious and wanted to know more, but also in too much of disgust to search for more answers.

Being a little bit older and a little bit wiser, reading the Patriot News now is even harder. I actually googled ‘Jerry Sandusky’ and learned based on recent news that he is now trying to appeal and actually appeared in court today. To me, that is just sick and cowardly. Why not take responsibility when all these people are scarred and suffering because of your actions? Reading the specific allegations are the hardest part for me, simply because of what they are; specific. Imagery, in this case, is not as welcome as usual. I commend Ganim’s reporting and I can only imagine how hard it must have been with her, having an even closer look at the case. As a women in sports media, I can only imagine the stigmas she encountered and roadblocks, considering the situation.

Vox Card Reaction: Gun Violence

Since gun violence continues to be a pressing issue in America, I chose to look through the cards on this issue.

The second card regarding the United States’ gun crime rates compared to other so-called “rich” countries was a jarring one. With 29.7 homicides by firearms per 1 million people in 2012, the chart revealed the United States has more such crimes than Switzerland, Belgium, Luxembourg and Canada combined.

I was also surprised by the fact that there are more gun suicides in America than gun homicides, going back as far as 1999. It’s a lot more common to hear about homicides when the issue with guns comes up, but I think this is a good glimpse into how gun control isn’t such a simple issue. This brings into the factor that mental health in this country should play in regards to this issue.

I think it’s important to also note that the angle with these cards isn’t necessarily for or against guns, although one can take away that gun violence in the United States is undoubtedly an issue. I bring up this point because of the third card, which stated that gun homicides — as well as all homicides — have declined starting in the 1990s. Other facts included may make people who are pro-guns believe these cards are purposefully learning toward gun control, but I think that would be an unfair claim to make.

Vox

I chose the “The Baltimore protests over Freddie Gray’s death, explained” stack because I didn’t much about who Freddie Gray was or all of the protests in Baltimore and I was interested in this stack of cards.

Not only did I find this stack of cards very interesting, I think Vox is a really cool website. It was super easy to use and had a lot of relevant and useful information. The stacks aren’t terribly long and are easy to read. I really like how you can click through out the cards and start on card #5 if you chose to. It’s also nice how you can rate a page with a thumbs up or down if you found the card helpful or not. Also throughout the cards there could be links to other articles related to the story, if you needed more information on the topic. That is also very cool.

Vox Cards: The 18 best TV shows airing right now

Being an avid TV watcher, the pop culture box set of The 18 best TV shows airing right now caught my eye to see what was upcoming and currently being considered as the best of the best on television. Also, I’m always interested in what people take into consideration when comparing television shows due to production costs and narratives within an hour. Production costs due to the fact TV traditionally has lower production cost than movies.

In order to rank, a TV show must have been airing for six weeks. However, the TV shows are listed alphabetically and not actually ranked in order of quality, which I was looking forward to seeing what they thought was the best show.

I found that some shows I had heard of such as Full Frontal with Samantha B and Stranger Things on Netflix. Other TV shows such as The A Word about autism had a compelling description and is something I am intrigued to look into.

Some TV shows are featured only on new streaming sites such as Netflix and Hulu which reflects the changing platform of television and a shift away from cable. As a millennial still paying for cable, I was shocked to see that six of the 18 listed were on online sites only.

TPP Vox Card Stack

I chose to check out the Vox card stack on the Trans-Pacific Partnership. I spent a lot of time studying and discussing this deal last semester in my International Law class, but I still found this stack to be informative and interesting.

Something I found especially interesting was the card on copyright provisions in the TPP, which I had not heard about. I had no idea that the passing of the TPP would mean the adoption of the same copyright laws we currently have in the U.S. in all ratifying countries. I can see how this may be a difficult aspect to accept for states with less comprehensive copyright and intellectual property laws, as well as why the TPP would make it much harder to change our laws in the future.

All in all, I really enjoyed the presentation style of the card stack. Increasingly, I feel that the attention span of the average reader is shrinking, so breaking down information into digestible sections is a smart move for the writer. It also allows the reader to choose relevant cards to view instead of throwing all of the information at them at once. The interactivity and mobile aspects also lend themselves to better readership.

Vox Card Reaction: The Pope

I chose to read about the Pope, especially given that we just watched Spotlight in class on Thursday.

With this in mind, I went straight to the section about the allegations towards priests and the Pope’s reaction and handling of them. The post is organized well overall and is easy to navigate, and finding this section was not difficult as well.

What I found most interesting was the notion that this current Pope is the first one to publicly acknowledge the possibility of imposing what they refer to as “sanctions” on the guilty priests and bishops. Time named him their Person of the Year in 2013 and they referred to Pope Francis as the “People’s Pope.”

I had a general awareness of the Pope and his responsibilities, and reading these cards was a good way to go further in depth on something I didn’t know too much about and wasn’t that familiar with in a way that was easy to follow and understand.

Vox Cards: The Flint Water Crisis

I chose the Flint Water Crisis because it was something I was initially interested in, but I think the problem was overshadow by the other tragedies that were going on in the nation. Tragedies such as the unlawful shootings of African Americans by police, ISIS and this very pathetic presidential election.

I was not aware about the switch, when the city chose to stop buying water from Detroit and instead draw water from Lake Huron; water that had not been treated or tested. I can’t even wrap my mind around the carelessness and udder disinterest that the government exemplifies for the residents of Flint. To add insult to injury, Michigan’s Department Environmental Quality outright ignored and downplayed the residents’ complaints of smelly discolored water.

This is another example of those given authority and ranks, abusing their power and showing no respect of concern of the people they are suppose to protect.

I’m sure I’m not the only one who was ignorant about everything going on in Flint, Michigan and I wish more people who educate themselves about this and the other atrocities going on in the nation caused by people with power trying to suppress those who do not. I think many people live in a state of denial. They don’t want to believe the corruption and injustice, but it’s happening everyday.

The article mentioned that similar water crisis have taken place in many other cities across the nation, but the reason Flint became such a big story is because it was avoidable. The author of the Vox card referred to it as a “manmade disaster,” and to me, that’s the most upsetting part.

The Flint Water Crisis is another example of how government institutions have failed Black Americans. It exploded in the media at the same time that African Americans were being targeted by systematic racism, which puts this crisis in a larger realm.

Exploring Vox Card sets

The vox card set that I didn’t know a lot about was Brexit. I know what happened but I didn’t totally understand it.

The first few cards gave me a basic knowledge of the EU and it’s creation as well as why Britain was apprehensive about staying in it post the 2008 economic crash.

It seems also that the British were tired of not having total control over their whole country. They were subjected to some “ridiculous” laws and most changes had to be done on the “european” level. Meaning if one country opposed, the motion or change did not go through.

Migration rules also were a big factor this year especially after the crisis in Syria.

On the other side the PM David Cameron expressed the benefits Britain receives from being in the EU like free-trade zones.

Now since Britain has left, the EU may not let them back in easily nor could they have all the benefits they had previously.

The cards then go on to explain what could happen in Britain tries to regain access into the EU or if it doesn’t.

Exploring vox card stacks

I looked through the cards on vox about the war in Syria. It was presented clearly and in a way that helped put individual events into the context of the entire situation. Even though it was about 15 slides long, it felt fairly short. I think that came from how concepts were simple and direct. Perhaps it’s just because I chose to dive into cards on an incredibly complex crisis, but I felt like a lot of facts were mentioned in a short period of time, making it slightly difficult to retain. Because of that, I felt like this particular stack of cards is better to be viewed as a resource to occasionally consult when clarification is needed, rather than as a source you can read once and completely understand.

I like how at the very beginning, the cards gave a brief history of Syria, particularly how French imperialists created the nation’s borders and grouped together ethnically and religiously diverse sets of people. This key piece of background information probably isn’t going to be found in a breaking news story on the civil war or the refugee crisis. Something I didn’t know much about was the Hama massacre in 1982, where the regime learned that “mass violence was the smart response to unrest.” I thought that was a crucial component to understand the current issues in Syria.

After also flipping through some other topics, I like the idea of vox card stacks. It’s simple and easy to use. For me, the best part is that it’s dived into short segments. Sometimes it’s easy to get lost or click away from one page where you have to scroll forever. I also like how the cards incorporated plenty of hyperlinks in case you want to find more information.