Hi and welcome to your class blog! This will be the place where we communicate between classes. You’ll also find the Syllabus, Day-to-Day Schedule and other worthy nuggets here…..while you’re here, go ahead and hit the “Follow Blog Via Email” link to the right……
Your first assignment is to watch tonight’s State of the Union and follow The Fix blog on The Washington Post’s Web site and then weigh in with your thoughts on the experience on the comments section of this blog post.
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Jan 24, 2012 @ 22:17:49
The two-screen approach was easier than I anticipated. However, keeping up with the live blog as well as listening and watching the speech was a little difficult. Very detailed and powerful speech..
Jan 24, 2012 @ 22:20:51
To be honest, I found it difficult to watch both the State of the Union and pay attention to the live blog simultaneously. I feel like most of that is because A lo of the live blogging seemed like snarky commentary about what people were wearing and what facial expressions were being made, and a lot of “Biden is texting”. Granted, I did see a few intelligent comments about what was actually being said, and that was semi-interesting, especially when I started trying to identify who was watching the Address on FOX and who was watching on MSNBC. Overall though, I preferred to put most of my attention toward the actual Address over the blog feed.
Jan 24, 2012 @ 22:25:20
I have never watched the State of the Union in its entirety because I’ve never found myself too interested in politics, but in this case I’m glad I did. Not only did I learn about some of Obama’s more prominent policies for educational funding but I got a good feel for Obama as a man and as an American, rather than just seeing him as a Democrat.
As far as experience goes, I found it very difficult to watch the television program and keep up with the live feed on The Fix. There were a couple times when I lost track of the feed, or when I missed a part of the State of the Union because I was paying attention to the other outlet. However, I found that when I was able to efficiently combine the television program with the live online feed, it was extremely helpful in clearing up points of confusion and offering alternative ways of viewing certain policies.
There were several times in the live feed that individuals made remarks that I did not agree with, and I enjoyed having the opportunity to rebut those remarks with my own opinion. It made for an interesting and informative first experience watching the complete State of the Union.
Jan 24, 2012 @ 23:01:20
In many ways, The Fix blog is like the discussion you have with friends while watching a football game….or awards show.
Jan 24, 2012 @ 23:43:41
I think I have to agree with the above comments. Watching the State of the Union was actually quite interesting and I never thought that it could be. Obama is obviously a terrific orator, which helped get through some of the drier points of his speech. However, keeping up with the live feed on TV and reading comments was challenging. It was difficult to give my attention back and forth to each medium.
Even though there was some good conversation on the blog, like tweets by The Fix of some powerful quotes, I still found it cluttered with jargon. Honestly, about half of the live blog was about Biden allegedly texting and Boehner tanning too much. I get that its political humor and its a conversation dedicated to creating traffic on the site, but it really ruined the experience of watching the #SOTU.
I think I could have gotten a better experience without the live blog in terms of understanding his aspirations and suggested policies. All things considered, the address was a great opening for his 2012 reelection campaign.
Jan 26, 2012 @ 10:31:49
Tyler — What kind of jargon were you finding?
Steve
Jan 26, 2012 @ 11:26:39
Steve:
Like Dylan said below, I felt that whenever the camera panned the blog became cluttered with jokes or snide remarks about facial hair, tanned skin, haircuts, facial expressions and more. I feel that if ‘m going to follow a live blog at the same time as watching something like the #SOTU then it should at least stay on point. Adding something insightful to the conversation is far more rewarding than poking fun at Congressman.
Jan 25, 2012 @ 11:18:13
I agree with everyone who has already commented. I really enjoyed watching the State of the Union and found it very interesting. This is the first time I have watched the SOTU the entire way through and it was very easy to watch because Obama is such a powerful, inspiring speaker. I thought that watching The Fix’s live blog while attempting to listen to the SOTU really took away from the experience.
When the political analysts, like Chris Cillizza, on The Fix made comments on the live blog, they were generally interesting and informative. The problem that I have always had with chats and live blogs is that the fans of the blog put their two cents in and typically write comments that don’t add anything to the conversation at hand.
At some points I stopped looking at the live blog to concentrate on the SOTU and I would miss a few good comments by the political analysts. The live blog was nice because everybody could voice their opinion and it allowed me to see opinions that differed from mine and it allowed me to debate them, which is always fun.
Overall, I think The Fix’s live blog detracted from the overall viewing experience. While I learned alot and found the experience to be interesting, I think it is something that I probably wouldn’t do again.
Jan 25, 2012 @ 12:55:32
I have to agree with Tyler on his point that there was too much jargon. It didn’t ruin my experience of watching the SOTU, but there were some points where I just would not pay attention to the live blog because whenever they panned to someone in the audience the next 13-15 comments were about either a.) how horrible they looked or b.) talking about their facial hair. I don’t want to know about anyone’s facial hair, or how awful they are dressed, just pay attention to the words being spoken!
Jan 25, 2012 @ 22:03:08
I agree Dylan!
There were only a few good intellectual comments about the SOTU. I definitely found those obnoxious observations funny in the beginning, but after a while it got annoying and I eventually turned it off. Although the blog did ruin a lot of the meaning behind of the SOTU, I do think that The Fix is a great tool to track how capricious people are towards politics.
Jan 26, 2012 @ 10:33:00
Anjulei — So does the blog experience give you a more well-rounded view of why politics is so divisive in this country?
Steve
Jan 26, 2012 @ 11:22:37
Yes!
Jan 25, 2012 @ 17:53:03
Watching the state of the union address last night was actually quite interesting. I found the Fix live blog to be a valuable addition to the broadcast at times, but at others I found it to be distracting. As others have mentioned, I did not find many of the jokes funny or relevant. They only served to detract from Obama’s message. I did enjoy the posts that were intelligent or informative, and would have like to see more of them. If the entire feed were made up of these serious posts, I would have like the experience much, much more.
As far as content goes, this speech was much more of a “hey guys here’s what I’ve done” speech than I am used too (possibly because I only recently became interested in politics). I expected a status report on the nation, which it was in part, but it seemed much more like a PR stunt for Obama. I guess this is an election year though, so a certain amount of ego-stroking is to be expected.
Jan 25, 2012 @ 21:27:06
As a rookie to State of the Union addresses, my expectations of the speech were low- I expected to be bored. That was not the case. I was impressed at how many topics Obama covered in just over an hour- he jumped from the war in Afghanistan and the American economy, to public healthcare and education.
It was interesting to me to watch the speech while following the live blog. As I watched the speech with a friend, we would make a comment to one another, mostly that it seemed like Obama was doing some serious campaigning and self promotion. Then, I would look at my screen and notice someone had blogged the words straight from my mouth. It was reassuring to know I was not making poor judgement calls in reaction to the address.
Jan 25, 2012 @ 21:44:23
I can honestly say I have never sat and watched all of the State of the Union Address. As a Journalism and Political Science double major I found his speech to be very uplifting yet overly ambitious. Not to sound like a pessimist, although Obama poses great ideas for reform, I believe in the same idea as taught in class “Don’t tell me Show me”.
While watching The Fix Blog and the State of the Union Address it was hard to keep up with all the comments. There were many times I got carried away reading The Fix because people say the most absurd things. There were a lot of people commenting who observed a lot of things happening during the speech that I found very humorous. Although humor is a great way to engage readers, it definitely ruined the seriousness of the State of the Union Address.
Jan 25, 2012 @ 22:46:53
I was not able to watch the speech live so I had to watch it on the internet later. I was more or less able to sync up The Fix conversation with the video I was watching. Unfortunately, the most accessible recording of the SOTU was the whitehouse.gov “enhanced version”, which has a complimentary power-point presentation. I found the combination of the powerpoint, which they called “the blueprint”, the video, and The Fix to be overwhelming. Additionally, that specific video focused mostly on the President and skipped the audience shots, so a lot of the doofy commentary on The Fix had to stand alone.
I thought a lot of what was said was pretty funny, but I agree with Tyler and Dylan that it took away from the speech itself. I was a little surprised how little of the what was said on the The Fix had to do with the content of the SOTU.
Jan 25, 2012 @ 23:08:56
I didn’t get to experience watching the State of the Union and reading The Fix live blog at the same time because I had work, but I did go back and watch the SOTU while reading the live blog to similar results. I typically do this type of thing, reading live feeds during events (like award shows) so I wasn’t a stranger to the experience.
I definitely find myself more involved in the live feed aspect of this type of situation. I like listening to not just straight politics talk but peoples real opinions on other things (i.e. the pageantry and remarks about Biden doing random things on camera). It makes the watching experience more enjoyable in my opinion. It kind of draws away from the dryness something like this can have. Also, sometimes I don’t understand things in speeches such as the SOTU, so having live feeds like this helps me get a better grasp on whats being said and what the average person thinks of it.
Jan 26, 2012 @ 02:15:54
I also have never really sat down and watched the whole state of the union because I usually just read about it the next day. Unfortunately I couldn’t watch it because of schudeling conflicts but I was able to watch it on youtube and found myself deeply engrossed in it.Also while watching the state of the union on youtube, I also scrolled on The Fix Blog but eventually stopped reading it because some of the comments were insignificant.
Obama is a great speaker to watch, he’s clear, precise and always
makes good eye contact with the audience. Obama touched on a lot of
topics and I was impressed to learn a lot of things that I hadn’t known. I’m happy to know that employment rate is going up and Obama is on our side, trying to minimize college tuition and having more work study for us. I’m glad he understands that teachers are vital and education needs improvement. I’m glad that Obama has helped out American Businesses like the American Auto Industry.
Lastly, Obama’s final message that America is back was a great way for him to end the state of the union. It was hard trying to watch the state of the union and scrolling/reading the comments on the Fix. I eventually just watched the state of the union because it was more informative and interesting.
Jan 26, 2012 @ 10:34:33
I will say I’m a bit concerned by the number of you who have not sat down to watch the State of the Union before this week. It’s incumbent upon you as journalists to be well-rounded and well-informed.
Steve
Jan 26, 2012 @ 11:27:33
Like many of the other people who have already commented on this already, this was the first time that I have watched the State of the Union the entire way through. It definitely helps that Obama is such a tremendous and inspiring orator.
I found it somewhat difficult to keep up with The Fix’s live blog while watching the SOTU. It was difficult to try to concentrate on both and I feel like the blog took away from fully enjoying the SOTU. While many of the comments from the actual political analysts, like Cillizza, were very beneficial and actually provided insight into the SOTU, many comments from the casual fan were just unnecessary and just cluttered the blog.
For every one good comment, there were probably 10 that were useless. I have seen this before in many live blogs and it is one of the reasons that I tend to not look at them. While I do enjoy debating and being well rounded receiving different opinions, there comes a point where the random comments become annoying.