Journal #15: Analyzing Arguments

God at school. (2008, September 7). Los Angeles Times, p.A33.

According to this edditorials, it is not good for public schools to prevent stdent religious clubs. This article argues that although the U.S. Supreme Court prohibit to pray officially in the classroom, it doesn't mean a voluntary student bible club should be barred from meeting on school property outside of class. The argument opposed discrimination against the bibke club at a public school is a claim of policy which appeals to reason. To rreach the conclusion that Anaheim's Esperanza High School have to allow the bible club to meet on school property like other student clubs, this editorial suggests the Equal Access Act passed by Congress in 1981 and upheld by the Supreme Court in 1990.

Journal #14 My First Source

Paletz, D. (2002). The media American Politics: contents and consequences. second edition. Addison-Wesley Educational Publishers.

David L. Paletz is a professor of Political Science. He studied about the relations of mass media and politics. Mass medias which he dealt with were various from television to internet. Also, he talked about people influenced by mass media and government which had influence on media. In this book, he suggested lots of information about the interaction of mass media, people, the intermediaries like interest groups and elections, and the government. America is a free democratic society, and has a open culture that direct speaking is preferred. Especially, debate and interview are considererd as important factors when Americans make a political judgement. I am interested with speech communication which help people to make a political decision. Speech communication has a controversial effect on political judgement. I gained my research topic from this book, so I will do research for speech communication's role for political impact.

Journal #13 Summary/Paraphrase Practice

In October 14, 2008, Claudia Eller, LA Times staff writer, reported that Steven Spielberg's funding plans are dragged because of the global credit crisis. Now, DreamWorks needs to fund-raise $700 million to $750 million for debt, even though it is invested $ 500 million to $ 550 million by India’s Reliance ADA Group for a 50% equity stake. Recently, Spielberg, who wants to independently reconstitute DreamWorks, chose Universal for distributing his movies after breaking up Paramount Pictures. Interviewing with Stacey Snider who is a partner of DreamWorks since 2006, Claudia says that Spielberg is ultimately satisfied with Universal Pictures. Universal and DreamWorks approve that Universal get an 8% fee for distributing about six films a year during seven year, and also DreamWorks will receive over $150 million loans for new studio and advertising costs.

Eller,C.(2008,October 14)Universal Pictures to DreamWorks films.Los Angeles Times,from http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-dreamworks14-2008oct14,0,4451902.story

Journal #12 Research Topic

My research topic is speech communication, and I try to study about freedom of speech and expression. My major was Political Science, and especially I was interested with Modern Korean Political History. In 1970's and 1980's Korean Government had limited freedom of speech and expression, because most korean politicians thought free speech would be a severe threat to social statibility for Korea which was a divided country. At that time, most mass media such as TV, newspaper, and radio was controlled free expression, and nobody could express their critical thinking. Any opposite opinion wasn't allowed. Therefore, government became more and more dictatorial, and people were resented.
Now, Koreans have enjoyed complete freedom of speech since 1988 held Seoul Olympic Games, but Korea has had another problem about free speech. Nowadays, the impact of free speech is great because of the development of various mass media, like especially internet. Now koreans are concerned with the right of free speech, not the limitations of free speech. A few days ago, a famous Korean actress killed herself. One of her suicide causes was blogger's bad comments about her. Her friens told that she felt very sad when she read the comments about her. People seem to have unreponsibility for free speech; however, it is dangerous government limit free speech because a mature society can be accomplshed by free communication. Therefore, I'd like to learn more about freedom of speech and expression.

Journal #11 Advice

I had advised my first daughter, Rachel, to read Little Women when she was 10 years old. This book, which was written by Louisa M. Alcott, 1868, was very interesting for her, and also helped her to grow mentally. At that time, I thought Little Women would be a helpful book for Rachel. I and my husband had told her she would be our only one child, so we all were confused when I had a second baby. Especially, 10 year old Rachel wondered if she lost our love. Little Women taught her what is family and how to love family. Rachel still sometimes doubts her younger sister win more parental affection. If she had not read Little Women, she would hate her sister. Even though Rachel envies her cute sister, she extremely loves her sister. I thank to the book, and I think my advice for Rachel was very appropriate.

Journal #10 American Food

America is bigger in size and drier in weather than my country, Korea. This difference may be the cause of the food's difference. When Americans appreciate a dish, they frequently use the expression, "juicy". Koreans don't need the expression, "juicy", because most Korean dishes is very moist. Americans and Koreans have quite different cooking ways especially for meats, vegetables, and fruits.
First, Americans mostly cook a thick sliced meat; on the contrary, Koreans like to cook a thinner sliced meat except boiling meat. A thick sliced meat sometimes isn't cooked thoroughly, but Americans express it as "juicy". Also, Americans use the dressing for cooked meat, but Koreans don't need the dressing for meat on the dining table because of using sauce before cooking.
For vegetable, Americans like to eat raw one, and Koreans steamed one. Koreans cook steamed vegetable using a various kind of seasons, or saute shredded vegetable with oil. American cooking ways for vegetable are simple, while there are a variety of seasonings for salad.
On the other hand, Americans probably like cooking fruit. Caramel coated apples, chocolate coated strawberries, and a various smoothies are very popular in America. In Korea, cooking fruits are notpopular, and Koreans love a neatly sliced fruit.
Therefore, American cooks possibly don't need to use more expertly kitchen knives than Korean cooks.