JOUR304.3001--Conway, Congress and the Catfight,--TWITTER PROMOTION CAMPAIGN RESULTS

Status curent for 09 July 2019
Conway, Congress and the Catfight, Etymology of Sexist Language: Slide004 & 005:-- promoted on Twitter--results--cc #Pelosi #AOC #KellyanneConway

There are definite advantages to utilizing the auto promo tool at Twitter for a given flat rate and a billing cycle as opposed to alternatives.
Facebook has new rules regarding posting of political content ads on its social media platform that are a definite turn off for the publisher and might be extremely harmful to its future in the advertising racket. Twitter has no such rules and its Wild West style of allowing freedom in posting, to a reasonable extent, reflects the early days of the web when government and self-regulation weren't even a vague consideration for posting content.  

JOUR304.3001--Conway, Congress and the Catfight--ETYMOLOGY OF SEXIST LANGUAGE

JOUR304.3001
James L'Angelle
Univ of Nevada, Reno
Dr. Paromita Pain
10 July 2019

LATEST :  JOUR304.3001-- Capitulation, Segregation, Marginalization--THE NEO-DIXIECRATS VS THE "SQUAD" OF COLOR

ETYMOLOGY OF SEXIST LANGUAGE:

     (This Just In)  White House adviser KA Conway has stepped into the ring as referee in the floor fight between the Speaker and The Squad;
“Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called Kellyanne Conway "sexist" for saying the New York Democrat's feud with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was a "catfight."  (Washington Examiner)

   The term with reference to political infighting has some history that can be traced at least to 1873 when US Grant nominated George H. Williams to Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. (Offbeat Oregon) However, his wife became a problem.

     On 31 December 1873, the Democrat and Chronicle of Rochester, NY had this to say about Kate’s extreme unpopularity with her social network:

“...the post of honor at table. But, in spite of all doubts that the parties in interest keep alive in the general discussion of this momentous nonsense, the majority agree that the rank runs smoothly down to the fourth degree in the social house that Jack built: the president, the chief-justice, the vice-president and " Mr. Speaker. " Beyond this, society is in a catfight, and every once in a while a feminine paw reaches over into the domains of the four, and calls forth spiteful spittings that are terrible to hear. (Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, 31 Dec 1873)

     Wrapup: Brett Arends had his own take on Marketwatch concerning the feud, but was directed at the battleground, not the participants;

Mr. Arends putdown of Twitter is patently false. Anyone who has attended recent college level journalism classes, and received credit for them, will see how completely wrong his argument is, no matter its relevance to him or to the “Fourth Lady,” Nancy Pelosi. The Squad knows its value in spite of those from the old school who don’t.

Works Cited:

Gage, J., KAC, SEXIST, https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/aoc-accuses-kellyanne-conway-of-using-sexist-language/ar-AAE5waj?ocid=spartanntp

John, JD, http://www.offbeatoregon.com/1204c-williams-scotus-confirmation-scotched-by-wife.html

Rank, Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, 31 December, 1873, Page 2.

Arends, B., Twitter, https://www.marketwatch.com/story/nancy-pelosi-is-absolutely-right-about-twitter-2019-07-09

THIS JUST IN:  Current analytics of the Facebook promote of this blog post (07/10/2019/2000hrs)

JOUR304.3001-- Assignment: Profiling The (Twitter) "Squad"--SPEAKER PELOSI'S EXISTENTIAL THREAT

JOUR304.3001
James L'Angelle
Univ of Nevada, Reno
Dr, Paromita Pain
Summer 2019

     Etymology of the word "squad" to describe the four new members of the House of Representatives goes to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) herself as Abby Gardner reported in Glamour last November;
"This one photo features the youngest person elected to Congress, the first black woman to represent Massachusetts, the first Palestinian American woman elected to the House, and the first Somali American Muslim and first woman of color to represent Minnesota." ( Glamour)
     The latest skirmish between the House Speaker and The Squad came over two versions of money for the ongoing totally convoluted mess at the border involving immigrants. Pelosi made an attempt to peg the four freshmen (women?) as "kid-haters" over their posture to prevent any money going to the opposition that might be used for something other than conditions in the camps.
    The battleground, however, has shifted from the halls of Congress to mainstream media, with the recent interview the House Speaker had with a New York Times columnist last weekend;
"All these people have their public whatever and their Twitter world," she told (Maureen) Dowd. "But they didn't have any following. They're four people and that's how many votes they got." (Killough, Foran, CNN)
Not content with keeping the fight on Capitol Hill and at the Times, the Speaker now blames ground zero itself as territory where she appears to be losing the war. So what's the battleground look like over there on social media?

     Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) signed on to Twitter in August 2008, she has 2.66 million followers. She has only 10 "likes," the last one being in January, 2017. Her bio reads;
"Speaker of the House, focused on strengthening America's middle class and creating jobs; mother, grandmother, dark chocolate connoisseur." (Twitter) A recent post, July 6, shows a photo of the Speaker sitting with the Dalai Lama on his 84th birthday, calling him "His Holiness."  He was recently shamed for sexist remarks (Fox News)  about a successor and appears to be completely irrelevant with reference to the Squad.  Other than paying homage to any number of other issues  related to her job, in the Independence Day week, she makes little or no reference at all to the border crisis other than a letter sent out to the President on July 2, followed up immediately with business as usual on the Mueller report on the same day. Obviously, she needs to take seriously one of those IT people who spam the mail with offers to school her on the use of social media.

     Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) has 4.68 million followers on Twitter and a whopping 14.3 thousand likes. Her bio reads;
"Congresswoman for NY-14 (the Bronx & Queens). In a modern, moral, and wealthy society, no American should be too poor to live. % People-Funded, no lobbyist." (Twitter) The page appears far more active with recent posts related to climate change, immigrants and recent flooding. Her pinned tweet on top has something to do with a climate change video, has an image of what appears to be one of the Squad and shows 7.45 million views. She joined Twitter in April, 2010. The House Speaker has almost two years seniority over her at the social media site.

     Ayanna Pressley (@RepPressley) has but a paltry 116 thousand followers, which doesn't even qualify her as a rock star. She joined in January 2019 which seems extremely odd for someone with the authority she currently wields in Congress. Rep Pressley has just ove 1100 likes and just under 1000 tweets.  Her pinned tweet features an interview with Anderson Cooper  of CNN on July 3;
"What I saw at the border was horrifying, haunting, & sobering. Our humanity is tied and we are collectively under attack - from El Paso to the Massachusetts 7th. I will never stop fighting for the dignity, the humanity, & the preservation of immigrant families." (Twitter)
Many of her posts are related to the border crisis but there are meaningful tweets concerning other social concerns, which would be fitting for her status on social media and those she represents. Her bio reads;
"Official account of Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley. Proudly representing the Massachusetts 7th Congressional District. #MAPoli Instagram: https://bit.ly/2Dys6fy" (Twitter)

     Rashida Tlaib (@RepRashida) signed on to Twitter in December 2018, her bio reads;
"Proudly serving Michigan's 13th Congressional District. #13thDistrictStrong" and has 128 thousand followers. Rep Tlaib also shares a disdain for the immigration detention centers at the border and makes it noted in no uncertain terms at her page;
"These photos are just a glimpse into the horrors I witnessed two days ago. Please see them for yourself and join the call to #CloseTheCamps. This inhumanity is not who we are as a country." (Twitter)
Along with the #CloseTheCamps hashtag, she also has posts under #DemsAtTheBorder, #JusticeForOurChildren and #DontLookAway.

     Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) has 1.13 million followers, sharing the rock-star spotlight with @AOC.  Her bio reads,
"Mom, Refugee, Intersectional Feminist, 2017 Top Angler of the Governor's Fishing Opener and Congresswoman for #MN05. Join me " (Twitter) Ilhan's pinned tweet is from April 13;
"This country was founded on the ideas of justice, of liberty, of the pursuit of happiness. But these core beliefs are under threat. Each and every day. We are under threat by an administration that would rather cage children than pass comprehensive immigration reform."
She joined Twitter in August of 2012 with 15.3 thousand likes and personally following 1266 other social media users at the site.

     The "whatever" Speaker Pelosi referred to in her NY Times Maureen Dowd interview amounts to over 6 million followers for The Squad.

As rock-stars go, Katy Perry has 108 million followers, Lady Gaga has 79 million, and Ariana Grande has 64 million. They don't hold a candle to The Squad.

   






Works Cited
The Squad Photo, https://www.glamour.com/story/photo-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-new-congresswomen-squad-goals
Killough, A., Foran, C., Whatever,  https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/pelosi-stands-by-comments-about-members-who-opposed-house-border-aid-bill/ar-AAE2Dfa?ocid=spartanntp
@SpeakerPelosi, https://twitter.com/SpeakerPelosi
Dalai Lama,

https://www.foxnews.com/world/dalai-lama-women-successor-sorry-comments

@AOC, https://twitter.com/AOC

@RepPressley, https://twitter.com/RepPressley

@RepRashida, https://twitter.com/RepRashida

@IlhanMN,  https://twitter.com/IlhanMN

JOUR304.2001--Final Papers: "The Dedicated and the Dilettante"--UNIV OF NEVADA, RENO, SUMMER 2019

JOUR304.3001
James L’Angelle
Univ of Nevada, Reno
Dr. Paromita Pain
Summer 2019

The Dedicated and the Dilettante

     “Mainstream media” is a phrase that can be traced all the way back to the early 1970s as found in a Chicago Sun-Times article concerning Beacon Press and the Pentagon Papers;
     “but the mainstream media shied away from Blanshard’s vociferous attack on one of America’s most influential denominations.” (Sun-Times)
This was in relation to a dispute between Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt and an article published relating to funding of parochial schools. Nowadays, the term has become synonymous with the big names such as CBS, NBC, CNN and similar multifaceted entities with presence across the board in news reporting. Although it has come under strong criticism lately as being the source of what has been characterized as “fake news,” these companies may still be the most reliable sources of up to date and accurate stories.

     There are any number of lists as to who qualifies as “mainstream,” at least one that is useful is that found at Wikipedia although how current it may be is questionable. (WHPC, Wikipedia) The White House Press Corps (WHPC) list contains well over 200 correspondents all of whom would have a presence on Twitter, considered as reliable sources for reporting the news. All, again, would ideally be credentialled reporters and journalists as the major news organizations presumably hire only those who have bona-fide degrees from colleges and universities. So what about everybody else on Twitter who claim to be “reporters” and “journalists?”    (Photo: Barkha Dutt of India, Twitter)
     Even though a given news organization might appear on the current WHPC list, that doesn’t necessarily mean it has credibility in the eyes of the public. The watchdog group, Statista, provides data on just how Jane and Joe Average view a particular news agency. For example, the graph of Huffington Post reveals the following;

     “Approximately 13 percent of registered voters in the United States view the Huffington Post as a very credible source of political news and information.” (Statista)
The graph also shows that 25% consider the agency “Somewhat credible.” Curiously, the graph also shows that nearly as many of those polled, 12%, have “Never heard of” the organization. On Twitter, HuffPost boasts 11.4 million followers, which is one-fourth of what the New York Times lists as their Twitter base. (Twitter) Several things can account for the status of a particular agency such as its bias and as important, the credentials of the reporters. It’s nothing new that bogus college degrees could be purchased without even spending one semester in class.

     “Operation Dipscam” was initiated by the FBI as long ago as the early 1980s in order to crack down on mail order college diplomas;
     “40 diplomas with transcripts were purchased, 16 federal search warrants were executed, 19 Federal grand jury indictments were returned, 40 schools were dismantled, and over 20 convictions were obtained.” (WikiVisually)
The article reports that over 12,000 “graduates” were identified. Note the use of the word “scam” in the operation, yet another precursor to modern internet-style language. How does all of this have relevance today?
     Twitter , the worldwide social media network of brief messaging where tweets are limited to a given number of characters, where the particular page has “Followers” that read and react to each tweet through commenting, sharing and “liking,” is currently the most popular site for news reporting, most of which is instantaneous. It is the home of most of the bona-fide “mainstream” news organizations, the “Dedicated” credentialled reporter and journalist. It is also the home of everybody else, for whatever purpose, including the fake, non-credentialled reporter and journalist, the “Dilettante.”

     According to the Haje Jan Kamps article in Medium in 2015;
     “Looking at the (above) graph, you’ll spot that even though Journalists make up 25% of the Verified users, they have a relatively modest number of followers (avg: 140k). Musicians are the obvious big outlier here, with on average 10x more followers than the average journalist.” (Haje, Medium)
This brings into the spotlight the concept of the “verified” account and its deeper implications of the “dipscam diploma” and its relevant byproduct, “fake news.” Although there is no direct evidence that fake news is the result of those who have not just fake credentials but fake accounts on Twitter as well, it would seem reasonable speculation that they would be the ones who stand the most to gain if their post, and link to some clickbait blog, went viral, attracting scores of followers in the process.
     Top current verified journalist accounts can be found in the recent Andrew Mercier story of the state of Twitter journalists, 2017:
     “This top 10 has some notable changes from 2013, mostly the inclusion of some journalists in India. Maybe to no one’s surprise, CNN’s Anderson Cooper remains on top.” (Mercier, MuckRack)
Those included from India are Barkha Dutt, with 6.9 million followers and Rajdeep Sardesai with nearly 9 million followers. (Twitter)

     The “Dilettante” style of reporting has become very acceptable on Twitter, with some of the non-credentialled so-called, self-styled “journalists” not required to show their papers. Take, for instance, the recent story concerning a “secret” Facebook group allegedly with members from the Customs and Border and Protection (CBP) agency of the Department of Homeland Security. The group called itself the “I’m 10-15” and the story first appeared in ProPublica in an article by AC Thompson;

     “ProPublica received images of several recent discussions in the 10-15 Facebook group and was able to link the participants in those online conversations to apparently legitimate Facebook profiles belonging to Border Patrol agents,” (Thompson, Propublica)
However, when that reporter tried to contact the particular users for verification, he failed. This is standard operating procedure that hints at fake news. It is a byproduct of years of mainstream media’s referencing “anonymous” sources that are taken to be credible, however unacceptable and unscrupulous the practice may be. Thompson’s only real claim to credibility is a brief bio at Wikipedia stating he was on the faculty at New College of California. In fact, that particular institution had its accreditation revoked in 2007 for dubious financial aid dealings. (New College, Wikipedia) This may or may not be an example of one of those so-called mail order dipscam diploma colleges.
     Attempting to follow up on the story at The Intercept, yet another reporter with dubious credentials, Ryan Devereux, adds to the unsubstantiated story on July 5, referencing alleged CBP agents by name;
     “Hendricks deleted his account soon after the ProPublica story broke. Garcia and Nunez did not respond to requests for comment.” (Devereux, The Intercept)
Devereux is described at the The Intercept as “award-winning investigative journalist,” with no credentials listed. He has over 25 thousand followers on Twitter. (Twitter)

     Media Bias/Fact Check has this to say about The Intercept;
     “They may utilize strong loaded words (wording that attempts to influence an audience by using appeal to emotion or stereotypes), publish misleading reports and omit reporting of information that may damage liberal causes. Some sources in this category may be untrustworthy.” (Media Bias)
Not only are the reporters at ProPublica and The Intercept lacking in any bona-fide papers, their particular online agencies appear to be under the scrutiny of media watchdogs.
      Credibility in news reporting has taken a major back seat in the industry due to any number of more immediate concerns. They include primarily advertising, sponsorship, deadlines at the expense of trustworthiness of sources and verification of facts. In the end, the credible journalist working at a reliable organization finds himself hashtagged in the same Twitter category as the phony, the hack, out to deceive and deflect, many of whom have ten times the followers, all gullible and quick to react and condemn.

Works Cited
Sun-Times, Beacon Press, https://www.beacon.org/Assets/PDFs/pentagon_35.pdf
Press Corps, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_House_press_corps
Huff Post, https://www.statista.com/statistics/649139/huffington-post-credibility-usa/
Huff Post-Twitter, https://twitter.com/HuffPost
Op Dipscam, https://wikivisually.com/wiki/Operation_Dipscam
Jan Kamps, H., Verified, https://medium.com/@Haje/who-are-twitter-s-verified-users-af976fc1b032
Mercier, A., https://muckrack.com/blog/2017/07/31/the-2017-state-of-journalism-on-twitter
Dutt-Twitter, https://twitter.com/BDUTT
Sardesai-Twitter, https://twitter.com/sardesairajdeep
“I’m 10-15”, https://www.propublica.org/article/secret-border-patrol-facebook-group-agents-joke-about-migrant-deaths-post-sexist-memes
New College, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_College_of_California#Revocation_of_accreditation_and_financial_collapse
Devereux, R., https://theintercept.com/2019/07/05/border-patrol-facebook-group/
Devereux-Twitter, https://twitter.com/rdevro
The Intercept, https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/the-intercept/