Students Present Blog-Projects in Class (Part I)

8:30-10:00. Four groups of students presented final versions of their blog-projects in class today. Then the students voted for the best blog project. So here I am announcing the winner:

Congratulations, bloggers Caroline and Marie!
Your blog
German and American Election Coverage/How the Foreign Media Reports on Elections got most of the votes!

Here is what the authors of the blog write about themselves and their blog-project:

We are two students in the "Did Angie Learn From Obama" Seminar at TU Dortmund and this, our blog project, features the media coverage of both the American 2008 Presidential Election and the German 2009 Bundestag elections. Marie will discuss and analyize the American Media coverage of the German elections and Caroline will do the same for the German media coverage of the American Presidential race.

Marie digged the web for the American news articles covering the German Bundestag elections (2009), while Caroline consulted the mainstream German news outlets covering the U.S. Presidential elections (2008). The blog is successful in it’s content and presentation. Free of hype-filled or flashy stuff, the blog is informative and interesting due to a careful selection of pictures and videos enhancing the chunks of texts.

The blog has a community-building potential. The audience which might benefit from reading this particular blog is, most apparently, the American and German student body; and anyone else searching for information about the most recent American and German elections in English.

Even if it is doomed to get frozen out there, in the large blogosphere---it will not lose its worth. But I sincerely hope this blog will not be abandoned. I hope Marie and Caroline will keep in touch and enrich the blog!

Once again, congratulations on successful completion of the course!

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Now let me introduce German and American 3rd Party Policies. This blog-project was voted the second best today. In terms of design and visualisations, it is notoriously ascetic. No pictures, no videos---focus on the issues, instead.

Briefly about the ThirdPartyBlogger:

Two students. One male. One female. One American. One German. Both interested in politics. There you go.

The American and German ThirdPartyBloggers selected three American and three German minor parties for their analysis. Why would anyone care about the minor parties in the U.S. and Germany?

American ThirdPartyBlogger writes:

In this blog I will be discussing three Political Parties of the United States of America. However they will be the Constitution Party, the Communist Party and the Pacifist Party. Such third parties are often ignored by the mainstream media and rely on the internet to get their views out to the public.

In the light of the recent events, Americans and the American news media became more interested in the third parties ("Time for a Third Party" by Douglas E. Schoen of Politico). In Germany, the voters dissatisfied with the dominant parties, started paying more attention to the minor parties. For example, in 2009, the Left and the Greens made larger gains than ever and got safely into the Bundestag. More and more third parties have sprung up in the U.S. and Germany recently. The third American and German parties selected for this particular blog-project have a rather long history, though.

The German ThirdPartyBlogger writes:

In this blog I would like to focus on three of the so called German ''3rd parties''. Throughout the next weeks I will present their policies regarding immigration, education, taxation etc. Today I would like to start with a brief introduction of the parties, which belong to very different political camps:
1. Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands (National Democratic Party of Germany), NPD (...)
2. Deutsche Kommunistische Partei (German Communist Party), DKP (...)
3. Partei Bibeltreuer Christen (Party of Bible-Abiding Christians), PBC

The German and American 3rd Party Policies blog will definately meet the needs of a content-oriented reader. This blog is unique due to the research work done. So far, it is the only one of its kind in terms of the content, and, I hope, the blog will not be abandoned.

My congratulations, ThirdPartyBloggers, with a successful completion of the blog-project!

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Big thanks to the BP eco-blog and Religion during the elections 2008 and 2009 blog, which I would describe as a socio-political.

I am looking forward to the next class, which will take place next Saturday at 9 a.m. (room 0.406, Amerikanistik, Kulturwissenschaften, TU Dortmund).

Suitcase Mood: Some Thoughts While Packing T-shirts.

I have been studying American studies for more than six years already. Six years of studying xenophobia, racism, discrimination, capital punishment, arrogant wars, corruption, hypocricy, anti-intellectualism, etc (do you face the same problems in your country as well?). All in all, injustice for all!

Of course, I know why some folks mock at me when I say I am an American studies student ---the worst things about the Divided States of America come up at once! The same is with me. I am not very different in this respect.

It should be noticed that I am referring to studs of the post-Soviet background. As for me, I am a child of Perestroika. There are many of us who have chosen American studies as a major. Some regret about it. Some are ashamed. Some are switching to different disciplines. But I do neither of the mentioned. I am a 3-S American studies student: shameless, sceptical and sad.

I feel very-very comfortable with my major-maJOR!-MAJOR!! --- B.A., M.A. and PhD (hopefully in 4 years!) in American studies. And by the way, I have never been to the U.S.! Can you imagine how devoted I am?! To waist more than six years of my life on the culture I have never been encountered with?!! Oh God, this reminds me of platonic love!

DRUM SOLO:
But tomorrow (Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2008) I will penetrate my teasing lover. I will cross the border of the United States of America. I am happy to announce to those who do not know yet that I am flying to New York, then Atlanta, and then NY again. My trip is short, though. On Nov. 10, 2008 I fly back to Germany. Holli Semetko of the Emory University in Atlanta was so kind to invite me to visit the Halle Institute, and work on my PhD thesis there. Thank you, Holli! The trip would have not been possible without the help of Professor Walter Gruenzweig, my PhD supervisor. Walter, you are awesome!! And my parents who still support me. I should also thank Kay and Kerstin Rensing who will provide free accommodation. And my old friend Anna Cherkasova, an amazing woman who will definately become a great journalist. I am so lucky she will be in New York during my stay. Have not seen each other for ages.

Wow. Looking forward. I am very excited.

But not all American studies studs are that excited about their majors. Check the article "American Studies: Stars and Gripes" by William Lee Adams (Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2008) published by Time here http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1850554,00.html In brief, the article is about the fading enthusiasm around the American studies among European students. The programs receive less applications than ever; in some cases, the European universities shut down the programs.

"In Europe, where America the Beautiful has lost some of its luster of late, De Feo's enthusiasm is increasingly rare. According to the 2008 Pew Global Attitudes Project survey, the number of Brits who view the U.S. favorably has dropped from 83% in 2000 to 53% today; in France, it has fallen from 62% to 42%; in Germany, from 78% to just 31%. Once esteemed as a beacon of liberty and a defender of Europe against the Soviet Union, the U.S. now faces constant criticism for everything from its lack of action on global warming to its faith in unfettered capitalism, which has lately led to the spread of economic contagion from American banks to the rest of the world. But most damaging to America's global reputation has been the invasion of Iraq, which many Europeans viewed as a dangerous misadventure from the start."

There is no word about it in the article, but I suppose the AS-departments will do better next semester IF Barack Obama wins the presidential election 2008.

Come on, American nation! We, the AS students, want a miracle! Even though we might not be the residents and/or citizens of the U.S. --- we also need that CHANGE! Sometimes we want to write some positive stuff about the U.S. and the American people.

We are very disappointed and tired. Give us this wonderful chance! Cause, you know, deep inside.. we believe in some stupid stuff like democracy and human rights, equality and justice, multiculturalism and tolerance, for example.

All in all, whatever the outcome of the elections --- I will witness this greatest historical event!!

...Okay, should I take my "I-LOVE-ALBANIA" T-shirt to the U.S. with me?