Monday, November 9, 2020

Tuesday, November 10. 2020

Today's classes are: 

9:15 - 11:50 D Block Social and Environmental Science 
12:30 - 3:05 A Block Criminology 

D Block Social and Environmental Sciences - Today you start with Young in 115. A not so long time ago in a location not so far away...12,000 people showed up on the remote coast of Vancouver Island in the summer of 1993 for the Clayoquot Sound blockades. It was one of the largest acts of mass civil disobedience in Canadian history, with almost 1,000 people arrested in what would become known as the War in the Woods. 





Tzeporah Berman is the former co-director of Greenpeace International’s Global Climate and Energy Program, Executive Director and Co-founder of PowerUp Canada and Co-founder and Campaign Director of ForestEthics. One of Canada’s most prominent environmental activists, Berman first rose to fame as coordinator of one of the largest acts of civil disobedience in Canada’s history, the logging blockades in Clayoquot Sound of 1993.

Valerie Langer co-founded Friends of Clayoquot Sound in 1979 ‘If we weren’t fearful, we could make change




The history of civil disobedience shows it has been used to advance some of the most pressing public policy issues of the day – for example, the right of women to vote, desegregation of the American South and the need to end Apartheid in South Africa. When legal measures – such as petitioning, legal marches and political campaigns – have been exhausted, people convinced their cause is just may resort to violation of the law to try to move the consciences of their fellow citizens. Currently, many Canadians believe the environmental crisis is so severe they are prepared to break the law to prevent further degradation, for example, by obstructing the construction of additional pipelines, or at least to support those willing to do so. 
My question is "Would you be willing to stand up and commit acts of civil disobedience to protest against something? If so, what environmental cause would you be willing to be arrested for? Why? If not, then why and what would you be willing to do?"

Greenpeace: Protesting peacefully, to change the world

With Benton you'll continue your look at Ecoforestry and Wildwood


BC’s largest forest product export markets are the United States (53%), China (24.5%), and Japan (8.8%). Total forest product export sales in 2016 were $13.96 billion and British Columbia is the world’s largest exporter of softwood lumber (2011). About 95 per cent of BC’s 55 million hectares of diverse forests are publicly owned.

Priorities for the use of these Crown forest lands are developed through community based strategic land and resource management planning. The foundation of sustainable forest management in BC is the timber supply review through which BC’s independent chief forester is required by law to determine how much wood can be harvested from each of the province’s 70 management units. This process involves a detailed analysis of 200 year fibre supply projections, public comment and consideration of non-timber values, and it ensures that the harvest level is based on the latest information, practices and policies – economic, environmental and social. About 22 million hectares comprise the timber harvesting land base.

All timber harvesting operations under these agreements, on public lands, must comply with the Forest Act and the Forest and Range Practices Act. These Acts requires that forest stewardship plans document how activities will be consistent with objectives set by government for soils, timber, wildlife, water, fish, biodiversity, recreation resources, visual quality and cultural heritage resources.

According to the B.C. government, 55 per cent of the province's 3.2 million hectares of old-growth forests — or 1.78 million hectares — are protected in parks and wilderness areas. On Vancouver Island, that amounts to about 520,000 hectares of forest that will never be logged. But much of what's left over falls into the timber harvesting land base (THLB) — forests that can be logged in B.C. At the moment, old growth makes up about half of what's logged on the B.C. coast and Vancouver Island.

So, Why haven’t we been able to affect change provincially with how we log. How do we log? What are the biggest issues – roads, soil erosion, biomass loss, etc.

A Block Criminology - Casey Anthony Part 3

I want you to try to make sense of the crime (Casey and Caylee Anthony), the media's coverage of the crime (particularly Nancy Grace), feminist perspectives on criminology, the bad mother motif, and Schadenfreude. HLN's Nancy Grace covered the Casey Anthony trial heavily in 2011. To her credit Nancy Grace was a criminal prosecutor in Georgia. Here is a CNN bio on her..



HLN's Nancy Grace covered the Casey Anthony trial heavily in 2011. Grace had her own trial of Casey Anthony in the media. Here is a sampling of her coverage





After the verdict here's what she had to say - which further shaped the public's opinion of Casey Anthony even after she was found not guilty by a jury of her peers



Now, here's what the media had to say about the media covering the Casey Anthony trial



And here's what CBC had to discuss about Nancy Grace on the show Q



Does the trial have a longer lasting impact on the USA or was it just 15 minutes of fame and a distraction from mundane daily life? Because of her actions, Nancy Grace has been spoofed on SNL and MadTV to name just two... 



HBO had a television series called The Newsroom and they had an amazing bit on Nancy Grace's coverage of Tot Mom...



CNN did a retrospective piece on the trial here



You should take some time to understand the German psychology/sociology term Schadenfreude. This term deals with a big concept - that as humans, we have a private rush of glee when someone else struggles (we take delight in another person's pain and misfortune). Schadenfreude registers in the brain as a pleasurable experience, a satisfaction comparable to that of eating a good meal. Schadenfreude is a common and normal part of life but can become dangerous if we lose empathy, fall into demonizing others, or lapse into “us vs. them” thinking.

There is a human fascination with murder as entertainment and news media companies have turned the story of the death of a toddler into a prime time circus...a story that we can safely watch and perhaps feel a little guilty pleasure in the fact that we're better than Casey Anthony. Her pain and suffering on television brings us delight and makes us feel good in that we are not the monster that the media has portrayed her out to be...sigh.

Matt Wild wrote a piece called The guilty (and not-so-guilty) pleasures of Dateline NBC and in it he stated
...for an alarming number of Americans—myself included—Dateline has become appointment viewing. Mad Men, Downton Abbey, and their ilk are fine, but there’s a distinct, guilty pleasure in staying home on a Friday night, dimming the lights, sounding off on Twitter with other like minded fans, and watching the sordid true-life tales of murderous spouses (usually husbands), sorrowful family members (usually parents), and sinister motives (almost always infidelity) unspool over the course of an hour, all narrated by the stern and sonorous Morrison, or the rumpled and incredulous Mankiewicz. Murder, shattered families, and desperate cries for justice: perfect for a cozy night of popcorn, wine, and incessant tweeting.

So you have a question to answer for me:

Regardless of your opinion of Casey Anthony is it possible for her to escape the negative label of "Tot Mom" and will she ever be able to avoid the horrible mother image presented by CNN and Nancy Grace? Use examples from the Casey Anthony trial to explain your ideas. How does the concept of Schadenfreude apply to the Casey Anthony trial? How would low self-esteem make someone more likely to seek out schadenfreude-filled crime media? Is Social Media (Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Vine, Instagram, Snapchat) good or bad for criminal trials and the news/media coverage of them? Use examples from the Casey Anthony trial to explain your ideas

  1. Think about who reports information and how that information is used.
  2. Think about your privacy and how you manage your on-line presence.
  3. Think about how social media can be introduced as evidence at trials.
  4. Think about how social media can be used for reporting during trials.
  5. Do viewer/user comments about media coverage of a trial provide valuable feedback for discussion or not? Why?
I've got links to the following articles on the site that I'd like you to scan through to help with your answers:

For News, Americans Now Officially Prefer Social Media to Newspapers
Social media guided defense in Casey Anthony case
Social media v. Casey Anthony
Social Media’s Influence on the Casey Anthony Trial
Social media revolutionized coverage of Casey Anthony trial
The Casey Anthony Case and Public Perception of the Criminal Justice System
How the Casey Anthony Murder Case Became the Social-Media Trial of the Century
Watching a Trial on TV, Discussing It on Twitter
How "Trial by Media" Can Undermine the Courtroom
Social Media Has Changed Crime and the Justice System
Social Media and the Fair Trial
Social Media in the Courtroom
Tweeting from trials: How social media gives crime followers a front-row seat

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