Jack Knox

Print media is on the decline.  This is a reality as the digital age creeps up on us like that dual-wheel diesel pick-up truck rumbling up beside us at the red light.  It’s there and we have to acknowledge it.  For myself, I am still driving the four cylinder Toyota and reading my news from paper maché material.  And I want to talk about that for a moment.

First, however, let’s talk about this guy.  Jack Knox is one of the voices still making good use of the modest lane.  He is a long-time columnist at the Times Colonist and has dedicated his career to print journalism.  He uses humour and wit to showcase current events and injects his emotion, opinion, and analysis into his columns.  “I get to duck into the lives of people who are more interesting, more courageous…just far better people than I am,” he claims.  This modesty is a powerful tool in his columns.

He was inspired by the life and times of Ian Ferguson, a Canadian author and playwright whose powerful narrative was built in the wilds of northern Alberta.  Jack also came from a really engaged household, as did Ferguson, and the young Jack found himself writing for school newspapers and finding opportunities to play reporter.  A job at the mill in Kamloops was waiting for him like a patient friend but rather he declined and dedicated himself to the wild temptress of journalism.

So in this new frontier of digital media where newspapers are shrinking and companies are taking their advertisements elsewhere, where do talented insightful writers go now?  Do newspapers still want us?  I played writer for a long time in my life but never had the courage to make it beyond my computer screen.  I dreamed of driving up to the wild life of journalism and courting it with enticing stories and loving exclusives, despite still sputtering along as a print media user.  I worry that I have missed my opportunity to be with the love of my life and now must settle for the comfort of wifely domesticity.

“First thing is to marry up what it is you want to do, what it is you want to say or write with the medium that will get you to the right audience.”  Sage advice from a man who seems comfortable having a chuckle about himself and the career he has built for himself.  This is an important trait for writers navigating the traffic of media and getting caught between the flashy Bugatti and the jacked-up F-150.  You must know how to laugh off the tough stuff and find the window of opportunity to get into the passing lane.

Jack’s advice has inspired me to find a window of opportunity in this highway of information.  There are things that need to be said that I want to sift through, analyse, expose, and show to readers willing to take the time to enjoy their journey through information.  Print media is a really great place to reach people who still want to know about their communities and the people in them.  Just like they don’t make cars like they used to, they don’t make news like they used to.  Jack Knox is a testament to what good classic journalism is all about.

The Demagogues are Coming! And Here's How We Stop Them

On the morning of June 25, 2018 at 10:11am, President Donald Trump tweeted the following:

“Congresswoman Maxine Waters, an extraordinarily low IQ person, has become, together with Nancy Pelosi, the Face of the Democrat Party. She has just called for harm to supporters, of which there are many, of the Make America Great Again movement. Be careful what you wish for Max!”

These types of social media rants have become a useful tool to modern-day demagogues.   U.S. President Trump uses a lot of these tools.  So does Geert Wilders, leader of the Freedom Party in the Netherlands.  Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban also relies on this strategy.  Even Ontario Premier Doug Ford has asserted that social media connects him directly to the Ontario public.  These figures use media to fuel their rhetoric to the masses.  Through the shouting of passionate policy pledges or the challenge of ideologies both on screen and on social media, these “concerned leaders” put on shows that captivate their target audiences.  Their use of populism and psychology to dehumanize certain groups of people is an effective tool to gain favour from angry disenchanted citizens (often male.)  In fact, they are all very good at telling people what they want to hear and so are many other “passionate” and seemingly “good ol’ boys” from around the world.  “Demagogues’ strident opinions engender dark feelings like fear and anger in their followers, who are especially vulnerable during times of personal or social turmoil, or when they feel that they and their families are threatened,” writes Dr. Saul Levine in Psychology Today.

There is no place for these types of demagogues in our society and actually there are very few useful arguments in defense of these demagogues.  A manuscript first published in 2002 by the Mises Institute defends the necessity of the demagogue.  “For it is one of the most admirable qualities of the demagogue that he forces [people] to think, some for the first time in their lives.”  It may very well be that some of those acolytes of current demagogues are thinking something for the first time in their lives, but it is not likely that they are using the opportunity for reason and good argument.  The demagogue in this example is simply a passionate person of politics questioning the control of public opinion by the state.  The demagogues threatening our societies today embody this example, but they also inject “...appeals to racism, xenophobia, misogyny, and nativism…” into their narrative according to the Human Rights Watch 2017 World Report.  The combination of populist opposition laced with this divisive narrative has resulted in a staggering display of political recourse, social media rants, and baseless gatherings that have ended in violence.

The “us vs. them” narrative is a very useful tool in these demagogue’s climb to fame.  Demagogues create this identity, “us,” that is nourished with divisive rhetoric; rhetoric often founded in conjecture, intolerance, bigotry, and violence.  And since this rhetoric comes from seemingly intelligent and popular public leaders, people adopt it as their own narrative.  They take to platforms they find safe to express these narratives (i.e. the Internet) and let loose on “them” - people of color, women, queer/trans people, visible minorities, and disabled folks who are organizing their own inclusive identities.  And as if this divisive behaviour was not already harmful enough to marginalized folks trying to find space in our society, some of these angry people (often men) start to congregate and radicalize.  They have even killed people.

The bad news is there are few solutions to destabilizing these demagogues and deradicalizing these angry men.  Populist demagogues have no quarrel relinquishing responsibility for their base and their acolytes are not fame seekers looking for their one moment.  These angry people (mostly men) are seeking an identity, conformity, and some semblance of competency in their lives and modern-day demagogues are more than willing to scoop that up in their ascendancy to power.  The key, according to Ruth Conniff of The Progressive is “...political empowerment and social change.”  Hit the streets, so to speak.  Shape democracy at the local level and rebuild communities that are suffering from problems related to unemployment, lack of education, and limited access to healthcare.  Get angry people (mostly men) involved in being a force of change for an identity that benefits their community and unites them with other people.  It’s not a quick fix but its a slow treatment to the infection of recent demagogue fever.

Sources

Almond, S. (n.d.). Demagogue Days. In Not That You Asked. Random House. (Original work published 2007)

Bauerlein, M., & Jeffery, C. (2017, November/December). Less hot air, more sunlight. Mother Jones. Retrieved from https://www.motherjones.com/mag/2017/11/toc/

Bryden, J. (2019, March 23). Ford says social media allows politicians to circumvent mainstream journalists. Retrieved from https://nationalpost.com/pmn/news-pmn/canada-news-pmn/ford-says-social-media-allows-politicians-to-circumvent-mainstream-journalists

Conniff, R. (2018, December 01). Middle America: How to beat a demagogue. Retrieved from https://progressive.org/magazine/middle-america-how-to-beat-a-demagogue/

Gerson, M. (2016, December 05). Dehumanizing demagogues. Retrieved from https://libsecure.camosun.bc.ca:2443/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct&db=bwh&AN=wapo.392407e0-1860-11e6-9e16-2e5a123aac62&site=eds-live

Kanopiadmin. (2002, April 23). In Defense of Demagogues | Murray N. Rothbard. Retrieved from https://mises.org/library/defense-demagogues

Landesman, C.   (2018, August 22). Stop calling me 'a privileged white man' – I'm more than that. Retrieved from https://www.spectator.co.uk/2018/08/stop-calling-me-a-privileged-white-man-im-more-than-that/

Levine, S., MD. (2016, September 10). Who Is a "Demagogue"? Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/our-emotional-footprint/201609/who-is-demagogue

Roberts-Miller, P. (2017, June 10). Demagoguery vs. democracy: How "us vs. them" can lead to state-led violence. Retrieved from https://www.salon.com/2017/06/10/demagoguery-vs-democracy-how-us-vs-them-can-lead-to-state-led-violence/

Rohac, D., Kumar, S., & Heinö, A. J. (2017). The wisdom of demagogues: Institutions, corruption and support for authoritarian populists. Economic Affairs, 37(3), 382-396. doi:10.1111/ecaf.12264

Shaun. (2017, April 18). The fate of the frogmen. Retrieved March 24, 2019, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_yfnQPaD_E

Signer, M. (2019, March 08). Yes, Trump is undignified. Demagogues have to be. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/yes-trump-is-undignified-demagogues-have-to-be/2019/03/08/bd8d8d9c-4109-11e9-a0d3-1210e58a94cf_story.html?utm_term=.6003593c24ec

Wehner, P. (2017, January 19). Obama opened the way for cynical demagogue, conservative analyst says. [Interview by S. Inskeep, Transcript]. In Morning Edition. NPR.

World Report 2017: Demagogues Threaten Human Rights. (2017, January 13). Retrieved from https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/01/12/world-report-2017-demagogues-threaten-human-rights

Twitter Quiz - How well can we Tweet news?

SITUATION
You are the social media manager for a traditional media outlet (newspaper, radio, or TV), in a medium sized town. You need to do three updates a day – Morning, mid-afternoon, and early evening. This story is being updated for each time period.
You will have to write a tweet for each time period – each one no more than 240 characters. Use correct language and incorporate the new information in each one. Try to grab attention with the first line, and fill in details afterward.

Morning
Information:
Two grade 12 students at Central High were involved in an accident when their car skidded into a tree along a deserted road. The accident occurred at 2:00 am today.
Both students, John Raake and Fred Hohe, were admitted to Victoria General
Hospital. You do not know the extent of their injuries, but paramedics indicated they are not life threatening.

Your Tweet:

Two senior Central High students are recovering in Victoria General Hospital today after sustaining injuries in a motor vehicle accident. The car skid out of control into a tree in the early morning hours. No witnesses have come forward.


Mid-afternoon
Information:
You have just learned that the police are charging both students with underage drinking and the driver (Raake) with driving under the influence of alcohol.
Additionally, the passenger (Hohe) is being charged with possession of a controlled substance for a small bag of cocaine that was found in his possession. Both sustained only minor injuries in the accident.

Your Tweet:

DUI charges are being laid against the Central High teens found earlier in motor vehicle accident. Police are laying charges of underage drinking, drinking under the influence, and possession of a controlled substance. <<LINK>>


Early Evening
Information:
Both are starting players on Central High’s Provincial Champion Rugby team. The principal, James Hardnose has issued a statement that both students are immediately suspended from practicing and laying rugby with the school team because the charges involve illegal use of alcohol and other drugs. The principal cites a school policy, signed by both the players and their parents.

Your Tweet:

Students charged earlier with drinking and possession offenses quickly learn that they are no longer permitted to play with their rugby team. Central High principal suspends the students in adherence to school policy.  <<LINK>>

An Argument for Free Tuition - Submitted Version

There exists that anxiety-inducing moment in every post-secondary student’s new semester where they are presented with the tuition fees.  The price of a first-year university program has gone up more than $4000 (inflation adjusted) since the 1970s and the fees keep rising.  There is a solution to this anxiety crisis; tuition-free education.  A cost-sharing universal tuition program could alleviate fees for students and allow for all to pursue post-secondary education.  Yet there exist voices of dissent on the topic.  Those in opposition of free tuition are convinced that provincial governments will not be able to meet the funding demands of the program.  They also claim free tuition will only benefit affluent students because they will be able to afford living expenses whereas disadvantaged students will still struggle.  That said, neoliberal economists are not arguing for retention of tuition fees because there is altruism to it but because keeping education financially exclusive preserves social exclusivity.

Canada is a mixed economy and regulates certain industries to protect the welfare of its citizens.  The affluent benefit from universal programs because the nature of a universal benefit program is to ensure all its citizens have equal access.  The purpose of free tuition is to open the cost barrier to a disadvantaged person seeking an education.  There is a claim that tuition costs are meager compared to the costs of living but the triple fold increase in tuition is still a significant cost barrier to disadvantaged students.  Removing tuition costs significantly reduces the burden put on those students struggling to afford the ever-increasing costs of living and allows them to allocate their income to those expenses.

Economists have recommended that changes to the student loan program be made to help disadvantaged students afford living expenses and tuition.  This debt load, however, represents an imbalance upon post-graduate finances.  The debt load from student borrowing is significant (on average $25,000 per student.)  Tuition fees on average are $5000 per semester so eliminating those fees significantly reduces the debt burden.  The debt-free graduate could allocate their new income towards savings and asset allocation almost exclusively.  This is the advantage that affluent students have, and it creates a disparity right out of the education phase.  A universal tuition program will bridge this disparity gap by producing students with significantly less or no debt to hinder their earning potential.

This debt-free wave of students is beneficial to the economy of this country.  Work ready graduates who have little to no debt burden are eager to amass savings and consume resources for the allocation of housing and family-building.  The higher population of educated working adults means the productivity of several industries will increase which raises profits which increases the taxation base for provincial and federal governments.  They key is to convince the provinces to focus on providing opportunities to young people and those requiring education instead of consistently managing taxation for the aging population (who are statistically more affluent.)

The cost-sharing structure that exists for cross-legislative programs is an adequate model for the abolition of tuition, where the federal government contributes a portion of the fees to the provinces while the provinces provide the educational institutions with majority of the funding and the legislative mandates for that funding.  The average salary of a full tenure professor is almost half that of a general practice physician (also funded by a universal government program) and tuition fees are easily calculable (X = students attending program, Y = tuition fee: xy = provincial payment to the school for that program.)  Federal and provincial funding could easily be mandated in each budget based on the projected number of graduating students and the number of post-secondary enrolled students for the previous or current budget year.

The opposition to free tuition comes from a neoliberal mindset that wants to see a return to laissez faire economics and reduced government regulation.  However, the Canadian economy experienced the fall out market capitalism during the Great Depression and then the Second World War so the shift to a social welfare state was made.  This mixed economy has fluctuated over the years, but it remains that the programs institutionalized during the 1950s have evolved in their establishment.  Canada can open further opportunities to disadvantaged citizens through providing them with easily accessible and affordable education.  This is the answer to the ever-increasing tuition anxiety and the burden that student debt poses on the disadvantaged student.  The argument against making tuition free is loud but the reality of making it free is very clear.

Sources:

Arte, B., & Arte, B. (2016, October 17). It's time for Canada to embrace free tuition. Retrieved from https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/bilan-arte/the-case-for-free-tuition_b_12516930.html

Flood, M. (2015, March 23). Should post-secondary education in Canada be free? Retrieved from https://www.therecord.com/opinion-story/5518188-should-post-secondary-education-in-canada-be-free-/

Hopper, T. (2018, February 20). Why the NDP's new 'free tuition' plan is terrible, awful, no-good policy (unless you're rich). Retrieved from https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/why-the-ndps-new-free-tuition-plan-is-terrible-awful-no-good-policy-unless-youre-rich

Phillips, M. (2016, May 15). The high price of a free college education in Sweden. Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/05/the-high-price-of-a-free-college-education-in-sweden/276428/

Rankings, C. (2017, November 07). Yes, there is such a thing as free tuition in Canada. Retrieved from https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/campus-rankings/yes-there-is-such-a-thing-as-free-tuition-in-canada_a_23268498/

Sagan, A. (2014, March 11). Meet a graduate carrying Canada's average student debt load | CBC News. Retrieved from https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/average-student-debt-difficult-to-pay-off-delays-life-milestones-1.2534974

University tuition rising to record levels in Canada | CBC News. (2013, September 11). Retrieved from https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/university-tuition-rising-to-record-levels-in-canada-1.1699103

Usher, A. (2018, February 20). Ten bad arguments about free tuition in Canada. Retrieved from http://higheredstrategy.com/ten-bad-arguments-free-tuition-canada/

Yelland, T. (2015, April 28). ​Why Canada should have free university tuition, and how it could. Retrieved from https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/dpkkpx/why-canada-should-have-free-university-tuition-and-how-it-could-172

InDesign Report on "Helvetica"

My report on the documentary "Helvetica" created in InDesign and exported into a jpeg format.

Helvetica - Gary Hustwit

Interview with Yvonne Raymond

Interview

My interview with Yvonne Raymond from CTV News for my Digital Production course.  We thank her for her participation in our next step of learning.

Military Life - Pacific Women's Day 2018

Pacific Women’s Day is not just any day. It is a Military Family Resource Center (MFRC) tradition. It celebrates the sacrifice and dedication of women connected to the military and gives them a day to celebrate themselves. The venue perfectly complemented this goal - it was held at the awe-inspiring Royal Roads University and has been held there for many years. We began the event with a land acknowledgement thanking the Xwesepsum (Esquimalt) and Lkwungen (Songhees) peoples for sharing with us the opportunity to gather and learn at this place.

The 2018 Pacific Women’s Day featured two very distinguished guests; Kerry Vance, an accomplished lawyer and spouse of the Chief of Defense Staff, and Kim Mills, the creator and inspiring voice of She is Fierce and spouse of a Canadian soldier. Their words touched the ears of over one hundred women, including myself, and inspired us to self-awareness, self-care, and self-celebration. They spoke of the struggles we face but also the triumphs we make and how important it was that we take care of ourselves through those phases.

The day was filled with a variety of workshops led by passionate facilitators. For those looking for ultimate relaxation, the event also provided massage and yoga sessions. Many of the workshops were held in the historic Hatley Castle, which was an inspiration for celebration. The MFRC made sure that every woman in attendance felt special and valued. We were nourished through the delicious university catering for breakfast and lunch, entertained by an icebreaker bingo game before the opening ceremony, and gifted tasty and entertaining treasures at our departure.

Local businesswomen, who themselves were connected to the military, were invited to set up shop in the main hall. Participants had the opportunity to browse the “marketplace” where we could purchase wares and discover new services during the lunch break up until the end of the event.

Pacific Women’s Day 2018 closed with a round of applause and appreciations to the generous hosts and guest speakers. We all waited in anticipation as prize draws were made; awarding lucky guests with goodies such as an airline voucher, spa gift certificates, hotel accommodations, and treasures from the marketplace. The smiles, laughs, and cheers lit up the main hall that day. It is no wonder this event is a 20 year plus tradition!