far be it from me to say anything
but um
maybe someone has noticed and just not said anything
but our blog link has GONE!
from the school website
but
if this was just over julias poem? i think a little unfair
free speech people come on!
so what if julia thinks that of stephen franks
yes it may be inaccurate but we're not exactly a media outlet are we?
julia should be able to express her views
as should we all
and people should be able to see what we think
so this post can be deleted if anyone gets annoyed by it
im sorry
but i was just letting people know
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7 comments:
eh, really?! how disappointing :< it's sadly ironic...
i guess we'll just have to put a nice big link of our blog on our AC board :D
Yeah, it's true! It has not been done without consideration and is possibly open to more discussion.
My stance is that I'm proud of what you say on here, but that it is obviously very left-wing and it is a fair point that certain peoples may be offended by your anti-National talk, and it may be seen as a stance of the school, rather than just you expressing your own very articulate and well-reasoned view-points. In theory 50% of the population like National and could be offended by dog-loving-limericks mocking certain politicians from their party. Though, he really brought that on himself.
So for the sake of freedom of speech, rather than ask you to censor what you write on the blog, we reluctantly agreed to take down the link when requested. I personally would much rather take down a link to your blog than request that you edit out or tone down certain things. I think that goes against the spirit of your blog. It certainly caused debate amongst us on a philosophical level. I guess there is always debate around whether a school should visibly connect itself to any kind of politics or views that may offend.
It'll be an interesting case study to discuss in Media Studies next year if we do Censorship as a topic! And an interesting case of tailoring a media product (school website) to suit a certain purpose/audience and how decisions affect various stakeholders. There are me and Ms Weir (creators of media text, wanting to be controversial and cutting edge, but also having to do a job with certain expectations and limitations - selling out?), the senior management of the school (the ones who have to think widely and will ultimately have to deal with complaints and want to appeal to the widest audience possible to attract students - I guess they would be our 'advertisers') and you guys (one of the target audiences of the product whose values the product should be representing, but also a group featured within the product, so concerned about your own representation and profile).
I have talked to Lily about having a special opinion-piece within the website, kind of like an editorial column, where you write it with the wider school audience in mind and craft a piece once a week about a pertinant issue.
Remember that censorship is a 'backhanded compliment that acknowledges the potential danger and thus importance of the text'. Julia and the rest of you have suceeded in being controversial :)
And for the record, I think it would be fascinating if the school developed a more right-wing equivalent to the Active Collective, maybe some Young Nats could start it up. I'd give them equal billing on the website(though chances are I'd be able to justify putting you first by alphabetical order).
haha, yes, we lean quite to the left <--- :'D
could we just put on a bit fatty disclaimer along the lines of "...the opinions expressed on the blog are done so freely by the students of WEGC and do not represent the opinions of the school as a whole...jabberjabber..."
?
Wow Miss Judge you really said it all! Yes, after talking to you I thought it was probably in the best interests of everyone to take down the link... It's still on our bebo page which is linked to our WEGC page. Anyway, our target audience (boy am I sick of writing about that after the media exam) is the East students rather than their parents, and there are heaps of ways to target them at school without the website link.
A Young Nats group would be very interesting... I would have guessed East to be a more Labour-leaning school, since our electorates (I read somewhere that we straddle the Rongotai/Wellington Central lines) voted for Labour Candidates. But then again, quite a few of my parent's friends voted for National, so who knows? It would be cool to know who got the most votes in the Yr 9 and 10 election...
I had put a disclaimer on it to that effect - after initial concerns were raised. But it was still questioned as perhaps not being appropriate.
I think by not having a link you can remain independant and don't have to watch what you say. I think that's a good place to be in. I would rather that than have you think twice about whether what you're saying is too strongly put. Say it how it really is rather than having to candy-coat.
You're right, Lily - I would say compared to most schools we'd be fairly left as a demographic. But I think with our decile shifting higher we may be having to think more conservatively, perhaps.
In the past East was more a much lower decile and more of a low-income school, which rich-liberals might have sent daughters to in order to get a good social grounding. But being a decile 8 now, our academic results are rising, and thus we are perhaps attracting more rich-conservatives as well. Maybe zoning has an impact on that too.
Do you think the school would support our blog if we were pro-exploitation, gay-bashing, war-loving drones? Cause I can totally do that! We can revamp our image!
"The Active Collective: Selling out for free advertising since 2008!"*
I think I'm on to a winner.
personally i think it smells but i can see the point and because we do not run the website therefore we were using it as advertisement and i dont think that we should be "up in arms" about, yeah it smells like stinky fish but its for the best to keep up the great website that promotes our school so well... they can join the AC and then see how crazy we are! :P jokes. And anyway we have miss judge to sell us!
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