e martë, 12 qershor 2007
Nomination briefing for DavidMixner
David Mixner, a progressive political activist, philanthropist, and author, now has his own weblog, davidmixner.com. The site touches on a number of different issues, including gay and lesbian rights, wildlife preservation, and daily politics. He updates his blog nearly every day with his thoughts on prevalent news stories, issues in the media, or with new information for his readers concerning one of his many causes, a strategy which exhibits effective kairos. Mixner not only employs the Internet for a timely and direct connection to his readers, but voices his opinions in a clear and concise manner.
David Mixner has successfully employed his weblog as a means of communicating with the masses about issues not necessarily prevalent in mainstream media. The reader can expect to view an extremely credible blog. From the sources and links used, to the excellent writing quality and critical discussion, davidmixner.com is not only a reliable blog, but an informative and entertaining one as well. Mixner uses a combination of media forms, employing sound bytes, video clips and prose in a seamless combination not often seen in other blogs.
The Kairos Award for Blogging Excellence will be awarded to the blog which most effectively meets the criteria set forth by our class. As the current frontrunner, davidmixner.com was criticized for not being among the most popular sites, but popularity is not a requirement in our criteria. Popularity may speak to the effectiveness of a blog, but is by no means a sign of ethos or stimulation of critical thinking. David Mixner not only employs these two functions but possesses a sense of social responsibility as well as frames emotionally charged issues sensitively. These factors, not popularity, are why davidmixner.com deserves to win.
Kairos Scoring
On May 31, 2007, our class listened to two presentations about this blog and deliberated about its quality in light of the evaluation criteria developed to measure excellence in blogging kairos. Below are the average scores awarded after the conversation.
Critical Thinking [out of 25 points]: 20.64
Writing Quality [out of 20 points]: 19.27
Timeliness [out of 15 points]: 14.1
Emotion [out of 15 points]: 13.09
Credibility [out of 10 points]: 9.45
Social Responsibility [out of 10 points]: 8.18
Intangibles [out of 5 points]: 4.64
Total Points [out of 100]: 89.36
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