An interesting article about the Chinese bans on Wikipedia:
http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/internet/11/17/china.internet.ap/index.html

It seems so weird to me, since in the US you can basically find anything on the internet, despite some censorship. Freedom of speech is a huge debate in China, for fear of discussion of politically banned issues. There is apparently a lot of censorship of the internet access in China and I just found it interesting how much the Chinese government decides whose opinions can be expressed and what is inappropriate to put on the internet. Anyway, the topic is interesting, but if you don't want to read the whole thing (a whole 3 minutes of reading); here is the part I found most interesting:

So I’ve been watching the new season of “Degrassi: The Next Generation” and as usual, they’re dealing with interesting issues. For those of you who aren’t familiar with it, “Degrassi” is a Canadian show about a group of teens in Toronto who go to a school called Degrassi, and the crazy stuff that happens to them. The tend to deal with a wide range of social issues, and the tagline for the show is “Degrassi: it goes there.” So far this season we’ve had street-racing, jail, dating a co-worker, teen mothers, and the sexual problems faced by paraplegics. They just finished a two-part episode dealing with teens and internet safety and privacy, which I found really interesting. The premise of the story was that goody-goody Christian cheerleader Darcy (with the help of resident creep and all-around jackass Peter) starts posting sexy pics of herself on her blog in order to raise money for the cheerleading team. Peter tells Darcy that he has a friend who likes to read her blog, and this friend ends up being their benefactor of sorts. Although the pictures were password protected, some students hacked in and downloaded them, plus it turns out Peter’s friend was just some random guy he met in a chatroom, who later shows up at Darcy’s house, scaring the hell out of her.

So, this class has me constantly thinking about authorship in many aspects of my life, and in particular my use of the internet recently. The reading for this week and last week have made me really look at the internet more critically and think about websites that I frequently visit. One site that I enjoy that relates really well to authorship is www.postsecret.com . It is a site where people send in anonymous postcards that have their inner-most secrets written on them. I think this is important in relation to authorship specifically because of the anonymous element the internet provides. Like blogging, which can be anonymous, the internet provides people a space to voice their opinions and feelings without having to do it in awkward social settings or in a place where they feel they could be scrutinized or openly judged. What I like about postsecret.com is that people can let out these secrets that they have bottled up inside and it allows them to have the emotional release of telling someone, without actually having to tell someone. The site also does a lot to help people who have various issues from eating disorders to depression. It is like an anonymous support group at times, where people can share and others are there for them and can respond to their postcards. People all over the world can connect with these people's secrets, realize that they are not the only ones with problems and realize that everyone has secrets they wish they could let out.

so, I know Janet Murray was concentrating mostly on television and narratives, but I think her book actually really connected with Understanding Comics. First of all there is the aspect that McCloud's more recent books became clearly much more digitized, but also since many people (especially young adults) no longer read hard copies of newspapers, daily newspaper comics also appear many places online. I actually really enjoy this medium because it allows people to see archives of the comics, which is helpful since many times there are multiple connected comics in a series. Janet Murray predicted the use of the internet and the impact the digital age would have and although she didn't precisely say that the news media and sources such as cnn.com would become so popular, I think that is the general idea she gives.

Yay, I did some revision on my thesis proposal, which for me meant adding more specifics about my methodolgy and the like. Here's the new stuff:

I have chosen to focus my thesis on one particular online community, Afropunk.com, which is one of the largest and well-known of these communities. Afropunk.com originally started as website promoting James Spooner’s (find the year) documentary, “Afropunk”. It has since spawned an online community of nearly 3000 members and also hosts events in the real world. Although the website uses the term “Afropunk” specifically, community members are into various rock scenes. Like “punk”, the term “Afropunk” is more about one’s attitude or approach.

I was reading the latest installment of Kyle’s Bed & Breakfast online (which the comic artist describes as “the world’s favorite comic strip about a gay bed & breakfast”) and it got me thinking about how the prevalence of webcomics, and the role of the internet and new media in the production and consumption of comics. Making comics on the web seems to have a lot of advantages: it’s cheaper for the reader and can offer more control for the artist (possibility of more independent comics getting out there, animating images).

At the same time, I wonder about the drawbacks of a web/computer format. Over the summer I wanted re-read Neil Gaiman’s Sandman series (which is great, btw), but I didn’t really have the cash to spend $20+ on the books in the series I’m missing. So I ended up downloading the series online and reading the first few books in print and the rest on my computer. It was still a good read, but something was missing. One of the things McCloud talked about was color, and that may have been a factor, the differences between the color you see on your computer screen and the color that a printer can print. Another thing may have been reading strategy. In my Digital Art class, we talked about the idea that people tend to read things on the computer differently than the way they read books and other printed media. Reading on the web and the computer tends to be faster, more of a skimming for information. I definitely found myself getting caught up in that when I was reading Sandman.