Yet again, I am back from last week's MediaHour. Instead of being held in the Illusions Chat in Geek Speak, it was hosted at WASA in memorial of Columbia -- the space shuttle that crashed just the week before.
I joined the meeting again, along with the MediaWiz, Bigfoot, and many others who I had seen last week, along with new arrivals to the experience. The show of the week was "Battle of the X-Planes", a two-hour special dedicated to the engineering, design, and other work that goes into creating experimental jet-planes. Of course, it was like nothing I had ever seen before! I never expected there was such a great deal of effort and energy going into one aircraft or one experience.
Nevertheless, our topics do not *always* stay in one place, and quite a few times the MediaHour chat branched off into other conversations. Citizens talked about how much commitment and dedication goes into the jet planes, whether they would be suited to become a pilot in the future, and spoke about, "Is younger always better?" referring to the age and capability of pilots themselves. Do you know about the Boeing labor strike? I do now because I watched the shows and showed up to the MediaHour.
We also introduced the topic of teamwork and how it is essential if you want to be successful at any job that requires you to work with others. In the show, I learned that it took approximately five years to design and construct a jet plane. That is a lot of time working on one project with a specific group of people, do you not agree?
Nevertheless, my article is not solely based upon this week???s MediaHour. Remember last week???s paper that hosted an entire ???Hot Topics??? section on the media? This included several articles on previous MediaHours that talked about adversity and animal cruelty. I thought about it, and speculated that many more articles (including mine) would be send into the newspaper each week, creating a natural collaboration of articles in the Times. Not to mention that people were not finished talking after the City Workers left. And let us not forget those citizens who, although interested, could not make it to the MediaHour. Surely, they could read these articles, but they would not be able to absorb themselves in the discussions.
This led me to another Times-related topic. Remember when the Editor announced months ago about a new BBS system that would be added to the Whyville Times? This would give citizens the opportunity to talk about the articles and voice their opinions.
Would we be able to alter this idea slightly?
I propose that the MediaHour should be an ongoing adventure, since the television shows run all week. Why not talk about them all, whenever possible? We could still host a chat segment live every week just as now. However, the BBS in the Times could be used for the MediaHour -- or even be home to both the MediaHour and discussions about different Times articles. This would give us the chance to expand our horizons, watch more shows, and talk about what we have learned.
Does this sound like a good idea? It seems as if the MediaHour is a huge success and gives citizens the initiative to watch TV that is actually worth watching. I hope that this idea will be considered and perhaps citizens agree with the BBS system or have an entirely different idea!
Don???t Walk Away Eileen,
-TIKE
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Editor's Note: That's exactly what I hope to see in the Times BBS, when it finally shows up. Hey, City Hall, where is it??? Oh, yeah, it's waiting on my revision of the front page... oops! Next week... I hope!
