Self Introspection and Self Evaluation

As I mentioned in my previous post, this blog is for a class that I am taking so from time to time some of the posts will be more oriented toward assignments for the class.  This happens to be one of those posts.  Read this if you are curious as to what I am trying to do with my blog and what I feel is good and bad about what I am doing.



As you all have figured out by now, this blog is intended to inform on nuclear power.  I do not intend just to give facts as to what nuclear power is and how it operates though.  I am setting out to try and re-frame how nuclear power has been portrayed over the last 50 years.  This involves giving some basic education, but also trying to depict nuclear power as a viable energy solution as opposed to a dangerous hazard.  I will of course discuss the waste issues as well as the safety issues to try and dispel some of the myths out there, but I want to try and get out there why nuclear power is good. 

I am thus trying to get a hold of the person that has been turned against nuclear power by being presented only with the dangers that it holds, most of which don't even exist today.  My audience is the person looking to learn about energy alternatives, but does not necessarily need to be highly educated in the energy sciences.

Thus far, my readers have seen me setting up the background needed for the ensuing discussion.  My first few posts definitely fell under the deficit model, and for that I apologize, but this information is necessary for what is to come.  I then proceed to try and frame why we use nuclear power.  This is getting more toward where I want to be further down the road.  There are some other steps that I must take first before really setting up my new frame.  I hope to get away from articles that fall under the deficit model, but this will be necessary at some points.

My blog is intended to also be a discussion, giving helpful information to both my readers as well as good input back to myself.  This is a tricky thing to achieve, but my posts coming in the near future will get more toward to controversy of nuclear power, and this I know will spark more discussion.  I also want to get to subjects that strike people most at heart.  For example, the waste and storage issues of nuclear waste I know will be a hot topic of debate and has been for a long time.  I hope to try and frame the debate in another way, showing how less dangerous this can be as compared to wastes from friendly sources such as even solar panel production.  Many will disagree, but this needs to be discussed.

Perhaps the biggest hump to get over with the blog is to get people to actually follow what I have to say as well as input what they think on what I am saying.  Part of getting my blog out there just comes from making friends.  Not only physical friends, but cyber type friends.  This comes from getting to know other people's blogs and letting them get to know you on there blog.  Consistent commenting and discussion on their blogs will let them get to know you, and then maybe directing them to your blog will create another reader.  I know people often like to return the favor.  This is easy to do within the class, but doing this in the real world gets a little more difficult.  I have several favorite blogs on the nuclear industry and these blogs do like to link to other blogs that are similar to theirs.  This is the first step in getting my blog out there.  Getting linked to from a more popular blog on the subject.  In order to do this, I must either contact the author, or just like in class let the author get to know you by commenting consistently on what he has to say.  This can be difficult if there are a large number of commenters although.

This blog is not a project that I want to let die after the end of this class.  Nuclear power has been a passion of mine for a long time and this is a great platform on which I can express what I think about the industry and what I think people need to know about the industry.  I hope to be able to get my point across to at least a few people and maybe get some people to change their mind.  Or even get some people to care who did not care before.  If I am able to do this, I feel that I will have accomplished by goal.

On the other side, I want my readers to learn something from the discussion here.  Whether it be from the information that post about what I have learned about the power source or the discussion that ensues here because of what I have to say.  In the end, I want people to come away with some truth that they did not have before they looked here.  I want this to be presented in a easy to understand way that is accessible to everyone so that all have the chance to learn.

A big question for me to think about is "Why should people be looking at my blog to learn about nuclear power?"  This certainly is a hard question to answer.  I guess I have to first consider the good things about my blogging.  I see my posts as very informative as far as the information goes.  I try to go through the information that I present and sift out what is necessary for the understanding.  This leaves the information presented on the blog as what I think is vital to understanding nuclear power.  I try to throw away most of concepts that only people in the field should be concerned with.  Also, I see my blog as a place to come to find the pertinent topics on the debate and the industry.  Surfing the web, it can be hard to find all the important concepts in one place.  Thus, if you don't know what to look for, in most places you won't find it.  I am trying to make my posts a good indication as to what a person should be looking at when learning about the topic.  I feel that I am doing this in an unbiased way.

On the other hand, I know that I am having trouble getting to the reader.  My first few posts just kind of threw information at the reader in a deficit model kind of way.  I am having a hard time of connecting to the reader.  I am trying several new things and I hope that people let me know what is working and what is not.  I need to get out of the all knowing type of position and get involved in conversation.  This is my goal for future posts.

On the same note, I know that my tone has come across as almost like an expert in their field speaking.  I present the facts and I don't leave room for any kind of argument or questioning.  My tone needs to come down from almost arrogant, to a tone that is inviting.  This is where the most good will come from.  This kind of tone stems from the use of the deficit model, in which I am just trying to inform you on what you should know.  I am not the expert that I come across as in my blog.  I am just a student who has spent time studying the field and I need to try and not paint myself to be an expert.  This will bring my tone back to inviting and will make overall discussion much easier on my blog.

I have tried to paint science and technology as a solution to problems.  This is the implicit view of science that is coming across in my blog.  I mean, this is what I want nuclear power to be and this is why I am an engineering student.

Here is my evaluation of what I have been doing:

• I have been putting a lot of effort into my blog posts.  When I go to do a post, I have to spend significant time researching the facts and getting together how I am going to present the information.  My posts have a lot of content in them and take a lot of time and effort to complete.  I have also been trying different approaches to getting the information across.  My first post followed the deficit rule to get the idea of fission across in the traditional way.  I followed this post up with an analogy of fission to shooting a grenade with a gun.  I have been trying to work on engaging readers by speaking to them like I am on their level, asking them questions to engage them in what I am thinking.  I try to frame my posts by first presenting where I am coming from.  I feel that by giving them an idea of what I am thinking for the post, they will receive the information better.  Also, I have spent a lot of time getting my blog design right and trying to find themed images to make it attractive.  I post often with lots of content which I try to make engaging.  And I think my blog looks good.  I give myself an A for this category.
• I have always tried to be respectful in my posts, but reading through later I see how things could come across differently.  I have tried to develop a conversational tone in the blog as I have developed more of my style.  It is hard to take such a different perspective to such a controversial subject, but I think I am doing a decent job.  I am trying to make my voice give nuclear power a friendly kind of image.  This I think will help take people away from the dangerous frame that nuclear power resides within.  I have written a lot of content and have tried to make a conversational tone.  In this category I would probably give myself between and A and a B somewhere.
• My blog is aimed at addressing the misunderstood issues of nuclear power.  At the same time it is aimed at bringing the benefits of nuclear power to the front of the argument instead of only the dangers.  I feel that I have done a good job at building the issue on my blog.  I have stayed to theme other than where I was required to deviate by the class.  I seek public engagement as it is their opinion that I care about.  I offer a new perspective of the issue and I am getting better about being on the level of the public.  I think I would give myself an A in this category.
• I have made a special effort to follow the blogs of the class and to comment on anything that I have an opinion.  Therefore I have done large amounts of commenting on blogs and fell that I have done my part to build our blogging community and conversation.  I do wish that we got emails back when our comments were replied to as I cannot always remember where I have commented.  I think deserve an A at being part of the classroom blogging community.  As an estimate, I would say that I am averaging 8 to 10 comments every week when reading posts.  I think this is pretty good.  I am also getting comments on my posts, so I am having some success at engaging.
• I have been trying to follow up on several articles by my favorite blog, Atomic Insights.  I like to him often but have not succeeded in getting my blog mentioned on his.  I also try to often link to other areas of the web and to all sites that I get my information from.  I think I deserve a B in this section.
• I try to include multimedia in every post that I do to try and stimulate the visual senses when learning.  I have included many videos and even have tried to create my own images to get across the new image of nuclear power that I want to promote.  I even posted a controversial type video on nuclear power which inspired some interesting conversation.  I have made special effort in this area, so I would give myself an A here as well.

I have spent enormous amounts of time in setting up a good base for this blog as well as putting enough content on it that I am proud to show it off to the world.  It will be going on facebook tonight so that I can attract more people to it.  I feel that my content is good and that I have an interesting perspective in trying to communicate the subjects to my audience.  I am also trying different styles to reach all people.  With all this, I think that my blog is an A blog overall.