The Diffusion of the Weather Report
The Weather Report - Issue 3
For our readers outside of the Harding University circle, the Weather Report is an underground newspaper published on our campus. The paper is being published in violation of a University rule that requires that all literature distributed on campus be pre-approved. The writers of the Report probably suspected that the administration would withhold their approval because their paper is satirical and usually targets the University administration and culture in a biting but witty way.
In any case, it is probably too late for the authors to come forward because they would risk being punished by the administration. Although this seems like a very small technicality that has been violated (approval of literature), the Report has prompted a vigorous response from some on campus. Specifically, administrators, authoritarians, apologists, and professors without a sense of humor seem to be the biggest opponents of its publication.
Most students and faculty who read the Report, though, seem to find it enjoyable and provocative. The paper is very well written, although its inside jokes may not be apparent to those outside the Harding circle. The idea of the paper and the paper itself have spread quickly across campus.
In a class I am taking, Argumentation and Persuasion, we are studying the diffusion process and Diffusion of Innovations. The diffusion process is how an idea or product spreads through a social group, and it is a fascinating study. As part of the class, my project group is studying the diffusion of the Weather Report. Each issue has been diffused across campus in different ways, and the Report is becoming quite popular.
The first issue just appeared in random locations in public areas like the student center. Some people picked up copies and gave them to friends. One of our former authors scanned a copy of it and posted it on Political Cartel, where over 200 visitors downloaded it. The authors set up a Facebook account with the pseudonym Holly Golightly, and an anonymous e-mail account (thereport[at]yahoo.com). The second issue seems to have involved more people, and it was spread out in lots of locations all over campus in more of a coordinated effort. The timing of the second distribution also coincided with a conference of deans from Harding’s sister schools, and many of those visiting deans are supposed to have been seen reading the Report. The third issue evidently came out today, and included widespread distribution in the dorms.
Here is a pdf of the most recent Weather Report that was distributed today for those not on campus. The two older editions can be found here as well: Issue 1; Issue 2.
One uniquely interesting element of the diffusion of the Weather Report is that it is an underground process. Censorship can sometimes have a backfiring effect of legitimization, and that may have happened in this case. The authors and distributors of the Report probably find much more satisfaction in this anonymous underground publication because of the rush that comes with the illegitimate diffusion. Those who come across the Report also probably get the added thrill knowing that its diffusion is actively opposed by the administration and its humorless apologists. Watching the anonymous authors of the Weather Report create and spread their paper on this campus has been incredibly interesting to observe as a social experiment, and I am sure that we will keep posting on its progress in the future.
h/t: WLN
Your link for the 3rd issue does not work.
Here’s a working link to the file I scanned earlier today.
It’s working now, but thanks.
I’m glad you got it working.
I’d prefer in the future, you scan your own copy to upload to Cartel, or supply a link to mine if you wish to use the file I created.
Does it really matter? You don’t really get ownership rights over something that someone else creates just because you scan it.
Perhaps not, but I took the time to scan it and convert it to a PDF and then combine the PDF pages. I would prefer you shoot me a link in the future rather than download my file and upload it. You could have just as easily copied my link and posted that instead of downloading, uploading and then posting your link.
Christ on a crutch who gives a shit?
does anyone else feel a little awkward reading this thread?
could you not have made this request in a more private setting CLB? this just makes you look sort of petulant
btw, still can’t download the 3rd issue. i had to go over to WLN to get it. thank you CLB.
Yes, j_ball, I agree that this conversation should have taken place in a more private setting.
Funniest issue yet!
The first article cracked me up, especially the line “you just can’t turn down an opportunity to escape socialism by flying to Europe.”
I can’t tell you how many Facebook statuses I saw on November 4th and 5th claiming that students were going to Europe or Canada to escape socialism.
Thanks for the hat tip.
So this isn’t quite as funny, but I find it funny when people say that Obama’s proposals are anti-American, or that the premise of positivist government action is anti-American. Do those people realize that America has been a welfare state for over half a century, and that well over half of the Americans who voted elected Obama? They can disagree and that’s fine, but they can’t keep pretending like the welfare/Democratic/progressive/Obama/New Deal people are a minority. They are the minority.
Actually, I wouldn’t mind if some of them left…
In the words of a dear friend of mine (and CLB’s sister):
“I hope they don’t move to Canada… I am here… and don’t want to deal with the whining…”
But yes, I thoroughly enjoyed the many status threats to leave the country upon Obama’s election; not surprisingly, the same people who spouted throughout the last 8 years, “God put Bush in office, you should respect him!” And when I dared suggest that God, if that’s the case, also put Obama in office? Oh heavens. The inconsistency kills me.
Thanks for keeping we off-campus folk in the know.
You know how people are always setting the desktop backgrounds on the computers in the Student Center to different random things? I think someone may have set one to the Weather Report today…
CLB: That is fantastic! Kudos to Holly Golightly.