User:Jarzofjam/sandbox

Week 3 Assignment:

For this assignment, I decided to evaluate the Ice Bucket Challenge Wikipedia page.

1. While everything in the article was relevant to the Ice Bucket Challenge, some parts could clearly be written better. For example, Ice Bucket Challenge#Origins presented many, many different people who possibly could have started the Ice Bucket Challenge, in quick succession and without great tie-ins to each other.
2. The article is neutral for the most part. I'm still uncertain as to what the line between "objective" and "factual" is on Wikipedia. For example, under Ice Bucket Challenge#The Challenge.27s success, the very first line is "The Ice Bucket Challenge was a successful campaign." However, what is considered "success"? Since "success" is so objective, that line should have also used "success" with more qualifiers.
3. I would say the topic of the controversy over the waste of water was not talked about very much. It was mentioned once with regards to the Rice Bucket Challenge, but there was overall not a lot of coverage of negative views of the Ice Bucket Challenge.
4. Most of the links to the citations work and link to reasonable sources.
5. However, a lot of statements need citation or better sources, and many definitely feel biased.
6. Considering this was a one-time social phenomenon, the information is not out of date.
7. Whoa, the talk page is pretty dead. Not much conversation on there, other than a few extra links to supporting material.
8. No good nor negative rating. Not part of any WikiProjects.
9. We haven't talked about this particular social movement in class.

Week 6 Assignment:

Some critiques of the ALS movement (topical).

https://www.theguardian.com/world/shortcuts/2014/aug/25/ice-bucket-challenge-drought-henan-california-animal-rights-rice

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/08/21/us/firefighters-ice-bucket-challenge/

https://www.theguardian.com/world/shortcuts/2014/aug/25/ice-bucket-challenge-drought-henan-california-animal-rights-rice

https://qz.com/249649/the-cold-hard-truth-about-the-ice-bucket-challenge/

Draft Article: Critiques about the ALS IceBucketChallenge w.r.t. drought in California & wastefulness:

• Drought in California at the same time as the IceBucketChallenge
• Waste of drinking water in the States while countries were having difficulty getting drinking water at all (SandBucketChallenge)

FINAL ARTICLE: ALS IceBucketChallenge Additions

ALS Ice Bucket Challenge/Hashtag and Social Media:

Multiple hashtags were used to spread the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge , including #IceBucketChallenge, #ALSIceBucketChallenge, and #StrikeOutALS. Notably, the Ice Bucket Challenge generated more than 70,000 tweets per day at its peak and more than 14 million Facebook conversations. In proceeding summers when the Ice Bucket Challenge was performed again, the hashtag #EveryAugustUntilACure was also popularized by Pat Quinn and Pete Frates.

ALS Ice Bucket Challenge/Offline Presence

In addition to groups of people participating in the Ice Bucket Challenge, other non-Ice Bucket Challenge efforts to raise publicity about the disease also gained traction through this movement. The ALS Association used a portion of the funds raised through the challenge to host its Walk to Defeat ALS activities. These walks are organized by local branches of the ALS Association, and they are able to continue the fundraising efforts of the Ice Bucket Challenge.

In 2017, Pete Frates published a book about the Ice Bucket Challenge detailing his own experience with ALS as well as his involvement in the social movement. Half of the proceeds will go to the Frates family.

ALS Ice Bucket Challenge/Criticisms/Waste of Water:

Meteorologist Jason Samenow estimated that during the peak of the movement's popularity in 2014, the equivalent of 5,000,000 gallons of water would have been used for the challenge. This calculation assumes that the average of one 4-gallon bucket of water was used per video for the 1.2 million challenge videos which were posted during that time.

Drought in California in 2014.

In January 2014, Governor Jerry Brown (CA) declared California to be in a drought state of emergency. This state of emergency was still in place as the Ice Bucket Challenge became most popular, and many local news stations in California took to criticizing the Challenge's unnecessary waste of water. Also at the time in China, various regions (including the important crop-producing Henan province) experienced months of extreme drought during the summer of 2014. On August 22, 2014, citizens of Henan stood together to protest the #IceBucketChallenge, with signs that said "Henan, please say 'NO' to Ice Bucket Challenge."

To prevent wasting water by using drinkable water, many performed the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge by using natural water sources. Carol King performed the challenge using creek water that was immediately returned back to the creek, and the Killer Clown, a YouTube personality, performed the challenge using rainwater. In response the the criticisms in California, some Californians performed the challenge by using dirt instead of water. In addition, some ALS organizations, such as the ALS Therapy Development Institute, has published guidelines for the Ice Bucket Challenge to minimize water usage by alternatives, like "filling the bucket with socks."

ALS Ice Bucket Challenge/"Michael's Story" poster

"Michael's Story" was a campaign poster from the UK MND Association's summer 2015 "Last Summer" first anniversary campaign which featured Michael Smith. The poster reads, "Last summer, I was the only person that I knew who didn't do the Ice Bucket Challenge. Five months later I was diagnosed with motor neuron disease."He had not taken part in the Ice Bucket Challenge and was subsequently diagnosed with motor neurone disease. This caused controversy, with some critics saying that the poster was implying that Smith had deserved his illness for his previous non-participation. The claims were strongly refuted by the Association and by Smith himself. The UK MND Association came back with another poster that certainly had no implication of bad karma like Michael's. It featured a woman by the name of Alisa who provides a more helpful, and less confusing message. Both of these efforts were mainly in efforts to to help others suffering, especially since the month of June was Motor Neuron Disease Awareness month.