DUE TUESDAY, SEPT. 11TH
Find a media controversy (past or present) that illustrates the relationship between multimedia communication technologies and society. Describe the controversy, why it is important and how it shows the connection between media and society. Then, briefly react to your example. Which side do you take? Why? (Of course, you do not have to agree with either side!!)
Be sure to include a URL resource so that we can all take a look at the conflict you select. And, remember to choose a controversy that interests you... this assignment will become a part of your first essay.
(I have posted my example.)
26 comments:
As our online activities become an increasingly important part of our daily lives, they begin to be judged in much the same ways as our offline activities. Employers, schools, etc. are now scouting the Internet for information about prospective employees BEFORE hiring them. (This works in much the same way as when someone views a MySpace page, etc. before going on a blind date.) The implications can be serious, such as the May 2007 case of Stacy Snyder who was denied her teaching degree through Millersville Univsersity over a MySpace photo (see link below).
In response to the serious implications of our online reputations, several new companies now offer reputation scouting and cleansing services. Reputation Defender is one successful example (URL below). RD promises to protect your reputation online. But, how does this service work? AND, does it violate "free" speech? Eg. If Bob says something about me I don't like, do I have the right to "silence" him?
I do agree that current libel and slander laws MUST be applied to online communications as they are to other forms of mass media, BUT this does NOT give me the right to hire private investigators to re-write or censor the opinions others have of me. Fact and opinion must not be confused here. Otherwise, we lose all notions of "free" expression, both in idea and in practice.
URL's:
http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/index.php?id=2029
http://www.reputationdefender.com/
The piece of media that I picked was the Britney spears custody battle. The reason I picked this story was because everywhere you look she is on the cover of a magazine or in the news for either kissing a woman, not wear any undewear or partying to the early morning and neglecting her children. Everything she does will affect the custody battle leaving kevin with full custody of their two children. This story is really not important at all but is very interesting to everyone because in some wierd way we are all obsessed with pop culture. The connection from media to society is that she is being photographed EVERYWHERE! From night clubs to dinners etc. The media publicizes everything affecting her reputation as well as her crediability as a mother and a entertainer. I dont choose to take a side for the mere fact that it is very embarassing to have your life publicized on every cover of every magazine. I dont entirely agree with the media aspect but it is bringing to light the faults of these celebrity parents. Just because they have alot of money doesnt make them better parents then your average citizen. Money doesnt always bring happiness but it can fill voids in your life causing you to do outrageous things with it such as Ms. Britney Spears.
URL: http://www.tmz.com/category/britney-spears/
Apple is ridiculous. Knowing that hundreds of people, including myself, camped outside of Apple retailers to purchase the iPhone 2 months ago, to reduce the price for the Holiday season which is still a few more months away. On top of that, they release a new iPod that looks identical to the iPhone for roughly the same price that the iPhone was reduced to. Apple consumers beware.
URL: http://money.aol.com/news/articles/ar/_a/jobs-apologizes-gives-100-iphone-credit/20070905095809990001
The media plays a big role in our health and our weight. The weight drugs and weight loss programs aside, our diets are being affected most by the media. Most if not all newspapers, and news broadcasting have a diet section. We have diet magazines and diet shows. Every so often a new study comes out that the media jumps on, and society immediately follows , blindly. Strawberries, protein, fiber, red-wine, all natural, soy, just a few of the things the media added to our diet mostly by saying they would make us live longer and then shortly after another dietary or medial expert says something that either negates or gives negative effect to the previously worshiped study. All these experts have something to say, like do not eat fruits and vegetables together. It never killed anyone! It seems to be just a money making business. The Atkins diet for example was a big hoax. In truth we don't need studies and experts to tell us that certain types of food are harmful to our bodies, and that regular exercise is the key to losing weight and staying healthy. Even from the time we are born we all know that fruits and vegetables are healthy. Yes there may be faster ways to lose the weight, but how safe are they, and once its off how will you keep it off? The best method is to follow an athletic diet. Each athlete is walking testimony of it.
Scientists seem to be getting closer to discovering a way to negate diet from the equation of weight. Looking through history we see that once equilibrium in nature is disturbed consequences follow. There is no magic potion for weight.
http://www.reason.com/news/show/28714.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/10/science/10starch.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
Fast food for a fast world. All over the world there has been studies done to show how fast food has the obesity rate on a rise. Every magazine or talk show or radio program has some type of news about fast food and or health or obesity or juvinile diabetes. what is the common denominater food, the fast one that is. In the world today who has time to pick up the kids and then turn around and cook a hot meal, not when at every light theres a McDonals, a Wendys, a Burger King. Not only in america has this problem all over the world according to Eric Schlosser who wrote a piece for rolling stone magazine on Fast-Food Nation: The True Cost Of America's Diet.
URl:http://www.mcspotlight.org/media/press/rollingstone1.html
Superstars as well as media have a very persuasive effect on society. This effect could be either positive or negitave. The effect and rep that superstar singer Beyonce has on society is a very positive one. A few months ago this superstar fell on stage while doing a show in orlando. within seconds the video of the singer falling flooded the internet. This shows how media could take the name of someone great and make demise their rep. ater some time Beyonce requested t hat the video be removed from youtube so her life or rep can be save or what was left of it.
http://www.local6.com/entertainment/13750502/detail.html
Best selling Author Ann Coulter is in the hot seat with upset widows. The wives who lost their husbands in the 9 11 attacks are being accused of being money hungry broads, as stated by Couter in one of the book"Godless: The Church of Liberalism", chapters. with the Book success, coulter is making a lot of appearances on talk shows where she adress the controversy and backs up her attacks. Being that Coulter is making so much appearances for talk shows, the media itself turned on her for her accusation. Although this controversy is a complicated one it really proves how powerful media is. Coulter is a writer which is a form of media and she is attacking the widows of 9 11, however, she is being attaked by majority of televission networks. Coulter made a statement on The Jay Leno Show, she said,"Well, see, in my perspective I'm Dorothy and I've just dropped my house on the mainstream media". in my opinion media attacks media when there is a gain to be made, and in this case, with all the negative press and attacks Coulter is facing she is still in the lime light. The attention she gets only give her an audiance to hear what she have to say and continuosly attack the widows. Do i agree with the possition Coulter or the networks chose? NO. i think Coulter have the right to express herself and the media have that same right. why are the widows not heard.
I stumbled upon a piece in the New York Times speaking about Juvenile sex offenders. The article explained that under Megan’s Law offenders were registered onto Sex Offenders Central Registry Website, which explains the crime they committed, picture, name, height and location of the offender at the time of the crime. This registry tret underage offender just as they would treat adults. I feel that though adolescents’ may be able to be rehabilitated much easier and given leeway for more mistakes they should still be treated like an adult. In judicial sentencing they can be treated like a child but in sex offender’s registry and in rehabilitation programs they should get every treatment that an adult sex offender receives. Though they maybe in the registry for life that is some of the price you pay for breaking the law (adult or non- adult). The uses of internet and media have made this issue more prominent to the public eye and caused more problems for those trying to leave there past.
URL:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/22/magazine/22juvenile-t.html?ex=1342756800&en=06d55660bb77c123&ei=5088&partner=r
Should File sharing on the internet be legal or illegal. This is an issue that involves serious fines and even jail time. If what is supposed to be the file sharing LAW on the internet broken by either companies or users the individual or company can be order to shutdown operations of their servers and even face a long time behind bars. These laws being fabricated and imposed by the goverment which in many cases violate what is called our freedom of speech on the internet makes nowadays almost impossible to freely share music, movies, and software . At one point it started in 1999 with napster who ended up being sued by the music industry. supreme court order the shutdown of napster which in time opened again with a legal version of music sharing for which people would have to pay a monthly subscription so that they can share music files. no more free stuff..... today companies still operate in mostly Europe in places like netherlands in which online file sharing is somewhat illegal but manage to survive with the internet laws in forced there. many people love to have the opportinity to download a nice cd or a software program that will allow them to learn and put into practice skills that they have learned for which I am in total favor for online file sharing on the other hand, there is people who abuse the opportunity of being able to download whatever they want from the internet selling it in the black market trying to make a huge profit making the music and movie industry furious because their sells are going down. That is why the the entertainment indsutry pushes the govenment to do something about it. In the lates News about online file sharing the government is spying on you. Beware that even if a web site says it's not tracking you, it may be anyway.they can spy on you in a form of IP address, which can be captured by the web server. The court said that the fact that IP address is temporarily stored in RAM is sufficient for it to compel TorrentSpy to record it permanently in a log file.WOW amazing! but unfortunately that is what is happening now. So I guess we ca say goodbye to what we once called freedom on the internet.
http://www.p2p-weblog.com/50226711/court_compels_privacy_violation.php
A media controversy that took place a couple of months ago that I found very interesting to discuss was the use of the derogatory description Don Imus used in describing the Rutgers basket ball team.
His use of the demeaning description of them over the public airwaves was received by many as very distasteful. Although he said the comments made was done in the means of comical entertainment. Although I found it very distasteful coming from anyone
What language is acceptable to be used in the media either TV, radio or internet, what some consider entertainment, others may consider offensive Imus found out the hard way by lost of his job. Why when some use that negative description in the media as a form of speech is not looked at as harshly, but when others use it. It tends to cause controversy.
Is there a double standard in the media when it comes to censorship?
http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/TV/04/10/imus.views/index.html
The piece of media that I picked was the Britney spears custody battle. The reason I picked this story was because everywhere you look she is on the cover of a magazine or in the news for either kissing a woman, not wear any undewear or partying to the early morning and neglecting her children. Everything she does will affect the custody battle leaving kevin with full custody of their two children. This story is really not important at all but is very interesting to everyone because in some wierd way we are all obsessed with pop culture. The connection from media to society is that she is being photographed EVERYWHERE! From night clubs to dinners etc. The media publicizes everything affecting her reputation as well as her crediability as a mother and a entertainer. I dont choose to take a side for the mere fact that it is very embarassing to have your life publicized on every cover of every magazine. I dont entirely agree with the media aspect but it is bringing to light the faults of these celebrity parents. Just because they have alot of money doesnt make them better parents then your average citizen. Money doesnt always bring happiness but it can fill voids in your life causing you to do outrageous things with it such as Ms. Britney Spears.
URL: http://www.tmz.com/category/britney-spears/
The Article I chose is from Octobers issue of Official Xbox Magazine in which Professor James Paul Gee from University of Arizona describes how video games are NOT bad for you. For as long as I can remember Parents, Politicians, and a general population of people feel that video games are bad for those that play them. They feel that Video games "warp" the mind and are a waste of time.
Both the professor and my self agree when we say this is not true, Most current games force the players to think in a non linear fashion where we must take into account all the possible thing that could happen. Should we fail we are given the option as gamers to restart and figure out a new way to achieve our goal, Be it to destroy a enemy facility or save a hostage.
This type of thinking not only helps gamers in the virtual worlds that they play in but also in the real world when we are required to think of multiple solutions to a problem. Online gaming forces players to work together as a team and achieve a goal together. Games like rainbow six cant have one person on a 8 man team just running around doing all the work because it just isnt going to happen and the team will fail, The game teaches players to work together to achieve victory, this translates well into the work force where more and more companys are focusing on group work.
Throughout many generations radio has been one, if not the biggest medium of communication for all of us. I'm sure at point or another in our lives we had a favorite radio show. For example mine was called "El Vacilon", maybe yours was "The Howard Stern Show". Each radio show has a unique touch in how they satisfy their listener, like for example their different type of comedy or the music they play. Even though there are a lof of radio stations and maybe some of them seem similar, one thing is for sure radio DJ's have different personalities. Don Imus is a clear example of this. My artcile talks about how he was fired by saying a derogatory term during air time about the Rutgers women's basketball team. Such words that took probably about 40 seconds to be said, cost Don Imus his job. By no means I agree with this derogatory term, but I do not agree with his firing. Radio is a huge medium of communication which should allow us to enjoy our freedom of speech. People who has listened to his show, knew the type of radio host he is, sarcastic and very irritating at times. Even though, he has an annoying personality, he has a huge following. My whole point of controversy is how a huge medium of communication can be used not only to satisfy listeners but also to offend them. Even though its unfair to prohibit a man from his right of freedom of speech, it's also unfair to basically sabotage such medium. I guess the biggest issue in this topic is how much of freedom of speech is allowed, even though we should have complete use of it...But that's a total different issue.
How the media affects women's body image. In today's society, there are numerous women that want to look like most of the celebrities today. Stars like Marilyn Monroe, Pamela Anderson, Carmen Electra, and many more. It's affecting today's society because women want to look just like them. Every year,
Millions of people are hurting themselves trying to be a replica of these sex symbols. Women start to feel insecure about their bodies by looking at media images all day. They are on television, spoken about on the radio, magazine and newspaper articles and every where you turn. I think this situation is a big issue and it’s growing every day due to the media and how they expose it. Body image has certainly changed over the decades.
Throughout many generations radio has been one, if not the biggest medium of communication for all of us. I'm sure at point or another in our lives we had a favorite radio show. For example mine was called "El Vacilon", maybe yours was "The Howard Stern Show". Each radio show has a unique touch in how they satisfy their listener, like for example their different type of comedy or the music they play. Even though there are a lof of radio stations and maybe some of them seem similar, one thing is for sure radio DJ's have different personalities. Don Imus is a clear example of this. My artcile talks about how he was fired by saying a derogatory term during air time about the Rutgers women's basketball team. Such words that took probably about 40 seconds to be said, cost Don Imus his job. By no means I agree with this derogatory term, but I do not agree with his firing. Radio is a huge medium of communication which should allow us to enjoy our freedom of speech. People who has listened to his show, knew the type of radio host he is, sarcastic and very irritating at times. Even though, he has an annoying personality, he has a huge following. My whole point of controversy is how a huge medium of communication can be used not only to satisfy listeners but also to offend them. Even though its unfair to prohibit a man from his right of freedom of speech, it's also unfair to basically sabotage such medium. I guess the biggest issue in this topic is how much of freedom of speech is allowed, even though we should have complete use of it...But that's a total different issue.
Link:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/04/12/national/main2675273.shtml
The article I Tawasi chose is about Michael Vick's guilty plea. i believe this is the biggest pile of crap that a man is going to lose millions of bucks and go to jail and loose his way of life which is playing football just for killing a few dogs lol. while you have people like lindsay lohan and paris hilton who drive drunk and possess ILLEGAL DRUGS IE(COCAINE, weed) and the just spend a few days in jail and still manage to maintain thier fan base and money and still grow in popularity with the more wreckless crap they do. but the connections btwn the media and society is that the media portrays Vick in a very negative light while they glorify these young women for doing things just as bad
urls:http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/08/20/sportsline/main3184703.shtml
http://www.tmz.com/2007/08/23/lindsay-cops-plea-shell-do-time/
The modeling industry is getting out of head. It shouldn't be there problem what someone did in their past life before they became famous. Miss america should not have been stripped of her title because of some photos that she took way before her career came off the ground. Me as a person destined to make it to the top I don't want photos like my myspace pics to end my career.
www.google.com/(miss america scandel)
Loose change is a documentary about the attacks of 9/11. This film was very controversial because it discussed the possibility of the attacks being planned by our nation(in other words the terrorist being American instead of Middle-Eastern. This angered a lot of people but at the same time is raised questions and ideas about certain things that are not answered to this date.
I agree with the films point of view. I side with them because the government has not offered the answers to questions that are vital for the American people to know. Also the simple fact that they wont release the video of what collided with the Pentagon is strange to me.
I ENCOURAGE ALL OF YOU TO WATCH THIS DOCUMENTARY EVERYONE SHOULD SEE ANOTHER POINT OF VIEW http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7167151489146455453&q=loose+change&total=3043&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=8
The media piece of my choice is the Michael Jackson controversy of 2002, the baby dangling episode...On November 20, 2002, Michael Jackson concord the world once more, because his fans in Germany wanted to see Blanket, his youngest child, and he stupidly dangled the child over the balcony...The reason i chose this was because this media coverage,picture and video, cause the Social services to start questioning Mr. jackson's parental abilies...Major news carriers, such as CNN, were now debating Michael jackson rather than other more meaningful stuff going on in the world...Now, the actual actions of mr. jackson may or may not be logical to many but in my opinion, I really don' think his parental skills are all that bad...Backing my opinion on the fact the in some cultures aroud the world this behavior is acceptable, like places in the Caribbean....
http://archives.cnn.com/2002/SHOWBIZ/11/20/jackson.baby/index.html
last week
Last week, on September 20th. in Jena, Louisiana, a march of more than 10,000 activists was held to protest the unfair charges placed against six black students at a local high school. The six students, ranging in ages 15-17 and now known as the ‘Jena Six’, who beat up one of their (white) classmates, are being charged with attempted murder.
The trouble first began late last year, when a black student sat under a tree on the Jena High School campus, where usually only white students sat. The next day, three nooses were found hanging on the tree, a symbol of the KKK. Soon afterwards, it was reported that six black students were arrested and charged with attempted murder after beating up a white fellow student; the white student was treated and released from the hospital on the same day.
It’s so crazy to think that in this day and age, we are still dealing with issues like these, i.e. racialism and discrimination. Even in and around our homes, schools, neighborhoods and jobs, right here in Queens, New York, we are faced with problems of the unfair treatment of different races, especially the minorities.
It amazes me that details of this story was covered first, not by the media, but by concerned citizens who sent out text messages, posts online via YouTube and by black talk radio. Even I who never watch the news was motivated to learn more about this matter after seeing the York College cafeteria staff don homemade “free Jena 6” stickers on their uniforms. This just goes to show how far word of mouth can reach when people care enough to spread it.
source: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/21/us/21jena.html?n=Top/News/U.S./U.S.%20States,%20Territories%20and%20Possessions/Louisiana
There are many conflicts and controversey out in the world. when the Jena 6 incident ocurred i turned onthe teleision and the case was being coverd by just about every news channel. The case was front pages in newsday and other popular newspapers, so even if i didn't turn on the television i would have sitll seen the case because i go to the deli every morning so even if i didn't see actual visual motion footage i would have still seen still images and woulf had to read about it.
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