The Dark of the Media

Seth Liss wrote an article on  SunSentinel.com exposing the dark side of the social media. He exposes the grim side of cyber-bullying, connections to organizing riots, racist and hateful people, and "creepy" people.

Mr. Liss says that the social network medias make bullying easy and anonymous. Just a few weeks ago, a 15 year-old girl was allegedly bullied by nine charged teenagers who may have contributed to her suicide. This is one of many sad stories that have happened across the country.

"Flash mobs" started out as harmless fun. These mobs were organized through social medias and text messages that were designed to get people together to do various social activities such as dances. However, like many things, people take things, like flash mobs, and miss use them. Teenagers now organize fights and riots in public places to cause "mayhem."

Because there are options to place a comment anonymously or under a fake name, people are able to hide behind these names and say racist and hateful remarks. The SunSentinel.com allows comments to encourage healthy debates but have now turned them off in order to "prevent such comments about the recently deceased."

Chatroulette.com is a popular website where you are connected to random people across the world to video chat. Most of the people you are connected with men exposing themselves and other creepers. Getting an account is very easy making it easy for young children to log on and connect themselves with these people.

Is the media evil? I really do not think so. Parents get mad about the violence in games, movies, and other forms of entertainment and blame the companies for the "damage" they have caused. Sorry, parents, I think it's YOU; YOU are the problem. There are advisories that have the advised age for a certain game or website. Parents need to monitor what their kids are consuming; it's not the company's job to do that. Also, ever child is different and will react to different forms of violence such as cartoon to "real" violence. There is the age old argument that David Buckingham brought up in one of his books about the working-class family who are"inadequate parents, living chaotic and aimless lives on council estates who are alleged to have absolved themselves of all responsibility for their children" (142). I find this silly. How hard is it to take a few moments with your child to be interactive with them and play that video game with them to see for yourself what it's all about. Now, I am only 19 and do not know what it's like to be a parent with children, but to me, it doesn't sound all that hard. Buckingham also said that throughout his research, he has not met a family that hasn't attempted to do so.

I would really like my older, more mature, audience to respond to this and share your experience with controlling violent images, via any kind of media medium, to your children.

sARAH

No Book, No Problem. Right?

So, if you haven’t heard or realized by now, books, along with everything else ever invented, are going electronic; and the old way or reading books is becoming more and more unpopular. Electronic Books, or ebooks, are becoming the new trend for reading books, but according to an article I found on trueslant.com, this may not be such a good thing. The first drawback that they talk about is the closing of small bookstores. This is to be expected though. Since technology has advanced everything, stores in many genres have begun to close. Just think about it, when was the last time you have actually been to a Blockbuster or Hollywood Video. Technological advances such as Redbox have pretty much put them out of business, and people fear that ebooks will have the same effect on book stores. Another drawback to ebooks that the article mentions is that when reading an ebook, others can not see what the person is reading. The article says, “it is not always possible to see what others are reading or to project your own literary tastes.” There have been many times where friends of mine have been reading, and the cover of the book has caught my attention. Sometimes, it made me more interested in reading the book for myself.

But ebooks cant be all bad right. If that was the case, they wouldn’t be so popular. Well actually, there really are not many advantages to reading an ebook. Its just like having the actual book, its just on your laptop, I-pod, Sony Reader.. Etc. To me, ebooks are for people who want to seem cool or modern. The media have portrayed ebooks as a cool, new way to read books, and people buy into that.

In the book “Media Society”, David Croteau and William Hoynes mention more than one definition of ideology. Ideology can be defined as a way of thinking, or what one considers is acceptable or not. For example, many people's ideology tells them that it is "normal" or more acceptable to shower, brush you teeth, and wash you face, before going to bed. I think that one ideology that is common in America is the importance of consumerism; because, it has become so "normal" for advertising to create this desire in the general public to buy things, and much more than is actually necessary. So, many times people end up purchasing something they don't need. Anyone who has bought an ebook probably falls directly into this category or line of thought. don’t get me wrong, there are many advantages of having an ebook. You may get access to many books on one device, without having to carry around a big bag of books, but is having an ebook a necessity? Not at all.

As a writer, who is working on a novel right now, I acknowledge all of the positive things that come from having an ebook, but I personally would prefer to buy the actual book instead. I think that ebooks are not going to take the place traditional books any time soon, but that day might come. This is yet another example that nothing is exempt from technology. And if Technology makes something “better” people will buy it.

Links:

http://trueslant.com/colinminer/2010/03/31/read-this-and-help-someone/

David S.

Control gadgets with your SKIN!

Remember the crazy days when we actually had to push buttons on our phones? Well, now we have touch screen, so no need to worry about that. So, just when you thought they thought of everything, now we may not even need to touch our phones or music players AT ALL!

According to BBC News, Chris Harrison has created Skinput. Skinput is a system in which the screen of a ipod menu (or similar gadgets) is projected onto a person's arm and they use there fingers to select items or even play games! Check it out...



Pretty crazy huh?
Well, Chris Harrison explains that new media is constantly getting smaller to make it more portable, etc. Take a look at the picture below and you will see one example of the shrinkage that is occurring. (The original came first, then the shuffle, then the "nano" I believe).

Chris Harrison explains that gadgets can only get so much smaller, because creators are limited by the size of human hands. This may be part of the reason that touch-screens are becoming extremely popular at the moment; because, with a touch-screen the screen doesn't have to be shrunk for the sake of squeezing in keys or a swivel circle (as there are for plain ipods). But now Harrison has developed a system in which we could use our very own body, hands and fingers, to navigate pages and games projected on our skin. He evens says, "in the future your hand could be your iPhone and your handset could be watch-sized on your wrist".

I find interesting is that, while this system is still a medium that doesn't involve actually being somewhere, it still has a physical aspect to it. Much like the "Wii" or something, this system incorporates our bodies. In the book Media Society, Birkets suggests that, when using the internet (as you might eventually with Skinput), "people can take on new identities in cyberspace, transcending the limits and the responsibilities of their physical environment,". The unusual thing is that with the system Skinput, that is not exactly the case. While people may be able to say what they like on the internet or play games, they are still quite under the "responsibilities" of their physical state; because, if they weren't able to move their arms or fingers for some reason than they may not be able to use this technology.

What does this mean for the future? I don't know because who says these lab tests will even make it to become a commercial product.

I think what Marshall McLuhan said about technology is very true and applicable in this scenario. In Media Society, McLuhan says that, "we should focus our attention on the ways each new medium disrupts tradition and reshapes social life". I don't know if he meant disrupt in a negative way, but I do think that we should consider how this new system, and other ones that are already on the market, may affect our lives.

So, how do you think this potential product would change our society?
Would it influence the ways we view any public issues?
Is it even an improvement from currently gadgets?
Personally, I'm not sure that it is. I think our current gadgets are quite convenient enough ha ha.

Sincerely, Cristi

Never Good Enough

Albert R. Hunt of Business Week wrote about the charges that President Obama made towards former Florida Governor Jeb Bush. Mr. Bush said that Obama "is the most liberal president" in modern times pushing "an agenda that really is foreign to mainstream America." Many Republicans feel like the current president has "socialist" agendas. Not only is Obama being criticized on the right wing but also by his fellow left wingers who say that he has "failed to keep his campaign commitments." Hunt says that "ideology isn't the ideal prism to evaluate the Obama presidency." Going into detail about the many promises that the president made in order to be elected, both the left and right (and the people of this country) all have "a bone to pick" and believe that their ideas are so much better than what is being done.

"Journalists find themselves precisely where where they want to be: in the middle. This middle ground serves as a haven for reporters, criticism comes from both sides, then the news must not be ideological at all. Attacks from both sides make the center a defensible place" (Croteau & Hoynes, 169). Mr. Hunt has perfectly placed himself in the situation just quoted. He describes how the Republicans and Democrats both have issues with administration. I also found it funny how Mr. Hunt said, "ideology isn't the ideal prism to evaluate the Obama presidency." Though the definition of the term "ideology" is vague, he never attempts to establish the definition. Croteau and Hoynes even said that "we need to be careful to specify what we mean by the term" (159). Being called "ideological" could be a insult by calling someone out on saying and doing contradicting things to one's beliefs, it could also be defined simply as a set of beliefs.

Though I do not particularly care for Obama's plans, I do feel sorry for him in a sense. It's hard trying to please everyone; it's just not going to happen. People are always going to say you could do this better or change this. It's easy to say and think something but different when you're trying to do it. There's only so much you can do in four years and he hasn't been in office that long; give him time. I find it silly that people are attacking his ideology because he hasn't had time to totally go through all the motions of his various agendas.

Kids seem to like Movies more than Food

I know, you might be thinking, “What does kids liking movies more then food have to do with media?” Well, if you’re the largest children network nickelodeon, it has a lot to do with media. Recently, I came across an article on www.adage.com that said that in 2009, food was replaced by movies as the second largest marketing category . (No surprise that toys were number one) The article said that the success that Hollywood had last year had a direct impact on advertisers. Nickelodeon is expecting the same results for 2010, especially with the release of a new Happy Potter movie and a movie based on nickelodeon’s own TV show, “Avatar the Last Airbender.” Though food moved down to the third highest marketing category, nickelodeon says that; with brands such as Kellogg and General Mills making new, healthier foods, advertisers should have fun with these new products, which they are hoping will lead to better numbers than those of 2009.

Ok, so for people who don’t know by now, television is basically run by advertisement. If it weren’t for advertisement, there would be no TV. David Crouteau and William Hoynes spend a lot of time in their book, “Media Society” explaining just how important advertisement is to TV. They explain how the main reason for TV is for companies to make money. This is why commercials are so important and the reason why you will NEVER have 100% commercial or advertisement free TV. We have TV shows so that during the commercial break, many companies can advertise their product so that the audience will eventually buy their product. This why so many shows end up getting canceled. If no one watches them, that means that no one is watching the commercials, and companies loose money. TV producers use what Croteau and Hoynes call Logic of Safety. This is basically saying that Companies try to minimize the risks of loosing money on programs. Companies realize that a show very rarely is going to start out with very high ratings, so they try to avoid sows that are going to be definite failures. This included shows that may cause controversy. Croteau and Hoynes also talk about narrowcasting, which is when an business puts there commercial during TV shows that target a selected audience.

An example of this is how nearly all of the commercials shown on nickelodeon are targeted toward kids. Movies may be the second largest marketing category, but each movie will not have a rating over PG-13. This is due to narrowcasting.

I remember being a little kid and watching commercials on nickelodeon and after the commercial would go off, I would always want my parents to go out and buy what I just saw. The items on my Christmas list were all things I had seen during a commercial. This is TV working at its best. They had interesting shows that I enjoyed watching, and commercials that had products that me, as a young child, would want. Nickelodeon is the #1 children network, and the commercials shown during their TV shows will be seem by millions of kids everyday. Toy companies, movies, and food companies are bound to make a lot of money if they advertise to kids on Nickelodeon, and that’s pretty much why TV exists in the first place; so that companies can make a lot of money!

Link:

http://adage.com/mediaworks/article?article_id=142952

David S.

London is treating technology addicts

Do you ever want to just get away? Just escape all the stress in your life? 

Well, some people relax by, and enjoy, immersing themselves in social networking sites or video games. Personally, I don't think this is out of the ordinary, but apparently it can get out of hand. Only recently has an "obsession" with technology or social media turned to talk of addiction because, as with other forms of addiction, when tech addicts are deprived they become, "chronically agitated and irritable," according to Doctor Richard Graham in an article from BBC News. 

You may think, Wait I minute, I do that, or, My boyfriend does get upset when I interrupt him while he is playing video games, does that mean we are addicted? No, probably not, but if you are really curious...right click here to take Capio Nightingale Hospital's technology test, to find out. However, I think the quiz really is more a reminder (because a quiz cannot truly diagnose someone in my opinion) of how overwhelmed we are by media and how sometimes we may place it too high on the priority list.

The article explains that treatment for the addicts is held for inpatients at the Capio Hospital; it involves a three step process of delving into the patients issues with face-to-face relations, next they are encouraged to switch off technology, and finally they engage in exercise/activities with friends or family. You see the problem with tech addicts is not that the merely become irritable,but that their relationships many times take a toll. As Dr. Graham mentions, "The preoccupation with accessing sites and responding to messages is so compelling that it gets prioritized...it can impact on other areas of life and skew young people's ability to engage in other activities". 

The idea that adolescents in particular will begin to prefer to spend their time using technology or media, instead of with other humans and such, can be referred to as an issue of "escape", according to Joseph Dominick in, "Social Effects of Mass Communication". Many parents worry about their teenager "escaping" from the real world, but can we even really call it "escaping" when the media "realities" are becoming more and more like our real world experiences? Well, what Dominick and Dr. Graham both also express is concern about the future of media and technology, and how the advances to come may cause technology addiction to become more common.

I don't know about that, but I do think that it makes sense that it is possible to become addicted to technology because, in my opinion, it is possible to become addicted to almost anything. I do agree with Professor Mark Griffiths, who was quoted in the article, that true addicts are not very common. I also think that the steps for treating the addiction are very realistic. As Professor Griffiths said, "Any therapy should be about getting the behavior back under control". You see, they don't expect patients to be able to avoid technology or media, because that is quite impossible, but they do try and wean them off of their compulsive habit. 

I think this is a very healthy and reasonable way to go about treating the addicts. I, myself, am not an addict, but I certainly struggle with my prioritizing and spending to much time with media. So, although I am writing this blog, I am actually "fasting" from media at the moment. This means, aside from class purposes, I am not using "Facebook", "Youtube", the internet...I am not watching television, movies, or listening to music (unless I play it myself on the guitar). I can only check my email 2x a day and I can't text, only calls of less than 5 minutes! I chose to do this fast for myself, to see if I could do it and to remove myself from some of the anxiety it brings - you'd be surprised how much it causes! I also began this fast for my Theology class for extra credit. Maybe I will explain more in a later entry, but here are some numbers...

50 days

Start date: Tuesday, March 16th

Days so far: 9

End date: Tuesday, May 4th

Days to go: 41

I have found myself spending so much more time on more important thing, such as my relationships with other, my homework (haha), playing guitar/piano, etc. I have felt less anxious, less rushed. I'm not saying it's easy though...I will keep you all updated. Anyway, maybe you too should give it a try, of course you don't have to start at 7 weeks straight. Maybe just cut out one aspect that you feel keeps you from your relationships or seems to be stealing a lot of your time.

Do you  think you could do it? What do you think about the technology addiction or the treatment?

Cristi

Texts call for violence

Those readers, who go to Eastern University, PA, probably heard of the dance party we had first semester, called "Flash Dance". It was a night, when we had 5 parties at 5 places. However you did not know the places in advance. You got the information about the first place via text message 30 minutes before it started, and then you got another text message about the second place 5 minutes before the switch, etc. It was a kind of fun and excited, but imagine when this "flash" texting method are done for violent purposes. Why would someone do that? Well, apparently it happened. The New York Times has an article about the so-called "flash mobs", that occurred in Philadelphia, PA on Saturday, March 19, 2010.

A big number of young people filled South Street in Philadelphia and caused several damages and interruption for shop owners, pedestrians, and residents as well. There were pedestrians, who even got injured in the fights.
Eventually some of them got arrested by the police. These "flash mobs" are really getting on the nerves of the city residents, who have been complaining about the unsupervised, sometimes aggressive children on the streets. The solutions that are on the table are more jobs for kids, more summer jobs for kids, more after-school programming, and more parent support. Are the citizens or organizations going to be able to stop these "flash mobs", or is it going to keep going and maybe one day you get a text message too that is saying: "Come to XY street to make some trouble and have some fun!!!"

We have heard that the media have a negative influence on us, because its content are filled with violence and sexuality etc. In the book, The Dynamics of Mass Communication by Joseph R. Dominick, researches' results show that media violence can lead to some sort of aggression, but it definitely depends on the individual's personality and background. In order to prevent young children from getting inappropriate impression of anything, the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) has regulated the different mediums such as television in a way that certain programs are only allowed to be on Tv between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.
Now in this particular event we are talking about something different. Movies and programs are made to entertain the audience, even if they have violent content, but this is not what is happening here. Here media technology is used in order to create and boost violence. Not to mention that text messages do not go through any regulations, so basically anyone can write whatever he/she wants to anyone. It sounds pretty bad, doesn't it?

Where is our world heading to? Does it show that we have to be prepared that anytime a group of young people just randomly attack us on the streets? I think it is important to see that the violent scenes that we see on Tv are now among us. What would you do if you got a text message like that? Would you call 911 or do you have any other idea?

Klaudia