Media Chatter

Chapter 3: Question #5

The Internet ultimately hurts musical artists financially.  While it is true that the Internet is helpful in allowing various artists to display their music to millions of different people through websites like MySpace, it is actually harmful to their work when associating it with finances.  The Internet allows thousands of people to share various music and songs with other people around the world.  This is definitely true when artists release their music online.  Instead of having to go out to the store and buy a CD of the new songs of an artist you like, you can now stay at home, type the artist name in Google, and watch as their songs are displayed on the screen.  Also, with the mass ability to download songs onto one’s computer or iPod through iTunes, many people do not have to necessarily buy an entire CD in order to gain a few songs.  A very harmful blow to musical artists was the creation of Napster by Shawn Fanning.  Napster allowed thousands of people to create a virtual network in which they can see other users’ MP3s and decided if they would want to download them or not.  However, while a slight minority of files that were being traded through Napster was legal, the majority of files were not.  Users of Napster traded music that had not been authorized by record labels or individual artists, there by violating copyright laws.  Also, the artists were not reaping any rewards gained from the people who were downloading and sharing their music with other users for free.

Many different artists have different opinions about the Internet and its harm to their music.  Some believe that they are not reaping in enough money for the songs they have developed.  Due to the increased ability of people to be able to download music for free, many artists are not able to gain money from their music.  Developing and releasing songs is an artist’s job.  That is how artists gain money to live and pay the bills like everyone else.  When there songs are downloaded for free, one is committing piracy.  However, thousands of people do this everyday and see no harm in it.  The reasoning for people doing this is the mentality of an individual when they are online.  Many people believe that if it is online, then it must be free to use and no one will be able to catch and convict them for their crimes anyway, since the Internet is so vast that one can not keep track of who is pirating and who is not.  Many artists view the Internet as destroying the music industry as well, due to the rapid drop in CD sales.  However, several artists have differing opinions when concerning the internet use of their music.

Some artists see the benefit in the Internet.  Many artists who are “trying to make it big,” use the Internet to bring their music to the mass public in a virtually free way.  In order to “make it big,” one has to be recognized and what better tool to use than the Internet where over sixty-five percent of people have access to or use it almost daily.  The reason for the differing opinions about the Internet have to deal with what situations the artists have had with the Internet, and whether or not they have been hurt or harmed by it.   One such situation is the many parodies found online inspired by actual songs.  Weird Al Yankovic’s parody of Gangsta’s Paradise, that got renamed Amish Paradise, actually brought backlash from Coolio who was the one who released the song.  The song originally was a narration of Coolio’s dangerous way of life, and grew in popularity through the use of the Internet and radio play.  Coolio apparently was upset that his song, that was intended to be a serious narration, got swindled to being a parody.  However, some artists have gained popularity from the Internet.  The Numa Numa kid, who became an Internet sensation, dances and mouths the lyrics to a Romania group named Dragostea Din Tei.  The downloads and sales from their song skyrocketed after the popularity of the Numa Numa kid began.  So, obviously different artists are going to have differing opinions about the Internet.  However, ultimately the Internet has harmed musical artists and the music industry by delivering a devastating blow financially to both of them simultaneously.

Records,  transistor radios…then 8-tracks, cassettes, cds , and now digital music.  Today, the push of a button on a desktop or ipod brings music into our lives faster than ever.  The 60s brought music into our homes, but the 21st Century has made music available almost anywhere at any time. The internet has opened the doors to music and become a gateway for networking and advertising. With such easy access, however, should the digital community be regulated or should the music industry accept the internet for what it is?

Not having to be able to go out and buy a whole cd just for one or two songs has greatly helped artists and their digital sales. If the price is one dollar rather then $15 for a cd, many more people will buy the low one dollar price tag for the song. The minimal cost and ability to access the song so easily has cut down on illegal downloading. Itunes, in fact, has helped boost the sales of Apple’s iTouch, iPhones, and Mac, in part, because of the attraction of their easy accessibility to music.  Not only are musical artists benefiting greatly from exposure and sales, but those in the music, computer, and digital business have profited as well.

Outside of selling artists’ music, the internet has the ability to get music out quickly all around the globe.  Colbie Calliat would not be the artist she is today without the internet and myspace. No success came at first but then when she put up her song “Bubbly,” instant stardom happen. Being able to record out of the back of an in-home studio and put her music up online, she was able to attract “fans” and then went on to have her songs played over 15 million times without a record label. After this kind of success went on for over four months, she was the number one unsigned artist in her category which led to her signing with Universal Records. Calliat was nominated for American and Teen Music awards and has since released other singles to go on to chart success. Calliat’s successful career was launched through myspace and the internet, so the power of these musical venues should not be underestimated.

Susan Boyle is another example of instant stardom created through means of the internet. Boyle was a contestant on Britain’s Got Talent. The 47-year-old was unemployed, living with her cat, Pebbles.  Boyle’s frumpy, rather unappealing image on stage drew skeptical looks from the audience; her voice, however, blew the judges, audience, Britian, and the world away with her amazing performance of Les Miserable’s “I Have a Dream.”    Her dream became any one’s dream, and Boyle became an overnight international sensation thanks largely to the internet, ensuring musical stardom and a promising career.

Both of these musical artists’ stories demonstrate that the internet does not hurt artists nearly as much as it helps them. Although downloading illegally is still a problem for the music industry, the advantages of the internet far outweight the disadvantages when you consider all a person has to do is save his/her myspace page, pay a dollar, or download a favorite YouTube video and the artists’ music is transported instantly to future fans and the opportunity for success is maximized.  The internet has opened the doors for digital music and one can’t truly comprehend where one’s success will go.

The musical world today has truly been changed for the better because of what the internet has given to those with a little bit of talent.

Since its beginning in the 1960s as the military-based ARPAnet, the Internet has continued to grow and evolve into what mankind knows it to be today. The great thing about the Internet is that this growth and evolution never stops. Advancements are continually being made, new programs are continually being developed, and more and more information continues to become available.  This availability of information is an amazing thing, but is it really all it’s cracked up to be?

The developments of the Internet that are being seen present a picture of the future that seems quite bright. The availability and accessibility of resources and information that the Internet provides is an exciting detail. An age is being entered into when whatever one desires to know is available at their fingertips; a concept that was unfathomable less than 50 years ago.

However, this abundance of information and freedom also opens the door to an abundance of privilege abuse. The Information Highway is full of helpful resources, but is also littered with sites full of sexual and other inappropriate content. Explicit media becomes harder and harder to avoid as pop-up ads and embedded ads on pages flood computer screens daily.

In addition to “inappropriate content” comes the never-ending debate of what constitutes content as being appropriate. Oddly enough, several legislation efforts have been made to control online content, but have been ruled as unconstitutional. Measures like the Communications Decency Act of 1996 and the Child Online Protection Act of 2000. have been deemed unlawful, but other legislation, like the Children’s Internet Protection Act of 2000, was successfully passed in an effort to better control content in schools.

Another downside to the plethora of information the Internet provides is the lack of privacy that now comes with it. One blogger writes, “Privacy on the Internet is a perception of safety from exploitation and embarrassment resulting from the use of one’s personal information. And it’s disappearing rapidly.” Daily, thousands of users around the globe are shopping on Amazon.com, buying plane tickets, setting up new e-mail accounts, and taking part in various other activities that require personal information to be given away. Millions of names, addresses, and credit card numbers floating around online have made things such as identity theft more prevalent and easier than ever. The same blogger concludes that, “Eventually, privacy as we know it today will disappear completely, particularly when it comes to the ability to control one’s personal information.”

It would seem like the corroding privacy of the Internet, along with its influx of crude material, would be enough to deter some from surfing online. But that is not the case. The Information Age is in full swing among a generation that would take the convenience and immeasurability of the Internet over privacy and censorship any day.

Chapter 2, Question 5

The world is changed through technology, and mankind must change along with it. George Orwell said:

“Men are only so good as their technical developments allows them to be.”

Voice of America (VOA) is the largest radio and television broadcast company in America and its reach does not end at the state lines; currently there are nations around the globe that are being connected to the “civilized world” through internet and other technological advances. Dan Austin, director of VOA, says this is a work in process however:

“We are investing a fair amount of money into our technological infrastructure,” Austin said. “Right now, we have one foot in the analog world and one foot in the digital world.”

The Information Age gives a whole new meaning to the age old saying, “knowledge is power.” The best way to obtain that power is through attaining knowledge through technological break-throughs. With some countries being connected to one another technologically and others being left behind, the digital divide is greatening. Third world nations will not be able to compete in the market place world-wide; only two percent of the global population has access to the internet. To fix this problem some governments are adding community centers with computers. These centers will increase learning with academic seminars and they will boost the economy when companies run their business on the web. This should lessen the digital divide between nations.

The Information Age does not pertain to societies as a whole alone; it also transforms the daily lives of individuals. Instead of driving twenty minutes to see a friend and talk to them, many individuals are choosing to simply talk to them via the internet. This is vastly changing discussion topics and how people communicate.

With the new popular mediums of texting and im-ing, the way languages are used is being changed. Instead of long drawn out, and more proper, sentences, individuals are finding shortcuts in their vernaculars to make communicating easier and more efficient. Lisa Singleton-Rickman from Times Daily reports that slang terms and acronyms used in common text messages are damaging to the formal written language.

Not only is English changing as a written language on the web, but it is being used more and more as a written language only. With new social-networking websites such as Facebook, and Myspace people are more likely to talk to one another on the internet than in person. This can be due to distance problems or other social quirks. Controversial or merely awkward topics can be nearly avoided when people communicate over internet im-ing. Embarrassment and social awkwardness do not come into play as other people cannot see the face and body language of the speaker. Poor conversationalists can still seem popular on the internet. You can, “be whoever you choose to be.”

This is not to say that technology or the use of it is detrimental to a society, far from it, but societies must cope and change as the technology changes too.

Internet has altered our society in an irreversible way.  Through Mosaic, Google, and Facebook, along with web pages spanning in the millions, it’s been made possible for one click to connect users to the world. But with the clicks of billions worldwide, is our personal aspect of communication fading into the screen of Internet society?

With the growth of what was once the ARPAnet, the web has developed a system known as a virtual community. In short, a virtual community allows someone to become a member of an association, make friends, have relationships (whether business of personal), connect to people across the globe, and all without the “hassle” of having a face-to-face or phone conversation.

Virtual communities have fused global businesses, bonded long-distance relationships, and aided in the growing global knowledge shared from computer screen to computer screen. What was beyond implausible has been surpassed as far-reaching businesses collaborate and the world as a whole becomes connected to each other with ease that encourages more relationships and connections through efficient communication. But with the positive benefits of these Internet populations, a great danger lurks in the computer-generated world that lies behind the universal screens of real life.

In “The Road to Unreality,” Slouka states about virtual communities,  “we are all headed down a road of unreality that will make us stupid … and collectively gullible as children.” He compares our fall into a false reality with the H.G.Wells book, War of the Worlds. The majority of us remember the catastrophic results of the 1938 radio adaption, when Wells’ description of a Martian invasion was so realistic, people fled in fear of being attacked by aliens – a fear supported by a false interpretation of reality.

The risk in virtual communities is a false perception of reality. Without seeing someone face-to-face or hearing their voice, someone can have any disguised persona they choose. Virtual communities, while encouraging convenient communication, also open the instable door to a world of twisted and manipulative people who can too easily hide their identity, access the details of others, and deceive their fellow computer-world citizens into believing in the false human they’ve created. This opened opportunity has lead to online sex offenders that have contacted young adults under the deceptive identity of a fellow teen.

Along with an increase in the path predators can take, virtual communities can also drastically alter a person’s social capabilities by blurring the line of what truly is reality and what is not. When someone becomes too involved in his or her Internet alter ego, they rely on their cyber community for a means to live life, and this is an immensely threatening concept.

Virtual communities are virtual for a reason – they are a false imitation of real life and their impact is meant not to travel much past the computer screen. When clicking becomes a pattern and our worlds begin to mesh, it becomes dangerously easy for one click to change your entire perception of reality.

Media Convergence: the process whereby old and new media are available via integration of personal computers and high-speed satellite-based phone or cable links.

Convergence, once more is the mutual remediation of at least three important technologies–telephone, television, and computer; each a mixture of technical, social, and economic practice and each of which offers its own path to immediacy.  In theory, media convergence will become a communication where every bit of mass medium will in turn eventually merge together; where it will then become one medium, due to the arrival  of newer and better communication technologies. This refers to an entire production, distribution and usage of future media services, delivering service threw multiple terminals such as digital TV or the internet itself.

The telephone offers the immediacy of the voice or the exchange of voices in real time. Television is a point-of-view technology that promises immediacy through its insistent real-time monitoring of the world. The computer’s promise of immediacy comes through the combination of three-dimensional graphics, and an interactivity that television cannot match. As they come together, each of these technologies is trying to absorb the others and promote its own version of immediacy.

At this moment the advantages of having such a convergence is that one would never have to stop, while on the go.  The white-collared business man, always on the go, 9-5 job; no time for checking the daily emails, ratings, stocks, stats, and scores while out of the office, this of course is a prime example of when and how a blackberry or iphone starts to rule his world.  Perfect invention, the convergence of not only making mobile calls but being able to check other sources of media on your mobile phone is pure genius. This also applies to students, teachers, in office and out, being able to connect to cyber space at any given part of your day, anywhere is beyond convenient. Not having to carry around laptops throughout your day to day routine, or traveling with briefcases and personal computer having devices such as smart phones, or iphones keep you up to date, minute by minute throughout your day or while traveling.  Being aware of what lies ahead of you through information from your mobile device is like having your own personal sidekick; all the superhero’s had one, why not us?

Wi-Fi, another amazing factor that now allows us to constantly stay connected to the world wide web/cyber space is something that now we could never live without.  Being able to communicate with someone across the world, through not only e-mailing or calls, but with visual chats helps to enhance the work place, giving them more international and worldwide contacts and networks.  We are all aware of how important networking is for our own success, having the help of digital media converged into one tool might be costly at first, but priceless in the long run.

Virtual communities keep multiples in touch across the world, but these communities such as Facebook and Myspace can have their pros and cons. These communities help classmates, co-workers, and family keep in touch. They keep us up to date on people’s personal lives and social events. I believe virtual communities are genuine for the most part, but still have several flaws.
Anyone can claim to be a certain type of person or make themselves be whomever they choose. Also fake pages or profiles can be made using pictures or information from random people who are on the internet. These virtual communities can take away from face to face communication and can cause less time interacting with others and can leave one to spend more time on a computer. These virtual communities do not help build communication skills. The relationships through these communities are not as personal or in-depth as they would be face to face with a person.
Despite all the cons, there are more positive outlooks to these communities. Being in college Facebook is a great way to keep in touch and chat with friends and family on the internet, who are spread out throughout the world. It also can help one branch out and meet new people while networking with friends, businesses, and even coworkers. With these virtual communities people are able to update their statuses and keep others up to date daily.

Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, and Flickr are all communities that are easily acceptable and contain endless possibilities. There is no cost or other requirement to join.  One just simply signs up and the community is open to them. Each of these sites gives a different way to meet other people and show one’s self to them. Interests that would take hours or days to discover in real life are easily found in chat rooms or communities. On the internet one can be whoever they want to be.  There are chatrooms and profiles everywhere with people pretending to be something they aren’t. To have a community one must truly have interaction with other people and be who they really are.

In Madeleine L’Engle’s work A Wrinkle in Time, Meg Murray and her younger brother Charles Wallace are transferred to a mysterious planet where everybody is controlled by a mysterious brain mechanism called “It”. The entire community’s actions and abilities are controlled by It with no person or thing having any control over their own actions.  Although this is called a community by those who are living there, it can’t truly be a community because nobody has their own personal opinions or ideas. Without knowing who someone truly is or how they feel one couldn’t be in a real community; it would just be fake.

On Facebook or Myspace one simply enters the information they want share, takes on the identity of whoever they want to be, and then presents themselves to the outside world. One can appeal to any culture to appeal to anyone of their choosing.  This just goes to show that anyone can join any internet “community” as someone that they’re not, thus ruining the idea of real community.

Idiots of Ants’s website presents the idea of just how crazy it would be if facebook was an actual community or reality. The video suggests that one might be friends with somebody in real life but not truly know them in real life. The community,interaction, and relationship is all false because it’s based many times on a fictional notion. The video starts out with a random guy reintroducing himself to a past classmate who is utterly confused.  This unwanted visitor explains where the two men “know” each other from and then asks, in the same style as a Facebook Friend Request, if they want to be friends.  These people have never really interacted, but through this internet “community” they begin a new superficial friendship of sorts.  These two are in no way real friends, but because of this link they share online, one of them begins to act as if they were the best of friends.  The video shows the true, shallow nature of most internet community friends.

A community in real life such as a church bible group, classroom, or band is a place where one might be fake at first, but eventually through personal/actual interaction one’s true self comes out.  It’s much easier to be someone you aren’t when you hav a computer between the person you’re fooling.. The internet social groups still lets us hide behind lies and fake interaction without ever truly knowing a person.  If one was as “real” in reality as they are online would anyone ever truly be in a community?

The information highway or as some call it, the internet, is one of man’s greatest inventions. The internet can tell you how many M&Ms come in a package or what the President said at his last speech. As impressive as that sounds, there are both advantages and disadvantages when it comes to the internet.

One major benefit of the internet is that it can help you keep in contact with a distant friend, but it can also keep you distant from those close to you. There are many websites and chat rooms that people use to converse with one another. Some of the more popular sites are Myspace, Facebook, Instant Messenger (IM), and Twitter. These sites are good, but overall, cause physical interaction with others to diminish. According to DesignNine.com:

the Internet is also causing us to sleep less (by 8.5 minutes) and that it reduces contact with family members by 23.5 minutes per day.

The internet is also filled with enormous amounts of information on just about any subject. It can answer any question and locate anything one might need. The discouraging fact is that not everything that is on the internet is true. So how do we distinguish between the truth and the lies on the internet? One way to do this is when one is looking up facts or details on the internet, use websites that are legitimate. A good website to use if one were looking for the latest news would be foxnews.com.

Shopping online is something that has grown astoundingly over the past decade. The internet is great for buying comic books, textbooks for school, shoes, and season 1 of Samurai Jack. Buying items online is a quick and easy way to shop. A downside to this is that one may not be sure of what they are buying exactly. When shopping online, websites such as eBay, Amazon, and Overstock have pictures of the items that one would want to purchase. However, those pictures can be misinterpreted or deceiving. One must be sure that the item they are purchasing is what it is suppose to be.

The internet is fascinating yet at the same time is complicated. When it comes to just about anything there is always good and bad, and the internet is no different. It can be used for good purposes while it can also be used for bad purposes. The internet is an amazing tool but must be used with responsibility.

As technology continues to advance and the internet rapidly moves towards the future, many possibilities, both exciting and troublesome, are recognizable to all web users. The future of the internet can bring relief to some and pure fear to others.

To many people, including myself, visiting the doctor, even if only for a routine check-up, can be a long and dreadful process filled with cold, dully-decorated waiting rooms, endless amounts of paperwork, followed by a fifteen minute chat with an unfamiliar doctor who may or may not be able to diagnose what I have. When visiting a new doctor, patients are first asked to fill out mounds of paperwork asking the same questions other doctors’ offices have previously asked. The concept of filling out medical history, shot information, allergies, etc. when visiting the family doctor, the dermatologist, the ER, and the countless other medical facilities people must visit throughout their life, seems completely unnecessary and redundant. If I am sitting in the ER waiting room, chances are I have an emergency. In the case of an emergency, filling out paperwork is the last thing one would be able to concentrate on and accurately answer. The answers on this paperwork can potentially harm a patient if answered incorrectly. For this reason, Dr. Mark Westfall founded the program SynChart, which allows medical records to be posted in a secure network that can be accessed by the patient as well as physicians and countless medical offices. This program ends the redundancy of filling out paperwork at each office and the possible inaccuracies that could occur. The program allows healthcare providers to access medical information for the patient, if granted access by the patient, rather than filling out the same paperwork time and time again. As the internet advances, this program should gain membership by patients. This advancement proves exciting and possibly life-altering for healthcare providers as well as patients. Doctor visits could be more effective and timely if more would take hold of this program. Exciting advancements of the internet take place each day. Video conferencing via the internet, the sharing of digital music and the convenience of online banking and personal finance tracking are only a few examples of exciting achievements the internet has met thus far and is continuing to improve upon as the future rapidly approaches.

Although the internet’s future is exciting, it comes with its fair share of troubles. As technology advances, the minds of hackers advance. The world is becoming more and more digitally based with hardly any paper documentation. Though the use of paper is decreasing, which helps the environment, the world continues to become solely dependent on the internet as the years pass. With the growing amount of hackers and viruses, the world, at the rate this society is going, could potentially shut down completely if the internet was to crash. Think of how much would be lost due to the crashing of the internet or how much could be stolen by a hacker from one’s identity as more and more personal information is added and stored on the internet. Even with SynChart certain downfalls and fears exist. People’s personal medical information could be viewed by virtually anyone crafty enough to hack into what seems to be a protected server. “Protected server” doesn’t mean protected at all times from all people consequently.

Excitements are in the near future with the internet; troubles exist as well though. So should we take hold of the advancements and embrace the wonders of the World Wide Web or be more fearful and stick with the lower forms of technology? To fear or not to fear—that is the difficult question.

The internet has an endless amount of possibilities.  Twenty years ago few could imagined how the internet would change from an e-mailing device to a way to chat instantly with friends thousands of miles away and be able to create their own newspapers.  The technology is almost seen as a necessity rather than a luxury.  Almost everyone deals with the internet during some part of their day whether it be buying something with a credit card or dealing with shipments at work.  The internet has become a vital life line to business and to any young person’s life.

The biggest thing that I’m excited about is the freedom that the internet offers.  Every voice has the right to be heard no matter what the message.  There is always two sides to a story and a lot of the times one side is silenced because they are the minority.  Another thing that fascinates me is the size and infamous amount of information that is at my fingertips.  No more going to a library to look through sixty encyclopedias to find out information about a king in Egypt that died a thousand years ago.

Unfortunately there are more things about the internet that scare me rather than encourage me.  The internet grows every day by the amount of information that is being added to it, the websites that pop up, and by how easy it is to get persona records and information by hitting the right keys.  The more the internet grows, the harder it is going to be to control it.  As an artist in the fields of music or literature, can easily be stolen and profits can be lost.  The adult content that is so easily acquired  on the computer screen is not something that I want my eight year old child to view when they Google something for their science class.  Pop up blockers are up and running strong but there is no way to prevent the innocent eyes from being tainted.  As the technology gets better so will the hackers and the people that figure out ways to get around firewalls.  The criminals in the world today are always one step ahead of the police.

While there are some negative connotations related to the continued convergence of new media, including the term Crackberry addicts that is used to describe people like me, media convergence has brought about many positive changes.

Perhaps the biggest advantage to come out of media convergence is the ability of people to stay informed by reading news articles and watching news videos on their computers and cell phones rather than simply getting the news from traditional sources like the television and newspaper. Major media outlets like CNN and Fox News, as well as local media like WYFF and The Greenville News, constantly post articles and videos to their websites to keep viewers up to date with the latest in breaking news.

For hardcore sports junkies, ESPN and CBS have made it possible to watch live sports on your personal computer. ESPN360 allows fans to watch live college and professional sports, as well as replays of previously shown events. CBS has begun streaming the NCAA basketball tournament on the internet, showing all of the out of market games for free.

While getting the latest breaking news or watching live sports on the internet at school or work is far from a critical facet of everyday life, the development of this technology barely begins to speak of the potential for spreading information in the future.

Another advantage of media convergence goes hand in hand with the ability to read and watch news at a moment’s notice on computers and cell phones. With the emergence and refinement of technologies such as camera phones, video phones, Twitter, and YouTube, individuals are not only capable of watching the news, but of making the news themselves.

In 2006, Yahoo and Reuters enlisted the help of average men and women in citizen journalism, asking people. In some cases photos and videos from camera phones were actually used to

supplement coverage of events like the London subway bombing and the Asian tsunami.

Men and women on the streets are becoming journalists, capturing pictures and video that find their way onto the broadcasts of the major news outlets. Camera phones captured images and videos of Saddam Hussein after he was hanged, and average Iranian citizens used Twitter to spread news of violence and oppression after the contested 2009 election.

As college students, one of the biggest advantages of media convergence has come in the wake of the shootings at Virginia Tech. A gunman opened fire on an average Monday morning, but the first alert to students did not go out until over two hours after the shooting began.

In the wake of this tragedy, schools around the country began implementing emergency alert systems that instantaneously communicate information with students and faculty via text messaging and email on both computers and cell phones. Anderson University has joined this effort, allowing students and faculty to sign up for text and email alerts about a variety of issues, including

dangerous situations, such as severe weather, building or area evacuations, major disruptions to campus service, or closings due to ice or snow.

Safety officials in Anderson County are developing a new emergency alert system that would also use Facebook, Twitter, and text messaging in addition to the current system, which includes radio, television, and a series of electronic billboards.

None of these services can guarantee that a catastrophe will not occur on a college campus or in a community but, with the continued expansion of media convergence, the hope is that a tragedy can be contained before it reaches the massive scale of the Virginia Tech tragedy.

As new media continue to converge, the sky is the limit; I am excited to see where the future goes from here, not that I would ever watch an NCAA basketball tournament game on my Blackberry during class. No, not me. Never.

Chapter 2, Question 3

The Industrial Revolution was the biggest boom in technology, science, and economics the world has ever seen. Similarly, today, we are in the middle of a new Industrial Revolution, called the Information Revolution. This new revolution is bringing about new and exciting ways of communicating and learning, which are affecting every level of life. These new and instant means of communication are also affecting business in the modern era. What the Industrial Revolution started, the Information Revolution is perfecting. In her article, “How the Information Revolution is Shaping our Communities,” Pamela Blais says,

A new range of IT-based strategies and options is becoming available to employers to lower costs, increase productivity, and serve customers better.

These innovations are changing the modern workplace, which in turn affects our individual lives, our communities, and our nation as a whole, just as the Industrial Revolution changed the face of the Western World.

Individually, we are always affected by changes in the economy, whether good or bad. An economy can take a downturn and we are left looking for new jobs to try and make a living. However, in this new Information Revolution the new innovations are helping individuals by giving them brand new opportunities they may not have had five or ten years ago. The ability to receive degrees online or supplementing semesters by taking online classes makes the process of earning a degree that much easier and also it can often work within the individual timetable one has. Though the economy is very unstable and often unpredictable, by using the new technology of the Revolution one can end up coming through on the better end of the storm.

Another aspect of life the has been changed is the face of communities. With the advent of the Internet and features like e-mail the modern office worker’s job expectations have changed. During the Industrial Revolution, families had to live on top of the factories and communities grew out of the families who moved near the factories. This build up created modern cities who were built around the old factories. Now with the Information Revolution the need to live close to your work is gone. Now with the ability to communicate over great distances and at incredible speeds, the need for office space is slowly diminishing. Now workers can work from home, which could be ten, twenty, or even thousands of miles away thanks to the revolutionary technology. This development is causing people to move outside of cities and return to rural or suburban communities.

Not only are individuals and communities affected, but also the nation in general. With the faces of communities changing, slowly the nation itself will change as well. The new and instant ways of communication allow the national press to communicate instantly with its population and keep it informed of daily news events. This new technology will also help the economy look up as we as a society become more technologically literate. Like the old saying, knowledge is truly power, especially when it can be accessed anywhere instantly and with this new found power the face of the nation will change and not just in economics.

Chapter 2 Question 5
As we move from a print-oriented Industrial Age to a digitally based Information Age, it will definitely have an effect on individuals, communities, and nations. I think that most of the effects of our digitally based Information Age will be negative rather than positive.
Right now our quick advances in technology have helped us individually, communally, and throughout the nations immensely—it’s easier to communicate with people from around the world (email, Facebook, and Skype) along with finding useful or much needed information fast (Google, Bing, and Ask Jeeves), but people are becoming much too dependent on the Internet for such purposes. With our technology advancing so fast it will lead to such things as obesity and other medical problems, undeveloped social skills, communities will disappear, and certain jobs will not be necessary anymore.
With the internet people will not have any need to go out and shop or hangout because they’ll be able to order all groceries, clothes, or other necessities online that can be delivered straight to your house. And if you want to hang out with friends you’ll just be able to Skype them or do online activities where there is no need for you to go out and interact face-to-face. As for school, we will probably all have a stimulation program that puts you in a classroom atmosphere but you don’t even have to leave the comfort of your home. If you need a parent or friend you can always text them, there will be no need to call or meet face to face because you have the power to speak to them by just typing with your fingers. And with such technology as texting and emailing we will develop a whole new language—like in George Orwell’s 1984, we will have newspeak: “the only language in the world whose vocabulary gets smaller every year.” We won’t have the need for whole sentences or spelling, we will (and do now) text things like: ‘g2g’, ‘ttyl’, ‘txt me wen u can’. We won’t have a need for gyms or fields because people can just play video games like the WII, where you’re not required to leave your house. Having all this dependency on technology will lead to things such as obesity because people will be very lazy and stay at their computers all day. People’s vision won’t be as good because we will stare at computers all day. I also believe we will develop hunched backs and carpal tunnel syndrome from sitting at the computer for long periods of time.
Kids will have undeveloped social skills and little social life. Instead of wanting to go out and play at the park with other children, everyone is going to want to stay inside and play with friends on the computer. It will be difficult for kids to experience real life situations or hands on experiences because they’ll be so concerned with what their “internet friends” next status will be. It will be hard for people to experience any real emotion because they’ll never be able to physically interact with others and learn what it means to feel accepted or rejected, pain or grief.
Other than virtual communities, our real life communities will start to disappear because no one will want to go to the neighborhood’s cookout or little Johnny’s birthday party. I also believe families will start to drift apart. I mean we already see it now; divorce rates are higher than ever, parents are becoming more concerned with work than their kids. Add a computer, phone, and video games and kids will not want anything to do with their parents; it might even be a way for parents to escape their kids.
When it comes to jobs, the unemployment rate will shoot up—there won’t be a need for grocery stores or gyms, shopping centers or movie theatres because people will be able to get what they want right from their home. People might be able to find jobs with delivery companies or computer companies because that’s what will be making all the business, but that’s still not a lot of jobs for our ever increasing population.
With the digitally based Information Age showing so many advances in our technology it will lead us to our end. I honestly think that too much of something—in this case technology—is a bad thing. I mean we are just providing people with an excuse to be lazy and they are becoming too dependent upon these advances. I believe we will start to see a more obese and socially challenged generation, with less real life communities and a lower variety in jobs. So I will leave you with this question…What if we have a major power outage?

Social Networking sites have become very popular over the past five years.  For example, sites such as Facebook and MySpace are the most popular.  The purpose they serve is to let members create their own personal profiles, post pictures, keep up with friends, and even meet new people.  They both provide privacy options to avoid predators.  They also allow different people to interact together and share information.  All of these factors are what make these virtual communities. But are they genuine communities? 

First, to be considered a community, there has to be an amount of people interacting together residing in a specific location.  Facebook, for example, would be considered a virtual community, but it’s not necessarily a genuine community.  Genuine means real and true, such as one’s family, or a non-hypocritical person.  People can post their own information about themselves on their profile and interact with their friends but they may not be being honest.  There is no way to tell if what people are writing and posting is actually true.  Facebook is a social network and people may lie on their profiles about themselves just to boost their social status.  They can also add people just for the sake of having more friends.  Facebook is full of untrusting people.  For example, a sex offender could easily sign up for Facebook as someone other than them self, putting different information and photos, and manipulate teenage girls.  An online article talks about a problem with this that happened this past February: “On Tuesday, February 3rd, we reported that thousands of sex offenders (many of whom were previously booted from MySpace) were lurking on Facebook…but the fact remains that there were thousands of convicted sexual offenders on a social network that is generally perceived as safe”.  Anyone that somebody adds to their profile can stalk them.  It is not a trusting community and many people can become members and portray fake images of themselves.

Virtual communities also do not involve in-person connection between people.  It is hard to read somebody’s true emotions through texting, instant messaging, and email.  It is not a true interaction with someone if it is over the internet.  When you are having face-to-face conversations it is different because true emotions and feelings can be seen, rather than just reading typed words or emoticons. It’s just not the same interacting with somebody on the internet as to connecting with them in person.  It’s not as solid and true. Virtual communities such as Facebook are like a much dulled down version of reality, therefore, I do not think they are genuine.

Chapter 2: Question #4

To decide whether or not virtual communities can be viewed as genuine, one needs to understand what a community is.  One definition states that a community is a group of people that have common interests or activities.   A virtual community, however, is defined as a communication and informational system whose users share common interests or goals that choose to interact in a virtual society where one can develop personal relationships through social networks.  A virtual community can be stated as being a genuine community because it fits the definition of what a community is and what it stands for.  The only difference between the two is the way in which members of the communities communicate with one another and how the information is circulated.  An example of this type of community would be online communities for small business owners.  These people can log in and chat in these virtual communities about their worries, concerns, successes, and failures with other people who have been in similar situations.  Also, community not only brings people of similar interests together, but along with it comes participation, fellowship, and sharing.  All of these aspects are brought about through virtual communities. 

Many people assume that if a group of people cannot see one another, then they cannot be seen as a community.  However, that is not what defines a community.  Howard Rheingold, author of the book entitled The Virtual Community, states that virtual communities form when “people have ongoing public discussions that generate actual human emotions that can form personal relationships.”  An example of that statement can be portrayed through the very popular form of a virtual community known as Facebook.  Facebook is a virtual community that allows individuals to set up homepages about themselves, their interests, their work, and their relationships.  However, users of Facebook can join groups and become fans of certain movies, shows, and books.  Also, by joining these groups and becoming fans, one has the opportunity to discuss the reasons why they like or do not like the group and what they have problems with.  Furthermore, the users can talk with other people, on a discussion board, of their interests with people who have similar taste.  By doing so, one is forming relationships with other people, and a community is about forming relationships with other people as well.  Though it may be a bit less personal, it does not mean that the relationships formed are not as meaningful to the people involved.   Other websites like Myspace and Flickr operate on the same basis as Facebook. 

 Some virtual communities do not just involving chatting with others.  Some of these virtual communities are more interactive with their members.  One such virtual community is the very popular massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) called World of Warcraft.  This game was launched in 1994, and it currently has ten million subscribers worldwide.  Not only does the game allow players from all over the world to ban together to defeat other players, but one can also chat with the other players you are collaborating with.  This communication can be done through typing what one is saying or actually voicing your words through a communicator set.  People who play these games all have the same interests which are to keep leveling up or to relieve boredom.  Either way, bonds and friendships are formed through the virtual communities via MMORPG, Facebook, Myspace, and Flickr by gaining relationships with other people due to similar interest or concerns, which is what a community is genuinely about.

In today’s media there is a thinning line between what’s real and what’s not. We’re given images,situations, behaviors and people that are all delusive. This is the most harmful encounter in our society with children in the media:distinguishing the artificial from reality.

Having ? show’s on the air with? define our standards of beauty and life: America’s Next Top Model,Gossip Girl,90210,Cosmopolitan and The Swan. we are taught that we are supposed to be beautiful to everyone, always work on losing just ten more pounds and have an outrageous amount of money at our disposal, or be submissive so a boy will like us. This is attainably but a very unrealistic goal in life that many young girls strive for; being in our societies ‘perfect”. The longing for this can trigger lower self esteem, eating disorders,and how we identify with our gender.

I too as a female have found my self at the hands of these advertisement by the dozen.  In my earlier years i found myself working to have the “perfect” body, but for what? I think a fourteen year old by no means has to worry about her weight,or the opposite sex.  But when we see  a much more scantly clad, pre-baby Britney and the reactions she recieves; it’s difficult not to fall victim to the cult.

We see in Gossip Girl that your self worth is defined by your Prada bag, in The Swan how to become beautiful even if it’s only accesible by going under the knife.  Cosmo, shows us how to get the guys. We are shown that to be beauitful and valuable we have to be liked and to be liked; we have to be the full package.

Instead of being taught that our self worth comes from our weight, material objects, attention from the opposite sex, we need to convey to young girls that education, morals, values. Such things that will help us in the long rather then short run of life. Our life shouldn’t be built around who likes us or what wear.

There is a  need for better restraints on the magazines,shows and movies that promote these negative effects on young girls. Tv shows which promote sex and body image should be shown later at nights rather then early. Magazines that promote unattaible body images and gender identity should not be an aisle sold with candy where any girl can stumble over it.

Its ashame that we are and becoming more so a culture ran on the approval of others. But why? Isn’t beauty is in the eye of the beholder? Our lives shouldn’t be based on the love we receive on the outside but rather the true beauty that comes from within. The beauty that comes from love and others rather then clothes, performance, or blogs.

One of the questions  that adults are asking today is, why is rap music so popular? Most rap music can barely be understood yet kids love it, is it because children wish to be ‘cool’ or popular with other kids their age? Rap music teaches children violence, vulgarity, and disrespect.

In many different songs rappers rhyme about shooting others and how going to prison is a good thing. If children are listening to this kind of violence and think its alright to do some of these things they are endangering themselves and those around them. Drugs is also a common topic that is in most rap music. Rappers make it seem that possessing and selling drugs is something to brag about. Children listening to this will think that drugs are cool and not worry about the consequences.

The amount of vulgarity in rap songs is outstanding. Most songs can’t go every other word without one of them being a curse word. Listening to any kind of music with that much vulgarity is unhealthy. A good example is “Whisper” by the Ying Yang Twins.

Ay $*#&@ wait til you see my %&$#
Wait til you see my %&$#

One of the reasons that children are so disrespectful today is because of the quantity of rap music they listen to. Rap music also teaches kids that women are just objects and not a real people. In this song called, “Lollipop” by Lil Wayne, it shows the insurmountable disrespect for women.

Shawty want a thug (yeah, yeah, yeah)
Bottles in the club (yeah, yeah, yeah)
Shawty wanna hump (yeah, yeah)
You know I like to touch (yeah) your lovely lady lumps
(She lick me like a wrapper)

There are songs that tell about how much rappers hate the police or tell about them killing police officers. This shows the lack of respect they have for the law and for society. Children that subject themselves to this music think that disobedience is expectable. Children don’t understand that by acting this way they put themselves in harms way.

Rap music is something that parents must keep in check with their children. Rap slowly destroys children’s state of mind and innocence. It also does not allow for self esteem to grow and disrupts moral beliefs. Children don’t understand the impact this kind of music has on them, this is why it must be keep in check. The world would be a better place without rap music and the negative effect it has on the youth.

South Park. These two words have a unique way of generating varied responses from a varied audience, both positive and negative. From disgust to gut wrenching laughter, the responses can often be as different as the people who are responding. But which response is more appropriate? Yes, South Park often pushes the boundaries of censorship and vulgarity, but as, hopefully, media literate people can we just dismiss it at that?

The show is full of strictly adult humor and situations. The misadventures of Kyle, Cartman, Stan, and Kenny often involve some very disgusting twists and turns, all the while making fun of modern popular culture icons such as Tom Cruise, the Pope, or even the President.  The show is very graphic in nature when it comes to its depictions of violence. Dismemberment and gushing blood are shown very realistically and for many seasons Kenny was killed off nearly every show in a very graphic manner. Also, the language is very creatively vulgar. They use swear words in new, creative, and innovative ways much to the chagrin of censors. But is this all South Park is or is there something beneath the surface?

South Park’s episodes are filled to the brim with vulgar humor and graphic violence but they often have a very satirical element to them. In one episode the video game Guitar Hero is used to give a very satirical look into the so-called “Rock Star” lifestyle and the music production industry as a whole. Another episode deals with the sex scandels in the Catholic church and the sometime silly practices that may not even have basis in Scripture. These episodes feature satiric elements often overlooked by those who just look at the show based on its surface qualities.

Dave Rael in his article “Critical Media Analysis of South Park” says,

South Park reinforces our distrust with authority and their attempts to regain our trust.

The bulk of the satire found on the show is often aimed at authority figures such as politicians and also those celebrities we often look at with reverence. They fail us by abusing their power in ways that end up hurting the normal, middle class that make up the general cast of the show. This abuse in turn leads to distrust in them as authorities and leaders.

South Park, though it is a cartoon, shows us very real truths for a very real world. The show points out the sheer stupidity of some laws, rules, or regulations given by authorities who really are out of touch with their constituents or just plainly do not care. Their carelessness/ignorance ends up having negative effects on the general population, and too often we pay for their mistakes.

By watching South Park, one is not just indulging in senseless, vulgar humor. Instead, by looking at the show through critical eyes one can catch the sometimes subtle, sometimes not so subtle satire that points at something in our world that is not quite right. Like Jonathan Swift and Mark Twain before it, South Park’s satirical look at life can be a catalyst for changes that desperately need to occur in our world.

Paula Rogers

Com 101

Chapter 1 Review Question 4

4). Although in some ways postmodern forms of communication, such as email, MTV, and CNN, have helped citizens participate in global life, in what ways might these forms harm more traditional or native cultures?   

      Postmodern forms of communication have become Western society’s infinite resource. Americans rely on email, television, cellular phones, and other mediums to transfer and transmit information. In Western society, these forms of postmodern communication allow us to stay connected and ‘up-to-date’ with the modern world. However, in other parts of the world, those of more traditional backgrounds or native cultures, not only are these forms of postmodern communication sometimes virtually unknown, but they are also potentially harmful on that society’s culture. Forms of communication such as the cable-network MTV air only certain types of programming that set unattainable standards. These standards can be as far reaching as beauty ideals, impressions of false Western morals and ethics, or even the presentation of an unattainable ‘American Dream’. As fact and fiction are blurred in Western postmodern media, one is able see how these standards can be harmful to traditional, native, and Eastern cultures. In a recent conversation with a Vietnamese immigrant, I had the experience of understanding first-hand how the idea of Western beauty that is portrayed in postmodern media can be potentially harmful. In this conversation, the immigrant went on to discuss how in her native country, women were becoming more and more obsessed with the ideas of Western beauty that is constantly bombarding theirs’ and other countries through postmodern communications. Some women were so insistent in Vietnam about the ‘whiteness’ of their skin, that they would even subject themselves to the grueling heat of Vietnamese summers in long pants and tops. Another example that I came across of the harmful effects of postmodern communication and media was a recent article in the Cosmetic Surgery Today blog. The article states that Asia has now become the second-largest plastic surgery center. Some are blaming this plastic surgery phenomenon in Asia on the fact that many of the inhabitants are trying to achieve a more Western beauty ideal; the same ideal that can be seen on shows such as The Hills, and America’s Next Top Model. The article goes on to state that, “Demand for blepharoplasty (eyelid surgery) is high in China and Japan as it helps to create a more wide-eyed look. Liposuction is in demand in India as Hollywood movies and the booming Bollywood film industry promote a similar ‘thin ideal’ as the United States and Europe”. It is through these examples that I have come across in just the past few days that I have begun to question the helpfulness or harmfulness of Western society through postmodern media on other cultures. Therefore, we as the American/Western media should ask ourselves, whether our portrayal of certain standards in postmodern communications is helping to enrich the world culturally and retain traditional and native ideals, or are we just succeeding in harmfully creating a world of only Western perceptions?

Children are exposed to multiple windows of the media.  The internet having facebook and myspace, newspapers, magazines, television shows, and the list goes on.  I personally believe that the internet can be harmful to children.

When children get on the internet, it is usually to play some games or to check for notifications on their myspace or facebook profiles.  Anyone could agree that both of those intentions are innocent and harmless.  It is when certain ads pop up or when children are being “monitored” by strangers through their internet profiles, that is when the internet “crosses the line”.  Concerning some of the ads on the internet with half-dressed women, young boys don’t need to be exposed to such things.  And when the young girls are open about their lives by putting all of their information and interests onto an internet profile, things like that shouldn’t be exposed to the public.  When the children freely give their information out like that, it gives an open door and an unspoken “welcome” to any internet predator out there.  Doing such things will lead to trouble and someone will use the information against them, to harm them.

As I conclude, I believe it is parents’ rights to guard their children against predators and ads.  So to solve these issues, supervision should be a must for young children when they go on the internet, and firewalls should be installed to prevent ad pop ups.  The internet can still be harmful to all ages, but children do not know any better so extra measures need to be taken to protect them.

Chapter 1, Question 3

As an avid reader and the lucky husband of a middle school Media Specialist, conversations at the dinner table often include discussions about whether or not certain books are appropriate for middle school children. Children in middle school typically range from 11-13 years of age and are a difficult group for whom to select literature. This challenge arises from the vast differences in the maturity level of sixth and eighth graders, but also has roots in the ways in which books are classified. The American Library Association is the largest library association in the world, yet even they have been unable to properly categorize middle school children. The ALA states that Children’s Literature ranges from birth to fourteen, while Young Adult Literature runs from as young as ten to as old as 25.

So where do these young people fit in? Should they be reading Children’s or Young Adult Literature? And what are the criteria for what is appropriate for them?

I recently had the opportunity to sit in on a meeting of the South Carolina Junior Book Award committee and was intrigued by the discussion regarding the appropriateness of Laurie Halse Anderson’s novel Wintergirls. Wintergirls tells the story of Lia, an 18 year old battling anorexia despite the death of her best friend and fellow anorexic, as well as her turning point and road to recovery from the depths of self destruction. One of the librarians on the Junior Book Award committee stated that she would not have Wintergirls in her library and would do whatever it took to have it removed from the consideration list because she did not think it was appropriate for middle school children.

I recognize that there are parents who would not want their child to read this book and am sure that the librarian on the committee is not alone in her belief that this novel should be removed and banned from the shelves of middle school libraries. However, I do not believe that a book should ever be banned, burned, or removed from a library because the content makes someone uncomfortable.

I am a firm believer in the words of Clare Booth Luce, who said:

Censorship, like charity, should begin at home; but unlike charity, it should end there.

Parents should be the first and last line of defense on the battlefield of the media to which their children are exposed. If they have done their job as a parent of instilling values in their children, parents should trust that their children will make the right decisions about what books are appropriate for their beliefs and not have to worry about how a book will influence their children. Parents should be an active participant in the lives of their children and take appropriate steps within the home if they do not think their child should be reading a certain book. No one person should take it upon themselves to decide that a book is inappropriate for all children simply because they believe it is inappropriate for their child.

Media should never be taken away from a child if the issue being discussed is something that the child or their peers could be struggling with, and parents should use these uncomfortable topics as teachable moments for their children. In Wintergirls, Lia continues her self destructive behavior despite what it does to her body and, even after the death of her friend, she does not stop until she hits rock bottom.  Would it be better to ban this book from middle school libraries because it makes a few parents uncomfortable, or could reading this book and seeing the effects of anorexia potentially stop a young woman from starving herself?  Would it be better to keep a novel like this from children, or to discuss the serious nature of the issues?

As Alfred Whitney Griswold, former President of Yale University said:

Books won’t stay banned. They won’t burn. Ideas won’t go to jail. In the long run of history, the censor and the inquisitor have always lost. The only sure weapon against bad ideas is better ideas.

Rather than banning any forms of media, adults should take a more active role in a child’s exposure to media and, when the time comes, provide those better ideas.

South Park is a comedy show on television that involves four mean,cursing every other word third graders that reside in Colorado. This town that the boys live in, always has something strange going on. This show is not suitable for children to be watching because it does nothing other than to teach kids how they should not act. Just look at the characters, Cartman is a cruel,racist, arrogant fat kid who never has anything nice to say. Kyle is a religious jewish kid who cant seem to stopped getting picked on by Cartman. Kenny is the most crazy one out of them all in my opinion, he wears a orange hoody and no matter what, always dies in every episode. Stan Marsh, a very quiet kid who likes to keep to himself is probably the most civilized on the show, other than the fact that he vomits every single episode.

This show should not be viewed by children, let alone anybody. It  is full of cursing, violence, sexual behavior and drugs. Kenny is killed in every episode but is perfectly fine by the next episode. Children can see this and think that it might be okay to kill somebody or something because in the end everything will be back to normal. Children now a days are attracted to cartoons and that is exactly what South Park is. Children will want to watch this show and, not guaranteed to happen, but may start to pick up on some of the cursing and cruel behavior that is going on in this show. If they start to pick up on these things, this could lead to kids acting up in school and at home causing problems for everybody. Due to all of the violence being portrayed on the show, children might even become more violent not knowing any better. Comedy shows are supposed to be funny and entertaining for the public but there has to be a spot where you draw the line, South Park does not do this. The show has an episode were they are making fun of God called “Go God Go.” The episode is my example of when the show “crossed the line” and had to of offended many of christians and fellow church goers.

If you are a parent and allow your children to watch this show that is just down right obnoxious. Why take the chance of exposing a child to this cruel show and having him or her pick up bad language and violence?

-Blake May

Chapter 1 Question 3

As technology keeps improving and video games get more and more complex and violent, we have to start asking ourselves ” what are these things doing to our youth?”  When I was 12 years old the video game Grand Theft Auto came out for the Sony PlayStation 2 game console. i was then introduced to a world of criminals, prostitutes, crooked cops, and gangsters in a game where the object was to shoot, steal, and kill my character’s way to the top of a crime ring. At the age of 12 I was  able to tell that this type of behavior was not acceptable for real life, but what about the younger kids that are playing games much like this one nowadays? What kind of effect is are these games having on today’s youth?

These games are introducing violence to children at such a young age, that they are more violent as teenagers. The video game “Doom” played a big role in the shooting at Columbine High school in the year 2000. The two shooters Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris were big fans of this game and many people say that they learned their violent ways by playing the game.

I have noticed over the years that fewer and fewer kids are out playing sports as more and more video game technology comes available. For example, the recreational baseball league that I played in as a kid has pretty much died. I believe that video games have a lot to do with this because it is so much easier to turn on the X-Box and play a baseball game than it is to get out there and sweat and work hard to actually play the real thing. The result of this is that we have more and more obese children and more kids that sit inside all day and play computer games like “World of Warcraft” instead of healthy, active kids that live in the real world.

If we aren’t careful, we will become a nation of violent, overweight people that live in a fantasy world and have no fitness or concept of reality. It is the responsibility of parents to make sure that their kids don’t play too many games. There should be campaigns to make parents aware of this, much like the commercials that I’ve been seeing on t.v lately about parents talking to children about sex or smoking, there should be commercials about talking to kids about the amount of games they play. This campaign along with the NFL’s play 60 program should be enough to keep children form playing excessive amounts of games. These games should not be banned, but should be regulated somehow. If the manufacturers of the game systems put some kind of time limit option on the system itself, that would help parents out big time.

Overall these games are a problem, but not too big of a problem to where it can’t be stopped or reversed. If parents and game console manufacturers work together we can stop this problem before it and our kids get too big.

Chapter 1: Question #3

Violent video games are popular media products that are harmful to children. Many children play these games on a daily basis without parents monitoring exactly what kind of game their children are playing. Due to increased activity of playing these games, more behavioral problems have begun to occur among children, particularly that of aggression. One reason for this increase is due to the fact that children learn by watching others. A popular experiment that demonstrates this fact is the popular Bobo Doll experiment conducted by Albert Bandura. In the experiment, Bandura allowed kids to watch other adults hit and kick a Bobo Doll through a two-sided mirror. Later, the kids were sent into the very same room that they had seen the adults in and many of the kids began to mimic the actions done to the Bobo Doll by the adults. A video game that supports a very broad base of violent activity is Grand Theft Auto. This game gives players points for running away and eluding police officers, killing and running over citizens, and even killing and beating up hookers on the streets. These kinds of activities can be very harmful to children and their expectations of what is right and wrong in society.

A very productive way to make my concerns known would be to have television ads that warn parents of the dangers of these violent video games. I would insert information about why these games are harmful and suggest ways parents can become more informed about the harmful effects video games have on children’s behavior. At the bottom of the ad, I would display a website and inform parents that they can go to this website to gain more information of the games their children are playing. The website will have a list of game titles that parents can search for by popularity, letter, or category. Beside each game listed, a rating label of R, PG-13, PG, and G will be posted. These will give parents a quick guide to surveying what games are appropriate for their children to play. Also, along with the ratings, there will be a description of each game. These descriptions will inform parents about the plot of the game, what kind of action is involved (fighting monsters, killing your enemies, etc…), and if the violence level is suitable enough for the ages of their children. In the website, there will also be a blog center for parents where they can discuss their concerns about their children and these games, and the actions they took against some of these video games. Also, these parents can discuss their own experience to new concerned parents about what they did to curb their children away from these violent games. These ads would run during the evening, when parents are more likely to be home from work. They would run on stations where the news is covered, and on networks that mothers tend to watch more, such as the Lifetime network. These would be prime marketing channels because many parents do watch the news and mothers, who tend to care be more abrasive when it comes to their children’s welfare, do watch the Lifetime network because their slogan is, “television for women.”

Despite the harmful effects of video games on children and their behavior, I would not want these products to be removed from circulation. For one thing, in our Constitution, there is an amendment to free speech. The people who develop and market these products are exercising their right to freely distribute their ideas to the general public. Also, these products are labeled with ratings that do give parents an idea of whether or not it would be suitable for their children to buy. The labels do state that these games contain explicit content and language. Furthermore, I do not believe these products should be banned on an economic standpoint. The developing and marketing of these games, along with the stores that they are sold in, do hold thousands of jobs for people in the United States. If these games became banned, many people would lose their jobs and with the unstable job market, the possibility of those laid off workers finding new jobs would not be very bright. These games do have negative and positive attributes; however, the best way to regulate their use is through labels and keeping parents informed about the games their children are buying.

The following website shows a video on the Bobo Doll Experiment and how children do learn aggression from watching others.