On The Media analysis
On The Media 1
September 18, 2009
After the happenings of ACORN’s embarrassing spotlight on illegal transactions, some people feel that the media is giving over to politician’s. When major news stations are given over to websites, facts are not shot over back and forth like they should be to keep each other in check.
Boosting troops over in Afghanistan. Danielle Elsburg, an author of leaks from the Pentagon, says that if President Obama doesn’t understand that we are in Vietnam he has lost reality. There is a play being made about him called, “The Most Dangerous Man in America.” He bids people that were in his position to not follow what he did, which was to release his thoughts about what happened six years ago. He thinks workers of the Pentagon, white house, etc. that think the President is doing something wrong should come straight out and say that the country is being lied to.
In 2008, China diagnosed Internet addiction as a medically diagnosed problem. In U.S. they have one program to help people overcome Internet addiction: Restart. Ben Alexander is the first client. He has social anxiety, shy, and found that he preferred to date over the internet. Slowly in college he eventually let it take over him and failed out of school. Restart has him go cold turkey on the internet for 40 days – have him do house hold chores in the morning, then exercise, and then find a trade to teach him in. i.e., Carpentry.
He got into World of Warcraft. He found it addictive because it was a social game, but in real life he had awkward social problems so this was preferred. Half way through his first semester in college he realized that if he kept doing what he was doing, he was going to fail college. He has been out of the center for three days. He can get on the computer for business related stuff with his parents computer, and keep in contact with a few friends he lost.
On The Media---
Podcast #2
25 September 2009
President Obama said that today’s media is filled with too much ‘blogosphere’ – too little information and too much opinion. He said that he would be willing to look at laws to help Newspaper. “NEWSPAPER REVITILIZATION ACT” presented last March. Would give Newspapers the opportunity to be tax exempt. Said it was not a bailout for Newspaper. Trying to develop a type of Newspaper that doesn’t have to look to a bottom line profit. Not looked upon too highly. Headline says, “Thanks but no thanks.” Newspapers would not have to do this. It would be a choice. Editors can’t swallow the fact that under that bill the editorial section could not directly endorse a candidate. – Ben Carton; democrat that suggested the bill. Editors feel that endorsements are very important in their newspapers, and not being able to have that would be the killer for them. Dallas Daily News it doing well. The editor says it is because they did not cut pages, they simply asked the purchasers to pay more, and made advertising less of the profit.
W. Horace Carter died last week. 1953 won Pulitzer prize for stories of the KKK which eventually led FBI there and captured a lot of the KKK. He would be threatened greatly. The famous thing in the South was that the KKK had done the south a favor after the civil war by gathering up the carpetbaggers. He started writing about them after a parade.
Insuring that internet service companies are treating all websites equally. “Net Neutrality,” is important. How do you insure that clogging won’t occur?
Can Netflix crush cable? Netflix put their software into DVD consuls because it makes it much easier to download a movie and watch it on your TV now. Terrifies cable companies now. Netflix is shoving in the normal time scheme of releasing movies. Now TV can run through Netflix, which started with ‘starz’ but they realized TV wouldn’t like this and it wouldn’t be a permanent situation. A cable company man said he doesn’t believe it will totally hurt them because they still offer sports live and awards ceremonies that netflix can’t offer.
I found the story about W. Horace Carter very very interesting, and inspiring in its way. Through his occupation he saved lives, put many people at ease and helped lessen racism in America. He would say that he was only doing his job, because he was. But it doesn’t mean that his job was frightening and risky. It made me think about where you draw the line between your job, possibly helping the whole of a community, and risking your families and your own life. Is it worth it? Apparently Carter thought it was.
I do not like the sound of the Newspaper revitalization act. I understand that Carton is trying to help the art of newspapers and that is appreciated, however it worries me how closely it cuts the line of freedom of press and speech. Limiting the ability to endorse political candidates is cutting down a very important part of newspapers, and that is frightening to me.
On the Media ---
Podcast #3
2 October 2009
Italy slipped in global rankings of ‘press freedom.” They were reclassified as only partly free since they are now in 73rd place. Now there is a protest going on in Italy due to a government official who was angry about the media hounding him for having an affair. The interesting thing was that this show he appeared on over turned several regular shows that he didn’t agree with. Berlasconi says he is the best leader in the world. He receives a lot of criticism but some really admire his bravado. He is constantly compared to Musilini. Others say that freedom of the press is not the biggest problem of Italy. Yes, it is unbalanced, but he feels it is more frightening that Bersaloni is the Italian government now.
Ray Lahood held a seminar about the dangers of driving. All government officials are now illegal to text while driving. Studies show that this is as hazardous as drunk driving. He is really hoping that all states will adopt laws about texting and driving. Apparently roads are more dangerous now than they were five years ago despite the laws that have gone into cell phones and driving. When you check the device you get the equivalent of a dopamine squirt.
“The Myth of Digital Democracy,” says that it is fake that everyone has a way into the big life because of the Internet. He says that the top blog spots are those that are highly educated and that is their job. Because of this he thinks the normal everyday Joe is most likely not going to give voice to the people who are voiceless. They can speak but they won’t be heard. This book says that the Internet allows people to be far better or far worse than we usually are.
Hollywood is using a computer program, created by Philip Carlson, that penetrates skulls to see how people are feeling when they are watching a movie. This is so they can see just what makes us scream. The machine measures the blood flow of the brain to see what the scariest parts are in the movie. A psychology professor, Dr. David Hubbard who works in San Francisco University, does not know if one could truly see if the person is feeling fear or stress. He does say that you would be able to feel if they were connecting with something but not if it was stress of fear.
I am very interested in knowing more about the Italian president because in truth I have never heard of him before. Because of this I can’t completely form my opinion because I don’t know the whole background on the situation, but I do believe that if he is powerful enough to be able to cut off certain aspects of the press then he is too powerful.
I do not agree with “The Myth of Digital Democracy.” I think that the internet is absolutely making people famous that otherwise would never be famous. And it is definitely not always for good things. I do agree however that it is a very different type of popularity. Unlike movie stars, singers, politicians, etc. we do not generally know the names of these people who become known on youtube. Instead we know them as, “grape lady falls,” or “Charlie bit me,” or “world of warcraft freak out.” These people are generally known for ridiculous things they have done whether it be intentional or unintentional. And the fact that if we met them on the street we may never know who they were does make them a very different sort of popular. So in part “The Myth of Democracy could be true in a few aspects, however, it is impossible to deny that ‘numa numa’ guy would have ever been known if not for the sharing aspects of the Internet world.
On the Media –
October 9, 2009
Podcast #4
How the media hurts and helps vaccination of the swine flu: celebrities use twitter to hurt people’s chances of getting the vaccine. How do you deal with the media writing about the one person that happens to die with the vaccine for some other causes? Journalists need to look at all the possibilities before they write about anything concerning medical scares because they are very difficult to reel back in. In Britain a 14 year old girl died right after receiving the cervical cancer vaccination, later it was revealed that she died of a cancer that was undiagnosed.
NHL team: the kings loose so often so they decided to take their media into their own hands. They hired their own journalist who used to write for LA times on this same team. But then the team hired him – pays him and he is not their publicity manager, he is a journalist. It works for them because the whole world can see the games so he still has to write the truth: he will write what happened because he is a journalist and needs the trust of the public.
Search engine’s changing the way headlines are written. They used to be catchy, but now they need to fit into the topic exactly so they show up with search engines. Google trends are a huge use to editorial staffs, because it shows what people are looking at right then. Does the press start the news or the readers?
I liked the report on media affecting the seriousness given to epidemics because they most certainly do. I know that some doctors are very frustrated with things that are given attention in the media concerning medical developments because they often end up hurting the people. An example of this would be autism and vaccination. Absolutely no study done has ever shown that there is a relation, but the media continues to do articles and reports about celebrities that are against vaccines because of this, etc. The comments regarding the comedian and his condemning vaccination for swine flu over twitter was a good point to make because what authority does that comedian ever have to say what is foolish in the medical field? He is a comedian, yet because he is well known he abuses the power of mass media to affect those who follow him in topics he has absolutely no authority over.
On the Media—
Podcast # 5
October 17, 2009
Amberlee Lovell
War in Afghanistan is still getting attention. This is suprising because the story their used to be that the war was getting no publicity. ‘The neglected war,’ The Bejing Olympics got more attention that that war did the whole year combined. It has only covered about 2 % of the news whole. Now it is getting attention because of domestic policy here. Now it is getting 25% of the News attention.
Book has appeared on Obama’s nightstand: a book about disasters in War that president’s could have possibly prevented. This makes some worried because you can’t avoid problems by living like situations in the past. The war in Afghanistan is similar to Vietnam so this is possibly why. The president should learn that no two wars are the same. Could the book change history by changing what the President thinks?
Fox news is the most popular 24-hour news broadcast. If cable can get a story on the page of the front cover of the New York Times then they obviously hold some importance. They do hold obama’s feet to the fire.
Felt like the web you are watching is watching you back? Behavioral advertising is normal these days. Marketers say they don’t mind because it is sometimes things they want. Studies show that 2/3 of people show that they are actually opposed to the personalization of ads. It is part of the media privacy feeling. Studies have shown though that super markets tend to have more information about you than the online ward. Most are against it only when they know nothing like that is going on.
The story I found most interesting was the behavioral advertising. I guess I didn’t really realize this was going on. Where do the groups get the information? It is true that the grocery store probably does have a lot of information on a lot of people: you have to give it to them when you receive a card from that store. The interviewee was exactly right. Target advertising wouldn’t bother me so much if I knew how far they could or were going. How much information can they get? The fact that I don’t know however frightens me and I don’t like that.
On the Media # 6
October 23, 2009
Amberlee Lovell
Everything that went wrong in the news business went wrong first in the music business. Everything we used to have to pay for in music, you can generally get for free now.
1999- $ 13 billion record sales, but this year only $8 billion. Then came Napster. By the end of 1999 nearly a million people were using Napster. Every single song listed was available on Napster – showed this to the heads of the labels, showing them how much this was going to hurt the industry. Despite this, these heads, music lovers themselves, were so excited about Napster too, because they could get all this music.
Currently, things are not a lot better. Online websites are sued often due to copyright violation. The fear is not so much a loss of money, but a loss of control. I-tunes is giving much larger pay checks into the artists hands, but yet they
Still resent it because they feel it is taking away their control. There will always be people stealing music – there always has been, but the key is keeping it under control.
In Europe, an online service streams music that you choose, like an online radio, but you choose all the music. But it is only in Europe, and it is free in Europe. If you want to put it onto a mobile device you need to pay a monthly fee. We are much better off than it was ten years ago though, for both the listener and the artist because you have more choice.
20 years ago lawsuits were sued over theft, or what artists call ‘sampling.’ This is taking pre-existing pop songs pulled apart and making new songs. Gyllis is possibly breaking the law by creating this sampling. This is what hip-hop was created from.
This was a very interesting clip. I found it especially so since I used to be a big peer down loader with limewire. At the time I rationalized it – somehow convincing myself that it wasn’t illegal. However, eventually I realized that getting something for free is hurting someone and it is not honest. I found the clip on I-tunes interesting though, because I guess I never considered that artists wouldn’t like I-tunes.
What was most interesting however was the mash-up section of this podcast. I have noticed mash-ups becoming more popular even with the past five years. From ‘Beautiful Girl” with Sean Kingston, to “Watcha Say” by Jason Derulo, these both show examples of mash-up songs that have been very popular. It is interesting to me that while an artist can do a cover of a song – the song sounds almost exactly the same, but with a different performer, they cannot change a song. I don’t understand why someone would allow their whole song to be redone but not allow a tiny segment of it go to making it into another song that sounds completely different from the first.
On the Media # 7
October 30, 2009
Amberlee Lovell
Journalism students in the Medille school of Journalism, did a 3-year investigation of a murder. 3 of the eyewitnesses confessed that they lied because they had been bribed or scared to lie. The students’ grades were taken into consideration, and all students are profiled to see if they have any connection to see if there is a reason they want to prove the prisoner innocent. They have saved 11 innocent people who had been convicted previously.
The students work on facts of the case and then turn it into the courts. The school won’t turn over the student’s grades though because of privacy laws. The courts are very upset about this. Oral arguments will be conducted next week for getting the subpoena quashed.
A 47-year-old Journalist died this week who found 3 convicted murders innocent as well as put attorney general in jail after he was found guilty. A journalism scholarship is being set up in his name.
Crumbling news industry. Columbia University sent out paper ‘The reconstruction of American Journalism.’ This provided 6 ideas about how to help news media. One was that local news stations be able to apply for government grants. Most rolled their eyes and groaned at this idea. Danger is that awards will go to those journalists who are not uncovering the things that the public really needs to know.
Some believe that the deterioration of newspapers across the country will persuade people that something needs to happen.
Wow, what would it be like to be at a journalism school that was investigating individuals who are convicted of murder. I admire the efforts of the students, and can imagine what an incredible teaching tool that can be for them, but as far as the judge seeing the grades and background of the individual students I don’t know too much about. It seems that if the court is to make such an important decision as someone’s innocence, then they should be able to see all things that are affecting the report of the students. However, if they have all the information that the students found concerning the eyewitnesses I don’t know how important it would be to see the personal information of the students.
On the Media #8
November 6, 2009
Amberlee Lovell
America is actually in three wars – Iraq, Afghanistan, and Wazirastan. American reporters can’t get there though so they rely on Iraq officials or risk kidnapping if they go in to report. Since America got involved in Pakistan, the Pakistan journalists view American’s negatively because they believe the war is there only for Washington interest and so therefore America all believes the same. This means they think America only reports the bad news in Pakistan instead of what is going on: good or important things happen as well. Only a kidnapping was able to show what was happening in Wazirastan.
America was declared enemy number 1 in Pakistan because of the drones. Our use of this technology shows that we are cowards to those countries we send them to. In the states we normally consider them good things because they are ‘saving lives’ and provide important information, but we are conveying a different message to those in foreign countries. The images that these send back are turning into ‘war porn.’ Where you are seeing more but experiencing less. All sorts of real combat videos can be viewed on you tube.
DVR is not really hurting TV, professionals say, because people are too lazy to fast-forward through commercials. While 46% only watch advertisements, that is 10% more with DVR then when TV wasn’t being recorded. For the shows that people are actually watching live on television, the advertisement is much less viewed because people just switch to a different show.
Journalists sometimes have to ensure their sources animinity in order to get the accurate information. The shield law needs to be taken into consideration. During the bush administration, journalists finally realized that any national law did truly not protect them.
This had a lot of interesting news in it for me. First of all, where in the world is Wazirastan? I had never even heard of this war, and so to find out there was a war there was really interesting to me. Also, It makes a lot of sense to me that countries would consider our drones as a cowardly approach, but I still consider them to be saving lives. So which do we as a society hold more dear? The view and public relations we have with foreign countries, or saving American lives in the now. In the extreme case, not having good public relations with countries could prove to kill many more lives than drones spare, but then again, maybe it won’t, and we can continue using the drones. It’s just an interesting perspective to take account of.
On the Media # 9
November 13, 2009
Amberlee Lovell
Morning chat shows lately have been dealing with a lot of the health news. They overflow with optimism and excitement, but they lack ‘journalistic responsibility.’ TV health news consistently fails to live up to expectations every time. Most were rated 2 out of 5 stars. Mostly it doesn’t mention how large the harms can be. Most weight loss news reports are generally very wrong. Often they receive 0 stars. A lot of them deal with mice and should state that right off. They can say that this worked in mice, but hey, it might not work in humans and science hasn’t gone there yet.
Pulmonary heart disease awareness month is this month. Every month has several awareness diseases and random other things. When this started in the 70s there were 43 awareness diseases, and now there are 233. But what does this even mean? Most awareness is never paid attention to. Some awareness things get strange attention. National water hazard sport association, which deals with feces in the water, etc. gets surprisingly a lot of web site hits, while the anti-circumcision group, which did a mini march in Washington, received hardly any attention.
Video immersion is no way to grow an Einstein. The best available evidence shows that there is excessive harm in lots of television consumption in the first two years. If they watch a lot of television in babies it proves that they tend to do worse in school, have shorter attention span, and learn language later on.
In Venezuela the government banned video gaming. Some believe that these politicians don’t know what they are talking about. Some politicians blame video gaming for corrupting society and cultural riot.
I had to laugh at the report on Baby Einstein, because it does not come as too much of a shock to me. Hasn’t it been common knowledge that intense exposure to television, even if it’s ‘educational’ could be harmful to the mental development of the child? It seems self-explanatory.
Likewise I really enjoyed the report on health reporting. How do you know when something is a quack or a half-truth? It encourages me to intensely study up on any health related news I want to take seriously. Likewise, it inspires me to want to produce material that is scientifically proven, if it applies. Why run it if you suspect it could be wrong? And why is it that stations can play health stories such as these if they receive such low ratings from the health reviewers. It makes me want to be cautious about what I believe.
On the Media #10
November 20, 2009
Amberlee Lovell
The president’s trip in China was a complete fiasco concerning being a spokesperson for America, or at least that is what American media reported it as. But was it really? Barak Obama is a diplomat and knew whom he was addressing. Most criticize him because they say that Obama mentioned the important things but did he do enough?
Chinese media has a line that if you touch it your dead, so generally media makes a line that is a safety line. But people as of late have been encroaching on it. However, the woman known to have pushed the line in magazine resigned this week. Several of her editors resigned as well. She was one who was willing to commit her self in public.
CIA is holding back information from the National security archive coordinator that twenty years ago they let the public know, and makes some worry – how much is being withheld in this case? Timely response is also part of the CIA’s rule, but in this circumstance it took them 20 years to reply.
Augmented Reality, or AR, hit the I-phone last summer. You put the picture up to a screen and then the image become 3D on the screen along with more information on the product. A smart phone, mini camera and projector are being combined at MIT. People believe that soon we will all have something that is somewhat AR. The dark side of it? It can recognize a face. How do you keep privacy? This can track where people are. This will create a lot of social conflict. Eventually this will turn to other, less conspicuous means, such as sunglasses that can allow someone to scan the crowd and identify the people there.
Those who are Internet users and cell phone users generally have more social networks. This almost destroys the evidence that those heavily involved in electronics are less social. Internet is not the cause of social shriveling. Studies show the opposite.
The US army was one of the largest underwriters of Halo 3 and therefore holds part of the shares. The army sponsor ship is the first type of this kind.
I don’t quite understand augmented reality, but it completely blows my mind. That is incredible innovation and like they said will probably cause a great amount of social conflict. I can see a lot of positives: increased ability for advertising companies, more entertainment options, etc. But if it can recognize people then it provides frightening possibilities. True, it could be useful if it can identify someone that you should know his or her names but don’t. On the other hand though, random people knowing your name, possibly able to look up information on you, your children, and job, etc. That could be very bad in the hands of a stranger.
Magazine Analysis - # 11
November 29, 2009
Amberlee Lovell
Networking November 2009
Parents warnings of accepting rides from strangers, being out past curfew, alchohol, sex, and drugs should possibly expand to include safety in social networking, according to this article found in Popular Science. Acquisti’s ability to determine social security numbers 8 percent of the time seems a but alarming to me. Sure, eight percent isn’t large. Sure, not many people would go to the effort let alone have the skill of figuring out the social security number. Sure, that would never include ‘me.’ But it has to include someone. While Acquisti was experimenting for research sake, not everyone’s intentions are so pure. So what does this article mean to those millions using social networking? Time to give up on Internet networking and go back to Christmas card catch up?
I don’t think so. I am one of those millions that use Facebook. And I’m not overly concerned with someone discovering my social security number. This article addresses ways in which to avoid putting out dangerous information on your Facebook. In my opinion, these suggestions are things that one shouldn’t have on their Facebook for privacy purposes anyway. Likewise, while someone possibly may wish to hack my social security from my account I believe that if they were to go to that effort to figure it out, it would be easier for them to find it in other ways.
I also found it interesting that those who commented on websites were not granted privacy because they are not journalists. It would be interesting, not to mention helpful, for people to know how easily they can be tracked. Just because you visit a site on the web doesn’t mean you leave no ‘fingerprint’ there. I forgot that your IP address could be tracked, which is fascinating to me.
I am a supporter of online social networking, but obviously it is important to be careful with the information provided on your site for multiple reasons. And while people may believe they can visit websites secretly, in all truth, they can’t. You can always be tracked.
On the Media #12
Amberlee Lovell
November 29, 2009
People love books but people and books have a hard time finding each other. The United States is crowded with books, according to many people. The scanning of books and e-books makes it easy to mass publish books. The publishing business may tank, but right now it is pretty much where it was before. This is great for readers and not so much for publishing companies. But numerical declines of book selling are not large. It isn’t complete data but that is what they guesstimate. The market today is down 2-3 percent of last year, but equal to before. It isn’t that most people aren’t reading, it is that they don’t buy as many hard copy books. Adults are reading the most they have been in the past 25 years.
Twelve is a book company that only publishes 12 books a year. A lot have ended up best sellers. Book writing is a lonely enterprise, but selling is a totally different thing. “Writing is like death- a very lonely business.” But writers are starting to go public. Those authors who decide to usea ‘subscription’ device where they send out writing sections and get feed back from readers. From this they can receive royalties. This is the way writing is headed- if you are too private about your work then you may not survive in the writing industry.
Audio book lover says that the argument that listening to the book isn’t truly reading is an idiotic argument. She didn’t like the kindle because it went black in between and it felt like she was not reading seamlessly. She liked the I-phone because it was always with her, she didn’t have to bring something new with her and it was a brighter, crisper look. The sight, touch, smell of a book is lovely. That is why people steal old books.
John Gilky loved books too much. He began to steal old books. Sanders is bookstore owner in Salt Lake city was the Sherlock Holmes of stolen books. He thought to steal a book as the largest crime in the world. Gilky felt the opposite. He thinks the bookstore owner should share some of their enormous wealth of books with others that can’t afford it. He has a degree in economics and spent a lot of the day in the library looking up books he may want to ‘get.’
Gritty urban tales became popular in the 1960s and many worry that it glorifies violence. Most of these writers write a lot about their own life, but it is unclear where to know where the reality leaves and fiction becomes in. Most are extremely violent and sexually descriptive and deal with people trying to leave their drug life but often die in the attempt.
What a great pod cast! First of all, I was shocked to hear the man saying the book company was doing all right since everything I have previously heard told the complete opposite of that. It seems to me that books going digital should be viewed as very positive to book companies, but I don’t believe that books will ever completely die because as was mention, people love the physical form of a book. I for one am one of these people. I love holding a book, and although I have read books online and enjoyed it, I would rather have the tangible copy in my hand. But digital books are a great thing. They are much more convenient, they have potential of including other mass media’s with them if wanted, and would be cheaper.
The Gritty Urban fiction segment also caught my attention because I can see how appealing this life writing would be for the authors and also frustrating it would be for those not a part of that community. Like one of the speakers said, if you were to go to a bookstore and look in the African-American area of the bookstore, you would believe they were not very intellectual thinkers very focused on sex, drugs and violence. However, that doesn’t represent their community. But for those writing theses stories, it must be great to write about circumstances similar to your own life and have it published. Also, if one were really struggling to make ends meet, it would be a great means to make money: publishing in a way, your journal. This segment fascinated me because I had no idea about it since those are not the kinds of books I read, but was interesting to hear the two parts of that story.
Normal 0 On the Media # 13
December 4, 2009
Presidential Speeches seldom affect the public opinion. Audiences informed and uninformed are going to believe what they wish despite what the President says. The president makes speeches mostly to maintain the general supporters.
“Confession of an uncertain columnist” Kaplan, doesn’t know about how he feels with the war in Afghanistan. He is confused because we can’t just draw out of Afghanistan or it would be devastating. On the other hand, we don’t know how to fight this kind of war.
The Future of Journalism, The future of news, etc. Is all the seminar-ing doing anything? The problem is, young people are not waiting around and going to the seminars. Rigorous market research is lacking as well. I liked this area, because newspaper is what interests me most. It is good that the young people are getting involved on the online newspaper style, because we need to embrace that in order to crash and die. I liked the suggestions on having the podcasts cost a little bit for papers, because people would pay that and it would generate money. Also, it was interesting to hear the advertising ideas about ways to make more money for the struggling industry.
Theft of content will continue to increase as business works more to the Internet. Newspaper articles are easy pick-ups. We talked about this in Comm 111 today so it made this pretty interesting. The Internet is a huge gray area and hard to catch people. They are creating ways to see how many websites are being taken the information from.
September 18, 2009
After the happenings of ACORN’s embarrassing spotlight on illegal transactions, some people feel that the media is giving over to politician’s. When major news stations are given over to websites, facts are not shot over back and forth like they should be to keep each other in check.
Boosting troops over in Afghanistan. Danielle Elsburg, an author of leaks from the Pentagon, says that if President Obama doesn’t understand that we are in Vietnam he has lost reality. There is a play being made about him called, “The Most Dangerous Man in America.” He bids people that were in his position to not follow what he did, which was to release his thoughts about what happened six years ago. He thinks workers of the Pentagon, white house, etc. that think the President is doing something wrong should come straight out and say that the country is being lied to.
In 2008, China diagnosed Internet addiction as a medically diagnosed problem. In U.S. they have one program to help people overcome Internet addiction: Restart. Ben Alexander is the first client. He has social anxiety, shy, and found that he preferred to date over the internet. Slowly in college he eventually let it take over him and failed out of school. Restart has him go cold turkey on the internet for 40 days – have him do house hold chores in the morning, then exercise, and then find a trade to teach him in. i.e., Carpentry.
He got into World of Warcraft. He found it addictive because it was a social game, but in real life he had awkward social problems so this was preferred. Half way through his first semester in college he realized that if he kept doing what he was doing, he was going to fail college. He has been out of the center for three days. He can get on the computer for business related stuff with his parents computer, and keep in contact with a few friends he lost.
On The Media---
Podcast #2
25 September 2009
President Obama said that today’s media is filled with too much ‘blogosphere’ – too little information and too much opinion. He said that he would be willing to look at laws to help Newspaper. “NEWSPAPER REVITILIZATION ACT” presented last March. Would give Newspapers the opportunity to be tax exempt. Said it was not a bailout for Newspaper. Trying to develop a type of Newspaper that doesn’t have to look to a bottom line profit. Not looked upon too highly. Headline says, “Thanks but no thanks.” Newspapers would not have to do this. It would be a choice. Editors can’t swallow the fact that under that bill the editorial section could not directly endorse a candidate. – Ben Carton; democrat that suggested the bill. Editors feel that endorsements are very important in their newspapers, and not being able to have that would be the killer for them. Dallas Daily News it doing well. The editor says it is because they did not cut pages, they simply asked the purchasers to pay more, and made advertising less of the profit.
W. Horace Carter died last week. 1953 won Pulitzer prize for stories of the KKK which eventually led FBI there and captured a lot of the KKK. He would be threatened greatly. The famous thing in the South was that the KKK had done the south a favor after the civil war by gathering up the carpetbaggers. He started writing about them after a parade.
Insuring that internet service companies are treating all websites equally. “Net Neutrality,” is important. How do you insure that clogging won’t occur?
Can Netflix crush cable? Netflix put their software into DVD consuls because it makes it much easier to download a movie and watch it on your TV now. Terrifies cable companies now. Netflix is shoving in the normal time scheme of releasing movies. Now TV can run through Netflix, which started with ‘starz’ but they realized TV wouldn’t like this and it wouldn’t be a permanent situation. A cable company man said he doesn’t believe it will totally hurt them because they still offer sports live and awards ceremonies that netflix can’t offer.
I found the story about W. Horace Carter very very interesting, and inspiring in its way. Through his occupation he saved lives, put many people at ease and helped lessen racism in America. He would say that he was only doing his job, because he was. But it doesn’t mean that his job was frightening and risky. It made me think about where you draw the line between your job, possibly helping the whole of a community, and risking your families and your own life. Is it worth it? Apparently Carter thought it was.
I do not like the sound of the Newspaper revitalization act. I understand that Carton is trying to help the art of newspapers and that is appreciated, however it worries me how closely it cuts the line of freedom of press and speech. Limiting the ability to endorse political candidates is cutting down a very important part of newspapers, and that is frightening to me.
On the Media ---
Podcast #3
2 October 2009
Italy slipped in global rankings of ‘press freedom.” They were reclassified as only partly free since they are now in 73rd place. Now there is a protest going on in Italy due to a government official who was angry about the media hounding him for having an affair. The interesting thing was that this show he appeared on over turned several regular shows that he didn’t agree with. Berlasconi says he is the best leader in the world. He receives a lot of criticism but some really admire his bravado. He is constantly compared to Musilini. Others say that freedom of the press is not the biggest problem of Italy. Yes, it is unbalanced, but he feels it is more frightening that Bersaloni is the Italian government now.
Ray Lahood held a seminar about the dangers of driving. All government officials are now illegal to text while driving. Studies show that this is as hazardous as drunk driving. He is really hoping that all states will adopt laws about texting and driving. Apparently roads are more dangerous now than they were five years ago despite the laws that have gone into cell phones and driving. When you check the device you get the equivalent of a dopamine squirt.
“The Myth of Digital Democracy,” says that it is fake that everyone has a way into the big life because of the Internet. He says that the top blog spots are those that are highly educated and that is their job. Because of this he thinks the normal everyday Joe is most likely not going to give voice to the people who are voiceless. They can speak but they won’t be heard. This book says that the Internet allows people to be far better or far worse than we usually are.
Hollywood is using a computer program, created by Philip Carlson, that penetrates skulls to see how people are feeling when they are watching a movie. This is so they can see just what makes us scream. The machine measures the blood flow of the brain to see what the scariest parts are in the movie. A psychology professor, Dr. David Hubbard who works in San Francisco University, does not know if one could truly see if the person is feeling fear or stress. He does say that you would be able to feel if they were connecting with something but not if it was stress of fear.
I am very interested in knowing more about the Italian president because in truth I have never heard of him before. Because of this I can’t completely form my opinion because I don’t know the whole background on the situation, but I do believe that if he is powerful enough to be able to cut off certain aspects of the press then he is too powerful.
I do not agree with “The Myth of Digital Democracy.” I think that the internet is absolutely making people famous that otherwise would never be famous. And it is definitely not always for good things. I do agree however that it is a very different type of popularity. Unlike movie stars, singers, politicians, etc. we do not generally know the names of these people who become known on youtube. Instead we know them as, “grape lady falls,” or “Charlie bit me,” or “world of warcraft freak out.” These people are generally known for ridiculous things they have done whether it be intentional or unintentional. And the fact that if we met them on the street we may never know who they were does make them a very different sort of popular. So in part “The Myth of Democracy could be true in a few aspects, however, it is impossible to deny that ‘numa numa’ guy would have ever been known if not for the sharing aspects of the Internet world.
On the Media –
October 9, 2009
Podcast #4
How the media hurts and helps vaccination of the swine flu: celebrities use twitter to hurt people’s chances of getting the vaccine. How do you deal with the media writing about the one person that happens to die with the vaccine for some other causes? Journalists need to look at all the possibilities before they write about anything concerning medical scares because they are very difficult to reel back in. In Britain a 14 year old girl died right after receiving the cervical cancer vaccination, later it was revealed that she died of a cancer that was undiagnosed.
NHL team: the kings loose so often so they decided to take their media into their own hands. They hired their own journalist who used to write for LA times on this same team. But then the team hired him – pays him and he is not their publicity manager, he is a journalist. It works for them because the whole world can see the games so he still has to write the truth: he will write what happened because he is a journalist and needs the trust of the public.
Search engine’s changing the way headlines are written. They used to be catchy, but now they need to fit into the topic exactly so they show up with search engines. Google trends are a huge use to editorial staffs, because it shows what people are looking at right then. Does the press start the news or the readers?
I liked the report on media affecting the seriousness given to epidemics because they most certainly do. I know that some doctors are very frustrated with things that are given attention in the media concerning medical developments because they often end up hurting the people. An example of this would be autism and vaccination. Absolutely no study done has ever shown that there is a relation, but the media continues to do articles and reports about celebrities that are against vaccines because of this, etc. The comments regarding the comedian and his condemning vaccination for swine flu over twitter was a good point to make because what authority does that comedian ever have to say what is foolish in the medical field? He is a comedian, yet because he is well known he abuses the power of mass media to affect those who follow him in topics he has absolutely no authority over.
On the Media—
Podcast # 5
October 17, 2009
Amberlee Lovell
War in Afghanistan is still getting attention. This is suprising because the story their used to be that the war was getting no publicity. ‘The neglected war,’ The Bejing Olympics got more attention that that war did the whole year combined. It has only covered about 2 % of the news whole. Now it is getting attention because of domestic policy here. Now it is getting 25% of the News attention.
Book has appeared on Obama’s nightstand: a book about disasters in War that president’s could have possibly prevented. This makes some worried because you can’t avoid problems by living like situations in the past. The war in Afghanistan is similar to Vietnam so this is possibly why. The president should learn that no two wars are the same. Could the book change history by changing what the President thinks?
Fox news is the most popular 24-hour news broadcast. If cable can get a story on the page of the front cover of the New York Times then they obviously hold some importance. They do hold obama’s feet to the fire.
Felt like the web you are watching is watching you back? Behavioral advertising is normal these days. Marketers say they don’t mind because it is sometimes things they want. Studies show that 2/3 of people show that they are actually opposed to the personalization of ads. It is part of the media privacy feeling. Studies have shown though that super markets tend to have more information about you than the online ward. Most are against it only when they know nothing like that is going on.
The story I found most interesting was the behavioral advertising. I guess I didn’t really realize this was going on. Where do the groups get the information? It is true that the grocery store probably does have a lot of information on a lot of people: you have to give it to them when you receive a card from that store. The interviewee was exactly right. Target advertising wouldn’t bother me so much if I knew how far they could or were going. How much information can they get? The fact that I don’t know however frightens me and I don’t like that.
On the Media # 6
October 23, 2009
Amberlee Lovell
Everything that went wrong in the news business went wrong first in the music business. Everything we used to have to pay for in music, you can generally get for free now.
1999- $ 13 billion record sales, but this year only $8 billion. Then came Napster. By the end of 1999 nearly a million people were using Napster. Every single song listed was available on Napster – showed this to the heads of the labels, showing them how much this was going to hurt the industry. Despite this, these heads, music lovers themselves, were so excited about Napster too, because they could get all this music.
Currently, things are not a lot better. Online websites are sued often due to copyright violation. The fear is not so much a loss of money, but a loss of control. I-tunes is giving much larger pay checks into the artists hands, but yet they
Still resent it because they feel it is taking away their control. There will always be people stealing music – there always has been, but the key is keeping it under control.
In Europe, an online service streams music that you choose, like an online radio, but you choose all the music. But it is only in Europe, and it is free in Europe. If you want to put it onto a mobile device you need to pay a monthly fee. We are much better off than it was ten years ago though, for both the listener and the artist because you have more choice.
20 years ago lawsuits were sued over theft, or what artists call ‘sampling.’ This is taking pre-existing pop songs pulled apart and making new songs. Gyllis is possibly breaking the law by creating this sampling. This is what hip-hop was created from.
This was a very interesting clip. I found it especially so since I used to be a big peer down loader with limewire. At the time I rationalized it – somehow convincing myself that it wasn’t illegal. However, eventually I realized that getting something for free is hurting someone and it is not honest. I found the clip on I-tunes interesting though, because I guess I never considered that artists wouldn’t like I-tunes.
What was most interesting however was the mash-up section of this podcast. I have noticed mash-ups becoming more popular even with the past five years. From ‘Beautiful Girl” with Sean Kingston, to “Watcha Say” by Jason Derulo, these both show examples of mash-up songs that have been very popular. It is interesting to me that while an artist can do a cover of a song – the song sounds almost exactly the same, but with a different performer, they cannot change a song. I don’t understand why someone would allow their whole song to be redone but not allow a tiny segment of it go to making it into another song that sounds completely different from the first.
On the Media # 7
October 30, 2009
Amberlee Lovell
Journalism students in the Medille school of Journalism, did a 3-year investigation of a murder. 3 of the eyewitnesses confessed that they lied because they had been bribed or scared to lie. The students’ grades were taken into consideration, and all students are profiled to see if they have any connection to see if there is a reason they want to prove the prisoner innocent. They have saved 11 innocent people who had been convicted previously.
The students work on facts of the case and then turn it into the courts. The school won’t turn over the student’s grades though because of privacy laws. The courts are very upset about this. Oral arguments will be conducted next week for getting the subpoena quashed.
A 47-year-old Journalist died this week who found 3 convicted murders innocent as well as put attorney general in jail after he was found guilty. A journalism scholarship is being set up in his name.
Crumbling news industry. Columbia University sent out paper ‘The reconstruction of American Journalism.’ This provided 6 ideas about how to help news media. One was that local news stations be able to apply for government grants. Most rolled their eyes and groaned at this idea. Danger is that awards will go to those journalists who are not uncovering the things that the public really needs to know.
Some believe that the deterioration of newspapers across the country will persuade people that something needs to happen.
Wow, what would it be like to be at a journalism school that was investigating individuals who are convicted of murder. I admire the efforts of the students, and can imagine what an incredible teaching tool that can be for them, but as far as the judge seeing the grades and background of the individual students I don’t know too much about. It seems that if the court is to make such an important decision as someone’s innocence, then they should be able to see all things that are affecting the report of the students. However, if they have all the information that the students found concerning the eyewitnesses I don’t know how important it would be to see the personal information of the students.
On the Media #8
November 6, 2009
Amberlee Lovell
America is actually in three wars – Iraq, Afghanistan, and Wazirastan. American reporters can’t get there though so they rely on Iraq officials or risk kidnapping if they go in to report. Since America got involved in Pakistan, the Pakistan journalists view American’s negatively because they believe the war is there only for Washington interest and so therefore America all believes the same. This means they think America only reports the bad news in Pakistan instead of what is going on: good or important things happen as well. Only a kidnapping was able to show what was happening in Wazirastan.
America was declared enemy number 1 in Pakistan because of the drones. Our use of this technology shows that we are cowards to those countries we send them to. In the states we normally consider them good things because they are ‘saving lives’ and provide important information, but we are conveying a different message to those in foreign countries. The images that these send back are turning into ‘war porn.’ Where you are seeing more but experiencing less. All sorts of real combat videos can be viewed on you tube.
DVR is not really hurting TV, professionals say, because people are too lazy to fast-forward through commercials. While 46% only watch advertisements, that is 10% more with DVR then when TV wasn’t being recorded. For the shows that people are actually watching live on television, the advertisement is much less viewed because people just switch to a different show.
Journalists sometimes have to ensure their sources animinity in order to get the accurate information. The shield law needs to be taken into consideration. During the bush administration, journalists finally realized that any national law did truly not protect them.
This had a lot of interesting news in it for me. First of all, where in the world is Wazirastan? I had never even heard of this war, and so to find out there was a war there was really interesting to me. Also, It makes a lot of sense to me that countries would consider our drones as a cowardly approach, but I still consider them to be saving lives. So which do we as a society hold more dear? The view and public relations we have with foreign countries, or saving American lives in the now. In the extreme case, not having good public relations with countries could prove to kill many more lives than drones spare, but then again, maybe it won’t, and we can continue using the drones. It’s just an interesting perspective to take account of.
On the Media # 9
November 13, 2009
Amberlee Lovell
Morning chat shows lately have been dealing with a lot of the health news. They overflow with optimism and excitement, but they lack ‘journalistic responsibility.’ TV health news consistently fails to live up to expectations every time. Most were rated 2 out of 5 stars. Mostly it doesn’t mention how large the harms can be. Most weight loss news reports are generally very wrong. Often they receive 0 stars. A lot of them deal with mice and should state that right off. They can say that this worked in mice, but hey, it might not work in humans and science hasn’t gone there yet.
Pulmonary heart disease awareness month is this month. Every month has several awareness diseases and random other things. When this started in the 70s there were 43 awareness diseases, and now there are 233. But what does this even mean? Most awareness is never paid attention to. Some awareness things get strange attention. National water hazard sport association, which deals with feces in the water, etc. gets surprisingly a lot of web site hits, while the anti-circumcision group, which did a mini march in Washington, received hardly any attention.
Video immersion is no way to grow an Einstein. The best available evidence shows that there is excessive harm in lots of television consumption in the first two years. If they watch a lot of television in babies it proves that they tend to do worse in school, have shorter attention span, and learn language later on.
In Venezuela the government banned video gaming. Some believe that these politicians don’t know what they are talking about. Some politicians blame video gaming for corrupting society and cultural riot.
I had to laugh at the report on Baby Einstein, because it does not come as too much of a shock to me. Hasn’t it been common knowledge that intense exposure to television, even if it’s ‘educational’ could be harmful to the mental development of the child? It seems self-explanatory.
Likewise I really enjoyed the report on health reporting. How do you know when something is a quack or a half-truth? It encourages me to intensely study up on any health related news I want to take seriously. Likewise, it inspires me to want to produce material that is scientifically proven, if it applies. Why run it if you suspect it could be wrong? And why is it that stations can play health stories such as these if they receive such low ratings from the health reviewers. It makes me want to be cautious about what I believe.
On the Media #10
November 20, 2009
Amberlee Lovell
The president’s trip in China was a complete fiasco concerning being a spokesperson for America, or at least that is what American media reported it as. But was it really? Barak Obama is a diplomat and knew whom he was addressing. Most criticize him because they say that Obama mentioned the important things but did he do enough?
Chinese media has a line that if you touch it your dead, so generally media makes a line that is a safety line. But people as of late have been encroaching on it. However, the woman known to have pushed the line in magazine resigned this week. Several of her editors resigned as well. She was one who was willing to commit her self in public.
CIA is holding back information from the National security archive coordinator that twenty years ago they let the public know, and makes some worry – how much is being withheld in this case? Timely response is also part of the CIA’s rule, but in this circumstance it took them 20 years to reply.
Augmented Reality, or AR, hit the I-phone last summer. You put the picture up to a screen and then the image become 3D on the screen along with more information on the product. A smart phone, mini camera and projector are being combined at MIT. People believe that soon we will all have something that is somewhat AR. The dark side of it? It can recognize a face. How do you keep privacy? This can track where people are. This will create a lot of social conflict. Eventually this will turn to other, less conspicuous means, such as sunglasses that can allow someone to scan the crowd and identify the people there.
Those who are Internet users and cell phone users generally have more social networks. This almost destroys the evidence that those heavily involved in electronics are less social. Internet is not the cause of social shriveling. Studies show the opposite.
The US army was one of the largest underwriters of Halo 3 and therefore holds part of the shares. The army sponsor ship is the first type of this kind.
I don’t quite understand augmented reality, but it completely blows my mind. That is incredible innovation and like they said will probably cause a great amount of social conflict. I can see a lot of positives: increased ability for advertising companies, more entertainment options, etc. But if it can recognize people then it provides frightening possibilities. True, it could be useful if it can identify someone that you should know his or her names but don’t. On the other hand though, random people knowing your name, possibly able to look up information on you, your children, and job, etc. That could be very bad in the hands of a stranger.
Magazine Analysis - # 11
November 29, 2009
Amberlee Lovell
Networking November 2009
Parents warnings of accepting rides from strangers, being out past curfew, alchohol, sex, and drugs should possibly expand to include safety in social networking, according to this article found in Popular Science. Acquisti’s ability to determine social security numbers 8 percent of the time seems a but alarming to me. Sure, eight percent isn’t large. Sure, not many people would go to the effort let alone have the skill of figuring out the social security number. Sure, that would never include ‘me.’ But it has to include someone. While Acquisti was experimenting for research sake, not everyone’s intentions are so pure. So what does this article mean to those millions using social networking? Time to give up on Internet networking and go back to Christmas card catch up?
I don’t think so. I am one of those millions that use Facebook. And I’m not overly concerned with someone discovering my social security number. This article addresses ways in which to avoid putting out dangerous information on your Facebook. In my opinion, these suggestions are things that one shouldn’t have on their Facebook for privacy purposes anyway. Likewise, while someone possibly may wish to hack my social security from my account I believe that if they were to go to that effort to figure it out, it would be easier for them to find it in other ways.
I also found it interesting that those who commented on websites were not granted privacy because they are not journalists. It would be interesting, not to mention helpful, for people to know how easily they can be tracked. Just because you visit a site on the web doesn’t mean you leave no ‘fingerprint’ there. I forgot that your IP address could be tracked, which is fascinating to me.
I am a supporter of online social networking, but obviously it is important to be careful with the information provided on your site for multiple reasons. And while people may believe they can visit websites secretly, in all truth, they can’t. You can always be tracked.
On the Media #12
Amberlee Lovell
November 29, 2009
People love books but people and books have a hard time finding each other. The United States is crowded with books, according to many people. The scanning of books and e-books makes it easy to mass publish books. The publishing business may tank, but right now it is pretty much where it was before. This is great for readers and not so much for publishing companies. But numerical declines of book selling are not large. It isn’t complete data but that is what they guesstimate. The market today is down 2-3 percent of last year, but equal to before. It isn’t that most people aren’t reading, it is that they don’t buy as many hard copy books. Adults are reading the most they have been in the past 25 years.
Twelve is a book company that only publishes 12 books a year. A lot have ended up best sellers. Book writing is a lonely enterprise, but selling is a totally different thing. “Writing is like death- a very lonely business.” But writers are starting to go public. Those authors who decide to usea ‘subscription’ device where they send out writing sections and get feed back from readers. From this they can receive royalties. This is the way writing is headed- if you are too private about your work then you may not survive in the writing industry.
Audio book lover says that the argument that listening to the book isn’t truly reading is an idiotic argument. She didn’t like the kindle because it went black in between and it felt like she was not reading seamlessly. She liked the I-phone because it was always with her, she didn’t have to bring something new with her and it was a brighter, crisper look. The sight, touch, smell of a book is lovely. That is why people steal old books.
John Gilky loved books too much. He began to steal old books. Sanders is bookstore owner in Salt Lake city was the Sherlock Holmes of stolen books. He thought to steal a book as the largest crime in the world. Gilky felt the opposite. He thinks the bookstore owner should share some of their enormous wealth of books with others that can’t afford it. He has a degree in economics and spent a lot of the day in the library looking up books he may want to ‘get.’
Gritty urban tales became popular in the 1960s and many worry that it glorifies violence. Most of these writers write a lot about their own life, but it is unclear where to know where the reality leaves and fiction becomes in. Most are extremely violent and sexually descriptive and deal with people trying to leave their drug life but often die in the attempt.
What a great pod cast! First of all, I was shocked to hear the man saying the book company was doing all right since everything I have previously heard told the complete opposite of that. It seems to me that books going digital should be viewed as very positive to book companies, but I don’t believe that books will ever completely die because as was mention, people love the physical form of a book. I for one am one of these people. I love holding a book, and although I have read books online and enjoyed it, I would rather have the tangible copy in my hand. But digital books are a great thing. They are much more convenient, they have potential of including other mass media’s with them if wanted, and would be cheaper.
The Gritty Urban fiction segment also caught my attention because I can see how appealing this life writing would be for the authors and also frustrating it would be for those not a part of that community. Like one of the speakers said, if you were to go to a bookstore and look in the African-American area of the bookstore, you would believe they were not very intellectual thinkers very focused on sex, drugs and violence. However, that doesn’t represent their community. But for those writing theses stories, it must be great to write about circumstances similar to your own life and have it published. Also, if one were really struggling to make ends meet, it would be a great means to make money: publishing in a way, your journal. This segment fascinated me because I had no idea about it since those are not the kinds of books I read, but was interesting to hear the two parts of that story.
Normal 0 On the Media # 13
December 4, 2009
Presidential Speeches seldom affect the public opinion. Audiences informed and uninformed are going to believe what they wish despite what the President says. The president makes speeches mostly to maintain the general supporters.
“Confession of an uncertain columnist” Kaplan, doesn’t know about how he feels with the war in Afghanistan. He is confused because we can’t just draw out of Afghanistan or it would be devastating. On the other hand, we don’t know how to fight this kind of war.
The Future of Journalism, The future of news, etc. Is all the seminar-ing doing anything? The problem is, young people are not waiting around and going to the seminars. Rigorous market research is lacking as well. I liked this area, because newspaper is what interests me most. It is good that the young people are getting involved on the online newspaper style, because we need to embrace that in order to crash and die. I liked the suggestions on having the podcasts cost a little bit for papers, because people would pay that and it would generate money. Also, it was interesting to hear the advertising ideas about ways to make more money for the struggling industry.
Theft of content will continue to increase as business works more to the Internet. Newspaper articles are easy pick-ups. We talked about this in Comm 111 today so it made this pretty interesting. The Internet is a huge gray area and hard to catch people. They are creating ways to see how many websites are being taken the information from.
