Media Bias (2)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/topics/christmas/3545246/School-cancels-Christmas-nativity-in-favour-of-Muslim-Eid-celebrations.html

School Cancels Christmas Nativity in Favor of Muslim Eid Celebrations

1) The information is accurate.

2) The missing context in this story is how this process went about, and the discussions that took place that brought about this course of action.

3) The "experts" that are quoted are the concerned parents of the children, as well as documented letters apologizing for the change in schedule. But we never get to hear from the decision-makers at Greenwood Junior School as to what brought about this change. Also, while hearing from several disappointed people who celebrate Christmas, we get one opinion from someone of Muslim faith, and because of it's solidarity, a seemingly simple rectification becomes a distanced, cold recommendation.

4) Not applicable

5) Wtih the wars and terrorism in the Middle East, this article helps to maintain a certain racism and bias against the Muslim peoples in that they are consistently disrupting our way of life, even with something as small as a nativity play.

6) Why weren't officials interviewed?

So many questions could be answered simply by talking with the head teacher and chair of governors. Instead of engaging them in conversation, written statements were posted so that they could not be blamed and the focus could stay on this Muslim festival intruding on the Christmas festivities.

Media Bias

(Amber's Blog)

Growing Up Online

In today's technological age, it is easy to get swept up in the internet. With so many features targeting so many various demographics, anyone is susceptible. The young, gullible users, however, are far more apt to spend the majority of their free time indulging in online services. The problem with this is that these kids don't separate the online world from the real world. Their online excursions become an extension of their own identity to which they become absorbed and addicted.

Myspace capitalizes on this with a minor invasion of privacy. On these online social networking sites, users can highlight their interests and hobbies on the internet. While able to find other people with similar interests, they also leave themselves open to various advertisements and emails. These seem miniscule, but they don't realize how marketers are viewing their profile at all times, ready to pounce on them with ads for individual products similar to their interests. On my facebook page, I have my allegiance to the Jets listed, and not surprisingly, I have ads for nflshop.com consistently appearing when I log in.

Another danger in Myspace is how people feel defended behind their online facade. At Morristown HS, two girls got into a verbal altercation on the networking site. They consistently retorted each other's comments, bashing each other with posts on each other's pages, but never confronted each other verbally in school. Kids in the school would intently follow the argument, wondering how much this could possibly escalate. Without any face-to-face confrontation, the insults became larger and larger, so the first meeting between this girls ended up being a brawl in the cafeteria of the school. The monitor defense allowed this fight to grow far past where it should have, and these girls were almost expelled as a result. 

Web 2.0 insanity

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/11/14/second.life.divorce/index.html

Persuasive Advertising

In schools, we are taught to learn persuasive tactics in order to successfully portray our ideas, beliefs, or anything else that would take some convincing. In high school, we learn the art of persuasive essays- using subjective phrasing backed by objective facts. At the college level, public relations and marketing classes are available to enhance the influence that pictures and catchy tag lines have. Both of these are applicable to the modern and new-age style of advertising which is ever-present in today's media.

One of the newest tactics in modern advertising is the process of "Cool Hunting." Utilized by the proclaimed "Merchants of Cool," this encompasses the trials of hired professionals interviewing random people and focus groups for the purpose of feeding companies information about what is "cool" in the modern society. They plunge into the depths of the contemporary minds and discover what the turn-ons and turn-offs are that drive consumers toward or away from products or ideas. These analysts return to the companies that pay them, a fee which is generally around several hundred dollars, and divulge the information to the advertising branch of said company. Considering the amount of money that is to be made from this information, the cost is miniscule.

Product placement has been around for a long time now, but is becoming evermore prevalent in cinema and television. Product placement is when companies pay movie or television producers to incorporate their product into a certain number of scenes. In "Back to the Future", starring Christopher Lloyd and Michael J. Fox, Pepsi paid a substantial amount of money so that when Marty McFly (Fox) goes to the diner, he specifically orders a Pepsi instead of a soda, and he receives a bottle full of the beverage, with the patented Pepsi logo in plain view. In HBO's hit series "Sex in the City," an entire episode is centered around a billboard for Absolut Vodka. The Absolut company paid HBO Studios to have a conjoined project, and Absolut's sales increased by roughly 40 percent. It may some like nothing, considering how aware we are of these products, but when we see the protagonist of a great movie or a group of women would try to embody endorsing a certain product in their everyday lives, we subconsciously do the same.

The art of narrowcasting is a newer feature of the advertising market, but it is becoming increasingly more effective. Narrowcasting is when marketers gear their advertisements toward a specific demographic, as opposed to the general population of consumers. This concentrated marketing minimizes costs and increases awareness amongst users of a general product for their company's product. Even more specific is the tactic known as branding, in which companies associate their product with this group of people. In the case of Coors Light, they have labeled football fans as beer drinkers. To show the correlation of football and beer, they have taken coaches interviews and sideline antics and incorporated it to moments of Coors Light prowess, as in this video featuring ex-Ravens coach Brian Billick. This is a prime example of a marriage between product and demographic.

These tactics, new or old, are sure to continue for as long as they are successful, or at least until a slightly more intrusive, yet effective form comes along to take their places. It's amazing to think about how much our lives are infected with advertisements, yet we don't even realize it. Somebody is doing their job very well.

Wirelessing the World Quiz

1) CWN stands for Community Wireless Network. The CWNs allow for wide open, non-proprietary, and freely accessible systems funded by the government, so these networks are paid for with taxes. This allows would-be consumers of profit-driven internet providers a chance to save money and resources with community-provided wireless bandwidth. This greatly assists the bridging of the "Digital Divide" between resource-rich and resource-poor areas because in the case of CWNs, the resources are equal. The poorer areas are receiving the same signal as the richer areas, eliminating a large portion of internet segregation. CWNs are the Civil Rights Acts of wireless internet.

2) Unfortunately, the phrase "The customer is always right" doesn't cover a notion that companies should "Always do right by the customer."In attempts to maintain their control over technology markets, corporations go to some remarkable extremes. As shown to us from our books, the merger between Cingular and AT&T should have been beneficial to the consumer, but instead it put them back. Instead of increasing service, the "New AT&T" pays Sprint a fee to share their network and muddles the line between services, causing confusion amongst the users. With shared networks, consumers can't determine which networks are better and find no reason to switch providers. Bundling is another huge issue in regards to corporations throwing clients under the bus to preserve their success. Companies such as Intel market their Centrino technology, which is a combination of chips that are supposed to enhance their products. However, they overpay for this convenience when the purchasing of separate, less expensive chips would do the job more efficiently. Meinrath informs us of the bundles of the Centrino notebooks, and how it ends up sticking it to the consumer.

3) Corporate consolidation (Cingular/AT&T) and the early buying of technologies make the technology market seem more like the Venezuelan economy- 1% of the population owns 99% of the wealth. The merger between the aforementioned companies caused them to become the largest wireless company at 47 million users. Now that that market has been cornered, they set their sites to new projects. When smaller companies fabricate ideas for new technologies, big companies will swoop in to buy the rights to these products, and since they are generally unproven and untested, they are purchased at a discounted price. Instead of a new company to flourish with the success of their new products, the already-established corporations have increased their product lines, taking more of the wealth.

FCC Questions

1) Do broadcasters use radio and television to quickly and effectively respond to the local communities needs and interests? Give examples to support your answer.

Broadcasters rarely use radio and television to achieve any sense of localism due to the fact that the majority of stations are based nationally (although moreso in television). On the radio, we have local broadcast stations, but even they don't harp on any "local" issues or things that would pertain to the surrounding community. There exist few local radio stations which focus solely on the goings-on of its region in effort to raise awareness or provide solutions to these problems. As far as nationally broadcasted television and radio stations, most of these show general programming- nothing specific to the community of a singular person watching, but encompasses the nation in topics that are understood from coast to coast.

In the case of Clear Channel Communications, a large media conglomerate , Texans were left completely unaware of a violent flood that was headed in their direction. They were unaware because their local stations were owned by the corporation, not by the public. Instead of warning broadcasts, the water rushed in and took lives while survivors could only listen to the popular music off the charts.

2)Are there certain kinds of local programming (Public Media Values) that should be available, but are not being provided by broadcasters? what could some examples of these be?

The kinds of local programming that should be available are the ones that were omitted in cases such as the Clear Channel case above. There should be at least two or three stations fully committed to local programming, covering four or five counties or so, keeping the local publics informed of all issues that pertain fully to their ways of living. Flood warnings, increased crime, political issues such as mayoral or representative elections- all of these should be covered because they won't be covered on any nationally broadcasted programming.

To use a pop reference, "Wayne's World", an SNL sketch-turned-movie featuring Mike Meyers and Dana Carvey, is an example of local programming. While they don't cover compelling local issues, this station is a basis for localism in the media. "Wayne's World" would never air, but with radio and television stations devoted to providing air-worthy programs with valuable and relevant information, the populus can remain more informed. It should be broadcasting for the community, by the community.

3) What could the Federal Communication Commission do to promote localism in broadcasting? Explain three of these examples of public-service-oriented projects that are already in process across the US.

To promote localism in broadcasting, the FCC needs to create provisions where these local stations are not just encouraged, but mandatory, and they also need to be kept under a watchful eye. So many community stations are not monitored properly. No one is willing to put in the time nor the effort to put quality shows together, due to the low budget. The FCC needs to contribute to these smaller stations and give them and their employees purpose. In the meantime, there are some public-service-oriented projects that are underway.

In Utah, there is a community broadband project, a $470 million dollar endeavor in which the state government can provide internet access, phone access, and television access at speeds 100x faster than their current rate, due to a fiberoptic network. While this is under attack by corporations who provide these services, if all cities comply and raise money, there would be a statewide-network in place.

LPFM- low power fm radio- is an idea that almost came to fruition, was halted, and is making a rise again. LPFM would provide thousands of local radio stations, free from commercials, from airing in local markets. Commercial stations were upset, fearing that these new stations would take away from their current listeners and create interference. The interference claims upheld, but a recent movement has brought LPFM back to the surface, and another strong push is being made to create these thousands of local stations.

Also, because of the proposition in Utah, the Supreme Court has allowed states, if they see it fit, to create these state-wide networks. While this does not mandate it nor encourage it, the door is now open for more of these intrastate networks to be created, enhancing local pride, awareness, and knowledge.

The (Not So) Great Debate

For as much as America has grown, it seems that politics have regressed to a juvenile state. Running for any public office has become less about the issues and more about slandering the opponent and their camp. This goes as far down as mayor and as high as the presidency, which is far more public and under far more scrutiny. Never has the importance of economic, foreign, gun, and domestic policies been so belittled by the efforts of each candidate to make their opponents seem ignorant, misguided, and downright evil.

Making this point most apparent was the recent presidential debate between Senators John McCain (R) and Barack Obama (D). Regardless of the question asked by the moderator, McCain would lash into Obama's policies, and at times, would even criticize the way Obama's campaign criticizes him. Is this what politics has come to? Even further than undermining the opponent, now we're undermining them for improperly undermining us? The moderator couldn't even escape this fad when he proposed several questions regarding Obama's commercials that question McCain's economic policy.

Fortunately, at times, Obama would respond by defending and elaborating on his ideas, bringing the debate back to something resembling, well, a debate. Whenever politics switched over to an elementary school shouting match needs to be stricken from time. Considering our current political situation, it is necessary for the voters to understand where these candidates will help, not how their opponents are catering to a man with the surname of his vocation.




Seriously though...what kind of society would we be living in without plumbing?

Steve Kurtz

In regards to the USA Patriot Act, I understand and support that there are times when the government needs to step in and investigate certain people and activities. However, these investigations need to be within reason, and cases should not be fabricated in order to justify individual searches. This act is justified in itself- its focus and purpose is to protect the inhabitants of our nation- it needs no further justification.

In the situation of Steve Kurtz, an artist and amateur scientist, woke up one morning and found his wife motionless and not-breathing. The next morning, he found FBI agents scouring his home for potentially evidence for foul play. Then he found himself in a legal battle with the government over the possession of bacteria for studies of the harmful effects of herbicides. Completely unrelated, the purpose for this dogfight was spawned from an invitation to an art show, that was written in a language that had a resemblance to arabic (how's that for profiling?).

Kurtz was examining the damage these genetically altered bacteria could have, simply because professional scientists were in the pocket of big business and the government. Scientists who work for these agricultural companies certainly aren't going to throw their employers under the bus, so nothing negative would ever come of the reports. Dr. Arpad Pustazi of the Rowett Research Institute in Scotland was fired after 36 years of service for publishing an independent study showing that GMOs did damage to the intestines and other organs of rats. With those consequences, who is going to take a stand against these harmful products?

Kurtz, and other amateur scientists, gladly took that task. They wanted to make the dangers of these products known to the common consumer, hoping they would be able to do what "real" scientists were too scared to. Where did that put him? In court with the FBI for mail fraud; his friend, Dr. Robert Ferrell, traded specimen with Kurtz- a practice common among scientists. Kurtz refused to allow this to set the standard in government practice, and fought the FBI every step of the way. He managed to narrow the letter of the law, not expand it, and because of men like Kurtz, the USA Patriot Act is now closer to its original intent.

Cult of the Amateur Quiz

Paging Dr. Hacker

Hospitals are supposed to rectify illnesses; give you a sense of comfort, safety, and hope. With hospitals recording their patients' information digitally, however, that sense of safety has been compromised. At Vassar Hospital, many patients were betrayed by their trusted hospital's database.

An unknown hacker infiltrated all of the records in the hospital's computer, and was able to retrieve the identities of all registered patients. This potentially led to numerous counts of identity and credit card fraud, leaving many people at risk of mass amounts of unwarranted debt.

The hospital sent out a letter- USPS, not email- warning all current and former patients of the hack and recommending a notification to the credit card companies. Shortly after, any uses of credit by these people were under scrutiny and most transactions took anywhere from half an hour to an hour and fifteen minutes. A lack of security at Vassar Hospital led to financial inconvenience for so many.

This instance is certainly scary, to say the least. The fact that a safe haven like a hospital is at risk of occurrences such as this makes me skeptical of the most basic online shopping sites. What could their security be like if a hospital is open to hackers. This is a problem that needs to be rectified sooner than later, or no one in this world can possibly feel like their identity is locked down tight.

CNN vs. iReport

Although run by the same organization, CNN and iReport have many distinct differences. This was to be expected considering the different nature of the two websites.

Off the bat, I noticed that CNN.com featured more newsworthy headlines, such as Congress' bailout plan and other articles about the $700 billion deficit we face. On the other side, iReport's main headlines are about the high gas prices down south, the new facebook layout, goodbyes to Yankee Stadium and Coney Island, and then finally fifth is a blog about what citizens are giving up in the midst of this economic depression.

Next, I compared postings and articles around Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama. CNN.com's articles seem to stay unbiased and straightforward; ultimately, all articles tend to sway the reader in one way or another with some measure of intent, but CNN manages to hide it well. The bloggers, however, are blatant in their criticisms and bias and have full intent to at the very least, make their opinions known, and at the most, sway the viewer.

Last, on the topic of the presidential debates on Friday night and whether they should still take place, iReport is looking for people to write or video in and give their opinion. CNN.com has articles dictating whether or not they should still happen.

Josh Howard, You're On Candid Camera!

The cell phone: a mobile device originally created to enable users to receive or send phone calls without the need of a cord. At its basic level, it seems entirely harmless. Unfortunately for Josh Howard, small forward for the Dallas Mavericks, the mobile phone has developed into a jack of all trades. This device has been infused with capabilities for texting, taking pictures, and- leading to Howard's demise- videos.

Fellow NBA star Allen Iverson, guard for the Denver Nuggets, held his annual flag football charity event back in July. There were no ESPN cameras, only a few local news cameras to show the good will. There was also a cell phone camera on hand, taping the pre-game festivities. As the Star-Spangled Banner was playing to kick off the game, the camera found Josh Howard and some harsh words.

"The Star-Spangled Banner is going on. I don't celebrate this [expletive]. I'm black," Howard said. He also went on to make some incomprehensible comments on Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama. As the video itself has been removed from Youtube at the request of Dallas Mavericks' owner, Mark Cuban, a recount of the event with a clip can be seen at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BqG9kjknVw

Without the inner-workings of Web 2.0 enabling user-created videos to be posted on the internet, this blatant anti-patriotism would have gone unnoticed. Even so, it's taken 2 months for this story to surface and a punishment to be handed down. But better late than never.

Pop-Up Ads

On the web, there are many "untruths" which are created by individuals, organizations, even companies to increase support financially, politically, or socially. Many of these are disguised, leading the preyed-upon consumers to believe what they have read or watched is the truth. There is one glaring untruth that leaves itself open to the naked eye, and still is deemed effective: the advertisements.

Now I'm not talking about a website that's sponsored by a company and has the logo on the site- those websites have those to minimize costs and avoid pop-ups and other such things. I'm talking about those annoying ads that flash at you and shout "SCAM" at you without needing to turn your volume up. How many times have you been told you're the 250,000th visitor or that your computer is at risk of being infected by a virus? It's all crap, and it's one of the many falsities that are enabled by the new Web 2.0 style of internet.

Now, when you click on these links and get taken to site after site of useless, time-wasting information, you realize you've been had. The PC Doctor Guide, featuring publications of computer catalogues, tutorials, and other computer-friendly scriptures highlights these fake ads and rips them apart, claiming that these ads show very poor taste, and minimize the credibility of the sites they piggy-back off of, reducing the hits they receive. This blog entry can be viewed here: http://www.pcdoctor-guide.com/wordpress/?p=330. 

While these are very hard to avoid, I highly suggest highlighting sites with these ads and avoiding them whenever possible. Web 2.0 can be very useful and beneficial communally, as long as it is used responsibly.