Wednesday 23 May 2007

Media is not corrupting our society.

The main reason why people feel that the media corrupts our society is due to our disgust and anger in its displays of violence and pornography, which are often accused of corrupting the minds of children and the young.
However, they fail to even clearly state the form in which the media corrupts the public. Some people feel that media’s corruption is more in the form of violence, killing and massacre. Others may see pornography as a greater form of corruption. Political party members may even claim corruption as the dissemination of information that do not adhere to their political aims, such as introducing communism in a democratic state or vice versa. With such a poor definition of the way in which media corrupts society, we can never be certain about what in the media is corrupting. What appears to be corrupting to one person may be seen as by another as a way to a way in educating the people of the harsh realities of life.
Furthermore, the media is not necessarily the one responsible for the corruption of society. Ironically, it is actually the changing of opinions and the creation of a more "open" society that has caused this "corruption". As more people in the world become more open to new trends and practices, the control over the media has also loosened. There is an increasing airing of shows and movies on violence, bloodshed and gore such as SAW and Texas Chainsaw Massacre, which actually enjoyed large viewership. The very fact that there is an increasing demand for such shows means that society is actually encouraging the airing of such shows. This brings about the controversial question: is it the society or the media that is corrupting?
The actual fact is that the decline of morality in the society has caused the decline of media morality and it is not the other way round. Furthermore, the statistics obtained from a survey entitled "Shooting the Messenger: Why Censorship Won't Stop Violence" have demonstrated that while research indicates numerous causes for violence, none of them link directly to media violence.

"When violent crimes hit the headlines, people want to lash out at something, anything, and assign blame," said David Horowitz, Executive Director of the Media Coalition. "The media is too often that something, even though, as our report found, there is no causal link between the violent content in the media and real violence."

While the accessibility to violence depicted in various forms of the media, such as books, magazines, movies, music, TV and video games have risen during the 1990s, violent crime has, instead, fallen to its lowest level in nearly 30 years.

The survey also notes that even research linking media with violent content to an increase in aggressive play, such as children's wrestling, as opposed to actual violence, is contradictory.

It should also be considered that television viewers are watching out of their own accord. They have a choice of whether or not to watch. If someone feels that a program has inappropriate content, he can simply change the channel or shut off the television. It is ridiculous to accuse the media of corrupting society when people can fix the problem by this simple act of discretion, assuming they themselves are not corrupt. If we were to ignore the fact that the media is not an entity independent of human control and treat it as another being with the ability to corrupt, then the situation can be seen as a willing speaker conveying ideas to a willing listener, the keyword in this case being "willing". Is the speaker at fault for speaking, even though the listener has a choice that can be easily exercised to not listen to the speaker? Or should be listener be blamed instead, for actively listening so that he may be corrupted by the ideals put forward by the speaker?

Furthermore, most people blame the mass media for the increasingly violent nature of the society, which contributes to the corruption of our children. We believe that the media are not the sole or even the primary cause of those problems. Blaming media for changes in childhood and social problems has shifted our public conversation away from addressing the real problems that impact child’s lives.

The main reason is that politicians are using the media rather than budgeting the money to address these problems. Lower-income people ‘have more experiences with the reality of problems like violence’; they know the media are not a big part of the equation in their struggles to keep their children safe in troubled communities

Media does not reach children in a vacuum. Children process the messages they receive in the context of their value systems. By giving children the tools they need to understand what they are seeing and hearing, parents can help their children absorb a wide range of media and messages consistent with the positive values taught by parents, teachers and peers.
In conclusion, we have to note that the very idea of "media” is formed by the society. Thus, how is it that the knife is blamed for the murderer’s deed?

Wednesday 16 May 2007

The reputation of anyone who is subjected to media scrutiny will eventually be diminished in this age of intensive media coverage.

The media gives us a convenient way to obtain information. As time went on, the media grows quickly and has formed the forth pole of power in our society. Many things hidden before are exposable to the public and the reputation of public figures are diminished. The portraits of the public figures are weakened, or even destroyed by the facts or rumors given by medias.
Admittedly, in this open and democratic society, the medias have the right that is also the obligation of them to provide us not only the positive aspect but also the negative aspect of the public figures. Since most medias are profit-oriented and they regard that the public care the scandals of the celebrities more than their contribution to society, they maybe pool their energy and time to search or even frame up some scandals to cater for the interest of the public. By doing so, many famous people who were once honored ‘hero’ of the society lost their reputation and even became the negative representative reproached by history. For example, Nixon, the former president of the United States, was a hero in many American' minds until the water-gate scandal was disclosed by the media. And soon later, people lost their confidence in him and he had to resign form the historic stage of American.
After all, most medias tell the facts. When we find some dark side exposed to us, we feel disappointed because we see the public figure as a perfect person. In addition, they are just ordinary people like us and nobody is perfect. If we change our standard for them into a more tolerant one, which take the nature of human beings into account, we will find the positive side of them again.

Wednesday 9 May 2007

Censorship can never be justified,do you agree?

Censorship is the removal and withholding of information from the public mainly by governments or other official organisations .Whether censorship is justified is always a controversial issue that attracts public’s attention.
Censorship often forbids publishing something, but not everything is suitable to be published. Mass media intend to see things in a commercial way, and want report almost every thing that can attract the attention of the people and hence earning money from them. The mass media like to make everything into "news" that many people have bad impression to the censorship. Some reporters have spent much time and money, and even in condition that their lives were threaded, and got some valuable information that can make an explosive effect; but they were forbidden by the censorship. In that case, they will definitely feel disappointed and claim that the order that their news can't be published is how unjustified.

Censorship is everywhere in all sorts of media, TV, newspaper, magazine, Internet, etc. It is necessary for government to use censorship to prevent illegal or harmful information contaminating the minds of the people, especially those teenagers. One example will be the famous band,the Rolling Stones ,who faced censorship by the china government . Five of their songs were not allowed to play during their concert in Shanghai. The government is trying to protect the moral of their citizens and prevent people from accessing to harmful information.In conclusion, censorship is really needed to keep us from vulgar expressions on the media, make sure everyone's rights and protect the security of a nation even though it is hard to justify it.

Friday 4 May 2007

Virginia Tech Shooting

The tragedy on 16th April morning at Virginia Tech University in the United States has shocked the entire world. It was really shocking news to see young people who would have had bright days in their future were killed by the gun. What had made the gunman did such a senseless act?
The shooting rampage at the Virginia Tech university has left 33 people dead. There were two incidents two hours apart, at a student dorm where two were killed and at an engineering building where 30 died and the gunman pointed gun at himself. Eyewitnesses said some students jumped from classroom windows to escape the gunfire, which triggered panic on campus.
His diatribes may have come as a shock to many of his peers, who have described him as a quiet and unassuming loner - though many were aware of his violent side. Many people who know him could not believe that he did this,so what made such a ‘well-behaved’ young man did such a senseless act? It seems that he had been a loner since he moved to America at the age of 10, but why his family did not notice and do something about it. Moreover, he received discrimination in school from his schoolmates, which in my opinion, filled him with anger and spite.He has revealed himself as a deeply disturbed individual, obsessed with violence and harboring profound. And unexplained grievances, apparently against his fellow students.The schools should learn the lesson and make efforts to make mental health care readily available for everyone, not only in the United States. For every individual, we should care more about everyone who is around us.

Sunday 15 April 2007

Nowadays, the mass media do not report the news; they make the news.

The media plays an important role in spreading information disclosure to the public. Nowadays, people cannot leave without mass media, the major ones being newspapers, television and internet and with the help of technological improvements to send messages to the masses is becoming easier and easier.
The influence of media also becomes incredible. The most recent case would be Prince William splits from Kate.(Britain's Prince William, world's most eligible bachelor) The couple had been under intense media pressure since they met at in 2001 when they were still university students. There had been rumors of an engagement in recent mouth which prompted intense interest from the public. This led to raising harassments from the media such as the harassment complaint against the Daily Mirror over a close-up photograph published by the paper. they are after all just young couple who need privacy but the media were very barbaric in their rabid persuit of the couple.The intention of the media is to report the news to the public but due to their extreme behaviors that pressurize on the royal couple, the media is the key factor that contributes to the tragedy.

The media serves to inform and educate the public by doing investigation and follow-up on reports and events. However, there is a thin line between exposure and intrusion. Due to intense completions among different forms of media, some black sheep among them actually used despicable and unethical means to invade the privacy of the public figures or celebrities. An example will be Easy Finder publication of semi-nude photos of pop singer Gillian Chung that were secretly taken backstage without her consent. To make matter worse, the semi-nude photos were published in the front cover of Easy Finder, a weekly magazine well known for its use of hidden cameras and paparazzi photography. What happens if children and youths see the magazines? This definitely will set a bad influence on them and instill them the wrong moral values. The incident caused an outrage of injustice and sympathy towards Gillian Chung. Action star Jackie Chan, along with many Hong Kong Artises attended a televised rally in Hong Kong protesting against local media intrusion and demanded for protection and rights for celebrities. Media sometimes abuses its power and influence to commit immoral acts in order to create some reports to hit the headlines and attain higher readership.

Another incident will be the accusatory reports on Tom Cruise being a homosexual. As quoted fom the article, Actor Tom Cruise has filed a second $100m (?0.9m) defamation suit over claims that he had a gay affair during his marriage to the actress Nicole Kidman. The press, being very influential, can mislead the public into believing the reports which can be a made-up story and gradually changes public's impression of the publis figure. In the long run, the public will start to question the credibility of the media when similar events occurs overe and over again

Friday 13 April 2007

YouTube has no ethics, it's been created for the sole purpose of entertainment and money

When we say someone has no ethic,it means that he or she has no moral rules or no principles of behaviour for deciding what is right and wrong. In this case, is youtube the only one who has no ethic, or is there any others who has to be responsible for that.

I would not deny that Youtube's sole purpose is for entertainment and money.YouTube is a video site created by three former PayPal employees in 2005. The popularity of Youtube has been increasing rapidly since then as it can be easily accessed and provides latest movies and television programs that are free for us to enjoy. The innovation of youtube has contribute to generalize online-video sharing concept. As their viewership increased,more advertisers paid to post their advertisement on Youtube and that is how youtube earns the profits.

However, it is unfair to say that Youtube has no ethic when they are unable to conRecently, YouTube faces increased pressure as the Thai government has banned access to the YouTube video- website after it broadcast material critical of the country's king. However, I believe that it is the person who posted the video has no ethic. On Youtube,peoplee are given the freedom to post their videos and hence they have to take the responsibility of whatever they do. We could not expect staff from youtube to watch every single video that people are going to post on and decide whether they should allow the video to be posted.If Youtube start to set limitation on posting videos,peoplee will start to complain that they are being unreasonable.

Before we question whether Youtube is ethical or not, why don’t we ask :what about those thoughtless peoplee who have no ethic?

Wednesday 4 April 2007

Teenage years are the best years in one's life

I strongly believe that teenage years are the best years in one’s life. The teenage years are a time of transition from childhood into adulthood It is full of laughter, tears, fears and joys.

Most of the time, teenagers have a strong desire to be independent. They want to achieve everything on their own.but sometimes, they may also feel overwhelmed by being dependent on their parents with no one else to guide them. Meanwhile, they also face pressure from school work, friends and the society.

However, we manage to grow and learn as we went through all the problems and that is how we grow up from naïve children to thoughtful adults. We does not only increase our knowledge but also enhance our experiences. There are cases where teenagers could not stand the pressure and vent their emotions through inappropriate ways which is harmful such as slashing their arms.i understand their feelings of being stressed ,but I would never understand why they have to hurt themselves as a form of release.we should enjoy our lives during these wonderful years not leaving bad memories.

We should always remember our fights and fears, And all the good times spent in the teenage years.