Leora the explora's Weblog

Copy-Wrongs

leoratheexplora — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 01:05:48 +0000

For most individuals we can admit that when we do some type of creative project or come up with a good idea we want to have credit for it and not have it copied. The feeling of being acknowledged for a job well done is outstanding! That’s where the idea of copyright comes into play. Copyright lengths given to most creators of original work is far too long of a time span.
In most educational envoirments students are afraid to make and do things because they feel they are restricted with these copyright laws. Now I use educational envoirments as evidence because these are areas where a majority of unique projects are being developed and ideas are being produced. In order for projects and ideas to come alive they need to have a basis and examples to pick and choose form to help trigger there own ideas. A fair amount of people I work with on a daily basis like to take bits and pieces of ideas from individuals to create their own original work. This is all limited by the fact that copyright lengths last too long.
Another example of negative affects resulting from copyright lengths is how censorship is used for copyright laws which in turn is bad for democracy. The way they use censorship limits people in creating new ideas since it begins to ban books, magazines, and certain type of media that create more of a democracy. These types of media that are being banned have morals and values for everyone to learn or even have personal experiences that people can relate to which could create a diverse democracy. If we stopped all this media banning then it could create a more creative and equal society.
Educational envoirments and becoming aware about censorship is the best way to realize and understand that copyright lengths last too long. These educational envoirments create a wider understanding for opinions revolving around the copyright issue. Most of these envoirments are extremely diverse and allow you to see the frustration of students trying to create there own work but not allowed to use bits and pieces of other ideas that have been around for centuries.
Although people have raised questions about the sources that disagree with the lengths of copyright, but numerous media roles, students, and teachers have found otherwise. If individuals who agree with the copyright length went to colleges or advertising companies they would see a whole other view of this copyright issue and eventually would come to realize that they are just too long!

Life or Death?

leoratheexplora — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 01:05:31 +0000

There are many obstacles in life we have to face that bring along tough decisions and these decisions are the one’s that are life-changing. Not just physically but emotionally. This brings up the article I analyzed in The New York Times called “Keeping a Promise When a Life Is Near Its End” by Ellen D. Feld M.D. This article describes Ellen’s aging mother and her wish to leave this earth in a timely manner. At age seventy-five Ellen’s mother came to her with a question that anyone would hate to respond too, she asked if Ellen would help her if anything were to happen to her and she had no control over herself. Of course Ellen was a little confused and shocked at first as to what her mother meant by “help”. Then it hit Ellen that her mother meant will she pull the plug or not let her suffer if the worst case scenario should arise. Ellen was speechless because of course she wants her mother to live as long as possible but at the same time she does not want to be selfish and let her suffer. She didn’t know how to respond to that and eventually changed the subject. In the meantime, over 10 years had passed, and it was coming up on her mother’s 87th birthday and she was deteriorating. Every day things started to become such a struggle for Ellen’s mother so she decided to visit the doctors, in hope that her time was soon up! Her prayer was slowly being answered as the doctors results showed that she was suffering from pneumonia and tumors in her brain. Weeks were passing and Ellen’s mother was getting nervous that when her time came to pass that it would be slow and dragged out. That’s when her mother brought up the question again, asking Ellen if she would help. With her mother’s time soon approaching, Ellen reassured her mother that everything will be ok and that she will indeed help her. Even though that was not the answer Ellen wanted to give she knew her mother would be happy and that’s when her mother told her that she had just given her the help she needed!
This story really gets you thinking about decisions you will have to make in life especially the one’s regarding a loved one’s life. This is the authors objective through this story, having you step in her position and up against decisions such as following your mothers wishes and letting her go. The many details she adds in this story make it more personal and emotional for the reader to connect too. This story really caught my attention when she started to ask her self questions through out the story because this made me question what I would do in her situation.
In my opinion, this story overall was presented in a sensationalized manner but this brought about more emotion and connection to the reader. As the author describes the questions she is up against and her connection with her mother it allows the reader to become emotionally connected. With the details the author adds about her mother’s illness and how her mother lived the last couple years you begin to understand and relate to the decisions she made. The only downside of this story was that not enough detail was added to the types of problems her mother was having. Like how did the pneumonia effect her and what the brain tumors where doing to her body. This could have added the extra touch in order to create the full impact of emotions to come out for the reader.
Stories like “Keeping a Promise When a Life Is Near Its End” really add a different aspect to the New York Times. I think it allows readers to become more connected with the newspaper especially reading stories with issues that everyday people are questioned about. After reading this interesting story I can’t help but think what I would do in Ellen’s position….

Time Killers

leoratheexplora — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 01:06:50 +0000

So this week my assignment was to examine and explore a branded community through the Internet. I choose to explore the GameKillers website and watch a few episodes of there reality show that airs on MTV every Friday. This show is about taking average guys who think they have a lot of “game” or otherwise known as players and put them in this dating show. Now this dating show is not like any ordinary dating show because it has many twists to it. First off, the average guys that are put on to this show have the opportunity of taking a girl on a date and show her how much game he has. While on this date he will encounter several men and women trying to ruin his game and these people are called the “GameKillers”. Now what this average guy doesn’t know is that these “GameKillers” are really actors and that there main goal is to mess up his game. The questions is can the guy survive someone blocking his game and still win the girl? If the guy surpasses these challenges of the GameKillers then he will have the honor of getting his name engraved on the Ancient Axe GameKillers Chalice.
The interesting thing I find about this website and reality show was that it is all surrounding the product of AXE body spray. In my opinion I find it some what ridiculous that you have to produce a reality show to get people to buy the product. Plus the show that they have created for this product is completely outlandish and absurd. The show doesn’t even give enough advertising to the product of AXE to get the point across to the viewer and the point of the show has little to do about the product. A guys so called “game” doesn’t just evolve around the way he smells so to make a whole reality show revolving around this product is a waste of time.
After reading about this reality show and watching some episodes it has changed my attitude towards this product because I use to think it was a decent product that produced a good smell. Now I think AXE is over-advertised and cheap. For most of the cologne’s out there you don’t see half as much advertising as you do for AXE and they seem to do fine in our market. Overall this reality show is not something I would waste my time with because the storyline for each episode is the same and pointless.

Violence and Video Games: Not a good mix

leoratheexplora — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 01:08:06 +0000

My assignment this week was to analyze a controversial media topic. For my topic I choose, does the video game FarCry2 result in increased violence? This assignment involved me doing some background research from 3 academic journal articles. Which I found through the libraries journal database. Based on the secondary research I have done, I do believe that FarCry2 desensitizes kids of violence and increases violent behavior through adolescents.
According to my research media effects play a big role in the way these video games are perceived. With this game in particular the motto is “Drive anything, burn anything, go anywhere, betray anyone”. Now what time of message do you think this gives off to kids?
In the article Video Games and Aggressive Thoughts, Feelings, and Behavior in the Laboratory and In Life, they conducted two studies that examined violent video game effects on aggression related variables (Anderson & Dill) The first study proved that real-life violent video game play was positively related to aggressive behavior and delinquency especially for people who are characteristically aggressive and/or if they are male (Anderson& Dill). Now the second study showed that exposure to graphically violent video games increased aggressive thoughts and behavior (Anderson & Dill) A commonality with both these studies was that men tend to become more aggressive and violent than women do. Both of these experiments were conducted in a laboratory with students as “guinea pigs”.
In the second article, Content and Ratings of Teen-Related Video Games, they believe that exposure to violence, blood, sexual themes, profanity, substances, and gambling in the media remains a source of public health concern(Haninger & Thompson). There experiment was to quantify and characterized the content in video games rated for teens and measure the agreement between content observed and content displayed (Haninger & Thompson). For the experiment they sampled 81 different video games, played each one for an hour, and then assessed the content (Haninger & Thompson). The results showed that 98% involved intentional violence for about 36% of the game, 90% encouraged the player to injure characters, and 69% rewarded the player for proceeding with violent acts (Haninger & Thompson).
The last article I researched is somewhat different from the other one’s since it is more opinion and fact based. In this article, Game Over?, the Governor of Illinois describes how violent video games don’t just show criminal acts but that they let kids commit them (Game Over?). “Kids are not spectators…They’re the ones who cut people’s heads off” -Rod Blagojevich of Illinois- To back up the Governors opinion on video games he brought a study into his article from Iowa State University which found that kids who are exposed to such violence in video games are most likely to have aggressive thoughts, feelings, and behavior (Game Over?). From an opposing view in this article, John Beck, who is an author of a book about video games states that kids know that video games are just that-games (Game Over?). He also states that “I think the kids distinguish pretty clearly between the cartoonish nature of a video game and reality” (Game Over?).
The findings about video game violence I examined are relevant to FarCry2 because the entire game revolves around killing people and betraying people. This whole game can be used in reality if adolescents let it control their mind and ideas. Readers might argue that it is just a game and that no kid will actually take what they see from the game and try to use it in real-life. However, I believe that this is the wrong idea because we have so many issues of violence and more adolescent involved in crimes these days but where do you think they get these ideas from….
Overall I believe my research has given enough backing to my argument in defending that FarCry2 is truly desensitizing kids of violence and increasing the violent behavior that we see come up in so many of our societies issues today.
References:

Anderson, C., & Dill, K. (2000, April). Video Games and Aggressive Thoughts, Feelings, and Behavior in the Laboratory and in Life. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 78(4), 772-790. Retrieved October 29, 2008, doi:10.1037//0022-3514.78.4.772

Game Over?. (2005, February 18). Current Events, Retrieved October 29,2008, from Academic Search Premier database.

Haninger, K., & Thompson, K. (2004, February 18). Content and Ratings of Teen-Rated Video Games. JAMA: Journal of the American Medical Association, 291(7), 856-865. Retrieved October 29, 2008, from Academic Search Premier database.

Facts or Opinions?

leoratheexplora — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 20:16:32 +0000

All over the world there is various media being broad-casted and with so many different sources it leaves room for you to decide what best suites you. You may be the type of person who wants all the facts to stories or maybe you’re the one who likes more of the opinion based aspect of news. Each news source offers something unique and different. Which brings me to my topic of this blog and that is comparing an alternative media with main stream news source.
Out of all the many media stations out there I choose to compare wiretap.org and bbcnews.com. Both these stations have a lot to offer and they both have a unique way presenting the news to the world. The question is what kinds of stories and topics are discussed through there stations? That is where the differences come into play because these stations come from very different parts of the world so they have different views and opinions on similar stories that they both cover. Lets start with BBC news, there stories are from the international point of view and cover issues from around the world but don’t necessarily cover things in small communities. They tend to stick with more of the political issues and do not venture off into the arts or lifestyles. Some examples of there stories are: the presidential election, Pakistan’s cash crisis, and Afghans drought hardship. On the other hand you have wiretap which covers basically any topic but from a local standpoint and deals more with the community and there opinions. They also deal with political issues just without all the facts and more with opinions. I did notice with wiretap that a great deal of there stories/ issues relate back to the topics of race, gender, and class. Now granted that’s what a lot of our worlds issues start from but its interesting to see it from the different perspectives of people. Some examples of wiretap’s stories are: How To Tell People They’re Racist, Is sports activism dead?, and Rallying the Vote. With just some of the stories I read from these media stations they made me realize that most of there topics start out the same but gradually grow into there own differences by the various perspectives involved.
A very interesting difference with the two media stations is the way there are presented. With BBC news they have reporters for almost every one of there stories and wiretap has some reporters but mainly it’s just local editors collecting stories and views from everyday American citizens. A similarity with these media stations is that everyone of there reporters and editors are of a different race which is enjoyable to see because it allows from more diversity through the media. For BBC news being so diverse and more of an international news station it offers the news in many different languages such as Spanish, German, French, Italian, etc. This adds a unique touch to the station. Just from the different ways each story is presented shows the variety of perspectives on every issue.
Through my research I found it interesting how such differences of a media station can change how you view it. You really come to realize what type of news interests you and whether you enjoy more opinions or facts from the media world. For me personally I enjoyed wiretap more than I did BBC news because I felt wiretap allowed you to create your own opinions on issues and had a wide variety of topics I was interested in. Now it’s your turn to decide!

Media Roles

leoratheexplora — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 00:06:49 +0000

The Presidential Election seems to be the most important thing on people’s minds especially with it coming to an exciting end and receiving a new president. Whether you are pro-Obama or pro-McCain there is always that thought of what is the recent news and gossip about each candidate. Well this week for my blog assignment is to monitor this intense election from a media source of my choice and come up with a factual argument following the Toulmin model.
In my opinion most of MSNBC’s various shows have excellent coverage with a wide variety of opinions. Especially when it comes to the coverage of the election which I have watched closely for the past two days on Morning Joe-Decision 08’. Through careful examination of these past two-days I was able to watch several interviews conducted with different officials such as Jay Carney who is “TIME” Washington Bureau Chief and Nancy Pfotenhauer a McCain campaign senior policy advisor. With in these interviews they focused on the candidates dilemmas and struggles to keep votes coming in for themselves. The biggest question and issue discussed was who really can fix the economy and who is really credible and able to get all these necessary jobs done so our country can get back where it needs to be. Throughout the interviews there was a fair amount of factual coverage and opinions being shared. They did not focus on horserace coverage which made it more enjoyable to watch since there are bigger issues involved then who is in the lead. There was also a decent amount of analysis done on each of the candidates so that the interviewee’s had enough information to back up there opinions and stories about the candidates.
Some of the political arguments made were pointed at McCain and how he seems to be all about the “white seniors” and getting them the retirement funds and needs for a better living. Which this statement is true and that he does direct his statements towards the middle and upper Caucasian class of America. This is sad knowing that our world needs someone who can make a true difference with our very diverse society. It will take him a lot more work then to direct everything to the white population since a majority of the votes come from the college students who live in diverse communities and want changes for the greater good of everyone. Another one of the various arguments that up was the question of is Obama credible and able to take on the position of president and run the U.S. successfully. In response to that question you can look at the community for opinions and see that from different results and debates that Obama has a strong group of believers backing him up. He may not have the American background that McCain has but through all the controversies and results of polls, Obama has a strong lead.
Media plays an enormous role in our society because it gives us all the updates and information we need to cover something as big as the election, something so big that can change our world. We need to have essential media coverage that can look at all angles and perspectives not just focus on horse race politics. The need to make educational decisions on such a topic is huge so we need the best of media to provide us with up-to-date information 24 hours a day.
With all of MSNBC’s various political programs there were many political arguments that I missed
when not attending to my two days of research which brings me to my point of this is agruement being based on just the times at which I did my research. In my opinion my research has covered enough information to make this a sufficient argument!

The Start of A New Adventure

leoratheexplora — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 00:10:55 +0000

Over the past year I have had time to really think about what I want to do for the rest of my life, what am I truly interested in studying, and is college really the right thing for me. To this day these questions aren’t fully answered but hopefully through the trial and tribulations of college I can come to a conclusion for all of them. Many options have crossed my mind for possible majors and the one that kept coming back was communications and public relations. That’s when I decided to try a class from that work of study which brought me upon the class of Mass Media and Society. With this class I feel we have to do the impossible which is create a blog. Now for most people this is an easy task but for myself who is technology disabled it is quite a process. The blogesphere seems so complicated but I am hoping that this blog becomes enjoyment instead of a strain.
Over time the time period of this course I will be writing about various issues. Most will be from the political/news aspect but there will also be some personal blogs that will appear. I hope the blogs that I write will become of interest to some but who knows since this thing is like a new piece of technology to me. Personally this whole thing is somewhat intimidating since your putting your opinions on blast for everyone to see and who knows the reactions you will get. I guess that’s the fun part of it….right?
Anyways to complete this blog I might as well talk a little about myself since that is the point of this first blog entry. Like in my about me section I am a freshman attending University of Oregon. I am from Salem so I didn’t move to far from home even though it feels like it sometimes…Currently I work at Victoria Secrets while going to school so I don’t graduate with thousands of dollars of debt and I have also decided to rush for a sorority. So I definitely have my hands full with many different activities but I prefer it this way cause otherwise I would get way to bored around here. Unlike most people I don’t really like the city of Eugene so its taking some time to get use to it. I am hoping to eventually move to either California or New York it’s random but has always been a dream of mine!
Hope this blog didn’t bore you to much but I am excited to share this new experience with all the bloggers and see where this experience takes me!