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(Wednesday, April 25, 2007-)
+9:41 AM]*
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Nowadays, the mass media do not report the news; they make the news. Discuss this with references to recent events.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/3702574.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/3953693.stm
http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/faculty/kellner/essays/911terrorspectaclemedia.pdf
Mass media has also been one of the most powerful of tools for politicians, ever since the beginning of its existence. As the old saying goes, “knowledge is power” thus whoever controls the knowledge of the people, controls the people. Not only in recent years have mass media been manipulating the news that they report. Media manipulation may just been as old as politics itself. Politicians in Queen Anne's England, such as the Tory Robert Harley, were the first to realize the importance of political communication and thus giving rise to the practices such as manipulating news of state affairs to win the people’s hearts.
Without doubt, we live in an age where media manipulation is all around us. From recent events, occurrence that took place in the past few years, we could clearly see that not everything that is reported in our newspapers is true.
One clear example would the ‘democratic’ United States; the corporate news media loyally portray the dominant class ideology both in their reportage and commentary but cleverly gives an impression that they are free and independent. News and issues on the Vietnam in the 1950s to the recent Iraq war have all been twisted and turn to suit the government’s propagandas. The Bush administration have been often suggested to be the good of mankind, while the Iraq, Iran, North Korea and countries that oppose this supposing ‘good’ are labeled as the ‘axis of evil’.
However, I cannot deny that media manipulations in forms of censorships do have their uses and benefits. Some news and footages are just unsuitable to be revealed to the general public. This would be due to various reasons; one would be that the publics’ lack of understanding of the entire issue might lead to widespread of anxiety and misunderstandings. Take for example the recent Virginia Tech mass murder incident; the murderer, Cho Seung-Hui, a South Korean immigrant and Virginia Tech student, whose rambling diatribes and hateful videos were being broadcasting repeatedly on various news agencies, may had just lead to the stereotyping of Asians to be brutal and bloodthirsty monsters. Furthermore, this abusage of the media to broadcast gory images for higher ratings had instead glorified his actions and caused repercussions such as encouraging more of such bloody massacres.
Another instance would be the Al-Qaeda terrorists shooting their own videos of their kidnapping and murdering hostages. Their motive, instead of ransom money, is to be broadcasted to the world, to instill fear and to shake public opinion.
Thus it is important that a balance between truth and ‘cover-ups’ is strike when editors publish their news. Mass media can never simply report the entire truth. There are things that should be kept away to protect the safety and civility of the society but at the same times facts should never be manipulated for personal gains as well. People are entitled to know the truth, while the media’s job is to report the ‘right’ amount of it.
the story ends like this;
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(Thursday, April 12, 2007-)
+11:13 AM]*
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“YouTube has no ethics, it's been created for the sole purpose of entertainment and money.” Do you agree?
I do not think that Youtube has no ethics and is created solely for entertainment and profits. From the origins and brief history of Youtube, we could see that it started off just as a platform for people to share their personal videos. Steve Chen and Chad Hurley, two of the three founders of Youtube told Times magazine that the inspiration for the creation of Youtube from them having difficulties sharing some of their personal videos online. Furthermore, the initial publicity of the website involves netizens posting their ‘homemade’ videos on Youtube to stand a chance of winning attractive prizes. This very fact shows that Youtube was created for people from all walks of life, all over the world to share and provide entertainment with original videos that they made themselves.
I could safely say that even the creators of Youtube did not expected it to grow into a billion dollar worth website where people share controversial videos that entangle their company in countless copyright infringements and even face bans from certain countries. If the initial aims of this website was just ingenuously to provide people with an easy and user-friendly way of sharing their own videos with other for fun and entertainment, how could we possibly accuse such an innovation to be non-ethical? Yes, it may be true that Youtube is created for entertainment, but for money, I quite hard to say so. No one, including its three founders would have thought that their idea would manifest into something worth of billions in such a short period of time. Even if Steve, Chad and Jawed (the other founder) were after profit, they would have very well charge users of Youtube for service.
Ethical or not, Youtube is currently facing many external threats. From lawsuits by Viacom for copyright infringements to accusations of being a bad influence to being ban for insulting the founders of modern Turkey and Thailand’s King, Youtube has certainly painted a repulsive picture for its reputation. But how much of these non-ethical accusations can be directed at the company when 65000 videos are being uploaded daily. No doubt there will be some illicit videos ended up on the web. I not saying that Youtube entirely innocent, however, we must not forget that everything that goes up onto that website originates from the users worldwide. A survey showed that Youtube has about 20 million visitors each month thus maybe just a handful of unlawful people who uploads some morally unsound videos would be enough to tarnish Youtube’s reputation.
What I would like to say here is that, a website that operates on the basics of millions of people worldwide, could not be simply labeled as ethical or non-ethical.
the story ends like this;
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(Wednesday, April 4, 2007-)
+7:06 PM]*
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‘The teenage years are the best years of one’s life.’ Would you agree with this view? (CAMBRIDGE NOV 1994)
Why would I agree that teenage years are the best years of one’s life when I’m mugging at 2.10am trying to churn out this piece of work just to meet the dateline my teacher had set? Yes, yes. I know how some of you out there would say that despite the homework, boring lectures, egoistic teachers, naggy parents and especially those hardcore muggers in school, teenage life wondrous as this is when people start to experience and understand the realities of the world.
Teenage years, a phrase of life that everyone had to experience; going through puberty, experiencing the sweet-bitterness of first love, hanging out late with friends, sitting in front of your computer or television console for hours, defying the orders of your parents, making decisions on your own for the first time, taking up General Paper to know more about the world (much more like how others sees it), the list goes on. Wow! It sure is exciting doing all this things for the first time. And I’m certain it makes you feel finally or at least partially as an individual but not just an extension of your parents’ will. It seems like it is during this stage of life when one learns to take charge of his/her life.
The feeling of being independent, being in control sure is nice isn’t it? But here comes the side effects. As the cliché of our all-time favourite friendly spider comics suggest, “With great power comes great responsibility”, the mere ability to make the many decisions in life was given to every teenager along with a price tag. And written on this price tag, is the word stress. Stress coupled with all the other hormonal changes in the body result in teenagers feeling angst and rebellious, and in turn lead to the so-called ‘emo’ cases. Whereby teens wore black clothing, listen to gloomy and gory music and even self mutilate, justifying these actions as forms of emancipation. Doesn’t all these makes us wonder if the price of growing up is too high?
Then which are the best years of ones life? If the teenage years were bad, adulthood is going to be worst. It is obvious that it is the stage of life when the full responsibility of your life comes weighing on your shoulders and that doesn’t end here. When parenthood comes into the picture, the burden gets heavier and it just keeps adding on. The full fledge of external factors would come crashing right onto you! Paychecks, house loans, bills, medical fees, GST, unemployment, upgrading, your children’s school fees, your unreasonable boss, your self-centered colleagues, your unfriendly neighbours and many many many more. And guess what? The stage that marks the beginning of all these, is our teenage years! Sad to say, but it is God’s and our government’s way of preparing us for the harshness of the life ahead. Am I being too cynical about all this? You may say so but from what I see, these are what almost every adult around me is going through. Alas! The best years of ones life are often gone even without us noticing. As the old saying goes, ignorance is bliss”. But for now naivety will cost us dearly.
the story ends like this;
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