The media

If you have turned on your t.v, radio or used the internet in the past few years its very likely that you have seen or heard someone talk about the "media". What or who is the media exactly and just how do they effect you as a person? The media is not one person or one company the media as it can best be defined is the massive amount of information received and distributed daily all over the world. Anybody can make news and anyone can be a member of the "media". Some people think the media is a very important part of modern society and that we could not function in today's world without it. Others think the media is evil and is always trying to manipulate and persuade the views of people. Both sides of this argument are partially right society would not function the same without the media but whether we would be better off or much much worse is still a matter of discussion. Whether you like the media or not One thing is for sure though the media is a extremely powerful force.Even something small like a independent radio station can change the views of millions and even change the course of history. Just look at the Arab spring that happened last year many of the riots happening in the middle east would have never happened if there was no media to feed the protestors information. While this is a good product of the media there are also many bad ones. Its a well known fact that companies use the media to project there own views and opinions onto a unsuspecting populous. The media controls many things ranging from what fashion the young people think is cool to how American's view their own president. While there will always be people who argue about the media and how it is corrupting our minds if we did not have the media the world would be a much much different place. Only time will tell if that is a good thing or a bad thing.

PowerPoint: Killer app?

This week i decided to do my blog about the article titled "PowerPoint: Killer app?" written by Ruth Marcus. The author of this article makes it very clear in the first paragraph that he is not a fan of power point. He points out a article from Wired magazine that called power point evil. I don't agree with the author on this i think that power point is a good tool to use if you have to do a presentation. Many important people use power point from politicians to NASA.The author brings up the space shuttle "Columbia" incident in which key information was buried in a power point presentation about the wings of the space ship it was hard for them to find the information when they needed it because all of it was in power point presentations. The next part of the article really reaches out to the audience the normal people who use power point everyday. Marcus states that power point has taken over the world even if you try to resist and not use  power point you will always end up needing it in the long run. Its a quick easy way to organize your thoughts and put them in a way that other people can view. The author sets an example about how he was at a astronomy talk and thought it was a perfect opportunity to see pictures of stars and the cosmos but in the end all he got was a boring power point presentation full of information. Its obvious that the author dosent like power point but in the end he admits its better then what we had before like over head projectors. Whether or not power point is a good thing or a bad thing one thing is for sure power point is here to stay. Kids today in school use power point everyday whether in class or doing there own personal projects the next generation will be the known as the power point generation.

Subliminal marketing

Sometimes we all like to sit down and watch some good old fashion TV. We watch out favorite shows unaware of whats really going on in the background. Companies spend millions of dollars each year to market there products to try and get you to buy them. We have all seen commercials on TV trying to get you to buy something you know you don't need. While it may seem stupid for companies to waste money  advertising such dumb products there is a psychological reason for each and every one. Research has shown that the more someone views a certain product the more likely they are to buy it. Lets say you see a commercial on t.v for a product that you know you don't need you see the commercial on TV every day one day months later you see the product in the store and you pick it up on a impulse buy without even thinking about it. A famous example of this was a KFC commercial for a chicken sandwich when you first view the commercial it just seems like a chicken sandwich but it you look closer at the sandwich you will see that they secretly placed a dollar bill in the lettuce. Every time you see a dollar they hope that you will sub-consciously think about the chicken sandwich. Its scary when you think about it, who knows what kind of messages we are getting every day when we watch t.v or when we use the internet. While subliminal advertising is legal many people have questions weather it should be. It affects you in a sub conscious way many times without you even noticing it. Is this what t.v is going to turn into? a bunch of adds shown to you in a sub conscious way? only time can tell.

Censoring science won't make us any safer

Do you like milk? To bad because apparently terrorist can now poison your milk with simple ingredients you can find in any science text book or magazine although there has never been any record biological attacks in this manner the U.S department of health and human services has taken every step possible to suppress scientific information that they deem to dangerous for the public. The author of this article Laura Donohue states that the government is not releasing impotent scientific information out into the public because they fear that terrorist will use the information against us. There have been many articles over the years about biological weapons and there dangers but they did not seem very important until 2001 when we had the anthrax scares and soon after 9/11.The government soon issued regulations about what scientist could and could not publish and required many scientist to succumb to security clearances within the government. The author of the article does not like all of these restrictions and states that because we are able to publish our scientific findings we are able to work together as a global community to help find cures for certain diseases. Were do we draw the line about what we can and cannot publish the scientific field is so large and there are so many disease that can kill us how do we know if censoring scientific studies is helping our hindering us. The author says that if someone was to use biological weapons the only way we could stop them would be to stay one step ahead of them which simply is not  possible if we keep censoring scientific studies.

Is health care a right?

This article is a very controversial one it was written by Maggie Mahar who is a contributor to "The health care blog". one the main idea's of this article is arguing whether health care should be considered a privilege or a right. The author brings up many valid points about the flaws of the health care system and why some if it works and other parts are broken. The author states that low-income Americans are more likely to be obese, smoke and abuse drugs and self medicate which is a major reason why the poor are sicker then everyone else . Simply put it is expensive to keep a healthy lifestyle. There a 2 very different very radical sides in this argument. Many people think that it is our responsibility to take care of the poor and impoverish people in America. The problem with this is some people take advantage of others good hospitality and abuse the system. The other side of the argument are people who believe that you should work for your own health care and you should not wait for handouts.The Mrs.Maggie believes that you should work for your own healthcare but if you need a handout its OK as long as you don't abuse the system. She made a very compelling argument about her views of the current health care system and does not believe in either of the extremes she prefers the middle ground. I agree with her for the most part i think that we should not just hand out health care to everyone just because they are poor you need to work for it but i do believe that if you desperately need it there is no reason we should withhold it from anyone based on how much money they make. There is no right answer to big questions like this different people have different opinions on everything. The only thing we can do as a modern community is try to find a medium that will please both sides while still being able to help as many people who need health care as possible.

First Amendment Rights

For my first blogger post i decided to write about "Why the first amendment (and journalism) Might be in trouble" in chapter 19. I think this is a fitting topic because this assignment and blogger itself go hand and hand with this issue. They did a survey of current 9th-12th grade students in over 900 different schools and found out that over 50% of them thought the government should monitor and regulate what we put into our newspapers. This is troubling news because these kids are the future of America and half of them don't believe in the very first amendment that this country was built upon the first amendment and the freedom of speech.

Its really troubling to me when i see things like this people taking their freedom of speech for granted.it seems these days. Another survey given to high school kids states that 32% of them think that the first amendment gives to much freedom and 79% of then thought that flag burning was illegal. While i don't support flag burning and i don't support anyone who has the nerve to do it I think it should be protected under the 1st amendment. To tie this in with recent events think about the occupy movement that is happening all around America right now. People are gathering together and showing the government and big businesses that they are mad and they wont take it anymore. The government cant do anything about it because the protesters are protected by the first amendment like they should be if there was no first amendment none of this would be happening.

This article also reminds me of a story that i read on a news site one day. A woman who wrote in a blog daily about the news and what had been happening in the world somehow came across some leaked information about something going on in the government so she decided to post it in her blog. The government immediately shut down her blog and took her to jail and gave her over a million dollars in fines. The reason this was such a hot subject is because if this info had been posted on any other news site nothing would have happened because they are protected by the first amendment but that brings up the question what can be considered a legitimate news site? She was doing the same thing as any other news site but she somehow wasent "Official" This is were the first amendment gets fuzzy should this woman have been protected by the first amendment? I personally think that she should independent news is sometimes the only way to get info on whats really going on what better way to hear a story then from a person who was personally there. The government should not step in and shut someone down like they did this lady just because they write something unflattering about them. All people and all sources of news media should be protected under the first amendment.