Mass communication has come such a long way in the past ten years. This makes it difficult to predict how much further it will go in the next ten years. New forms of media are sure to develop and compete with the mediums that we have today. There will always be a struggle between old and new forms of technology. The biggest battle in music distribution used to be between eight tracks and cassettes. Now both of these technologies are nearly obsolete and itunes battle it out with cds and other media players.

 Two things will remain part of mass media are controversies and specialization.

There will always be material that could be offensive to someone in the media. Despite this fact the media will always push the limits of acceptable representation further and further. I believe that nearly everything will be represented in some way in the media in the future; even taboo ideas will become more accepted because wider spread communications will expose more people to these ideas.

 Also with the future media will continue to become more and more specialized. People like to be part of a small elite society also known as a niche society. With more and more media outlets catering to these small groups society will continue forming them. Instead of being able to relate to everyone and have those water cooler conversations at work about the latest TV shows or events, people are able to find people that have the same interests as themselves and they are able to relate to people oceans away. Another thing that will be perpetuated in the future is the idea of a globally connected world. Everyone throughout the world will be connected in some way. I believe that it will become the norm for cultures across the globe to become more unified though internet connections. Someday internet connection may replace intra person interactions, but as we saw in class that one day, virtual class rooms have as many benefits as they do draw backs. Technology of the future will allow a message to be intercepted by more and more people then ever before. This means that the people sending the message will be reaching a greater audience and they will have to think about what the effects of what they are saying will have on a huge, vastly different audience.  

What is news? This question has different answers for different people. For some people news might be the latest political updates, for others it might be intacountry relations, for others still it could be some odd or bizarre piece of trivial news, and for others still news could be the fact that Kid Rock get into a brawl at a waffle house (what a random place to start a fight!). News has different connotations for different people. So with that in mind I set out to find a news story that was completely not newsworthy. I had difficulties finding a story that wasn’t news to any one. I found political news stories, that some people might push aside faster then soggy corn flakes on a November morning. Yet they are still news because they have an effect on a wide audience. I found stories about Lindsey Lohan’s drug problem, is this newsworthy? To some people yes, they like to vicariously live through celebrities and knowing one more piece of trivial information about a movie/rock star (both of which do not refer to Lindsey in any way shape or form) helps them to feel how the star feels. 

With such a wide audience for news, I can understand why specialized news sources have evolved, this allows people to see the news that they care about, and then they don’t have to deal with the information that’s not important to them. Its hard to classify something as completely not news worthy though. I think the newsworthlyness of an event defiantly depends on location, and closeness of the story. People care about the things that are happening around them, however this makes me wonder how such headlines break nationally. Something that happened on a small town in Idaho is not news to me.

However trivial, useless stories make it into the news, they will continue to remain there until the demand for them ceases, and that’s unlikely to happen any time soon. People like to know things that are interesting to them, and people as a whole are interested in practically everything!

Monday’s class period was quite interesting indeed. I would have never expected to enter a classroom and then have less then a dozen words uttered the entire class period. That was probably one of the quietest classes I have ever attended, minus the frantic sounds of typing that spread through out the room. The first time everyone had to answer a question the clicking of keys was quite intimidating; actually the whole experience was slightly intimidating. Though the class was fun, its kind of a novelty way to have class, I wouldn’t want to do it on a daily basis. I like to hear what other people have to say, and by listening to them it allows time for what they are saying to really sink in. The chat room was a little too fast paced for me, I was frantically trying to read every line I couldn’t look away with out missing anything, and I didn’t want to miss a thing. It didn’t help that I mysteriously got kicked out of the chat room more then a few times. And since so many people were answering at once it was hard to keep up with the conversation, I found I was less likely to speak up in the chat room then I would have in a normal class period. By the time I came up with a comment, someone else had already said it or the topic had changed. I would do that again for the entertainment value of it, but not for the learning experience.

Sometimes people take the internet for granted and this was proven when some people had to go into the library and find the answers to 2 questions with out using the internet. It took them a while to find the information. While in class we found the answers in 40 seconds flat and then we were able to discuss more important issues such as Pokemon and how to abuse each other via private chat.

One thing’s for sure, I could never live a day without the internet. =)*

Story from Fox News 

 Paul Quinn College of Dallas Texas started their school year off with drastic changes. They are implementing a dress code that will prevent students from wearing excessively baggy pants among other articles of clothing that are overly revealing. The school wants the students to dress more professionally in order to prepare them for working life after college. The school wants the students to be learning both inside and outside of the classroom. The strict dress code forbids students from leaving their dorms in jeans, sneakers, flip flops, pj pants, shorts sweatshirts and shirts without collars. It prevents teachers from seeing their students in a demoralizing state, such as possibly in their pj’s. 

At first many of the students reacted with shock and anger. They didn’t want to be told what they could and couldn’t wear on a daily basis. The students felt their clothing choices were an expression of themselves and they felt violated. However after both the school and the students gained positive attention for dressing professionally, the students began to accept their new code of dress. The president of the school said that the students are in the business of education and they should dress accordingly. 

I’m glad, well greater then glad, glad doesn’t even begin to cover my happiness that that this dress code doesn’t exist at LVC, I, like most college students like to wear my flip flops and hoodies on occasion for comfort and connivance. Though on occasion it is nice to see my peers dressed up, its even better to see how they choose to express themselves on any given day. I think an occasional dress code would be beneficial to our school. Some times people have to dress up, so they are used to this, drastic change in clothing and they can get confidence and be ready for any situation, but then again not everyone will have a suit and tie kind of job, so not everyone needs to train to wear that daily.

See the full dress code here.

here’s the story

A 15 year old girl was resisting arrest and after being told to cooperate more then twenty times the arresting officer sprayed pepper spray into the girl’s face. Though pepper spraying a young girl in the face may seem a little extreme, this police officer was justified in his actions. He kept warning the girl that if she didn’t cooperate he would have to use force; she kept resisting and she even bit the officer’s hand. The officer then did what he had to do, to get her arms behind her back and cuffed. She should have obeyed what the cop was telling her to do. When you’re under arrest you’re under arrest, and it’s in your best interest to comply with the authority that is arresting you.

Should she have been more obedient towards the cop? Should the cop have used more force? This situation reminds me of a young child who refuses to comply to their parents’ wishes. Sometimes force is completely necessary. And in the case of this 15 year old girl, force was completely necessary. The girl was resisting for a period of time, and the cop was totally justified with pepper spraying her. He remained calm and was as kind as an arresting officer can be to the person he’s trying to arrest. More cops should be better trained to remain calm in frustrating situations, maybe if they did, less police shootings would occur.

On Tuesday October 2, photos were released from an Alma Brown Elementary School, lesson that went to the extreme. Teachers at this school wanted to hold a nonviolent demonstration to teach their students about racism. The pictures depicted children with nooses around their necks, and others depicted the children bound with chains.

The teachers didn’t have permission from the school, and they held the activity at recess.

There is no reason that the teachers should have ever taken the lesson to this extreme. This lesson would be hard to handle for anyone, especially young children. If the teachers were teaching about racism, why would they bring that upon their students to some extent. A noose is a great symbol of shame and the teachers should have never made the students wear it. There are other ways of teaching about racism, this is not an instance where the hands on approach is appropriate.

If the children truly understood what a noose was, they might have been a lot more upset. I don’t think they would have fully understood, what these were used for. This might have been a joke or a game to them, preventing their true understanding of what happened during the slavery period. And if the students truly did understand, they might have been frightened and possibly ashamed of their heritage.

One of the teachers got put on leave. This isn’t drastic enough. No person should ever bring such a racist act to children.

The parents have every right to be outraged. This is a controversial lesson that the parents should have know about before hand. Many parents probably wouldn’t have wanted to expose their kids to something like this. This could be a lawsuit. Even in high school we had to get permission to talk about controversial topics. That was just talking. Actually putting a noose on a child’s neck is far too extreme!!

here’s the story.

heres the story

Along with censorship of images, another important issue dealing with images is ownership of an image.  Once a photo is placed into the virtual world, the lines of ownership are often blurred and almost nonexistent. After an image hits the internet, anyone and everyone has access to it. You wouldn’t want to post images online that you wouldn’t want your grandmother to see. This was an issue this past summer with Miss. America. She had posted images on her myspace of her partying with her friends. The media claimed that she was being shown in an indecent manor. Ohh the scandal.

Though Allison Chang of Bedford Texas wasn’t caught up in a picture scandal she is having her own issues with the online publication of pictures. She was photographed by one of her friends at a church gathering. After that gathering her friend then posted her picture on the photo site Flickr.com Months later, her picture managed to wind up as a Virgin Phone company ad in Australia.

The Virgin company did not have Chang’s consent to use her image, nor did they get the consent of her family. The ads had taglines such as “Dump you pen friend”  and “Free text virgin to virgin” which Chang and her family found offensive. They are suing Virgin to have the images removed from the ads.

They are completely justified in what they are doing. Though the picture was part of the public domain according to the copy right laws set up by flicker, there are privacy rights that protect Allison Chang’s image from being used with out her consent.

They shouldn’t have just used her image with out asking her first. It makes the company seem desperate for images to use in ads. Were they so desperate that while searching the web one night came across the image of a girl giving a peace sign  on a personal site that they immediately used it for their newest ad campaign? That’s slightly creepy and stalkerish.

If Virgin really wanted this image so much they could have spent the time and the money to recreate the picture with someone who wants their fifteen minutes of fame. There are plenty of people willing to hold up their hand and smile for a picture if it means seeing their face everywhere. Allison Chang didn’t want fame, and she shouldn’t have been forced to have to see her face hanging everywhere.

As the old saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. Is it possible for words to ever amount to the impact of a picture? I don’t believe that they can.

Images, of war especially, are able to illustrate what cannot be put into words. Even the best writers in the world cannot completely capture every emotion that photographic images can capture. People are visual creatures by nature, and pictures often make something more real then words ever could. When you come face to face with someone who’s struggling you can empathize with them more when you can see the pain in their eyes. Images such as this one allow readers to see the internal and external struggles that this solider is facing, pushing his struggles into his face and forcing you to understand.

Images are pushier then words could ever be. Its possible to stop reading if something offends you, however once you look at a picture, you’ve seen its story and its impossible to forget it. Pictures offer the greatest amount of emotional impact that cannot be conveyed in any other imaginable way. Pictures make things real. Seeing is believing after all.