Awareness
Bad Relations
By Sara Newman on 10/16/2009
Category: Assessment, Awareness
It's the classic power struggle of the mass communications industry. Journalism versus public relations; two businesses who are pretty much opposites of each other. Public Relations puts out one kind of image about a person, company, idea or product. Journalists put out the truth about a person, company, idea or product, whether it's kind or uncomfortable or positive or negative. MORE »
- Permalink
- Comment
Niche Journalism
By Bryan Berlin on 10/09/2009
Category: Awareness
I was talking to my friend on AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) the other night when suddenly the Internet stopped working. Or at least I thought it was the Internet. Moments later my friend called up telling me he got kicked off AIM. That's when I realized I had not lost Internet, but just AIM. MORE »
An American Love Affair: Porn & Media
By Eric Ivanov on 09/30/2009
Category: Awareness
Porn is multi-billion dollar industry. Americans produce an overwhelming amount of the pornographic content that exists in the world. It has been around since the dawn of time, and now more than ever the media is playing a big part. MORE »
Ethics: When Being a Journalist Meets Being a Human
By Sara Newman on 09/24/2009
Category: Assessment, Awareness
No one knows what Lance Cpl. Joshua "Bernie" Bernard's thoughts were when he died from being struck by a grenade while in an ambush in Afghanistan on Aug. 14. Is it possible that he would have wanted his death to be told to the world in an effort to show the reality and brutality U.S. troops have faced over the past eight years of war? Associated Press photographer, Julie Jacobson, felt a duty to photograph the 21-year-old lying on the ground with severe leg injuries; his fellow Marines tending to him. Against Bernard's family's wishes, the AP distributed the photo MORE »
This Is Off The Record! Maybe its not...
By Eric Ivanov on 09/23/2009
Category: Awareness
Are we off the air? No? What about off the Record? No to that too? It seems like no matter where we are in this world people are always listening and have the ability to record and report every word you utter, and every gesture you make. MORE »
Manipulating History Through Analogy
By Phil Robibero on 09/04/2009
Category: Assessment, Awareness
In 1990 author Mike Godwin, coined the the satirical term Godwin's law which states "As a Usenet discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches". His prediction could have never been more accurate. MORE »
Silent Censorship
By Eric Ivanov on 09/02/2009
Category: Awareness
Everyone is worried about the government taking control of the media, and making it a mouthpiece of the president. Hate to pop the conspiracy theorist's balloon, but that is the last thing that will happen. They are missing the amazing things that are happening right in front of them. Individual media companies are censoring themselves and not even trying to hide it. MORE »
Do Americans Have To Give Up Privacy For Protection?
By Michelle Giametta on 08/31/2009
Category: Access, Action, Awareness
The anniversary of September 11th is right around the corner and even though Americans have not experienced a terrorist attack in the eight years since then it is important that Americans stay ahead of the game to keep this nation safe. This past spring, Senator Rockefeller (D) and Senator Snowe (R) introduced legislation, The Cybersecurity Act of 2009, which is meant to protect the country against cyber attacks. An April 1st press release on Senator Rockefeller's official website stated that, "The Rockefeller-Snowe initiative will carve a course for our country to embrace a 21st century national security policy that will MORE »
Boycotts or Censorship?
By Michelle Giametta on 08/24/2009
Category: Action, Assessment, Awareness
Boycotts once used as instruments of peaceful protest designed to put pressure on public and private entities to change policies for social good have morphed into weapons used by groups of people to silence, intimidate and destroy people with differing ideological views. Martin Luther King led the infamous Montgomery Bus Boycott when they arrested Rosa Parks for sitting down and not offering her seat to a white passenger. Blacks refused to ride the buses for over a year until they were given their rights. This boycott put enough economic pressure on the buses and community that they were forced to MORE »
Protests: Pictures Painted By The Media
By Eric Ivanov on 08/19/2009
Category: Awareness
Only a year ago there were pictures circulating of protesters at political gatherings. They ranged from signs that read "F@#% Bush," "Bush is a Nazi," and "Bush is the Devil." During some of the protests there were figures of Bush burning at the stake or being hanged. Now there are pictures going around the world of people protesting Barack Obama and his policies. The pictures ranging from "Obama Lies, Grandma Dies," "Obama is a Racist," and "Obama Bin Laden." I guess things just don't change. That was true until the media decided to try their hand at art and paint MORE »
Freedom of Speech
By Michelle Giametta on 08/10/2009
Category: Assessment, Awareness
Last time I checked, freedom of speech and the right to protest were two very fundamental rights for American citizens. So why is it that when a photo surfaced depicting President Obama as the Joker, a villain from the infamous Batman movies, there was so much public outrage? While it may be distasteful and disrespectful to portray the president of the United States in such an evil light, there is no law against doing so. Besides, where was all of this public outcry when President Bush was portrayed as this very same villain? Since when do we condemn Americans or MORE »
Jon Stewart: The Most Trusted Man in News
By Michelle Giametta on 08/02/2009
Category: Access, Appreciation, Awareness
It seems fitting that during a time of serious economic turmoil and war people would rather laugh at the news than be depressed by the gruesome reality of it all. It's way more entertaining to poke fun at political officials and events than it is to sit down and watch a panel of commentators discuss the latest breaking news story. In a recent poll done by Times Magazine, 44% of a total 9,409 people polled said that comedian Jon Stewart is America's most trusted newscaster now that Walter Cronkite has passed on- beating out veteran news anchors such as Brian MORE »
Chubbies Need Not Apply
By Michelle Giametta on 07/27/2009
Category: Assessment, Awareness
To be fat or not to be fat? That is the question... Or is it? Dr. Regina Benjamin has been under fire ever since President Obama named her as his pick for the next Surgeon General. "Critics and supporters across the blogsphere have commented on photos of Benjamin's round cheeks, saying she sends the wrong message as the public face of America's health initiatives." Since obesity is a growing epidemic in the United States, is it appropriate to discount Dr. Benjamin as a credible Surgeon General because of her weight? Is it wise for Americans to place so much importance MORE »
Is Corporate Media Breaking the First Amendment?
By Doria Montfort on 07/16/2009
Category: Assessment, Awareness
The First amendment was ratified to protect the freedom of press and preserve the masses from the oppressive governmental control and sociopolitical manipulation that often results from the mass reception of important information from a single source. However, with the current press controlled and funded by giants not limited to News Corp., Viacom, and AOL/Time-Warner, it seems reasonable to evaluate how much freedom actually exists in the press. MORE »
Cyberattacks: America's Looming Threat
By Michelle Giametta on 07/13/2009
Category: Access, Awareness
Since 9/11 America and its allies have been on high alert, constantly looking for signs to prevent another terrorist attack. However, while the threat of a physical attack is always present, another kind of attack is looming just below the surface- cyberattacks. Hacking into or shutting down government websites for a significant period of time could be crippling for the United States and could leave Americans in an extremely vulnerable state. MORE »
Turn It up to Eleven
By Phil Robibero on 07/09/2009
Category: Assessment, Awareness
During the medevil times a blasphemous attack towards the crown would have cost you more than an arm and a leg. Subversion was suppressed by an iron grip and free speech was a privilege rather than a right. As technology advanced so did the level and range of discourse. Leaders came out of the woodwork and sparked revolutions. With them they took the voice of the people to the door step of the deities and in the end those who were in power had no choice but to concede to our right to free speech. MORE »
Polticial Children: Another Casualty in the War of Politics
By Michelle Giametta on 07/06/2009
Category: Access, Assessment, Awareness
There seems to be an almost unanimous understanding that making fun of or bashing the children of political candidates and/or officials is off limits and when done is often distasteful and uncalled for. Growing up under the media microscope can be extremely tough for young children. That is why a majority of the public is sympathetic to President Obama and his wife Michelle in their efforts to shield their young children from the brutal reality of the press. MORE »
Iran's Twitter Revolution
By Michelle Giametta on 06/29/2009
Category: Appreciation, Awareness
In a recent Daily News article Helen Kennedy reports that, "The [Iran] regime is under threat after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won a suspiciously huge landslide in the June 12 election, sparking accusations of vote rigging and days of mass protests." Since the election the people of Iran have been vehemently protesting and demanding a recount. MORE »
The Importance of Media Literacy
By Doria Montfort on 06/25/2009
Category: Access, Awareness
Before the protestant reformation and the invention of the printing press, feudal control and religious corruption kept information very tightly sealed through dictating who could receive education. Without the ability to critically analyze the information being presented to them, illiterate peasants could not distinguish mental nutrients from poisons and they only received controlled amounts of both from those who could interpret Latin MORE »
Wasting away in Marga-Uighur-ville
By Michelle Giametta on 06/22/2009
Category: Awareness
Closing down Guantánamo Bay may have sounded like a good idea to Democrats and the Obama Administration during the 2008 presidential campaign, but now it seems more like a headache to the Obama Administration than anything else. A recent article by CNNPolitics.com addresses this very issue, "President Obama has pledged to close the Guantanamo facility, raising questions of what will happen to the more than 200 remaining detainees. A political backlash against bringing any of the detainees to the United States has increased the focus on sending them to other countries." MORE »
Photoshop and its Ethical Implications
By Kirsten Boye on 06/19/2009
Category: Awareness
Lately a piece of software has gained quite a bit of publicity, this program is called Adobe Photoshop. Photoshop is a graphics design program that can easily manipulate images. It is used in many media production venues and has become a widely used program, from amateurs to professionals. However with its constantly increasing popularity it has also been used in questionable ways. MORE »
Aaaauutttttooooo-TttuuuUnnnee
By Nickolas Weingartner on 06/18/2009
Category: Appreciation, Assessment, Awareness
Last February at the Grammys, indie rock outfit Death Cab for Cutie sported blue ribbons in order to "raise awareness of auto-tune". This was probably the first time that the ribbon method has been used to raise awareness about anything other than disease (discount the "bringing our soldiers home" ribbons which don't seem to work). MORE »
Media Violence: Has Television Crossed the Line?
By Michelle Giametta on 06/15/2009
Category: Assessment, Awareness
In today's media environment notions of violence, sex and money seem to have saturated our television programming. The rampant use of this kind of risqué content is crucial for the survival of most, if not all, television programs. If networks desire to stay on top they have to be able to compete with all of the other explicit television programs already out there. What does this violent and rated-R content mean for the youth of America? MORE »
The Information Nation: Population - 6.5 Billion
By Eric Ivanov on 06/10/2009
Category: Awareness
No matter what happens today there will always be flag waving nationalists that support anything their country does, and we will still be stuck with the tie-dye wearing hippies. In the ever connected world we live in today there is an expanding gray area, because information is extremely easy to find and consume. MORE »
Will Jon and Kate + 8 meet their fate?
By Michelle Giametta on 06/08/2009
Category: Action, Assessment, Awareness
For weeks now we have read countless articles and seen numerous pictures of the infamous "Jon and Kate + 8" splashed all over magazines and tabloids, television and even radio. Like all other celebrity drama, the media has taken this scandal and have run with it. Did Jon cheat on Kate? Is Jon and Kate's relationship over? Will there be another season? MORE »
Chevron and the Amazon
By Phil Robibero on 06/05/2009
Category: Awareness
When you think "oil", the Amazon Forest doesn't really seem to come to mind (Cheney more so). But these days oil giant, Chevron, can't stop thinking about the Amazon. No, it's not their seemingly genuine clean energy initiative, rather there is a public relations debacle over ten years in the making rising from the jungle. While Chevron might blow past ordinary bad press and still procure significant profits, this story is carrying a hefty price tag. For Chevron, now more than ever, image is everything. MORE »
Is Youtube Becoming the New Napster?
By Nickolas Weingartner on 06/02/2009
Category: Assessment, Awareness
What's a music video without music? Well, just visit YouTube and you'll find out soon enough. Masses of music videos, both fan-made and legitimate, have recently been exiled from YouTube, due to a step up in copyright infringement laws. They have either been taken down entirely, or strangely muted, leaving only a silent slideshow of pictures or people dancing to an invisible beat. MORE »
Media to the Rescue
By Michelle Giametta on 05/31/2009
Category: Appreciation, Awareness
Thirty years ago on May 25, 1979 a little boy named Etan Patz went missing. To me and to most of my generation the name Etan Patz means nothing even though his disappearance profoundly affected our generation. Six year old Etan Patz begged his parents for permission to walk by himself to his bus stop. If you ask anyone in their 20's about their childhood, you will get the usual description of playdates, supervised playtime, organized activities and an overabundant amount of warnings about strangers. But, if you ask people in their mid-thirties, you would get an entirely different recollection MORE »
Image Copyright vs. New Art
By Danielle Newman on 05/28/2009
Category: Awareness
The enemy of art is indifference," says Shepard Fairey, the popular street artist currently in a tiff with the Associated Press over their 2006 photo of President Barack Obama. Fairey's creative interpretation of the image, which he found online during a Google image search, has become one of the most well recognized photos of 2008. The poster itself is very similar to the AP's photo, copying Obama's posture and expression almost identically, though the dynamics, hue, mood and the intention of the original photo have been completely transformed, creating what is arguably a new work of art. MORE »
The Power of Words
By Michelle Giametta on 05/25/2009
Category: Awareness
"Estate tax" or "Death Tax?" "Global Warming" or "Climate Change?" "Freedom Fighter" or "Terrorist?" No matter how you word the issue at hand, it's still the same thing. Politicians use the power of words to their advantage to try and make their ideas and beliefs more appealing to the public. Manipulating the way we talk about an issue has become the new way to rebrand the old issues. Political parties, administrations and politicians change the wording of a particular issue or event to get the public to fall more in line with their beliefs. MORE »
IFC Media Project/Make Media Matter Chicago Event
By William Weinand on 05/22/2009
Category: Action, Appreciation, Awareness
On Thursday, May 21st 2009, IFC brought together one of the country's top investigative reporters with Chicago's media leaders to delve into the sustainability and future of journalism in the Windy City. In a rare event, the top editors of both the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun Times appeared together to discuss what lies ahead for the two bankrupt newspapers. The event took place at the Newbury Library in downtown Chicago. MORE »
Journalists vs. Commentators & Comedians
By Eric Ivanov on 05/20/2009
Category: Awareness
We know who they are and what they do. TV personalities like John Stewart, Bill O'Reilly, Glenn Beck, and Steven Colbert say they are in the entertainment industry, but the question is: Are they just commentators and comedians, or do they have a responsibility to the public interest? They talk about things from politics to social issues, making points and broadcasting their opinions to millions of people across the nation. MORE »
1 new friend request!
By Michelle Giametta on 05/18/2009
Category: Awareness
In the health section of a recent New York Times article, "Harvard researchers reported that strong social ties could promote brain health as we age." According to the article, the importance of friendship is often underestimated as it pertains to our "psychological well-being." The way in which we communicate with one another has drastically changed in the last five years or so with the explosion of social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace and more recently Twitter. MORE »
The Swine Flu Scare: A Product of The Media
By Eric Ivanov on 05/15/2009
Category: Awareness
It's happened again; Swine Flu. It was recently discovered that the Swine Flu was not as deadly as people first thought. A sickness that has only infected a few thousand people worldwide has sparked a panic that reached across the globe, form Mexico where the first death occurred, to China where Mexican travelers were quarantined, then to the Egypt where thousands of pigs were killed thinking it would stop the spread of Swine Flu. MORE »
The Reality behind Reality TV
By Michelle Giametta on 05/11/2009
Category: Awareness
"Reality television is a genre of television programming which presents purportedly unscripted dramatic or humorous situations, documents actual events, and usually features ordinary people instead of professional actors" according to wiki-definitions. Notice the subtle choice of words inside this definition of reality television, such as "purportedly unscripted" or "usually features..." Is Flava Flav really falling in love on VH1's celeb-reality hit Flavor of Love 1 , 2 and 3? Does he really feel "unscripted" in front of the camera? As the public watches, what do they think of all the exaggerated name calling, aggression, and emotional drama? MORE »
IFC's Media Project: Can the Truth Set Us Free?
By Phil Robibero on 05/05/2009
Category: Awareness
It's no secret; America is disinterested in international news. But, when we do exhibit a passing interest in world events, the media almost always concentrates on the pro-American side of the picture. The new season of IFC's "The Media Project" tackles this issue head on. From conflicts in Gaza to Georgia, The Media Project, hosted by award-winning journalist Gideon Yago, presents the other side of the story in an attempt to expose the often limited perspectives we see in the United States. MORE »
ACCESS
