i am seeing words...

Media is not corrupting our society.

2007-05-22T22:18:00.000+08:00

The main reason why people feel that the media corrupts our society is due to our disgust and anger in its displays of violence and pornography, which are often accused of corrupting the minds of children and the young.

However, they fail to even clearly state the form in which the media corrupts the public. Some people feel that media’s corruption is more in the form of violence, killing and massacre. Others may see pornography as a greater form of corruption. Political party members may even claim corruption as the dissemination of information that do not adhere to their political aims, such as introducing communism in a democratic state or vice versa. With such a poor definition of the way in which media corrupts society, we can never be certain about what in the media is corrupting. What appears to be corrupting to one person may be seen as by another as a way to a way in educating the people of the harsh realities of life.

Furthermore, the media is not necessarily the one responsible for the corruption of society. Ironically, it is actually the changing of opinions and the creation of a more "open" society that has caused this "corruption". As more people in the world become more open to new trends and practices, the control over the media has also loosened. There is an increasing airing of shows and movies on violence, bloodshed and gore such as SAW and Texas Chainsaw Massacre, which actually enjoyed large viewership. The very fact that there is an increasing demand for such shows means that society is actually encouraging the airing of such shows. This brings about the controversial question: is it the society or the media that is corrupting?

The actual fact is that the decline of morality in the society has caused the decline of media morality and it is not the other way round. Furthermore, the statistics obtained from a survey entitled "Shooting the Messenger: Why Censorship Won't Stop Violence" have demonstrated that while research indicates numerous causes for violence, none of them link directly to media violence.

"When violent crimes hit the headlines, people want to lash out at something, anything, and assign blame," said David Horowitz, Executive Director of the Media Coalition. "The media is too often that something, even though, as our report found, there is no causal link between the violent content in the media and real violence."

While the accessibility to violence depicted in various forms of the media, such as books, magazines, movies, music, TV and video games have risen during the 1990s, violent crime has, instead, fallen to its lowest level in nearly 30 years.

The survey also notes that even research linking media with violent content to an increase in aggressive play, such as children's wrestling, as opposed to actual violence, is contradictory.

It should also be considered that television viewers are watching out of their own accord. They have a choice of whether or not to watch. If someone feels that a program has inappropriate content, he can simply change the channel or shut off the television. It is ridiculous to accuse the media of corrupting society when people can fix the problem by this simple act of discretion, assuming they themselves are not corrupt. If we were to ignore the fact that the media is not an entity independent of human control and treat it as another being with the ability to corrupt, then the situation can be seen as a willing speaker conveying ideas to a willing listener, the keyword in this case being "willing". Is the speaker at fault for speaking, even though the listener has a choice that can be easily exercised to not listen to the speaker? Or should be listener be blamed instead, for actively listening so that he may be corrupted by the ideals put forward by the speaker?

Furthermore, most people blame the mass media for the increasingly violent nature of the society, which contributes to the corruption of our children. We believe that the media are not the sole or even the primary cause of those problems. Blaming media for changes in childhood and social problems has shifted our public conversation away from addressing the real problems that impact child’s lives.

The main reason is that politicians are using the media rather than budgeting the money to address these problems. Lower-income people ‘have more experiences with the reality of problems like violence’; they know the media are not a big part of the equation in their struggles to keep their children safe in troubled communities

Media does not reach children in a vacuum. Children process the messages they receive in the context of their value systems. By giving children the tools they need to understand what they are seeing and hearing, parents can help their children absorb a wide range of media and messages consistent with the positive values taught by parents, teachers and peers.

In conclusion, we have to note that the very idea of "media” is formed by the society. Thus, how is it that the knife is blamed for the murderer’s deed?

Mass media and censorship

2007-05-16T21:49:00.000+08:00

First of all, let me define censorship to start off the essay. Censorship is the removal and withholding of information from the public by a controlling group or body. It is usually used by government, religious groups, or the mass media to cover up some facts. In my opinion, I feel that there is a need for censorship in mass media to protect our society and not teach them the wrong life values.

Censorship is essential in a country as it filters out unnecessary and harmful information especially information on the government to the society. Hence, the society will not be split into different groups with each believing a different point of view. With the country being divided, there is a high possibility of conflicts surfacing and hence the country being united.

Censorship also stops the spreading of wrong moral values to the society. For example, movies that contain excessive violence have movie ratings that disallowed children to watch. This is because they are still young and are easily influenced by the movies and thus inculcating the wrong values in them. As they get older, they have the mind to differentiate what is right and wrong. Therefore, they are allowed to watch the movies as they all have their own stand.

However, censorship is not as effective as last time in the past as the world is getting more globalised. This has caused information to be spread around more easily and hence censorship is not able to fully withhold any information from the society anymore. Also with the advancement of technology, people can obtain information more easily through the usage of internet.

In conclusion, I feel that censorship is essential in the country as it protect the society from harmful information that can split the society into different groups. It also protects the children from learning the wrong life values and grow them into useful people that will contribute to the society.

Links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship

http://www.scils.rutgers.edu/~kvander/censorship.html

The media is corrupting our society. Do you agree?

2007-05-09T21:27:00.000+08:00

The media is indeed corrupting our society. It provides us with inaccurate information or unsuitable information that influences us in the negative way. In this essay, I will show how the media has corrupted us in our daily life.

One main way where the media has corrupted us is the censorship that they employ. The initial purpose of censorship is to filter out information that is harmful to the society. Now the aim of it has changed drastically. It has become to influence the society with false information. The media conceal the truth from the society when they are in a disadvantage to report it and even create facts to cover it up. One example will be that the media favors the government and it only report good quality things about it and hide the bad things. In the case of the where the Vietnam veterans exposed the “real” Lt. Kerry, the media attacked them as “liars” to protect their own interests.

The media also uses propaganda to corrupt the society. It changes the mindset of the people and instill in them the way of thinking that it thinks that they should have. It is done by editing the information or creating false information. As a result, the society believes everything the media reports and they follow blindly. One example will be the case in Iran where the media favors Western programming over traditional religious content and it has caused much unhappiness from the people there. It has influenced the Iranians to follow the western culture rather than their own traditional culture.

In conclusion, the media is corrupting our society. The society has relied too much on the media for information and hence they are being corrupted by it without even realizing it.

Sources:

http://www.globalethics.org/newsline/members/issue.tmpl?articleid=03190020145571

http://www.sauer-thompson.com/archives/opinion/2006/05/media_corruptio.php

http://www.ahherald.com/bishop/2004/gb041014_media_schools.htm

Virginia Tech Shooting

2007-04-30T22:36:00.000+08:00

The recent Virginia Tech shooting massacre has stirred up much strong emotions among the people and has raised up many issues that are close to our hearts. Besides the significant number of deaths caused in the massacre, there are also other issues that are hot in discussion among the people. The two main issues are about the gun control and the security of the schools.

It has reignited the gun control debate in the United States. Is the control too loose that it should have more restriction on the people who are allowed to buy a gun? Even a mentally unsound individual like Cho who was the killer for Virginia Tech shooting was able to purchase two pistols that cost several deaths.

The reason for allowing people to purchase guns is that the guns are a form of self-protection for them. There have been many cases whereby guns are used as a form of self-defense to protect themselves. Even though, guns are used for a good purpose, some people can abuse the right and misuse the guns for something that is harmful. In the society, there are not only many cases of self-defense using guns but also many cases for abuse of guns for killings.

In my opinion, the gun control should be stricter where only authorized people can buy the guns so as to reduce the abuse of the guns to the minimum. The lesser number of guns purchased, the lesser chance of killings using guns. In this way, lesser people can have access to guns and more killings can be avoided.

Another issue discussed is about the security of schools. The image portrayed of a school is a sanctuary for the students and yet a massacre could happen in a college. The safety of the students is at danger when a school is not secure to study. I feel that the schools should have tighter security inside the school compound so that the guards can do something fast when they feel that something is suspicious so as to prevent tragedy from happening again.

In conclusion, the Virginia Tech shooting massacre has stirred different types of emotions among the people and caused quite a lot of discussions where many of them concerned us a lot.

Nowadays, the mass media do not report the news; they make the news.

2007-04-25T20:57:00.000+08:00

The mass media plays an important role in our life by providing news that happens around the world to us. However, in recent times, the mass media make the news and do not report the news. I will discuss about it with evidences supported from recent events. The definition of recent events is happenings that are reported from now to a few years ago.

Starting from the most recent event that happened which is the Virginia Tech massacre on 16 April 2007. Media in some countries created their own killer’s identity to sell their first hand news to the public and to make money. One example will be the Chicago Sun-Times journalist Michael Sneed who had wrongly identified a Chinese American and a Chinese national as the suspected shooter and the news was published even before the killer was correctly identified.

Another event will be the covered up stories of Iraqi violence. CNN's chief news executive Eason Jordan has admitted that for the past decade the network has systematically covered up stories of Iraqi atrocities. Reports of murder, torture, and planned assassinations were covered up in order to maintain CNN's Baghdad bureau. This has again shown that media has censored some news that are unfavorable to them so that they will not be affected. The main aim of reporting news is to earn them a living and not to present the facts to the world.

The National Kidney Foundation (NKF) dispute over the misuse of funds has stirred up strong feelings among the Singaporeans. It is mainly due to the media exaggerating and making up the news. The media has been keeping reporting scandals of this issue and this has aroused the interest of the public to follow up on the news. It has thus increased the profits earned by the media as more newspapers were sold during this period of time.

In my opinion, the media is not reliable enough now for us to believe everything that is reported. Therefore, we need to scan through a number of different sources to judge the news by ourselves.

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Tech_massacre#Inaccurate_media_reports
http://www.honestreporting.com/articles/critiques/CNNs_Iraqi_Cover-Up.asp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Kidney_Foundation_Singapore_scandal

“YouTube has no ethics, it's been created for the sole purpose of entertainment and money.” Do you agree?

2007-04-10T20:57:00.000+08:00

I agree that YouTube has no ethics and it's been created for the sole purpose of entertainment and money.

For the purpose of entertainment, it allows anyone to upload any videos on the site for viewing purposes except for pornographic materials that are unhealthy. As a result, some videos that are offensive or discriminating are shown to the rest of the world. People may feel unhappy or even angry when they see these videos. One recent example will be the film that shows feet being placed over the Thailand king's face. This is seen as insulting to the Thai people as feet are considered dirty. It has shown us to the video may seems funny to some people and offensive to the others. People who upload these videos do not think about the consequences that they may lead to. The producers of YouTube also do not consider the consequences of the videos as important as the entertainment value of the videos.

People also upload popular drama series on YouTube to allow other people to enjoy them too. This has broken the law on copyrights issues that is illegal. This lead to everyone being able to watch the shows without having to buy the video cds. The actors will not be able to earn much when their shows do not sell. They put in so much effort and to realize that it has not paid off in the end.

YouTube also upload movie previews for people to know more about the recent movies that are going to be put up. It serves as a purpose for the media industry that wants to showcase their movie first. Advertisements are also put up at YouTube to publicize the company’s products. From the movie previews and advertisements, YouTube will able to earn money from there.

However, YouTube provide a medium to the people to have the freedom of uploading videos for other people to enjoy. It is a form of way to interact with other people and spread around the joy of some videos. Information can be spread through this medium too and hence people are more updated to new information.

Therefore, YouTube has been created for the sole purpose of entertainment and money. It does not really care about the consequences of the videos uploaded onto the site.

‘The teenage years are the best years of one’s life.’ Would you agree with this view?

2007-04-03T21:10:00.000+08:00

I would agree with this view. I personally feel that teenage years are the best years of one’s life as it is a brand new start of a new experience where they will enjoy almost everything they do.

Teenagers nowadays have much stress that they are unable to cope with. Therefore, it leads them to being ‘emo’. This is a new term to describe teenagers who are getting stressed up. They have not only to cope with their taxing school work but also their heavy co-curricular activities which is after school time. Most of them reach home very late after their lessons and co-curricular activities. They may not have time to do their school work or even study for their tests. Moreover, parents and teachers emphasis so much on producing good results that they do not realize how taxing it is for the students to cope with school life.

However, teenage years are the best years of one’s life. When people reach teenage years, they have more freedom than the people of the other age groups. Children have less freedom as they are too young to have freedom. This is because they are not mature enough to make the right decisions. Adults also have less freedom due to the fact they are all

During our teenage years, we only have to concentrate on studies and not have to worry about the problems that will surface in the society. One of the examples is the political struggle in the company where everyone wants to reach the top. All will think of means and ways to push people down and climb the social stairs themselves. It is still quite pure and innocent where there is no struggle for positions.

They are still in their comfort zone where they can do anything they like without having to pay high consequences. When they start working in the society, they have to listen to their superior even when they are not right and meet the dateline punctually. Once they defy orders, they may just lose their job which is important to them because it is the only source of income. During the teenage years where teenagers are still schooling, teachers can only scold them when they do not submit their homework punctually. The consequences are not as big as when they start working in the society.

In conclusion, teenage years are the best years of one’s life. Therefore, treasure the time when you are a teenager so that you will not regret it in future.

elina=me

2007-03-25T17:25:00.000+08:00

Elina is my name. I was from Cedar Girls' Secondary School and I love my school because it holds many wonderful memories during my four years in there. I also love my Cedar school uniform which is a blue top, a grey skirt and a grey tie. After wearing tie to school for four years, I feel weird not wearing a tie now.

I am now in Anderson Junior College and in class 21/07. My goal in these two years is to make more friends and to do well for my 'A' levels. I believe that JC life is not all about studying for my 'A' levels. There are still many other things like doing the things you like. For example, going out with my friends is one of the things I enjoy doing. This is because it can help me to relive stress that I experience in school.

I put a lot of emphasis on friendship because I feel that friends play an important part in my life. They motivate me when I am disheartened and they cheer me up when I am feeling down. They also give a helping hand to me when I need help most and they try their best to think of solutions to resolve my trouble.

Do you think professional parenting is the way to go for Singapore?

2007-02-25T11:43:00.000+08:00

Singapore is a small country that relies heavily on human resources to support its economy. Therefore, human labour is very precious to the country. As a result, parents become too busy with their work to take good care of their kkchildren. With professional parenting in Singapore, parents will be able to lighten their workload and their children in the meantime will be taken care of wonderfully. However, there are always pros and cons of professional parenting. Children may not be as close as to their parents before as they spent most of their time with professional parents than their biological ones.

With the availability of professional parenting, professional parents will share the burden of the biological parents by helping them take care for their children when they are busy at work. This will allow them to focus on their job and work effectively without having to worry about their children. In the meantime, their children also benefit from it. They have a companion for the whole of the day without having to feel lonely or bored. They will also have the opportunity to learn new things from professional parents which they may not do so from their parents as they are too busy with their work.

On the other hand, there are disadvantages of having professional parenting. Children will spend most of their time with professional parents and thus they will feel much closer to them than their biological parents who are busy at work. When there is something wrong with the children, the professional parents will be the first to know as they are always with them. They will try to help the children and naturally the children will think that they are more caring then their own parents and will prefer to be with them and not their biological parents.

In conclusion, I feel that even though professional parenting has pros and cons, it is still the way to go for Singapore. This is because Singapore has a tight labour market which cannot afford to lose anymore human resources. Therefore, professional parenting will solve the problem of parents quitting their jobs to take care of their children.

Youth gambling: Nipping it in the bud

2007-02-16T21:54:00.000+08:00

This article tells me that studies have shown that youth gambling is a problem that needs to be tackled early. A 2004 gambling prevalence survey here showed that almost half of all Singaporean gamblers started aged between 18 and 24. Global research also showed that young people are up to four times more probable to become problem gamblers than adults. Therefore, the National Council on Problem gambling lends support to at least two interactive initiatives aimed at young potential gamblers.

Personally I feel that the people are easily influenced during their teenage time. Thus this is the time to protect them and educate them in the dangers of gambling. The teenagers are now materialistic and they aim to own more branded goods and therefore they want to have more money to purchase them. The fastest way to earn a huge amount of money is to gamble. Money makes the world go round. Teenagers think that with money can buy them a lot of friends and thus they want to be affluent. Therefore many teenagers turn to gambling.

With the casinos about to open, and teenagers being exposed to gambling, it is important to educate them on the dangers of gambling as it will ruin their future. Therefore by using interactive initiatives, the teenagers will take more time to know about the dangers of gambling. The style of publicity will surely attract more attention from the teenagers as it is something new to them. As a result, they will absorb more information about gambling and they try to avoid it.

With this brilliant way to raise awareness among the teenagers, Singaporean should not worry too much about opening casinos in Singapore will harm the people here especially teenagers. As long as the people know about the dangers of gambling like the problems that will surface when people gamble, they will try to avoid it.

Then: Jailbird Now: Model Youth

2007-02-03T19:18:00.000+08:00

This article is about an ex-drug trafficker, Glenn Lim, getting the Asean Youth Award for outstanding contributions to the society. He was once a rebellious youth who was busted by the police for drug trafficking. Now, he has won the most prestigious recognition for youths with outstanding contributions in Asean countries. This is a very good example of how a defiant youth can change for the better when given a chance and when there is determination.

Mr. Lim is a very brave person who has the courage to face the world again after his jail term. He was firm about turning into a new leaf and to start all over again. He was not even discouraged when he was rejected by the public. There was once when he had to take a urine test at the Causeway checkpoint because he was in jail before. However, he did not give up the chance to redeem himself from trafficking drugs by being optimistic and carry on with his new life.

He wrote the book titled “Wake up Call” to remind himself as well as others especially ex-jailbirds to turn over a new leaf and not to give up on themselves by committing crimes again. It also warns other people particularly the youths who are more prone to make mistakes in their lives not to commit any crime and think carefully before one does anything.

With this example, ex-jailbirds should be given one more chance by the society to turn over a new leaf. This is what the recent Yellow Ribbon Project aims to do for the ex-jailbirds to help them. We should all try to accept them as everyone makes mistakes except that they make a more major mistake than others.

The family plays a critical role in our society and in the training of the generation to come. Is this true of your society?

2007-01-27T19:08:00.000+08:00

Family is the most basic unit in the society and it moulds us into what we are now. Therefore, it plays a critical role in our society and in the training of the generation to come.

The most important role of the family is to ensure that children are satisfactorily socialized into the norms and values of society. Children are not socially mature till many years later because the rules for society are so complicated. Thus, their family has to guide them along as they grow up so that they will not take the wrong step in life. Moreover, children spend their most of the time with their family especially when they are young. This is the critical time for their family to mould them into a useful person who can contribute to the society in future.

The family also provides economic support for other family members. It provides food and shelter for the family members in terms of money. For example, the family pays the fees for education for the children to study and have a bright future. The shelter that it provides not only gives physical protection but also emotional protection. It gives the family members a sense of belonging so as they will not feel lost as to where they are supposed to be.

People need to feel loved and wanted by other people, particularly when they are very young. Thus, their family is their strongest emotional bond. It gives care and concern to the family members whereby warmth is transferred to them. They also give a listening ear to family members when they have a problem and they try their best to help them solve the problem. Your family is always there for you when you are in need of help and they have more ability to help you solve your problem than your friends have.

In conclusion, the family do plays a critical role in our society and in the training of the generation to come. It ensures that their children have an all rounded education so as to have a bright future.