The Internet and the Ecology of Media

(www.monsterguide.net)

I love how ideas come to me for these blog posts. One minute I have no idea what I want to write about, and then the next minute something grabs my attention and gives me an idea! That is exactly what happened for this post. I was unsure of what to write for The Ecology of Media post and was undecided on what technology to discuss. My attention quickly shifted from thinking of what I would write for this post to surfing the web. Then it hit me! Why not talk about the internet! (That just shows you how media dominates my life).

The internet is an amazing tool. It can be used as a library: finding information, gathering facts, and researching topics. It can be used for leisure: playing games, listening to music, and watching movies. Companies take advantage of the internet for marketing. The internet is a quick and easy way to introduce a company or product. Just recently, social networking sites, such as Facebook and Myspace, have created a form of interaction within the internet. You can chat with friends, e-mail others, share files. The uses for the internet are endless and new innovations are introduced every day.

In a Keynote Address delivered at the Inaugural Media Ecology Association Convention, Neil Postman explained how “a medium is a technology within which a culture grows; that is to say, it gives form to a culture’s politics, social organization, and habitual ways of thinking” (Postman). The internet has done just that. Our entire culture has changed and grown through the internet. How we interact with people has changed dramatically. Instead of talking to someone face-to-face, we can now instantly send them an instant message, or an e-mail. We can also instantly receive almost any information over the internet. A search engine, such as Google, can immediately find information for us. “In less then a second, Google can search billions of web pages to find the information we need” (www.google.com). How we receive information and how we socialize has been dramatically altered with the introduction of the internet.

However, there is a disadvantage to this amazing tool that we use to gather information and socialize. People are loosing social skills because we are no longer interacting with a person directly. We now interact with people through a technology; through the internet. How is a person going to improve their listening and speaking skills if we only have to type in order to talk to a person? Also, the quality of the information we are receiving through the internet is weak and poor. Yes, it may be fast and easy to receive, but isn’t it more important to get information that is reliable and trustworthy? In North America, the internet is not monitored or regulated. Therefore, anything is possible and anything is allowed. So even though we can instantly receive information, the quality of the information is greatly diminished. It seems that the faster information can travel, the easier it can be altered.

(blaugh.com)

So is the internet helping our culture, or is it tearing our culture apart? Is the internet an amazing technology that will make our lives easier, or is it a technology that is giving us unreliable information? Should we follow the poem that McLuhan gave to Postman that stated: “Say neither, it is blessed nor cursed. Say only, it is here” (Postman). Or should we act and stand up for a better technology to receive reliable information. These are hard questions to answer however, I feel that the internet will continue to grow and produce some interesting changes in the coming years.

Work Cited

Postman, Neil. Keynote Address. Inaugural Media Ecology Association Convention. Fordham University, New York, NY. 16June 2000.

Google Press Center. 2005. Google. 30 Sept. 2008. [http://www.google.com/press/funfacts.html]

Redesign!

When I created this blog, I began with the name, The Journey to Become an Academic Blogger. To be honest, I was never completely satisfied with that title and since then, I have been trying to think of other ideas for a blog name. It hasn't been easy! It took me a while to come up with the title, Reading between the Lines. However, this time I have a reason for picking this title. To read between the lines means to “perceive or detect an obscure or unexpressed meaning"(www.thefreedictionary.com). In other words, find the meaning of something that is somewhat hidden. To me, this sounds like a lot of thinking and studying. That is exactly what is happening in this course. Ian said, when we started this class, that we would work harder then we ever have before and that we would use our brains more then we ever have. I can already see this happening. It has taken a lot of work and thought to understand the readings, write these blog posts, and complete assignments. The scary part is, this is only the beginning! However, in order to be successful in this course, I believe I need to "Read Between the Lines" and think harder and use my brain more than I ever have before.

Now, I am a bit more satisfied with my blog title.

Robert Simeon

P.S. I also decided to change the layout for this blog. The other layout was too colourful and messy looking. However, this new layout is clean, simple, and professional. The cleaner and simpler, the better.

Work Cited

Read Between the Lines. 2008. The Free Dictionary. 30 Sept. 2008. [http://www.thefreedictionary.com/read+between+the+lines]

The Impact of the Media: A Media Autobiography

The following was my Media Autobiography:


The media has a huge influence on our everyday lives. The media can persuade our buying habits, influence decisions we make, affect how we act, and manipulate how we think. In order to demonstrate this, I decided to create a newspaper front cover for my media autobiography. The newspaper that I designed is an example of how the media can influence us. Everything that is found on this page can persuade the reader.

The media has an effect on your daily routines and purchases. A newspaper can also change your daily routes or schedule. For example, the weather forecasts may change your plans for the day. You may reschedule an activity you had planned because of the projected weather forecast. The IPod advertisement at the bottom of the page is an example of the purchasing power the media can inflict. For example, when buying an mp3 player, most people will choose a product that they are familiar with and have seen in advertisements.

The news stories in the media also have a huge impact on our lives. “For example, the Listeria outbreak in Ontario caused stocks and purchases to drop at Maple Leaf Foods” (www.cbc.ca). People avoided purchasing Maple Leaf products because of the many sicknesses and deaths that were reported in the media. The media can also create fear. For example, a girl killed herself in India when she heard on the news that the world could end due to an experiment that was being completed. “The experiment was deemed safe by leading scientists and engineers” (in.reuters.com). However, the media decided to exaggerate the idea of one man who believed the experiment would end the world and this girl believed the story.

Finally, the media can manipulate how we think. In the upcoming American federal election, American voters will vote for a person depending on what they have heard through the media. Sarah Palin is a relatively new face in the political arena. The media could have described her as a loving hockey mom or a politician with extremist views. The media has a huge impact on our everyday lives and decisions.

Media dominates our everyday lives, through newspapers, TV, radio, ads and much more. It has a huge effect on our daily routines, our purchases, our decisions, and our actions. The political intentions of this project were to show how easily the media controls our lives, even when we don’t realize it. While creating this project, I quickly realized how everything in a newspaper is designed to influence the reader. From something as simple as a weather forecast to a full page news report, everything has an impact on our lives. If a newspaper can have such an effect on our lives, then it is scary to think how other media objects around us can also manipulate our decisions. From a simple logo on a product to a national newspaper, everything around us is the workings of the media.

Work Cited

Girl kills self over Big Bang fear. 10 Sept. 2008. Reuters India. 15 Sept. 2008.

[http://in.reuters.com/article/topNews/idINIndia-35414720080910]

Meat Recall Could Cost Millions More. 25 Aug. 2008. CBC News. 15 Sept. 2008.

[http://www.cbc.ca/money/story/2008/08/25/maple-leaf- listeria.html?ref=rss]

Academic Blogging: The Beginning

My blogging journey began in the middle of writing a paper for another class. I became bored in writing about the different views that the media takes on an issue so I decided to take a break. However, instead of watching TV, or going outside, or grabbing a snack, I decided to start my blog.

I first needed to pick a blogging service, and I quickly found out that there are many to choose from. However, as our course outline stated, I found myself "in bed" with Google. There is always something that draws me to Google products. Their technology is always simple to use, they use very modern and clean looking designs, and with a revenue of almost sixteen billion dollars (www.investor.google.com), they must be doing something right. Then i found out something very interesting, i already have a Blogger account! It seems that I had once signed up for Blogger, but never started a blog and forgot i had an account.

Now i am here, writing my first blog. To be quite honest, I thought I’d have trouble finding something to write about however, I’m already at 187 words! I really like the idea of this blog. Not only is it a great place for me to rant, but over the next few weeks I’ll begin to write down what I have learned in class and what i am reading. That makes it an awesome tool when studying for my exam!

For everyone who is out there in cyberspace reading this blog, I hope you enjoy it. However, I realize that some of the only people who will understand what i write in the coming weeks will be my professor and classmates. And now.... back to that paper i was writing.

(To anyone who's reading this, please give your comments. I'd love to hear from you!)


Work Cited

Google Investor Relations. 2008.Google. 3 September 2008

[http://investor.google.com/fin_data.html].