video game and free speech

If you have kids, you may be concerned about the potential negative influences on you kids' cognitive or behavioral development. If so, do you agree with a law that makes it illegal to sell violent video games to minors?

California in 2005 made such a law:

California’s law imposes fines of up to $1,000 on retailers that sell violent video games to anyone under 18. To qualify, a game must, as a whole, lack serious literary artistic, political or scientific value for minors.

It was ruled as against the First Amendment, but the Supreme Court reviewed it this year again.

The New York Times wrote an editorial hoping that "the law is unconstitutional" based on the notion video games are a form of free expression. The editorial ends with:

California lawmakers may have been right when they decided that video games in which players kill and maim are not the most socially beneficial form of expression. The Constitution, however, does not require speech to be ideal for it to be protected.

Facebook...Addict?

CD
Facebook:
What Is Facebook Addiction?


A funny outlook on Facebook Addicts, and possibly a way to tell if you are one?

Twitter Usage in America 2010

The Edison research group found American people's Twitter use patterns.

Here are key findings:

1. Awareness of Twitter has increased to 87% from 5% in 2008.
2. 17 million people are active Twitter users.
3. 51% of active Twitter users follow companies, brands or products on social networks.

The full report can be found here, where you can also watch a video presentation.

Role of online newspapers' message forums

According to a recent study in Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, entitled "Virtual Community Support for Offline Communities Through Online Newspaper Message Forum,"participation in online forums of US newspapers can increase participants' perception that they understand local communities better.

Associate Professor Jack Rosenberry at St. John Fisher College in Rochester, NY conducted a survey of 538 participants in message forums at the 80 local newspapers. Even though this study found the positive relationship between forum participation and better perception on community, such participation in online forums was not related to getting out and taking part in real-world community activities.

These findings indicate that online newspapers' forum can have "a mobilizing influence' but also imply that participants' engagements were more reflected by their existing social relationships and community involvement than the online community.

For more details, please go to here in which you can also download a PDF file of this research article.

Do you think that online information or communication behavior can lead to other acts on offline activities?

Media surfaces: Incidental Media from Dentsu London on Vimeo.

Would you pay for New York Times on the Web?

Jan. 20th 2010, The New York Times Company announced that it will charge online readers for access to NYTimes.com.

"Starting in January 2011, a visitor toNYTimes.com will be allowed to view a certain number of articles free each month; to read more, the reader must pay a flat fee for unlimited access. Subscribers to the print newspaper, even those who subscribe only to the Sunday paper, will receive full access to the site without any additional charge."

Many media analysts and scholars agree that it is time to figure our a new economic model of news business in the digital media ecology. It is known that 17 million readers a month in the U.S. visit NYTimes.com, but I am not sure how many of them would pay the online subscription fee.

However, what is clear is that the subscription-based, advertising-driven mode of the traditional media business is no longer effective and efficient.

Are you ready to pay online news content?

New blog for the media

This looks like a great idea. The PBS people have started up a shiny new blog dedicated solely to the creation of a new kind of media, in particular, news media. MediaShift Idea Lab exists to generate ideas regarding the best ways to pursue the most innovative and creative use for new media. Often experienced individuals in the media community are reluctant, if not sometimes downright refusing, to embrace newer kinds of content creation, so it's reassuring that the established PBS conglomerate is willing to help underscore the rise of new media.
"MediaShift Idea Lab is a group weblog by innovators who are reinventing community news for the Digital Age. Each author won a grant in the Knight News Challenge to help fund a start up idea or to blog on a topic related to reshaping community news. The authors will use Idea Lab to explain their projects, share intelligence and interact with the new-media community online," the blog's About page reads.
That's not to say that the old guys don't have a point... the saying goes you get what you pay for, and if journalists are giving it away for free... perhaps the fee scale will push them into extinction. At least that's what the Newsosaur says.
Let the games begin.

Just for fun...

Oh yeah, the folks over at Fail Blog have been poking fun at the media for awhile now on their Probably Bad News blog. At some point, we all make mistakes, but hopefully not like these.
At least there's a blog out there to laugh at and  poke fun at other "failures in communication" and at the very least to help you know what to watch for when you get out there professionally. But, you can always blame it on deadlines. :)

Media Usage vs. Academics?

This is a bit of a pet topic of mine. I for one, happen to love all things electronic. I love to read and the internet is the perfect fix for an information junkie, and especially for people who are interested in participating in the online media community at large. On the other hand, there are new studies showing the repercussions of spending too much time in front of screens--televisions, computers, iPads and iPods--as our culture becomes increasingly passive about its consumption of electronic media. Despite my affection for being connected to the electronic umbilical cord, I also had the pleasure of growning up in the state of Idaho. Most of my free time was spent outdoors, in fields, playgrounds, parks, forests and occasionally on tree limbs. Reading Richard Louv's book made me realize that there is a generation of kids growing up in a completely new way--sans mother nature. It may be of interest to Mass Comm students that a lack of time outdoors has a direct impact on their academic performance. There are a number of studies being conducted in this particular vein, and it is something to be aware of when you elect to become a part of the media culture. We love the net, the news and the feeling of connection, but there may be a cost. One of the best articles on the subject can be found at this nifty blog post.

Happy debating...

TV watching and life span

A new research conducted in Australia found a strong connection between TV watching hours and death from cardiovascular disease, according to LA time report.

People who watched more than four hours a day showed an 80% greater risk of death from cardiovascular disease and a 46% higher risk of all causes of death compared with those who watched fewer than two hours a day

The lead researcher of the study, Dr. David Dunstan said "What we showed was that irrespective of a person's exercise level, sitting for four or more hours watching television was linked to a significant increase in risk of death compared to watching lower amounts of TV."

Try to find how they found the causal relationship between TV hours and the increase in risk of death.

It is kind of scary to realize that TV would kill us eventually.

What do you think of this result?

Internet-Addicted Teens Face Higher Depression Risk

via Harvard Business Review "The Daily Stat"

The risk of becoming depressed is 2.5 times higher for teenagers who are addicted to internet use than for those who aren't, according to a study led by Lawrence T. Lam of the School of Medicine, Sydney, in Australia. Some 6.2% of the participants — Chinese teens aged 13 to 18 — were found to be "pathological" internet users, says a report in Bloomberg Businessweek.

So, anyone here "addicted" to the internet? The article seems to be focused on the effects on teens, so should teens be restricted from the internet like the restrictions on alcohol and tobacco?

A lot of the videos and articles on internet addiction use the same language and buzz words as discussions about other addictions. I am on the internet all the time, but I don't go through withdrawals if I miss my email, etc. for a couple days. I also don't get a "high" from getting on the internet again, like so many mention in their English papers and video assignments.

Here's a video about internet addiction in China. Do they have a more noticed problem because of their population, or is it because they're "not us" over here but they're "over there", so they're safe to talk about?

Future of Screen Technology

Pretty cool tech.

Via The Astonishing Tribe -

Capacitive screens has now become a commodity for touch screen devices. Screen technology is now taking the next leap and the coming years imagination is the only thing stopping us. We will soon have dual screens, malleable screens, screens built into wifi connected mirrors, desks or backside of gadgets clothed with e-ink screens, tactile feedback, color screens with great contrast in sunlight, holographics/stereoscopic screens, color e-ink touch screens, or screens actually knowing where they are in relation to other screens thanks to ultrasonic emitters and microphones.
We want to show some of these things in an "experience video", that shows a normal day in a couple of years when all these technologies are affordable enough to be used everywhere. This video is the result of our experiment with open innovation, read more about our experiment here. Big thanks to all the people from TAT and around the world who helped out and sometimes shared their ideas and sometimes gave us homework on our own ideas.

How we view information is constantly changing.
Even our current technology is modified to change the way we view media. The Syte Shirt is a shirt with a see-through pocket for your iPad.

Then if the iPad isn't your thing, there's the WeTab. Applications have support for native, Java, Linux, Adobe Flash, Adobe AIR® and Android Apps. You can actually use an SD card for extended memory.
The options are never ending!

Real ID requirement in the digital age?

Do you know that you have to show your real ID to purchase mobile phones in China. The government made the regulation last week, Sept. 1, applying to everyone in China, including foreigners on even short visits.

The regulation was "the latest campaign by the government to curb the global scourge of spam, pornographic messages and fraud on cellular phones,"

But many people are concerned about the greater potentials that the government would use the new regulation to monitor citizens and to control the new communication technology.

Such a real ID policy was initiated in South Korea in 2007. The Korean government designed the real-name system on the Internet to prevent cyber crimes such as libel and privacy infringement. According to the Law on Internet Address Management, online users are required to provide their personal information such as real names and resident registration numbers (like SSN in the US) when they try to post comments or upload any content. Since then, there have been hot debates over freedom of expression on cyberspace.

In April 2009, Korean government required Google's Korea unit to comply to the real-name system. However, the Google refused to do so in the a statement titled "Freedom of Expression on the Internet":

Google thinks the freedom of expression is most important value to uphold on the internet. We concluded in the end that it is impossible to provide benefits to internet users while observing this country’s law because the law does not fall in line with Google’s principles.

If you have to reveal your real identity to upload a video on youbute.com or put a comment on nytimes,com, would you like to do so?

Where are all the book(store)s?

This is a video book review by Ron Charles, the fiction editor at Washington Post's Book World. He is attempting to be humorous with the review, but states a bigger problem that we have when consuming printed media. We don't seem to have time to read. This correlates with another problem taking place. Big brand book stores are closing in some major locations.
Barnes and Noble is trying to sell it's company and in the mean time is shutting down one its biggest locations in New York.

Barnes & Noble closing UWS store - The book giant will close its four-story superstore on West 66th Street, opposite Lincoln Center, after operating there for 15 years.

In San Francisco, they're closing a big Borders bookstore

Letdown: South Beach residents were disappointed by Borders’ announcement that it was closing its bookstore on King Street near AT&T Park.
SAN FRANCISCO — A chain bookstore anchoring a condominium complex in the center of a revived South Beach is going out of business in October amid neighborhood fears that the space will remain empty too long in the down economy.

So, are we really reading less? And do we have such short attention spans that we can't even read a book review? Or is it that we just aren't buying books from brick and mortar stores anymore?

Philadelphia Blogging Tax

So has anyone heard about the "blogging tax" in Philadelphia? Not sure what started the firestorm about it, but it appears that it was being called a Blogger's License. This was being discussed as one more way that "Big Brother" was taking over the free speech rights of citizens just because they operated a blog while living in the city of "brotherly love".

Turns out it's not entirely the whole story. According to the city,

"It has a business-privilege license that is required of any business operating in the city. The license costs $50 a year or $300 for a lifetime license."

Hmmm, what are the penalties if they don't register for this 'business-privilege' license?

In an article on wired.com titled 5 Myths About Philadelphia’s ‘Blogging Tax’,

"It covers any business in the city of Philadelphia, whether you’re a multinational oil company or (in principle) a kid running a lemonade stand"

so everyone is being treated equally. Oh wait, the kid with a lemonade stand pays the same as a multinational oil company? If you happen to make money online with your blog, and live in Philadelphia, the city wants a cut.

Turns out this story was a big buzz even in Great Britain, although this article is quick to quell the rumor.

"The problem is "people not taking five seconds to realise it's not a blog tax, it's a tax on all the commerce in the city," says Sean Blanda, co-founder of tech news site Technically Philly and an ex-employee of the City Paper. "But people thought it was an affront to free speech. It says nothing about free speech." As Blanda wrote on his blog : "There is no 'blog tax' in Philadelphia. None."

Question; should the city be counting local bloggers income as taxable or should bloggers be treated as global citizens - exempt from local fees? Does a city or municipality have the right to charge a fee for operating a business online, even though the business owner is typically not using city resources? Or, is making money on the internet a valid way to shelter your income? You can always set up an offshore mailing address like other companies with much larger bank accounts!

President Obama is a Muslim?

Last week, a poll of Pew Research Center revealed that American people are increasingly believing that President Obama is a Muslim.

"A new national survey by the Pew Research Center finds that nearly one-in-five Americans (18%) now say Obama is a Muslim, up from 11% in March 2009. Only about one-third of adults (34%) say Obama is a Christian, down sharply from 48% in 2009. Fully 43% say they do not know what Obama’s religion is."

It is a little surprising that 60% of them responded they learned about President's religion from the media, in particular television. Who do you think is most responsible for this misperception?

People's political ideology or media?

You also can read a report of the Huffington Post.

Huffingtonpost vs. LA Times and WP

According to the data of Compete.com in September 2009, The Huffington Post's traffic surpassed both the sites of LA Times and the Washington Post. What the data mean that the mainstream media may not the dominant information providers on the Web any more. On the Internet, there are the newly emerged news sources with the profound potential to provide alternative information/perspectives not covered by the major media in general.

Will the Internet and its interactive technologies be challenge, threat to traditional news media?

Class Greeting!

Welcome to MC119 Introduction to Mass Media in the Department of Mass Communication.

I opened this blog for additional opportunities to participate in discussion about certain topics related to mass media's role, effects in contemporary society. I will maintain and frequently update this blog with interesting issues or events, which help you develop a critical ability to comprehensively understand mass media.

I hope all of you enjoy this course throughout the semester and please let me know any time if you need my help or advice.

Best regards,

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