What Benefits The Media Brings

What Benefits The Media Brings Mass communication, like anything, has its pros and cons; however mass media has far more advantages to offer the world than it does to harm it. They can take us to a distant land or teach us about the intricacies of the animal kingdom and in todays world, surfing the Internet for anything from business to pleasure, we experience information in a way unlike ever before in history. I hope to shed light on the benefits of Media on the world, the opinion of the public on Media, how media can be educational and lastly how the Internet is now a new Mass Medium. The general populous has an interesting alliance with Media in that it is the populous that gives life to the mass media machine. Early on in human history, mass media was communicated through word of mouth, and it was that very link that gave way to small town gossip in the middle ages , where information like what the local officials were up to and who was having relations with who and etc would circulate around. Word of mouth would remain the largest Mass Media until the invention of the printing press in 1436 when the news of the town could be told and recorded forever. So with that being said, let me begin my paper. I first looked at what the people thought of Mass Media through the eyes of a poll taken about what the publics view on the media was. The information was reported in a Article by Joe Saltzman and states that the publics use and view of its media, shows that word of mouth is less trusted than CNN, public television news, local television news, and prime-time TV news magazines. News anchors Americans see on television are considered more reliable as sources of accurate information than personal acquaintances (par 3). That appears to suggest that after the set off of the press, people find that a recognized news source rather than a personal contact is to be trusted. People feel that they can trust a Anchor as long as he/she remains credible and they feel optimistic because of that fact. Another benefit we modern people have as opposed to our ancient counterparts is that we are citizens who get our information from trusted sources such as CNN, local news casts, public television news, and as a result we tend to usually end up better informed and more accurately informed than those ancient immigrants and our forefathers from their word of mouth reporting. The advantages of Media continue in an area you might not expect: education. Not just education in the form of reading and arithmetic but life education. From the article, Media Education by Marjorie Hogan we find that if the public is media literate in how to break-down the content of the media and read what messages each presentation and advertisement is telling us, rather than taking something at its face value, then the public will be able to make better choices and educate their children about the messages of all media, and thereby control their childrens exposure to potentially harmful media (Hogan, par 7). There are also enormous amounts of educational programming such as, Sesame Street, Nickelodeon, and for the older kids, documentaries from public TV, channels like AE and The History Channel. In an article by Aletha C. Huston and John C. Wright, called Television and the Informational and Educational Needs of Children, we see that the television medium seems to of had a positive effect on childrens education process. In 1990 the article says that the Childrens Television Act was passed mandating all broadcast stations to provide programming that, meets the educational and informational needs of children and youths (Huston, par 2). This meant that during the daytime stations had to play a minimum of three hours of educational media a day (Huston, par 2). Sesame street helped to educate the urban poor in the inner cities that normally wouldnt have the opportunity to gain a quality education like their suburban counterparts who have better access to quality schools. Since the passing of the Childrens Television Act the number of educational programming has increased ten-fold. These programs have led to children having, according to Huston and Wright, social skills, (for example, cooperation, conflict resolution, knowledge about different cultures), emotional development (for example, understanding feelings), creativity, language and literacy, positive attitudes about learning, critical thinking, problem solving, quantitative skills, cognitive skills (for example, inference, concept formation), and knowledge about the arts, history, social science, and natural science (Neapolitan and Huston 1994) (par 11). Oddly enough these are all things, together with books read while young, that gave me an upper edge on my classmates in reading and critical thinking as well as giving me a curiosity and longing for a lifelong quest of knowledge. The electronic age is one filled with uncertainty because so much lies within our reach that at times its overwhelming. Presently most colleges and universities are filled with computer systems and the new reference librarians have it easier than their ancient counterparts, they can locate info at a faster rate and keep it more readily available, which all help advance, reference service immensely. This is one aspect of this new Internet age. It is filled with life elevating and turbulent times ahead. In an article, The Net-Setters, Neal Gabler goes on to explain how the net-savvy people of today rival the early Jet-Setters of the 1960s. Gabler says, what they live is the cyberlifemore thrilling to many than the old high life of the jet-setters because it has more variety. In cyberspace, there are virtually no limits to what you can purport to do (par 3). The thing is with the Internet there is so much locked away potential that no one can avoid hearing of it. Its recognized that the Internet is the future yet there is much ambiguity to where it will truly go and how it will be used. The Internet is a force to be dealt with, but it is sure to serve humanity much as its precursors of media have, to learn from and aid the greater distribution of information to all in this new fast-paced information super age. All things discussed, public perception of mass media is high by having and making our lives more comfortable and more informed, the educational value of media by helping our children to grasp concepts and skills, and the computer/Internet revolution by expanding our minds to boundless possibilities have all made impacts on who we are as humans and what we will become in the future as we progress through the ages. Hopefully mass media will last several more hundred years being that mass media is only relatively young in the scheme of all of human history is considered.

Shaping the 21st Century Government Revolution

Bill Clinton says that the government must shape a 21st century revolution. He carried on in his last state of the union address making all kinds of proposals ranging from healthcare, fighting crime and education to name a few. He says they must focus on the middle class, proposing a 350 billion dollar tax cut. But exactly how does he propose this shaping take place, and how will it effect our economy? I would like to focus on what he proposed for education. He says the government spends $15 billion a year in our schools. He proposes schools that show progress get rewarded for it. The way to do that is to bring in the best trained teachers, and by having more after school programs to help kids in problem areas. Also he says they need to make schools more up to date, by connecting all classrooms to the Internet. In 1994 only 3% of the classrooms had access now 90% of schools have at least one internet connection. Clinton wants to make the American dream affordable for everyone. By making pell grants larger, having more affordable student loans, hope scholarships, and education IRA's. It would make it more possible for people to go to college and get the education needed to get a good job and further themselves. Clinton says high school graduates that go on to college is up 10% from 1993. He proposed a $30 billion college opportunity tax cut. which means a tax deduction for up to $10,000 in college tuition costs. That would mean more people would be able to afford to go on to collegeNow all these things sound great right? But will it all be possible, and how will all these things affect our economy as we know it? Will it have a huge impact, and if so will it be good or bad? I do not think following though on these proposals will have a bad effect on the economy. If anything I think it will just strengthen the economy. If more people got a better education and were able to afford to go to college to make themselves even better. They would be more likely to find a better job or start a business of their own. If all those things took place then communities would grow stronger and cities would have more businesses which would make more and more jobs. And that would help to bring the poverty level down. There would be less people on welfare and it would probably cut the crime rate also. Now another issue that clinton brought up was health care. He had all kinds of ideas on how to spend money on healthcare but is it really worth it? In 1997 the children's health insurance program was passed. So far there are approximately 2 million children enrolled the goal there is 5 million. Also there are over 40 million Americans that don't have any insurance at all. A large portion of those are people between the ages of 55 and 65. Clinton says Medicare needs to be strengthened and modernized. In his budget he dedicates $400 billion to Medicare that will keep it solvent past 2025. Is all this government spending necessary? I don't think it is. They should make it a requirement for companies to have medical insurance for their employees. Then that would save them a lot of money that can go on other things. One more thing I would like to touch on is a proposal Clinton made on childcare. He says parents spend a quarter of their earnings on childcare. He says that the childcare tax credit should be up to $2,400 for people that make under $30,000 a year. He says that last year alone the government provided childcare for 2 million children. Now I am glad he says all these things about childcare but the simple fact is this, there are so many people that can't work because they can't afford childcare. And the only way they can get help to pay for it is if they are on welfare. Now to me that doesn't sound like the government is trying to help the average American move up or better themselves in that aspect that they try to help the people that really need it. Now taking that and putting it all together, it would make our country all together stronger if the government put money where it really needs to go instead of putting it in their own pockets. Which in all reality in the stretch of things we all know that's where it will end up.

Empire of the Sun Essay

Empire of the Sun In this essay will be talking about how Ballard shows Jim changing over the course of the book The Empire of the Sun. I am splitting the essay into 5 paragraphs: What Jim is like at the start of the novel, Jim’s first upheaval, the prison camps, the way Dr Ransong and Bassie treat Jim and the contrast, finally what Jim is like at the end of the novel. At the start of this book, Ballard shows us a typical English schoolboy living in Shanghai. This boy Jim and his family are very wealthy, so you can imagine what sort of lifestyle Jim was living in: Big house, servants that he can call on 24/7, a bike, many toys including aeroplanes. Then there are his clothes: A school blazer and cap. He is also is taught Latin. This shows us that he is very much surrounded by money and anything he could ever wish for. This creates an impression that he leads a very sheltered life and that he does understand reality. Jim has a very normal life. Everything is working well for him. Until one day before he starts school, the Chinese fleet attack the â€Å"Petrol† (a Japanese gun boat. ) This is the first big upheaval in Jim’s life. This is totally unexpected to Jim. Nothing like this has ever happened before in Jim’s life, so it comes as a surprise to him. Ballard gives us the sense that Jim is a very ignorant boy because he thought that he started the war when he was flash his light at the opposite Chinese gun boat, and after the bombs had gone he still thought that he would go to school. This shows a lack of maturity and common sense. This gives us a very bad picture of what Jim is like as a person. He thinks that he will still be able to go to school even though there is a war going on. Most people would think that he would be mad to think that. Ballard makes us see Jim as a very naive person. During the book, Jim spends a lot of the time in a prison camp. When he gets to the first camp, he befriends an American called Bassie. He persuades Bassie to help him find his parents in return for a reward. This gives Bassie an opportunity to use Jim for any errands that he has for Jim, and for this Jim gets a little something in return. This is a complete change of lifestyle for Jim. He normally gets people to do his work for him, but now Bassie is making him do work for him. During his stay at the detention centre, Jim experiences hunger, disease and hallucinations. This again is another new experience for Jim. If he had the slightest illness when he was with his parents, he would get the best treatment for the illness, but now he has lost his parents, he has to fend for himself. I think he copes with it very well. He manages to survives and moves on with his life When Jim and Bassie to another camp called Lunghua, Dr Ransong starts teaching him Latin. I think the reason he does is to try and keep Jim as a child. This is because he is losing his childhood because of the war. It is just trying to keep Jim safe until he matures fully. The way Dr Ransong and Bassie treat Jim are very different. Dr Ransong tries to keep Jim as a child to try and protect him from any dangers that occur. Bassie on the other hand, he treats Jim as a young adult. This is because Bassie want Jim’s trust so that he can do more for him. Bassie tries to keep Jim alive by telling him the way to survive is to steal the metal food bowls in the detention centre from the dead people. So Jim is split two ways, Dr Ransong is trying to maintain Jim’s ignorance of the world by keeping his childhood to keep him safe, and Bassie is trying to make Jim look at the world very broadly so that Jim can survive and so Jim can keep doing jobs for Bassie. At the end of the novel, Jim is a transformed child. He has gone from being a nai ve 10 year old, to being a mentally scarred 14 year old with a certain understanding of war and life in general. He has lost his childhood completely because of the death and war that he has experienced.

Time Expressions in Spanish

Here are some miscellaneous words and expressions of time, with an example of each used in a sentence: al cabo de (after) — Al cabo de una semana, si el paciente no ha respondido al tratamiento, la dosis puede ajustarse. After a week, if the patient hasnt responded to the treatment, the dose can be adjusted.  ¿A cuà ¡ntos estamos?  ¿A cuà ¡ntos estamos hoy? (What day is it?) cada dà ­a (each day, every day) — Cada dà ­a te quiero mà ¡s. I love you more each day. el fin de semana (weekend) — Disfrute de un fin de semana romà ¡ntico en nuestro hotel. Enjoy a romantic weekend in our hotel. de hoy en ocho dà ­as (a week from today) — De hoy en ocho dà ­as nos parecerà ¡ que fue todo un mal sueà ±o. A week from now it will seem to us like it was all a bad dream. pasado/a (last) — La semana pasada fuimos a la ciudad. Last week we went to the city. prà ³ximo/a (next) — La vacunacià ³n masiva comenzarà ¡ la semana prà ³xima.The mass vaccination will begin next week. (Prà ³xima can also be placed before the time designation.)  ¿Quà © fecha es hoy? (What day is it today?) que viene (next) — El DVD estarà ¡ disponible la semana que viene. The DVD will be available next week. quince dà ­as (two weeks, fortnight) — Cada quince dà ­as se extingue una de las 6.700 lenguas del mundo. Every two weeks one of the worlds 6,700 languages goes extinct. un rato (a while) — Y despuà ©s saltaba a la piscina y nadaba un rato. And afterward I would jump in the pool and swim for a while. todos los dà ­as (every day) — Jugar todos los dà ­as con los hijos es fundamental para su desarollo. Playing every day with your children is essential for their development.