Mass Media doing it's job... serving the public....

What an interesting last several days we have had here in Georgia. The one thing that cannot be argued is that it will be a memorable event, even though we might like to forget about it. I was up at school on Moday, since it had not been closed at that time, waiting to go to classes. The rain was falling, everything flooded, even the walls from the Carmichael Student Center were shooting water from within, when I received a phone call. It was my sister, letting me know that she had heard on the news that they were evacuating downtown Powder Springs. Which was of concern since I live about 5 minutes away from there. Someone in the area where I was sitting at had a radio, and was more than happy to turn it on so that I could hear what was going on. At that point I got thinking about this class, and some of the discusions and debates that we have had in the class.

The mass media at this point, was doing what people believe they should be doing, a public service. The media was all over showing scenes from the floods, and informing the public on possible dangers and hazards. However, for your enjoyment, I have some pictures that I am going to show you. These were taken by a friend of mine at School on Monday, Matt Southwell:

But also on a topic that has nothing related to the media doing anything useful for the public needs, we have a scene of the media in a competition for folowers. We all remember the rally's in Washington on 9/12, the tea party's? Well it seems that on news channel, Fox News had been claiming that CNN had not covered the events up there, well CNN's Rick Sanchez did a piece to dispute Fox News' claim, and so the battle over viewers will begin again....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qM1f5xrOfGU&feature=topvideos

Stimulousa necessity: Shovel Ready......

Okay, so everyone remembers the hype that was raised on the necessity for the stimulous bill that was passed in the Congress. The messae that was most spouted throughout the media was a regurgitation from the politicians that it was a necessity to pass, with the country faces it's worse economical disaster since the great depression. Regardless of whether or not you approved of the passing of the legislation, everyone should remember the mass coverage that the media ran on the fact that these jobs were "Shovel Ready" jobs, and would take effect almost immediately. This past week, CNN ran a story that showed the contradiction to the hype leading to the passage of the bill.

On Sunday, during the show, "State of the Union" on CNN, President Obama said that it was likely that the majorit of jobs being saved or created would not come until the end of the recovery process from the recession. "I want to be clear, that probably the jobs picture is not going to improve considerably -- and it could even get a little bit worse -- over the next couple of months," Obama told CNN chief national correspondent John King. In case you missed the interview, I am prividing the link for the video:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/09/20/obama.king/index.html#cnnSTCVideo

Now I am not tryng to argue whether this legislative act was right or wrong, because everyone has their own view points. I bring all this up specifically because of the argument of the necessity and the influence the media has over the people paying attention to the media. It almost gives the since that if the media told people to jump off a bridge into rock spiked gorge, that the people would do as the media said. Is this te fault of the media or the falt of the people watching and reading the media. Personally I am of the type who blame the people over the media. As I grew up throughout my childhood, I was alwas taught that you do no trust what you read or see in the news. You cannot blindly follow what someone says, but you have to research and make your own decissions. That is why, regardless of what the media put out for this legislation or even that of the Health Care Bill, I will not be relying on the media to "inform" me.

Just another referrence to a debate from in the class this past week. I am one who believes in not supporting the "Fairness Doctrine". My viewpoints on that is roughly the same as above, I believe tht it is personal responsibility and parental responsibility to choose if you are able to watch or listen to a particular item that the media puts out. As I told some in class last week, I do not listen to Howard Stern or Don Imus, I personnaly cannot stand them, but it is a slippery slope that you start going down when you allow the government to start controling who gets a say and how they say it. The government should have a very limited role in curtailing the voices on radio, television, or in the papers. If you do not like something on the radio, there are plenty more channels to listen to. The same goes for television and newspapers. We are no longer living in the era of only three or four television stations.

Rememberance

Today is Friday, September 11 2009, and we all remember what happened exactly 8 years ago. The question that is being asked all over the media, is where were you. Obviousely the media will be focused specifically on the memorials throughout the country today. That means for the most part, there will be little news about President Obama's address to congress the other day. I watched his address, and found that the majority of what he said I did agree with as far as reform goes, however I still cannot and will not support a program where there is a government controled portion to health care involved. I found it interesting that even after the Presidents address, the biggest news that the media decided to focus on was the one point where a Republlican Representative said " You Lied " during the Presidents address. I believe that this representative maid a mistake, and thought it was funny to watch Nancy Pelosi's facial expression at that exact moment. There are not too many words to appropriately describe what her expression was, it was an expression of "how dare you". Yet even that did not make it in the mass media, I have seen replays of that moment on CNN, Fox and MSNBC, and all they show is just the clip of the statement, and nothing else. I will be posting more a little later today, time to go to a memorial myself for the rememberance of this day, however I do believe that it would be nice for me to leave a link to a video on facebook memorializing the events of 9/11.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCuuEJK5crM