The Power of TV in the Prop 8 Case

I'm really interested in the proceedings of the Prop. 8 case in federal court in California (for more info about that check out this blog: http://www.protectmarriage.com/blog/). I recently read how, a couple of weeks ago, an order by Judge Walker to televise the proceedings of the case and make them available on the Internet as a way to inform the public presented serious problems for the defenders of Proposition 8. As a result of the judge's order four of the six expert witnesses of the defense bowed out just prior to the trial because they feared backlash from such widespread availability of the evidence they would share to defend traditional marriage. Some of these witnesses were professors who feared repercussions in their careers. Not long into the case proceedings, which officially started about three weeks ago, the US Supreme Court repealed Judge Walker's order, but it was too late to regain the expert witnesses.
This case, which will probably eventually be appealed all the way to the US Supreme Court will affect our country greatly. It will likely determine whether traditional marriage is upheld in the U.S. or whether same-sex relationships will be allowed to be viewed as marriages. I thought this was an interesting evidence of the power of media in the world today in such a significant issue.

Media Bias in Politics: Oh My, That's Some Strong Language

I just read a political article online that my mom sent out to some family members. My family has these fun political conversations through e-mail sometimes and my mom sends us a lot of articles and things to read. I am interested in the issues, but am hard-pressed because of time to get into them too deeply.

Anyways, in this article I just read, there is some strong language about the media and its biased portrayal of politics. I agree with some of the general ideas, but I don't know that I would express it as strongly as the columnist who wrote this. Below is a juicy excerpt. What do you think?

"There was no way our forefathers could possibly have foreseen the amount of harm the media could generate today. TV, radio, and the World Wide Web have quite literally become the assault weapons of liberalism's worldview. The American public is no longer being truthfully informed.

"There will be a price to pay for our lack of attention. When all is said and done, the media may cost us everything, including our liberties and freedom. Way too many in the press are agenda-driven, crazed ideologues. A biased presentation is shown nightly on all the mainstream news networks. They taint and slant the political and social issues of the day.

"'We The People' must make them stop. Let's bring them down and force the issue by way of peaceful demonstrations and a boycott of their advertisers. It is about time we began a media blitz of our own. Through concerted action, we can coordinate rallies that end up at the doors of ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, and all their alphabetical affiliates." (Marie Jon, http://www.onenewsnow.com/Perspectives/Default.aspx?id=547130)

Oh my Hannah Montana--He Could be the One Part 1

So, in reading other students' blogs I came to this realization: I'm not the most exciting blog writer. Oh well, what can you do?

Last night I had my first taste (and hopefully my last) of Hannah Montana. Prior to this media class I wouldn't have even known that this TV show existed. I had never heard of it. Did I mention that I'm more than a little media illiterate?

I watched it by special assignment as part of our group project for this class to try and make some final decisions about our coding based on some feedback we received from Dr. Coyne. My wife was nice enough to watch it with me. Neither of us watch TV and although she had heard her third graders talk about it before, she had never seen the show either.

In the end, we probably spent as much time talking about the show after watching as we did watching it. Our verdict was that it was a long 23-24 minutes of fluff and meaninglessness with a poor excuse for a plot. I don't know if we could have handled much more of the show. It felt like every second of it was trying so hard to be funny and entertaining, but it wasn't. It was very fast paced.

Aside from the story line and dialogue of the show, two messages the show gave that we didn't appreciate are 1. Parents are ridiculous in their expectations and you can get your way with them if you try hard enough. Hannah's dad was such a pushover. He was simply a character there to be manipulated by Hannah. 2. You should find the ugliest, most original and immodest clothing you can find and wear it. Holy Hannah's wardrobe had some pretty interesting outfits-- some of which didn't bring the word "modesty" to mind.

Anyways, the show was trying to be a little too cleverly funny for us, but, in reality, the messages could have been much worse. The end

Celebrity

I had an interesting experience Hometeaching two days ago that made me wonder why we value celebrities so much in our culture. To make a long story short, my hometeachee and friend went on and on about his experience with a celebrity idol of his. He was still on cloud nine from the experience and the experience had been three days before. It made me wonder why it made him so happy. What is it about celebrities that make people so interested in them? What makes a celebrity so important that simply seeing them perform in person makes a normal guy's life blissful for several days in a row? I don't have the answers exactly, but I know that part of the effect and power comes from the media.

The Textbook is Right

As I was speed reading through chapter 1 of our textbook a few days ago, I thought of an example that illustrated perfectly some of their points about children and the media. Children experience media differently from adults (because of their cognitive development level) and different from each other as well.

Over Christmas Break my family watched "Night at the Museum II" together. One of my nieces, a five year old, loves my wife and was sitting on my wife's lap during the movie. At certain points in the movie that were humorous and action-packed, my niece was terrified. She would duck her head into my wife and plug her ears at certain parts. Interestingly, the other niece and nephews in the room were not similarly affected. Now I make the connection that my niece's reaction was likely largely due to her cognitive development level.

My Family's Discussion About Facebook

Over this Christmas Break, my family had an interesting discussion about Facebook. There were some avid proponents and some sworn enemies. Interestingly, my oldest brother, who may be a slightly more liberal voice in my conservative family, was the primary sworn enemy. He didn't like the idea that he couldn't control what people posted on his page. He specifically mentioned that he didn't want some high school friend (apparently he had some rowdy high school friends) posting something inappropriate on his page and then have one of his young men (he was a bishop until just a few months ago) see it. A sister-in-law rebutted that with explaining how she had some neat missionary experiences through Facebook.
I don't use Facebook much, but I can see both of their points. I have also been able to use Facebook to sort of check up on my little sister and see if she's doing okay since she has been struggling some lately. However, a month or two ago I got two random friend requests from girls I don't know and when I went to see their request, both of them had close to no clothes on in their profile picture. So, Facebook definitely has pros and cons. Facebook is one example of a form of media that can be used for good and evil. It's not inherently good or bad. Its merit depends on its users use of it.