Presentation

I agree with Nusrat's blog again as I think rehearsing before or presentation helped us all as it allowed us to know what each was saying and allowed us to work out how much time we had to talk and how each of us was feeling before the presentation. As with Nusrat I was nervous before the presentation and also during the presentation as I have done prsentations before rand I dont have the self confidence to stand up in front of people wheter in a group or on my own. Therefore I would like to thank my group for all the hard work they have put into the presentation especially to Julie for putting all our information onto powerpoint slides for us.

Presentation

By rehearsing before the presentation has helped me to perform better. During the presentation I was really nervous as it was my first presentation at university. I think by doing the presentation has helped me to build my confidence to speak out in front of other students. It also helped me with my second presentation for popular text. The area that I need to improve on is to speak a bit slower as I spoke quickly in order to get my point across quickly as the longer I spoke the more nervous I got. The best thing was there were less people in the audience and all listened carefully without interrupting. Overall I think the presentation went really well and I would like to say thank you to all my group members for being really supportive. This module has been good I do admit 'being bad' was a lot better as I found that more interesting compared to 'It shouldn't be allowed'. The time I was really disappointed with this module was the cancellation of 'Jack the ripper walk' as I was really looking forward to it and had made arrangements for it.

Films and violence

In this current time films are becoming more violent even for younger viewers. This is due to violence becoming more acceptable in this civilisation. This can be seen in such things as films taht are now rated 12a may include someone being murdered and i even heard someone say tha in the new Batman movie that they picked somebodies eye out with a pencil. now how can that be shown to children even youngsters under 15, as don't forget people keep saying they follow suit and do what they see. S o are they gonna go an pick somebodies eyes out now because they have seen this. Plus people re ona bout the amount of crime and violence on britains tsreets but is this all been brought on by the violence in which they have watched the film and thin that it is ok for them to go out into the street and do what they see in a film or are they believing that they are protecting themselves from what could happen ut then putting themselves in danger by doing this???
How are we gonna know what is going through a persons mind as you walk past them in the street in a culture that we are living in at the moment you might be walking past someone you have known for a while but for all you know they might be caring a gun with them just in case they think something is going to happen to them on their journey no matter how short it may be, but if you knew would you still look at them the same way again????

Domestic Abuse

Most people will probaly agree that the degree of domestic abuse that happens is much. And as christmas is only four weeks away there are a lot more people out there becoming scared of christmas as this is the time of year when domestic abuse is repoted the least as people try to keep their families together over the festive period.
Beer mats are the latest weapon in the battle against domestic violence across the south of County Durham.
Thousands of them, displaying a list of helplines, are being distributed to pubs and clubs in a bid to encourage victims to seek advice and support.
Durham Police is hoping to reduce the 280 domestic incidents reported each month across the Sedgefield area, Wear Valley and Teesdale.
Nationally three people are killed each week because of violence in the home.
Detectives, social services departments, womens' refuges and two organisations which help survivors of domestic abuse, have joined forces for the campaign.
It coincides with the run-up to Christmas, which can often be a stressful time for families.
Fear and pain
Det Sgt Jim Cunningham, of Durham Police, said the aim was to highlight a crime which even in this day and age could too often stay hidden.
He said: "This is an issue which cuts across class, racial and religious divides.
"It's about getting into the dark areas which the abusers would prefer to stay dark."
Fiona Nichol, director of the women's refuge in Bishop Auckland, said: "As the excitement for Christmas builds there are many families who dread the festive period, as it will be a time of fear and pain.
"We can offer temporary, safe accommodation and support."

Information from: www.bbc.co.uk1/hi/england/7779171.stm

Gender

Even in this civilisation (being 2008), women still see alot of various forms of harrasment. There are various forms of this which still occur, the main way it is seen is that women are still seen as the lower gender compared to men and are treated differently because of this. This happens as men have always been seen as the superior and that thought still goes on today. There are various ways this is done, one of the main ways is publications such as The Sun's Page three as this is showing women as a model to men and therefore men may think that all women are like that. Also, it is not very often that you would possibly find a women in a high position such as a manager or a job equivalent to this, this will be due to men normally taking up such positions as women are seen as the inferior sex. However some would not agree with this as women are now getting better jobs and are trying to make theirselves better in civilisation, thisis mainly beem done through education as women are trying to rid of the inferior sex.

Media

I agree with what Nusrat has said about media portraying violence as a higher and more violent time than what it is. As Nusrat has said there are various ways that violence and terrorism is portrayed through the media and other forms such as the internet and other forms.
Another way that the media gets its point across is by people reading and listening to the theories but then this will get spread around by people talking to others. This will therefore allow the news and the theories to be transported around various places through word of mouth as well as just through various channels of the media.

Baudrillard 'suggests that we do not hate the Other- the radically other, we merely hate the other- as transcribed and signified through the code.' Does Obama fit into this category as he is hated by many because he is seen as the other? Its not just Obama's race but also his religion that has created or the hatred. If Obama does fit this otherness then Baudrillards solution to this is 'never question others about their identity...there is no such thing as oneself, nor is there any call for such a thing: everything comes from the other (Baudrillard, The Transparency of Evil, 1993:142-148).

BARACK OBAMA

A good example of the media stirring hatred is on Barack Obama before he was elected. The broadsheets published free magazines on Obama' s life history with their papers. Questions then started to arise if he was a Muslim as it was published in news articles, radio and and the Internet. This then led to some offensive comments made by the public and someone said "Obama is a terrorist in disguise".

Hillary Clinton used the media to stir up hatred too as she published pictures of Obama in a turban when he went to Kenya. People then started to assume that he was a Muslim because he was dressed as one and had a Muslim middle name 'Hussain'. Obama denies that he is a Muslim and says he is a Christian and that his father was a Muslim but he himself as brought up as a Christian. There are a couple of sites below that contain comments from the public on Obama.

http://www.danielpipes.org/article/5286

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-518585/Obama-turban-Barack-accuses-Hillary-smear-campaign-circulating-photos-dressed-Muslim-html


There were also issues about Obama's race as he is the first black/mixed race president. People are prejudice against him and similar prejudice existed in Freud's time because he was Jewish and was


seen as different, as diseased, as culturally incomplete. The category
of race had a real meaning for Freud through out his life, and it was
closely associated with the field of science. But the initial impetus for
the construction of these categories antedated Freud's formal
studies at the university of Vienna. Freud was made to realize this
attitude as early as his high school years. He noted that "In the higher
classes i began to understand for the first time what it meant to belong
to an alien race, and anti-Semitic feelings among the other boys warned
me that i must take up a definite position". As he told the nationalist
German-American journalist George Sylvester Viereck in 1926: "My
language... is German, my culture, my attainments are German. I
considered myself German intellectually, until i noticed the growth of
anti-Semitic prejudices in Germany and German Austria. Since that time,
i prefer to call myself a Jew".


Freud was labeled as a 'black' Jew but he wanted to believe that he was a 'white' Jew. ' A story is ascribed to him in which he was confronted with the question whether he was "all red" (a socialist) or "all black" (an Austro-fascist). He answered that "it was enough if a man were flesh-colored'.



Gilman, S, Freud, Race, and Gender
(Princeton),Princeton University Press, 1993

Media, violence and controlling the mind

The media portrays images of violence in many ways and it controls the mind. The producers think about the money they can make out of publishing violence related sources. By doing this it is sucking in consumers and controlling the mind. The media is like a big hole and we are all being sucked into it whether we want to or not. There is not a single person that is not controlled by the media. There is no way out of it as they suck in the audience by advertising violence by using special effects in order to make it more exciting and interesting for the audience.

We are not just controlled by the media via news but through others forms such as:
*News papers
*Books
*Magazines
*Television
*Radio
*Internet
*CDs
*DVDs
*VHS
*Computer games
*Billboards
*Posters
*And other form of publishing

Media has taken over our lives in many ways. If people say we don’t watch the news therefore we're not controlled by the media. Little do they realise that they cannot avoid the media altogether as it comes in many forms and is everywhere. People might read a certain magazine, listen to music or surf the net day in day out which shows that they are controlled through those sources instead. The posters and billboards around us are something that we cannot avoid as they are eye catching and on almost every street corner. They give out messages and influence on what products to buy, do certain things and behave in a certain way. The worst thing is that a lot of them use women for these advertisements showing a lot of flesh. This portrayal of women shows that they are seen as sex objects and can lead to violence towards women.

According to Breena “It actually has been estimated that by the age of 18, the average young person will have 200, 000 acts of violence on television alone” and she then goes onto say:

Whoever controls the media controls the culture that elects

the politicians who appoint the judges, who shape our political,

social, Legal rules, laws, and spiritual worldview. According to

Caryl productions, the media controls our government which

controls us, but it doesn’t stop at politics, it’s everything. Media

influences our views on race, gender, politics and body images,

as well as many other views. Media’s ability to influence people

is obvious for the simple fact that media is everywhere. Nowadays

media is our culture. All of us are swayed in one way or another by

the many varieties of media we see each day.

The quote above is taken from the website below it has some more useful information on media and violence and the controlling of the mind.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/34608/does-media-affect-us-bw-3rd-hr-o7


I have seen how the media has affected children. Children are more likely to imitate what they see through the media. The media portrays a lot of violence especially violent games which contributes to the violent behaviour of the children. I have spoken to a few parents and they find it difficult to get their children to do their homework because they are so absorbed in their games and television. If the games were taken off them and they were not allowed to watch television then the children would become aggressive. This shows how the media is slowly controlling young minds by the use of different forms of media.


The most famous psychological studies of children and aggressive behaviour are Albert Bandura's Bobo doll studies, which are now widely regarded as early research classics in the field. These were experimental studies in which children of nursery school age observed a playroom in which an adult was hitting, punching, kicking and throwing a large inflatable doll. Particular actions were used (such as using a hammer and saying 'Pow... boom... boom') which children would be unlikely to perform spontaneously. The children were then observed as they played alone in the playroom with the doll for 10 to 20 minutes. A control group of children was allowed to play with the doll without observing the aggressive adult behaviour. As one might expect, the children who witnessed the adult aggression performed similar acts; the others did not. In a series of studies, Bandura and his colleagues have shown that children display novel acts of aggressive behaviour which they have acquired simply through observing someone else engaged in these acts. http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Modules/TF33120/tv-violence_and_kids.html

http://www.rense.com/general69/mass.htm
http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/issues/violence/index.cfm

Hello girls,
This is all really exciting stuff!! As i've never taken part in a blog before i thought i'd peruse the internet looking for some information about what to do.
Here's what i found out:
A woman named Kathy Sierra who was a programming instructor and game developer created a blog called, 'Creating Passionate Users'. If you want to read it, here's the link: http://headrush.typepad.com/ It caused such an outrage that she had to cancel a public appearance at a conference in San Diego due to threatening blog posts and e-mails, including death threats.
This lead to a bloggers, 'code of conduct' which is:
1. Take responsibility not just for your own words, but for the comments you allow on your blog.
2. Label your tolerance level for abusive comments.
3. Consider eliminating anonymous comments.
4. Ignore the trolls.
5. Take the conversation offline, and talk directly, or find an intermediary.
6. If you know someone who is behaving badly, tell them so.
7. Don't say anything online that you wouldn't say in person.
You can find more details at: http:radar.oreily.com/archives/2007/04draft-bloggers-1.html
Also, check out Robert Scoble, he has very outspoken views and was surprised at the hostility he found towards women. This is an interesting point, was the hostility because the author was a woman or was it because the blogs are in some ways detached from reality. The person making the comments is not actually interacting with a human being, it's just a computer, isn't it?
Also, have a look on some of the message boards at Virgin Media.com or other similar sites. It never ceases to amaze me the level of hatred vented towards someone else who doesn't agree with what's been written. Check it out, it's fascinating. Julie Grice

VIOLENCE AND HATRED

Violence and hatred in our society is increasing. According to Freud "In reality there is no such thing as 'eradicating' evil'. I agree with him as we cannot eradicate evil but i think we can reduce it. Evilness is spreading like a disease which has no cure but can be controled up to a certain extent depending on the severity of the problem. There are some people within our society that create hatred and violence in order to please themselves. Sometimes people may not realise that they are violent as they might think that it is the norm form example if someone had a violent upbringing they are psychologically affected. The violence will become part of their lives and slowly infect society. Therfore it will be a continous process that cannot be eradicated.