To say Facebook is just an online community is like saying Bush is just a little out of touch with reality. Facebook started as a way for college students to network and keep in touch and in the span of 3 years it has grown to about 25 million members. It has become a strange addition to our daily routines, maybe even somewhat of an addiction. My own quest to stem my Facebook dependency lasted a whopping two days. It’s become second nature for me to sit at the breakfast table, sip my coffee, finish my crossword then immediately login to Facebook before heading out the door.

Facebook is a stalker’s dream come true. It’s actually kind of scary how easy it is to track someone’s life. I’ve been taken aback by how quickly word spreads too, random acquaintances would ask me about things and I would wonder how they even knew about it. Further amusement comes from the fact that the simple utterance of the word “Facebook” qualifies as a legitimate all encompassing “enough said” type answer.

“Facebook?”
“Facebook.”
“Ah. yes.”

On top of the already unexplainable addictiveness of good old Facebook, those clever little devils have just recently added an array of applications to steal more of my free time.

I’ve been able to keep in touch with old friends I haven’t seen since grade school. And it’s made remembering my co-worker’s names a whole lot easier, all 200 of them. That would mean less awkward “Heeeeey….youuu” moments. Bless you sweet addictive Facebook.

I myself find it equally amusing how shamelessly addicted I am. I can waste away my hours and couldn’t for the life of me explain how I did it. I find myself wondering if Facebook will lose its novelty and soon fade away into Friendster-like oblivion. In the meantime I’ll happily enjoy wasting away my hours until someone offers up a 12 step program to help me with my addiction.

Reporters Without Borders 2006 report on press freedom reveals the harsh realities that journalists are facing around the world for the sake of bearing witness to the truth. Some pay the ultimate price. This begs the question: Why do journalists struggle so hard, sometimes even risking their own lives, to get the story? We don't need to look very far for recent examples of this. Journalists in our own city are compromising their safety to bring a little justice to citizens' lives. Check out Peter Silverman's (from City TV's Silverman Helps) brush with a crooked business man with a temper: Is it worth endangering ones' life to get the scoop?

When justice is circumvented it is often simply because we are unaware. It is not that we are ignorant of a particular world issue as a whole; it is just that that particular situation seems like a faceless giant too big to tackle all at once. There are billions of people on this earth with just as many untold stories of cruelty, hidden lies, and evil that have gone unreported and unnoticed.
Reporters give these a face and provide us with a cause to stand by.

Reporters have always faced censorship by governments. By venturing into these dangerous situations not only do they face the wrath of the corrupt governments but also that of several other non-governmental parties also involved. Reporters Without Borders, an international organization that advocates freedom of press reported the killings of 81 journalists and 32 media assistants in 2006, the highest numbers since 1994. There is an even more appalling number of physical attacks, kidnappings, and arrests.

We have reached a technological age and now with a greater choice of media outlets, many more are voicing their opinions. With the internet comes the possibility of instant reporting and updates of ongoing crises all over the world. Even with statistics showing elevating levels of danger, an increasing number of reporters are crossing into hostile environments and are willingly putting themselves at risk for a story. These journalists realize that they must immerse themselves to truly understand the story rather than being simple outside observers with generalized opinions.

It can be argued that all reporters are working for the money, the glory of a good story and the fame that comes along with it. This is true in many cases but a select few reporters who endanger their own lives for the sake of outing an injustice should be considered heroes in their own right.

Are you ready to change the world?

I’ll be the first to admit, the minute I flip to an article on global warming, or pretty much any sort of environmental issue, I quickly turn the page. I mean, I’m quite sure that I’m not the only one who has secretly daydreamed of clouting that obnoxious environmental activist, spouting his ideals, over the head with an environmentally friendly bat.

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It’s because of this fantasy of mine that it is pretty serious when I say that, in regards to the issue of global warming, I’ve definitely been converted. So what new information could I have possibly immersed myself in that has brought on such a shift in ideals? It was Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth. If you haven’t seen this documentary already it is something that will change your mind, guaranteed. Take it from a (former) chronic, apathetic ignorer of all things environmental.

Many remember Al Gore as the man who ran against (and unfortunately lost to) our favorite American, President George Bush. Rather than slink back into obscurity, he has stepped forward to take on the challenge of educating young people, professionals, and the American government of the perils we are spiraling carelessly into at an alarming rate.
It may appear at times that global warming is creeping up on us slowly and so does not call for our immediate attention, but truthfully it is a planetary emergency. If we continue emitting carbon into our atmosphere at the same rate, our oceans may revert back to the same chemical balance it was 300 million years ago, and all in this lifetime. In fact, some leading scientific experts believe that unless some dramatic changes are made, we could be approaching a point of no return within the next 10 years. Entire cities, states, and countries will disappear into the ocean, displacing millions.

Gore is doing it right; it’s as if he’s broken out of his stuffy political shell. He is appealing to students and the younger generation. He finds in the youth an open mind willing to listen to the realities of the world. This is striking in contrast to the older generations who are downplaying the urgency of the situation. He recognizes them as the people who will one day take up the reigns of government, and in them he sees the potential for change, the belief that this task is not too big, and more importantly, it is not too late. His goal is to educate the world about this climate crisis one person at a time, one city at time, one family at a time until we cross the threshold where as a combined force we can make a difference before it is too late.

Gore is not fighting an easy fight, that’s for sure; it is definitely one that faces a frustrating history and sometimes, blatant ignorance. Scientists have been silenced, persecuted, ridiculed, and put out of a job just because their facts led to an inconvenient truth. Then you have Fox News hiring “scientific experts” who claim that global warming is a scare tactic used to grab more money out of the pockets of the American people. Some politicians have even gone as far as to say global warming is one of the greatest hoaxes perpetrated on the American people… You’re kidding, right? No wonder so many of us are sitting back thinking global warming means a few less winter days.

As soon as we accept what is going on, we can work towards change. It may seem like an insurmountable task, but the solution is so much closer than we have been made to believe. The solutions offered to us seem impossibly expensive and too impractical to implement but there are companies who have already taken up the cause and cut gas emissions and saved money while doing it. Following in their example other companies have been working aggressively to stake out economic prospects in a clean-energy future.

Future generations are going to look back and ask why we didn’t make a big enough difference while we still had a fighting chance. It is imperative that we wake up and ask ourselves the same question before it is too late. Things aren’t going to work themselves out eventually. We can’t sit here like naïve fools waiting for someone else to do something, this has to be a global effort. What’s at stake? Our future on this Earth. I recommend that you take some time out of your busy day to watch this documentary, and if it still hasn’t changed your mind I’ll gladly let you chase me with that eco-friendly bat.

Journal Entry Question #4 Reuters is an international, mainstream news provider. What does such an incident do for Reuters' reputation? What do you think about the fact that a blogger (an independent journalist) was the first to uncover the story? How does this change your view of mainstream media vs. independent media?

First off, let's look at the first aspect of Noam Chomsky's propaganda model, ownership of the media. We must face the fact that all the major media channels or the "mainstream media" is controlled by those big corporations. These are all the streams of media that reach us, those who have the tools to do so. Knowing this, we also know that the media channels are obligated to protect their corporation’s assets or interests.

We see this in “Outfoxed”. Fox’s news flow is controlled. If anyone is interested in what a giant pain in the ass O’Reilly really is, pick up this month’s GQ magazine. It contains an interview of many of the Democrats and activists that have been on the O’Reilly factor.

What is the difference between mainstream and independent media? One thing that is quite obvious but must be pointed out is that mainstream media is sort of forced upon us. News channels are so readily available and easily accessible. We know where to find them, they are constantly on tv, newstands... In order for us to reach an independent news source we must seek them out on our own (ex: online blogs). Authors of these types of media don't have the resources that those large corporations employ. They can’t even effectively publicize their existence.

What is good about independent media? They don’t have any large corporations to answer to and could very well provide better news. But it is all relative, because although they do not have ulterior motives (or at least any that are geared towards a company's financial assets). They again do not have the resources to fly to war-torn countries to report news first hand. This means that many of their sources are secondary sources. What do they do provide is a check for those mainstream media sources. We can rely on them to question the mainstream media, so that whatever is said by them is seen as not absolute and certainly not seen as absolutely true. Very obviously the photo altering incident would have a negative impact on Reuters' reputation as a dependable and unbiased news source. Absolutely no mainstream news source is unbiased, but here's the catch, they must seem to be. If you're caught then your supposed professional integrity is shattered. Waaay to go Reuters! But I mean really, they do have how many years of news reporting under their belt, and probably a very good (and expensive) PR team and can probably escape this scandal, and besides, the public seems to have a very short memory.

As for how this incident has changed my view of mainstream vs independent media, I can say it hasn’t done much. I still see both in the same way. But I am very glad to see there are people out there ready and waiting to point out the mainstream media’s mistakes. It is almost a sort of David vs Goliath type scenario, the little independent blogger and the big bad scary news corporation. Nice aim “little green footballs”, you pretty much hit him square between the eyes.

To Reuters: hahaa, oh my, thousands of dollars and you can't even create billowing smoke properly. Come on! i recommend photoshop cs for dummies. enjoy. If anything, you can use it as a nice coffee table coaster.

Another website you might want to read is:
http://www.chomsky.info/articles/199710--.htm