Mass Media in our life

I’ve read an article called “Mass Media in our life”. This article tells us about influence and importance of mass media in our daily life, about TV, about The Internet and etc.

Mass media can be used for various purposes: advocacy, both for business and social concerns. This can include advertising, marketing, propaganda, public relations, and political communication. Entertainment, traditionally through performances of acting, music, and sports, along with light reading. Since the late 20th century also through video and computer games. Journalism is the discipline of collecting, analyzing, verifying and presenting information regarding current events, trends, issues and people. Those who practice journalism are known as journalists. Electronic media and print media include: Broadcasting, in the narrow sense, for radio and television. Many instances of various types of recorded discs or tapes. In the 20th century, these were mainly used for music. Video and computer uses followed. Film, most often used for entertainment, but also for documentaries.

Most newspapers contain news, detailed articles on home and international affairs, reviews of books, art and TV shows. Many of them also cover sports events. In the USA daily newspapers are published in 34 different languages. The Internet has recently become another important source of information. Its main advantage is that news appears on the screen as soon as things happen in real life and you don't have to wait for news time on TV. TV is one of the best inventions the man ever made. We are really beginning to forget what the world was without TV. Everybody knows what a great force is TV in the world today. We become better informed by watching documentaries, science programs, discussions and political issues of the day. TV gives us opportunities to see the best actors, sport matches, to meet famous people. TV brings the world to our room. TV helps us to relax after a hard days work.

As for me, I completely agree with the author of this article. Nobody in our days can imagine his life without any of these aspects of our life (TV, Internet, newspapers). And do you agree with my opinion? Can you imagine your life without mass media? Are you agree that it’s very important part of our life?

The article on the topic of mass media/language peculiarities

I’ve just read an article on the rt.com. It’s called “China’s no pun zone: Regulator cracks down on internet slang in media” and, as it was published today, it’s very updated and touches burning issues.

The topic of the article is Chinese language in mass media. The author (Carlos Barria) tells us that broadcasters were ordered to conform to regular Chinese language in programs and ads, virtually prohibiting use of wordplay and puns that are borrowed from foreign languages or disfigure Chinese proverbs.

SARFT (or The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television) considers the use of non-standard Chinese language by the media to be “contradictory in spirit to the promotion and continuance of excellent, traditional Chinese culture.” That’s why it’s necessary for radio and TV authorities to take severe measures against inaccurate use of the Chinese language.

A lot of attention was paid to Chinese idioms and proverbs, which are often misused. It’s inadmissible because they contain cultural heritage and great moral and ideological values.

Moreover, author attracts our attention to a large number of homophones in Chinese, due to which the language is very convenient for puns, wordplay, and which lead to quite rude humor.

One of the reasons of such language evolution, in which traditional sayings lose their esteem and many borrowings are introduced, is the Internet. This is especially true for younger generations. A lot of new words were invented by use of borrowings from other languages, especially from English. The author gives us an interesting example of “Chinsumer”. That means “a Chinese person spending a lot of money on luxuries while traveling abroad.” And such words become more and more popular. SARFT wants mass media to avoid this internet slang in order that youth won’t get false ideas about their native language and culture.

However, there are other opinions concerning this topic.  Huang Anjing, executive editor of Yaowen-Jiaozi, is among the people who consider such rules important, but see them as too draconian and overly conservative. He points out that this slang enriched our lives. There are other quotations, showing that language evolution shouldn’t be denied, that new rules are excessively severe.

In the end of the article, the author says about Russian laws concerning language, giving as an example the foolish idea of banning all words of non-Russian origin borrowed since the 1990s from the media. Fortunately, this initiative failed.

Nevertheless, Russia prohibited swearwords from the media in summer this year. The rule affects bloggers as well, since blogs with a number of readers over a certain threshold are considered media outlets.

As for me, I think that language is a part of culture and we must protect it, but the process of its evolution is unavoidable and it is not as harmful as it’s thought to be. Of course, there are good sides. For instance, many borrowed words are very innovative; they embellish our language and not spoil it. They can mean and expess things that have no proper names in our language. Moreover, I think pans and wordplay could be just funny and not offensive. However, the native language shouldn’t be forgotten, we mustn’t replace all words by the new ones.

I believe that we must bring up and educate children in order they don’t neglect their history and culture, but that should be done not by prohibitions but by development and dissemination of classic language.

I offer all of you to read this article. Here’s the link.

What do you think about language evolution? About such prohibitions which are discussed in China? How should we protect our language? I'll be glad to listen to your opinions. 

Mass media

http://www.opinion-maker.org/2011/01/mass-media-and-its-influence-on-society/

We're under Mass media's control

              The mass media has the huge influence on the society. Every day we receive information from the various sources of a broadcasting: newspapers, television, radio, cinema and the Internet. This information has both favorable influence and destroying. On the one hand, the function of the mass media has informative character that promotes expansion of our outlook, also the mass media participates in socialization of society, its role as a link with the outside world is indisputable. But on the other hand, the mass media influences harmful on the weak children's mentality, and society turns into a consumer society.

We trust own intuition, experience and knowledge too little. But we take on trust everything that the media broadcasts to us. The adverts on TV, billboards often define our choice upon purchase of the next goods. Often the advertising convinces that you need something for expression of own identity, as a result there is a "mainstream". The media participates in ours psychological education. Children early get acquainted with the scenes of violence and erotic character, certainly leaving a trail in the still weak minds. The mass media forms our ideals, values and mass opinion.

It seems to me that in the near future the complete control over thinking, described in George Orwell's novel "1984", is possible. The informative globalization is unavoidable. 

Do you share my point of view? Could you give some examples of the media's influence according to your own experience?

Text neck: how smartphones are damaging our spines

 http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/shortcuts/2014/nov/24/text-neck-how-smartphones-damaging-our-spines
I've just read an article called "Text neck: how smartphones are damaging our spines". This article was published in The Guardian. It was written by Homa Khaleeli. I think this article is very actual for us, because everyone has a smartphone and spends too much time with it.
The author of the article gives us the results of the new research carried out by a US doctor. He says that its really hard for our neck always look down on the phone and it can lead to damage. It can cause head pain or neck pain. Also Homa Khaleeli gives us a graphic. It shows us how to keep the head right and wrong. The best way is to look forward, not drop your chin on to your chest. We can see some pieces of advice from Sammy Margo from the UK’s Chartered Society of Physiotherapy. She advices people to call each other but not to write so many messages. In the end of the article the author says "It is not the first time we have been warned about the dangers of texting". And I do agree with this statement. Texting damages our eyes too.
But today we can't imagine our life without smartphone and people will use it anyway. We don't afraid of this harm until we get it. I think it's almost normal to have a health problems when you are 45, but when children have all this deseases from their smartfpones it's awfull. They get tired of looking down in a copybook or in a book, but then they look in their phones and tired more. So, I think, parents shouldn't buy smartphones to their little children.

As for adults,  they should decide for themselves - to stop text messages or not. I won't. It's very useful and fast. Also, the spine of grown-up people is not so weak. Nothing wrong in itself with bending forward to use a smartphone, laptop, tablet or read a book. The problem comes in because so many people, especially young ones, aren't doing anything much else, for at least several hours a day. 

So, how many hours a day do you use your smartphone? Does it hurt you? Will you stop texting because of this researces?

The article on the topic of foreign policy

The article on the topic of foreign policy

http://rt.com/politics/208615-foreigners-biometric-fingerprinting-russian/
http://rt.com/politics/russia-hiv-aids-fingerprinting-828/

I've read an article called "Putin orders fingerprinting of all foreigners arriving in Russia". It was published on the RT.COM on November 25. It was written by Igor Zarembo. The author draws us a real picture of tense situation in Russia.

The main purpose of this article is to show us a variant of fighting illegal immigration and terrorism. He tells us about biometric registration using fingerprinting of all foreign citizens and persons without citizenship who receive entry visas. This new order was signed by President Putin. This law will enter into force on December 10 but Russian diplomats are instructed to inform foreign countries about the new rules before December 5. Igor explains us the benefits of the given law. First of all, it helps our Interior Ministry in identifying people and fighting with crime. Another benefit is banning people who use new fake documents. Also fingerprinting will reflect the information about people with dangerous diseases and the creation of a national database. Such system of fingerprinting should be set up on all borders of Russia but the author informs us that it is very expensive for our country.

In my opinion, our country needs such system of identifying people. I have some reasons FOR this system. First of all, Russia is the biggest country in the world, as we know, so it is very hard to control all its regions and parts, so fingerprinting helps the officers and the President to govern the country better. Secondly, the level of crime, migrants and terrorism grows every year unfortunately. I’m sure this system helps to increase the security of our country. Moreover, there are a lot of people with dangerous and fatal diseases all over the world. Every year scientists fight with new outbreaks of deadly and viral diseases which are transmitted in different ways and infect people. So this system is necessary for our country because it protects the health of Russian people. But of course every system has its own disadvantages. The human rights defenders will say that it is an invasion of privacy and offence against the law. Also the whole project promised to be very expensive and hardly justifiable from an economic point of view. And from my point of view I think that other countries will rebel and it will undermine our political system.

Finally, I want to ask my groupmates, do you think is it a good idea to create such system in our country? Is it really necessary for Russia? Will it really protect us from the deadly diseases and terrorism?

The article on the topic of social behaviour/art

Hello, my suscribers!

I've just read an article on the website of a TV channel "France 24". The article is called "'Human Zoo' exhibition comes to Paris amid racism row". 
It was written by Tony Todd and Charlotte Boitiaux.
The article really impressed me. I have, I'd say,a double-feeling, if I can say that. So, let me tell you about this "Human Zoo".
First of all, I must admit that this "Exhibition B" was forbidden in London. This is a kind of an art show which shows us black actors in cages. Slavery times. The director of this exhibition is Brett Bailey from South Africa.
The authors tell us that this perfomance is supposed to be a thought-provoking look at the 19th-and 20th-century practice of exhibiting people from the colonies in human zoos for public amusement (you can see some pictures).
Of course, there are two points of view on this situation. Some people are for, others - against.
It's necessary to underline, that the exhibition is going to take place in two districts where a big part of non-white population lives: at the Theatre Gerard Philipe at Saint Denis, and the Centquatre cultural centre in northern Paris. Bailey insists "Exhibit B" aims to improve awareness of the racism of Europe's colonial past.

Protest against Exhibit B at the Barbican, Waterloo station

Of course, as the authors emphasise, not everyone agrees with the idea. There are some opinions in the article from the comments on website change.org.
People deny this exhibition saying that it's a kind of racism, it's a horror show which is like an insult to the people living in such conditions where they are forced to confront and understand racism on a daily basis.

The "Exhibit B" was shown in France, 2013, without any controversy. But it faced a storm of protest and 25.000 people have already sined the petition agains it. The authors quote the lecturer Dr Kehinde Andrews who called "Exhibit B" an example of art that crosses the line into racial exploitation and abuse.
Also, he said: "If you pay to see it you are colluding in the worst kind of racial abuse; that which is done in the pretence (or worse, the belief) that it is progressive."

Do you agree with his statement? I don't know. It's hard to say - is it a good idea of "Human Zoo" or not.
I think that this is a kind of modern art. It's a bit something extraordinary and truthful. The exhibition tells people and all super-extra-tolerant Europe about the past which nobody should forget. Even its some disgraceful moments. And I do understand the black population, 'cause they are against it - they don't want to see what their ancestors felt centuries ago.

Look attentively at the pictures connected with the exhibition. What can you say about it? Is it a good idea? Would you like to be in actors' shoes? To show the past and all the shame moments when African people were to exhibit themselves?
Besides, this perfomance has been in Moscow recently. Would you go there? Or you support the point of view which was pointed by Dr Kehinde Andrews? I'll be very glad to hear and see your opinions.

If you hold an interest in this article then I put the link here http://www.france24.com/en/20141119-human-zoo-exhibition-comes-paris-amid-racism-row-france-art/

Gestures.

My topic for analysis is Gestures. The headline of the article, which I will talk about, is "Gestures to Avoid in Cross-Cultural Business: In Other Words, 'Keep Your Fingers to Yourself!". It was written by Gayle Cotton, the author of 'Say Anything to Anyone Anywhere: 5 Keys to Successful Cross-Cultural Communication'.  You can read the whole article here: 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gayle-cotton/cross-cultural-gestures_b_3437653.html

The main purpose of this very article is to give the reader new information about gestures. The article describes different approaches to the same gestures, signs and mimic ways of expression thoughts in different countries. The author made a list of such differences. People use many of them in everyday life without any notice, they just don't pay much attention to them. Gayle Cotton wrote that our body language often conveys more than the words we use. And, at times, it can completely change. After the enumerating different combinations of fingers and their meanings, author comes to the conclusion that whatever country you visit, you should remember about its traditions and habits. And if you don’t know what the concrete gesture means, you’d better not use this sign at all in order not to offend people around. Gestures have such a profound influence on communication that it really is best to keep your fingers to yourself.

As for me, I completely agree with the author. Some mistakes in using unsuitable gestures can redound on you. I found this article very interesting and useful for everyone. Knowing of gestures is very important for people. Moreover, gestures brighten our communication, they promote better understanding as they help us to make the situation clear. If you know gestures, you almost know the main part of the different nation culture. In this article I found a lot of new information and I suppose in one day it’ll be on use!

And in the conclusion I want to ask my groupmates: Do you think it’s important to know gestures? And how often do you use them in your everyday life? Do you really pay much attention to them?

An article about social behaviour

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/conservation/11229345/The-bins-are-overflowing-in-litterbug-Britain.html
  I've chosen the article, that is called 'The bins are overflowing in litterbug Britain'. It was published in the Telegraph by Robert Colvile. This article covers an updating problem of  the environmental pollution, which is caused by people, who leave rubbish in the streets of Great Britain, who don't  tend to be polite to their country.
  When we have a first look at this article, we see an unpleasant picture of heap of the rubbish in the street. The author emphasizes that the rubbish is everywhere: at the bus stops, in the streets, in the buses.  Robert Colvile also gives us statistics, that the amount of what people throw away 'has grown by 500 per cent '. It's a disaster, even when British campaign 'Keep Britain Tidy'  tries to save Britain from litter, 'fly-tipping has spiked dramatically, with the total of 852,000 incidents in 2013/14 representing a 20 per cent increase within a year'. One of the main problem, that causes street littering, is appearing of the fast food.  Baroness Bakewell believes that street eating makes people just to throw the food wrappers, wherever they are. Also, Phil Barton, chief executive of Keep Britain Tidy, adds, that rubbished streets have an atmosphere of poverty.What about the litterers, statistics shows us, that about 27 per cent of people relieves themselves, when they throw the rubbish in the streets, that this kind of litter may be biodegradable. About a half of British people faces the problem, where they can leave their wrappers, when there is a lack of bins, so they throw them in the streets. But on the other hand, when a person who notices, that the street is clean, tries to find a bin and leaves the place as clean as it was.To find out the cause of such people behaviour,  Camden Council and Keep Britain Tidy removed the bins and clean-up crews from just one side of a busy London street. In about 10 hours it was full of rubbish, even though there were bins on the other side of the street.
   I think this problem is very urgent nowadays. In the century of smart devices, we behave like barbarians. Moreover, not only Britain is sinking in the rubbish, for example, streets, houses, bus stops, even parks sometimes are full of litters in Russia. It' s very sad to admit the fact, that  fines, signs, lectures don't affect on some people. However, I think, now people try to understand, that it's more pleasant to live in clean, beautiful town. For example, in Tula I saw piles of rubbish everywhere, but then bins were placed and I noticed, that my town is going to be clean. I know, that there are also some competitions are held, in which people paint their houses, plant flowers there. I believe, it will be nice, if there will be more such competitions. But does it help people to get rid of the habit to litter or is it just a temporary decision of this problem? What are ways out people should make up and will it work?

Education

http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/nov/07/-sp-do-young-people-care-about-learning-foreign-languages-data
  I have read the article called “Do young people care about learning foreign languages?” that was published in The Guardian on 7th of November. It was written by Holly Young. I have chosen it, because this topic is very interesting for me, as I am studying English now, the most prevalent and the most widely used language. In this case, why should Englishmen learn the other languages? What persuade them to learn German, Japanese or Russian, for example? This article helped me to find answers on these questions.
     Holly Young gives us a wide research conducted for the Guardian and British Academy by the polling organization ICM. It paints a far more nuanced picture of youth attitudes towards learning of foreign languages in the UK. 1001 young people between the ages of 14-24 interviewed the survey, and the results of it are presented in the article. The first key observation from it is “the main benefit of learning a language is getting a job abroad”. It also includes other reasons for studying languages, and it was not surprisingly for me to see such causes and numbers. The second one shows us downsides to learning a language. These data convinced me that Englishmen really want to study other languages, despite the fact that they are native speakers of the most international language ever. They just face to some difficulties, such as complicated grammar, vocabulary and others. The next pair of observations includes the reasons of refusing pupils to study a foreign language at GCSE and students’ abilities in the language they have studied. And here again I can point out that a foreign language is one of the most difficult subjects at school. Moreover, even if you study it hard, its level lives much to be desired. Evidences of my words you can find in the observation. The last statistic gives us information about things which persuade Englishmen to study foreign languages. This survey is “food for thought for the current review of A-level languages” – Holly Young.
      To sum it up, this article is absolutely complete, it covers its topic perfectly well and granted answers on my questions. In my opinion, all surveys are true and provide the full picture of language education in UK. This article helped me to look at English language from another side, from the side of native speakers, and also I found out what are the most efficient and interesting activities for pupils, which I will use in my future work.
       Speaking about statistics, what encourage you to study languages? Is it easy for you to learn new languages? If no, what are the difficulties? 

Health

http://www.bbc.com/news/health-29755469


I’ve chosen an article on the topic “Health” with the heading ‘Have the Danes cracked childhood obesity?’.  It’s published on the BBC.COM website on November 8. The Author, Malcolm Brabant, draws our intention at the problem of Childhood obesity. This problem is a worldwide epidemic, but now there’s a scheme that ‘helps children shed pounds by asking them and their families to make numerous lifestyle changes’.  This scheme was successfully adopted in Denmark and helped  70% of patients to maintain normal weight by adjusting about 20 elements of their lifestyles. The main strategies are:  plate proportions for dinner should be half vegetables, a quarter brown rice, pasta or potatoes, and a quarter low fat fish or meat , no fast food or white bread for lunch; choose brown bread, meat, fish and vegetables instead , limit juice, iced tea, cocoa, soda or lemonade to once weekly - only half a litre in total , free physical activities like walking/biking after school, walking the dog or trampolining .Dr Jens Christian Holm in his interview says that children suffering of obesity are neglected and Danish doctors create the environment and tools with which the children and their families can overcome this problem. By the way of illustration, doctor tells about two boys who succeed in their common problem. The first, Jakob, weighed 72 kilos at the beginning of the program. His habit to eat sweets for comfort and passing the passive time by sitting at the computer and lazing around persisted for a long time, but then he could change it with the help of this scheme and  the family . The same was with another boy - Mike Nelausen. "Sadly, we experienced time and again, that it was difficult to recruit and motivate families. Now we see that we have finally found a method that works and families have really embraced", says Rikke Christensen, a health visitor.

Children changed their eating habits, their manner of spending time and they got a success. ‘The program isn't easy. But the results are gratifying’, says Dr Holm, believing that this scheme will be extending across the whole planet.
In my opinion, this article is worth reading. It’s pleasant to know that lots of suffering children got through such an awkward illness like the obesity. I completely agree with Malcolm Brabart’s words that obesity is ‘a global epidemic, but it is not easy to treat’. The cause of this problem is deep inside the child’s head and to overcome it there’s need  to recruit and motivate the whole families. The hardest thing is to make the first step. It becomes easier when you’re not alone in your fighting that’s why the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention appeared. The result is 70% of patients maintained their weight loss for four years. It’s amazing that this success rate was achieved with an average of just over five hours of medical consultation per child per year. Danish doctors made a great breakthrough to the happy healthy future and I believe that other countries would establish similar treatment programs. Do you think that the same centers will appear in other countries? Is it essential to help children in fighting with their obesity and why?

 

The article on the topic of Art

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/from-cinderella-to-the-jungle-book-disney-plans-liveaction-remakes-of-animated-classics-9812403.html

Disney cartoons are something very classic (and classy) for all of us since they have been a precious part of our childhood days. And nowadays, as the industry is searching for the new ways of cinema developing, a new trend seems to take place. In order to gain more attention from the younger generations and provide the older ones with a nice reason to feel nostalgic, the Disney company (plus Warner Bros., Universal etc. in a row) shoots the remakes which very often are perceived with the mismashed feelings. So, is it acceptable or not to produce the remakes? The article gives us both pros and cons of the idea.

First of all, I would like to say that the article is very interesting from the point of re-thinking on the conception of the classic children films that are very familiar to each of us. Have we ever thought that one day they shall be remade? It's very likely that we haven't. Anyway, I haven't. And since the topic is being brought up, why not think on its positive sides? We should accept the fact that the younger, the contemporary movie-goers would not, perhaps, feel the same watching the old cartoons. And in this case the Hollywood remakes may help the modern children to get to know the immortal classics. If there are modern stories, then probably they would be prepared for the initial works! Undoubtedly, the critics would inevitably discuss the 'cash' points, and I'm pretty sure that, like the latest premiers of Alice and Maleficent, they would get a very beneficial box office. Nonetheless, we don't have to care about this fact. The article attaches the examples of the upcoming films, and up to us is the choice whether to watch them, or not.  My own decision would be positive; so, in the near future I would like (certainly with curiousity) to see the results of the contemporary classics remaking.

Concerning my groupmates, what do you think of the idea of remaking classics? Is it acceptable, or not? Is it better to leave everything as it is, or the stories should be extended, provided with more details and be adapted for the younger generations?