We are at War

War, a period of hostile relations between countries, states, or factions that leads to fighting between armed forces, especially in land, air, or sea battles…but are we at war? There is no end to this war. The enemy wants what they want and the good wants what they want. If the war in Iraq was to end, who knows what will happen but I do know things will be disastrous. Our world has been absorbed in violence for over 7 years now , and this war doesn’t look like it is going to end any time soon. The war now is pretty much about justice prevailing. For example, back then the 9/11 attack was all on the news and the war was triggered because of it. Now the news no longer talks about the World Trade Center attacks or any justice being served, but about our soldiers and men that are dying in the war. Well I cant think of anything else but war is just stupid and makes things even worst!

Buy Nothing Day

Buy Nothing Day is a day in which members celebrate and culture jam, without making any purchases in order to raise awareness about the lunacy of our consumer. The first Buy Nothing Day was organized in Vancouver in September of 1992 as a day for society to examine the issue of over-consumption. Over 65 nations are participating in this celebration. It says November 25th in our syllabus but the point of Buy Nothing Day is to avoid Black Friday. Black Friday is the day when the sales are the best for the pre-Christmas shopping. Some people are going to have to use massive will power to avoid the sales going on during this day. It’s not about not buying items, but more about thinking before you purchase. Adbusters states that it "isn't just about changing your habits for one day" but "about starting a lasting lifestyle commitment to consuming less and producing less waste."

National Media Education Week

This is an annual event which showed the significance of media literacy as a important part in the education of adults and youths. Students and parents all took part in the weeklong event in order to bring attentiveness to the media that surrounds us. This National Media Education Week programme provides Canadians with a central aim for media related things and, at the same time, shows the artistic ways that media literacy is being included into classrooms and communities. It helped me reproduce on what I had learned throughout the class and come to start looking at media in a diverse perspective. I consider about what I am seeing and the potential meaning following it before I consent to myself to understand it. So pretty much my experience participating in media education week was awesome!

Whirl-Mart Jamming

The Yes Men are a group of culture jamming advocates who pretend to be dominant people and speakers for famous groups but they are not what I am going to talk about but just an example. What I want to bring to mind is a particular experiment, Whirl-Mart. It came into being in 2001 as a response to Adbusters magazine who are also a culture jamming group. It is a custom through which a group collects and strolls empty carts through the aisles of a supermarket. Shoppers/members will not buy anything but will look to form a long chain of non-shoppers, whirl through a maze of store aisles for up to an hour at a time. The shoppers/members love to imitate and tease what they see as the silliness of the shopping development.

Internet Battleground

A neutral broadband network is one that is free of limits on the kinds of equipment that may be attached, on the modes of communication allowed, which does not restrict content, sites or platforms, and where communication is not unreasonably corrupted by other communication streams. The more money the customer pays for their internet provider, the more quickly the website will load which gives business companies an advantage over ordinary people. A complete invasion by the government or even other telecommunication group can lead to abuse of net neutrality and will reduce use of this medium. Internet regulation will also be likely to limit the choice of expression, which is conceivably one of the most obvious factors that are helpful in the achievement and status of this. At times the internet can be usually against financial frauds, phishing, identity thefts, credit card thefts and many other illegal activities. You just have to use the internet wisely and not mess up!

Media consolidation

Media ownerships are all around us, from Movies, Record labels, car industries, and so on. Vivendi may sound familiar for some people but not for all. Companies now days are more about earning money than they are about their customers. While researching on this topic I asked a group of World of Warcraft players, “What company owns this video game?”, and they all responded with Blizzard which is wrong because Blizzard is a company owned by Vivendi. Vivendi has an enormous portfolio boasting some of the biggest titles on all formats. They are a global, French-based media corporation who works with music (universal), television (canal+), films (studio canal), publishing, telecommunications (macro telecom), the Internet, and video games (Blizzard, Activision). Vivendi owns all these companies and earn big money but most of the money comes from their small businesses. Vivendi is the major shareholder in this merged Activision Blizzard, holding a 52% to 48% stake of the newly formed company.Vivendi is also an example of privatization of a public service, the distribution of water and wastewater.

The American presidential elections are soon to set off at November 4th 2008. This would probably be one of the most crustal presidential elections in the history of the United States of America. This is due to the fact that the countries economy has been in its worst condition ever and the war of terrorism has been at a stand still for quite some time. This election is also important due to the fact that its candidates Barack Obama and Sarah Palin both from apposing parties would create history as being the first African American president of USA or the first woman vice president of USA. Chances are people want drastic change and are likely to vote for Barack Obama unless foul play is involved. A strong president like him would create confidence in the minds of the investors and the business men in investing back in the economy and strengthening their economy.