Jaybro88’s Weblog

As we come to see a society built, Dependant and based upon technology, issues continue to grow and effect individuals media wise. We have evolved into a society that has created so many opportunities and possibilities with our access to technology and the web, however we’ve also evolved to take advantage of it in so many disgraceful ways. I went to a site called Media Awareness Network where we are introduced to some of the media issues out there.

One of the Issues, I was most interested in was online hate. What a scary subject. I view online hate as individuals who are suffering emotionally, taking there own personal conflicts and applying it to others and creating harm towards them. The website stated that “Hate Prongers” usually use the internet to promote their agenda. Look at situations like in Montreal when a frustrated, online hate blogger took things to the next level– fatality. The shooter was posting an online diary, which stated a lot of his intentions and his obvious ill mind. This is just one situation. It seems as though every school shooting we hear about, they make a trace back to online troubles. Back to the Media Awareness website, I think it’s creation is a good start in making the public aware of these issues. We quite often are people who don’t take initiatives until it happens directly to you or someone you know… News Flash, it could happen any day!! I think media awareness toward online hate, will help in projects like deconstructing hate websites, seeking these “haters” before the problems further etc.

We were fortunate enough to have a class on media in ECMP the other night. I am 19 years old, and definately not blind when it comes to knowing what’s out there. However I was shocked at some of the sites Alec showed us. When sites are created encouraging suicide, about mimicking people’s lives, racism etc. it’s hard to even wrap my head around who could create something like that. It’s sad really, and makes me want to vomit.

So I took a day to think about these sites that had been brought before my eyes. At first I had a reaction that made me scared of what our future would revolve into. As the web becomes such a significant part of everyday lives, I figured it’s inevitable that cyber bullying, racism, and other media issues will  diminish, there bound to increase and get worse. However I think I was wrong there. Were always going to have disturbed people creating unpleasant and unfair sites for the public. We also have a growing population who care about addressing these issues, as well a growing population who are connecting themselves to the world. Putting those 2 together, I think it’s easier for us to make these issues an awareness and help show the world how wrong they really are.

I think that in my future teaching career, my goal is not to hide these things to my students. Instead address them. I would love to create projects where my students can go online and blog to everyone about the problems the specific website has, and others ways of deconstructing the issues. I think my doing projects like that, students are taught that these issues are not acceptable.