It Is A Choice
It is not wrong to descrive ‘media’ as a growing field today. We have so many different channels, magazines, newspapers…etc. But the question is how reliable are they and how do we judge it?
Over the bayram holiday I have tried to follow different media outlets and saw that their publication/broadcast is highly related with their owners. I could only analyzed KanalD, NTV, TV7, ATV, SesTV, Star and also some newspaper Sabah,Milliyet and Hürriyet, just for a short time but the results were interesting.
According to my personal observations, ATV, Sestv and TV7 don’t have neutral broadcasts. Even though unemployment is a big issue in these days we could not see news and reports about eunemployment on these channels as we see on the others. There is also another example of ‘Ergenekon’ which is a very important case and takes recenntly a huge part on the media lately. We all know that there is also the ‘Deniz Feneri Case’ going on at the same time but these channels show their sides on this too and does not really adress the ‘Deniz Feneri’ while they bring the ‘Ergenekon’ foreground. I could see no other reason but relate these with the owners of these broadcasting companies. To be close to the government, these people have sides on their channels and it is unexpected for us to trust these media outlests.
On the other hand as I watch the NTV, I have seen that it’s broadcast is more reliable. The news were short, there was no such pointless talking under the name of ‘news’. Not only the local issues but also the news from the world take place and celebrity news take place on the second hand.
As you may know, NTV has also a radio broadcast and we could listen people with different point of wiews in those open court programmes. This is important for being neutral and it makes the broadcast more reliable.
It is also same for the newspapers. When we look at the news on KanalD and Star for example it could be surprising to see that Hürriyet, Milliyet and Posta have the same kind of news. All these belong to the same company and the reason they make adherent news was because of the personal benefits. This also brings out the question; are the poeple who follow these also wants to take sides? The same issue is valid for ATV and Sabah, two media outlets of the same person.
To sum up, even it is good to have options of media distributing different ideas, it is also a fact that broadcasting companies do really work beneficial. It a choice to get effected from these or to be aware of the neutrality of the media outlets we follow.
1 comment December 15, 2008
ecee
My Journey with the Media
I used to love those days when you woke up and see that everywhere is white, covered with snow! After looking out from the window for a while the first thing my brother and I do was to run for the TV. Exciting moments begin, to catch an announcement between the news or to see a subtitle that is saying the schools are closed and it either continues with a sunshine or a comedown. In that elementary school years, Tv was more like a good friend to me with the excpectations to get good news from.
There was a period (around the middle school) that MTV was the only channel for me. Whatever is open at that time I directly pick up the remote and switch it to the channel 34 ,MTV. (I could still remember the number even it has changed.) Tv was more like a radio to me and it was open 24/7 even I was in my room and not watching it. When I did this, I also turned on the volume so I could hear it from my room and run to it to see the video clip of song that I like. Maybe I was not a huge fan of the other programmes but this clearly shows me that it still is a big part of my life.
Later I found myself watching some series with my mom. They were fun and there was an exciting process of ‘what is going to happen’. Even I enjoyed watching these shows it started to gave some dividing signals to our family. My dad never liked these kind of shows and only thing he does while watching was making fun of with the things in the shows.This resulted as a conflict between mom and dad and my brother usually took the side of watching a football game. It still was not harmful as you may think, because it turned into a game in our family to take sides and decide on a channel by convincing each other.
Our innocent game went up to a higher class with the emerge of a second TV in our house. It was smaller than the other one and it was in the dining room where you don’t get to sit as comfy as in the living room. Now we could watch the programmes we would like in seperate rooms but now there was another battle of who gets the big TV and the comfy coach.
The number of the channels increased and so many different programmes appered on those channels since the Sesame Street. Hovewer TV happens to be in my life during this continuous process of media.It could be someone who gives me good news, it could be a music, it could be the weather or an animal documentary, a movie that I couldn’t catch on the cinema,a cheesecake recipe I want to try…it could be my life!
Now, when I look through all of this it is funny that I found myself couldn’t watch TV at all during the Bayram holiday. Sabancı University was a cut through between me and the television. All the series I follow, the news, even the reality shows are no longer exist in my life anymore. At the beginning I didn’t have time, now I don’t have desire.This clearly showed me that watching TV is nothing more than a habit in my life.
1 comment December 14, 2008
ecee
The Plug-In Drug
In the article The Plug-In Drug, Winn argues that television had once a favouruble, beneficial effect on family, which today turned into a dispersing one. She sees Tv as an evil drug, that destroyes the family rituals and harms the children in families. I agree that, TV has a huge control over our lives today. I know people who includes TVGuides while organizing their agendas. This is not just sad, it is also so preposterous. We should never cancel a meeting with friends or a dinner out with the family members because out favourite TV programme is on. But unfortunately, we all do this!
My family always eats out on Saturday evenings with the company of 3 other close family friends of ours. Even thogh I really enjoy spending time with them, I’ve missed some of those dinners because I wanted to stay home and watch TV. It might sound ridiculous but that’s the case how we are addicted to TV programmes and how it destroys the family rituals.
On the other hand I also remember TV in good part memories of mine from the Christmas. When I was little our whole famly used to come together and celebrate the Christmas and I had memories of how we all together watch the Christmas bonus after the specia Christmas shows. It was actually fun and more important, it was a group activity of watching TV.
So, I agree on that TV harms the most familes and tears them apart in some ways but, it is actually a good part of bringing them together if we can use it right.
1 comment November 30, 2008
ecee
Reality Tv
The article Reality Tv is written in 2000 and from then there have been so many reality shows on the televisions. Why are they so popular and why people enjoy to watch these kind of things? What Rushdie argues in his article, is reality shows tell us things about ourselves and that’s why they succeed in. There also a lot people who watch these kind of shows, even though they think how stupid and pointless they are. I assume these people are brainwashed as Rushdie thinks or they just watch them to be a part of the community.
Rushdie illustrates the reality Tv set with the Colosseum where the gladiators fight with the animals. I think this as an important point because today, people can be so furious and with today’s media becoming famous is a piece of cake. If these two trigger each other, dangerous results could occur easily and we could find ourselves watching two people beating each other until one of them is death and even the worse we can find ourselves laughing and enjoying it!
In my personal idea, I see this as a ‘rating’ issue. The reason Tv channels produce these kind of shows is to get more people to watch them and rise their ratings. It could be seen as a mutual effect from the side of those who want to raise their own ratings and be on the front pages all the time.
1 comment November 26, 2008
ecee
Enormous Radio
Enormous Radio(1953) is a fantastic short story about how media could effect peoples’ lives in a tragic way. What I really like about this short story is the way John Cheever(the author), represents the radio as a key to access inside their neighbours’ lives. He uses it so well that you’re getting the feeling of participating something indicent with Irene. He also writes in an ironic way which is actually the result of ironic lives of the neighbours. We see this in the dialogue that the maid is being asked to lend $5 for the doorman. The secret feeling of a gossip in the air also makes the story fun to read.
In the story we see that it’s appealing to watch other peoples lives but it also could give us harm. But what I really wonder is, is that the media that makes it so easy or is it us caring too much for other’s lives? I think it’s true that media is a huge factor in our lives, especially today, that effects our realationships. Tv is a replacement with that days radio and it can easily turn into a big pull which tears us apart from our family and friends.
1 comment November 22, 2008
ecee
Which side are you?
He comes home one day. He was in a sweet rush with an excitement. He takes a shower and dresses up while his dad is setting the table up for two of them. He smiles to his son’s extiment and tells us that ’He is meeting the Mr. Right tonight’. Yes, I am talking about the 1994 movie that is adopted by a screenplay of David Stevens, Sum Of Us.
First of all I must say that I really like the movie. It gives us a great visual of the relationship between a father and a gay son. Don’t get me wrong, they weren’t the perfect son and father in the whole world. He gets mad when his father leaves the shower dripping and he couldn’t stand when he pushes his plate away after he finishes the dinner. But none of these could be as scathing as the words “You mean nothing to me. You walk out that door, it doesn’t matter. And if you come back in, I’m going to spit in your face. I don’t care if I’m on my deathbed, I’ll still have the energy to spit in your face.” (Gaitskill, M. Tiny smiling daddy) Those are the words that has been said to a daughter after his father learned that she is a lesbian.
When we compare the movie(Sum of Us) with the story Tiny Smilin Daddy, we see that the situations are almost same but the reactions were totally different. These conflict also occurs in the movie when Jeff(the main gay charecter) introduces us Greg, the guy he likes. There is a clear difference between their parents. One acceptted his son being a gay and he even made an effort to get to know his ‘new son’. Although, my thoughts are in the same way with the father in the movie, I even surprised by some of his actions. He buys gay magazines and when he firt learn that he is a gay, he goes to the club with him just to see where his son hangs out. Lots of people wouldn’t be comfortable in such situations but when we compare the results with the story. It is obvious that Harry(father in the movie) is on the right track. He has an awesome relationship with his son which is enviable but on the other hand there is Kitty and her father, two strangers living in the same house. Jeff could bring his friend home to meet his father when Kitty prefers to write an article to his dad instead of talking.
The movie and the story are also both related the topic to the generations. We thought that Kitty has a bad father because his grandad was not a good one either. In the movie we know that Jeff’s grandma was a lesbian and they had a really close relationship when he was a kid. He once said that when he woke up and saw his grandma in the bed cuddled up with a woman it looked natural to him. This also can explain Harry being more tolerant on the situation because his own mother was a lesbian. He even makes a joke saying that ‘It is in their blood and just skipped a generation.’
I just want to add one more thing about the movie. Harry wants the best of everything for Jeff and I think it was really interesting when he mentioned “He is missing something important:making a baby.”
For the ones that are interested, these two stories gives us a total different dimensions of a same situation. You can be on the side that will turn around and walk out the door the minute you heard it, or you can try to be a real father who wants to know his son and protects him all the time.Even though, this might mean to leave a loved one who sees Harry as a shame.
2 comments November 3, 2008
ecee
Tiny Smiling Daddy
Tiny Smiling Daddy is an interesting story about the relationships in a family. There are several problems between Kitty and her parents. The most significant one is her being a lesbian. It is an unordinary situation but even she wasn’t so accepted in the family(I don’t understand why) she gets at the thin end of the wedge and tells them she is lesbian! Her father was already distant to her emotionally and this turned her distance into anger. The already existent communication problem is now a big conflict between them. She clearly shows that she needs her parents and their support in life. I think the reason he acts like this; he feels ashamed of her daughter to be a lesbian. He maybe boggles from the reactions that he might get from his friends because when his friend Norm called him to tell about the article he gets nervous abouth what she might have written. The article is a pure evidence of lack of communication between Kitty and her father. She could express her feelings to public but not her father and I think this is really sad. On the other hand we can’t really blame the whole thing on the father, after we learn abouth his father. The main reason is he grew up in a family which he didn’t have enough love and care from his father. This doesn’t make him a bad man but this makes him a bad father which is inable to show his emotions.
1 comment October 26, 2008
ecee
Where are you going, where have you been?
I couldn’t understand the story when I first read it. The protogonist, Connie is a complex character and very ambivalent inside. Being double minded reflects her thoughts which made me confuse about the story. However, after we discussed it in the class I understand the charecters better.
I assume that Arnold, in this story is an imaginary character that is being shaped with Connie’s thoughts. What makes me think this is because of the way he acts in the story. He is described as a rebel guy like the type that girls want to be with and Connie sees him as a ‘boy figure’ maybe most like a sexual object. Connie wants him to like her and the way she looks and Arnold tells her ‘She is cute’. This makes Arnold an imaginary charecter because her ideas are dependent on Connie. She actually leads the whole situation. While reading I got tired of Arnold’s insistence to Connie but there is reason for this: Connie can’t decide if she wants go with Arnold or not. So she saves some time to herself using Arnold and eventually decides to go with him. Even though she gives us the feeling that she is trapped between Arnold and her parents and likely to dismiss Arnold, she doesn’t! This opens a question that she wouldn’t make him insist this much unless she wants to choose her family over Arnold.
1 comment October 24, 2008
ecee
The Key To My Father
My relationships with my family had always been close. They were never too strict and never too uninterested either. They pretty much know my friends and they’re usually aware of who I’m with and the places I hang out. I don’t know if they know all my interests and things that I want to do in my life. I mostly wouldn’t bother to share all of these with them unless I asked to do so. It is not possible for them to know everything in my life and I believe this works same for us, too. We can’t really know our parents unless we want them to know us.
Parents are parts of our lives that is need to be there and away at the same time. It’s funny how we don’t want them to poke into our businesses and how we call them right away when we can’t deal with a problem. We might never be interested in their lives or never have time to listen what they’re saying.The reason for this, we know that they were there for us when we need and they will be!
I believe we need to think on this and not just think and also spend some time with them. Even if it’s just for not to be sorry later, it’ll worth to try!
1 comment October 21, 2008
ecee
IS MUSIC PIRACY STEALING?
IS MUSIC PIRACY STEALING?
Nowadays copying and sharing files,downloading music from the internet is a big trend.But is this legal or do people really care about this process that is recently called the ‘piracy’? The article we read was discussing the topic ‘music piracy’ by giving some contrast ideas, research results and different examples.
According to researches in the article,we see that the high percentage of people don’t care about whether the files copyrighted or not.This was actually not surprising for me and some are not even aware of whether they are legal or illegal. The writer argues that this actually doesn’t seem like stealing. I agree with him on this because we might all feel quilty if we steal an item right from a store but internet gives us an intengible working space that we can all access just with a click. We have to admit that we like this bacuse it is easy, cheap and doesn’t really seem wrong.
I also think the same about the litigation fascism alienate the consuming public and we do not want this because it will not benefit the music companies at all.
In the article GM seeds seemed like so out of topic to me but I found it interesting how the writer associated them with the copywriting music download. And actually buying the pattent and of these seeds is kind of related with the topic and this example actually makes the topic a little bit more tangible.
I think that private interest of corporations shouldn’t be this much dominant on technology as the writer said.We are all aware of the growing rate of usage of mp3s and I think ıt would have been nice to had legal access to copies especially for personal use.
I know that for some of the countries (like America) piracy is a delicate topic, but I believe that it will go on anyway legal or illegal. So there is no need to limit the information exchange by exaggareting the piracy as a crime.
Add comment October 21, 2008
ecee
| Previous Posts |
