Punishments Among Professional Players

On Sept 27 Wayne Simmonds, a Professional Hockey Player, was accused of a slur allegation towards Sean Avery during a preseason game.

This homophobic language was brought up in the N.H.L. meeting and was ruled that Simmonds will have no punishment. My question is when do we draw the line?

Sports have been around for many years and have always been very competitive. However, inappropriate slurs and vulgar language should not ever be allowed and should always have some punishment.

Any professional player is paid well so why not charge them with a few thousand dollars? Everybody deserves the right treatment and respect out on the court, field, or arena; therefore, punishments should be talked about and should take charge.

No one signs up to be humiliated on the competitive floor and no one deserves to be treated like that. Emotions are to blame for some language, but when do we draw the line and take charge?

Simmonds should never have got away with his slur towards Avery. The N.H.L. obviously has better things to handle and not take charge of people and how they are treated on the ice. I strongly believe if any slur is caught on the floor that a manager or coach should punish them.

Punishment doesn't always have to be money but a penalty or time out of a game would be an option as well. It is safe to say if I was ever humiliated on the competitive floor I would want action to be taken towards the other person. I would hope people would feel the same about being humiliated.

Not only do I think the N.H.L. needs to take more action but also more organizations like the N.B.A, W.N.B.A., or M.L.B.. Vulgar language does not always happen on the ice it happens in almost every sport and needs to have more action taken about it.

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#Right2drive

Luxury, status, wealth and importance are all ideas that come mind when we think of having a personal driver. Well, it what some people in this world think of when it comes to chauffeuring. If you are a woman and live in Saudi Arabia, however, you most likely think the opposite. Oppression, inequality and control are the conflicting beliefs if you are a Saudi female. This is due to the Saudi law that bans women from driving.

King Abdullah just took giant steps forward with women's rights this week by finally allowing Saudi female suffrage. This is a tremendous step towards equality, but still not allowing women to drive is overshadowing this monumental change in the society.

So what are women doing to show solidarity on this issue? They are taking to the streets-literally. All across the country women documented themselves driving cars in protest. This protest was arranged primarily through social media. #Right2drive covered twitter posts and informed women what they would be doing to raise awareness about this injustice. The BBC documented some of these protesters and described how different their lives would be if they could have this right. Also documented was how much social media helped further exposure and spread the word for this protest.

Social media has made large strides since the uprisings in the region this year, but usage is still far below averages in other parts of the world. Fadi Salem of the Dubai School of Government recognizes the correlation between the use of the Internet and a more stable economy, and how the Internet has helped the economy grow in Saudi Arabia. Salem believes that a similar trend will come with social media as well, and the growth has already begun.

Facebook and Twitter have recently proven to be powerful tools all over the world, and not simply for "social" or recreational uses. They are liberating the suppressed, engaging the outsiders and now helping to create a women's movement. I have to say I "like" this.

Photo credits: NY Times

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The Media: Full of 'Gutter Snipes'

The world is constantly changing and growing. People develop new technologies, come up with new ideas, and as the whole the human race develops. So, when Bill O' Reilly mentions during an interview, "The media, remarkably, hasn’t changed since Benjamin Franklin was printing ‘Poor Richard’s Almanac'," it stirs up a bit of thought.

O' Reilly explains that media is filled with "a bunch of gutter snipes" all trying to push opinions backed with facts, and that dishonesty is so prevalent it is almost scandalous.

Despite this fact he says, "The media does keep an eye on what's going on and the people really get both sides of the story..."

With this in mind, where do American's go for reliable, unbiased news? The news is easy to find, online, in print, or on television, and it is a citizens responsibility to detect if the news does show bias. If so, they should look at the story from both sides and form an educated opinion.

When considering O'Reilly's comment that the news hasn't changed since Ben Franklin he is showing that the media has been motivated by their own agenda and it's up to the public to decide what is right and wrong form there.

Photo from Photo Bucket

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The Power of the Picture

If a picture can speak 1,000 words, what affect could 52 photographs of Osama bin Laden's death play on the war, and even on the world?

Judicial Watch has recently filed a Freedom of Information act lawsuit to try to grant the public access to the photographs taken after the assassination of bin Laden. Government officials fear that the release of these photographs will instigate a vicious counterattack by anti-American groups and terrorists, such as the Taliban. When looking at this situation, one cannot help but compare this situation to Saddam Hussein's execution in December 2006 and the video leaked capturing his hanging. This unauthorized video shot from a mobile phone created a huge stir across the world surrounding the conduct of execution. Yet, no extreme violent outbursts have been linked back to his hanging.

Is it possible that the pictures of Osama would have a much different effect on its viewers than the video of Saddam? With this in mind, the public must wonder what the American government is hiding in these pictures. It is claimed they wish to protect the identities of the soldiers who accomplished this mission and to protect American military strategies from leaking to enemies. If these pictures are released to the public, newspapers will need to decide whether or not they want to publish them, and possibly put lives in danger.

When dealing with powerful images, such as these, each media outlet needs to make a decision on where it stands. Is it okay to publish picture of the death of a notorious criminal or are photographs capturing any death pushing the ethical boundaries for any publication? Powerful images may make an event more believable, helps sell stories and thus, more papers. Photographic or video proof help the credibility of any story and help readers understand that an event actually happened. Yet, when unveiling powerful images about death, violence, starvation, or any number of disturbing events that take place every day across the world, will journalists choose to show images simply because the public demands them and because they want to boost sales this month? Or will they choose to shield the eyes of the public and hope the truth conveys itself well enough through their writing?

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FOX News Uses Fake Headlines for Story

When covering the Chicago Bears game that was on Sep. 11, 2011, Fox News lied about newspaper headlines about quarterback Jay Cutler.


Referring to the knee injury Cutler received in a game during the playoffs last year, the headlines that were displayed during the segment were, “Cutler Lacks Courage” and “Cutler’s No Leader.”


FOX announcer Daryl Johnston said during the segment, “These are the actual headlines from the local papers in Chicago.” These headlines make it seem like the newspapers in Chicago are being too tough on their quarterback. The only problem is these headlines never existed.


While apologizing about the headline incident, FOX sports came clean and said that they made the headlines up about Cutler and said, “It was misleading.” The fake newspaper headlines going across the screen are misleading, yes, but to say that they were actual newspaper headlines from Chicago newspapers is a lie since they never were.

This is not the first time FOX has been caught saying something that never happened, foxnewslies.net has a list of a lot of these. And still FOX remains as the most watched cable news channel, even with all of these reported lies.

Does this mean people like to hear what they agree with, even if it isn’t true? Whatever the reason, dishonesty doesn’t seem to bother FOX much, or their viewers.

Photo from Creative Commons

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Journalists are Killed in Times of War

A major controversy arose only a few weeks ago after details of an Afghan journalist's death surface.

BBC reporter, Ahmed Omed Khpulwak, was originally believed to be killed by insurgents in suicide attacks that had taken place July 28; nevertheless, recent discoveries have uncovered that Khpulwak was killed by an American soldier who had mistaken Khpulwak for a suicide bomber in the seemingly complex attacks that took place.

The foremost problem, however, is not that this journalist was killed in moments of war, but that the details of his death were not made known until after Khpulwak's family pressured for an investigation.

In an article published by the New York Times, details about the investigation report were provided.

The report stated that the soldier who killed Khpulwak believed that he had fired on American soldiers and was attempting to detonate a suicide vest when the soldier killed him. However, Khpulwak's brother states later in the article that he was skeptical of NATO's report since Khpulwak spoke sufficient English and would have simply been showing his press card to the soldiers.

Ther have been 19 other journalists killed in Afghanistan since the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, according to the aformentioned article.

My question is, however, why this investigation seemed to have been swept under the rug. It took the family of the deceased to initially pressure the BBC to do something before the ball got rolling.

It would appear to me that it would be a present concern of those individuals who love to claim freedom, that if there is a suspicious death of an individual who is willing to ask difficult questions of those in power--such as a reporter--that those individuals would make it a point to seek out the truth.

This investigation should not have waited until September to turn-up results when Khpulwak was killed in July. If this is going to be the results of a journalist's death, fellow journalists need to make an outcry of anger, and soon.

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Where Do People Get Their Local News?

A recent study showed that 69% of people said if their local newspaper no longer existed their community wouldn't be largely effected. The study, done for the Project of Excellence in Journalism and Pew Internet & American Life Project showed a lot of interesting facts about where people tune in for local news.

Here's the breakdown of what media people turned to for what type of news:

Newspapers:

• Top source for news on community events, crimes, taxes, local government, arts and culture, social services, zoning and development
• Ties with the internet as top source on housing, schools and jobs
• Ties with TV as top source for local political news

Television:

• Top source for weather and breaking news
• Ties with radio as top source for traffic news
• Ties with newspaper as top source for political news

Internet:

• Top source for information about restaurants and other local businesses
• Ties with the newspaper as top source on housing, schools and jobs

Radio:

• Ties with internet as top source for traffic news

There are several contradicting findings in this study. Even though people said they would not be affected in a major way if their local newspaper were to shut down, they also said they rely on their local newspaper for 11 of the 16 news topics they are concerned about.

The most popular local topics that people want to get news about are weather (89%), breaking news (80%), local politics (67%), and crime (66%). Some less popular topics were zoning and development information, local social services, job openings and local government activities.

The study also found that 47%, nearly half, of all people use mobile devices to get their online information. In the survey a lot of people said they used the internet for a lot of their information. I think it would be interesting to go further in depth with the survey and see how many people were using an actual computer and how many were using a mobile internet device.

I've heard a lot of my friends say they assume everyone gets their news from social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, so I think it's interesting that the study found only 17% percent of people rely on sites like these for local news.

It's also interesting to see that although a lot of people refer to local news as it's own entity, you can still break it down further. Local news is still coming from a variety of different sources, and although I've heard "the medium is the message" it seems like the type of message people are looking for still determines which medium they use.

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Mobile Advertisement

In today's society advertisement plays a big role in everyday life. As the worlds technology becomes more advanced so does the advertisement.

It has spread to mobile devices such as tablets and smart phones. In the article "How publishers can overcome the abundance problem in mobile adverting," discusses how publishers can use the ads affectedly.

By knowing how organizations build apps can help the publisher understand the placement of ads because it is a key importance. Now the best place for the ads is to go the publisher can try to catch peoples attention and get them to click on the ads to bust online production.

Knowing your audience for a publisher is an important thing. No ad about about a 55 year old man will get the attention of a 18 year old. Take Men's Health Magazine for example, they are just targeting men so there will be no women advertisement unless they so the sexiest female model of the year in the magazine.

The mobile advertisement is on the rise right now because smart phones and tablets are also on the rise in the market. For a publisher this is good, because expanding your business to reach the consumer virtually everywhere is a big step.

Publishers see this as an advantage in getting business, knowing how to target their audience is just an upgrade on their smart phones.









Photo by Creative Commons

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