Post #5 Reply

Ethics and downloading music is a tricking and difficult topic to discuss. Some people may argue that it is unethical for individuals to download music illegally where others might say that it is alright to download music from the internet. If the music is out on the internet the artists are basically asking for the music to be downloaded illegally. That is where I stand on the topic of ethics and downloading music illegally. I personally do not see it as being unethical for multiple reasons.

First, it does not really fall under “moral ethics” for me because it is not religious. In a way it is because it goes against a commandment of “Thou Shall Not Steal, however I use that in the terms of taking a physical object from someone else, not a file from a computer. If the artist is putting their music on the internet they should be aware that it is going to be downloaded illegally somehow. If I enjoy more than one song from that particular artists then I will purchase their album, but not if it is only one song. Also, it is a decision of weighing what is good and bad and since so many people are downloading music illegally it cannot be considered all ethically bad since many people are continuing to participate in it.

Second, is the idea of ethics and philosophy and categorical imperative which says, “Asks people to consider what would be the result of everyone acting the same way they themselves wish to act.” The way that I interpret this quote is, how would it be if everyone acted the way I did. By applying this to ethics of illegally downloading music it would not be any different and would be exactly how people act. I know many people who download music illegally more than I do and they see nothing wrong with it.

Because this topic is so touchy, depending on a person’s view, it is hard to determine what is ethical or not. Yes, it is not right to take something that belongs to someone else, whether it is a physical object or a computer file containing music but for many years this has been happening and artists continue to be successful. Artists put their music on the internet to promote themselves more but they have to be aware that there are going to be individuals in the world who are going to download their music for their own enjoyment. I think that it becomes an issue of morals and ethical rights if there is a person who is taking someone else’s music and claiming it as their own by selling and promoting it. Personally, that is when I believe it becomes an issue ethics because you are claiming someone else’s work as your own, which is ethically wrong.

Fourth Blog Reply

For this assignment I didn’t change the TV channels that I watch or radio stations that I listen to help me “get” more advertisements. I kept a thorough log with every advertisement that I saw.

            For this blog post I noticed that advertisements are geared to certain television stations and channels. For example, a women’s network will have commercials that are for women and a sports channel will have commercials that are for men.

            My top TV channels consist of, TLC, Lifetime, E!, MTV and ABC Family. I was watching TLC and I took noticed that most if not all of the commercials and advertisements were geared towards people who are married with children, people who are in a part of their life where they live on their own or directed towards women but sometime men. One commercial was for Geiko car insurance and then the following commercial was about Toyota car. After I saw those two commercials back to back, two ideas came to mind. One was, “They are showing are insurance commercial because they know that people who watch the TLC channel drive” and “That make sense to show a car commercial after an insurance commercial. The two go hand and hand.”

            After awhile I changed channels and decided to watch something on Lifetime. During the time of commercials I noticed the same thing that happened when watching TLC. However, most of if not all of the commercials were directed towards women because Lifetime is mostly a channel for women to watch. The commercials that I saw were for TJ Maxx, match.com, scrubbing bubbles, atkins diet, revlon lipstick, downy unstoppable laundry detergent, a show called army wives and the movie the body guard.

            I started to notice that most of the commercials were being geared to a specific group of people who watch the program or station the most and I started to become very interested and watched other channels.

            When I changed channels to E! and MTV the commercials were well balanced between commercials for other shows and commercials for products. E! showed commercials about shows called Fashion Police and Ice loves Coco, burlington coat factor, kindle fire and lexis cars. MTV showed more commercials for other shows that are on that channel and on other channels but also products that would be for people who would watch MTV. There were commercials about MTV shows called 16 and pregnant, Pauly D Project, Punk’d, I just want my pants back and commercials about a show called long island medium which is on TLC. The product commercials would be about clothing stores, verizon phones, breath mints and Chilies.

            This assignment made me aware of what is shown on television station that are for the majority of people. Most of the commercials that were shown on MTV would not be shown on Lifetime because the channels are for two separate groups of people because of the points in their life. This assignment also made me see that companies have to pay close attention to where they put their advertisements. If they put them in the wrong place they could possible waste a lot of money cause consumers who watch that those programs may not be interested in the advertisement.

Third Post Reply

       Fast company magazine offers people to look at innovations on new technology, leadership and design towards ethical economics. Fast company’s about us sections explains that it inspires readers and users to think beyond traditional boundaries and conversations and to create interesting futures for businesses and themselves.

         The magazines demographic strategy through signaling was towards individuals who are very creative and who like to invent products not only for people to be entertained with but for other aspects of their life; work, school, etc. The magazine did not show or state that they are for a particular group of people, being men, women, teens, adults or senior citizens. The magazine also expressed the impression to encourage people to think out side the box.

            Under the about us hyperlink, there are three subgroups where there can be advertisements and shows what that particular section holds. The Co.Design section is intended for business and design. For example, architecture, electronics and fashion are expressed in this section and designers indicate their opinions on blog posts. The Co.Exist section is intended to show a journey of world changing ideas in transportation, energy, education, food and health. This particular section focuses on the change of how people are going to live in the future. Lastly, the Co.Create section shows the creativity on the worlds of branding, entertainment and technology. This shows how the worlds are combining together. This section gives people inspiration for creativity towards films, shows, ad campaigns, apps, games and music. 

A drop down box titled audience gives facts about the particular audience who reads fast company magazine and who visits their website. The average age of a reader is 35. 58% of people who read this magazine are college graduates, 8% who read the magazine hold senior management positions and 5% are owners/ C-level executives.

People who use the magazine website spend about 25 minutes per visit. The websites statistics show that 61% read blogs, 51% view slide shows of photos, 39% watch videos and 36% use the website for research.

            The magazine indeed holds up the assumption that is intended for people to be encouraged to think outside the box and be more creative and is not geared towards one particular demographic. 34% of users state that they use the website and the magazine as an essential tool for creative ideas.

Second Post Reply

For the second post I watched two videos on the trouble and conflict happening in Syria.

            Both videos shared information on the violence, protests and conflicts that is in process in Syria. CNN.com’s report shares with us different opinions on how to stop the violence. Three gentlemen, who are via-satellite in different countries share with us information on how long the violence has been happening and give different scenarios on how to stop it.  CNN does not though explain how the violence started. CNN only describes that there is extreme uproar in Syria.

           

            Al Jazeera’s video clip report also describes the violence that is happening in Syria. However, it shows the viewers what is happening in a different light. Al Jazeera’s video clip show’s bodies on the side of the road (suicide bombers), tanks being rolled in through the cities, destructions and mobs of unhappy people.  They show this because Al Jazeera is an Arab version of the news and they want to show what is happening in that part of the world.           

            In my opinion, I defiantly think that Al Jazeera’s video clip has a bias towards the situation. The reason I believe that is just from how their video is portrayed. They show us the wreckage of what the tanks and bombs have done to the city. Also we are shown the emotions of the mob of people in the streets of Syria. However, after looking back on my notes I understand why Al Jazeera is showing what they are. Back in our notes under the section of “Middle East and Islamic Countries” the government does not want to show anything “bad” or controversial towards their government. All the video clips (now that I took a better glance at them) look like home videos. And as we talked about in class, that is the only what people in Middle East Countries share information. Basically through an “underground press” and the importance of small media. Also I believe they showed the video’s they did because of where Al Jazeer is based.

           

            CNN’s video clip simply gives us a brief description on what the conflict is about and then they go right into how to fix the problem.  I feel that they also have a biased towards this issue because of how they express their emotion. They do not show any video or pictures of what the conflict looks like. There is no “emotion” towards the situation only a short report. Although, from looking back in our notes, the reason that CNN gets “right to the point” is because they want to be politically neutral. They do not want to get to “heavily” into the issue. However, if a similar conflict was happening where CNN was based I believe that it would be displayed just like Al Jazeera’s version.

first blog post reply

One of my favorite TV shows is “The Nanny”. I love that show because of the funny plot lines and how entertaining it is.
Aspects of the show that make it feel real is that there are musical theater producers who live in the Upper East Side of New York City in a beautiful house and they have a butlers and a nannies.
Aspects of the show that do not make it real are: First, Fran the nanny really does not watch the children or do what a typical nanny is supposed to do. We always see her going shopping, talking to people on the phone, having company over the house or flirting with the boss. Not what a nanny in today’s society would be doing. Second, Niles the butler does his job of taking care of the house but we also see him doing things he is not to be doing. He is in everyone else’s business and also sometimes is rather unprofessional when talking about something and in the real world a butler could lose their job for being unprofessional around their boss. Lastly, Max the boss has not had a hit Broadway musical in many years (from what the show tells us) and in the real world he would not be able to keep that house in the Upper East Side and all this employees if he does not produce a musical.
Parts that I would want to adopts in my own way of looking at the world is how much fun they have (on the show) and how they always come up with plans to help/ make things better for people (and how even if something goes wrong when they “fix it” it is not a big problem). Also I would want to adopt their wise cracking jokes. Some parts of the show that I would reject would be the aspect that certain things that Fran, Niles and Max do would not be accepted in the “real” world. For example; how Max can live in a big house and it is not shown in the series of any financial burden from not producing a musical.
Personally, I think that it is very easy for us to be sucked into an illusion of reality in a video representation because I think in our own minds we secretly want our lives to be like that. I would love to be Fran in the show and get paid for “watching children” but really shopping and making many situations worse than they should be. However, I know that the world does not work like that, but it makes me envy the character is Fran more.

First Post

Blog is made and here is the first post!