Pediatricians Take Strong Stand Against Media Sex and Violence: Modeled Behaviors Called Key Causal Factors of Real-Life Actions

By: Roseanna Sonnenfeld

 

      The November issue of Pediatrics shows doctors taking a firm stand against violence and sex in movies, music, television and video games, which they say pose a serious threat to kids and teens.  According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, "The evidence is now clear and convincing: media violence is one of the causal factors of real-life violence and aggression."  Because of this many people are saying that doctors should be questioning children about what kinds of media-engaged habits is part of their lives.  With the answers that are given to these questions, there could be more talks with parents about their kids' reckless habits.  Although many do agree that exposure to media violence is not the sole factor that contributes to aggression, antisocial attitudes, and violence among children and teens, it is an important health risk factor that can we can address, reports ABC News.

 

      I agree with the statement being made that this kind of media is not the sole factor to these problems but I also strongly agree that they are a huge factor to these problems.  I have a younger brother who is 10 years old.  When I think of him watching movies or playing video games with curse words, sex, aggression, and violence in them, it makes me upset.  I myself don't even like to watch movies with these things in them, why should a 10 year old be allowed to do that?  Thank goodness my parents have somewhat of a restriction to what he can and cannot watch.  But there are several children who at 10 years old or maybe even a bit younger are playing video games that allow them to shoot and kill or have some type of similar violence/aggression in them.  Yes, I know that it is only a video game or it is only a movie or only a song but at a young age most of what is seen and heard becomes a small part of their memory or something that they want to imitate in some way.  By allowing them to watch, play, or listen to these types of media they are exposed to new ways in which to act towards other people around them.  Every parent has a different way of parenting but I feel as if one of the best choices towards benefitting your child is to have restrictions on what can and cannot be watched, played, or listened to.  It may save you more trouble in the future than you know. 

 

Read more at http://tinyurl.com/yeqylx5

 

Facebook's Dark Side Displayed This Valentine's Day: The Latest Trend - Dumping Lovers Via Social Networks

By: Roseanna Sonnenfeld

 

      Valentine’s Day may be seeing some permanent new trends.  It is refreshing to hear that lovers are learning new ways to communicate with each other.  According to a poll, 48 percent of those under 21 took the bold and enlightened step of ending a relationship with their girlfriend/boyfriend over a social networking site, CNET reports.  Through this not only are the two people in the relationship experiencing the breakup but they are also sharing in this rejection with up to 5,000 of their closest friends.  Because of this, we see that not only is there a different kind of experience happening but a co-experience happening among our global world.

 

      Well, I definitely think that this is 100% positively the wrong way to go about ending a relationship with anyone, no matter what the age may be.  It shows that the person ending the relationship over the internet is not only scared and lazy but also very disrespectful towards that other person and their feelings.  If you liked or loved that other person at one point, have enough respect for them to talk and tell them in person.  I think this concept not only applies to ending a relationship over the internet but also anything where people need to be informed about an issue or problem, or if there is a situation that needs to be handled.  I feel as if these types of things should always be handled in person on a one-on-one basis.  Technology has made everything easier and faster for people.  We can send an email faster than we can call that person, talk with them for a while about the issue, and then have the problem or situation figured out.  So when it comes to bigger situations we would simply much rather just discuss over the internet rather than handling things in person.  Some people have taken this to extremes. An example is firing someone who has been working at this same place for several years and has put in several hours of dedication and love for what they are doing, through an email!   Yes, this does happen.  Probably more often than we know.  So, whether it be ending a relationship or discussing a job situation, don't let technology get in the way of good old-fashioned face to face.

 

Read more at  http://tinyurl.com/bbj9o2

 

      

Reacting to News of Abundance of Junk-Food Ads Consumed By Children, Oregon Nutrition Council Launches New Marketing Campaign

By: Roseanna Sonnenfeld

 

      A woman from the Office of Family Health has said that the Average American Child sees more than 40,000 advertisements a year.  Half of which are for food, most of which are for fast food, high calorie snacks, and sugared cereals. Because of this, Oregon Health Officials have announced that they will be launching a new public awareness campaign that is geared toward informing parents on how to counter against these non-nutritional ads founds all around children. 

 

      Ads are put up all around us to grab our attention and make us ultimately buy the product that is being advertised, whether it is good or bad for us.  When children see advertisements for non nutritional snacks, they don’t know that it may not be the healthiest thing for them to have but they do know that it looks good and that they want it.  So they plead with parents and sometimes may get the unhealthy food that they are wanting. 

 

      I think that launching this new public awareness campaign geared towards parents can be beneficial towards this subject matter but I also don’t think that it will be beneficial enough to make a huge impact on what kids are going to be eating or on what parents are going to buy their kids while at the grocery store.  Most parents today have so many things to get done within a day, whether it is running this kid to ballet and this one to soccer that they don’t have a lot of time to sit down and think about the healthiest snack that they could be buying for their children.  They get what is fastest and easiest which includes a lot of the time the fast food and the high calorie snacks.  So, the kids that are pleading with their parents now and are getting the unhealthy snacks will probably in the future continue to get those unhealthy snacks, even after this new campaign is launched.  While the kids whose parents buy only apples and fruit juice at the grocery store are going to continue to get those same healthy snacks because that is the routine they have already established.

 

Read more at http://tinyurl.com/yl36n68

 

concept blog-telling lies

here is my concept paper.

thanks.

Brandon Moore
s200500@nwmissouri.edu
brandon@codeworksplus.com

Concept blog again

Andrew Maddux

Concept Blog

Subject: Structuring and ordering persuasive messages: implicit and explicit conclusions

 

Sunshine, the world is illuminated by its pleasant rays every morning, and you are no exception. Your eyes open slowly and your vision begins to clear from its lack of sight from the overnight journey. Slowly you rise and stare at what clothes to put on; every action you make is because of perception, the perception which formed from where you grew up, your love ones, but mostly your peers. Companies and Governments prey on these known insecurities, and persuade you to follow certain rules, make you feel that the name brand is superior to the store brand, and insist that by buying expensive clothes you’ll be the most popular person in the room. Most of those are implicit conclusions structured to be ingrained in you by a very young age, and brings us to the topic of this report.

 Within this small report insight to the structuring and ordering of persuasive messages and the two subtypes of conclusions implicit and explicit conclusions will be gained. Relevant to you, should be after all the first paragraph in this paper was structured to make you feel uneasy enough, to read the rest. In spite of the examples of implicit conclusions used so far, by telling you the 1^st paragraph intent it is now an explicit conclusions used to openly persuade.  Hopefully by examining both will not only allow you to identify when they are used on you, but also encourage you to decipher the message being put forth by the persuader.

Before starting off on our exploration it’s necessary to know the difference between implicit and explicit conclusions. An implicit conclusion is, “one in which members of an audience are allowed to draw their own conclusion from the argument and audience.” An explicit conclusion, “was defined as one stated by the speaker during the course of communication.”(Tubbs, 1968)  That is not the only arguable difference between the two, from the same source. The Arthur of the article, “Explicit Versus Implicit Conclusions and Audience Commitment,” Stewart Tubbs argues that less-intelligent people and intelligent people prefer different types of conclusions, and respond to them differently.

Stewart sets out to show this by devising an experiment in which there are two groups of college students of equal intelligence who are suppose to record their reaction to the persuasiveness of a speech. The speech was set-up to be identical in all ways except one had an explicit conclusion (Group A), and the other an implicit conclusion (Group B). The findings of the speech point to that in this case the college students in Group A found that the speech’s message was persuasive due to how it was structured and straightforward in its intent. The college students in Group B responded to the implicit conclusion less favorably, and had significantly lower reaction to the persuasive message then Group A. So in conclusion in regards to this study Tubbs did show that what form of conclusion one used did have a big impact on the overall effectiveness of the message.(Tubbs,1968)

Now moving forward we look at the article, “Examining the Use of Forceful Language When Designing Exercise Persuasive Messages for Adults: A Test of Conceptualizing Reactance Arousal a two-step processes” by Brian Quick. The article shows how the “Physiological Reactance Theory” which states that when, “there are more than one attractive options, and an individual is stripped of their right to choose among the options will experience reactance.”(Quick,2008) The study shows that when adults or any demographic for that mattered are told to exercise because they are unhealthy, reactance occurs. So in our case this would be the explicit message however, when the health department used implicit messages, through the idea of maintance more adults were persuaded to exercise. (Quick,2008)  This is only points out how important it is for the persuader to choose the right conclusion for his or her intended audience, because an incorrect judgment will lead to the complete failure of the message.

The finale of our trip resides in the article, “Effects of Literal and Metaphorical Persuasive Messages”, by Jan Bosman and Louk Hagendoorn. The interesting aspect about this study is how it shows what roles gender and what type of brain you are plays in the overall effectiveness of both conclusions. The participants were college students majoring in Law & Psychology so are much more knowledgeable on the overall topic then most individuals. The results of the study which intent was to deal with politics, and how each reacted the literal, or metaphorical messages put forth by two made up parties. The study’s results pointed to the fact that left-brained individuals and women tended to be more convinced by metaphorical messages, while right-brained individuals were more likely to favor the literal message. Showing that once again the importance of how one presented a message was just as important as the message itself.(Bosman, 1991)

From the beginning to the end of this paper, a portrait has been drawn one that to the persuader may be as confusing as a work by Picasso is to me. The simple conclusion is that both conclusions are important for reaching different demographics, and to the success of the intended message. Hopefully by the time the sun sets tonight, that tomorrow you will open your eyes not only to sunlight, but also to the illumination of your mind!

 

 

 

 

 

Bibliography

 

Bosman, J., & Hagendoorn, L. (1991, December). Effects of Literal and Metaphorical Persuasive Messages. Metaphor & Symbolic Activity, 6(4), 271. Retrieved September 23, 2009, from Academic Search Premier database.

 

Quick, B., & Considine, J. (2008, September). Examining the Use of Forceful Language When Designing Exercise Persuasive Messages for Adults: A Test of Conceptualizing Reactance Arousal as a Two-Step Process. Health Communication,23(5), 483-491. Retrieved September 23, 2009, from E-Journals database.

 

Tubbs, S. (1968, March). EXPLICIT VERSUS IMPLICIT CONCLUSIONS AND AUDIENCE COMMITMENT. Speech Monographs,35(1), 14. Retrieved September 23, 2009, from Communication & Mass Media Complete database.

 

 

 

Power of Labeling

By Chris Parsons

The power of labeling a person, place or thing is a something that can
never be taken lightly. Does it really matter, if say, a boy or girl
is label as a jock or a nerd, prep or a goth? What does it mean to be
called an overachiever or a chronic-slacker? Does a label or title
really precede a person if it is spread enough? Do people create a
label for themselves or does the label create them?

What is a label? Webster's Dictionary defines a label as a card, etc,
marked and attached to an object to show its contents, (1. Attach a
label to. 2. Classify as.) So when we as people label one another we
are classifying each other. What is this based on? Is it our actions,
words, ethics, work habits or our hobbies? This article will try to
look into the power of labeling and how it might be used to persuade
us and as forms of propaganda.

Some labels are extremely powerful. You think of a jock and you think
of the best looking athlete scoring the game winning touchdown or
hitting the home runs. On the opposite side of that a person who is
labeled as a geek instantly brings images of suspenders, white button
up shirts with pocket protectors and big thick glasses.

However a label is not always a negative thing. To be labeled as a
husband, a mother, a teacher, a mentor. All of these are honors and
labels are things that people strive to earn and be known as. Positive
labeling has proven and long lasting effects just as negative has its.
Labeling a child as a prodigy or as a child genius and telling the
child this has the effect of them developing into that kind of person
even if it wasn't inherently true to begin with.

As mention earlier even our food choices are steered to a certain
outlook because of labeling. A healthy individual who cares about what
they eat will stay far away from a food labeled as being high in fat.
One week a certain type of food is good for us then the next it is bad
and the populace follows those labels like sheep follow one another in
the flock.

When a person is labeled, positively or negatively, deservingly or
spitefully, the question of whether or not a person can overcome a
label that has been given to them. Can a person who is labeled as a
slacker become a person who gets their work done in a timely manner?
The answer is yes so one of the questions posted at the beginning can
be answered. A person does not become their label. A person can
overcome and move beyond a label. Whether or not they simply move away
from the origin of their label to a place that they are not known or
through work and a dedication to remove them from that title they
finally overcome it.

By that same notion however it can be said that a person does not
create his or her own label. A student who works hard and volunteers
to help the teacher can sometimes be labeled a teachers pet and by
that standard they are never seen to get in trouble or a bad grade
because of that connection, not the work and effort they put into
class.

This relates to propaganda and persuasion in a few ways. One such way
is Looking at it from another stand point when you go to the
supermarket and decide to pick up a piece of steak do you look at the
B grade cuts or is it the grade A prime choice cut that has your
attention. This is how labeling persuades us in our choices. While
most of the time the label is there for your healthy, great tasting
needs sometimes the label is there for a purely cosmetic or
advertising situations.
A box of cereal label as good for you will sell fairly well. Add to
the label of that cereal that it is great tasting and good for you and
people will most likely choose the one that is great tasting because
the label of the cereal declares it to be so.
The label of something has a profound impact on most decisions or
assumptions that a person makes. A manager at a supermarket has two
applicants for a job, both of equal skill and all applicable areas.
One however is an ex-con who has just been released. Because he is
required to make that information known on his application, because it
is the label he and society have put on himself he may very well not
get the job because of that. That is the power of labeling.
Proof of the above mentioned scenario could be found within the
definition of Labeling Theory. Encyclopedia Britannica has the
definition as a product of society's reaction to the individual
(Labeling 2009). Which means that the individual, once convicted of a
crime, is labeled a criminal and thereby acquires a criminal identity.
Once returned to society, he continues to be regarded as a criminal
and is consequently rejected by law-abiding persons and accepted by
other delinquents. This has been found to be true. Most ex-cons on
attempts to start their life anew as a law-abiding citizen are usually
shot down because of their label. Which in turn makes them return to
the criminal lifestyle and the cycle continues.

The Journal of Food Products Marketing conducted a study. A summery of
the study is as follows. "The aim of this study is to identify motives
and barriers for the consumption of fresh tropical fruits and their
juices. Also the potential role of labeling information, more
specifically process-related quality labeling for fresh tropical
fruits, and on-label nutrition and health claims for tropical fruit
juices, are investigated. This study indicates that pleasure-seeking
and hedonism motives are major drivers, whereas high perceived price
and unfamiliarity form the most prominent barriers for consuming
tropical fruit and tropical fruit juices. Process-related quality
labels are considered credible and persuasive, but the expected price
premium hampers the purchase of process-certified tropical fruit
products. Health and nutrition claims on tropical fruit juices are not
believed to be persuasive unless they match well with the perceived
naturalness of the juices" (Sabbe, Verbeke, Van Damme, 2009).

In the end the power of labeling seems to be prevalent and will
continue its hold over those who are labeled through others or their
own deeds. That is why we as a collective should never judge a book by
its cover and delve to find those true natures and facts beneath the
label.

Dell warns about going small

By Brooke Shanholtz

Dell CEO, Michael Dell, has publicly stated that the new small 10 inch notebooks are not liked by everyone. He stated that for users who have used a larger screen, downgrading to a smaller screen probably will not satisfy them.

CNET News reported that Dell stated, "We see a fair amount of customers not really being that satisfied with the smaller screen and the lower performance, unless it's like a secondary machine or it's a very first machine and the expectations are low."

Some may be surprised that Dell is so open about the limits and dislikes of their "small" notebook line, but it is a positive thing. If I were to buy a small Dell notebook, and find it to be disappointing, I would be less likely to ever buy any size of Dell notebook in the future. But because they are allowing the public to know what to expect they are showing they do care about the consumer. It is important for any company that wants to be respected and obtain loyal customers to be truthful about their products and services.

Daily Dog. (2009, October 15). New Dell Laptops Get Some Harsh Comments from… Michael Dell: CEO Tells Gathering that New Netbooks “Not a Good Experience” for Users. Retrieved from http://www.bulldogreporter.com/