Ted Williams, the man with the ‘Golden Voice’

In 2008, it was Susan Boyle and Justin Bieber. Now, it’s Ted Williams, the man who shot to fame after being featured in a viral Youtube video. Although the original video (which received over 4 million hits in just 24 hours) appears to have been removed, here’s a related clip:

Now, the once-homeless man has landed himself a job:

 

Questions:

To what extent does the mass media change lives?

Success is more a matter of luck than talent or hard work. Discuss.

In modern society, fame is but a mouse-click away. To what extent is this true?

 

Privacy and the digital native

“In designing a legal solution to the problems presented by digital dossiers, it would be a terrible mistake to lose sight of the fact that this world is more connected than ever before. [...] Data about digital natives freely crosses geographic and political borders, unfettered in virtually all instances. [For example, anyone from outside of the US who uses a US-based system is doing business with a foreign company.] The problem is that the protections [a person] enjoys in one country may not protect her in another context online. Any set of solutions we come up with needs to take these cross-border considerations to heart.

“It is also important to bear in mind the costs of privacy regulation. To date, privacy laws come not only with high costs but also, sometimes, with flaws in design and implementation. Privacy protections may run up against free-speech rights [...]. Consider [a Digital Native who] posts pictures, names and possible IM names or cell-phone numbers of her classmates online to create her own social network site. Under European data-protection laws, her activity, no matter how well intended, may be a violation of data-protection laws. But this is not the case int he United States*, where free speech in many instances trumps privacy. American law has yet to catch up to the changes in the way that Digital Natives are leading their social lives in networked publics.

- Palfrey & Gasser, Born Digital

 

*Editor’s note: This book was published in 2008. It is possible that the law has changed by now.

Task:

Identify the structural features and linguistic cues that the authors used to develop their argument.

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Questions:

Discuss the impacts of globalisation.

Free speech and privacy cannot co-exist. Discuss.

To connect, or to disconnect?

The new media connects us to our family and friends in fantastic new ways. Or does it?

 

Question:

“Disconnect the computer, disconnect my life.” Discuss. (CJC Promotional Examination, 2010)

Little girls shake their booty

Ever seen little girls in sexy little outfits, thrusting out their non-existent boobs and gyrating to Beyonce’s “Single Ladies”?

No? Then watch this.

Questions:

To what extent do you agree that the youths in your country are overly influenced by the media?

Change is good. Is this necessarily true?

Sexuality-based discrimination results in death of teen

On September 22, Tyler Clementi, an 18-year-old Rutgers University freshman jumped to his death after two classmates secretly recorded him making out with another man and posted the video on the Internet.

Tyler isn’t the only one – on September 19, Seth Walsh hung himself from a tree after enduring taunts that he was gay.

And still there are more.

In response to such incidents, Ellen DeGeneres speaks out, urging that we stop discriminating against gays, because “one death is tragic, four is a crisis”

Questions:

A prejudiced society is a society in crisis. Discuss.

Discuss the impacts of the media on the youth of today.

To what extent can the media be used to influence society?

“We’re Doomed.”

Has the new media destroyed the English language?

Advertising at its finest?

All I wanted was the standard, dictionary.com webpage. Instead, I was greeted with this beauty:

Questions:

Choice is an illusion. Discuss.

The mass media, not us, decides what we view. Is this a fair comment?

There is no escape from the reach of advertisements. To what extent is this true in society today?

A gullible generation?

In The Dumbest Generation, one of the points raised by Mark Bauerlein concerns the inability of digital natives to be critical and discerning in what they read on the internet.

In 2008, the Straits Times highlighted how teens were duped by a website that called for saving the endangered tree octopus.

THINK:
Do you agree that digital natives are less capable of critically evaluating internet content? Why?

Question:
“We have access to more information, but we aren’t more knowledgeable.” Is this a fair assessment of society today?

Two views: The Facebook bra colour status update

Here are two takes – both by breast cancer survivors – on the recent Facebook bra colour status update:

Post it!

Found out the hues represent bra colors. So, like every good Facebooker, I played along by peeking in my shirt and updating my status: Beige.

[...]

Just re-updated my status after my “beige” remark and wrote this:

So, while you’re peeking inside your shirt to see what color bra you are wearing so you can post it in your status update, go ahead and feel around in there, make sure there are no lumps. And if there are, call your doc for a clinical exam!

- Bra Colours take over Facebook, Well, Kind of, my Breast Cancer blog

But how does this little ‘game’ raise awareness?

In a comment to the above blog post, great says:

For everyone asking how it raises awareness, how many people googled it today and heard about the issue of breast cancer? You’re here talking about it, so clearly you read or heard about it. Would breast cancer have ocurred to you out of the blue today? Likely not. But it’s been brought to your attention now, hasn’t it? Silly? Yes. Effective? Of course.

- great, 1/8/2010 at 4:53 am

But perhaps playing along isn’t what we want.

If you know me, you don’t have to ask.  But if you’re new here, I couldn’t play along by posting the color of my bra because I don’t have one.  I don’t own one.

Two years ago this month, I underwent surgery, you see.  I had a double mastectomy to remove the cancer that was trying to kill me.

[...]

Clothes that fit just a few months previously don’t fit anymore, you see.  Every. single. shirt. is stretched out over the chest, and most new ones don’t fit right either.  Princess seams, sewn to flatter the big-busted and small-busted alike only serve to remind us, the no-busted, that we are no longer princesses.  V-necks are flattering, but only if they are not too deep, cut to show no cleavage, as our cleavage has been taken from us as well.

And, for a while, the reminders are everywhere.  Every TV commercial with the Victoria’s Secret angels rankles.  Every low-cut shirt sparks the tears.  Every nightgown cut to flatter falls — flat — and we cry into our pillow.

We are aware, you see.  We are all too aware, and we work to escape the reminders.

- In the name of awareness, Toddler Planet

Think:

Having read both opinions, what is your stand? Should women play along and spread the word about breast cancer by posting their bra colour on their Facebook status?

The most terrifying video you’ll ever see [on climate change]

“When faced with uncertainty about our future, the only responsible choice, the only defensible choice, is [to take action on climate change] in order to eliminate [catastrophic consequences] as a possibility. Because the risk of not acting far outweighs the risk of acting.”

“Because the only way we truly get into [making governments take action on climate change] is changes in public policy and those only change when enough people demand it”

- Greg Craven

Watch his youtube video:

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As a result of two years of debate with the youtube community on the argument presented in his video, Greg Craven wrote a book, ”What’s the Worst That Could Happen? A Rational Response to the Climate Change Debate”:

“…superbly crafted…. A must read.”

-Gen. Anthony Zinni, USMC (Ret.)

“This book trumps most of our accounts of the global warming crisis.”

-author Bill McKibben

“Al Gore should share his Nobel peace prize.”

-The “New Scientist”

“This is a tremendous book and well worth anyone’s time to read…. You’re in for a treat—Craven is funny as well as exceptionally clear, and wise.”

-Kim Stanley Robinson, Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author of the Mars Trilogy and Science in the Capital

“This is a terrifically thoughtful book…. Cravens book shines an illuminating floodlight on how we think about global warming.”

-Ross Gelbspan, author, “The Heat Is On” and “Boiling Point”

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Questions:

Should the world act now to fight climate change?

“New media is a tool of paramount importance in today’s society”. Assess the validity of this statement.

“New media is empowerment”. Discuss.