Week 2 Lecture

Well its week 3 and I have to talk about the lecture last week.
Unfortunately I was extremely sick on Friday and was throwing up the contents of my dinner that morning... and didn't end up going to the lecture.
Therefore, please excuse my lack of knowledge in this blog and it might be irrelevant and dull.
I printed off the notes from the lecture and read the chapter so I will try my hardest to make this as entertaining and informative as possible.

After looking at my notes I decided to research George Gerbner and the 'cultivation hypothesis' which discussed the way crime was directly linked to the ways in which the media reported and portrayed criminal violence. Note that this theory was divised in 1970s for those who don't remember this from the lecture (I don't even know if it was discussed :s ha ha sorry).

I went on Google and the first website I found had this to say:

"Some experts who track violence in television programming, such as George Gerbner of Temple University, define violence as the act (or threat) of injuring or killing someone, independent of the method used or the surrounding context... Gerber includes cartoon violence in his data-set.
<http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/issues/violence/effects_media_violence.cfm>

Researching a bit more I decided to look the theory up on wikipedia, being basic I thought I may be able to find out the general gist of things.

I found a definition:
"...concerned with the effects of television programming (particularly violent programming) on the attitudes and behaviors of the American public" (Miller, 2005, p. 281)
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultivation_theory>

It made me think about the concern these days with how the media portrays crime and how it may effect how violent we can be because of it. One website I stumbled on asked the question, does the media shape your opinions on how you think of crime in your local area?

I thought about this and realised that what I watch on the local news does effect what I think about crime locally. I seemed not to be over concerned as the area I live in has little crime and usually on the news particular areas are pin-pointed as "problem areas". That makes me avoid those certain areas and the times in which the media says the crime takes place.

So if you have actually read my blog and intend to comment I'm going to ask you to answer me a question! Do you think what you see on TV and in the media makes you think about crime?

Thanks for reading :)

Week 1 Tutorial 10-12

(Jess Dunne)
Hey,
Well for this course I have to start a blog. I was surprised that all I have to do was log in and type away and get marks for it, I thought it was pretty good.
For the first tutorial I thought I'd do a little introduction and talk about what I think of Uni so far.
Last year I finished year 12 at All Saints Anglican on the Gold Coast. My first instinct was to go to a Brisbane uni after living on the Gold Coast my entire life. Instead i choose to stay in my safety net and not venture too far from home. Although I have asperations to travel and to enter a business where i can do that reguarly, i don't think im brave or mature enough to take that step. I have been to Malaysia and Thailand with my family and just doing that i realised i wanted to see and do more.

When i first came to uni it was a bit daunting and i kept turning up late and getting lost. After going to a few lectures i realised it wasn't too overwhelming and similar to school. New Communication Tech seemed rather easy as i use the computer and the Internet almost everyday. The fact that we didn't have too many large essays (unlike my introduction to politics course) i was even more pleased. Also the subject matter that was discussed in the first lecture was very interesting and i know would be very useful in the future.

There is always new programs and things popping up to do with how we communicate, one reason why i chose to do a bachelor of communication, therefore i know learning about these new technologies will help me progress though life and work. Its just amazing to see how technology has changed and how it has changed us socially. As was mentioned in the tutorial, we interact differently today as we did only a few years ago. A new development that has accured recently and I have felt has almost taken over the world (haha) is myspace. It's been mentioned on movies, tv and has shaped a new, and very popular, way to meet and interact with people online. Personally i see it as a nessesity as do most teens. As this grows, who knows what else will occur in the next few years to revolutionise once again how we communicate.