Tag: news

Initial Aspirations

~ Sue ~ Leave a comment

When I started this blog, I had many ideas and thoughts of what I would use it for. It would be a creative blog, where I would post images of what I had made, and use it as a promotional tour for my business. In retrospect, I think I aimed a little high.

Firstly because being at college, and struggling through a few years of forced creativity, has lead to me going from one artistic mental block, to another. Secondly, I just am far too scatter brained to make my blog about one thing. I maybe should organise it better, but nothing in my life is very organised, so it maybe wouldn’t reflect ME if it wasn’t a bit of a mess. Some excuse, right?

I have always been an over thinker. A person who seeks importance in the most stupid and trivial things. My interests in things can get intense, but will also suddenly wane after a short period of time. I want to express my love and experience so many different things, that I always find myself looking for ‘something else’. Whilst some things such as favourite bands, movies and books will stay with me, I can’t exclusively care about a favourite thing. I think that liking new things can be a challenge, a challenge that should be welcomed.

Because I try to be interested in so many different things, I find that what I want to talk about changes every day. One day I will want to talk about Benji Madden sneaking into Scotland without my knowledge, the next day I’ll be talking about some political land mine. Whilst this leads to me being very sporadic, I like the idea that I have a place to express my thoughts in a accessible manner.

So whilst my initial plans for this blog haven’t come true, I still am happy with it. I have made this blog my online ‘home’ for the last few years, and I have become very attached to it. I find that WordPress is a great blog host, and find that is the best managed blogging site on the net. Trust me, I have tried almost every blogging site going. I like everything from the multiple platforms you can blog from, to the twitter feed. I think that the simplicity of using the service, has been crucial for me staying here for so long.

I guess I am feeling very retrospective. Whilst the majority of people I know say I waste my time writing a blog, I will always scoff in their faces. If a person has the freedom to express themselves without fear, no matter how they do it, they will never waste their time.

Hating the Beautiful?

~ Sue ~ Leave a comment

Yesterday an uproar was caused by yet another Daily Mail article. This time, 41 year old, Samantha Brick, complains the trials and tribulations about being beautiful. She claims other women hate her because of it, but she gets what ever she wants and people should be happy for her. That is a pretty vague idea, but to read the article, just employ Google to search for the article in question.

Now I do not think for a second that Ms Brick is a bad person, just a little shallow. She has today posted an article where she doesn’t understand why people are hating her and calling her ugly. If you are going to write a couple hundred words on how pretty you are, then it doesn’t take much brain power that people will call you ugly. It is trolling on the Internet, it is what happens when people can hide anonymously and give out hate. To post opinions anywhere, you need to have a thick skin, because people will attack what you say. And the reaction given by Ms Brick, to say that she has been proven right, is not dealing with trolls, but feeding them.

People are annoyed because pretty people can flirt their way through anything, it seems. And that is the picture Ms Brick paints of herself. She gets free meals, free drinks, free everything, something that if she was just getting on with her day, wouldn’t happen. To anyone. But she flirts her way through life, where others have to work to get what they want. People who pay for every drink, are nice to everyone but get nowhere. In walks a long legged blonde, who whispers in the bosses ear and gets a promotion. THAT is the world most women live in. That is why people can’t feel sorry for Ms Brick. I mean, no paper would publish a story by a banker who says he has too much money would they? It would cause a riot because so many people live month to month on nothing.

As a girl who has worked extremely hard for everything I have, it does grate on me when people moan about getting things for free. And more people are in the same situation than me, than are in one as Ms Brick. Which is why people feel the need to lash out, for making it seem that hard working normality is wrong. It puts woman’s rights back several decades, when someone gets treated like she’s special, just because of a pretty face. And because of all this, I am not surprised that Ms Brick gets met with hostility.

There are plenty of people like Ms Brick, and they aren’t bad people. The bad people are the ones who allowed the story go to press. The headline chasing Daily Mail does this a lot. Uses writers to whip up a storm, and provide cheap promotion. She is just a tool, something that the mail will throw to the side once the drama dies down. The have got an article and a front page story out of the self centred rambling, which would have a better place in a private blog. The Daily Mail KNEW Ms Brick would be lynched for what she wrote, and they published it anyway. The Daily Mail is a worse publication than the Daily Star. At least the Star is knowingly filled with rubbish, the Mail seems to be sensationalist rubbish, pretending to be a proper paper.

I hope Ms Brick realises she was set up, and gains some perspective on what has happened. She will lose her looks, but her bad attitude will stay.

Purpose of Media

~ Sue ~ Leave a comment

As I sat in front of my TV watching the tenth documentary show this week (yes, I keep count), I had a think about the purpose of media in society.  As much as we use various types of media on a daily basis, not much thought is put into it’s actual purpose.

Most of the forms of media that we use regular (television, radio, internet, newspapers, etc) were originally created to be a way of telling people information. It was to educate people about things like news-worthy events, or to get messages to other people. But somewhere along the line, media became less about communicating messages, and more about entertaining the masses.  The dictionary definition of media is-

‘The storage and transmission channels or tools used to store and deliver information or data. It is often referred to as synonymous with mass media or news media, but may refer to a single medium used to communicate any data for any purpose’

It is a way of communicating which comes from cave paintings created by cavemen. And postal services started from as early as 500BC, and became a crucial way of communications in the Persian and Roman Empires.

Times have changed, but still people feel the need to communicate to one another, now with the help of technology it is easier than ever. Rather than send a letter to loved ones and wait weeks for it to arrive, you can send them an email or call them on the other side of the world in seconds. These advances have mostly come within the last 50 years, and the world is better for it. When a news breaks, it would sometimes take days to get to all corners of the world. Now, within 30 minutes, newsrooms all over the world can be reporting on the same story. The rolling news networks (Sky News, Fox News, BBC News 24) are probably the best examples of media in it’s current form. No matter what time of day, news is constantly being reported, and it never stops. There is always something happening somewhere, and media helps a normal person see what is happening outside the borders to their country. Media doesn’t stop anymore. Rather than  waiting to buy your newspaper in the morning to get updated in current affairs, you can flick onto a TV channel or switch on a computer. Everything is online. And online services really can be updated at any time of the day. Everything is posted as it happens.

And whilst you would think this would empower people as they have a wider scope of knowlege in front of them, it doesn’t. Rolling news hasn’t had the effect one would think. People are constantly feeling the need to switch off from their lives, and now use media to escape. If they have worked hard, they don’t want to be ‘snowed under’ with the rest of the world’s problems. So rather than watch the news or documentaries, many more watch TV talent shows or play computer games.

And working for a media company, I feel I notice this more. You can see the things that people want to spend their money on, and it isn’t news or documentaries, it’s movies and sport. The leading methods of escapism. Something where you can shift your focus away from what seems ordinary, and fixate your attention on something else. As nice as it is that people around the world can see whether Manchester United or Chelsea win the Premiership trophy, I find it unsettling that people would rather watch that, than be educated. I touched on education a few days ago, and I feel that is the most important resource we have. To learn how things work, and what happened on this earth before us. To learn how countries were formed and fought for. To me, that is exciting, that is what media is about. It is about being educated, not just in formal documentary format, but to educate on how others around the world live. Is that not the biggest selling point of the World Wide Web, that it connects the world and shows how other people live?

Or maybe it isn’t. Maybe the purpose of the media is to give deluded writers a forum to express their mislead views and opinions? I don’t know really. I like to think that all this technology has a higher worth than football and computer games. But, I guess that’s me. That is what I want to take from the media that surrounds me. Not everyone is like that.

The Unpopular Opinion

~ Sue ~ Leave a comment

I am preparing myself for a lynch mob over this, but I need to say something.

This morning I woke up to the news that Osama Bin Laden had been killed. The target for the Allied forces, their goal, had been achieved. The world’s most wanted man is dead. The news resulted in images broadcast around the world of people celebrating. And that unsettled me.

Why would the death of a mass-murder upset me? Well, at the end of the day, no matter how messed up he was, he was still a man. Still someone’s son. Still someone’s father. Still a human being. I’m sure all of us sitting in the Western world, like to think we are more civilised than the Taliban or whatever, but are we really? Our troups killed THOUSANDS of innocents just to get to one man. Hundreds of our own countrymen were killed trying to get this one man. Does that sound civilised to you? Are we really the ‘good side’?

It is easy to paint the West as the bad side, because, to be honest we seem to do a good job of it ourselves. The leaders spout that this is for the good of the world, that we are closer to having peace. No! We are nowhere near fixing anything. As long as the human race believes in ‘getting their own back’ on others, then no, there will never be peace. You blow up two office buildings in America, we will destroy entire towns with our bombs. That is not how you bring about peace.

To be honest, it really got to me, to see people celebrate the death of a man. Are people really that stupid? I don’t care who it was, or what he did, but having a party because someone died is disgusting. It makes you no better than them who have parties because their bomb plot was a success. It makes the West NO DIFFERENT to the Middle East. We enjoy the death of our enemies. Don’t deny it, because it’s the truth.

It started with Saddam Hussein, where his death was as praised as the recent Royal Wedding. And people celebrated because our armed forces killed a man. And since then, the target was Bin Laden, and people have waited for the day he’d be another trophy of oil-hungry war. And now he is, except this trophy is at the bottom of the ocean. To stop people using Bin Laden’s body as a shrine.

And now, we are about to get the aftermath. You killed your target, now deal with the consequences. Every Westerner is at risk, because we all represent the world that praised the death of Bin Laden. The man who wanted his own people to stand up and be counted. The man who wanted Western oil companies to give the land back to the natives. It doesn’t sound so foreign, so evil, when you look at it away from the misguidance of the press. The press has a duty, as propaganda for whatever the government in power decides to do. The UK press, although showed Bin Laden, were not as jubilant as they were with Hussein. It is maybe because they know, the ball is no longer in our court. This is going to lead to some serious retaliation. This is going to lead to the death of more innocents. The UK press seemed to meet the issue of Bin Laden’s death in a sombre fashion. As if, everyone is thinking ‘what now’.

For the record, I don’t blame troups. I have a brother in the army, and I know that if he were to go to war, they go to help people. They go with the idea to make things better. It is the men in power who send our troups over, to do their dealings. The army should be used to protect its perspective country, not start endless wars in other countries. *sigh*

This has come out as a muddle, but I have said what I wanted to say. I don’t EVER think a death should be celebrated, I don’t give a fuck who it is.

“People who fight fire with fire usually end up with ashes.”- Abigail Van Buren

More Than Just Words On A Page

~ Sue ~ Leave a comment

I am not a journalist, not educated in the skills of the written word past my High School education. And by the stage I began to get interested in writing, I was in an anti-school state of mind. I hated exams, and that’s what it felt like school was like, one massive exam.

But this doesn’t mean that I am invalid to comment on the amount of tripe in the media, which is dubbed as ‘journalism’. If I went with my impulse, and followed a career into journalism, I would have been surrounded by the egomaniacs, who are hellbent on being ‘celebrities’. Something that sickens me. I would have loved to have a career in journalism, because I love writing and I enjoy discussions that follow one sharing their opinion on events. That’s it! I wouldn’t want to be on television, as I find that seems to be full of arrogance, and my day-to-day life is filled with that already, thanks very much.

Teenagers now follow a career in journalism because they think they will get on TV, so that they can become ‘celebrities’. That isn’t journalism, that isn’t reporting something true to yourself. I think it would have destroyed me, to have to communicate something, which wouldn’t be true to myself. Maybe this is a fault I have, that I can’t write about something I have no passion or interest in. I don’t know if I view writing too much of an art form. Because that’s what I think it is, I feel that it is an emotional release, where you have to be inspired write something of interest. Like, I have to believe what I’m writing about, or it just becomes very transparent and boring. Because I have always looked upon all types of literature in this way, I think that I find it alarming that so many people use it for nothing else, but to make themselves famous.

As a child, I dreamed of writing a novel, but that was more because I felt a bit of pride when I saw someone reading what I wrote. It made me feel so light-headed, if the reader enjoyed my creation. Now, I just feel jaded with media, because it seems that a lot of things seems to be lacking emotion or have an ulterior motive. This has been a thought that has bothered me within the last few years, particularly around the time of the General Election. I found that whatever, newspaper or TV news report I encountered, it seemed like they all had their own political alliances. Like this form of educating the Great British public, came with unavoidable propaganda for a Political movement. Maybe I am naive, but I am of the opinion that all media should be impartial. Ok, I know that seems like I am contradicting what I have just said, but I think that if you have all the journalists saying what they believe in, and then you have a variety of opinions, then you have platform for a range of views to be heard and then allow the public to make their own decision.

But that is giving too much power to the public isn’t it? We live in a society where it is dictated to us who we should admire. There are thousands of ‘celebrities’ who have won their ready-built fame through ‘reality’ TV. Why are we being forced to celebrate some mediocre singer, who fucked someone once? Shouldn’t it be the person who has spent her life crafting her own voice, who is still singing in local bars, getting all the attention? Shouldn’t we be celebrating the lives of the doctors who save a normal person? Why should we accept that a man kicking a ball for 90 minutes a week, is able to earn 200 times the salary of the normal working person?

It’s obvious that things in society are far more imbalanced, than just the media. The big thing I have an issue with, is the emergence of the ‘showbiz media’, the magazines, TV shows and blogs dedicated to telling the warts-and-all tales of famous people. I believe that the ‘celebrity’ culture was created, to take the attention away from more pressing matters, such as the more unpalatable parts of the news, which often goes unreported. Proof of this, is when a class of 8-year-old school children were asked who was Cheryl Cole’s estranged husband, 78 out of 83 kids correctly said it was Ashley Cole. The same children were asked if they knew who was Prime Minister, 12 correctly said David Cameron, 21 said The Queen and the rest didn’t have a clue. Is that the message we want our media giving to children? ‘Who cares who runs the country, some nonentity’s relationship status is what’s important’.

That is why I both want and don’t want to be part of the media. I would like to get the opportunity to tell all these mislead sheep what is important, to help them get a better understanding of the world around them. But, I know that the ‘words of reason’ would find it hard to break through the latest relationship woes of whatever overpaid footballer is the topic of the day. Which would make me feel worthless, that ‘real news’ would be overshadowed by gossip. It makes you wonder how much of the media is controlled by the government, are we being sold gossip as news to try to dumb us down. As they say, ‘ignorance is bliss’ so it would be easier for the government to hide as much as they can, and just fill the gaps with ‘celeb scandal’. This sounds like something from a George Orwell novel, but it could happen, and I wouldn’t be suprised if it already was.

Terrifying thought isn’t it? How much of our ‘free media’ is actually free?

Free Speech, Costly Thoughts

~ Sue ~ Leave a comment

I had an odd instance today. Where I talked about something, and was given the reply of death threats. Its an odd occurence. I am a very opinionated person, and never had the problem of such volatile reactions to my words.
It wasn’t as if the words were offensive. I mean, I spoke negatively about a singer from a bands actions. But that’s it. I didn’t berate him for it, I just said I did not agree with his actions. Simple enough, you may think. It’s just showing opinion, over something. Which is all it was. But when did opinion become a fight about what’s right and wrong?

I wish I could say, that my experience today, was a one off occurence.  But I know, just by watching the news, it isn’t. We are constantly being told how lucky we are, because we live in a country which allows free speech. Which is all very well, in theory. Free speech, also allows free thinking. And people, as complex as we appear, can’t seem to process anything other than a good side and a bad side, just black and white. So the thoughts you think up, are either right and wrong, as if that gives it an answer.

I mean, we like answers don’t we. Like to have everything in resolved in a neat little package. People are reluctant to say something is someones opinion, and to just leave it that. They feel the need to show why it is right, or wrong. Why?

Looking through the news, I saw that T4’s Miquitta Oliver has been suspended from her work, because she spoke negatively about US singer Ke$ha. She apparently used swear words when talking about the singer. Now, note that the words themself, weren’t what caused the damage. It was the thought process, connected to those words. But to say that someone is not allowed to air their frustrations, with this ‘free speech’, kind of indicates that we are not as free as we are lead to believe.

But that’s not anything new is it?

Everybody PANIC!

~ Sue ~ Leave a comment

Ran my idea, of featuring my blog in  my sketchbook, as some kind of anitation, past Caron, my tutor, today. She seemed to like it. And she also said that it could be useful as a design idea. Like having large setions of text, and pulling out words of importance into the front. This would be an enteresting concept. But I need to think about it some more.

Been reading about this ‘panic button’, which the government want to be added to facebook.http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8574727.stm The government feel that if they inforce this, then it stops kids being lured by paedophiles. They need to be aware, that this won’t actually stop the kiddies being lured by perves. Rather than bad mouthing Facebook, because it wants to attempt its own methods of protection. If a panic button is used, and it ‘red flags’ a members page.

This is the account being reported, and the way the most sites work, that 1 report and the member gets looked at, and warned. But 5 or 6 reports within a short period of time, the account in question is automatically blocked. Now if everybody uses it correctly, then it works well. But people will abuse it, and will report accounts, which belong to people who maybe are a tad annoying.

Also, this ‘panic button’ is to be used by kids. Now, it is known that most kids who fall into these traps set up by perverts, don’t think they are at risk. They don’t sense danger, so won’t press anything.

So again, the government seem to be having somekind of kneejerk reaction, to Facebook reccently being in the news, after being used by perverts, and by criminals torturing their victims through the site.  They have just thrown out an idea, and hoped that it would be good enough. Then the government will start saying that Facebook is ‘evil’, in an attempt to make themselves look right. The UK government is taking to many short cuts right now, they just want to blame it on someone else