Is Advertising Good For Society?

Every single day we turn on the TV or read the newspaper and we see advertisements all over the place. These are products that people try and sell by persuading us to buy them. According to an online source, an average American watches 1550 hour of TV, listens to 1160 hours on the radio, and spends 290 hours reading newspapers and magazines. So every day a person watches atleast 100 TV advertisements and almost 50 phone calls a year from telemarketers. In my opinion, I think that despite all of the annoyances and commercials on TV, without advertising, we would not know of the "great deals" that we could get. Yes, advertisements are designed to sell and make money, but they are also designed to inform the public. For example, if there is a huge sale going on at Navy I would probably go there if I saw an ad rather than to another store that has higher prices. But, advertisements can trick people into thinking that their product is "different" and "better" than other people's products, when in fact it is indeed the same thing. I think that the one true benefit of advertisements toward the consumer are that they communicate sales. Other than that, advertising can be bad because they can influence kids who do not know the real truth behind things.

Are People Better Informed in the Information Society?

Nowadays anything is google-able. That means that a 10 year old kid can google to learn more about a certain subject and they would get results. However, if kids are not finding the correct information and are going to sites that are not well-known or professionally done, it could lower their intelligence. But overall, most times kids these days will make the decision of what is accurate and what is truely false. But overall, yes, I think that the information on the internet benefits individuals more than not. An example is Linda Jackson's study of people between the age of 10 and 18, which she found that the people who surfed the internet had higher scores and GPAs were better. Also, it it says in the book that "The Internet showed the potential to enhance academic achievement" (365). Not only does the internet help students academically get through their classes and add creativity and spark to their projects, but it makes them in reality smarter and more aware of society. In conclusion, I don't see the harm of information that is out there on the web, it is just that people have to make wise decisions on what sites they search and make sure that it is valid in its content.

Letter To Deutsche Welle

Dear Deutsche Welle,
    It has come to my attention that your media outlet is very useful for people who live in Germany. I will go through and explain five reasons to support this statement. The first reason is the social network that you use on the media site is very friendly and easy to access. For example, there is a way that people in Germany can view soccer over the website which attracts soccer fans from all over. Also, in relation to the social networking, you reach out through Facebook and Twitter which makes it easier for the public to have access to live media that you cover. Over the years many other websites have also included this, it makes it user friendly in turn attracting more people. In addition, the second reason is that nowadays most people get information on their phone and it seems that if websites don’t have mobile access, then they are not getting as much hits and their ratings go down. But in your case, you have a mobile access website in the “Interactive” section which makes it convenient for people to have it always on the go.  For example, the applications that you have such as Deutsche Welle News Portal, makes it available for users to always get the latest information about everything. Ever since the I-Phone came out websites have been advertising their applications just like yours which is a good way to get more views. The third thing that the media website has going is that it does a great job advertising tourists to come visit. For example, there is a “Germany Info” tab that has ‘Visit Germany’ along with ‘Facts about Germany’ and ‘Study in Germany’. In these sections it shows tips of what to do in Germany and you show great resources of current events that
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tourist, like myself will be very interested in. You do a great job at drawing people in from other countries to learn more about the German community and lifestyle. Also, students who are interested in studying abroad might be able to seek more better information and having your website is a starter for them. This is very unique because I do not really see this on American websites, trying to get other countries to come visit. Moreover, reason four lies under the fact that you contain quality political coverage over a wide span of things. For example, your updates on politics and security are always fast and applicable. The fifth and final reason is that it is easy to find events that happened in the past. For example, there is an “Archives” section that allows people to have access to stories and coverage all the way back to 2001. This shows that you like to keep written articles and documents of the past, which is significant because people want to be able to remember what happened in the past so that stories do not go missing in the world.
    In conclusion, the website is very handy for people who live in Germany because of the five reasons I went through. These are social networking, mobility, advertising, political coverage, and archives, which all make apart of why your media outlet is not only useful but complete in all its up to date functions. Some websites do not have some of these key functions that yours does, which makes your site on another level, competing with other sites. My personal opinion about the website is that it is useful for me in the fact that I can get more information about studying abroad because I have always been interested in doing that. Also, I am from Germany and going over there would be nice because I have family that I have never met that live there.

International Perspectives On Local/Global Issues

After reading and watching news from international press online, I took notes on one particular issue and the different perspectives of that issue. First off, I wanted to take note that the New York Times and BBC News stood out to me. One thing was that the New York Times paper seemed to have a little bit more information about the Vitro Fertilization topic. In addition, "Advances in human reproductive technology arouse people's deepest concerns and often go through a cycle, first of outrage and charges of playing God, then of acceptance. The other news sources such as news.com.au seemed to have more quotations than the others, so less commentary.
The issue was about the vitro Ferlization winning the Nobel Prize. Robert G. Edwards who is an English biologist, "developed the in vitro fertilization procedure for treating human infertility" (NYT). Also, I learned that the Swedish committee is believed to avoid controversial people and issues. On the other hand, it seems as if BBC gets right to the point, unlike other sources. Robert Edwards treats nearly 10% of all people in the world, which says a lot. So some people trust this guy, right? However, BBC news appears to be against the whole idea that this guy should win the Noble Prize, rather than the other. For example it says that "A Vatican official has said the awarding of the Nobel Prize for Medicine to British IVF pioneer Robert Edwards is 'completely out of order'"(BBC). This shows that every different news source has different opinions and are not all completely biased reports. In conclusion, I learned that you must go to each different source to get better facts so that you can put the pieces together.