MEDIA AND INFORMATION BY. FLORNTE MATILAC

COMBAT AGAINST Digital Divide

From http://www.internetworldstats.com/

DIGITAL DIVIDE in broadly speaking, the difference is not necessarily determined by the access to the Internet, but by access to ICT (Information and Communications Technologies) and to Media that the different segments of society can use. With regards to the Internet, the access is only one aspect, other factors such as the quality of connection and related services should be considered. Today the most discussed issue is the availability of the access at an affordable cost and quality.

The problem is often discussed in an international context, indicating certain countries are far more equipped than other developing countries to exploit the benefits from the rapidly expanding Internet. Here is the latest State of the Internet Report from Akamai, showing average and maximum connection speeds, Internet Penetration and Broadband adaption, Mobile usage, as well as trends in this data over time.

The digital divide is not indeed a clear single gap which divides a society into two groups. Researchers report that disadvantage can take such forms as lower-performance computers, lower-quality or high price connections (i.e. narrow band or dial up connection), difficulty of obtaining technical assistance, and lower access to subscription-based contents.Bridging the Gap
The idea that some information and communication technologies are vital to quality civic life is not new. Some suggest that the Internet and other ICTs are somehow transforming society, improving our mutual understanding, eliminating power differentials, realizing a truly free and democratic world society, and other benefits.

In many countries, access to the telephone system is considered such a vital element that governments implement various policies to offer affordable telephone service. Unfortunately some countries lack sufficient telephone lines.

Literacy is arguably another such element, although it is not related to any new technologies or latest technological devices. It is a very widely shared view in many societies that being literate is essential to one's career, to self-guided learning, to political participation, and to Internet usage.

Unfortunately, in the world there are still 757 million adults including 115 million youths who cannot read or write a simple sentence. Explore the interactive literacy data to see which countries are most affected.

There are a variety of arguments regarding why closing the digital divide is important. The major arguments are the following:

1. Economic equality
Some think that the access to the Internet is a basic component of civil life that some developed countries aim to guarantee for their citizens. Telephone is often considered important for security reasons. Health, criminal, and other types of emergencies might indeed be handled better if the person in trouble has an access to the telephone. Another important fact seems to be that much vital information for people's career, civic life, safety, etc. are increasingly provided via the Internet. Even social welfare services are sometimes administered and offered electronically.

2. Social mobility
Some believe that computer and computer networks play an increasingly important role in their learning and career, so that education should include that of computing and use of the Internet. Without such offerings, the existing digital divide works unfairly to the children in the lower socioeconomic status. In order to provide equal opportunities, governments might offer some form of support.

3. Democracy
Some think that the use of the Internet would lead to a healthier democracy in one way or another. Among the most ambitious visions are that of increased public participation in elections and decision making processes.

4. Economic growth
Some think that the development of information infrastructure and active use of it would be a shortcut to economic growth for less developed nations. Information technologies in general tend to be associated with productivity improvements. The exploitation of the latest technologies may give industries of certain countries a competitive advantage.
From this given information we can solve the problem in terms of Digital Divide not just in our country but in the whole world.




COMBAT AGAINST Internet Addiction

From http://www.lifehack.org/

 Internet Addiction is a serious problem these days and a lot of people from all walks of life fall prey to it. It might not be unanimously recognized by all psychologists, but it has a great deal of traction and support among many reputable psychiatric researchers. It doesn’t really matter what internet addiction’s “official” status among academics is: almost everyone has known or does know someone who is seriously affecting their life and the lives of those around them through internet addiction.

Detecting the Problem

The problem with many addictions is that it can be hard to tell when a hobby has become more than just that, and taken a hold on you. It can also be hard to be honest with yourself when facing a list of symptoms, so make the extra effort now – we’re going to go through a few.

1. You spend more time with the computer than with people.

Doesn’t matter if they are your family, your friends or random people you stalk at the mall – the first symptom of the problem is spending more time with the hunk of metal on your desk than with the people in your life.

If there are no longer any people in your life because you spend so much time online, then you really need to close your browser and book an appointment with a professional! A good start would be to use the paper version of the phone book.

2. You can’t abide by your own boundaries. Part of personal development is about setting and abiding by boundaries, which happens to be where most people fail when it comes to addiction. If you tell yourself you’ll only spend an hour online before playing with the kids and end up online until after they’ve gone to bed, you’re in trouble. This self-deception is a clear sign of internet addiction.

3. Lying to others about your computer usage. Number two was about self-deception – this one is about lying to others, particularly members of your family who you may have made deals with regarding your computer usage. Lying about your usage so you can stay on that “little bit longer” is a big, glaring warning sign.

4. Feeling unable to live without the computer/internet. If you feel you can’t go without the internet for more than a few hours, you have an internet addiction. “But I make my living online!” Ask yourself if you could do the work offline and then give it to someone else to execute online – such as writing an article on paper for an assistant or friend to type up and post. Can’t bear the thought of that one degree of separation for even a week? Not a good thing!

Likewise, anxiety when you’re separated from computers is a sign to watch for. I get like that when I leave my mobile phone at home – perhaps I’ve got a problem there!

5. Misguided spending on your computer. Did your hard drive just die and, despite the fact you couldn’t afford rent or Johnny’s daycare fees this week, you went out and bought a replacement? When the anxiety of having no functional computer demands money required for other expenses, it indicates a dependency.

Solving the Problem

Solving the problem on your own, or with the support of your family, requires that you’re doing so before it gets out of hand and to the point where you need to pay excessive prices for therapy. If you’re unsure, trying to solve it on your own and seeing how far you get is a great test – if you can’t manage it, go get help.

1. For the web-workers – get a virtual assistant. They can be fairly cheap and every hourly rate spent on them is one hour that you can shave from your computer time. This won’t solve the problem on its own, but web-workers will have a harder time defeating internet addiction and need to spend as little time as possible online when not completing essential work, at least until the addiction is dealt with.

2. Set your computer usage boundaries early on. There’s no point trying to change your habits if you haven’t decided on your new boundaries. How long are you going to use the computer from now on? For what purposes? Decide this first, take action second.

3. Get your family and friends onside. Ensure your family keeps you accountable and limits the amount of time you spend online. Set a time limit in hours or minutes and make it clear that there are no valid excuses for extended use; you’ve got to be dragged away from the computer no matter what, once your time runs out.

4. Give them the passwords. Once you’ve got the agreement of your family or roommates to help you out, let them change the passwords to your computer’s user account, the modem or router, and your email account. I’m tempted to leave this next sentence out for the sake of the self-deceivers, but you may be able to avoid this pretty ruthless precaution if you can still manage to self-regulate with the help of some self-discipline.

5. Modify your routine. If you trap yourself by checking email first thing in the morning or heading straight for the computer when you get home from work, intending to get off and do other things but never quite getting there, change your routine a bit and get other things out of the way first. It’s much easier to get off the computer if you don’t get on it! Wait until you’ve done your household chores and got time spent with the kids (or pets, if that’s more your thing) out of the way, then give yourself some net time. Reward yourself, in small amounts, for holding out.

6. Don’t use the computer for recreational purposes. Remove the emotive feel-good incentive to use the computer by using it for business and email. Get it done and get off. Uninstall computer games, and vow to stay away from social networks and other recreational web destinations for at least a month or two.

Find recreational activities in real life and completely replace your internet entertainment with them. Completely. Seriously, I mean it!

7. Track your progress. Remind yourself how much good progress you’re making by tracking the amount of time you spend online compared to the boundaries you set in step one. Only spent 8 hours online out of the 10 you allotted for the week? Great work – you’ll do even better next week!

From this information we can solve the problem in Internet Addiction by knowing what is the signs that you are a internet addict and knowing how to solve this kind of information.

 COMBAT AGAINST Cyber Bullying

From http://whatis.techtarget.com/

Cyber bullying is the use of cell phones, instant messaging, e-mail, chat rooms or social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter to harass, threaten or intimidate someone.

Cyber bullying is often done by children, who have increasingly early access to these technologies. The problem is compounded by the fact that a bully can hide behind a pseudonymous user name, disguising his or her true identity. This secrecy makes it difficult to trace the source and encourages bullies to behave more aggressively than they might in a situation where they were identified.

Cyber bullying can include such acts as making threats, sending provocative insults or racial or ethnic slurs, gay bashing, attempting to infect the victim's computer with a virus and flooding an e-mail inbox with messages. If you are a victim, you can deal with cyber bullying to some extent by limiting computer connection time, not responding to threatening or defamatory messages, and never opening e-mail messages from sources you do not recognize or from known sources of unwanted communications. More active measures include blacklisting or white listing e-mail accounts, changing e-mail addresses, changing ISP's, changing cell phone accounts and attempting to trace the source.

From http://mediasmarts.ca/

Tips to Stop Cyber bullying

Re posted from ConnectSafely.org

Don’t respond. If someone bullies you, remember that your reaction is usually exactly what the bully wants. It gives him or her power over you. Who wants to empower a bully?

Don’t retaliate. Getting back at the bully turns you into one and reinforces the bully’s behavior. Help avoid a whole cycle of aggression.

Save the evidence. The only good news about digital bullying is that the harassing messages can usually be captured, saved, and shown to someone who can help. You need to do this even if it’s minor stuff, in case things escalate.

Talk to a trusted adult. You deserve backup. It’s always good to involve a parent but – if you can’t – a school counselor usually knows how to help. Sometimes both are needed. If you’re really nervous about saying something, see if there’s a way to report the incident anonymously at school.

Block the bully. If the harassment’s coming in the form of instant messages, texts, or profile comments, do yourself a favor: Use preferences or privacy tools to block the person. If it’s in chat, leave the “room.”

Be civil. Even if you don’t like someone, it’s a good idea to be decent and not sink to the other person’s level. Also, research shows that gossiping about and trash talking others increases your risk of being bullied. Treat people the way you want to be treated.

Don’t be a bully. How would you feel if someone harassed you? You know the old saying about walking a mile in someone’s shoes; even a few seconds of thinking about how another person might feel can put a big damper on aggression. That’s needed in this world.

Be a friend, not a bystander. Watching or forwarding mean messages empowers bullies and hurts victims even more. If you can, tell bullies to stop or let them know harassment makes people look stupid and mean. It’s time to let bullies know their behavior is unacceptable – cruel abuse of fellow human beings. If you can’t stop the bully, at least try to help the victim and report the behavior.   

We can fight this problem by doing the tips above  on how to stop and prevent cyber bullying.

PROMOTE ETHICAL USE OF MEDIA  AND  INFORMATION  

From https://medialiteracyproject.org

Media literacy is the ability to read many types of media has become an essential skill in the 21^st Century. Media literacy is the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, and create media. Media literate youth and adults are better able to understand the complex messages we receive from television, radio, Internet, newspapers, magazines, books, billboards, video games, music, and all other forms of media. Media literacy skills are included in the educational standards of every state—in language arts, social studies, health, science, and other subjects.  Many educators have discovered that media literacy is an effective and engaging way to apply critical thinking skills to a wide range of issues. 

Media Literacy Project’s approach to media literacy education comes from a media justice framework. Media Justice speaks to the need to go beyond creating greater access to the same old media structure. Media Justice takes into account history, culture, privilege, and power. We need new relationships with media and a new vision for its control, access, and structure. Media Justice understands that this will require new policies, new systems that treat our airways and our communities as more than markets.

Media literacy skills can help youth and adults:

- Develop critical thinking skills
- Understand how media messages shape our culture and society
- Identify target marketing strategies
- Recognize what the media maker wants us to believe or do 
- Name the techniques of persuasion used 
- Recognize bias, spin, misinformation, and lies 
- Discover the parts of the story that are not being told 
- Evaluate media messages based on our own experiences, skills, beliefs, and values 
- Create and distribute our own media messages
- Advocate for media justice

We can promote the right etiquette in using media and information by using it and be a role model to the 21st century people.

PROMOTE THE OPPORTUNITIES OF MEDIA AND INFORMATION 

From http://au.professionals.reachout.com/

The internet and social media provide young people with a range of benefits, and opportunities to empower themselves in a variety of ways. Young people can maintain social connections and support networks that otherwise wouldn't be possible, and can access more information than ever before. The communities and social interactions young people form online can be invaluable for bolstering and developing young people's self-confidence and social skills.

Social media is a concept that most organisations are realising they have to embrace. Social media is here to stay and with it come many different challenges and opportunities. In 2010, Andreas M. Kaplan and Michael Haenlein published an academic article in the journal Business Horizons reviewing these opportunities and challenges. As outlined by Kaplan and Haenlein social media appears to have caused confusion among some about what is included under the social media umbrella. They claim that social media is:

 “A group of internet-based applications that builds on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of User Generated Content”.

In their eyes this included Wikipedia, YouTube, Facebook and Second Life, but since the article was written of course many others have developed or taken off. Twitter and Google+ are primary examples, and Pinterest and Instagram are other key websites that fit into this category of websites. According to Kaplan and Haenlein different kinds of uses of social media are collaborative projects such as Wikipedia, blogs that allow people to be able to cover a multitude of different subject matters, content communities that cover websites such as YouTube, Flickr and Slideshare, social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and Google+, and then virtual game worlds and virtual social worlds. Kaplan and Haenlein specify that all of these offer important opportunities and challenges for social media. But what can we learn from all of this? Well, Kaplan and Haenlein offer advice that can point businesses in the right direction.

The Opportunities of Social Media

The first critical point that is made is that there are a seemingly endless array of social media websites and since it is hard for organisations to be present on all of them, they need to choose their active sites very carefully. This depends on understanding the target market and on which websites and platforms this market is present. In some cases it may be best to create your own social network, and the example is provided of Japan’s Fujifilm which did so in order to grow a community of photography lovers, clearly highly appropriate to its own business. Once websites of operation are chosen, the authors explain that activity must be aligned carefully across these different sites. Giving out different messages on different sites is confusing and will alienate the end customer. This is argued to require media plan integration for maximum possible uplift of sales.

Another important point that Kaplan and Haenlein make is that companies need to provide access to social media applications. It is explained that many organisations block such applications out of the fear that people will spend time on them rather than doing their work. Rather than doing this it is advocated that there should be a set social media team within organisations that handle the social media approach, with other staff members being able to take part as “occasional participants”. This allows everyone to take part but ensures that people still get on with their core responsibilities in the organisation too.

 From www.nibusinessinfo.co.uk

Social media can be a cheap and effective way of starting a marketing campaign, with a big impact possible from minimal investment. Your social media strategy should contain a smart mix of engaging content and a friendly and responsive 'persona' can grow a focused community which is interested in your product/service/brand and can recommend your business to others. 

Social media should be incorporated into your public relations (PR) strategy. PR means getting people to talk and think about your business in a positive way. Social media provides a platform for your customers to talk with each other. How you manage that platform and engage with what your customers are saying is an important part of your PR strategy. 

From this articles Media and information give us big opportunities to have a brighter future in using this in a good way.