Finally, First piece of Introduction

‘We live in a world in which we are dangerously influenced by media images.’ To what extent do you agree with this statement?

A common viewpoint in our society is that the media presents harmful stereotypes to us in several ways every day. Different kinds of media exist which manipulate all of us. News papers, TV, Radio etc. are the prominent media at present. However, this also has the power to educate people through documentaries, visuals, news papers, and movies. The propagation of ideas become very easy since it directly induces comprehensive knowledge to us. Looking at the other side of the picture spending too much time on TV or playing games leads us to develop indolence, violent behaviour and unhealthy diet. In recent years when media and technology are surrounding all over we have started relying on media more than it deserves. Commercials these days don’t even attempt to inform about the product and instead rely entirely on gimmicks. Truthfully, it all depends on individuals how they react against what they see or hear on TV, news papers, magazines or radio. According to Joan Langham and Warren Stewart (1981), children who were found with more aggression in their nature were more likely to watch really different variety of programs to non-aggressive children. Their priority was to focus their attention more towards violent stereotypes and characters, and they had the extensive choice of TV channels. This essay will examine that to what extent our society is influenced by the media specifically whether this consequence is constructive or destructive.

Word count 235

References:

Langham, J. and Stewart, W. 1981 ‘Television viewing habits, and other characteristics of normally aggressive and non-aggressive children’ Australian Psychologist, viewed 30^th July 2008,

First four sentences of Introduction

'We live in a world in which we are dangerously influenced by media images.' To what extent do you agree with the statement.

1. Different kinds of Media are there which manipulate common people, News paper, T.V, Radio etc are the prominent Media at present.
   
2. The propagation of ideas become very easy since it directly induces comprehensive knowledge in common people.
   
3. Certainly, media have the power to educate people through advertisement, visuals, clippings and film slides.
   
4. The news paper is useful only to literate people whereas T.V and radio covers all the human flock irrespective of literate or illiterate. This essay will examine that to what extent our society is prejudiced by media specifically whether this consequence is constructive or destructive.

Phrasal verbs in academic English

An exercise of Phrasal verbs and one-word synonyms....

Phrasal Verb	Synonym	Example
put forward (an idea/view/opinion)	Present	In her latest article Kaufmann puts forward a theory which is likely to prove controversial.
carry out ( an experiment/research)	Conduct	I intend to carry out a series of experiments.
make up	Constitute	Children under the age of 15 make up nearly half of the country’s population.
be made up of	Consist of	Parliament is made up of two houses.
point out	Observe	Grenne points out that the increase in life expectancy has led to some economic problems.
point up	Highlight	The study points up the weaknesses in the current school system.
set out (to do something)	Aim	In his article Losanov sets out to prove that...
go into	Discuss	In this book Sergeant goes into the causes of the Civil War in some depth
Go/Look back over	Revise, review	Please go/look back over this term’s notes.

A Chapter from a book connected to my course

I managed to find a book in the library connected directly to my subject. The book's name is "ASP.NET in VB.NET". I read few chapters from the book and found them quite interesting and useful in future for me. Here I am writing the summary of the chapter I liked most so far.


The Evolution of VB.NET

Traditional ASP development was restricted to the VBScript programming language, which was first developed as a basic scripting language for writing macros and other simple code that would be used by another application. VBScript was never intended for sophisticated, interactive web applications and for that reason expert programmers had to strain the language to its limit to create first-rate ASP pages. To get around many limitations in VBScript, advanced pages needed to rely on separate components written in other languages, which generally had to be installed and configured separately on the web server. In the end even though VBScript was intended to be easier to use than ordinary Visual Basic writing advanced ASP pages actually became much more complicated because of the additional effort needed to circumvent VBScript’s limitations.

Just replacing VBScript with Visual Basic would have been a significant advantage. Some of the features Visual Basic 6 offers that VBScript lacks include the following.

· Access to the platform services: VBScript on the other hand is automatically isolated by the scripting host and has many security-related restrictions.
· Typed programming. VBScript doesn’t allow us to strict control over data types, and works with special ‘variant’ variables instead. Which are supposed to be easier to use. Unfortunately, they also introduce data type conversion problems and difficult-to-detect errors.
· Event-driven programming. Unlike Visual Basic, VBScript is notoriously disorganized and has little flexibility to group or organize code so that code can be easily debugged and reused.
· Support for objects. Visual Basic doesn’t have perfect object-oriented features, but they are still light years over what VBScript can accomplish.

However, ASP.NET has completely skipped over this stage in evolution and moved directly to the advanced capabilities of Visual Bacis.NET. This latest version of Visual Basic is a complete redesign that answers years of unmet complaints and extends the VB Language into new territory. Some of the new features include the following.

· Structured error handling. The end of the aggravating “On Error Goto” construct has finally arrived. VB.NET introduces .NET’s new standard: clean, concise, structured exception handling. We can see in chapter 11
· Language refinements. Every aspect of the VB language has been tweaked and refined. We can now overload functions, declare and assign variables on the same line, and use shortened assignment syntax.
· Strong typing. Even Visual Basic 6 performed some automatic variable conversions that could cause unusual bugs. VB.NET allows us to rein in our program and prevent possible errors with strict type checking
· True object-oriented programming. Inheritance, interfaces, polymorphism, constructors, shared members and abstract classes and the list goes on, and Visual Basic.NET integrates them all into the one language.

The list of new words

Strain
Part of Speech: verb
Synonyms: filter, puree, screen, separate, sieve, sift

First-rate
Part of Speech: adjective
Synonyms: a-one, classy, dandy, excellent, first-class, super, topnotch, tops

Circumvent
Part of Speech: verb
Synonyms: avoid, baffle, balk, bypass, cheat, check, deceive, defraud, detour, dupe, elude, encompass, entrap, evade, foil, fool, frustrate, mislead

Isolated
Part of Speech: adjective
Synonyms: alone, apart, hidden, insular, insulated, lone, lonely, private, random

Notorious
Part of Speech: adjective
Definition: Known widely and unfavorably.
Synonyms: common, infamous

MSc Software Engineering

I found this link on the London Met website for my postgraduation MSc. Software Engineering which is I am going to start studying in September 2008/09 session. This course is really useful for me because first of all this is related to my previous studies and secondly I would love to study this course actually I really love this profession and want to play with these tiny machines in various ways. This course consists of 2 semesters of six months each and a dissertation containing 12-15K words as a final written assignment. In each semester I'll have to study 3 courses in which 2 are core modules and 1 is optional means I can select from 2 or 3 different courses. The primary aim of the course is to produce graduates who are equipped to both work in the software industry and pursue research in Software Engineering. Applying concepts from the capability curriculum to the disciplines concerned facilitates these aims. Particular aims include: a) To provide an understanding and role of Software Engineering in IT dependent operations. b) To develop and enhance students’ capabilities in the analysis, evaluation and implementation of Software Engineering principles in IT system development.

Some thoughts about Steve's questions

Talking about the Diagnostic Test I would say I had or may be most of the class (because I spoke to most of the class about it) had the problem with the verb patterns and we would like to do some work in the class this week on verb patterns hopefully.

-Which of the grammar points you have problems with are more important for a) writing b) speaking c) both?
I think I have more problem with speaking as compare to writing because I would like to speak more fluently to do some better arguments, I'm really not argumentative type of person but just to have an ability to speak with anyone or everyone whether they come from Australia or England or Scotland my main focus is on speaking in different accents. About writing I would like to say I have problem with articles (where to put them or where not to put them), punctuation etc.

-Do you think that doing lots and lots of grammar exercises is the best way to improve your grammar?
I don't think doing lots and lots of excersices will improve my grammer skills because on the other hand they will take time which is already short.

-Can you think of any other activities that you could do without having to pick up a grammar book?
No idea, except of finding people from different origins who speaks different accent than British (London) which is quite difficult in current circumstances.

-How do you think you've learnt the grammar you already know well?
I think I learnt from my schooling because since my childhood I'm having all of the books in english medium.

-Can you find some online exercises to help you with your grammar weaknesses. Please put a link to anything you find, then do the exercise, and paste into your blog any sentences/phrases you got wrong or would like to remember.

Strong And Weak Points in Seminar

First of all thiking about the given time, before the seminar we all were thinking that 40 minutes are too much to speak about these topics. Surprisingly, most of the seminar members found the given time was less after the seminar. Overall I felt it alright and a bit more confident about doing arguments. Top of that getting to know how to convince people with my point of view giving them different examples.

Now about the contribution to the seminar (as I think) I would like to say, it was ok I was speaking properly taking my time and giving others the time to speak.

Most of the times when I used to start the sentences I was using seminar language like, To a degree yes, but...., At that point you are right, but... etc. In addition I tried to use the body language as much as I could sitting on the chair in a round.

I was listening very carefully by paying full attention to the speaker and continuing the argument by picking up some points from their part of speach. And the pronounciation was (I think) ok because in the whole seminar no body asked me to repeat something or they didn't catch anything I said.

There must be some grammar mistakes but I am not sure and I have a problem memorising new vocabulary words as I have already mentioned to Steve.

Feedback on Firday's Seminar

In our seminar held on friday on Television viewing habits around the world with the Jim's class I discovered different types of things for example "how much TV people watch around the world", "The kind of programmes people watch" etc.

The key points we discovered were like in China people watch the TV about 30 hours a week which is about 75% of the working week time in the UK. It was quite surprising for me because, how can people spare so much time only for Television? one reason I can understand is if they are related to media somehow they can watch the TV even for more than 30 hours because it is the part of their job.

Secondly in Japan and Iran the percentage of the young people watching TV is decreasing now a days. Which is higher among men as compare to women, which could possilbly be because of other technologies (like internet and video games) are taking over the TV industry and they have to struggle hard to get the people tune in the TV.

Speaking about the Television Images we found that most of the TV images are not quite correct. They show us the other side of the picture, the media doesn't mirror the society actually. One of the reason we discussed is may possibly be the most of the TV channels in most countries are under the government control and they just do what ever they are told to do. Even in the reality TV shows its just not reality. Most of the stereotypes really reinforce the society like some of the action heros for adolescents, superman for young children etc.

We found another interesting thing while The future of television and viewers was under discussion that the Media Literacy is quite important and it should be taught in the schools, interestingly all of the seminar members agreed on that point. Talking about the future of television we were uncertain like what could it be. This seems to be a result of the growth of different technologies such as computers and gaming industries.

Importance of Media Literacy and Knowledge

Because it makes you a better citizen

Media literate people understand that media are constructed to convey ideas, information and news from someone else's perspective. They understand that specific techniques are used to create emotional effects. They can identify those techniques and their intended and actual effects. They are aware that the media benefit some people, but leave others out. They can (pose and sometimes answer) questions about who benefits, who is left out, and why. Media literate people seek alternative sources of information and entertainment. Media literate people use the media for their own advantage and enjoyment. Media literate people know how to act, rather than being acted upon. In this way, media literate people are better citizens.

Why study the media?

1. Media saturation
2. Media influence
3. The manufacture and management of information
4. Media education and democracy
5. The increasing importance of visual communication and information
6. The growing privatization of information
7. Educating for the future

How much TV do you really watch

How much TV do you really watch?

"I don't watch that much TV," this is the sentence we hear most commonly when we ask someone about thier viewing habit. Unfortunately, the reality is really different. According to the most recent figures from Nielsen Media Research Inc., average person watches TV for 4 hours and 35 minutes every single day. Worse, the average household has a TV playing for 8 hours 14 minutes every day.

TV's Effectes on Academic Achievements

I found this article on the "National Institute on Media and the Family" website and found really intersting, in this article the effects of TV are divided by the age groups, like what age groups are more influenced by the TV programmes.

This article can be found HERE

Key principles of Media Literacy

Key principles of Media Literacy

1. The ability to distinguish fact from fiction.


2. The ability to identify and appreciate different levels of realism.


3. A better understanding of the actual mechanisms of production and distribution of TV programmes, CD-ROM games, films, interactive software, websites etc...


4. The ability to differentiate reportage from advocacy.


5. Awareness and assessment of commercial messages within programmes (product placement etc) and a critical approach to advertising.


6. An awareness of the economic and presentational imperatives that underlie news management.


7. The ability consciously to explain and justify media preferences.

Media Literacy

Definition of Media Literacy

Understanding the Word Literacy

1. the quality or state of being literate, esp. the ability to read and write.
2. possession of education: to question someone's literacy.
3. a person's knowledge of a particular subject or field: to acquire computer literacy.

The Kind of programmes people watch

Violence in Media Entertainment

This article can be found here Violence in Media Entertainment


In this article the writer talks about how our society is influenced by the media violence in the name of entertainment. A research was done in between 1993 and 2001, in which and increment of indecency by 378 per cent was reported. TV shows in 2001 averaged 40 acts of violence per hour most of them was before 8 pm which is the prime time for children to watch TV.

Other research indicates that media violence has not just increased in quantity; it has also become much more graphic, much more sexual, and much more sadistic. In 2001, only a quarter of the most violent television shows, and two-fifths of the most violent movies, were rated R. The majority were rated PG or PG-13. The description of the rating of movies can be found HERE.

According to UNESCO's research in 1998 conducted in 23 countries around the world including U.S., Canada, Europe, Arab states, Latin America, Asia and Africa they found that, More than half (51%) of boys living in war zones and high-crime areas chose action heroes as role models, ahead of any other images; and a remarkable 88% of the children surveyed could identify the Arnold Schwarzenegger character from the film Terminator. UNESCO reported that the Terminator "seems to represent the characteristics that children think are necessary to cope with difficult situations."

New words from the article

Main Entry: elude
Part of Speech: verb
Synonyms: avoid, baffle, ditch, dodge, duce, escape, evade, flee, foil, frustrate, hide, outwit, sidestep, slip

Main Entry: dominate
Part of Speech: verb
Definition: To occupy the preeminent position in.
Synonyms: predominate, preponderate, prevail, reign, rule
Idioms: have the ascendancy, reign supreme

Main Entry: societal
Part of Speech: adjective
Definition: Of or relating to the structure, organization, or functioning of society.
Synonyms: social

Main Entry: notion
Part of Speech: adjective
Synonyms: imaginary, notional, theoretical, unreal, visionary, whimsical

Media Vocabulary Exercise

Turn on the TV! There is live coverage of the cricket match between England and Australia.

Those were today's headlines. And now it's Angela McCarthy with her weather forecast.

I can't stand that stupid comedy. Can you switch to another transmission, please?

A soap opera is some kind of TV drama in parts based on inter-human relationships.

We're just getting some breaking news, that a tidal wave has destroyed much of the city of Atlanta.

I like the new presenter introducing and reviewing progammes on our local TV.

'The Weakest Link' is a very popular quiz based on general knowledge, broadcast daily on BBC television.

The time of day when most people are watching television is known as prime time

Many TV viewers were shocked when late-night presenter John Smith's face started puffing up horribly while on air.

"Welcome to another live TV debate. Our host is as usual Simon Bainbridge, and his guests today are some of Poland's most prominent politicians".

Steve's Homework - 22/07/08

George Dyson: The birth of the computer


I listened to this talk on TED.COM and took some notes for some note-taking practice, the talk can be found HERE


last year I told u a story in 7 mins of proect implausible technology
this year i m gonna tell u about the birth of digital computer
this technology is inevitable
including changing biology
first atomic bomb at trinity which ws the manhaton project
3 of the smartest people
thomas hobbes 1656
wanoymen said he was thinking something more important than bomb, he was thinking abt the computer
addition and subtraction
u can do the whole thing with addition in 1679
1945 reinvents the whole same thing
June 1945
just reading a tape in and translating out
controlled input and the output
programing has to be perfect or it wont work
essentials were all there for these machines to work
I m trying to revise history nd give these guys some more credit than they had
each of these machines has billions of transistors
every step of the way
women did the most of the programming as very first programmer
this machine was cloned about 50 other places in around the world
very sensitive electro magnatic disturbances
begineng of the computer grapics was in 1954
those guys drink all the tea with sugar in it
runing time 2 mints
impossible to follow the damn thing where is the directory
found the trouble in code
code error but the machine is not guilty
wts the use Good Night!
smell of burning the v belt
high speed was 16 MHZ
we duplicate the errors
all it happens is machine is runing
they were actualy desinging the bomb
Bils Aal Barricelli
he went around the countery after that
exactaly wt happens is now basically
he claimed machine is wrong code is right
nemirical testing of evolution theories
this was life like or a new kind of life another birth of computer
the memory sizes were really small in the beginng my laptop is 1000 million times more than the beginer computer
theory of self-reproducing thoery
4 million built every 24 hours
he explained in a very generous way
last entry in the log book in 1958

New words I learnt fron the talk

Main Entry: Implausible
Part of Speech: adjective
Definition: Not plausible or believable.
Synonyms: flimsy, improbable, inconceivable, incredible, shaky, thin, unbelievable, unconceivable, unconvincing, unsubstantial, weak

Main Entry: Inevitable
Part of Speech: adjective
Synonyms: assured, certain, decided, destined, doomed, fatal, fated, fateful, imminent, impending, ineluctable, inescapable, in the cards, necessary, sure, unavoidable, unpreventable

Steve's Homework - 21/07/08

1. Speaking in the favour of the environmental perspective we'd like to say that, this development won't be good for our island. The foreigners will ruin the beauty of the island.


2. Looking at the economic side of the argument the development could create a lot of resources for the upcoming generations, but from an environmental viewpoint the pollution created by the development will put current resources of income in trouble such as fishing, boating etc.


3. Economically speaking this development can bring fortune in the history of the island.


4. From our point of view this development won’t bring a big change in the history of the island.


5. From an environmental standpoint this development will create tonnes of emissions during and after the build-up.

Research Conclusion and Citation

Conclusion

This assignment has explained us the sorts of problems international students have prioritized by the importance for them. The purpose of the current study was to determine whether there was any difference between the male and female international students. The study has proven that there are differences between the male and female students’ problems. It is clearly shown (Figure i) that female students are really struggling with their finances whereas male respondents’ ratio is quite low. The second major finding was the visa problem which was about the double in percentage in females than the male interviewees. This research will serve as a base for the future studies for example why the students are having difficulties to get the visa to come and study in the UK, significantly female students. The study has gone some way towards enhancing our understanding about the problems of international students in the UK. This research has thrown up many questions in need of further investigation. More information on why is getting the visa for the international student is so difficult would help us to establish greater degree of accuracy on this matter. These findings suggest several courses of action for both the universities and the British government which could possibly be in favor of international students, for example universities can offer student loans to international students similar to their home students. And the British government can reconsider their rules of the visa for the international students.

References

The Independent 2006-07
The Independent 2008, Education, 04/07/08, [http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/universities-too-reliant-on-foreign-student-fees-853522.html ]

Tuition Fee for 2008-09
London Metropolitan University 2008, International, 08/07/08,
[http://www.londonmet.ac.uk/international/howtoapply/tuitionfees.cfm]

International Students Problems
High Beam Research 2008, Education, 08/07/08, [http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-177361675.html]

Note: in citation [ = "<" and ] = ">" due to the HTLM restrictions.

Gap Maker Exercise

The text for the exercise was taken from Here


Throughout the period he was dealing with her, she kept up the facade that she was genuinely grieving for the death of her husband."

The following August, a body was found off the coast of Hartlepool and police asked Mrs Darwin if she would be prepared to identify it.

As a detective explained the situation, she burst into tears and said she wanted the body to be John's so he could be laid to rest, and so that she could move on, Mr Robertson told the jury.

He added: "We submit this was a convincing performance and one which obviously required no prompting, let alone coercion, from her husband."

Mrs Darwin's defence centres on her claim that she was coerced by her husband.

Mr Robertson said that for the defence to succeed, she must prove that Mr Darwin was present at the time each offence was committed .

She will also have to show that the pressure was so great that she had no choice, and "she was impelled to act in a way against her own will".

He showed the jury a photograph of John and Anne Darwin smiling and posing with a Panamanian estate agent, when the couple were looking to buy property in Central America with the proceeds of their fraud, he said.

Homework - 07-07-08

Reducing the length of the working week has many advantages, especially in terms of a better work-life balance. While it is economically difficult to do this.

The use of iPods has increased considerably. However, the number of CDs purchased either online or on the high street has decreased.


A few companies attempt to achieve a balance between the environment and business. Whilst most of the companies aim for pure profit.

A considerable amout of towns in Europe have been pedestrianised in contrast with very few towns in North America have been.

There are number of arguments for abolishing the death penalty conversely to the few supporters.