Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Censorship

“Censorship is the suppression of speech or deletion of communicative material, which may be considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or inconvenient to the government or media organizations as determined by a censor.” The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is an organization that has over 500,000 members which is dedicated to defending freedom. One of the freedoms they protect is the freedom of speech. In many countries today people are still forced into censoring their speech along with many of their expressions.  Censoring still occurs in modern countries like the United States. Many things such as music, the Internet, and television are continuously censored. Certain things are censored due to inappropriate content. Many things should be censored so that children will remain innocent, however they should be guided instead of having to censor everything for the rest of the people.  It is not fair that all people have to endure censorship.

When things are censored it suppresses the ideas and information that people find to be dangerous. It is no more complicated than someone saying, "Don't let anyone read this book, or buy that magazine, or view that film, because I object to it!" Censors pressure public institutions, like libraries, to suppress and remove from public access information they judge inappropriate or dangerous. If things are censored no one else has the chance to read or view the material and make up their own minds about it. The censor wants to prejudge materials for everyone.

I wanted to spread awareness about how people today still are continuously censored. I decided I wanted to make my movie on censorship. The idea came to me as I was searching for social issues that were important to me. Censorship was one particular issue that really caught my interest. I thought I could find pictures of people as they were silenced to put together my movie. The people in my video all have their mouth’s covered representing censorship. They are unable to speak. The people cannot get their messages across because they are forced into silence.    

   With my video I wanted to inspire people to speak out rather then for them to continue to stay quiet. I wanted to portray the people as being held back from being able share their views. Throughout time people have been forced to censored their art, speech, and ideas. In my video I used more pictures of women because they have always endured some type of censorship whether it was not being able to vote or limited ability to speak their minds for being women. Women were never taken seriously when they did speak out. Women have been forced to censor themselves for many years. My video will show how censorship should be opposed.


 

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Facebook and Linkedin: The New Face of PR

  The public relations industry continues to change more and more. As technology evolves, so does the PR world. New tools are being used for clients to get their names out. People want their companies or products to be known. With the emergence of social media networks more and more public relation firms are using social networks such as Facebook and Linkedin to keep up with their audiences. When a company decides to use social networks it is because they can spread news faster through social networks. Web 2.0 platforms can help businesses build credibility, drive sales, lower operating costs, and increase brand equity. 
 Linkedin is more for professional people rather than just friends. Linkedin is used to keep connected with certain businesses. You can even search for jobs of your specialty on Linkedin. Linkedin is a social network that connects working professionals. 

 Nathan Egan has five important reasons as to why PR should use social networks.