Assignment #6

For this assignment, I searched and found a website for the Saw movies. The official site’s name is http://www.officialsaw.com/. On this website, there are many different features. The design on the page is a circular saw and the creepy music from the movie is playing in the background. The home page allows you to buy the Saw IV DVD and it also gives you information on the upcoming Saw V movie that starts filming on March 17th. On the left side there are different interactive options. There is a link named “House of Jigsaw.” This has information about the background of Jigsaw in the movie and has the traps and victims in each of the movies. From this option you can also download Saw desktop backgrounds and buddy icons for instant messenger. Another option labeled “Fans” lets you read the latest Saw news and also post on the Saw blog. There is a link labeled “Auction” that takes you to EBay and bid on different props, costumes and other items from the Saw movies. This option also lets you register to become a member in the Saw fan club and gives you information on contacting the website and movie. Another option is the Saw store. This takes you to http://www.officialsawstore.com/ where you can purchase the four movies or any other merchandise such as t-shirts, hats and miscellaneous collectables. On the right side of the circular saw, there are four links to pages of each of the movies. For each one there are options to read about each movie, videos, galleries, features on each of the DVD’s, the soundtrack and an option to purchase the movie. The video options let you watch different scenes from the movie and the soundtrack option allows you to listen to each track and also allows you to purchase it.
From just seeing the movie, you would not be able to gain information on upcoming movies and news about the movies. Also, if you watch the movie and hear the music and want to download it, you can check out this site and it lets you know the name of the song and the artist. By watching the movie you cannot purchase the DVD’s or any other Saw merchandise. Overall, this site serves for a good purpose, because fans that are really into the movie and want to know more can benefit from this site extremely. This site serves as a way of participation for fans when there isn’t a movie in theatres. You can buy the DVD’s from this site to watch and you can keep up to date with the news it provides. It also leaves you excited for the next movie, because it gives you updates on the filming of the next movie. This site informed me that filming for Saw V begins on March 17th, so by the time fall comes around it should be in theatres.

Assignment #4

While reading over the online and printed editions of today’s (Friday February 8th) Buffalo News, I saw similarities and differences in the two. While looking at the front page of each there is an article focusing on communications technology. The article was about how members of the military in Iraq are never out of reach and keep close in touch with their computers, through email, cell phones, text messaging, blogs and social-networking sites. In the Sports section, stories about Demetri Kalinin of the Buffalo Sabres missing the Sabres skate with the flu and Jeff Parmer, former Niagara Falls High School basketball player and his troubles with winning in college. On the front of both City and Region pages, there is an article about the historic Hayes Hall clock and how its restoration will soon be completed. There are also Classifieds and Obituaries online as there is in the printed newspaper.
On the online site for The Buffalo News there are breaking news videos and news that just came out that did not when the paper was printed. Online, you can search the archives for past articles or search a topic and see if there is an article about it in that day’s paper. Also, online there is a Buffalo News blog section. These blogs are separated into three groups: Sports, News and Opinion, and Entertainment and Lifestyles. These three categories are also split up into groups that narrow the topics of the blog.
On the online edition, you can search for articles and watch video. Obviously it would be impossible for there to be a search engine and a video player to be available with every printed newspaper, so that is why it would appear online and not in print. The online version does have a section for latest news updates. This would not appear in the print version, because the Buffalo News only prints a morning edition and no longer prints an evening edition. So, any event that happens during the day that would make news headlines wouldn’t make it into the print news until the next day, but with an online version of the news, you can update it whenever news breaks and the readers can be informed right away. Also, the blogs are not available in the print newspaper.
I found that on the online version of the newspaper it seemed that there was a lot more advertisements than there are in the print newspaper. On the front page of the printed newspaper, there isn’t a single advertisement on the page, but when you pull up the front page on the online version, there are seven advertisements throughout the page. However, when you read a print newspaper on the weekend you will find tons of ads for different stores with their sales and products printed right inside. I am not sure why today’s version of the print newspaper didn’t have that many advertisements on it. I would think that more people would read the print newspaper and not the online version, because they are more used to it, so I would think people would want to put ads in the printed version. At the same time, the advertisements online are all links and if you click them will take you directly to the page, so it is easier for readers to access the advertisement.

Assignment #3

I personally think that schools should be allowed to play whatever music and read whatever books. I feel that censoring the children from these elements is not fully preparing them for life as an adult. When you grow up these books and music certainly aren’t going to be censored for you any longer. I’m not saying that children in schools should be listening to explicit Snoop Dogg lyrics, but in high school the church plays a major role when learning world history, so I don’t see why there is such a big deal about religion in schools. Children should be taught about different religions, so they are more familiar with other people’s culture. Everyone has learned about all of the different religions in their high school world history class, so I don’t see why censoring Harry Potter books is different. Just because the kid is a wizard and it involves witches doesn’t mean it is bad for them to read. Would these parents ban them from watching The Wizard of Oz because it has a wizard and witches in it? If these people want to censor a children’s book like that, then they should change the history curriculum to not teach their children about different religions in the world. These parents should be pushing their children to read, not punishing them by taking these books away. Other books may have extreme violence and sexual content, but these books most likely aren’t available in an elementary or middle school library.
I believe that rating media is appropriate, because you don’t want younger children watching movies or television shows where people are killing people and swearing left and right. But also, the parents shouldn’t have to rely on these ratings. Parents should know what shows are appropriate for their children to watch. You don’t want these younger audiences to watch, so their parents will know by the ratings whether or not to leave it on. Older children should be able to know right from wrong and they should know that the events that happen in these shows are not something to imitate.
In my days in middle school and high school I have read many books. After reading these sections and looking at the diagrams in the textbook, I found that three of the books I had read are on the list of books that are the most frequently banned books. I have read To Kill a Mockingbird, Of Mice and Men, and The Outsiders. After reading all of these books and seeing them on this list, I can understand why, but completely disagree. For example, To Kill a Mockingbird is a book that teaches children to not make judgments about someone before you actually know them. It also teaches the effects of racism. Tom Robinson was put on trial for raping a white woman in an all white community. Atticus stands out and defends him and teaches that people should do the right thing. While these books are somewhat violent, they teach a greater lesson and shouldn’t be banned from schools. When I read this book I was a freshman in high school, and I don’t think that this books would be inappropriate for a high schooler.