all the media:

all of it.

Social Networks: ABittersweet combination

PG 5

PC vs. MacPG 12

Bahamian FilmIndustry?

PG 16

FUSION

TAB

LE

Copy Editor/ Production Manager

Jasper Haewardjasper.haeward@gmail.com

Content ContributorsKenisha Gray

Simonleigh MillerAnya Fernander

Angel Dean

Teneil Gibbs

FUSION | 3

LETTER FROM THE EDITORThank you for picking up your very own

copy of Fusion! Here at Fusion magazine,our goal is to inform you and please youreyes at the same time. As you can see, wearen’t like other information and researchmagazines: we have pictures. You can expectthe same quality of writing as well as thereliability of a research paper, but with noneof the blasé pages. We’re what’s happeningin the world of communication.

The concept behind our name is prettysimple. Like the slogan says, we address alltypes of media; film, television, radio, videogames, and social media– including theInternet.

While working on this inaugural issue,we faced and conquered many challenges:the biggest of which I would say is thelayout. As I type this, it is 2am and I’m here

in the office pumping out final copy andgraphics. It does a heart good to see peoplereading your hard work and admiring allthose long hours of eye strain and slavingover a hot computer. COM 150, in additionto helping me learn a lot about the history ofmass media, and different media theories,also helped me to learn and expand mylimits as a graphic designer and printproduction manager.

With that, please enjoy this magazine! Ifyou have any questions or concerns aboutwhat appears in this magazine, or anyconstructive suggestions, feel free to emailme.

Your loving editor,

Jasper E. HaewardB.A. Media Journalism

The Last Word

COM 150 was a great class. It

changed the way I make decisions

from now on. This class also made

a bit ore knowledge about the

media and its intentions.-Simonleig

h

I was totally pissed that I had toregister for COM150, but now Isee that it totally paid off in theend. 

-Teneil

Com 150 was a unforgettable experience for me mylecturer is surely a character I will never forget andI will miss his favorite words “YES” (makes me justwant to say “NO Mr. Z, NO”). The information I re-ceived about media and how it effects our every daydecisions really surprised me but it is all true.

-Kenisha

I am a motivated anddriven young lady. I enjoythe fine things in life. Mass Communication was

a great step in helping cre-ate my futurebecause I was able to learnso much.Thank you Mr. Z :-)

-Anya

Radio & The Bahamas PAGE 4

Social Networks: A Bittersweet Combination

PAGE 6

How much do magazines really affectwomen’s choices?

PAGE 9

Mass MediaPAGE 10

PC vs. Mac: Which are you?PAGE 12

Video GamesPAGE 15

The Bahamian Film IndustryAn inside perspective.

PAGE 16

Is TV the newparent?

PAGE 18

Journalism Ethics in aSocial Media World

PAGE 20

FUNFACTSIn 2004, there wasone government-runradio station (ZNSBahamas) and fiveprivately ownedradio broadcasters.

The longest runningradio soap opera inthe nation’s historywas ‘The Ferguson’sof Farm Road’.

The islands of the Bahamas are in a con-tinuous change—evolving and upgrad-ing to this technology-driven world. A

country once protected, that cared about its citi-zens and the type of media allowed into the coun-try, is now infected by the source that brings usnews, entertainment, information, social networksand a way to communicate. Radio is among thenumerous media that supply the nation with aconnection with the world. The current sevenlocal radio stations that share the airways havemore media influence on the youths compared totelevision and newspaper.

Radio is the most popular source of media todate, because it is more socially interesting in com-parison to the local newspaper, magazine and tel-evision stations. In the long media history of TheBahamas starting from 1784 (the first Bahamianpublished newspaper, The Watchman) to 1993(private broadcasting begins in The Bahamas),radio has made a substantial impact on the nation’sdaily living such as the way we speak, dress, deci-sions we make, where we go, who we interact with,what we buy, the types of music we like etc. With-out even realizing how much radio impacts ourlives, many young people are living by what theyhear on the radio. Reggae, Rap, and R&B are themost widely enjoyed music in the country againstJunkanoo – the official music and dance of TheBahamas.

The current murder count of the Bahamas

stands at 110, most of these being homicides com-mitted by young men between the ages of seven-teen to thirty-four (Nassau Guardian). Can theradio be to blame for the violent actions of theseyoung men? Can we disregard the various otherfactors combined to lead these young men into alife of crime and murder? What is to be doneabout the influences that we allow to enter ourcountry? The Bahamian Constitution states thefreedom of conscious expression. As technologyadvances and new devices are introduced into theworld, the content barrier of media will continueto be diminished and the nation will have moresocial dilemmas as a result of media influences.Citizens, be encouraged to monitor the contentthat is filtered through the household and also ed-ucated young people you know on proper behaviorand the effects of violence and the use of media asa blessing and not a curse.

Radio&TheBahamas

4 | FUSION

graphic// Jasper Haewardarticle// Kenisha Gray

KENISHA Gray

I’m a nursing student whocan’t wait to finish schoolbecause I’m tired of writ-ing papers. Chocolate is myweakness and bambooshack is my best friend lordI hope they never go out ofbusiness.

Without even realizinghow much radio impacts

our lives, many youngpeople are living by

what they hear on theradio.

“

”

FUSION | 5

SocialNetworks

Social networkingis an amazing phe-nomenon. It canbe like an addic-

tion for some individu-als, especially here inThe Bahamas, consum-ing countless hours thatcan never be regained.One of the most com-monly used social net-works in The Bahamasis Facebook. Persons ofall ages can be found us-ing this network as ameans of socializing.There are numerous ad-vantages to using thisnetwork.

It has been found ina recent study that suchsites as Facebook help intimes of ‘homesickness’during a transition of

moving away from acommunity of closefriends and family. Socialnetworks are also usefulfor college studentswhen we need to selltextbooks, as we are ableto contact a large groupof people at once. Manypeople don’t know this,but Amazon is also a so-cial site for persons whopossess a keen interestin books. The ‘Your Ac-count’ page is now a pro-file page which you canadd a photo of yourself,describe your favoritebooks as well as connectwith friends.

According toHarley’s Therapy: “Crit-ics of social networkinghave reported the loss of

FUSION | 7

aPeople who heavily use the internet are

using social networks to keep in touch with

long-distance family and friends.

Critics of socialnetworking have

reported the loss ofhuman interaction andits replacement withonline interaction...

“

”

TENIEL Gibbs

I am 20 years old, and wasborn on a cold Winter's dayon the 29th of January 1991.Bachelor of Science Nursing ismy major.My favorite song is MariahCarey's Always Be My Baby. 

6 | FUSION

beneficial and harmful: a bittersweet combination

Bahamians & Social Mediaw153,420 Bahamians were on

Facebook in June 2011.

wMost Bahamians using Facebook are

between the ages of 25 and 44.

wThere are more Bahamian females on

Facebook than males.

wAbout 30,000 Bahamians use

Blackberry Nation

graphics// Jasper Haewardarticle// Teniel Gibbs

human interaction andits replacement with on-line interaction; whichthey argue is a possibletrigger for depression.Despite this, recent re-search shows that heavyInternet users are notusing social networkingwebsite and emails as asubstitute for human in-teraction, but insteadthey are using it as amethod to keep bondswith long-distancefriends and relations.”

“There has also beenfound to be a correlationbetween Facebook us-age and psychologicalwell-being for peoplewith low self-esteem andlow life satisfaction. So-cial networking can helpsome introverts in com-municating with otherssince it provides a con-

text in which they aremore comfortable totalk in; it can allow themto convey their feelingswithout as much pres-sure as face-to-face con-tact.”

Despite all of thesebenefits, there are stillmany disadvantages tothe use of social net-works. The constant useof social networkingsites tend to contributeto the lack of social skillsand writing skills whichsome individuals tend topossess. This is due toall of the time spent infront of the computerand the lack of timespent in school books.All of this contributes tothe National BGCSEaverage in the Bahamasbeing a ‘D’.There aresome individuals who

now replace the connec-tion and time whichwould usually be spentwith their families withthe computer instead.The use of social net-working sites also con-tribute to cyber bullying,which is usually seenmore in adolescents orindividuals in their earlyteenage years. These sit-uations can result in lowself-esteem, depressionor, in some cases, sui-cide.

Social networkshave both harmful andbeneficial effects. Peopleshould censor their ac-tions and limit theamount of time spenton social networks. If weall learn to govern our-selves, social networkingcan turn out to be theabsolute best!

8 | FUSION

Women's mag-azines fill su-permarket

and newsagent shelvesin abundance. They arelooked to for guidanceand the know-how andso have a deep impactupon the choices manywomen make in theirday to day lives. This ar-ticle touches upon someof the ways magazinesaffect women's lifestylechoices.

ConsumerismPopular women's

magazines are filledwith the latest fashion-able items at variousstores, the latest healthfoods and advice onwhat to buy this seasonto look great. Thesemagazines advertise agreat deal of productsthat often affect womenby encouraging themand making them morelikely to buy them. Mes-sages are usually inter-twined that if they buythese products, they areup to date and possessthe best of possessions.With magazines issues

published monthly andsometimes bi-monthly,this causes women towant to spend more onmaybe not so importantthings.

Advice on Being aModern Woman

Unfortunately, mostwomen's magazinesconstantly talk aboutsex and promiscuity.They suggest women tobe wild and daring, tohave temporary rela-tionships and changepartners often. Whatthis does to manywomen, is to alter theirpersonality. To makethem strive to be likethe modern woman,free in the sense of notconsidering conse-quences and adaptingtheir lives to imitate theideals presented in thesemagazines. This greatlyaffects what a womandecides to do on a dailybasis, the way she acts atwork and constantlythinking how to get thenext man.

HealthMagazines often

negatively affect manywomen's health by post-ing digitally enhancedimages of very thinwomen. These imagesare not real images ofreal women. They haveused Photoshop and air-brushed techniqueswhich make the idealwoman that does notexist. These models areseen as the epitome ofbeauty and women wantto imitate that as it isseen as sought after andattractive. This in turnoften causes manywomen to follow fadand crash diets, whichare unhealthy for themin order to lose weight.Weight and becomingthin preoccupies themind of the woman andshe strives to reach anunhealthy size. Exerciseis not done for the ben-efits to the well-being ofbody and mind, but toreach a certain size.

Regarding emo-tional health, thesemagazines make manywomen unsatisfied asthey find it difficult to

reach hard to attainideals. Women can suf-fer from low self-esteemand feel they are notgood enough, which af-fects their mentalhealth. Their lifestyle isa negative one, wherethey don't enjoy beingthemselves but try tocopy a non-existent ex-ample. This preoccupa-tion with striving to bethe perfect woman asmagazines suggest takesover the mind and pre-vents many womenfrom concentrating onother issues.

ChoicesLinked to the other

sub-titles, magazines af-fect the choices womenmake when shopping.They are told what toeat and what not to eat,what they should buyand from where. Theyaffect what women de-cide to do in their livesas they seek guidancefrom magazines. Thesemagazines are like HolyBooks full of advice andhow a woman shouldact in a certain situation.

The choices a womanmakes then affect awoman's life. The lan-guage of most maga-zines are in a persuasivetone, to persuadewomen to act this orthat way for her benefit,or buy this and you willlook amazing.

Women trust maga-zines to tell them thetruth. They are officiallyprinted and mass-dis-tributed all over theworld, so they trustthem to be the officialsource of guidance.They often tell thewoman how to be andpromote hard to attaindigitally-enhanced im-ages of the perfectwoman. The tone ofmagazine literature isoften a persuasive oneto convince women tofollow advice and con-form to the modern dayimage of a woman as de-fined by the magazineculture.

FUSION | 9

How much do magazines

really affect women’s

lifestyle choices?

author// Matilda Willows

contributor// Teniel Gibbs

10 | FUSION

The mass media, including TV, radioand newspapers, have great influence inshaping people's ideas. To what extent doyou agree or disagree with this state-ment? Give reasons for your answer. Themass media, including TV, radio, news-papers play very important roles in ourmodern life. They have changed our livesvery much. In my opinion, it would notbe exaggerating to say that they have agreat influence in shaping people's ideas,both for the better and for the worse.First, the mass media affect people'sfashion. Simply take a glance at the wayyou dress right now, it was probablysomething you have picked up over theinternet or magazines. What we arewearing may look similar to what famousactors or singers have worn recently. Andall of the things we often to is to imitate

the models appear every day in fashionshows.

Second, we cannot deny that themass media have a great contribution toshaping our ways of thinking. What wewatch on TV, radio: what we read innewspaper and magazines effect, with-out our awareness, a great deal to ourthinking. Does what President Obama,Bill Gates say on TV mean anything toyou? Does what your music idols wear af-fect your taste of fashion? I definitely be-lieve the answer will be "yes". Whenchoosing what to wear, most of us have atendency to choose what is said or shownto be fashionable by famous people.

Third, it is obvious that the massmedia also plays an important role in ourattitude to life. Some people complainthat children nowadays tend to be lazier

and more violent and want to come in fora share of social's product as much aspossible. This is simply the result of badprogrammers shown on T.V all time, in-controllable websites and even the care-lessness of parents. To be free from theirchildren, some people allow the childrento surf the webs, without noticing thatthere are plenty of disasters on Internetwhich the young have little experience todeal with. People, especially teenagers,always have an idol and they tend to fol-low what their idols do and say no matterthese things are good or bad. In conclu-sion, we have absolutely no control overthe media. However, we do have the finaldecision on the path we choose to take.The extent of the power mass media isable to influence us only reaches this far;the rest is really still within our control.

MASSmedia

author// unknown: Nassau Guardian 2011contributor// Kenisha Gray

FUSION | 11

Without technology, somepeople may not knowhow to live. Before

today’s advances, technology wasn’t a bigpart of our society because it wasn’t asrecognized. Even so, when technologywas first invented back in the day, it wasso expensive that only the wealthy couldafford to own it. Let’s talk about a fewmain technological milestones that haveplayed a huge part of this new century:Mac and Windows operating systems.

Have you ever thought about theway people debate about politics? Whatabout a preacher trying to get hismessage across in church? People get justas heated in debates over PC or Maccomputers. PCs were the first to beinvented, before the invention of Maccomputers. When purchasing acomputer, what is the first thing you tendto look for? For most of us, it is the price.For many years PCs had dominated thebudget market because of its firstinvention, but now you have Applecomputers, with prices at their lowest,compared to the PC computer. Everythought about why this may be so?Because the key features that Macs tendto lack, PC computers offer. For anexample, lets look at memory and harddrive space. Most PCs have anywherefrom 2GB to 8GB of Ram in laptops andcomputers, while in Macs, they usuallyhave only 1GB to 4GB in Ram space,according to Intel.com. You can haveany model custom made with sufficientRAM space if need be. Macs also havesmaller hard drive space than an averagePC computer. Have you ever thoughtabout this when deciding on whatcomputer you would buy or do you justgo for what everyone talks about? Youalso have to consider availability.

Availability as in, PCs can be any PC thatruns on Windows. A PC can be a Dell,Toshiba, HP, Sony etc. But a Maccomputer can only belong to Apple whois solely responsible for it.

Secondly, all computers do the samething, we are able to search the web,interact with others and discover newthings. Would you ever go to a place youhave never went to before withoutfinding out valid information about thisplace? Hopefully, you’re saying no. Thisis another great thing about havingcomputers to search the web, interactwith others and discovering new things.You are able to visit a website with peerand professional reviews as well asphotos of any place you want to travel tobefore you go. You can use either PC orMac to find this information, right?

Then, why would you prefer a Macover a PC or vice versa? You wouldchoose a Mac over a PC if you want acomputer that lasts longer than a regularcomputer, that doesn’t need antivirussoftware. If you also prefer that your OShas just one brand name of hardware andkeeps things predictable, then a MAC isgood for you. However, you wouldchoose a PC over a MAC, because PCshave been around for many years. Youhave a wider knowledge about PCs anddespite the security issues there are stillPCs that are secure. We worry about ourPCs crashing– yes this is unpredictablebut no one said that Mac computerscouldn’t crash at all (referral to the recentbattery malware issues).

Back in the day, we had no choicewhether we wanted a PC or a Mac— itwas not an option, neither was it in ourprice range. But now it is and we have achoice and which computer best fits us,is our individual choice.

12 | FUSION FUSION | 13

PC MACWhich one are you?

article// Anya Fernander

ANYA Fernander

I am a motivated anddriven young lady. I enjoythe fine things in life. 

Do you just gofor what

everyone elsetalks about?

“

”

14 | FUSION FUSION | 15

January 2012

It is no secret that Bahamianpeople love video games.Traditionally it was mostly youngBahamian males that gravitatedtoward them, but in recent times,especially after the release of theNintendo Wii, playing video gameshas become more of a family affair.But despite video games becomingmore family-centric, it is also nosecret that they have becomeincreasingly vulgar and violent overthe years; so much so that it hasbecome a cause for public outcryaround the world. With the suddenincrease in crime around TheBahamas, accompanied by the love oflewd and violent video games, onecan only wonder if the increasinglyviolent video games can attributed toan increasingly violent Bahamas.

Since 2001 studies have beendone, to see if there is a relationshipbetween violent video games andviolent behavior. Several majorstudies have revealed that there is nodefinite link between playing violentvideogames and being violent.Researchers theorized that becauseof the use of violent video gamesbeing so prevalent amongst youth,there would be a rise in juvenileviolence, this was proven false.According to U.S. federal crimestatistics, the rate of juvenile violentcrime in the United States is at a 30-year low. (Jenkins) According toHenry Jenkins, a professor at The

Massachusetts Institute ofTechnology, researchers who formthese sorts of theories are basingthem on the effects of the media,rather than specifically on videogames. Jenkins also goes on tocriticize the researchers’ method ofobservation. Observing test subjectsin a lab is not representative of theenvironments where video games areactually played, therefore altering theresults. Jenkins also goes on to state;such experiments could only prove acorrelation between violence andvideo games, not a cause and effectrelationship. This means that they donot distinguish whether violent videogames make people more violent, orif people that are more violent justgravitate more towards violent videogames.

As of right now there is noeffective way of knowing what causesa person to become violent. Whilesome may believe that it is biologicaltrait, such as a person’s hair or eyecolor; others may believe that it iscaused by a person’s environment orupbringing. Because of all theresearch and failed theories, it is fairto say that video games are notsignificant contributors to theincreasing crime rate. But justbecause this theory has beendebunked, this is not cause for relief.Bahamians are still becomingincreasingly more violent, and we stilldo not know the cause.

SIMONLEIGH Miller

This 19 year-old Psychology majorenjoys watching television, sleep-ing and playing basketball. He’sthe only guy on Fusion staff.

photo// Jasper Haewardarticle// Simonleigh Miller

VIDEO Games

16 | FUSION FUSION | 17

The production of films have come a long wayfrom Kinetscope to Panavisions and Arriflexcameras, from black and white to colour. Manycountries, including the Bahamas, have personswho are trying to follow in the footsteps of fa-mous Hollywood movie producers, like StevenSpielberg. However, film producers, and the‘non- existent’ film industry in the Bahamasseem to get very little support from Bahamians.The first film made in the Bahamas, by a Ba-hamian is Filthy Rich Gangster, which was writ-ten, directed, produced and edited by thelegendary Jimmy Spice. However Bahamianproducers and the ‘non-existent’ film industryare not usually appreciated and recognized byBahamians. I conducted a few interviews withpersons in the field of film, in hopes of gainingan understanding of where the Bahamas is inreference to the film industry and film produc-tion.

The Bahamian Film Industry: An Inside Perspective.

It depends on what you define as"thriving". What the industry istoday compared to years past is phe-nomenal. The ease of access to cam-era/editing equipment because oflower price and advancement oftechnology allows for more personsto enter the field and developtalent/skill. It may take some timefor the general community to acceptthe place of the industry and givethem the respect as it is still relativelynew but the industry is thriving.

A.Q.Why isn't the Bahamian

film industry thriving?

-Stephen HannaProducer/Videographer

The number one thing that the film industry needsis this: people need to stop being lazy. There are a lotof people out there with a whole lot of talent whoare just letting it go to waste. I've had thoughts that"oh people have done this", but the reality is there isa lot of stuff that can and has to be done in order tomove our film industry into a powerful existence.People have already started to take notice of Ba-hamian films, and with the recent historic perform-ance of "Crazy Love" in the box office, here; now isdefinitely the best time to move forward. The secondthing would be support. Money needs to be pumpedinto this steadily so that there is never a lack ofequipment. We don't need $100,000 cameras tomake films. Low budget digital films can be equallyamazing, but if there is a steady supply of money,should we ever have the need, we can acquire thehighest quality equipment possible. BIFF has donean exceptional job of getting Bahamians on the mapin film, but what are we doing with that? There's notenough support, yet. And, there really needs to bemore action.

A.Q. What do you think can be done

to help it gain momentum?

-Jasper HaewardDirector at Next 5 Productions

I wouldn’t say “comparable to Hollywood”; I meanHollywood is Hollywood. It’s like the NBA is theNBA, although almost every country has its re-spective basketball association. Countries withthriving film industries sort of have their own ‘Hol-lywood’ that is respected in their own countries andor regions. For example look at Bollywood andAfrican films that are becoming so tremendouslypopular. That being said, I definitely think that Ba-hamians or the film industry in the Bahamas havethe ability to eventually produce films that can beenjoyed, viewed and marketed to other places inthe world and even to Hollywood. If we all con-tinue to move forward that is, no doubt, a definitepossibility. In conclusion, Bahamians can give moresupport the local film producers just how theyspend thousands of dollars at the theatre to watchforeign movies.

A.Q.

Do you think the industry in theBahamas will ever be comparableto Hollywood?

-Patrick DeveauxActor/Screenwriter

article// Angel Dean

Television & Child Development

18 | FUSION

Young children’s brains are like sponges: they absorb every-thing they watch on television and, when squeezed all that in-formation comes back out. Children are more susceptible toviolence on television and constant stimulation of such pro-grams desensitizes them. Some of the most violent TV showsare children's cartoons, in which violence is portrayed ashumor—and realistic results of violence are seldom shown.They accept this as normal behaviour and since they are inca-pable of distinguishing between reality and fantasy, when they

become upset or have trouble expressing their feelings theylash out aggressively like the characters they see on television.

Television has taken over the primary role of care giverand mentor. Bahamian parents are either too busy, too lazy orsimply don’t concern themselves with monitoring what TVtheir children watch. It isn’t wise to give children access towatch whatever they want, as this exposes them to inappro-priate content. According to an article by Kaiser family foun-dation called ‘Sex on Television’, three out of every four primetime shows contain sexual references and 84% contain sexualcontent, including cartoons. There is a high probability thatyour child will come in contact with pornographic materialtheir minds cannot contain and we shouldn’t want our youngkids acting out what they see.

Children are the future lawyers, doctors, spiritual leaders,and role models for their younger generation so let us safeguardthem from the horrible effects of TV. Parents should monitorwhat their kids watch and ensure that the parental control but-ton is utilized. By setting aside family time, parents can sit andwatch television with their children, which will give them fullcontrol over what their kids watch.

Television is the most prevalent source ofmedia in the lives of children. Children’sminds are young and easily influenced,

lackin both the knowledge and understanding todiscern reality from fantasy. This is a potential prob-lem as a lot of the content on TV is negative, andoften portrayed in a hilarious way (as seen in car-toons). Televisions, in some cases, have replacedbooks, physical activities, healthy eating and playtime with friends, which can have negative effectson their overall development, such as: contributeto obesity, affect their learning, increase aggressivebehaviour, and pre-exposure to inappropriate sex-ual content.

Television can affect learning by cutting intothe time kids need for doing their homework,studying and reading– all of which contribute tohealthy mental development and gaining knowl-edge beneficial in preparing them for high schooland the adult world. This is reflected in the Ba-hamas’ national grade average, which is a D/E.Many television programs offer educational con-tent yet Bahamian kids go contrary because these

shows are usually boring or of poor visual quality.Children prefer shows like ‘The Adventures ofGumball’ and ‘Sponge Bob’— both of which enter-tain yet offer nothing positive but help to stiflemental development.

Some Bahamian children have a tendency ofwatching their favourite television programs at aparticular time each day, sometimes incorporatingnew ones in that schedule. Since there is very littleor no physical activity while watching televisionthey become ‘couch potatoes’ hence, childhoodobesity. Television commercials aggressively targetyoung audiences many of them advertising junkfood during commercial breaks. One of the mostpopular advertisers is McDonalds, which has beendirectly linked the rate of childhood obesity. Rarely,if ever, are advertisements for fruits and vegetablesshown. This can be detrimental as it can lead to di-verse health conditions like diabetes and hyperten-sion. Children should engage in some form ofphysical activity such as playing or participating insports, which help the blood to circulate and organsto function effectively.

Is TV the new parent?article// Angel Dean

ANGEL Dean

Angel has been a Nursingmajor for 2 years. She enjoysreading, exercising andquality time by herself.

FUSION | 19

The mass media, particularly television, influencechildhood development by providing opportunitiesfor modeling and information-seeking outside

family and school. Americans in all age groups tend to spendmore time watching television than any activity other thansleeping. The average American child has been estimated towatch over 20,000 television commercials per year in additionto the commercial programming interspersed between them.In 2000, children two to five years old watched 40 hours oftelevision per week and children six to eleven years old watched50-60 hours per week. Thus the messages that televisionconveys not only represents the culture in which they appearbut are also a large part of it.

Stereotypical behavior by females and males characterizesboth children's and adult's programming, as well ascommercials. For example, a study of Saturday morningchildren's programs found that 68% of the major characterswere male and that male characters engaged in more activitythan female characters. Boys thereby had the greateropportunity to imitate same-sex models than girls. Also, thesexes tended to appear in different roles. Females were moreoften presented in relationships with others such as family orfriends, while males were more often portrayed in rolesindependent of others or at work. In commercials, males werepresented as more knowledgeable and females as morebewildered. Here we see the familiar pattern of males seemingmore important, deserving of more attention, and more incommand of themselves and the situation. Not surprisingly,both children and adults who watch more television tend tobe more aware of gender stereotypes, see themselves in more

stereotypical terms and hold more traditional attitudes towardmen's and women's roles.

Magazine advertising has conveyed similar messages. Untilrecently, ads rarely showed women in working roles and nevershowed them as executives or professional. Several stereotypesof women's roles occurred regularly

a. Women's place as in the home b. Women as not making important decisions c. Women as dependent and in need of men's protection d. Men regarding women as sex objects, not as people.Women most often were portrayed as happy and diligent

homemakers, beautiful and dependent social companions, ormost concerned with being blonde, thin, or having otherphysical characteristics they did not possess.

Television has made some attempts to adjust to the realityof women in the workplace, but not without difficulty. TheWall Street Journal observed in 1984 that, while mostadvertisers agreed that they should no longer portray mothersas dim-witted housewives aiming to please, they didn't knowwhat should replace those images. As a result, fewercommercials and programs were showing married mothers atall and Dad was instructing the kids about the virtues oftoothpaste, instant rice, and the like. Television's stay-at-homemothers have been replaced by single women, divorced womensharing homes. These changes suggest that television maycontribute less to the formation and reinforcement of genderstereotypes than in the past. It has contributed greatly togender stereotyping by present-day parents, however, who arepassing on what they have learned about male and female rolesto their children.

author// Harold Hisonacontributor// Simonleigh Miller

20 | FUSION FUSION | 21

Earlier this monthI spoke at aMedia140 event

about the ethical dilemmasfaced by journalism in an ageof social media. I thought I’dwrite up some of mythoughts here:

In my previous life I wasan academic at the CardiffSchool of Journalism, Mediaand Cultural Studies. One ofmy roles was as ‘DeputyEthics Officer’ (yes my Mumwas proud;)) and wasinvolved in the developmentof ethical guidelines for theSchool in 2005. In the pastdecade Universities have

been forced toinstitutionalise ethics fortwo reasons: to protectstudents who want toundertake research indangerous situations (forexample an MA studentwanting to understand thelife of sex workers in Thaibrothels), or moreimportantly to protectvulnerable subjects (forexample people withlearning difficulties, childrenetc).

The ethical principlesare clear and shared acrossacademic disciplines.Researchers know to ask for

consent from participantsbefore asking questions,keep data confidential etc,but these shared principlesweren’t so easy to get passedin our School of Journalism.As one of my colleaguesstated: “I’m a journalist. Myjob is to expose the corruptand if the only way I can dothat is by going throughtheir rubbish bin to findcredit card receipts, that’swhat I’m going to do. Youcan’t get me to sign up tothese universal guidelines”.

That exchange exposedin a second, the ethicalcomplexities inherent in

journalism. And it is for thatreason that the arrival ofsocial media has not createdfundamentally new ethicalquandaries. Yes, at theboundaries, social media isforcing newsroom editors tomake snap decisions aboutwhether or not to publish aphoto, whether or not toupload content, butfundamentally nothing isnew. For the most part, thefive main issues that arecausing the most problems,are issues that have alwaysbeen problematic – theyhave just been transplantedinto digital scenarios instead.

These five issues are:copyright; verification;protecting sources,gathering information usingfalse pretenses; contempt ofcourt. I will talk about thesein separate blogs at a laterpoint, but ultimately myargument is that these issueshave always existed. What ismore challenging now arethe issues that exist at theboundary. Here are a fewscenarios. What would youdo in each?

1. Someone posts to a public facebookpage that is campaigning to keep a localhospital open. You work at a local radio sta-tion and read the post out on air. The per-son complains saying they didn’t agree totheir words being shared on a broadcastmedium. Should you have not read out thestatement, or perhaps read it out but notread out the name?

3. There’s a large fire and a student journal-ist contacts the newsroom saying they arehappy to cross police lines to get you somefootage. You can’t get a camera crew downthere for 40 minutes, what do you do?

These first two scenar-ios have at their heart theway the audience perceivessocial networks. Journalistsmight argue that a facebookwall is a broadcast medium inthe same way as a radio sta-tion, but users with lockeddown profile settings whoare confused that posts on afacebook page are not pri-vate, might not. Similarlypeople who call up radio sta-tions, understand what thatmeans, but don’t understandhow that same material couldmake its way around theworld. Similarly, people postto facebook, believing theyare writing for a particularaudience, and not thinkingabout how information

would be perceived by oth-ers. In my training, I oftenask people to check to seewhat a journalist would findout about them if tomorrow,they either won the lotteryor disappeared without atrace. What would the head-line be?

As Deputy Ethics Offi-cer I undertook some re-search into how onlinecommunities perceived ‘lurk-ers’ as increasingly re-searchers in the departmentwere using online messageboards as a form of audienceresearch. Again and again,they would say that whilethey technically understoodthat their online community(a message board) was public,

they couldn’t understandwhy academic researchers orjournalists could just listen totheir conversations withoutintroducing themselves andexplaining what they were in-terested in.

In a 2008 survey carriedout by the Press ComplaintsCommission, 78% of respon-dents would change informa-tion they publish aboutthemselves online if theythought the material wouldlater be reproduced in themainstream media. I wouldbe interested to see if thatnumber has changed nowthat people are more savvy.But the crucial element hereis that savviness is often di-rectly correlated with educa-

tion and income. For muchmore completely brilliantwriting on this area, youmust read danah boyd’swork.

We are in a transitionalperiod where people areworking out what these newspaces mean to them. Whilespaces might be technicallypublic, they don’t feel publicto the tight knit communi-ties using them. Ethical con-siderations are never blackand white and ultimatelycome down to individual de-cisions about what is rightand wrong. When working inan incredibly pressured envi-ronment with competitorsusing information you deepdown know isn’t appropriate,

it’s harder to do what’s ‘right’,but slowly we’re seeing news-rooms and the ‘audience’ be-coming more sophisticatedabout these issues. Photogra-phers are watermarking theirpictures, people are checkingtheir facebook settings andproducers are contactingcontributors before upload-ing potentially viral contentto audioboo.

Ethical considerationsare evolving and while theirare hitches, confusion, andsome dubious incidents, forthe most part I’d say thatwe’re moving in the right di-rection, without the need forany guidelines or directives.And that has to be a goodthing.

Suggested ‘Answers’1. Read out but don’t readout the name2. Explain to contributorsbeforehand that contentmight be shared on the web.3. Say no, howevertempting.4. No again, howevertempting.

2. Someone calls up a radio station and getsangry in an over the top way about a topiceveryone can relate to. Your producer putsthe audio on a social network and it goesviral and he becomes a laughing stockaround the world.Is it appropriate to putout audio on social networks when the per-son doesn’t know first?

4. Someone has been murdered. You canaccess information about them as they hadtheir profile open to friends of friends andyou happen to have gone to the same Uni-versity. Do you publish their last status up-date or do you contact the family first?

Journalism Ethicsin a Social MediaWorld

author// Dr. Claire Wardlecontributor// Jasper Haeward