Unit II Journalist Style and Impact on Society

Did your alarm go off this morning? I know that mine did. My cell phone let me know that it was time to get up and start the coffee. My cell phone also reminded me of my afternoon appointments. I receive approximately thirty phone calls a day; I'm embarrassed to even count the text messages. Oh and I surf the net, check my email, and use my GPS application to get me where I need to go. My cell phone is for all intents and purposes my personal assistant; but my personal assistant should have come with a warning label on the outside of the box!
"It's a radiation-emitting device that we buy for our ourselves. I think we are asking the wrong question, whether or not they have been proven to be unsafe. The question should be, have they been proven safe."(Sullivan, 2010.) While the cell phone industries media outlets have implied that cell phone's are safe; obviously their written word is biased for their own business benefit. Cell phone complications seem to be a debatable specter amidst all areas of mass media. As cell phone usage surges, we as a society seem to be ignorant to the dilemma that could possibly arise from the third ear we have adorned.
In a Wake Up Call, by Robert Sullivan,the potential health deformities or risks of cell phone use are widespread throughout the human anatomy. He states that low sperm count in males, brain tumors, both benign and malignant on the side of the brain where the phone is utilized the most, and early onset of Alzheimer's are all complications that could arise from use(Sullivan,2010). Sullivan is straight forward about the risks, but how heinous that other journalists and media outlets seem to mask the potential dangers (2010). Alternative media outlets have outlined these significant health risks in their mildest forms, but still fail to provide an informative reality that we all may face; severe health problems from radiation-emitting devices.
The Food and Drug Administration and the Federal Communications Commission have stated that cell phones are not harmful. The FCC/FDA Web site "stresses that no scientific evidence has been published demonstrating harm from short- term exposures to low levels of RF energy"(2010). Questions of the hour: When did we start using our cell phones on a short term basis...? What defines a short term usage? Is this what they want society to know or want society to believe? I would normally take their written word....no questions asked, and believe in its validity. This is coming from a government media outlet. It serves society as an educational and truthful written resource. As I have examined the potential cell phone dangers, the FCC/FDA website is technically correct. The last studies performed were in 1999, the website was updated in June of 2010. The question society should be asking is this: It is 2010; Who is lobbying for new studies and who will document and disperse its findings honestly to society?
Good Morning America ran a very limited two minute piece discussing the health risks of cell phone usage. How informative can one be in two minutes? This live news media seems to edge around the real risks of cell phone usage in hopes of portraying a "slanted" perception to society. That perception as I viewed it, is this: There are documented risks, but we as a media source need to eliminate any controversy within our outlet. Journalism at its best should provide an unbiased, honest view of the truth and be held accountable for that truth. As with Good Morning America, they should be responsible to the public about the health risks, not creeping around their personal libel.
Journalism in its most basic form of the written word, warns us of cell phone usage health risks in informative articles that counter reference latent studies. Though the many articles penned on health advisories, when using cell phones, are informative, they seem to ignore the most basic fact: there are no current studies to help the public make an informative health decision. As the articles show there are only biased opinions. Journalism should cover the truth with no repercussions from society. If it is the truth that we as a society yearn for, then it should be the truth that we are reading, watching and listening to, regardless of the information proffered.

http://fcc.gov/

http://www.hulu.com/watch/156878/abc-good-morning-america-labeling-cell-phone-radiation-amounts

Sullivan, Robert. (2010, July). Wake up Call. Men's Health, 61-63.

http://trueslant.com/franjohns/2010/06/22/cell-phone-radiation-danger-true-or-false/

Response to William Crawford Blog Fictive Memoir

Joe Lewis Comp I Blog said...
William this entry was very humane. You touched on some of the deepest inner emotions that we all feel but yet don't quite express. To suffer such trauma and carnage and to also deal with it when a loved one cannot handle it is such an excruciating process. But yet to beat all odds and overcome is the most perfect process of being human. I really sympathized with your character as well as the circumstances. It is such tragedy to suffer in life but in your entry you show that with suffrage comes a personal redemption process that I really appreciate.

June 18, 2010 10:20 AM

I - Fictive Memoir Entry

That night Collin lay restless as the storm fought against the sides of the little white and green clapboard shack. Thinking to himself he tried to gauge the severity of the situation. The forecasters had only predicted a minor tropical storm, but they had said that about the earlier two storms in the last few weeks, which turned into Category I hurricane's and had dropped almost 12 inches of rain. "Rain", he thought, "I can't handle any more rain".
Around 4:30 that morning he awoke to a strong clap of thunder. Startled he got up to use the bathroom and flipped the light switch, no power. "Oh great", Collin growled. As he leaned over the sink to wash the perspiration off his face, the floor under his feet felt slippery, almost slimy wet. Collin thought maybe he had left the window open, but no, everything was closed. As he leaned down he felt the vent covering and was startled by the water that was pushing through the floor of his little clapboard shack. Immediately he hurried toward the kitchen and the front door.
As Collin opened the front door water rushed in uninvited over his feet. The water poured in through the door like a dam that had just busted. What Collin didn't realize at that moment is a levy had swelled and busted. The cotton fields were now an ocean, the highway a memory, and the neighbors in the small North Carolina community of Princeville alone in an ocean that came from no where.
He immediately ran back for his wife Kelli and there little girl Meg. He had to find a way to get them out of this place. The place he had dragged them to for his work, to study cotton plants and insecticides.
Collin leaped back away from the door and ran down the hall. He threw on the stained work paints and broken in boots and a simple white t-shirt. He needed to find safety for his family. Right now that was looking like the top of his house. As Collin tried to calm Kelli's screams, Meg asked for her kitten. "Daddy, Daddy, I need to find Patches." A single tear slipped across Collin's face and he scooped Meg up and ran for the door. He transferred his daughter to his wife and began to swim.

Collin swam for the road across his little lawn that was now the ocean. He fought the current to get to the truck which he hoped would provide a rescue for his family. He knew that Kelli would never be able to fight this flooding current and hold onto Meg at the same time. He needed to find a way. Any way to get them away from the once beautiful acres and acres of white fluffy cotton.


http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/6037817/