Israel & Palestinian’s Media War on the Gaza Strip

Israel Palestinian Gaza Media
Israel Palestinian Gaza Media

There has been a lot of talk on the Media Wars in Gaza between the Palestinians and Israel. Both sides have kept a careful lip on what gets transmitted out to the public. Below I’ve tried to give a snapshot of the “media war” and how Israel and Palestinians go about controlling their message to the world.

Israel claims that opening their borders for journalist would put those in the terminals in danger. The government has long banned Israeli journalist from entering Gaza because of the concerns for their safety. However they had allowed foreign reporters to enter. Thus without access, the media has no reliable source or information.

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Sex Trafficking – Where is the News Coverage?

Where is the Coverage?
One social issue that doesn’t get as much coverage as it should is the sex trafficking that occurs all around the world. The sex traffic business continues to loom large yet the atrocities involved never quite see the day light. Somehow someway the industries manages to keep it hush hush.

Sex trafficking revenue of people is estimated to be between $5 billion to $9 billion dollars. Often it is misunderstood as something people do voluntarily due to money or debt issues when in actuality many girls are abducted and kidnapped from an early age and forced into prostitution by force and torture. Up to 50% are minors. Sex trafficking occurs not just in notorious countries like Cambodia, Japan, Russia and Eastern Europe but here at home in the United States.

One recent “opinions” article that speaks of the issue and is highlighted below. (Why it an opinion article? Shouldn’t this be headline world news!?)

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Clean Cut Media: December Media Recap

Happy New Year!
Whether you are a regular visitor or landed on this blog for the first time, we are glad you are here as we transition into 2009! December saw records high and the launch of the Viewpoint Series. Don’t forget to bookmark this page and come back!

Month after Month – Clean Cut Traffic
Despite the holiday season where vacations and traveling leads to a drop in overall traffic volume, Clean Cut Media continues to buck the trends and break all kinds of records. A strong start of the month helped balance out the slow holiday season.

Dec Growth: Up 27% from Nov
Dec Pageviews: Pageviews came to about 2,200, meaning the traffic more than doubled since October.

Top Articles & Posts in Dec
Movie Review: Twilight – Love Conquers All
Powerful Impact of Media on Children
Influence of TV Satire on Political Identities – Sarah Palin SNL
Teen Kills Self on JustinTV with 185 Witnesses
Creativity: Leave Nothing Nike Commercials
Movie Review: High School Musical 3

Past Week Top Post: Movie Review: Seven Pounds – Will Smith
This post is more than just a review, but a discussion about a very important moral topic. Can’t note the topic here because it would be a spoiler! Visit the link to read about it!

Fun Clean Cut Media Information & Statistics Below

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Movie Review: Seven Pounds starring Will Smith

Seven Pounds Movie Review

Seven Pounds - Will Smith
Seven Pounds - Will Smith

Starring: Will Smith, Woody Harrison, Rosario Dawson
Director: Gabriele Muccino (Pursuit of Happiness)
Length: 2hr 3Min
Released: December 19, 2008
Rated: PG-13

“If you are like most you will have one of two reactions, either leaving with your face covered with tears, or shaking your head.”

Seven Pounds stars Will Smith as IRS agent Ben Thomas. It’s a movie that is mysterious throughout keeping the viewer slightly out of the loop wondering what is going on. It is an emotional journey intended to slowly reveal the plot through subtle hints. Seven Pounds is a very slow paced film, only bearable because of Will Smith’s acting prowess. It is pretty clear that Ben, played by Will Smith, is more than he seems as he actively seeks to carefully analyze then help each person he meets.

The story unfolds as Ben makes visits to various people with different needs. Flashing his IRS badge he asks them both financial related questions as well as personal ones. He seems to be searching for something. As he is helping one of these strangers, the guy asks Ben “Why Me?” and Ben says “Because you’re a good person, even when you think no one is looking.” So he seems to be searching for “good people” to help. Why? It is very clear that Ben has a lot of emotional baggage as Seven Pounds is glittered with flashbacks which at first seem to be in the present. He is held captive by some sort of guilt or sad memory.

Overall the movie was well made, but as the quote above says (taken by a comment by user reviewer), you are either going to leave the theater crying or shaking your head. I happen to be the latter, despite the fact I am known to be very “emotional” when it comes to emphasizing with characters. Mainly because very early on in the movie it became crystal clear what the ending was going to be. It came too fast and too early. But then again I am the analyzer type that figures out plots pretty quickly to begin with. But what made me shake my head was not the plot, but the controversy that is the ending… it is definitely worth discussing from many different levels, especially from a moral standpoint.

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Media Influence on Perception of the Financial Crisis. Who is to Blame?

Let me be clear. I am no expert in Politics. I just post articles that has to do with how media molds our perception, which unfortunately has a lot to do with politics and social issues. Below I’ve added excerpts from an article in regards our national financial problems and who is to blame. This article abhors the “fact” that liberal media continues to help build on the perception that congress is working hard to paint. That our financial crisis is all due to greedy CEOs and irresponsible spending, keeping our focus away from the fact that lot of the problems stem from government laws and programs that Congress enacted not too long ago.

Do I agree with it? Don’t ask me, I just want to promote logical thinking and allow people to make sound judgments beyond just believing and soaking in everything they see and hear in media. I do think the article is very one sided and borderlines on being a rant, but that makes the article somewhat interesting to read.

If you have some counter arguments or a link to article that supports or goes against this matter, feel free to leave a comment.

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Proposition 8: The Musical – Lies & Intolerance.. by Who?

The Bible and Proposition 8
Mockery and Bigotry

Below are some excerpts regarding Proposition 8: The Musical, written by “Hairspray” composer Marc Shaiman. Already viewed by over 2 million people online. Many people might think this piece is funny or a great “social issue” piece. But what often gets overlooked is how much these kind of videos distort the truth and are extremely intolerant.

Some will look at it and say “of course I know it’s bias” and just laugh it off, but media has such a powerful effect on the way we think and how we view things that enough exposure to such material can mold our perceptions. You can have parents who urge you to keep yourself pure, but as you watch more and more TV shows where sleeping around seems to exciting, fun and without consequences, when the time comes it is much easier to go with it. The old “everyone else is doing it” played out in real life. When you live in simple suburbia but watch movies of gangsters and mafia characters defend their egos and pride by oppressing others or physically getting in the face of others, what does that do to your perception of what is manly and right when your dignity is on the line.

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Bible Illuminated: The Book New Testament

New Testament Bible Illustrated: The Book
New Testament Bible Illustrated: The Book

The Book New Testament: Bible Illustrated

The Bible is one of the oldest and best selling books in human history. What people may not know is that it is a book full of historically reliable and verified information utilized by archaeologist and historians around the world. But of course the Bible is most well known for being the the Word of Christianity, full of past events that covers everything from man’s purpose, the state of humanity, God’s interaction with men, and the gospels covering the life of Jesus.

However the Bible is quite a big book, and those who are not familiar with it may feel it is too daunting to try to read through it all. “Bible Illuminated: The Book” is the latest attempt to bring the Bible into a more contemporary and modern build.

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Viewpoint: Women & Modesty – Christian Dilemma

Viewpoint Series
Readers of this blog are familiar with the “Creativity” posts that show interesting (and clean) videos, advertisements, prints and the like. I will also be starting the “Viewpoint” set, which will post good articles that show a completely different perspective than what culture would tell us to be the norm or even to be right. Many of the articles in Clean Cut Media discuss how media shapes and impacts our culture and our worldview. In relation to that goal, I believe reading posts that discuss different viewpoints will help broaden our perspective and give us a way to step back and evaluate our culturally defined norms more objectively. Whether you agree or disagree with the viewpoints is up to you.

Viewpoint: Women & Modesty
Article below is a response to a question by a Christian man who wants to discuss with his girlfriend about how the way she dresses is actually making him have lustful thoughts. In our generally promiscuous, show all, sex driven type of culture, the perspective you see below in the response, will jump out immediately as something different, if not radical. Christianity is a very others driven, centered around loving God and loving people and you see that in the way they heavily consider the impact of dressing immodest and it’s impact on men. Article is below. Enjoy!

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Clean Cut Media: November Media Recap

Another Month in Clean Cut Media. Another record in terms of traffic. As always I want everyone to share in this communities growth! I appreciate all the old contributing members as well as the new. Please keep returning here, posting comments and promoting discussion. Even the smallest of comments are greatly appreciated.

Record Month
November just like October was a record month in terms of pageviews at about 1750 pageviews. That is about an 80% growth from October and 150% more then September. “Influence of TV SNL Satire on Political Identity – Sarah Palin 2008″ continues to draw the most traffic while new November Posts “Movie Review: High School Musical 3 – The Message”, “Creativity: Toshiba Timesculpture Advertisement Video”, and “Movie Review: Twilight, Love Conquers All?” rose up the charts following not too far behind.

The hope is that old posts continue to attract visitors while new posts dominate the new traffic. So far so good.

Searching for Clean Cut Media in Nov
As someone who works in the online marketing fields, these numbers are fun to follow. Hope you find it interesting too. How do people find Clean Cut Media anyway?

Searches: 65%
Referrering Websites: 20%
Direct (typing the URL): 15%

81% of visitors were brand new visitors! Awesome.

Example Top Searches
“media influence”
“media influence statistics”
“influence of media on culture”
“media influence on children”
“influence of the media on children”
“media vs movie influence”
“why is the media influence so powerful”
“online video teen culture media”
“don’t vote campaign”

It is my hope to continue to draw people who type in such important topics.

November Media Post Recap
Nov 1: Clean Cut Media: October Recap – Watch us Grow
Nov 4: 5.3 Billion Spend on Federal Political Candidiates
Nov 7: Movie Review: High School Musical 3 – The Message
** Most Pageviews
Nov 11: Powerful Impact of Media on Children
Nov 17: Creativity: Toshiba Timesculpture Advertisement Video
Nov 21: Black Hole Short Film – Underestimating the Subtle Power of Desire
Nov 23: Teen Kills Self on Justin.tv with 185 Witnesses
Nov 29: Movie Review: Twilight, Love Conquers All?

RSS Feed
If you haven’t signed up for the RSS Feed please do!
You can sign up for RSS Feed Here or if you are not familiar with what RSS feeds are check out this post on RSS Feeds

If you’d like to see a particular posting, topic or anything else on this site, please leave a comment.

Thanks

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Movie Review: Twilight, Love Conquers All?

Twilight Movie 2008
Twilight Movie 2008

Movie: Twilight
Featuring: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Billy Burke
Director: Catherine Hardwicke

“When you can live forever, what do you live for”

How about the opposite? When you know your life is finite, is anything worth living for?

The movie Twilight is another film aimed at a young audience. In it’s opening weekend it made $70.6 million making it the fourth highest opening film this year. According to exit polls, 55% of the audience were under 25 years old and 75% of the audience was female.

Twilight is a movie adaptation of a very popular book series mostly read by young female teenagers. It is a love story about a male vampire and a normal girl.

On the surface this is a love story between a vampire and a high school girl that seems to carry a pro-abstinence message and so many parents are focusing on this portion claiming that it’s a great story with a good message. However there are many other themes that are often going unnoticed.

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Are you Unhappy? Stop Watching TV! Go Socialize

A study came out of the University of Maryland that concludes that watching television contributes to viewers’ happiness in the short term, but has negative affects in the long run. In other words they found that those who say they are unhappy on average watch more TV while those who are happy spend more time socializing with others and reading. This study analyzes 30 years of national data through a series of attitude surveys.

“TV doesn’t really seem to satisfy people over the long haul the way that social involvement or reading a newspaper does,” says University of Maryland sociologist John P. Robinson, the study co-author and a pioneer in time-use studies. “It’s more passive and may provide escape – especially when the news is as depressing as the economy itself. The data suggest to us that the TV habit may offer short-run pleasure at the expense of long-term malaise.”

In the study, Robinson and fellow sociologist Steven Martin, analyzed two sets of data collected over 30 years from 30,000 adults.

Short Term Gratification, Long Term Harm
They found that people who described themselves as happy were more socially active, attended more religious services, voted more and read more newspapers. By contrast, unhappy people watched significantly more television in their spare time.

The data showed that in the long term it has an adverse affect on happiness. More TV simply meant less time to socialize, make friends, and engage in social activity. The unhappy group were more likely to think they had too much extra time. 51 percent thought they had too much time verses only 19 percent of those who said they were happy.

Living in the Moment
The most fascinating aspect of this study is that “in the moment”, subjects thought highly of watching TV as an activity despite the data clearly showing that the more they watched the more likely they would be unhappy. The respondents wrote time-diaries about their daily activities. This data seems to paint a different picture as in the given moment the respondents rated TV viewing as a something they enjoy and a good daily activity. “What viewers seem to be saying is that ‘While TV in general is a waste of time and not particularly enjoyable, the shows I saw tonight were pretty good,’ ” Robinson says. The data also suggested that part of the reason was because TV viewing was “easy”. It is immediate gratification with a touch of a button. No need to dress up, find a place to go, find people, plan out the day, do any work or expend energy or money. It is no wonder Americans spend more than half their free time watching TV.

TV Viewing like Addiction?
Martin described the TV viewing like an addiction. “Addictive activities produce momentary pleasure but long-term misery and regret,” he says. “People most vulnerable to addiction tend to be socially or personally disadvantaged. For this kind of person, TV can become a kind of opiate in a way. It’s habitual, and tuning in can be an easy way of tuning out.”

What are your thoughts? Comment Below!

Other Related Posts:
Powerful Impact of Media on Children
Study Links Pregnancy with Watching Sexy TV Shows
Influence of TV SNL Satire on Political Identity – Sarah Palin 2008
Just Inappropriate for Kids or Just Inappropriate

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Teen Kills Self on Justin.tv with 185 Witnesses

A teen from Florida, committed suicide on Wednesday while broadcasting himself live on a video site called Justin.tv. Justin.tv is an open network of thousands of live streaming channels. 185 people were viewing the feed. From reports, he was egged on by fellow forum users on a bodybuilding website. Biggs ended up overdosing on pills live. He seemed to be breathing and alive for hours but soon some watchers became worried and contacted the police. The police broke into the complex and took him to the hospital.

Much of the videos of the actual event, pictures, suicide note and forum posts have been taken down, though much of it remains all over the web. For the sake of privacy and respect none of the content or the links will be posted on this blog. We will also withhold from using the teen’s name.

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