We live in a time where the world is constantly changing. A new war broke out, nuclear anxiety, terrorism, murderers, economic recession, famines, social security, abortion, gay marriages, unemployment rate rises, environmental issues and the never ending list of other hot topics. I was always told by people to stay on top of current events and I have witnessed myself of how discussion about current issues arise among my friends and in the classroom. But lately, watching the news or reading the paper just doesn’t seem to be as informative as before. The news has strayed away from providing important global news to only showing viewers old and irrelevant news over and over for profitability.

One recent example is the John Karr murder case of JonBenet. This case was showing for two weeks straight on all major news channels such as Fox News, MSNBC, CNN, etc… My question is, how can a news channel report only this case for two weeks straight? I really doubt that they are getting enough information about the changes in the Karr case that they can report something new to the public. All I have seen is the manipulation of words and stories so it may seem like they are reporting something new, but when translated to plain English, it means the same thing as they said before and they have been saying. Many of the news channels speculate that Karr is guilty and try to sway the public to believe it, but when all is said and done, Karr is innocent by DNA analysis. What gives the media the right to take a inspector’s job.

The media has many people glued to their TV sets on all these “new breaking developments” that it is ridiculous on how such a pathetic piece of news is “breaking news”. I have even witnessed breaking news developments of a celebrity having a baby. How pathetic is it that the news media butts into people’s lives just to report gossip? Is Americans and American society that low? In addition to these overplayed and non-vital piece of information, what ever happened to covering and reporting on a variety of stories rather than just one or maybe even two? First the news was reporting nothing but Afghanistan, then Iraq, North Korea, Iran, oil prices, Lebanon, and John Karr. What ever happened to covering all these stories rather than focusing on one and then abandoning it to a newer one. Have you ever noticed how the news these days from large news corporations seem to fail to actually report issues that still have not been dealt with. One example is social security. What happened to all the proposed ideas of changes that was going to solve our social security problem? I guess one thing for sure is that an idea is just an idea and nothing more. Just because a politician proposes an idea, it doesn’t mean it will be carried out. To politician, ideas are things that get them elected, and persuasive and misleading talk is the thing that gets them re-elected. But enough on the political side of things, lets focus back to the media.

The media, just like any other American business is in it for profits and the occasional swaying of public opinions. If you don’t understand by what I mean of swaying public opinions, rent or buy the documentary Outfoxed. This documentary shows how the Fox News Network tries to submit it’s conservative (Republican) views on its audience. Don’t believe me? Then you’ll just have to watch it and look at the statistics yourself. Of course I don’t mind that the news media corporations are in it for profits, it would be stupid if they weren’t, but whatever happened to the unbiased, important news reports? For example, take this news media slogans into consideration. The New York Times Newspaper’s ad slogan is “All the News That’s Fit to Print”. Well, what news is fit to print? The New York Times does seem to be a reliable source for information, but just like the televised news media, they can sometimes reprint the same old story over and over again with very little new information. Much of it is variations of the same story. But I think they didn’t finish their ad slogan. I believe it should say “All the News That’s Fit to Print to Increase our Sales and Profits”. This altered slogan can be applied to other news media corporations as well.

The news is such a powerful influence on our society, that many times it is taken advantage of. If the news reported more on United States’ current issues such as social security, the economy, dependency on oil, global warming, education, and crime, then more people would advocate and speak out to our government for more of a change until the proper action is taken. But if the news continues to ignore the important issues on the homefront, then what possibility is there for a major reform in social security, education, and the explorations of more sufficient energy sources along with many other problematic issues. The media has played an important part of American history to help build our country, but today, the true purpose of the media is diminishing. If important long-term issues do not educate people across the nation, then the United States may have a much harder time sustaining itself as the land of opportunities in the future.

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Written By: Julian

Note: I welcome any and all debates, discussion, and intellectual opinions about this topic.

Well, starting the end of September, I will begin my regular school year again. I will be a third year student (aka Junior) at UCSB. Now that I will be taking upper-division major classes for my major, books seem to get more and more over priced. The two main upper division classes I will be taking is Economics 185 (Accounting Information Systems) and Economics 118 (Financial Accounting Analysis and Planning). The two textbooks required for these two classes only add up to over $340 USD! Can someone say “RIP-OFF”!

I’ve been hearing a lot about Half.com as my roommate and a various of my friends use it. So I purchased my two textbooks for the price of one textbook at the price UCSB sells them. I saved over 50% on Half.com. I received one of my books on Tuesday and my other yesterday, Wednesday. But to my surprise, one of the books was an international edition. I was unaware of it since the site never stated it and it said it had the correct ISBN, title, author, edition, etc… So I went to the bookstore today to make sure the book, questions, text, etc… is all the same and it is! The only difference is that my internation edition is softcover and has a different textbook cover. But other than that it is exactly the same. I paid $57 for it compared to the $160 the university sell it. Such a big difference. I only have wished I actually bought my textbooks sooner.

Not only does Half.com sell school textbooks, it sells every kind of book. Whether it is a novel, encyclopedia, etc… Half.com is a sub-department of popular Ebay auction site. My overall experience with Half.com is great! Not only did I get fast shipping, the books I wanted, but I also saved a lot!

So go check out Half.com yourself and start buying and selling!