Journalism 1

Recently, I have been thinking about a question that I don’t think anyone will ever know the exact answer to. I have been wondering what makes a successful student and what makes an unsuccessful student.

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There are a few different possibilities, but I can’t decide what one would be the biggest factor. Obviously parents can make a big impact on how well a student does in school or with their life, but I don’t think its parenting while the kids are teenagers, I think it’s more of the parenting that goes on as a child. A parent can say to their teenage child that they are grounded from seeing friends or playing video games, but the teenager won’t always listen. It is easy for teenagers to ignore the parents and talk back and go out anyone or play video games anyway, which is why I think most of it comes in as parenting when the kids are young. It was drilled into my head as a kid that I need to do well in school if I want to be successful. That fear of not being well and being a bum the rest of my life encouraged me to do well in school. But parents can’t just say these things when we are kids, they have to be strict when it comes to students doing well (if they want success in their kids) in school at a young age. Enforce punishments to kids when they do something wrong or do poorly in school. I look back now and I realize how much of an impact that had on who I am today and how I do in school. Parents have more control over their kids when they are younger, get control then.

Another factor in this may be just someone’s I.Q. level. The question I have to this is, can people apply themselves enough that they can “make” their own I.Q. level and decide how smart they are going to be? Or is there a mental barrier that prevents us from ever getting any better or smarter. Personally, I would like to believe that anyone can do well, anyone can be smart. Some people may be better at it than others, some may have to study more than others… but essentially I believe that everyone can do well if they apply themselves.

The third thing is laziness. Let’s face it, teenagers are lazy and are only getting lazier. It annoys me so much when people can easily get an assignment done, but they are to lazy to do it. Especially when you are given class time to do it. I understand that when you are given time to work that you want to be talking to friends and not working. Understandable. However it is very easy to work on something while talking to friends. You just can’t completely zone out of the assignment. I think a lot of people need to realize that they can’t be lazy at this point in their life, what you do now can determine the rest of your life.

Another main factor is motivation. I hear a lot that people just don’t have the motivation to get stuff done, they don’t see what the benefits would be of doing well in school. I personally don’t see how anyone can see that, doing well in school gets you to college. College gets you to a well paying job that you enjoy. All this equals success in your life. I hear a lot of things about how people are not going to college and are just going to work at fast food or at some other restaurant for a few years and then complain about having to work or complain about not liking the job. If you don’t like it, do something about it. Apply that knowledge I know every has and do well, get the job that you can do well and have fun doing. If you have fun and enjoy your job at some fast food restaurant then that’s okay. If it is something you know you love and enjoying doing, then I don’t have a problem with you dropping out of school to work there. Just don’t complain to me about not having enough money or not liking the job. You had a chance to do better and you blew it.

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I don’t want to insult anyone and I don’t mean to get nasty about it. But I think that students need to be brought back to reality. The real world isn’t easy and requires a lot of work if you want to do well. Think about your future and what your decisions will have on your future and act on it. The real world is a lot harder than sitting in high school everyday, but you can make it easier. You just have to apply that knowledge now.

There aren’t a whole lot of facts out there. I will be honest, from what I have read I am against the SOPA and PIPA bills.

From what I have read, these bills would censor the internet. What I see is that these bills would make websites watch what goes on their website. This could possibly shutdown many websites and any small amount of copyright could be the end of a website. The goal of the bills is to stop piracy, but it just goes to far.

On the other hand… I think that I have only heard one side of the story. Like most people, the only things I have heard is hearing people talk about it at school in the hallways or when I am at work. Everything I have heard about it is negative. I have tried looking into it, but all I can find is articles about how bad these bills are. It makes me wonder how much everybody actually knows about the bills.

A lot of articles are saying that these bills are dead. It also said that seven million people signed Google’s petition against the bills. So I guess the bill must be a bad thing. A lot of people say these bill violates our rights, which makes me against it. I want to be able to say how I feel on the internet and not have anything censored, why would it need to be?

Honestly, it is hard for me to write on this topic (so for those of you expecting some great post about this, I apologize). I hear a lot of things about it, but only from the one side of the topic and I can’t seem to find anything that tells the other side of the story. From what I hear, I am against it. I can honestly say that I don’t know a whole lot about it, but I hope that our government makes the right move. I will leave it for them to decide.

Ethics and morals. Right and wrong. Everyone has different views on them and everybody’s idea of right and wrong is different. Maybe something/somebody is right if the person believes that what they are doing is right?

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In my eyes, if somebody thinks that what they are doing is right or works with there morals, then that is okay. If you can justify what you do, then it is right. Do what you believe is for the best. However, everyone can agree that there are exceptions to this. For example: murder, rape, or stealing. These are some examples and there are others. Situations like this have no room for discussion on if it is right or wrong. It is never okay to kill somebody……. ever. Nobody deserves death and it is not our job to choose if a person should die.

My views of right and wrong have changed over time, for lots of reasons. You have seen more and have become more mature and have a better idea of what is right and when something is right. Generally, at a younger age you have a worse idea of what is right and wrong. As a kid you may think it is okay to make fun of someone and they justify (even though as a kid you don’t know what that means) it with the fact that it is fun and entertaining. As the kid gets older they realize (hopefully) that it is never okay to make fun of somebody or laugh at them. The idea of right and wrong changes, and becomes more accurate.

However deciding what is right and wrong is not depended on the person alone. Who people hang out with and where people grow up also has a big impact and how right and wrong is deciphered. If I have bad parents or hang out with friends that get into trouble, my views of right and wrong may change for the worse.

I guess in the end nobody really knows what is right or wrong. We would all like to think that we are always right, but hopefully you know you aren’t always right. I would like to think that as a society that we have a good idea of what is right and I think that people tend to overlook this. If you ask somebody how good or right are we as a society, I think people jump the conclusion that society is heading south. That we (society) make wrong decisions and have a lot of work to do to make the world right. This is because that when somebody looks at the world, they see that the world is exactly how they think it should be. In reality, when you take a step back and look at the world and society today, we are right and moral. People are always trying to make the world better and make the right decision. Think about it.

Imagine from PhotoShopDaily

Something I had never thought of came to my attention. How much changing how photos look actually affect everyone in our daily lives. I had never thought of this until I read the first few paragraphs of this article. It talks about how changing celebrity photos and making stars look better than they actually look, and it makes us feel bad about ourselves by making them look flawless or tanner.
People always compare themselves to celebrities or other people and always want to look better. That want to be “that guy (or girl).” It came to my attention now, that when we see these celebrities they are being all fixed up by computers, which I had never thought of before. The celebrity has a zit here, a mole there, and another weird bump above their lip, but all we see is a perfect flawless face that just makes us feel bad about ourselves. Editing photos has gone to far. Why do celebrities need to look perfect? Because in reality, nobody has “that perfect body.” I think it is stupid that magazines are allowed to edit and cut out things on pictures, it just hides the truth from the people about how somebody looks. This doesn’t only apply to celebrities, it applies to every picture we see in a magazine, or online, or on the news. Photos should not be edited, it is hiding the truth from the people. Changing a photo can completely change the story and totally change how someone sees something and completely embarrass a company. Their is never a need to use Photoshop. It is an embarrassing moment if you get caught doing it, and it hides the truth from the people. Whether it is adding an arm to a picture, taking someone out of the picture, making somebody look flawless, or changing something to look worse than the situation actually is, it is wrong. I think that there is no place for editing photos. People have the right to know the truth and I do think that photojournalists need to go over their code of ethics. Editing a photo to just remove something in the background is not a big deal, but it isn’t really needed. In fact, having whatever was in the background there might add more to the picture and it tells people what was actually going on. I think the really bad edits are when photojournalists will make a photo make it look like something threatening going on when their is not or make it look more peaceful than it actually is. We deserve to know the truth and see the actual image of the truth, no photos should be edited and put into the media.

Things are getting way to personal in the media. Libel cases are on the rise. Why do people insist on knowing everything about everyone? People have to post, tweet, text, talk, e-mail, and spread everything they hear about someone without even knowing if it is true or not. I feel like when it comes to our lives, it is our own business. I think that nobody should be able to publish something about someone else, unless it is information that the people need to know. If the information is something that has to do with the law, then that information should not be put out until it is settled in the court if the person is guilty. Nobody should be posting something about me to spread to the world, if I want someone to know something about me then I will post it myself. I do not need someone else to do it for me. I also think it is ridiculous that someone can get sued for placing their opinion about something. The Courtney Love case, to me, is a joke. She simply posted a short 140 character remark about a company that she went to and now she is paying $430,000. Why? Celebrities, believe it or not, are people to and they should be allowed to post their opinions just like anybody else can. I just think it is stupid that celebrities are treated like different people, they have opinions they would like to post to.

Imagine from mediabistro.com

Media imagine from wordpress.com

I will never understand this, why is the media allowed to ruin a persons’ life before they it is even known if the person is guilty? We see it often, when someone is accused of murder, or a sex scandal, or stealing money from a business and the media will lean towards the person being guilty before it is known for sure. The person accused is fired from their job and looked down upon by everyone now: friends, family, neighbors, or anyone else the accused may have known. To me, you are innocent until proven guilty, don’t ruin a persons’ life because they were “accused” of something, wait until we actually know if the system finds them guilty, then spread it around the media and the world. Until someone is found guilty, let them live there life. For example, the current Penn State child abuse scandal; Jerry Sandusky has been fired from his job, and he will not have a very good reputation with family, friends or neighbors now. Do we know if he is guilty yet? No. So why is the media allowed to throw his name around. The media “killed” his life. The media should not be able to do that, it should wait until there is a verdict on the case.