It happens to us on a daily basis – we flip the channel, pick up the paper, or click onto a website about a fatal car accident.

But what constitutes this as news? Most often it’s not.

Why not?

Well, I am astonished that media conglomerates choose to exploit death while failing to contribute to an overarching political debate. There are examples where accident stories are important to promote a cause or inform the public about a specific danger – as is the case as with drunk driving or a defect in certain car models.

As I write this, there is adrenaline pumping in my shoulders at the thought of the many fatal accidents that are occuring. And I believe it is this type of fear the media has been instilling in us for years; playing with our emotions and distracting us from finding the positives in our world.

What makes an accident news?

As a journalist, I have been in the unfortunate position of covering fatal accidents.

In one particular case, I had the responsibility of honouring a college student, Natalie Sylvestre, who passed in a car accident.

I chose to focus on the memorial the college started in her honour – providing a bursary to students in the nursing program from which she graduated.

Also, in interviewing friends and colleagues, I attempted to paint a picture of her character in life and not the tragedy that was her death. I did not go into interviews to dig up the dirt on how she died but rather focussed on what people would miss about her existence.

By starting the story with the unification of her peers to remember Natalie, I felt this was a better approach than bluntly exploiting her death. I did mention how she died in the second paragraph but stuck to the facts: date, parties involved, and her role as a passenger.

But wait, Riaz, what about your story where the women dies in the car accident after surviving the Air France crash?

The story was an interesting twist of fate where Johanna Ganthaler passed away after averting death. I opted to speak about luck versus fate, and was well aware of the laughs being shared around the blogosphere about this case. It continues to surprise me how ‘funny’ some people can find death when it is not someone close to them.

You may find this view uptight, but I prefer jokes where people at least have an opportunity to defend themselves.

So what is my problem with accident stories?

I think it is necessary to inform the community of a local’s passing, but the manner in which this is done is often impersonal and provocative. There are instances in which I have read accident articles without any names at all.

So my question is: what is the point of sharing with readers that there was a fatal car accident if no one is going to be mentioned or honoured?

I am not sure of the hidden agenda behind this type of journalism but I know there is definitely an aspect of fear-mongering involved.

I really don’t understand how publications plan to sell content in the information age when the stories are redundant.

The media explains how everything can kill us nowadays – but wait, everything already could before.

* * *

This story is dedicated to every nameless and faceless accident victim who was exploited to sell media.

- Riaz Sidi

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A viral Prophet Mohammad cartoon contest has enraged Pakistani officials who have temporarily blocked social media giants Facebook and YouTube throughout the Asian country.

Molly Norris was blamed for starting the controversy after she drew a parodized version of the religious figure to complement a recent South Park episode which was condemned and censored for its depiction of the muslim Prophet.

Norris was also accused  of creating the Facebook fan page ‘Let’s All Draw Mohammad Day May 20’. The page quickly gained 98,700 fans before being pulled. She vehemently denies being the group creator and links to a fan page which is against the original page from her own website.

The fan page has been countered by viral protests including a fan page called ‘We Love Prophet Muhammed’ which has 120, 595 fans as of this writing.

One of the wall posts suggests that now that the group has gathered masses through Facebook, that members collectively deactivate their accounts – how ironic.

Although Norris denies being involved with creating the fan page, she is taking responsibility for cancelling the event.

“I apologize to people of Muslim faith and ask that this ‘day’ be called off,” she said.

The Breakdown

The internet is anarchic. There are no rules – it is vile and ruthless. Are Facebook and YouTube to blame for the actions of its collective?

Where are the lines drawn between offensive content and freedom of speech?

Here’s the fundamental truth of the internet: an anarchist envionment cannot be controlled regardless of religious or political belief.

In this case, Islam understandably wants to maintain its sanctity. At the same time, this is compromised by democracy’s staple of realising the imagination and creating reality from ideas.

Although the two are not entirely opposing since both Islam and democracy do share many mutual commonalities, it is difficult to decipher how the global community will move forward when instances of this nature come about in the future.

In the western world, democracy and religion were a pinnacle of disagreement which is why the separation of state and church has worked so well since the Enlightenment.

My Opinon

If you are asking me specifically for an opinion on this particular incident – I will have to admit that I don’t have an opinion: no comment.

The function for this website is primarily to use these types of instances to reflect upon the media at large and to convey a course of action or to conclude that no resolution can exist.

For this case, I do not see a viable solution where governments can control their populations to such a magnitude.

We have seen China’s repeated attempts to censor what the government believes to be dissenting voices to their agenda. I think will be exceedingly difficult to maintain censorship with the emergence of revolutionary new forms to communicate messages.

To turn off the giant cyber-machine is to stand up and leave the dialogue without addressing the lesson – and as an advocate of communication and social media, this is one measure which I oppose.

How do you think the world can unite online while maintaing mutual respect for the many global cultures?

What is our best course of action?

- Riaz Sidi

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Social media resources to communicate through cross-embedding and linking have evolved the Internet and society forever. We have experienced the applications and social networks of Web 2.0 such as YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter.

Now the next step is Web 3.0, but what will change?

Semantic Web

The semantic web will differ by growing  from the existing world wide web technology framework. Presently, the Internet is a data wasteland and web activists are pushing for a structured database to aggregate this information. The goal of this is create context for the relationships between web pages.

Ontologies

An ontology is a defintion for a word or web page. For example, your Facebook page is a landing page about you and the information you place about yourself on your page creates context for visitors about who you are. But what if artificial intelligence could compile information throughout the internet about specific items, people or topics to create context without a human. This would personalize the internet experience dramatically making each session a unique information experience.

Structure

Semantic web engineers are torn on how structured the semantic web should be – whether every internet page should be collated or if  room should remain for free flowing information.

Confused?

This a lot of information to consume and digest. So below is a documentary worth watching explaining the vision of semantic web and Web 3.0 technology.

- Riaz Sidi

Web 3.0 from Kate Ray on Vimeo.

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The media claims Generation Y suffers from apathy and lacks socio-political participation.

Yet, it is my fellow millenials who are paving the way and defining the viral economy.  Those in charge of traditional media are missing the boat.

I do understand that there are many more distractions facing my peers but should this undermine our ability to thrive? And who is to blame if the Western world goes 3rd world in a decade?

Let’s see – the baby boomers were children of one of the hardest working generations; those who helped to recover the planet after two world wars.

Many boomers consumed their parents’ fruit without regard to pollution, death, racism, war, agism, carbon footprint, future generations – anything.

Yes, they enjoyed frivilously – shitting on some of the poorest nations in the world via the World Trade Organization and left the divide between rich and poor at a disgusting level. This can be seen in the following documentary on how Jamaica’s economy was exploited and erradicated by the US and the WTO during the ’70s.

This method was replicated throughout the world. Yes, this may have been the case for centuries but the level of natural resource exploitation this time around was disgusting.

So I digress, I don’t blame all boomers, in fact their motivation was positive. The rapid and dramatic change in economy has altered the traditional career path and thus the drive requires a change too.

‘Go get an education they said, work hard and you will get that great job – they claimed.’

Well, food prices are at astromonimcal levels. Oil, gas and house prices are atrocious. There are no jobs.

The boomers are getting laid off and their jobs are being given to people in my Gen Y for half the wage and twice the work – and more often than not, two roles are consolidated into one position.

The claims that the recession is over are absurd and simply mask the aforementioned obvious obstacles preventing an economic return – and according to Harry Dent Jr. who predicted the recession, we are headed for a depression by 2013.

You may disagree with me since I did not use any sources or primary examples to highlight this belief but telling me that Wall Street is recovering will get you an eyeroll. On the micro-level, my generation is feeling the brunt of this damage.

The politics of the last ten years were ridiculously corrupt and were executed in a manner which led to mass murder, torture and terrorism – with little to no regard on how our economy will survive and who will be flushed down the toilet with it.

…And so, everyone is wondering why we are so apathetic to participating in the social sphere.

Wake up people! You fucked up the world and now are gonna have to fix it – and yes it may be too late.

Well I still believe in Gen Y! And I am here on their behalf to deconstruct the media tyranny being perpetrated
by boomers….STILL!

You may think I am bitter and resentful – but I think my venting is miniscule relative to those who have been
harmed even more by the recession than me, those who went to fight unjustified wars, and those who have been left uneducated.

There is no one to blame so let’s just pick up the pieces together. All this garbage about my generation being lazy is such crap – we don’t care about the same illusion the media-crits have been waving in your faces for the last half century.

We care about things we can control and those we can’t are quickly losing clout. The participatory nature of the internet will clear that up in a few years.

This all said, the internet is fueling an ability for any niche passion (as ridiculous as it may be ie: Britney Spears, Pizza, what-have-you) to be profitable. Information is rebuilding the economy and this time around sincere media is winning – not the filthy lies which have been spewed and filtered for our ‘innocent’ eyes for the last however many years.

Gary Vaynerchuk is one of the pioneers behind this revolution and I thoroughly believe he has mastered the new economy.

* * *

Now I must note that this criticism is with all due respect. I have respect for the wisdom of all baby boomers and elders – I just needed to get that ‘off my chest’.

Now let me ask:

Do you fellow Gen Y’s think we will make it? Do you disagree with me? And how about you Boomers?

- Riaz Sidi

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As economies continue to spiral out of control, a reaction is arriving which may benefit the integrity of journalism in Canada.

Canadian media empire Canwest is reaching its demise and bids are coming in from media giants like Quebecor and Transcontinental to take over. However, CRTC laws preventing media companies from acquiring certain publications or channels from competitors may bring an ‘independent voice’ to Canadian media and a return to regionally operated news.

Now, I am not necessarily saying that Canwest and their divisions have done a poor job. However, with any concentrated and monopolized media source, bias tends to surface. The newswire is narrow and what is considered un-newsworthy to Canwest’s interests may now receive a slot in the paper.

Talks of fracturing the company are already happening as a bid for 3 newspapers were made.

“Our partnership represents a cross spectrum of engaged Canadians committed to a vigorous, independent media voice for the communities that each newspaper serves. We are encouraged by the positive response we have received from investors,” the three consortium partners said. “We are firm in our view that there remains a bright future for newspapers supported by creative web platforms.”

- Toronto Star

Canwest is weighing the offer but maintaining a preference to an acquisition for the entire company.

So what?

A diverse spectrum of thought would only help to balance Canadian media.

These three investors may very well be leading us to believe that an ‘independent media voice for the communities’ is what will result from this transaction, and although they may be blindsiding us, a change of this magnitude will only help to transition media into 2010 by loosening the grip of monopolies in Canada.

How this would affect media and advertising consumption in Canada is still to be seen. Regionalism may surface with a return to sparse interests. Alternatively, a unified and diverse balance of Canadian interests may work to shape our identity in a different manner.

Regardless, I believe this is the shakeup the Canadian media needs.

When?

Ironically, the Financial Post, a sister-site of the National Post,  is reporting a deadline for bidders to acquire them both.

“The first phase of the sale will last seven weeks or until Feb. 26, during which bidders are asked to file indications of interest.”

No source is attributed.

No related posts.

The documentary Collapse explores Michael Ruppert’s vision that the world is on the path to turmoil.

Ruppert claims the world has reached the peak oil output possible and that we are on a rapid decline of resources to sustain humanity.

What’s worse, he claims, is that governments and corporations have known about this for decades but have continued to keep the public in the dark.

Oil is the lifeblood of the industrial revolution. Everything we use from plastics to electricity requires oil energy. Since we have reached the peak of oil production, the building blocks to sustain life, by using the remaining oil to create actual renewable sources of energy, is imperative.

When we reach the end of the oil supply, we will not have the resources to create the infrastructure required to operate renewable sources of energy.

Ruppert blames our use of paper money, which is not being marked against a tangible resource, and has led to our mentality of ‘an infinite source of supply’. Yet, oil is a finite resource and as the resource diminishes, so too must the population.

How will the world cope when we do not have the resources to power electricity? to create food? to run society?

According to Ruppert, we must take responsibility locally. Rupperr suggests that what we are about to witness will be catastrophic if we do not realize our duty to protect our planet now.

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The ’00s have been a turbulent decade with an innovative revolution that has forever altered the global landscape. The internet has paved the way for new manners of engaging with each other and the world at large, but the ability for society to keep up socially has made for difficult times.

Was ignorance bliss?

The ‘oos have highlighted the lack of transparency which existed in the 20th century. Previously, governments and corporations were able to manipulate citizens without having to explain their motives or the return on their investments.

With the internet, access to information and social networking have dramatically changed these interactions. From 9/11 to the election of Barack H. Obama to the financial meltdown, the internet has provided different views from its vast database. In the last century, society would tend to believe the mainstream explanation of different events; yet now there exists endless scrutiny.

This certainly helps to deliver a spectrum of sources but leaves individuals uncertain of the validity of any information. It is just as simple to find the positive as it is to now seek the world’s horrors. And, it is increasingly difficult to discern fact from fiction. How has this affected society?

Niche or cocoon?

The word niche is frequently thrown around to denote how concentrated communities have networked via the internet during the ’00s.

Yet, the damaging effects of submersing oneself into these communities is finally drawing attention and we are witnessing the risk that technology can have on sustaining a balanced life.

A CBC article from the beginning of the decade suggests “the internet could be the ultimate isolating technology that further reduces our participation in communities even more than did automobiles and television before it.”

During the 00s, suicides reported from internet addiction and video game obsession emerged as a disastrous effect of the internet vice.

Yet, a study released Nov. 2009 suggests the internet may not be to blame.

“The extent of social isolation has hardly changed since 1985, contrary to concerns that the prevalence of severe isolation has tripled since then.”

The article also argues that frequent web users are more likely to interact with their neighbours or to join a local voluntary association.

Technology Overload

The PBS documentary Technology Overload explores the effect of internet addiction and how to maintain a balanced lifestyle in the face of temptation.

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Is the male species at risk of extinction? According to the CBC documentary The Disappearing Male, this evolution has been underway for the last 60 years.

Common chemicals found in everyday products like shampoo, plastics, meat, dairy products, carpet, etc. “are called “hormone mimicking” or “endocrine disrupting” chemicals and they may be starting to damage the most basic building blocks of human development.”

According to the documentary, the last 30 years has seen a drop in male births by 3 million. The average sperm count of young men has dropped by 50% in only 50 years.

Health risks are not selective and males have been increasingly affected by unprecedented levels of dyslexia, Tourett’s syndrome, ADHD, genital defects and testicular cancer.

Rather than investigate the most serious chemicals like Bisphenol A, governments have lowered the “normal” sperm count rate to mirror that of their populations.

In animal tests, 0.025 µg/kg/day of Bisphenol A found permanent changes to the genital tract. 2.5 µg/kg/day predisposed breast cells to cancer. The US human exposure limit is 50 µg/kg/day.

- Riaz Sidi

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For most of this decade Muslims have been under the spotlight.

The beliefs, customs and rituals of Islam have been put on display since 9/11. From hijabs in soccer matches to depictions of the Prophet Muhammad in mainstream news outlets, the effort to compromise and live day-to-day in many multicultural countries has been difficult; or has it?

According to a survey conducted by Gallup and the Coexist Foundation, “European Muslims have much more loyalty to the countries they live in than is generally believed.”

BBC reported the findings of the survey conducted in the UK, Germany and France. 500 Muslims and 1000 non-Muslims in each country were asked a series of questions relating to how they identified with their respective nations.

In both the UK and Germany, Muslims more often related to their nation than the general public. In France, there was a difference of 3% between Muslims than the rest of the population (52%-55%), although overall more Muslims in Europe felt strong ties to their nation.

Why may this be the case?

BBC: “This research shows that many of the assumptions about Muslims and integration are wide of the mark,” said Dalia Mogahed of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies and co-author of the report.

“European Muslims want to be part of the wider community and contribute even more to society,” she said.

The survey also found that North American Mulsims identified with their country on an even higher level.

Unity

It seems the inherent good in humans is beginning to shine through. Although there were tests along the last decade, unity among the population continues to trump the image painted by mainstream media outlets.

The internet has also played a part in desenstizing the differences in people since anonymity and access have allowed every segment of the population to be heard uninterrupted.

New channels of debate are being opened in the new global political and economic environment. Global citizenship is being tested by the bounds created between humans and the shared experience of life despite religion, race, nationality or any unique anomaly. In this upcoming decade, the encouragement  of diversity will usher in an era of shared humanity.

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The 1997 film Face/Off saw rival characters played by Nicholas Cage and John Travolta exchange faces through a futuristic surgical procedure. In 2005, France completed the first face transplant, and now, only four years later, the technology is evolving.

Yesterday, the Associated Press released footage from the Cleveland Clinic showing the truly amazing evolution of plastic surgery. Recipient of the first US performed face transplant, Connie Culp, was ecstatic at a news conference revealing her new visage.

“I would like to thank the family for this Christmas present,” said Culp, whose identity remained anonymous until five months after her December surgery.

The reconstructive surgery was required after Culp’s husband, Thomas, shot her in the face and then turned the gun on himself. Thomas is serving seven years in prison for attempted murder.

Doctors used a donor face and rebuilt Culp’s nose and jaw which had been shattered during the horrific incident. Until now, Culp’s identity had remained anonymous due to the nature of the crime behind the disfigurement and the risk behind such a calculated procedure.

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