The "War of the Worlds" Crisis

Imagine you were watching your favorite television program, and you were in a very intense scene when suddenly the commercials came on. You were so mad that they left you hanging that you decided to channel surf for a few minutes (and everyone knows that you have to turn it to the news, or you might get hooked on something else), so you switched to your favorite news station. As you half listened to the reporter you noticed she was talking about a major bombing in the United States a few minutes ago. What would your reaction be? I bet you would at least forget about your show.

The people who were listening to the radio the night “War of the Worlds” was broadcasted had this same scare. Suppose that the reporter in the scenario above had started the program stating that the story was fictional, maybe even came from a new controversial book or something along those lines, but you didn’t hear that part. Is a bombing so unlikely?

After September 11, 2001, a lot of people came to realize that America could be affected by other countries. Since we hadn’t been attacked since Pearl Harbor during World War II, a lot of citizens thought we were invincible, but the truth is that there are ways to get past security (even though they have greatly diminished since that tragic day in September). The people who believed the Hallows Eve broadcast had been through the Great Depression and were still wary of wars breaking out throughout the world, so was it a far stretch to believe we were under attack? I don’t think so.

By missing the first part of the program, many people thought the broadcast was factual. My question is why didn’t the program tell the listeners periodically that the news report was actually a story? How hard would it have been to say “for those of you who just joined us, all of the following content is fictional and not based off a real event”? Just a few words every once in a while would have solved many problems. I personally think that it was irresponsible and poorly thought out to have a warning at the very beginning of the show, but leave the people who tuned in late in the dark.

The study said that people who were less inclined to critical thinking or more religious were likely to be more affected by the broadcast, but I have to ask myself why? Why wouldn’t a logical thinker believe that America could be under attack? Is this why our country wasn’t prepared for September 11, because our leaders thought we were invincible? That doesn’t sound right to me. The logical thinkers, in my opinion, should be more cautious when it comes to our nation’s safety, not assuming that nothing could go wrong. This being said, I personally thought our government handled the Twin Towers incident to the best of their abilities and don’t blame them. My point is that the broadcast was believable.

If people were overly cautious it was for a good reason, and I think we need to keep preparing for devastating incidents, even if they are far fetched.

American Media: Worldwide or Nationwide

For this weeks post I was asked to interview an international student attending Lindenwood University, and I thought there was no better place to go than the place I do my Work and Learn: the Cafeteria. At my college we can enter a program called Work and Learn where we work 150 hours a semester earning eight dollars an hour, and most of the international students work in the cafeteria. Tonight I found this assignment a great way to not only learn about different cultures, but also to make new friends. I met two girls in the cafeteria from two different countries. I decided to ask the first about her nation’s television and newspaper distribution.

Erica is from Japan and she is at Lindenwood studying Business Management and wants to go back to her hometown to work. When I asked her about American Media she wouldn’t stop talking about it. She said that all of it was translated on her local stations so she could watch her favorite shows. This is when she surprised me by asking me if I watched anime, Japanese cartoons (for lack of a better definition), which I have to admit I am addicted to (InuYasha is my favorite!!!). She explained that the same concept applied to American shows; the words are dubbed over. She also said that American music was very popular. When I asked her about Japan’s newspaper system she said it was all done through individual providences. Japan is made up of 47 providences, and each one is responsible for their own newspaper branch.

All in all Japanese media seemed to be handled about like American media in most respects. Then I talked to a girl from Brazil who was also studying Business, but unlike Erica, Jackie wants to get her visa and work in the United States. She said that in Brazil their regular ‘cable’ television has some American shows; however, they aren’t translated. This being the case, there are two options for Brazilians if they want to watch these shows. They can either learn English or pay for a different type of television that either dubs over the words or has the translation at the bottom. She also explained that most of her favorite series’ are in their fourth season here but are only in the second season in Brazil, so she missed two entire seasons when she came to college. The Brazilian newspaper system, according to Jackie, isn’t very popular where she lives. She said that you can usually find a newspaper in her local bookstore, but other than that newspapers weren’t around except in big cities. This is a lot different than the American press, for you not only find one but three or four major newspapers in most medium sized cities, let alone major ones.

When you look at media it is going to be different in every culture, but the basic idea is the same, well at least in Japan, Brazil, and America. The main thing is that different cultures pull from each other to create change and to improve. No country hasn’t been affected in some way, and in my opinion that’s the way is should be.

With My Generation It's Like This...

The older generation has one thing right about mine: they don’t understand us. They say that we are lazy and disrespectful in the workplace, expecting too much, but I have to strongly disagree. There are many things that Generation Y has been raised around that no other generation can understand, yet the older generations are becoming bitter instead of listening and trying to understand. This reaction is to be expected because that’s the way it has always been.

I went home this weekend and discussed my generation with my family, and what they told me came as a surprise: their parents had said the same things about them. My dad once told me that his parents (who are Pentecostal preachers) hated his rock music, just like my mom hates my rap music. Look at the movie Footloose, they weren’t allowed to dance because it was considered evil. In biblical times children were stoned for any disobedience. Every generation is different from the next, and to be honest I believe that it is the fact that older people don’t understand younger ideas that is causing the uproar.

60 Minutes stated that The Millenials are lazy. Every generation has lazy individuals, and my generation is no exception. This being said, I don’t believe that we are all lazy. I believe that we are just so used to a fast paced response to our requests and problems that we are seen as lazy. When I think about it, I had a form of LeapFrog when I was 5 and a cell phnoe in middle school. My mom and I shared our first phone plan together. I have the laptop that I am typing this on for college and my own credit card. My parents didn’t even have seatbelts growing up. My mom told me that she debated whether seatbelts or airbags should be in cars. Oh how the times have changed.

It was also mentioned in the 60 Minutes recording that we were told that we were special at an early age, and a lot of us were. I guess I don’t understand when being encouraged became a bad thing. Just because you didn’t win a ball game, doesn’t mean you aren’t a winner. When I was in first grade I threw some of my papers away because they “weren’t good enough grades”. It turns out that my teacher was my next door neighbor and gave the papers to my mom. My mom had to have a long talk with me about how an A- was a good grade and to be proud of it. To an extent I think elementary and high school teachers did me a disservice by telling me that a C was okay. Even though I never listened to them, other kids did. So how is giving the last place team a metal worse that telling a kid that achieving mediocrity is acceptable? How can our elders say that we are a generation that will accomplish nothing when they taught us not to achieve?

I believe that my generation is full of potential, and we will surprise many with what we accomplish. We are highly underestimated, yet we will show everyone what we are really made of. Look at our high school and college graduate level; it’s much higher than in the past. My elders need to give us a chance. Since this isn’t very likely, I think that a lot of people will be eating their words in the future, and that’s okay. I just hope not too many of my peers let their criticism get to them before then.