The Internet And The Media Essay, Research Paper

The Internet and the Media

By: Kristen Kszos

E-mail: [email protected]

The media today can be scandalous and misleading. However, the media provides much needed information. It can be helpful, useful, and even entertaining. When you go online it s almost as if a world of information is opened to you. The media plays a large part in this. Every time a website is accessed an ad will pop up for some product or service. There is as much advertising on the net as there is on TV. There is advertising for the net everywhere. There are commercials for it on the TV and on the radio. The net has become a major influence in life today. A part of it has floated into almost every part of life. Life is being made easier by the net. There are so many services available to people now that they virtually don t have to leave their homes. In fact many people work out of their homes now. You can do just about anything from your own house. You can shop online for almost anything. It is even possible to do your banking online. A new service was started for college students. It s an online book service called efolett.com. This service allows students to get books without going to the book store. Their whole campaign is based on not having to wait in line anymore. It is just another example of the many services available to people via the net. Most schools have internet access now. Their students are able to go online during school hours. This is great because online services can be of great help to them. There are chat rooms where students can talk to teachers about homework, and get help. Online libraries can help students with reports. The net can link you to libraries across the country as well as internationally. Online dictionaries and encyclopedias are also a lot of help. It has been said that there is a website for everything. Seeing as there are so many sites, it is obvious that not all of them are appropriate for children. There is too much pornography online. Parents can t monitor their children all of the time. So they fear what their children may encounter online when they are not around to watch. That will not always be a problem. This is because there are new programs that can limit what may be accessed online. These programs work similar to the V chip for television. Parents can make a list of sites that may and may not be accessed. This makes it safer for children to go online. It would be helpful if websites had ratings like movies do. Then you could set your computer to only allow sites with certain ratings to be accessed. It happens too often that the name of a website is typed in , and when you try to access it a pornography site comes up instead. If sites were rated you would not have this problem. The internet has become a huge part of the media today. children used to be addicted to TV, now it s online games and email. Teenagers used to get yelled at for talking on the phone too long. Now the line is still busy, but it s because they are in chat rooms or on icq. Email has become so popular that it s almost unheard of to actually write letters. The media is changing with the times. As the popularity of the internet grows so does the media online. With the average computer it is possible to listen to music online, and even watch film clips on your monitor. However, with the better computers you can watch TV and entire movies. There are live broadcasts over the internet. The possibilities of the internet seem almost endless. New possibilities surface everyday. with each new possibility the media is right there waiting to use it to it s advantage.