Downloading music& ethics

According to the British record industry’s trade association 7.7 million people downloaded music illegally in 2010. That was 1.2 billion tracks pirated, costing the industry 219 million pounds. Despite these numbers most music artists are still wealthy, so what’s the problem? Well the problem is it’s illegal. It doesn’t matter if the people loosing money are already wealthy, it’s still money they rightfully earned that illegal downloading is taking away from them. One individual may think that taking a few songs for free isn’t going to impact the artist financial, and in retrospect it really doesn’t, but imagine that three dollar song times 7.7 million. Imagine every single person in the world downloaded that one song, how much money would the artist loose then? Everybody focuses on how the artist or performers are impacted by illegal downloading but they forget about others impacted, like the songwriters or record industries. Most of these people aren’t as wealthy as the performer to begin with. When attempting to make an ethical decision Aristotle points out that it’s important for the individual to know what they’re doing, select their action with a moral reason, and finally make a decision with good character. Morals may vary from person to person but most people believe stealing is wrong. You wouldn’t just walk into a Best Buy, steal one of their computers, and justify it by saying they make enough money. If you believe stealing is wrong there is no difference between stealing in person and stealing digital files online, and is stealing from someone who earned that money, even though their already very wealthy, really constitute good character? What about John Rawls point that we should make decisions that aren’t based of someone else’s status and your own status? A struggling college student downloading a couple of songs from the artists doesn’t sound like a huge deal because the artist is rich and the college student isn’t? Ethical decisions shouldn’t be based around things like that, it shouldn’t matter who’s stealing from whom. When it comes to downloading music illegally many other factors influence people’s decision to download. Instead of the simple right vs. wrong, people will try to justify their actions based off of socioeconomic status of themselves and the artist, and how easy it is to get away with. Both are not very good reasons for downloading music illegally. Stealing is stealing.

Speech 212 Commercials

Between 10-11:30 am on Tuesday morning I watched the “Today Show” on NBC and recorded the commercials I watched during that time slot. One thing I noticed about most of the commercials was the products they were selling were directed to women. Stuff like Neutrogena face wash, Ikea, Special K weight loss cereal, and tide. There were many more advertisements but they fell into similar categories as the ones listed above. Five million people tuned in the Today Show this week, and the majority of the audience was female. In the advertising world the “golden” demographic is females between the ages of 18-45. For household items, clothing and makeup this demographic is the largest consumers of these items. It makes sense that commercials advertising these products would air during a show with mostly a female audience. Most of the commercials didn’t use humor to sell their product, the appeal was mostly glamour or useful. The Tampax Pearl commercials are designed to appeal to the usefulness of the product by showing a female going about her daily athletic life using Tampax Pearl. Revlon used glamour to sell their makeup. The woman in the commercial looked beautiful at a party and attracted a good looking man, adding a hint of romance to the production. In most of the commercials women were the main characters, or the only characters presented. In the few commercials were men made an appearance it was very brief. Advertisers were trying to relate to women by making women represent their products. It works most of the time but, in commercials like Special K we see a thin women trying to lose weight on the special diet, but it’s not very identifiable since most people trying to lose weight wouldn’t look a healthy weight. I guess the advertisers were trying to make the point that Special K does work because she’s thin and pretty but still it makes me question the scenario, even though I know commercials aren’t realistic. In the Ikea furniture commercial the advertisers were trying to make the couple act like the average couple but I think they tried too hard. The dialogue’s between is kind of corny, and I’m sure furniture shopping between real couple’s doesn’t play out like this. At least this commercial was kind of funny. Even though I had some skepticism about the people in the commercial I still remember the commercials. Overall they were fine, and entertaining, even though they were somewhat unrealistic, but I guess that’s the point of most commercials, their trying to present the best/most glamorous scenario so we’ll buy the product.

Bicycling.

Bicycling is a magazine that offers the latest information on the best riding suites, bike models, safety tips for riding, and other exercises for keeping in shape. The purpose of the magazine is to introduce new bicyclists to important information and keep other readers updated on the bicycling world.

The total audience for Bicycling magazine is 2.1 million. 70% are men, 29% are women, and the average age is 42. The average household income is about $60,000. 51% of readers are married, 42% graduated college, and 77% are employed. Bicycling primarily appeals to middle aged men who are passionate about bicycling, and staying in shape.

Most of the ads are for riding suites, oil, tires and bikes, but there are other things related to fitness in general like vitamins, sneakers, and treadmills. There are a few ads for cars as well, one of them being a Prius which is known as a high end car. Another thing advertised in Bicycling is the Tanta scale that measures not only your weight but also your body fat, muscle mass, bone mass and metabolic age. This product is aimed at people trying to get or keep in shape, and with a few extra dollars to spend, priced at $130. There is another advertisement for a cookbook, “The Feed Zone,” that features healthy recipes. There is also an article about natural vs. vitamins, ending with natural food considered best for athletes.

 Most of the items above are stereotypically thought to be men’s items, but the magazine works at creating a female presence. They include photography of female riders, and a female rider on the front cover, advertisement for more feminine looking bicycling items, and feature article “The Perfect Ride” by Evelyn Spence, which is about bicycles made specifically for woman’s bodies. The larger audience is men so the magazine primarily appeals to them, but women are becoming a larger demographic for the magazine, so their trying to appeal more to them.

At first glance Bicycling appears to be a narrow magazine that would only offer information solely on bicycles. Obviously it mostly focuses on bikes, but there is other useful information included that other people besides a bicyclist can use for their fitness regiment.

SP 212 CNN and Al Jazeera

The topic was China’s Vice President, Xi Jinping’s visit to the United States. Both videos start with talking about why Jinping’s visiting, and the economic relationship between the two countries. One major difference is CNN is covering Obama’s opinions on the matter, while Al Jazeera is using a separate reporter to cover the event. Of course the president is allowed to make any critiques he wants, but he’s less likely to do so while he’s about to welcome an international leader. Obama speaks about us needing China to improve our commerce in the Pacific/Asian region. The reporter from Al Jazeera, Alan Fisher, speaks a little more about Jinping himself. We get the feel of a behind the scenes coverage at Al Jazeera. Fisher mentions the doubts the Chinese have about Jinping’s affiliation. Some described him as a moderate, a U.S diplomat described him as a “redder than red communist.” I do not believe either news organization has demonstrated an unfair bias on this issue. Like I said earlier Al Jazeera has a little more liberty, then Obama did at the moment to point out all the flaws. Fisher even says towards the end of the Al Jazeera video that neither can afford a major falling out, especially the U.S, during Obama’s re-election year. The U.S purpose for coverage was different from Al Jazeera’s, they were mostly just announcing that the visit will take place.

We all know CNN normally follows a Social Responsibility model, but we couldn’t see that in this clip. Not that were turning into an authoritarian model or a communist model, but CNN did get a limited perspective of Xi Jinping’s visit. The idea is if Obama said something unfavorable, CNN would have been allowed to post it anyway. Al Jazeera is based in a part of the world where it’s almost impossible not to be bias when reporting, and I think they’ve done a good job at following the Social Responsibility model. They have their facts correct about Xi Jinping, and the China and U.S economic relation, they don’t appear to be favoring any particular side, although the coverage on Xi Jinping would probably be considered unfavorable to him.