Unit 4-3 Societal Issues

After completing this unit, you will be able to:

• Question the potentially negative impact of multimedia on violence, game addiction, sexual exploitation, pornography, and obscenity.
• Know what the V-Chip is and how it works in conjunction with the TV Parental Guidelines.
• Understand the regulatory nightmare facing lawmakers on issues of privacy, encryption, censorship, and protectionism.
• Realize how fortune seekers have tried to profit from the legal system’s lack of experience by patenting basic multimedia technologies that were already widely used.
• Consider the copyright law and a teacher's right to fair use of multimedia.
• Understand the issues of entitlement, equity, cost, usability, and universal access, and then question whether the building of the Information Superhighway will create a technological underclass in our society.

Reading

Read chapter 16 of the Multimedia Literacy textbook to study the concepts covered by this unit.

Online Activities

Until now this book has touted the great advantages of multimedia. But will its true potential be reached? Who will control access? The following online activities enable you to explore these issues and bring the reading to life:

• Almost any good thing can be misused; how can multimedia harm society? After you read Chapter 16, follow the Multilit Web site links to violence and the V-Chip to learn more.
• The Recreational Software Advisory Council on the Internet (RSACi) has created an open, objective, content rating system called RSACi. It provides users with information about the level of sex, nudity, violence, vulgarity, or hate-motivated language in software games and Web sites. Parents and teachers can set the level at which to block offensive content. To learn how to set the level at which content will be blocked , follow the Multilit Web Site link to RSACi.
• In her fascinating book Life on the Screen, Sherry Turkle describes what it is like to participate in Multi User Domains or MUDs, which are virtual spaces in which you can navigate, strategize, and converse with other users. Turkle views MUDs as a new kind of parlor game and a new form of community that lets people generate experiences, relationships, identities, and living spaces that arise only through interaction with technology. Follow the Multilit Web site link to find Multi User Domains online.
• The Internet can be addicting, so much so that the term Internet Addiction Disorder (IAD) has entered the medical lexicon. For more information about Internet Addiction Disorder, follow the Multilit Web Site links to virtual addiction.
• Do you write messages in Internet newsgroups? If you do not set the x-no-archive flag on your messages, anyone on the Internet can find your messages via the DejaNews newsgroup search engine at www.deja.com. To learn how to remove a message from the Deja archives, follow the Multilit Web site link to Deja Nuke. For more tips on safeguarding your online privacy, follow the link to the Electronic Frontier Foundation and read the EFF's Top 12 Ways to Protect Your Online Privacy.
• Fair Use is a section of the U.S. Copyright Law that allows the use of copyrighted works in reporting news, conducting research, and teaching. Read the copy of the law printed in the Fair Use section of chapter 16. Then follow the Multilit Web site link to the Fair Use Guidelines for Educational Multimedia.
• People with high incomes are twenty times more likely than low income families to have access to the Internet, and more than nine times as likely to have a computer at home. We still have a long way to go before achieving equal access. To learn more about these issues and to find out how you can get involved, follow the Multilit Web site link to the digital divide.
• A consortium of research universities is conducting a project called Internet2. The goal is to create a higher speed version of the Internet that will revolve around a high-speed connection point called the Gigapop. Strategically placed throughout the network, Gigapops will guarantee high-speed bandwidth between universities implementing the Internet2 standards. To find out the current status, follow the Multilit Web site link to Internet2.

Assignments

One of the major assignments in this course is the term paper that you will write on a topic of your choosing related to a multimedia trend or issue in your chosen field. The other large assignment in this course is the multimedia application that you will develop and publish to the Web, again on a topic of your choosing. Because societal issues are so important to consider when implementing new techologies, it is possible that the readings in this unit will help you decide upon one of these topics. After you choose your topics, remember to respond to the assignments that ask you to tell your instructor what topics you have chosen:

• A major part of your grade in this course is determined by a term paper that you write on a topic of your choosing related to a multimedia trend or issue in the field of education or communications. Your paper must be about six pages long and contain at least six bibliographic references if you are taking this course for undergraduate credit, or about twelve pages long with at least twelve references for graduate credit. Before you write the paper, you need to have your topic approved. Please tell what your paper is going to be about. Say why you have chosen this topic, tell how you plan to research it, and indicate how the writing of this paper will help you achieve the goals you had for taking this course. Your instructor will respond by writing a comment on this assignment to let you know if your topic is approved.
• The largest part of your grade in this course is determined by the multimedia application that you will create. Your application must have at least seven screens if you are taking this course for undergraduate credit, or at least fourteen screens for graduate credit. Before you develop the application, you need to have your topic approved. Please tell what your application is going to be about. Say why you have chosen this topic, and tell how you plan to design it. Describe your intended audience, tell how they will use your application, and indicate how developing this app will help you achieve the goals you had for taking this course.

Another assignment related to the reading you do in this unit is the following job bank assignment:

• Go to America's Job Bank at www.ajb.org. When your textbook went to press, there were 1,521,306 available jobs. How many jobs are open now?