Media Impact

"87% of Filipino Internet users have been victims of cybercrimes."

I did a little research outside America, and its from my home country, the Philippines. The government started this Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 which aims to address legal issues concerning online interactions and the internet in the Philippines. Among the cybercrime offenses included in the bill are cybersquatting, cyber sex, child pornography, identity theft, illegal access to date and libel.

I researched some problems and issues that occured and has a relation with this law. One of those reports is about a teenage girl which identity was hidden, was blackmailed by his boyfriend using facebook. The story was they broke up, and it was because of the girl. The girl stated that during their relationship, she sends nude pictures of her to her boyfriend. They even recorded videos of them having sexual intercourse together. When they broke up, her boyfriend posted this pictures and videos on his facebook account which gave problems to her. It spread through facebook, and even her friends saw it. The guy was blackmailing her to comeback to him, if she wont, he will post more stuff of them together on facebook. But the girl reported what the guy did to the police and they arrested that guy for doing this malicious thing. Even though it was deleted from the internet, people who saw those pictures and videos of her would still think of something, maybe bad, about her. (I have the link for the news report but it's in tagalog, you watch it here.)

Another real life problem is when a 15 year old boy who allegedly blackmailed and extorted 15,000 pesos from another teenager throught the social networking site Facebook. He signed up as a girl, named Yuri Kimberly and talked to a schoolmate. "Yuri Kimberly" asked the guy to send him nude pictures of himself. And after he sent those pictures, Yuri (the guy) started blackmailing him and was asking for 15,000 pesos. But then the NBI (National Bureau of Investigation) Philipiines started to track down this poser, and was arrested. The offender faced charges of violation of Republic Act 7610 or the Anti-Child Abuse Act and extortion but he was entrusted to his parents because of his minor age. (You can read the news article here.)

Those are just some of the media problems that I researched. But I bet there's alot more out there, not only in the Philippines and with alot of  types. But this problems occured using the social networking site Facebook. So, people should really be careful nowadays. People should really be careful on what they post not only in the internet, they should include sending files to other people cause they might use it someday against you.

Media Autobiography

As a boy that was raised in the 20th century, I was raised by my parents using a certain type of media. I was surrounded with high quality technology when I was growing up. And still, media is still evolving until now. For my first blog I'll discuss on how a type of media influenced me on who I am now and what things do I do on everyday basis.

Internet is the media that I always use. I use it for social networking, facebook, twitter, tumblr, instagram, etc. I also use it for school works. I even use it to watch movies, download songs and talk with my friends and families. I watch television not much as I surf the web, I watch TV if I just want to relax. Movies are very important for a film student like me. I always watch a movie every week. I like it because its really entertaining. I get to see how films are improved and evolved for this generation. When I was in high school, I used to be in our school's newspaper team. I always have the sports section, comics, and sports photography. I really liked it when I was still writing for our school's newspaper. I only listen to radio inside the car, when Im driving. I don't listen to it at home because this generation has more technology to give you more satisfying music without using the radio. I read books like how I read magazines, I only read them if they're interesting. I only use them if they provide an information where the internet can't give. In the Philippines, where I grew up as a teenager, music (recordings) shapes someone's personality. I notice that music changes how a person lives. You can really tell what music does a person listens to by how he acts. It is really a mass media that affects every people in my country.
For film students like me, I want to learn more on how can I understand mass media. How can I use it as a tool to create a product that will click with the audience just like how a movie would be popular not just inside the country but also outside the continent.