Tamás Regőczi: The advantages of Uber and Airbnb

Regőczi Tamás

The advantages of Uber and Airbnb

In today’s technology and internet suffused world, community based services such as Uber and Airbnb are extremely popular. These services are the same in a sense that the user requests the service offered by the company using a website or an app, but the request is fulfilled by other users who decided to be self-appointed drivers or hosts. This implies that the quality of the service will not reach the level which we would expect in the case of professional taxi drivers and hostels, however, many people still choose to use them because they are fast, easy, and most importantly they leave more money in their pocket. Not surprisingly, there are also many people who oppose the existence of these companies and do everything in order to shut them down.

Uber is an app available for smartphones which can be used to call a car to your location, and it drives to your desired destination in exchange for money. This sounds almost exactly the same as every other taxi company, but as always the devil is in the detail. The driver who comes to transport, is not qualified as a taxi driver – most likely working for Uber as a second job – and also the car is the driver’s own personal car. Obviously, regular taxi companies are constantly protesting against Uber all over the world, since customers have numerous reasons to choose Uber instead of them. Using Uber, the customer’s phone calculates the most optimal route, and based on this, the price is given before the actual ride. Additionally, the customer can rate his driver, so future customers can choose from the drivers with the help of their rate. Once a driver’s rate falls below a certain level he loses his right to use the app, so the quality of the service is assured. Naturally, Uber drivers have their driver’s licenses, which means that they are able and allowed to drive a car even with passengers so they are not different from a taxi driver. Moreover, they are definitely strong competition to regular taxi companies, which is the main reason why regular taxi drivers protest and organize strikes against Uber.

Airbnb offers a solution for another problem of travelers, namely that of accommodation. If a traveler does not want to pay the costs of the luxurious circumstances offered by hotels, and his only need is a bed to sleep on or just a mattress, then the best choice is Airbnb. Airbnb is a website which connects travelers who need a room or bed for only a few days with real estate owners who are willing to rent their home or a part of it. It allows people with little needs and low budget to spend to visit other countries and cities. This also means that more people can afford to travel and also to spend money on tourist attractions, which means a huge extra income for the economy. Moreover; Airbnb gives a new experience of traveling, since the owner shares his home with the traveler. In the case of hotel the traveler gets a clean room to stay in, while with Airbnb it is like spending a night at a friend’s house: the surroundings are much more personal, the renter may even happen to become friends with the owner.

In conclusion, these services mean alternative choices instead of regular hotels and taxi companies by offering features which the latter cannot do. They also bring competition to these companies in monopolistic state, and customers are the ones who benefit from competition. 

TV Programs Hyjacks Children's Mindsets

 

TV Programs Hijack Children’s Mindsets

 

          According to a Kaiser Family Foundation study, the 8-to18-year-olds spend around 4 or 5 hours on average watching TV in a day. Furthermore, the development of technology enables them to view more programs in another means such as via computers. I wonder if you have noticed lurked danger in this fact. I will talk about the negative TV influence on teens. This is an important area because TV has given teens a lot of chances indiscriminately to see what is ethically inappropriate for their age. The purpose of the essay is to make more and more people arise awareness of how TV control their mindsets, which can cause serious cases in the future.


          First of all, TV violence can lead to the violent acts in a real world. The TV violence doesn’t refer to violence committed with actual television sets but to the violent images shown on TV. The number of programs including violent contents that are broadcasted on TV has recently increased one after another. The survey of APP, which stands for The American Academy of Pediatrics, says “…by the time that your child reaches his teen years he probably will have seen roughly 8,000 murders in the course of watching TV programs.” It means a lot of violence would have been exposed to children’s eyes even though they may hardly regard it as a bad deed. That’s why some of them that have mixed fantasy up with reality are likely to commit crimes in a way influenced by TV programs after growing up.


          Second, TV programs glorify promiscuity and children misunderstand the significance of sexual intercourse. TV programs such as dramas and movies which show people sexual scenes overflow so much at the present. Even though most of them are made exaggeratedly to attract television viewers, children tend to believe easily this is real because they aren’t mature enough to make a judgment on the truth. It will be linked with the misunderstanding about sex acts, which can result to juvenile delinquency to make the matter worse. It is the topic that everyone should think over and children in particular have to gather as much right knowledge about sex as possible.


          Finally, TV programs plant unwanted thoughts in children’s mind. People cannot always see directly everything has happened in the world and TV would be one of the easiest and most efficient means for them to know about it. Of all the programs shown on TV, unfortunately, some focus on real events or situations, which can make children know negative things if they don’t need to know them for their age. For instance, when children watch a reality show about a certain couple getting divorce, a negative idea of marriage will probably be kept in their mind and it may have a bad influence on them somehow when they are on marriageable age. For their promising future, the programs that children views on TV may as well be chosen by their parents.


          In conclusion, these problematic programs above about violence, sex, and negative documentary would be bad for children’s education. That’s why their parents should keep track of which program they often watch as possible in order to stop them from watching such programs. In addition, parents need to spend more time discussing the contents used on TV with their children, which will help them judge by themselves what is right or wrong.

Vanda Szatzker

Edward Snowden – Hero or traitor?

Nowadays the internet is used by more than 2 billion people all around the world and every one of them would like to keep their personal data safe. This is the reason of the huge uproar which followed Edward Snowden’s act, namely the leaking of thousands of classified documents which he gained during his work as a National Security Agency (NSA) contractor for Dell. This is an important area because the documents he revealed raise privacy and security issues. The purpose of this essay is to examine the steps which led to the leaking of the documents and to give examples to the surveillance programs which were used by the U.S. government.

Snowden worked in several places before he acquired the classified documents. In the beginning of his career, in 2006, he joined the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) at the age of 23. He was considered to be a “computer wizard” which meant that he could take part in the work of the top computer team at the CIA’s headquarters in Langley. After he had a disagreement, he resigned in 2009. In the same year he started to work for Dell as a contractor. During this four year period he had the chance to meet with the chief technology officer and the chief information officer of the CIA. That was the time when Snowden started to download those documents which he later gave to journalists. According to him, the “breaking point” happened when he saw the Director of National Intelligence lying to the Congress under oath. Then he decided to resign again, and started to work for Booz Allen now with the intention of collecting documents about the National Security Agency’s data-collecting programs and later leaking them.

It was in 2012 when Snowden first anonymously approached a journalist, Glenn Greenwald and told him that he had “sensitive documents”. A year later, in 2013 he gave a part of the documents to Greenwald and Laura Poitras, an American documentary film director and producer. Later in May, Snowden gave an interview electronically to Poitras and Jacob Appelbaum, who is an independent computer security researcher and hacker. This interview was published in a German magazine called Der Spiegel. After the German newspaper, The Guardian was the first to publish an article based on the leaked documents. The story started to spread immediately and similar articles were published all around the world. Snowden’s identity remained in secret until June, 2013. Later on, numerous U.S. surveillance programs were revealed, such as PRISM, which provides access to Americans’ Google and Yahoo accounts; Boundless Informant, which is a big data analysis program; and XKeyscore, with the help of which almost any activity on the Internet can be checked. Furthermore, it also came to light that the NSA was collecting email addresses and contact lists, as well as tracking the location of mobile devices. Although these facts caused an uproar, probably the most shocking information was that the U.S. had spied on its allies in Europe and in Asia and on 35 world leaders, such as Angela Merkel, as well.

Shortly before publishing the documents, Snowden left the U.S. and went to Hong Kong, and stayed there for a month. On June 23 he left Hong Kong and flew to Russia. His plan was to continue his journey to Cuba, but he was unable to do that because the U.S. revoked his passport. Although four countries offered him political asylum, namely Ecuador, Nicaragua, Bolivia and Venezuela, there were no direct flights between these countries and Moscow, so Snowden had to seek for asylum in Russia which he was given. Russian president Vladimir Putin said that Snowden’s presence in Moscow was “like an unwanted Christmas gift”.

Snowden has a questionable reputation in his mother country; he is considered to be a hero or a patriot by some people and a traitor by others, but according to a lawyer, he is safe as long as he stays in Russia.

Although it is not easy to decide whether what Edward Snowden did was right or wrong, because privacy and security are complex issues, it is important to keep in mind the content of the documents which were leaked by him. Everyone should think about the question whether a government has the right to track its own citizens’ online existence and their phone calls in order to protect them by filtering out possible dangers.

Bibliography

Edward Snowden. (n.d.). Retrieved April 10, 2015 from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Snowden#Career

NBC News (2013, June 10). What we know about NSA leaker Edward Snowden. Retrieved from http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/06/10/18882615-what-we-know-about-nsa-leaker-edward-snowden?lite

Rusbridger, A., MacAskill, E., Healey, A., Sprenger, R. & Khalili, M. (2014, July 17) Edward Snowden: ‘If I end up in chains in Guantanamo I can live with that’ [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2014/jul/17/edward-snowden-video-interview

Increasing government influence on media companies

Dóra Juhász

Increasing government influence on media companies

               Last year the Hungarian government adopted an extraordinary tax on advertising revenue with a progressive tax rate rising up to 40%. It primarily impacts commercial television stations and companies engaged in business advertising as well as website developing companies. According to journalists, the new tax threatens press freedom and shrinks its resources. So we may rightfully wonder what the government’s aim with the advertising tax is and who the real beneficiaries are.

               The tax base is the net revenue of the companies subject to advertisement tax and the rate increases progressively in brackets:

• 0% on the part of the tax base not exceeding HUF 0.5 billion
• 1% on the part of the tax base exceeding HUF 0.5 billion but not exceeding HUF 5 billion
• 10% on the part of the tax base exceeding HUF 5 billion but not exceeding HUF 10 billion
• 20% on the part of the tax base exceeding HUF 10 billion but not exceeding HUF 15 billion
• 30% on the part of the tax base exceeding HUF 15 billion but not exceeding HUF 20 billion
• 40% on the part of the tax base exceeding HUF 20 billion

According to the Act on Advertisement Tax, the tax base includes the net revenues arising from advertising activities and the costs of publishing the company’s own advertisements. The calculation of the tax base is based on the aggregate amount of the net revenues and the previously mentioned costs. Taxpayers are also obliged to report the payable tax periodically.

               Probably Hungary’s most popular television channel, RTL Klub, a subsidiary of the German RTL Group, was hit hardest by the tax. They are expected to pay about half of what the government will collect yearly in the advertising tax. By contrast, the competing television station TV2 which is said to be a government ally will possibly benefit from an amendment to the bill, allowing firms with losses to reduce their tax base by up to half the loss. Along with television channels, the tax affects publishers of advertisements published on the internet as well. The editor-in-chief for Origo, one of the most popular online news portals in Hungary, was removed after publishing a series of articles questioning the decisions of the government and several other key journalists have resigned. Media service providers, including pro-government organisations, protested against the advertisement tax by holding a 15 minute blackout or publishing a blank page.

               Government representatives claim that the tax’s aim is to punish entertainment-heavy media and ensure proportional public burden sharing. They said the incoming revenues will be spent on education and upgrading schools. Others, however, see the controversial tax as the government’s way of deepening political centralisation of the media.

               As a result of the huge resistance, the governing party is renegotiating the law and considering introducing a flat rate instead. All things considered, leaving the ad tax in its current form makes the government’s real intentions rather questionable.

Bibliography:

Feher, M. (2014). Hungary adopts tax on advertising revenue. The Wall Street Journal.

Retrieved from:

http://www.wsj.com/articles/hungary-adopts-tax-on-advertising-revenue-1402511876

Than, K. (2015). Hungary proposes advertising tax cut after Bertelsmann complaint. Reuters.

Retrieved from:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/02/03/hungary-media-rtl-group-idUSL6N0VD53I20150203

Greenslade, R. (2014). Hungarian media tax threatens press freedom. The Guardian.

Retrieved from:

http://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2014/jun/04/hungary-advertising

Zalan, E. (2014). Hungarian media in mass protest against new tax rules. EU Observer.

Retrieved from:

https://euobserver.com/eu-elections/124515

Climate change

Climate change: is it real?

Climate change refers to a change in weather conditions which are in a certain period of time considered usual. It can be caused by biological, chemical and geological processes, such as changes in solar radiation, plate tectonics, and volcanic eruptions. Certain human activities that have been described as the main cause of the so called "global warming"; contribute to the very recent climate change which is happening very quickly and has significant effects on the ecosystem. Some scientists oppose the idea of climate change, while others strongly support it. To understand what is behind of this phenomenon, it is important to be aware of what causes it.

The Earth is surrounded by a cover of gases as an atmosphere. This atmosphere allows most of the light to pass through, which then reaches the surface of the Earth; however, the atmosphere traps heat radiating from Earth toward space. This is because the gases from the excessive presence of vehicle transport and automobiles, fugitive emissions from fuels, the burning of solid fuels, and the propellants from many deodorants; accumulate causing severe damage to the Earth. These gases are mostly present in the atmosphere naturally like CO2, nitrogen oxides, and methane, but by the accumulation of pollutants, they prevent the escaping of heat from the earth’s surface, which results in “global warming”.

This phenomenon results in higher annual average temperatures and causes weather anomalies around the world. Higher temperatures cause higher sea levels, the melting of the icecaps, the shrinking of glaciers, and the shifting of plant and animal ranges. Ice on rivers and lakes is breaking up earlier, too. Moreover, it causes extreme weather conditions: in Australia extremely high temperatures are resulting in bushfires; in the Asian pacific tsunamis and unprecedented monsoons are beginning to appear and in Europe, especially in Hungary, the appearing of mild winters and the disappearing of spring is becoming normal, resulting in trees flowering sooner and more intense heat waves arriving in the summer.

However, the media is flooded by the denying of these obvious facts: it is said that global warming is not manmade but natural. Warmer periods of the Earth’s history came around 800 years before rises in CO2 levels. The people who oppose climate change claim that there is no scientific proof of the climate change. Rising and dropping in temperatures is natural. Moreover, the world has warmed a mere .36 degrees Fahrenheit over the last 35 years since scientists started measuring the data in 1979.

To prove that these statements are merely forgery there are many scientific proofs that the Earth is being constantly damaged by the population. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change stated that: “Scientific evidence for warming of the climate system is unequivocal.” This can be proved as the current warming trend is of particular significance because most of it is very likely human-induced and proceeding at a rate that is unprecedented in the past 1,300 years. Earth-orbiting satellites and other technological advances have enabled scientists to see the big picture, collecting many different types of information about our planet and its climate on a global scale. The heat-trapping nature of carbon dioxide and other gases was demonstrated already in the mid-19th century. Ice cores drawn from Greenland, Antarctica, and glaciers show that the Earth’s climate responds to changes in greenhouse gas levels. They also show that in the past, large changes in climate have happened very quickly, geologically-speaking: in tens of years, not in millions or even thousands.

In conclusion, the evidences are clear-cut and show that the aforementioned human activities, which cause the recent climate change, do result in global warming and have effects on the ecosystem. My opinion is that the constant damaging and over-exploiting of our environment will slowly make our planet deteriorate, if there is no change in people’s attitudes.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1.      Oreskes, Naomi. "The Scientific Consensus on Climate Change," Science 3 (2004): 5702.

2.       “Summary for Policymakers.” Climate Change 2007: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. Contribution of Working Group II to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007. 17.

3.      National Research Council. “Advancing the Science of Climate Change.” America's Climate Choices: Panel on Advancing the Science of Climate Change. Washington, D.C.: The National Academies Press, 2010

4.      The New York Academy of Sciences. “Building the Knowledge Base for Climate Resiliency: New York City Panel on Climate Change 2015 Report.” Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. 1336 (2015): 1–150.

5.      Meredith, Charlotte. “100 reasons why climate change is natural.” Express (2012)

Effects of reality shows on the public

Over the past few decades, the spread of a whole new television genre occurred all around the world, which is known as the reality show. These kind of shows depict situations that are not staged and there are usually people in them who were unknown by the public beforehand. Also, this genre generally puts more emphasis on personal drama and conflict compared to documentary shows. As the statistics show, the popularity of reality shows is undeniable:  in 2000, 70% of the population of the United Kingdom (aged 4-65) said that they watch them occasionally, or on a regular basis. Some of the most popular reality shows are American Idol in the US, Britain’s Got a Talent in the UK or X-factor in Hungary. This essay will examine the question at how reality shows affect the large group of people that follow them.

The first effect to be discussed is that those who watch these kind of shows want to escape from reality. For instance, someone who works all day in the office monotonously, then returns home and switches on the television faces all the drama that comes from a reality show. As a result, his or her life may seem more and more dull to themselves, and could watch shows all day just to forget about their endless paperwork. Moreover, these people tend to have unrealistic expectations at real life. They might think that the way the Kardashians or Győzike live is the normal way, and seeing such wealth can also make those who are in a difficult financial situation feel miserable. However, the other way around, the life of those starring in reality shows may become unrealistic, as well. If they do their drama not just on screen, it can easily become a police case. For instance, Ryan Jenkins, a former reality TV contestant, murdered his wife and then committed suicide. The unrealistic standards of reality shows are not the only problems, as they can have a much deeper impact on the youth. Shows such as Jersey Shore promote non-stop partying, and teenagers watching that are more likely to use drugs or alcohol, as it appears to be the normal way of life for them. Furthermore, reality shows also can contain sex scenes. Because of that, the morality of adolescents, and their expectations in sexual life and relationships may be distorted irreversibly. Moreover, girls who watch makeover shows are more likely to feel unhappy with their body. This is the reason why they want to change their appearance at any cost, which may result in anorexia, bulimia or expensive plastic surgery.

Beside all the dangers and negative effects, reality shows do have positive effects on society, as well. For example, in Britain’s Got a Talent, a disabled girl was amongst the contestants, and she was very determined to show that she can live and sing like other people. This many have a positive effect on people, making them more sensitive and helpful towards the disabled. Moreover, reality shows may have a positive message about the way of life. For instance, the show Teen Mom on MTV has a hidden message for teenage girls about responsibility and carefulness in sexual life.

In conclusion, although reality shows have a negative effect on society, such as encouraging people to escape to the show from their dull lives and especially endangering the younger generations, they also have some advantages as they teach people with the help of a bad example and draw attention to important social issues.

Bibliography:

Reality television. (n.d.). Retrieved March 11, 2015 from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Web site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reality_television

List of Top 10 Best UK Reality TV Shows. (n.d.). Retrieved March 11, 2015 from KBlogUK Web site: http://www.kblog.co.uk/list-of-top-10-best-uk-reality-tv-shows/

Megölte feleségét a valóságshow-szereplő. (2009, August 24.). Retrieved March 11, 2015 from Blikk

Website:http://www.blikk.hu/blikk_sztarvilag/20090824/megolte_feleseget_a_valosagshow-szereplo/

Reality TV Statistics. (n.d.). Retrieved March 11, 2015 from JOB MONKEY

Web site: http://www.jobmonkey.com/realitytv/reality-tv-statistics.html

Nine years long primary school in Hungary

Nine years long primary school in Hungary

 

The Hungarian education system has numerous reforms under the current government Fidesz; however, there is an essential plan in connection with some news from recent articles. As INDEX.hu said, on 5^th of February 2015 Antal Rogan, the floor leader of Fidesz made a serious statement: they will discuss the possibility of the nine years long primary school in Hungary. If this is a real intention, the Hungarian education stands before a major new reform. In my essay I will analyse the various opportunities and effects of the plan.

The education system can increase the time of learning by different ways, for example, with increase of the number of daily lessons or shortening of the mid-year and the summer breaks. We know for sure that these two possibilities will not be too popular in the circle of students and parents.

According to education researchers, the direction is absolutely positive because in Western Europe this is the top school structure including the most successful ones. So, most of the surveys show that the instructions of nine years long primary schools mean the most efficient knowledge. Actually, this idea was already suggested by Zoltan Pokorni four years ago, as EDULINE.hu wrote. Now he still claims that it would be easier and more advantageous to teach the basic skills over nine years.

As a supporter of the plan, Gabor Halasz – professor at ELTE – draws people’s attention to the situation of Poland: they installed the 6+3 years long basic training and after that three years long comprehensive school in 2000. Since then we could perceive spectacular results in the surveys. HVG.hu claims that the Polish structure is not the only one which means a possibility for developing the Hungarian school: there is another example from Slovakia, where the system is divided into 4+5 years. According to Peter Rado, education expert, the government’s plan is based on that structure. That could be a mistake because the Slovakian education is declining.  Moreover, it is obvious that a lot of money and time are needed to achieve the desired effect.

The nine years long primary school is definitely a good idea but the installation should not be precipitous. It is not an ideal solution to take away one year from the high school because the level would not develop; rather it would be harmful. INDEX.hu and HVG.hu gave a detailed analysis of the Polish model. According to the Polish structure, the most essential point is the expansion of competencies; the emphasis should be placed on reading, writing and counting in the first three years. After that in the second three years, the other subjects come and the necessary language teaching. Finally, an extensive and organic syllabus prepares the students in the last three years of traditional primary school. It also could help them to find the answer to the question of what to do next. It is always problematic to decide whether high schools or vocational schools fit someone’s abilities.

The plan would be a radical change but it could mean a high improvement of achievement. However, some problems have to be taken into consideration. First of all, the recently rewritten curriculum should be completely rewritten again. Secondly, the qualification of teachers should be rethought, more overall knowledge would be necessary to teach especially in the last three years from the nine.

To sum up, the idea is a good beginning to cultivate the Hungarian education system. However, the government has to consider the suggestion carefully; a number of related issues need to be examined, such as the availability of infrastructure and educators – claimed Czunyiné Bertalan Judit, Secretary of Public Education. The effects of such a major decision are not for three or five years, but for generations to define the structure of the school system.

 

References

hvg.hu, (9 March 2011) Kilenc évfolyamos iskola: sokba kerülne Pokorni terve, hvg.hu,

Retrieved from http://hvg.hu/karrier/20110309_kilencosztalyos_iskola_pokorni_zoltan
 

Balla István, (5 February 2015) 9 osztályos általános: saját „sikersztoriját” radírozza le a kormány, hvg.hu, Retrieved from http://hvg.hu/itthon/20150205_ujra_felforgatott_iskolarendszer

 

index.hu, (5 February 2015) Óriási reformot jelentene a kilencosztályos iskola, index, Retrieved from http://index.hu/belfold/2015/02/05/mindent_atrendezne_a_kilencosztalyos_altalanos_iskola

 

MTI/hvg.hu, (17 March 2015) Czunyiné: Már megindult a kilencosztályos iskolamodell tanulmányozása, hvg.hu, Retrieved from http://hvg.hu/itthon/20150317_Czunyine_mar_megindult_a_kilencosztalyos

 

Representation of war in the media

Representation of war in the media

by Horváth Gyula

Almost every time we watch the daily news or read a newspaper, we find reports about some sort of war or conflict that is currently happening. But how faithfully do these news reports represent the war that is their topic? That is the topic of this paper, and it will examine two examples after first giving a brief history of war photography.

While war was most likely always mentioned in the media, the custom of bringing reporters and photographers to the battlefield is fairly new. Griffin (2010) says that according to Brothers (1997) it is “…the Spanish Civil War […] in which photographs of conflict, destruction and death first became a routine part of modern journalism coverage” (p. 4), with the work of Robert Capa and David Seymour. When the media discovered how popular this new genre of photography was, it became one of the most prestigious genres, with war photographers being “daring and heroic figures” (Griffin, 2010, p. 4). By World War Two, the presence of photographers was taken for granted.

In the United States, Vietnam is often cited as the war where the media had total freedom over what they published as a story, a war that had no censorship. Cyrus (2004) brings the Vietnam war as a counterexample when she discusses how the reporting of the Iraqi war was censored. Griffin (2010), however, disagrees with this and provides several examples when the photos of photographers were either not published at all, or only several months after the event they depicted, and even then reluctantly. An example he brings up is the My Lai massacre in the March of 1968, of which a few pictures were tentatively published on 20 November, 1969. Even after that they “received limited exposure” (Griffin, 2010, p. 7). As he says, “...it was not until US troop withdrawals were already under way after 1970 that most Americans learned about such scandals as the My Lai massacre, with large segments of the population remaining untroubled by the news” (Griffin, 2010, p. 8). Thus, it seems that the belief that the Vietnam War was an uncensored one and thus damaged the support of the public is largely false.

That does not mean that the military and the government did not believe it. In the following wars, they took measures to limit the freedom of the reporters and photographers. Griffin (2010) points out that the US took inspiration from the British, who during the Falkland War only allowed a specially picked group of reporters into the war zone, and monitored what photos they sent back, often delaying them. In essence, the government decided what the war would look like.

Cyrus (2004) brings up examples of how sterile the Iraqi war looked on photos, at least from the aspect of casualties, as there were rarely any pictures of destruction, and if there were, then dead bodies were noticeably absent. Typical representations of this are an image of a soldier taking aim from a window at the city below, or of a soldier carrying a girl away from a burning car. Another image shown (one that, according to Griffin (2010), was rare) is a collapsed house surrounded by Iraqis. However, there are no dead shown, as if no one was in the house when it was bombed. Griffin (2010) agrees with Cyrus (2004) that the images released were almost completely void of the aspect of death, and mostly just showed weapons as they were launched, or even straight out of a weapon catalogue.

As we have seen, while the Vietnam War seems uncensored in hindsight, the news which was allowed in front of the public was in fact carefully measured and selected to avoid angering it. When this method seemingly failed, the pictures and recordings became even more generic and noncommittal, often reduced to images that could have come straight out of a weapons' magazine. In conclusion, we can safely assume that the media image of war is very much influenced by the government, which tries to make the war as distant and disconnected from death as possible to lessen the chance of the loss of public support.

References

Griffin, M. (2010) . Media images of war. Media, War & Conflict, 3(1), 7-41.

Cyrus, K. D. (2004) Media Representation of the Iraqui Conflict. Retrieved from http://web.stanford.edu/class/e297a/Media%20Representation%20of%20the%20Iraqui%20Conflict.doc.

Britain's immigration crisis

Márky Mónika

                                                Britain’s immigration crisis 

         Immigration crisis in Britain is a really important issue nowadays, which everyone could hear and read about in the media. The number of immigrants has been increasing for several years now, and the prime minister of Britain, David Cameron, is up to do some regulations against this not negligible condition. 

        According to James J. Atkinson, who is an entrepreneur and investor in Web-based media, there has been a rising inflow of immigrants in Britain since 1948, when Jamaican immigrants traveled to Britain. For sure there were immigrants before, but since this voyage the number of the immigrants started to grow. After that period several restrictions and regulations had been made through the decades, to control the evolved situation even nowadays, but not radical ones. 

        Immigrants from almost every country can be found in Britain. Most of them are seeking for better life conditions, job opportunities or they just would like to start a new life. According to several news and articles, London is facing a huge problem, because of the rising population of the city. Without doubt, there is a pressure on schools, hospitals and mainly on housing. According to Sir Andrew Green, who is a formal british diplomat, migrants are causing a housing crisis, with which they are unwittingly forcing Londoners to leave the city. He said, he did not think that London needs immigrants on the present scale.

        David Cameron, the current prime minister of Britain, held a speech last year in connection with migration, and listed all his plans and regulations, which he would like to launch with the help of the European Union. He calls these new rules and regulations the “Emergency brake”. In his speech he listed all the reforms, which he called radical ,but fair and necessary. 

        Firstly, he proposed that migrants should not get in-work benefits, such as tax credits and access to social housing, unless they have worked and lived in Britain for four years. They also need to have a stable job offer to move to Britain. 

       Secondly, Britain would not give child benefits for migrants if their children live outside Britain. Cameron stated, Britain’s welfare system is much different as in other countries. The  British welfare system is more favourable for migrants, because this is the only system in Europe which pays before anyone has put anything into it, which could also be a weighty reason why a huge number of migrants choose Britain as their new home. 

        Moreover, the government would remove migrants from the United Kingdom, if they have not found any job within six months. Cameron would also reduce the rights of migrants to bring their family members to the UK, who live in a country, which is not part of the European Union. 

        Later that year, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and David Cameron had a meeting during which, they among other things discussed the regulations, which David Cameron would like to launch. Berlin was shocked after the speech of Cameron. Chancellor Angela Merkel does not agree with Cameron’s aims. Merkel claims, that freedom of movement in the European Union is an essential pillar also in the Common Market. She fears these British plans mean risks for the European project. 

        In my opinion the whole immigration crisis topic is a really important issue nowadays, not only in Britain, but also in other large and influential European countries. David Cameron’s regulations might seem radical, but in a way fair, and in my opinion necessary. The government need to make the right decision, which is not only suitable for Britain or for the British, but also acceptable and suitable for the immigrants. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

British immigration policy, race relations, and national identity crisis (2013, May 14) . Retrieved from

http://jimmyatkinson.com/papers/british-immigration-policy-race-relations-and-national-identity-crisis/ 

David Cameron urges EU support for migration plans (2014, November 28). Retrieved from 

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-30224493 

Cameron, migration and the Germans (2014, November 28). Retrieved from

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-30248309

Cameron, Merkel set for talks on EU, immigration (2015, January 6). Retrieved from

http://www.businessinsider.com/afp-cameron-merkel-set-for-talks-on-eu-immigration-2015-1