Phobia

Definition: A phobia is an irrational and excessive fear of an object or situation. A phobia includes a sense of endangerment or a fear of harm. For example, those suffering from agoraphobia are scared from being trapped in an inescapable place or situation.

Symptoms:The symptoms of phobia occur when exposed to the feared situation or object or even when thinking about the feared object or situation. Common symptoms include: dizziness, breathlessness, nausea, a sense of unreality, fear of dying.These symptoms sometimes may lead to an anxiety attack. As result of such symptoms, some people begin to isolate themselves from society leading to difficulties in daily life.

Types of Phobias:

- Social phobias fear of social situations

- Agoraphobia fear of situations in which escape is hard

- Specific phobias fear of a specific object such as snakes

Examples of specific phobias:

Arachnophobia: fear of spider.

Ophidiophobia: fear of snakes

Acrophobia: fear of heights

Cynophobia: fear of dogs

Astraphobia: fear of thunder and lightning

Trypanophobia: fear of injections

Social Phobia:"I couldn’t go on dates or to parties. For a while, I couldn’t even go to class. My sophomore year of college I had to come home for a semester""When I would walk in a room full of people, I’d turn red and it would feel like everybody’s eyes were on me. I was too embarrassed to stand of in a corner by myself, but I couldn’t think of anything to say to anybody. I felt clumsy; I couldn’t wait to get out."Social phobia is an intense feeling of becoming humiliated in social situations. It is considered to be hereditary and may be accompanied by depression or alcoholism. It begins around the ages of adolescence or even younger.People who suffer from social phobia think that other people are a lot better than them. Small mistakes you make seem to you much more exaggerated than it really is. Blushing itself may be embarrassing, and you feel as if all eyes are focused on you. They are afraid of being with people other the ones that are close to them. They also fear and feel anxious about giving a speech, talking to the boss, or even dating. Sometimes and rarely it may involve the fear of using public restrooms, eating out, talking on the phone, or writing in the presence of other people such as when signing a check. This disorder is often misinterpreted as shyness, but they are both different things. Shy people do not experience extreme anxiety in front people or social situations. People with social phobia aren’t necessarily shy. They can be at ease with people in some situations

and feel extreme anxiety in other social situations.The medications that have proven effective include antidepressants such as MAO inhibitors. People with a specific type of social phobia such as performance phobia have been helped by drugs called beta-blockers. That drug relaxes the person and prevents anxiety.

(Click on the pictures above)

If I had to describe myself...

It is really hard for any person to describe himself objectively. Every person tends to show the positive aspects of his personality and life, this is why he has a tendency to be subjective.
People who know me well would describe me as emotional, sensitive, and even a stubborn person. Once I decide to do something, it is done, in the way that I want it to be done. It is not easy for me to get back down. This is mostly due to the quick changes in my mood.
In difficult situations, I usually do not say a lot repressing the urge to cause more problems. This is why I dislike confrontational situations. However, when on the defense I have a sharp tongue.
I usually feel secure when I am at home surrounded by my family and close friends. I am also easily hurt, but outwardly appearing in total control.
I work hard to reach my goals and aims, but I avoid taking risks and seek usually the traditional path because I am anxious of what the future holds.
I also have a good memory. I remember most dates and historical events that interest me, but I have a problem being objective in my immediate personal situation.
Tenaciousness and endurance are my two qualities. When I am determined to do something, then I always try, eliminating the choice of stopping.
When I am upset and angry, I usually use food as consolation which usually ends up with gaining more weight.
That is the way everyone close to me describes me. Each trait has developed greatly over the years and has made me who I am today. I am proud of the person I have become. Many quotes remind me to be proud of the person I am and stand up for what I believe in. That’s what makes a person into who they are.

Tyra Lynne Banks

Tyra Lynne Banks was born in Los Angeles on December 4, 1973. She is an African-American supermodel, television presenter, actress, singer, and executive producer. She is well known as one of the top fashion models and also as one of Victoria’s Secret angels.

Tyra Banks was once quoted as saying “A smart model is a good model”, and she proved her quote in every way possible.

She began her career as a model when she was just 17 years old with Elite agency. She was quickly discovered in Los Angeles, made a contract with Cover Girl a cosmetics company and was known as the third African-American woman to have such a chance.

Tyra Banks was raised to be strong. She says "I've been lucky enough to come from a really strong family, where I was taught only to compete with myself. My mom always told me, 'Don't ever let anyone tell you, you can't do something'." This is why she is one of the rare models who can fight the stress in the modeling career.

Tyra traveled to Paris for a year to nourish her modeling career. She modeled for some of the big names such as Channel and Ralph Lauren. Later she returned to the states and began her acting career. Her first real acting career was "Higher Learning", where she played the role of Omar Epps' track running girlfriend. She showed a talent in acting.

Tyra was also the first black women on the cover of Sports Illustrated and also the first model on the cover of GQ.

She made People Magazine's "50 Most Beautiful" list twice. She even wrote a book about her life; Tyra’s Beauty Inside and Out.

An important part in Coyote Ugly brought back Tyra. She played as a wild bartender. This is ironic since she claims that she does not drink alcohol. She also says that she does not watch her health. In other words she eats what she wants to eat. Unlike many models she eats barbecued ribs, fried chicken, and fast food. She plays lots of sports such as basketball and tennis, and makes sure she always has fun while exercising. So, she does not exercise to keep in shape.

Tyra Banks is now 33 years old and she has retired from modeling so that she could concentrate more on her television career. She is now the host of her own program The Tyra Banks Show.
She is one of the richest supermodels in the world, with a personal wealth recently valued at 8.8 million dollars.

I consider her as one of the most powerful women in the world.

Are companies socially responsible?

Each and every company tries through advertising its products to be socially responsible. In other words they advertise in a way to improve society and to distribute information about their social programs and thus stimulate their target audience to respond in a positive way. When checking the web sites of big companies such as Mc. Donald’s, Avon, and Ben & Jerry’s I realized the efforts each company does in order to be socially responsible. For example, on Ben & Jerry’s web site we can clearly see their mission statement. Their mission consists of three interconnected parts which are product mission, economic mission, and social mission. So, they emphasize on the social part as well as the product and economic part. They believe that the company’s social mission is to improve the quality of life locally, nationally, and internationally. We can see on their web site the newest flavors and also news about the food supply. They try to inform their consumers that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is one step away from allowing meat and milk from cloned animals into the nation’s food supply. And they also show them that they believe this would be a step in the wrong direction. They also explain in details why they think this is a wrong step. So, this company is trying its best to be socially responsible in a way to improve the society.Also, when you enter Mc. Donald’s web site you see the efforts this company is trying to do to be socially responsible. First of all, we can see the facts about this company such as its commitment to the African-American community, Hispanic community, children, and to the community itself. Also, we can find a link to Ronald Mc Donald House charities. This link will take us to another web site that will show us many of the good deeds that this company has done. For example, in January 2007, Ronald McDonald House of Houston opened a House inside Children's Memorial Hermann Hospital. Therefore, this company used its web site to spread information about their several social programs and thus motivate their target audience to respond by eating in Mc. Donald’s more often. So, this company like Ben & Jerry’s is advertising in a way to help improve society.On the other hand, when we enter the Avon web site we cannot clearly see the efforts that this company is trying to do to be socially responsible. However, this does not mean that this company is not socially responsible but, it is not clear like in the two previous websites. While checking the site we can see a box on the lower end which has as a title “What are you doing to change the world?” Under this title we can see the several social programs that this company offers such as Avon Hello Tomorrow Fund, Avon Global Summit For A Better Tomorrow, and many more. When you press each social program you will directly be directed to another link that will explain more about each and every program in details. So, like the previous big companies, this company is also trying to put some effort to be socially responsible and help in improving society.

My Internship..

Internships are seen by us university students as opportunities to discover general career possibilities as well as the real world. Such arrangements can provide us with valuable work experience and an opportunity to line up a job prior to graduation. In addition to securing good work experience, we also may be able to gain academic credit and sometimes, though rarely, financial compensation.
Internships need to be supervised, and the choice of supervisors is what makes the internship experience rewarding or disappointing. For that reason respectful companies choose enthusiastic supervisors who have time to deal with the responsibilities associated with the intern in addition to his regular daily job.
As a requirement to achieve my degree in communication arts, I have to enroll in a 60 hour internship in anything that has to do with my major. In Spring 2009 I registered in the course COA 480 – internship for Radio TV and Film- and applied to several companies in order to be accepted. I got accepted by several companies one of which is News Time Production House. I began as an intern there on March 2009 and the whole ambiance in the company was fascinating as well as extremely friendly. This helped me not only complete my 60 hour internship, but enroll in more hours. I finished my internship by doing more than 80 hours in this lovely company and the only reason I stopped was because I had so many projects and assignments for university and this internship was taking so much of my time. If I have the choice again to choose where to do my internship, I would most definitely choose News Time Production House and of course choose my supervisor Mr. Mohammad Dakroub to supervise my whole activities during this time.
Describe your internship in details: type and nature, time and placeI began my internship at News Time Production on the beginning of March 2009. News Time Production House is located in Riad Al Soloh Square in Downtown Beirut , in Shaker& Oueini Bldg on the 6th floor. Since this production house deals with transmitting feeds through the satellite, part of my job as an intern in this company was to book space segments and coordinate between the office here in Beirut and clients in Paris, Dubai, and Moscow. In addition to booking segments, the other part of my internship was to edit stories for different clients such as Dubai Television, Russia Today, and France 24. Also I had the chance to be a part of newly founded entertainment program where I had the opportunity to be a part of the production team. In other words, I helped during the casting sessions and during the reading and correcting of the script for the first episode. I worked for about three months in news time production, from the beginning of March 2009 to mid May 2009.
Do you like your internship? Did you enjoy it? If yes, what did you enjoy most? If no, please explain in detail?I believe my internship was one of a kind. Although tiring, I actually had a lot of fun! To begin with, my supervisor Mr. Mohammad Dakroub helped me a lot to get in touch with the real working life and dilemmas. He pushed me to work in every part of the company from booking segments to contacting clients outside Lebanon to editing various stories to asking for interviews with ministers or society people. I enjoyed every aspect of my internship – regardless of having to wake up really early. But, the two fields I mostly enjoyed working in were production and editing. Production is really nice since you feel you are in charge of everything though you can be just an intern. Editing, on the other hand, is something I liked from before. But, working in this company helped me learn new editing techniques as well as new editing programs. I used to work on Adobe premiere pro. Now, I am able to work on Avid and Premiere both on the same professional levels.

Can love destroy a relationship?

Love is a topic almost everyone talks about in our daily life. Nobody knows the real meaning for love and nobody can know how it feels to be in love unless you experience it. Scheler states that; “love is a tendency or as it may be, the act that seeks to lead everything in the direction of perfection of value proper to it and succeeds when no obstacles are present.”

Hugo G. Beigel claims in his article “Romantic Love” that sometimes sexual cravings are mistaken for love. Men use the languages and gestures of love just to obtain their sexual desires and needs and the women interpret it as “love”. Love is a theory most philosophers talked and still talk about. Edward V. Vacek explains in his article “Scheler’s Phenomenology of Love” that we as human beings first love the whole being and then come to love all other qualities. Can love destroy a relationship? I believe that an excess in love can lead to destroy a relationship even though it was built on confidence, trust, and security. Beigel in his article “Romantic Love” quotes De Rougement who believes that romance is a “fever” and “a passing fancy” that is “the principal reason … for the growing number of divorces” A relationship cannot only be between couples. There is a relationship between friends, parents, family members, and much more. But all of these relationships are built on love and caring of one another. Also, a relationship is between two persons or more. You cannot build a relationship between you and yourself. So basically relationships are built on love, trust, and of course care. Dr. Joseph Yacoub believes that;
“A relationship is to get out of you and be the other. It is to stretch yourself to the other. You will become an extended self-beloved person.”
Also, American Heritage dictionary defines a relationship as “the condition or fact of being related” and as “a romantic and sexual involvement.” So, we can say that a relationship is a relation between two or more people built on love, security, care, and trust.
Many people believe that love cannot destroy a relationship; on the contrary, it can revive the relationship. Beigel emphasizes on the importance of love in a relationship and shows that in the beginning of the 19th century love became one of the main components in building a healthy and good relationship. In addition Edward V. Vacek states that “One who loves will necessarily suffer.” and “Acts of love are always accompanied by positive states of feeling, even if love is in some way frustrated or rebuffed.” Love combined with trust, care, and security makes the perfect relationship. Hugo G. Beigel states in his article “Romantic Love” that love cannot be held responsible for failures in relationships because most of the successful relationships are built on love of one another. But, sometimes love destroys a relationship. It is not a basic element in a relationship. For example my neighbor married a woman fifteen years ago. They got married not because they love each other, on the contrary, because they understand each other. So their relationship was not built on love, but it worked and they are still together now living happily with three children. Beigel again gives an example on how the knights such as Ulrich Von Lichtenstein sent his finger to his mistress and drank the water in which she washed and Pierre Vidal who went into a bears hide and hunted. This example emphasizes on the fact that attraction between couples is sometimes more important than love. Those knights used to do anything to attract the other partner and thus this all turns into love. Also many people believe that love can make couples or partners closer to each other and thus needier of each other. Marriage counselors believe love is needed in a relationship more than “feelings and circumstances warrant.” In addition English novelist Samuel Richardson said “love is needed for a successful marriage.” But sometimes love can separate the lovers, and in extreme cases can make them hate each other. For example, my friend was dating a guy that she loved normally. After two months, she was extremely in love with that guy to an extent that she could not separate from him. This excess in love caused a breakup between them and now they do not claim that they know one another. So this love did not get them closer, on the contrary, it alienated them.
On the other hand, many people believe that love destroys a healthy relationship. Beigel in his article “Romantic Love” puts light on the American Concept which suggests that individual happiness is a main component in a relationship. Also Beigel shows that love in our days is being considered as a requirement of the female to expand sexual favors to the male. Love is customized with the circumstances of our age and of course ego demands. An excess in the way you love your partner leads to an excess in jealousy. The loved one cannot stand this much jealousy and thus backs up. For example, when my friend - in the previous example – was extremely in love with her boyfriend, she unconsciously felt too jealous on him which led to them breaking up. Each person, no matter where he is from, like to spend some time alone. Sometimes excess of love prevents the person from his own privacy. So, the loved one always finds his partner with him and never has time alone. This will lead to destruction in the relationship. For example, when you find that your friend or partner or family member is always next to you, you will get bored from this person and you will also feel a lack of privacy. That is why you usually end up in destroying your relationship to save your privacy.
I believe that love destroys a relationship no matter how healthy it was. And by love I do not mean normal love, on the contrary, I mean an excess in love and an excess in showing this feeling of love. Dr. Yacoub said,
“Extreme love ruins a relationship. How can you be possessive with someone you love? When somebody loves, the lover is free.”
Beigel believes that a relationship should be built on joy, common interests and of course cooperation which means having fun between the couple. So to conclude, love is a component of a relationship, but not the only one. Attraction between the partners, the understanding of each other, and of course trusting one another can be sometimes more important than love itself.

Ancient chinese gender chart ... weird!

Legend says that the data used for this formula is from chart that has been buried in a tomb near Beijing for almost 700 years and the original is now in the Beijing Institute of Science. By crossing the month a child was conceived with the age of the mother at conception, the sex of the child can be determined. This chart is said to be 93% accurate. Try it and see.

Video games

Since video games have been introduced, media researchers have been concerned with the negative effects those games produce. Their studies showed that video games do promote aggressive behavior and sometimes releases aggressive behavior. The effect depends on the type of the game. I am going to study in this report the effects of the known video game Grand Theft Auto. Grand Theft Auto is a video game series created and developed by Rockstar North, published by Rockstar Games and debuted in 1998. It includes eight stand-alone games and two expansion packs. In addition, the series has emerged as being so popular and profitable that a long list of Hollywood stars have lent their voices to the games. The name of the game is derived from "grand theft auto", a term referring to theft. The game lets the player to take the role of a criminal in a big city. Many missions are set to finish such as bank robberies, assassinations and other violent crimes. Taxi driving, firefighting, pimping, street racing, or learning to fly an airplane are also involved in the game as adventures which can be done at any time during the game. This game includes a series of sexually explicit scenes. This is why the game should have an “Adults Only” rating and not a “Mature” rating as it is now. Grand Theft Auto is programmed so players can beat prostitutes to death with baseball bats after having sex with them or raping them. This game promotes violence in a direct way and it increases the aggressive behavior in children. For example, Japan was shocked this week by an incident where a 15-year-old boy has purposely murdered his parents, by beating them and then cutting them to death. He then covered his crime by blowing up their Tokyo apartment, using home-made explosives. Today, some media channels are reporting that the boy's schoolmates have described him as an average student who loved playing video games, and that he was a fan of Grand Theft Auto III. This video game is linked to the homicide in Japan. It had a negative impact on the child and led him to commit a crime like this one. We cannot completely put the blame on the video game, but the game did increase the level of aggressiveness in the boy and led him to commit the crime. The boy was arrested. According to police, the boy admitted to his crime when confronted, reportedly saying, "I wanted to kill my father since he made a fool out of me. I decided to kill my mother as well, since she was always saying that she wanted to die because of all the work she had to do. I felt sorry for her."To conclude, violence is an fundamental part of video games. Many of the newer games are becoming even more violent and more realistic. As the violence increases, so does the concern of parents. Many parents worry that games such as Grand Theft Auto may not only cause tension and restlessness in their children, but even violent and aggressive behavior.

How to report news for the web

Writing for the Web is one of the easiest skills a journalist can learn in this digital age. A reporter needs to think less in terms of filing a whole story and more in terms of filing in takes.

Timely and relevant: Time is one of the important factors for Web reporting. Relevancy is also necessary. If a reporter is covering an event where news is expected to happen, then he/she would publish online why and what’s expected to take place.

Write lively and tight: Simple and direct language are appreciated by readers. The report online should be quick, snappy, and fun, but not forgetting the fundamentals of news reporting. So, news sites should aim on delivering full reportage in a timely manner with some flair.

Jonathan Dube said:

- "Tighter and punchier than print but more literate and detailed than broadcast writing. Write actively, not passively."

- "Good broadcast writing uses primarily tight, simple declarative sentences and sticks to one idea per sentence. Every expressed idea flows logically into the next."

- "Strive for lively prose, lean on strong verbs and sharp nouns. Inject your writing with a distinctive voice to help differentiate it from the multitude of content on the Web. Use humor. Try writing in a breezy style or with attitude. Conversational styles work particularly well on the Web."

Headlines sell the story: Headlines not only gives an idea of what the story will be, but also attracts the readers towards it. Headline writers should make the reader want to know more about the report, use conversational and simple language, and finally take risks.

Contextual hyperlinking: All journalism refers to different sources, but online a writer has the ability to link readers to other websites. Hyperlinking is needed when a story provides background and context from other sites.

http://www.kcnn.org/resources/journalism_20_chapter6

Violence against women

Violence is a term we hear and read about in our everyday life. It is defined as an intended behavior to hurt other people physically, emotionally, or even mentally. Long before television or radio stations, the ancient Egyptians used to entertain themselves with plays that talk about the murder of their god Osiris. Those plays used to lead to many similar crimes. This shows that violence has always played a major role in entertainment and the audience has always been affected negatively by this type of entertainment. Statistics shows that media violence is increasing by 378 per cent each year.

The media can affect a wide variety of groups, but have the most influence on women. The way media portrays women in television, movies, and advertisements cause negative effects on women physically, and mentally. Every day, women are battered, sexually harassed, abused, raped and psychologically tortured in their homes, their workplace and society. We cannot say that media is the only cause of violence against women, but media did increase the percentage of violent acts towards women.
Since media, violence has become more graphic and much more sexual. Many people including children watch Female World Wrestling Entertainment where female wrestlers try to tear out each other’s hair and rip off each other’s clothes. Also, one of the top selling video games in the world which is Grand Theft Auto is programmed so players can beat prostitutes to death with baseball bats after having sex with them or raping them.In the year 2000, rap artist Eminem promoted violence against women through his violent lyrics.

"Don't you get it, bitch? No one can hear you.Now shut the fuck up, and get what's comin' to you... You were supposed to love me!!!!! (Sound of Kim choking)NOW BLEED, BITCH, BLEEDBLEED, BITCH, BLEED, BLEEEEEED!"(Source: From the song Kim, by Eminem)

Because of his promotion of violence, Eminem sold 679,567 copies of his album in Canada only.Also Madonna's 2002 music video What It Feels Like For a Girl contained such graphic violence that even MTV refused to air it more than once.

In the recent decades, images of women in mass media have been under examination. We can see violence in print ads, where a woman is used as a sexual object to attract the consumer and thus sell a product. Also we can see violence toward women in pornography. Women in these two types are constantly shown in submissive, silenced, and also victimized positions.

We have all experienced the power of imagery. Since visual imagery is non verbal, then the messages sent through it can be mysterious and of course opposing. The media provides to us, the audience, many visual imageries which have indirectly a huge impact on our lifestyle such as on our values, attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors. An advertisement which is the most common type of imagery we are subject to in our everyday life uses women to attract the audience.
The portrayal of women in such advertisements shows an obedient and objectified creature. It is also easy to see that by using “perfect models”, the media is portraying an "ideal" body type. Therefore, teenage girls' perceptions of their own bodies are influenced by the perfection of these models. It has been proven that media is a strong force in creating the stereotype of the tall and thin women as the "ideal" beauty type. As female models have become thinner, women in society have tried to follow the trend. We heard and saw many cases of girls or women who tried to do whatever they can to become thin. Some of them even starved themselves to death, others became anorexic, and others could not get out of their house because they did not represent the “perfect” woman shown by the media.

Images in advertisements are giving power to men over women. Many of the crimes or aggressive behaviors we see or hear about towards women mirror the messages that are sent through the media. Using any women as an object for a male’s gaze or for increasing the sales of any product is morally and ethically wrong and leads to violence.

Also, in most of the pornographic movies or pictures women are portrayed as victims of rape or abuse and men are shown as the source of power. “When she says no, she means yes" is a typical porn scenario. Women are shown being raped, fighting and kicking at first, and then starting to like it. Porn teaches its viewers that enjoying hurting and abusing women for entertainment is acceptable. So, this scene becomes a fantasy in the mind of the viewers. Men will unconsciously abuse their girlfriends or wives because they saw a source of happiness and power in the picture or movie they have seen. The women in Playboy magazine are called "bunnies," making them cute little animals, thus making them a toy. Penthouse magazine calls them "pets." Porn often refers to women as animals, playthings, or body parts. Some pornography shows only the body or the genitals and doesn't show the face at all.

This is an advertisement from Sisley. Sisley’s advertising campaign in the last four years has been criticized a lot. Its’ advertisements are marketed toward young white, middle to upper class females reading fashion magazines. We notice in their campaign the usage of women. The audience can directly notice the aggressive behavior toward women. For example, the first thing we notice in this advertisement is the model’s face; she has a fearful and frustrated expression on her face. The man behind her is barely shown. Her hair is on her face as if she had quickly turned around to see him and see what he is trying to do. The position of her body is submissive since her hands are held behind her back as she lies on the couch. Her elbow is blocking the view of the man’s face. So, the man’s intentions are not known since we cannot see the expression on his face. This scene is not clear, but there is a sense of awkwardness.

The reduction of women to body parts for men’s consumption can significantly damage a woman’s self-respect. Men are not born to objectify women, but it is a learned behavior, primarily from images of passive women. Women are also not born to be obedient to men, but they learn through the messages sent to them by the media to be under the influence of men who have greater power over them.

Dad calls 911

A funny article I read today:

Son's messy room leads to dad's 911 call
28-year-old threw plate of food, made fist when told to clean up


BEDFORD, Ohio - An Ohio man who argued with his grown son over a messy bedroom says he overreacted when he called 911.
Andrew Mizsak called authorities Thursday after his 28-year-old son — who's a school board member in the Cleveland suburb of Bedford — threw a plate of food across the kitchen table and made a fist at him when told to clean his room.
The son, also named Andrew, lives in a room in his parents' basement.

My experience as a Web 2.0 user..

I've been using the Web for over more than eight years. It's till this year that I found out that i was using Web 1.0 and recently Web 2.0 and i understood the difference between them.
By understanding what Web 2.0 is, I saw the great disadvantages of Web 1.0 and the advantages of being able to use Web 2.0.
I loved the interactivity between all the users using Web 2.0. In addition, I'm having fun using it by commenting on pictures and blogs, reading other users blogs or comments, etc...
Web 2.0 is making internet itself more interactive and fun at least for me.
This is the first time i write a blog and actually i really enjoyed writing it and I'm excited to see other users comment on my blog.
This kind of interactivity is making people, either in a direct or indirect way, write their opinion about everything and share it with everyone all over the world.