Group 4

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“The Good and the Bad: How Social Media Affected Me as a Gen Z Individual”

As a Gen Z, my life evolves in social media. Through social media, I can access information, entertainment, and interact with other people. The first thing I do when I wake up is to grab my phone and scroll through social media sites, and it has affected me in a lot of ways. Having social media is a great help to communicate with other individuals. As a part of Generation Z, social media is our main medium to share or express our opinion about a certain issue, it may be about celebrities, politics, government, and a lot more, and because of this, it’s easier for us to have knowledge and wisdom of what is happening, not just in our country but the whole world. Social media is also our source of entertainment, and that is a big help for us. It’s our way of comforting ourselves, to lessen the pressure and the problems that we encounter. 

However, we all know that all things have pros and cons. Social media is addictive. Sometimes, I can rather lie on my bed and scroll through social media sites than doing household chores and interact with other people in person. Social media can also be time-consuming. It is one of the reasons why students procrastinate, specifically Gen Z procrastinate. Also, one of the biggest problems of Social media is cyberbullying; a lot of these cases cause mental health problems, such as anxiety, depression and may lead to suicide. Too much usage of social media may also have a negative effect not just mentally but also physically, such as being overweight, develop seizure and vision problems. Not being able to access social media is sometimes frustrating; it can cause our behavior to change, in particular being hot-headed and irritable. To avoid these negative effects, let us know our limitations, priorities, and let us use social media moderately.

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Crossing the Bridge of the Digital Divide

The digital divide or the digital split is a social issue referring to the different amount of information between those people who can access the internet and those people who cannot access. Simple it is described as a gap found between individual people like their social classes, businesses, and even countries with different socioeconomic backgrounds. Usually, the digital divide is being observed nowadays generation to online learning due to the pandemic. The digital divide arises today because many students cannot access online learning due to the lack of technology, that’s why they only using modular second learning. With the rise of new technology like high tech gadgets and mobile smartphones worldwide, this inequality has now become about having more or less cannot access the internet like our grandmother and grandfather. They become part of the digital divide because they don’t have the internet technology skill to know how to utilize it.

As a student that knows the digital divide, the simple steps that we can do to bridge the gap of this digital divide are to give a hand to the needy. By this, we can help awareness to those students or even our classmates that didn’t know how to use technology or they don’t have the technology to use in online learning. There are many ways to help a person and the one thing that we can do is to be generous to the emptiness of the other. Even just a simple guide on how to use technology is a very great help to close the gap of the digital divide. Helping a friend or your classmate can make the world a better place. Then, it will become suitable for everyone the usage of the internet. It is an idea of being no one left behind in digital literacy and to the future generation.

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“The Setbacks of Piracy”

The act of duplicating and copying digital work without the copyright holder's permission is piracy. It’s illegal and is protected by law. According to the Philippine News Agency, Republic Act (RA)10088 also known as the “Anti-Camcording Act of 2010”, prohibits and penalizes the unauthorized use, possession, and or control of audiovisual recording devices for the unauthorized recording of cinematographic films and other audio-visual works and or their soundtracks in an exhibition facility, providing penalties therefore and other purposes. Despite the fact that it’s illegal, piracy still carries on, especially here in the Philippines. Piracy is seen as a normal thing here in our country, people who sell pirated films even have stalls and have a good profit. Some individuals do not even know that it’s illegal. A lot of people support piracy due to the reason that it’s affordable, you don’t need to buy tickets to watch in a cinema and spend a lot of money.

People who illegally distribute or duplicate recordings of a film gain money from it. It is unfair to the writers or producers because it prohibits them from profiting through their effort financially. According to Manila Standard, “The penetration of online piracy in the country is prominent in the YouGov survey cited by Gane which shows that 49 percent of Filipino consumers admit to having accessed piracy streaming sites compared to only 28 percent in Indonesia and 22 percent in Malaysia. Forty-seven percent of those who access these sites canceled subscriptions to the loss of local and international content providers”. By illegally downloading music, movie, and a lot more pirated thing, you are at risk of getting caught; you can go to jail and get fined. For the first offense, you will face imprisonment of 1 to 2 years and a fine of between 50,000 to 150,000 pesos. For the second offense, you will face imprisonment of 3 years and 1 day to six years and a fine of between 150,000 to 500,000 pesos. Last of all, imprisonment of 6 years and 1 day to 9 years and a fine extending from 500,000 to 1,500,000 pesos for the third and subsequent offenses. Therefore, let us not normalize piracy and stop supporting the illegal distribution of songs, movies, or streams.

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The Power of Media Amalgamation

The value of print media is that it builds legitimacy. Investing printed content signals to clients that you are serious about your company and that you deliver a product or service that is worthwhile. Printed products can also create customer-brand contact. Broadcast media contains public service announcements, daily news, weather reports, interviews, and documentaries and offers useful content that can inform and educate. Broadcast media is also recreational and it can give your organization a leg up on your rivals by using a broadcast media channel. When a customer sees an ad on TV the feeling is kept for a later date by them. Digital media will have a lot of impact on culture. It offers individuals a way to keep in contact with individuals who live far away. It lets people share content that is fun, interesting, and informative. It has made it possible for individuals to express themselves through blogs, websites, videos, photographs, and other media created by users.

In today’s generation and even before the media is a very important part of our society and to the whole world because it is the main means of mass communication so that we can broadcast news, published information, and find an update on the internet. One of the examples of media is the print media, the broadcast media, and the new media. The three media become connected because they are meant to deliver a message from a sender to an audience with the help of each role and responsibility they can create information. For example advertising, there is a "For Sale" sign on the window of a car is media then it goes to print media like newspaper after that it will be posted in new media like Facebook next it will be broadcast to the radio. It is just like dots that being connected to create a goal and the goal is to promote the car. I mentioned advertising because it is the one thing that they all have in common with each other.

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Rising of New Media

New media already give a major impact on our daily lives especially as it is one of the news sources because it expedites the news updates and disseminates the information throughout the world. The new media is not just used for sharing the news but it can be used in a business advertisement, for entertainment, and many more considering it has a different form of media on which people can share their information. If the new media theory would happen to replace the print and broadcast media there are numerous possible outcomes that we could imagine including the changes in how the information be shared and disseminated since in print media it is written and physically distributed just like the newspaper and in broadcast media the information distributed over the air in which this traditional media couldn’t reach a large number of audience. While in new media it spreads the information all over the world just in a short period of time and it provides more graphics, more detailed information and has a great number of sources that people can access just only using one device.

As stated by the latest statistics that there are 4.57 billion were active internet users as of the year 2020, circumscribe 59 percent of the global population. As individuals can see, the usage of new media is occupying more than half of the global population that implementing mass communication employing the internet. Hence, there has a possibility the interactions of media will be in five years will be occupied of the most population globally. As is it may prognosticate, there will be 85 percent of the global population will be utilizing the new media. Since every year the innovation of the technologies as the internet is swiftly progressing on its specs. Individuals can foresight that there will contemporarily type of interacting within the succeeding 5 years. It will have more updates with encountering the information. There will be modernizing incoming through its literacy. Lastly, individuals will be performing towards the connectivity of people with the experience because these days people we’re so rapidly consuming the information yet within 5 years it refines as the individuals will choose what information would have properly to consume.

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“Understanding the Relevance of Information and News Literacy in the Midst of Social Era”

The 21st century is the era where we can find information without difficulty. Technology keeps evolving and so is the amount of people that are using it. Technically, all of the individuals who use social media can post information even if it’s neither verified nor reliable. Social media has a positive and negative effect. Positive for the reason that we can gain a lot of information just by browsing through the internet and easily be informed about things that are happening around us, but negative due to the fact that because everyone can post information, some can be misleading and have false information. It’s important that we can distinguish a credible source from a fabricated one because nowadays, we tend to believe all the things we see on the internet, which causes misunderstandings to people. If false information is repeated and spread over the internet, there’s a possibility that more individuals will believe that it’s real, especially those people who lack understanding about Information and News Literacy.

The relevance of Information and News Literacy is to keep us away from believing false information. It is important to be able to recognize false information and to be aware of accurate information with the right news, the lack of understanding about Information and News Literacy, results in ignorance and the potential to be manipulated. In this Social Era, being literate helps us to be educated and to become successful long-time learners. Having a lot of sources and having a lot of information is useless if it’s a false one, quality is better than quantity. In order to be a successful student or a successful worker, having reliable and credible sources is a great help. As an individual, we have the rights to express our thoughts about a certain issue, but let us make sure that our sources are reliable. Let us do our research, find the source, and consider the journalist or media and understand the relevance of Information and News Literacy in the midst of Social Era.

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“Media and Government: A Love-Hate Relationship”

Media and Government have a Love-Hate Relationship for the reason that the government and media have a role to play for each other. Both media and government are influential; they can manipulate or control individuals. In order for the government to convey their message or platforms to people they need the help of media, and without our government who will be there to guide us and lead us in the right direction? People are complaining that some news is biased; however, the government insists that it is not. They contradict each other and because of this, the government issues claim that the media would then criticize. The views and opinions of people would then be divided, which causes conflict. Media and government can both have a good agenda or just pure devilishness. Media can manipulate people by means of making their reports misleading or reports that attack the government, while the government manipulates their countrymen by making them think that their intentions are pure.

Our drawing speaks for the treatment of government and media to individuals. We can see a man which is a politician with a flower in his mouth that represents the flowery words that he is saying, and at his back, there is another authoritarian with a long nose that represents his lies. We cannot deny the fact that a lot of politicians or the people in our government are vicious.  In the front, there is a media that will be the one to report and spread the message of the government to the people. Behind them are the people who are struggling in life. It shows the outcome of the corruption and lies of the government.  The media serves as our watchdog; they inform us of what is happening to our country and our world. However, media can also be the cause of why people get confused due to some of the biased and misleading reports.

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“The Value of Being a Media and Information Literate Individual”

Since we are now in the 21st century, technology keeps evolving, and so is our way of communicating.  Technology is a part of our everyday lives now, and its development is always correspondent with media. Media gives us knowledge and information. Years ago, getting information is inconvenient, however, in this present day, you access the things you want to know in just one click. Also, through media, communication became easier and wider. Now that we have media, we can communicate with people constantly and with other people around the world. As technology and media advance, we should also be a Media and Information Literate individual. Media and Information Literacy (MIL) is a "combination of knowledge, attitudes, skills, and practices required to access, analyze, evaluate, use, produce, and communicate information and knowledge in creative, legal and ethical ways that respect human rights" (Moscow Declaration on Media and Information Literacy, 2012).  Media and Information Literate empower people to make educated decisions and informed judgments. 

Being literate requires more than just learning how to write and read. In our modern world today, being literate about media and information will give us benefits, especially in terms of providing and collecting data. We should be able to know if the gathered information is accurate or not. As a student, we need to be a Media and Information Literate individual, due to the fact that it will help us gain more knowledge in our education process, particularly in our future jobs. Everyone has the right to have freedom of speech or express ourselves, and that is what MIL gives us. Compared to other countries, individuals who are Media and Information Literate can gain more benefits rather than those countries that stick with libraries, directories, newspapers, and so on. Let us be wise and accountable in the things we do or we post, to be able to call ourselves a Media and Information Literate individual.