With the case on Jane Browning, it is amazing how a little research can make the situation turnout in a worst case scenario. I feel that the public is quite gullible when they think it is a “research”. It sounded somewhat believable, and good storytellers usually make their story quite believable. I feel that because Jane Browning did not put so much   “BS” that would turn the readers off, it was quite believable. But at the same time, those that were interested in the story should have questioned themselves, “how true is this?” They needed to separate the facts from fiction when they hear a story. But that is where I think the problem was. If the readers buy into everything that the storyteller says, then the amazing human ability to question anything in our life would be lost in the process. It is a terrible thing to learn something false or not entirely true, and consider it to be true. That is false knowledge and that can be dangerous. Yes, history has been distorted much in the past through propaganda, but in this free society that we are living in, everyone should at least give an effort to question anything.

I wanted to take a look at the assignment differently. Instead of looking into history as “something in the past” what about history that is being made recently? For example, I looked into Kim Jong-un, the successor to Kim Jong-Il. The public does not really know much about him, let alone, know much about North Korea in general other than their obsession for nuclear weapons and hating the United States.

Looking into Wikipedia, it appears that most of the sources are news sources such as BBC, Washington Post, The Sun, and CNN. So how do we know more about someone who is famous in the political word yet does not disclose himself to the global media? How can the public have an opinion on him if the information on him is so limited? Would the public only have a biased view of him as a dictator obsessed with power just like his father? I feel that whatever events that are recent, news networks is a source that is somewhat “reliable” to whoever edited the page. There may not be any scholarly journals and such, but I feel that the news networks would be the best source in knowing about this unknown man.

Using the whois website, I decided to look into North Korea. I searched up “North Korea” in Google, and the website www.korea-dpr.com came up first on my search. Apparently, the website is owned by an organization called KFA (Korean Friendship Association). It has a variety of information on North Korea’s communist ideals, the regime, Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-il and so forth. But what struck me was that there was even a mention about tourism in North Korea. It made it sound like this organization is a “good friend” of North Korea. To me, this seemed strange.

From the whois search of the domain name, I received the following:

http://www.whois.com/whois/korea-dpr.com

The registration service for the website is provided by MUNDISERVER HOSTING
The registrar is NETEARTH ONE INC.
The registration date for the domain is August 8, 2000
The last update was January 30, 2013
and all the contact information is under the email address: contact@privacyprotect.org

Are violent video games responsible for violence in today’s society perpetrated by the youth?

I don’t know if I should add just video games or all forms of media such as movies and television. I have recently studied in my Mass Communication class that the Untied States Army used online FPS (First person shooter) games as a way to recruit the youth into the army.

We know one that the society is getting more violent and the youth have lost its innocence.

http://www.sciencedirect.com.mutex.gmu.edu/science/article/pii/S0140197112000875

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/12/science/studying-the-effects-of-playing-violent-video-games.html?_r=0

This is a research conducted by Alessandro Gabbiadini called Does exposure to violent video games increase moral disengagement among adolescents? The study focuses on the game Grand Theft Auto, a game that is notorious for violence. Playing video games like this may increase violence and lose a sense of “morality” as the player might think the game world is not “reality.” Therefore, the player can choose to go on a massive rampage against the civilians using guns and explosives to “terrorize” the city. The game allows the player to engage in violent acts such as drug dealing, murders, assassinations, robbery, and so forth. I feel that these kind of games can certainly have an effect especially on teens because they buy into these things. More gun violence games are coming out. These days, its a political argument on gun control; however, violent video games should be taken into account of these gun violence happening in society mainly because the perpetrators of these gun violence are the youth.

The following image is from the game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. The level was called No Russian, a scene where the player plays the role of an undercover American agent working for a Russian terrorist organization. The level is notorious for the NPC (Non-player characters) engaging in an act of mass killing spree at a Russian airport. The player may choose to kill or not to kill the civilians, it is up to them; however, the player’s ability to run is disabled throughout the massacre.

I feel that this research question can be very interesting considering this is a new phenomenon in our society. There is a surge of violence in today’s society and violent video games have to be one of them. They may not be the most responsible for violence in our society; however, I think they do play a part in shaping the youth’s mentality in the wrong direction.

North Korea Conducts an Underground Nuclear Test

A Fragile Situation Brewing in Northeast Asia.

Tough U.N. action vowed after North Korean nuclear test

North Korea conducted another one of their nuclear tests on Tuesday. The international community is currently investigating into the matter to confirm if it indeed was an underground nuclear explosion. However, the North Korean government already confirmed that they have indeed conducted an underground nuclear test.

The matter has stirred up a hostile situation right after the celebration of the Lunar New Year. The North Korean government led by Kim Jong Eun, the successor of Kim Jong Il, refused to adhere to the sanctions and condemnations of the international community. Conducting the test was a violation to UN Security Council resolutions in the matter.

Countries that involved

Direct involvement

• United States of America
• South Korea
• North Korea
• China
• Japan

Lesser involvement

• Russia
• Great Britain
• Iran

Observations from North Korea’s action

1. North Korea’s nuclear testing does not reinforce the possibility of a peaceful reunification of the Korean Peninsula.
2. UN must do more than imposing restrictions that are clearly ineffective.
3. China must be involved more in the situation regarding the situation in the Korean Peninsula to negotiate a peaceful solution with the United States to shut down North Korea’s nuclear program.
4. North Korea’s nuclear testing only adds to the fire of animosity in Northeast Asia. International conflicts in Northeast Asia is complex due to nations of: China, South Korea, North Korea, Japan, and Taiwan all having some sort of dispute with two or more of the listed nations.
5. United States’ role as the global policeman may be dawning in Northeast Asia.
6. It is in the interest of the United States to tread carefully in Northeast Asian politics due to the vast influence of economic partnership between the United States, China, Japan, and South Korea.