Aloha:

Spring Break has come and gone, and another school week has begun. Sad, I know... :-) In any case, here are my three questions for all curious minds:

Question 1: Turow states in the very first chapter of the book (p. 8) that "the media... are the quintessential vehicles for portraying the life of society to society." Although this is true and obvious, having it stated is very scary. This is because we do not see "society" from the media, but rather someone's perspective and perception of society. That someone is controlled by a large corporation that wishes the media to project their own ideals through the media. This leaves us at the mercy of a handful of money-hungry CEOs. Has our situation started to change with the rise of the Internet? With organizations such as moveOn.org, do our larger media sources, such as CNN, have to make more flexible decisions in what is acceptable? Do we have any examples of this?

Question 2: An interesting pattern is mentioned in the book about how we moved from being immigrants individualized by our foreign cultures, to being a homogenous society thirty years later with the development of the two World Wars tying us closer together. Then, come Vietnam and the 1960s, we begin to separate again, even moreso than originally. Can this be leading the types of technology that is made, and is technology, in turn, making our separation worse? In more detail: the radio was all encompassing to anyone close enough to hear the radio waves; the television, although carrying that original audio feature, forced the participants to a certain location to also see the images; the computer, although possessing the previous traits, allows interaction to only one individual at a time (but allows for one or two onlookers). Will technology continue to individualize us, breaking us more and more apart? (Example - a pair of sunglasses with visual projector on the lens and earpiece for sound that definitely excludes any possible participants beyond one individual.)

Question 3: Chapter Six has a discussion about direct relations and continuing use with consumers. One problem quoted by Wunderman was that this was difficult because the customer name and phone number wasn't accessible. With the boom in e-Shopping, I believe this issue has been met. Not only do companies online get shipping information for your order and billing, they get a "free" mailing address (e-mail) to continue pestering customers with sales and advertisements (e-mail needed for receipt and confirmation). If this is the case, the problem should be solved, but why is it taking companies so long to jump on the Internet bandwagon? And also, what about large "department" stores online such as Amazon.com - can they easily create that personalized/customized atmosphere mentioned?