I don’t know how to put in words,
The feelings that I have towards you
All I know is that they are indeed very strong
Because I know my heart could never go wrong

Every time I try to express myself
Something strange comes over me the words do not even begin to touch
the depths of my feelings, I love you that much
I am so lucky to have you here with me
I have never been blessed with so much happiness
You are a true miracle from God for me
I hope that is something you could only see

Although I can’t explain these feelings
All I know is that they are for you and only you
I can’t even begin to tell you how much
You’ve changed my life with your special touch

When I am with you I feel like a flower
Blooming under the petals of life You are the air that I need to live longer You are the seed that helps me grow stronger When I am with you I feel like the waves in the ocean
That hit the shore yet they never come to an end I want to cherish each and every moment between me and you That you have given me the pleasure to spend with you This is just a very small part of how wonderful I feel
Every time I am with you, every time I think of you Sometimes my feelings tell me this is all a dream
And if that is true, I wish I never wake- up myself from this dream, because I love you more than life itself

My One And Only:

You are the first ray of sunshine
Early in the morning that shines in my eyes
You are the dream that I’ve dreamt of
On you I wish I could always rely

You have changed my life
In such a way that I can’t explain
You have given me so much love and care
And taken away all my sorrows and pain

You are the shining star in my dark, misty sky
That gives me hope to dream each night
You fulfill all my wishes and hopes
Your presence makes each and every day get bright

You have so much charm in you
That comforts me and protects me
You are like a miracle from God
That no one else but I could see

I wish you could stay in my life forever
But no one can stop what is meant to be
I will always cherish our precious memories in my heart
Because you will always be my one and only:

The Voice accepts short fiction in all formats and genres. Submit your poems, short stories, comics or other creative writing to voice@ausu.org. Or, try out for the $300 prize in the fiction category of the first Voice Writing Contest. See this issue for more details.

After graduating from college in Digital Media Technical Production, my friend and I decided to start our own home-based digital media business. In a partnership business, we must work well as a team and collaborate with each other and also with our clients on a regular basis. We have also been sub-contracting work from bigger companies.

In my opinion, collaboration is extremely significant for us to run our business smoothly. We need to have a good working relationship and be able to understand each other to be productive in our work. After working together for nearly a year, we have come to realize each other’s weaknesses and strengths. For example, I am more optimistic than my partner. When we are assigned a new project, we go over the details and she becomes nervous at times and I find it my job to be positive and encourage her that we can undertake this project. On the other hand, my partner has more stamina to stay patient. When we are stressing to meet deadlines or having a hard time dealing with some clients, my partner stays calm during such situations and helps me stay calm as well as I tend to get tempered and lose patience easily. Hence, she can work better under pressure compared to myself. These are merely two examples of how we help each other with our weaknesses and collaborate in our work.

It is essential to collaborate effectively so all individuals working on a project are well informed and energized to carry out their tasks. Every time we begin a new project, we sit down together and brainstorm ideas. For instance, if designing a logo, we work on all the sketches, thumbnails, etc. and share ideas and critique each other’s work. Then, we both sit down together and design the elements on a computer. Unlike other companies, we work together on each project, side by side, and share ideas and suggestions constantly. To date, we have not quarreled about anything at work and surprisingly, we work great as a team. I believe we have a good mix of characteristics that when brought together, it makes us a strong company. Even our clients notice the way we work and are surprised to see how well we get along.

Hence, “the ultimate goal is for work teams to identify and develop the best ideas from throughout an organization and act with the same unity of purpose and focus that a single, well-motivated person would bring to bear in a situation” (ibid, p.45). I believe that if there is no teamwork, a company cannot succeed. Today’s competitive high-tech world needs strong and motivated individuals who are confident in their work. Only such individuals can succeed and reach higher levels of accomplishment in the digital media businesses. We, as a company, have set both short-term and long-term goals. Hopefully, when we grow big as an organization, we will hire people who work at the same pace and share the same mind frame as us. After all, there is no ‘I’ in team.

Source:
Regan, Elizabeth A. and O’Connor, Bridget N. (2002) End-User Information Systems: Implementing individual and work group technologies- Second Edition Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ, 2002. Pages 1-75.

Shahzadi Bhatti is a Digital Media Artist who is currently enrolled in Athabasca University’s Bachelor’s of Professional Arts program to complete her degree. She lives in Toronto, Ontario and enjoys writing, watching -horror films, and traveling.

The remarkable growth of the Internet has had an intense effect on mass communication, especially in North America. The Internet began as a means of communication within the US government after the nuclear war. As Bruce Sterling writes in his Short History of the Internet, “The principles were simple. The network itself would be assumed to be unreliable at all times. It would be designed from the get go to transcend its own unreliability. All the nodes in the network would be equal in status to all other nodes, each node with its own authority to originate, pass, and receive messages. The messages themselves would be divided into packets, each packet separately addressed. Each packet would begin at some specified source node, and end at some other specified destination node. Each packet would wind its way through the network on an individual basis.” Hence, the basic structure for the Internet was born.

The Internet represents one of the most successful examples of the benefits of sustained investment and commitment to research and development of information infrastructure. By means of the Internet, a user has access to a wide variety of services such as electronic mail, file transfer, vast information resources, interest group membership, interactive collaboration, multimedia displays, etc. The Internet consists primarily of a variety of access protocols. These include e-mail, FTP, HTTP, Telnet, MUD, and Usenet news. Today, the Internet plays an immense role in the area of mass communication. Since the Internet was developed in bits and pieces, mass communication researchers initially overlooked it.

Nowadays, almost every household in North America consists of one, if not two, computers. In 1997, a survey conducted by Nielsen Media Research Interactive Services indicated that there were six million users of the Internet over the age of 16. Of them, 43% were women, nine million were fulltime students, 49% were college degree holders, and 46% lived in households receiving an annual income of over $50,000. With such a high number of users, the Internet is guaranteed to become addictive to many individuals.

Addiction to the Internet can cause psychological pain to an individual. They may start lacking in their work performance, adopt laziness, and lack adequate social behaviour. For instance, many individuals that are addicted to chat lines on the Internet may face some very serious psychological dilemmas such as relationship break ups over the Internet and being hurt emotionally. Hence, the Internet may result in psychological disadvantages to its users.

I decided to visit an “Internet Addiction Discussion Group,” which is an Usenet message group on the internet. Many people had posted questions, suggestions, and other information with relation to the topic of Internet addiction. I decided to read a few postings and post messages as well. One of the postings that caught my attention was about the “Cause of Addiction.” I learned that when surfing the Internet, the movement of computer animations, flashing lights, advertisements, and the brightness of the monitor stimulate the right brain. After spending too much time sitting in front of a bright monitor, the left-brain becomes tired of the visual stimulus. Hence, the left-brain’s activity decreases. This may be the reason that eyestrain tends to develop in the right eye. According to one of the writers on this Discussion Group, eyestrain develops more in the right eye because 55% of the optic nerve crosses over from the right eye to the left-brain. Thus, the right brain continues to be stimulated by the movement of computer animations, flashing lights, advertisements, and the brightness of the monitor. As per the Cognitive Dissonance Theory, without the left-brain processing visual input, dissonant cognitions are dumped into the right brain. Hence, the Cognitive Dissonance Theory shows one the outcomes of too much Internet use. This causes a state of confusion, dissociation, and obsession.

Emotional trauma also causes cognitive dissonance, traumatic dissociation, and panic disorder. Photophobia is a symptom of panic disorder. The writer of the posting goes on to saying that some people become obsessed with the Internet because they suffer from “illogical emotions, illusions, and delusions.” Also, due to the brightness of computer monitors, photophobia will exacerbate their condition. I was fascinated to learn so much about Addiction to the Internet from a Usenet group.

After learning more about Internet addiction, I realized that we never characterize any time spent in the real world with friends as “addicting”. For instance, teenagers talk on the phone for hours with people they see everyday, but do we ever say they are addicted to the telephone? Of course not! People lose hours at a time, immersed in a book, ignoring friends and family, and often not even picking up the phone when it rings. Thus, socializing, or talking is indeed a very “addictive” behavior, if examined from the perspective of researchers who see Internet as an addiction.

Lastly, I decided to engage in an online activity to get a little taste of Internet Addiction. On YAHOO! Games page, I decided to browse through a few online games. I was stunned to see the amount of online games one can play. I decided to play Pool online for a little while. I played a few games with other users online, and a few with the computer. To my surprise, I spent about 45 minutes playing this game. I could not believe how addictive online games can be and how fast one can lose track of time. After spending approximately an hour playing YAHOO! Games, I decided to log out before I got too drawn into the game. It is indeed remarkable to see how far the Internet has gone today to ensure good fun and information for its users.

As the Internet continues to advance in its means of communication, more people will become drawn to this fascinating form of mass media. Hence, resulting in more Internet addicts. When surfing the Internet, one has to be cautious not to become so drawn into it that one loses track of time. This may lead to a severe case of Internet addiction, which can be harmful to oneself. Thus, it is better to keep the Internet at minimal usage, as surfing without a purpose may become a bad habit. One should not take the Internet for granted; it is a mechanism of technology that should be controlled very carefully and cautiously.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Nielsen Media Research Interactive Services “Internet demographic study” 1997, http://www.nielsenmedia.com/interactive/commercenet/F97/

2. Sterling, B. “Short history of the Internet” 1993, http://w3.aces.uiuc.edu/AIM/SCALE/nethistory.html

Being a Digital Media student, I have always been interested in watching IMAX movies and playing VR games in arcades. I have also been on every virtual ride at all of the theme parks that I have visited. Recently, I had the opportunity to visit one of the best theme parks in the world, Universal Studios. It was indeed a great experience of both a virtual, and 3-dimensional world. I had the opportunity to see rides such as Twister, Men In Black, E.T., and best of all, the Back To The Future ride. All these rides are based on popular Hollywood movies.

Back To The Future was one of the best rides I have ever experienced. For many people, this is the ride that made Universal Studios, Florida famous. This ride is a “bone-jarring, stomach-churning, thrill-a-second rocket ride through time and space” (Michael Supinski, http://ift.i8.com). According to Tom Williams, President & Chief Executive Officer of Universal Studios Escape, “Back To The Future-The Ride brings together the most dynamic motion-based experience possible by combining sophisticated hydraulics, multi-channel sound, live effects and a groundbreaking OMNIMAX film to create a total sensory impact experience never before achieved in any media or studio attraction.” All the high-tech special effects give the illusion of time travel during the ride itself.

As you enter the ride, you instantly feel like you are in the “Institute of Technology” as you enter a room, which illustrates footage of what is currently going on at the institute. Doctor Brown, from the movie, is speaking to you via a television screen and preparing you for your journey on the 8-passenger DeLorean automobile. Biff, the enemy, punches the camera and locks up Doctor Brown in his laboratory, steals one of the DeLoreans, and zooms away. The only way to save the institute, according to Doctor Brown, is to send you to get Biff. Hence, the passengers start loading the DeLorean to go “Back to the Future.”

Your DeLorean leans back and you shoot off into the year 2015. During the ride, you dodge cars and veer away from signs, and your car moves from left to right, up and down as you are looking at the big screen in front of you. It feels as if you are really traveling through time. After passing several signs and walkways, blasting through tree branches, you crash through the clock tower and travel back to an underground cave. Unexpectedly, your engine dies and you are about to fall directly into the ground towards a canyon river. The small screen inside the Delorean shows the engine status and it is flashing FAILURE! At the last second, however, the engine kicks in and you shoot backwards and back in time to where Biff is, at a large volcano. A foggy atmosphere is created within the room through the use of a fog machine. You feel like you are really driving through fog as you search for Biff. You later encounter a dinosaur that hits Biff and breaks his “flux capacitor.” Once you have escaped being swallowed by the dinosaur, you chase after Biff to where he is about to land in lava after the dinosaur’s tail hits him. You then travel back to the Institute, crashing through the door, where Biff is surrounded by security guards who bring down the car. Doctor Brown thanks you and the gates of the vehicle open and he commands you to hurry and leave, thereby ending the ride.

Overall, the ride provides you with an opportunity to experience virtual reality first-hand. It involves almost all of the senses: sight, through the big IMAX screen which shows you where you are traveling; touch, by means of the movement of the vehicle as you are sitting in it and traveling through time; hearing, as you can hear all the sound effects and voices throughout the journey; and smell and taste as the fog is created in the room around you. Hence, we see that virtual reality can also fool our sensory system, as we perceive what is in front of us to be real when it is not.

Propaganda originated in the early days of the Catholic Church. However, the word “propaganda” came into use after three centuries, during the period of the Renaissance. Propaganda was also used during World War I. It was extremely successful, as it has influenced the outcomes of the war immensely.

During my education and career, I have witnessed propaganda at many stages. I would have to say that the place where I witnessed propaganda the most is in the area of mass media. This may be for one of two reasons. First, I was studying in the field of Digital Media during College and therefore constantly learning about the techniques of advertising. There was a great deal of information on propaganda presented in many of my class lectures. Also, by being surrounded with so much advertisements at bus stops, on television, and on the Internet, one is guaranteed to come across propaganda in one way or another. I must say that I have also been educated enough to differentiate right from wrong; hence, as far as I could remember, I have not been drawn into false advertisements or any other form of propaganda. I think education plays a big role in my attitude towards propaganda. For instance, by studying how propaganda can be used in the mass media industry, and the different techniques companies use to market their products, I have become very knowledgeable when it comes to distinguishing propaganda and education. Thus, it is important to be educated on what propaganda is in order to be careful of being drawn into it.

Many writers have given their opinions on what propaganda is to them and how it affects society as a whole. Leonard Doob, who closely examines the crowds of individuals in his publication Public Opinion and Propaganda, 1948, presents one of the more interesting phenomena. According to Doob, membership in any particular group is an essential determinant of the opinions held by the group members, although within a group, each individual has the right to make his or her own choice.

Doob continues by giving propaganda educational values. According to Doob, there is a fine line that exists between education and propaganda. To begin with, education tries to “pass along knowledge and skills deemed by society to be valuable.” On the other hand, propaganda is provoked by doubtful values; hence, it tries to control each individual’s attitude and behaviour. It is difficult to determine what is right and wrong for a society as a whole. As time changes, values change. Although both education and propaganda use similar techniques such as repetition and variation, they seem to differ in the attempt to control an individual’s thought or doing. For instance, education allows one to think for him or herself, as the student has the right to agree or disagree with their professor. Whereas, propaganda does not allow for such intellectuality, “it needs to close decision making by creating a false sense of urgency, false notions of availability, and choice.”

Although it may be difficult to draw the line between education and propaganda, it is certainly not impossible. Depending on the circumstances, one has to make a choice to differentiate between education and propaganda. In my opinion, one should go with his or her instincts or gut feelings when making a decision between education and propaganda. As a society, we need to be educated on what propaganda is and how it affects our daily lives. For example, when we see a commercial for Nike shoes, we should think twice before purchasing the shoe. Will it really make you a better basketball player? Will the shoe make you jump higher? Or is it just marketing for a brand name? Once we are educated and know how to question ourselves before making a purchase of $150 on a pair of shoes, I think it will become easier to differentiate between right and wrong. Hence, education is needed to understand and be aware of propaganda.

There is so much propaganda present around us that we hardly notice it. Hence, propaganda has permeated all aspects of modern life to such an extent that propaganda has become a part of our daily lives. In our modern day society, by means of such massive advertisement and the rise of technology, we have become more immune to propaganda than ever before. If I had to pick one time or phase of life where propaganda became extremely common in our lives, it would be the September 11th attack on the World Trade Centre. Everyone was glued to his or her television sets to get the latest news, checking out CNN.com on the Internet, or reading newspapers on the subway on their way to work. Although some of the news forecasts conflicted and contradicted, people did not give up and continued listening and believing what they heard. What better example can one give to prove how much we can be drawn into propaganda, as a society? Hence, it is important not to forget our traditional and cultural values when there is propaganda present in our lives.

Reference
Doob, Leonard W. Public Opinion and Propaganda. 2nd ed. Connecticut: Archon Books, 1966.

THIS CAN’T BE HAPPENING TO ME

I am left all alone, with so much sorrow and misery
My trust has been betrayed, my soul has been taken away
My mind is trapped with anxiety, more problems heading my way
This can’t be happening to me, This can’t be happening to me

Each and every day, I fear more and more problems
My soul is often bothered, with my stressful life
My feelings are commonly hurt, but no one seems to care
This can’t be happening to me, This can’t be happening to me

My heart is crushed in pieces, so many that they can’t be gathered
Although I am alive, my soul is surely dead
I just can’t be hurt anymore, I have no tears left to cry
This can’t be happening to me, This can’t be happening to me

I wish I could forget the past, and think about the future
But all I see in my future, are more worries, fears, and problems
My future beholds nothing for me, my life is so hollow
And now I am telling myself, this IS happening to me!!

A BROKEN HEART

Once I fell in love, it was the biggest mistake I made
It all happened so fast, that all the memories have started to fade
When you came into my life, I was the happiest person on earth
But now I repeatedly ask God, “Why was I given birth?”

I lived a joyous and fun-filled life, with no worries never the less
Now I am surrounded with problems, my life is a total mess
Problems, problems, problems, that’s the only thing on my mind
Why did I fall in love, why was I so blind?

I guess love was just, another one of his games
But at the end all it did, was burn a lot of flames
He promised me that we would, never be apart
Now he has left me, with a broken heart

Although he is gone, I remember the good times we shared
Then again I question myself, “did he even care?”
I stand outside, all alone, in the misty rain
And I utter to myself, never to make the same mistake again

All night long, I sit on my bed and cry
Oh I can’t live without him, I wish I could just die!

Today, universities such as Athabasca University are attempting to make the boundaries of these systems more permeable. By providing programs such as the Bachelors of Professional Arts (BPA), Athabasca University is enabling students who have earned a two-year college diploma to earn a degree by admitting these students in the third year of the BPA program. Therefore, a student can get two years of practical training from college and continue with two years of theoretical university experience to earn a valid university degree.

This is a great change in the education system, as the two years of college experience are not wasted. It is also better financially because students can pay a cheaper tuition for two years in college and then enter university and pay the appropriate fees. Hence, a student enrolled in a program such as the BPA is paying less than those enrolled in four-year programs at any other university. Also, the student is coming to university with hands-on experience which will aid in finding a job after university. Most employers would want to hire a student who has had both practical and theoretical experience in their field of study compared to another student who has only had one or the other. Hence, Athabasca University is doing a great job at breaking this education barrier between college and university by helping students convert their diplomas into a degree.

After I attained my Digital Media Technical Production Diploma from Seneca College, I decided to pursue university education but the costs were horrendous. When speaking of costs, I am taking about tuition, books, parking fees, student council fees, etc. I also knew that I could not work and attend university due to the time I would have to spend traveling to school, attending lectures, doing group work, and much more. After thorough research, I discovered Distance Education and it was an interesting concept. I discovered Athabasca University in my research and I found the Bachelors of Professional Arts Degree Program to be the best choice for me.

If I attended any university in Ontario, I would always have friends there, which would interfere in my studying and the costs were too much. I also would not be able to attain a full-time job. After studying at Athabasca University for two years, I can surely say that I have been able to work, and save that extra cash I would have spent going to any university in Ontario. I have also learned to me more independent, and organized in all my work. I am even getting better grades than I did in college or high school, which is a positive sign. I like the theory style of education I am getting at university, as it is something I did not get to experience during college life. Best of all, Athabasca recognized my two years of college as two years of university education. Thus, I am happy with the choices I made. Instead of taking a big step from high school to university, I am glad I got the college experience, and now I even get to experience university education. Overall, I hope for a bright future once I graduate and am able to apply for jobs with both a diploma and a degree.