Friday, May 7, 2010

What is the controversy surrounding the V-chip?

Search tool:

-dogpile.com  and kosmix.com because they do a good job searching multiple search engines for me, therefore saving time and energy.

Search term:

“v chip controversy”

 

Site 1: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V-chip

Who is responsible: this is a wiki article so many people have contributed to his article.  The mission is to provide encyclopedia style information to anyone who wants to know about it.

How is the site funded:  The Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit parent on wikipedia

How current: April 29, 2010

What’s missing:  This site is great for multiple sides of the v chip controversy.  They have more than enough arguments for both sides.  The only thing missing is an opinion.  Without passion or conviction behind the issues, it is just facts, no strong persuasion going on.

Site 2: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,1930599,00.asp

Who is responsible:  The article is written by Bary Alyssa Johnson and Mark Hachman.  It is published in PCMag 

How is the site funded: PCMag is an online magazine funded by advertisements.

How current:  It was published in 2.23.2006

What’s missing:  This article is mainly about the new version of the v chip so it only addresses controversy over the issue of monopoly and not so much the controversy over the product itself, which was much more prevalent in 1995.

 

The main pros of the v chip discussed in these websites are it gives parents an easier option for monitoring their children’s TV watching more responsibly; it is inexpensive, around $10 if the TV does not already have it, and free since it is required in all TVs larger than 13 in; it is simple and acts as a secondary guide to direct parental involvement.  Some research done to support these proponents are, however, done by advocacy groups so the results may be biased.

The main cons are that most people do not use it, even though they have it; it is believed to be a violation of the 1st amendment because the rating system is created by the government, so it is an indirect power given to the government to limit freedom of speech; the TV industry does not like having the government involved in its business; people believe there is a lack of unbiased research to support the positive effects of the v-chip.

 

 

5 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. Danielle,

    Wikipedia is a good branching off point that we can use to understand the general concepts of the v-chip controversy. Using this information as a guide we can expand and look for specific pros and cons and find sites that go into more depth on each issue. Its also true that many people have contributed to this article, so in a way it compiles the views of many different people and may tend to be less biased than another site that is funded by a specific group

    The magazine article is a more updated source regarding the v-chip. Most research studies that were conducted were done in the early 2000s, so this article is valuable because it is more recent and may provide different arguments.

    Good job!

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  3. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  4. Danielle,

    Wikipedia is a good branching off point that we can use to understand the general concepts of the v-chip controversy. Using this information as a guide we can expand and look for specific pros and cons and find sites that go into more depth on each issue. Its also true that many people have contributed to this article, so in a way it compiles the views of many different people and may tend to be less biased than another site that is funded by a specific group

    The magazine article is a more updated source regarding the v-chip. Most research studies that were conducted were done in the early 2000s, so this article is valuable because it is more recent and may provide different arguments.

    Good job!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hey Danielle,

    Good work with this compilation. I, too, referenced Wikipedia when searching for information on the surrounding controversy. The thing that I am hesitant about when looking at that, however, is though opponents and proponents are mentioned, there is not very much in depth material on the different organizations. We may need to further look into that, but it is definitely a good starting point.

    The second link is a good resource as well. However, as you stated, there is not much of a discussion offered on the historical controversy of the technology. We should further look into this issue, though it is good that you were able to find a more recent article that we can use in our research.

    Keep up the good work!!

    ReplyDelete