The article attempts to answer the question whether the presentation of charity and volunteering in the media gives testimony to the media responsibility to develop civic society. Are the media duty-bound to support a society based upon action, especially charity action? Is the presentation of charity in the media inspiring or rather demotivating the audience to take action as volunteers? What is the cooperation between organizations of volunteers and the media? The author postulates that some possible means of promoting charity in the media and raising the journalists' awareness of the media responsibility, especially with reference to civic society, should be taken into consideration. In the context of 2011, which by the decision of the Council of the European Union is the year of the European Year of Volunteering, this article should be regarded as a valuable study and an incentive to discuss the possibilities of the media engagement in promoting charity and volunteering.
The paper discusses one-off press releases published by the Polish Maritime and Colonial League (Polish Maritime and River League until 1930) in the Second Republic of Poland. The discussion focuses on the contents of these publications, the evolution of their political agenda towards the promotion of colonialism and their role in promoting maritime education of the Polish society.
The adaptation of information technology to everyday clinical practices coincided with the emergence of online databases, personal medical history and institutional information websites. One of the central issues in online medicine is source credibility. This paper overviews the types and communication of online medical information that have changed the logistics of doctor-patient communication. Inter-doctor communication also benefits from the possibilities for professional communication, and application of multiprofessional knowledge; it helps shape and unify professional terms and nomenclature, guarantees the confidentiality and security of data, while providing easy management of high-quality data; makes provisions for knowledge management and ambulatory e-services. The paper overviews the information portal Kliinik.ee (www.kliinik.ee, OU Tervisenouanne) which shares medical information made available by medical professionals for non-medics, mostly for patients. The portal offers a range of e-medicine services, such as responses by specialists, psychologists, pharmacists. The Communication groups offer the patients free medical advice, feedback, a second opinion to their treatment scheme, as well as an opportunity to share knowledge and their personal experiences, and receive emotional support. Writing therapy is becoming increasingly popular and has spontaneously moved online. Today, there are discussion forums available for people suffering from diabetes, cancer and other serious (or incurable) medical problems. The Internet is in many respects advantageous for this type of therapy: it provides an opportunity to establish a dialogue with others with a similar condition while protecting one's privacy and anonymity. Medical professionals post comments under their own names which gives them credibility. A medical discussion board comprises a conditional group that does not form a network or community but engages in a dialogue to obtain and provide expert opinion. Users of patients' discussion group and their narratives have a close connection to reality. The Internet offers the users new ways to share their practices and experiences and sometimes supports or even provides alternatives not available in offline reality. Such groups are based on information sharing and narratives and play an important role in maintaining emotional stability.
The article is an attempt of analysis of the presentation of voluntary services and charity actions phenomena in Catholic weekly magazines from Lublin. The author shows fields of volunteers' activities and charity actions conducting by church and secular organizations which weekly magazines are interested in, through examples of chosen articles published by these magazines. A favorable and kind image emerges from this analysis, serving undoubtedly building up the positive atmosphere around aid action and people becoming involved in them. In the context of 2011year that has been proclaimed the European Year of Voluntary Services by the decision of the Council of the European Union, one should accept this article as the precious study and the incentive to discussion on the possibility of becoming involved of local Catholic press in actions for the promotion of voluntary services and charity actions.
The article discusses the spread, reception and manifestations of folklore in online environment. The material under discussion has been drawn from the forum of the online Estonian family portal . The first part of the article explores the spread and development of lore material and related behavioural patterns in the forum. The author also points out the ways in which the attitudes towards a homogeneous corpus of material differ in terms of the mode of presentation. Since today virtual communities have become the primary form of social interaction for many people, the place where they spend most of their day, these environments naturally involve the creation and transmitting of folkloric information. The attitude towards folkloric material in this particular forum may depend on the context and the background knowledge of receivers: folklore is both ridiculed and valued. Often the attitudes depend on how, by whom and in relation of what it is presented. It is noteworthy that beliefs are spread in the forum within one generation. While formerly beliefs were transmitted from older generation to the younger, the older generation and their worldview, which is perceived as irrational from the viewpoint of modern science, is no longer considered trustworthy. However, if it is presented as someone's personal experience story, the belief is accepted as an alternative way. The second part of the article observes the forms and functions of material that could be categorised as folkloric. The forums feature a variety of folklore genres: folklore related to the religious world (belief accounts, memorates, and legends) and entertaining material. The entertaining function of the forum becomes evident even in the inclusion of religious themes for entertaining purposes. Forums of active use, such as help to spread folklore by actualising the latent material in people's knowledge. This is why some archaic beliefs may generate questions and doubts even in modern times. The family forum Perekool thus becomes the reconstructer of omens and beliefs as well as the distributor of new phenomena.
The paper analyses the provocative elements and stormy reception of Gibson's 'Passion' with the help of Morris's semiotic-axiological conceptual set. It compares the manipulation of appearance with the manipulated sight of the frescoes in Baroque domes opening to the physical sky and the metaphysical Heaven. In the latter one it interprets the pia fraus stressed by Küng with the pragmatic approach of semiotics. Zwick's finding that the film has nothing much to do with the passion story of the Gospel, moreover, it falsifies the context reconstructed by biblical studies, and it is rather the filming of the joint work of Emmeric-Brentano's late German romanticism, puts it in parallel to Gyula Morel's radical criticism of the Church, according to which the fundamentalist schools do not go back to the pure source, but only up to those periods, when the influence of religion was stronger than it is today. Viewing the film instigates the reflexive mind to the meta-level recognition, probably not intended by the director of the film, that one should revise such a godly image of violent tribalism that would set the example of 'drunken by blood' as a solution to the problems of man.
The moral situation of media today is such that the criteria of good and evil are being replaced by criteria of income. So, the moral theologians and specialists of media need to cooperate. The dynamic development of new Technologies can offer full information as the product, but the product which is being sold with respect to the law and for good of the society. It does not mean that the information should be under the control of the state. The state authorities should consider it as the property of the society, to protect it and allow it to serve to all the people.
(Polish title: Edukacja medialna w Polsce w latach 2008 - 2011. Najwazniejsze inicjatywy, glowne problemy, perspektywa rozwoju). The article is an analysis of major social initiatives in media education in Poland in the years 2008 - 2011 and an presentation the main problems with its promotion. The important innovation and inspiration are the new recommendations and EU directives on media education. The author discusses plans of a national strategy for media education, plans for implementation media education as a school subject of its own, shows initiative and new social media educational organizations and evaluate the new legal changes in polish law.
The article concerns the topic of artificial intelligence as a growing and noticeable phenomenon in human reality. The large variety of self-decisional programs or devices which on a certain level imitate or accompany human activity, inclines us to reflect about the range of possibilities which electronics provides, e.g. in the aspect of the phenomenon of intelligence, processes of thinking or consciousness. There arise questions concerning the complexity and quality of the phenomenon of intelligence, e.g. its extra-biological substructure and also the possibility of treating intellectual processes as a property which can be found in cybernetic processes outside of biological beings. A part of this problematic has its origin in the work of Allan Turing, and nowadays we can find improved explications in the works of Hans Moravec. The phenomenon of artificial intelligence, called 'electronic intelligence' in the article in part for the above reasons, marks out a perspective of development which seems to be expanding and might possibly lead to a situation where the phenomenon of intelligence or processes of thinking, will be seen including electronic processes. The problematic of artificial intelligence also inspires contemporary creators of electronic art. In the article the author considers the interactive installations of Ken Finegold and David Rokeby, in which the question of artificial intelligence is submitted to artistic reflection.
The electronic net, connected with the hypertext (HTML), creates a new communication system, including a new form of artistic expression called 'Liternet', derived from belles-lettres. The peculiarity of 'Liternet' texts is associative narrative instead of linearity and permanent interactivity with the recipient. The most innovative original forms are: associative prose, web-blogs and literary e-discussions. One may also recognize computer games as quasi-literary forms. All of them may transform into variants impossible in writing. Thus, 'Liternet' might be a separate means of artistic expression, parallel to traditional kinds.
Around half of Polish periodicals for children and teenagers have online versions. A research was conducted in January 2010 to analyse the online offering of those periodicals. Website structure and functionality were analysed. Attention was also paid to the specific language of the electronic media, which are particularly attractive for young people.
27 years of John Paul II pontificate convinced the world that love, sacrifice, forgiveness and openness towards the people of all races, religions, of all ages is still possible in the world of conflicts, wars and crisis. John Paul II used all his gifts, particularly words and gestures which in case of former actor were used in the best possible way. It was obvious since the very first day of his service. Regarding the language (words) of the Pope we can discover that he never commanded, but asked people to do something good. He wished the people the best, realizing that the wish is the best way to show his good will and express that it is the best way to communicate all believers. John Paul II was the master in media. He was very natural, smiling, blessing- and all of this was very sincere. And even now, since his death and at present time, after his beatification he is alive in people's minds and thoughts.
The article is a critical analysis of media education curriculum contained in the new curriculum of general education. It also presents the social postulates toward the creation of a separate school subject.
In the article, the author uses the statistics to discuss the real growth of creativity of networked digital media users. He suggests that in the field of cultural studies grassroot creativity is often overemphasized, putting researchers at the risk of 'cultural populism' (described by Jim McGuigan in the 90s) in version 2.0. The suggestion does not question the impact of new technologies on cultural practices - although it suggests there is a need to look for a shift of power in other areas. One of them is informal circulation of professionally created cultural works. Instead of legitimizing the 'creativity compulsion', media studies should closely follow the relation not only between producers and consumers, but also between the formal and informal processes of obtaining, curating and redistributing media works.
Popular convictions as to character of Japanese culture are dominated by the orientalist stereotypes that include self-contradicting images of a society that is traditional and at the same time modern and technology-based. The ambiguous portrait of Japan seems to a certain extent justied, if one takes into account the transformation that took place throughout the 20th century and which gave rise to a new model of culture that was shaped thanks to a unique combination of various elements, both native and foreign. I am planning to focus on the impact of the mass media on the awareness and an everyday life of the Japanese people. Besides, I am going to consider the extent as to which the new environment has been transformed by the information revolution. For my research I shall use the contemporary cinema which perfectly reflects cultural issues of the nation in the process of the vehement social change, and which shows the hopes and fears of the future.
In this essay we elaborate on the phenomenon of independent computer games by comparing it to the independent stream of American cinema - also known as Indiewood. The parallel between the film and gaming industries, that can be observed in the United States, has its roots in the early years of arcade games when the young companies like Atari were bought by media giants like Warner Communications. Having this influence in mind, we investigate the similarities and differences between those two segments of audiovisual media production. To illustrate the argument, we examine the two most prominent indie game titles of the past few years: World of Goo and Braid. In the last part of our article we also try to introduce a more national perspective by describing the situation of independent computer games in Poland
During the last two decades almost all the utopias of freedom, communication, access and cultural diversity have faced, respectively, problems of cenzorship, e-invigilation, exclusion and aesthetic homogenization. The reflection on cyberculture in its first years was characterized by the development of methodology, fascination with the unknown, the lack of technical knowledge, access difficulties and a great enthusiasm. Therefore we can distinguish some common attitudes, like the fear of dehumanization and losing real contacts for the sake of virtual ones. Also, in the 90s were the decade of great interest in telepresence and cyborg-like body prosthetics. One of the key features is adding the prefix 'cyber-' to many words and relating to fiction (mostly literature and cinema). Artistic activity may be traced halfway between fiction and science-based technology. As network-based decentralization has played a positive role, it also has a double meaning. There is no responsibility and no direct enemy that may be criticised. This problem may be considered as a central aporia of the digital avantgarde, to use the term coined by Hans Magnus Enzensberger. Since networks are no longer metaphors, as Eugene Thacker notices, they become real, but still unstable. Artists using networks are involved in many contexts, sometimes disappointed with utopias of freedom and visions of endless space. All this creates a complex picture of art within cyberculture twenty years after its emergence.
In antiquity Zeus descending ex machina on the scene, caused the performance to became more spectacular and affecting. In the Middle Ages the same task was fulfilled by fire blazing gates of hell, in the Romanticism - dioramas and now LCD screens, video cameras, microports and devices which transform sound, projectors or the Internet. If theater does not want to become a fossilized and archaic art, it had to creatively respond to changes in the modern world, otherwise the theatres could be converted into museums. But each time when theater connects with new medium, the question returns: what is theatre or where are theatre's boundaries? How far can the creator go so his work is still associated with the theatre and not the TV/video/Internet? The topic of the article is the problem that arises for con- temporary theatre's specialists when moving play into the Internet. Although the projectors, computers, screens, television and cameras open up theatre to the new possibilities, they permit to break the current time-space constraints, they make cause a lot of theoretical problems too. First, when scientists have to call these phenomena. In the following examples I show, that new media reasonably incorporated into the performance don't cause damage, on the contrary - they make it more absorbing, enriching its senses and the presentation becomes more interesting visually.
Hilary Putnam once wrote that all these very abstract and seemingly idle philosophical arguments eventually lead to major discoveries in the felds of politics, science, etc. Following this remark, I would like to draw a connection between two debates. The first one is the famous exchange between Jacques Derrida and John Searle - perhaps the most important confrontation between continental and analytic school of philosophy. The second one, far less known, took place at the beginning of our century on the www-tag mailing list. Here Tim Berners-Lee, creator of World Wide Web, and Pat Hayes, one of the leading figures in the field of Artificial Intelligence, were discussing the future of Semantic Web - a very ambitious project from the borderland of AI and network science. My goal is not only to highlight some apparent similarities among arguments used in these two debates. Rather, I would like to show that these arguments are embedded in larger discourses, which, consequently, shape the future of our technological environment.
The article is concerned with the gentle shift within theorizing on cyberculture where the well known and much publicized metaphor of remix has often been employed as a paradigmatic tool to describe the culture of constant reconfiguration as well as (according to Lawrence Lessig's famous statetment) Read/Write culture. Given the popularity of the term throughout the whole decade of 90s and beyond, it is significant that the concept of remix has recently faded out, replaced by the notion of mashup. Reaching out to some practices of the freshly established field of sound art and reflection on the audiality, the article sketches the distance between two terms which, although close in meaning, represent also significant differences when it comes to the strategies of cultural recycling and reconfiguration of already recorded/coded material.
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