Ethical Music Decisions

           Since 1999 illegal downloading of music has been a problem among the music industry.  While free music is beneficial to the consumers, the music industry has lost millions of dollars. This has caused the RIAA, record companies and musicians to try to stop illegal downloading of music. While this has been an ongoing issue it has yet to be seen that it will ever stop.  The music industry realizes this and continues to fight for their revenue. Record companies have done things to try to fight the issue by lowering the prices of albums and offering digital downloading to help ease the pain. While they have lowered prices for the consumers, consumers still believe music should be free and have the right to download it if they want. While some might think it is okay, it is questioned whether this is ethical or not or right or wrong.

  

      John Stuart Mill utility ethics asks if it will be the greatest good for the greatest number of people. While some people might be getting free songs not everyone is.  The people who are paying for the songs might be giving what little money they have just listen to their favorite songs. The music industry is also being affected because the record companies are losing millions and people might be losing jobs. The people who are downloading the music are doing it for themselves. If they stopped and thought it through and used the utility principle they might realize it isn’t the greatest good for the greatest number of people.

      When approaching an ethical situation, Sissela Bok says that there are three steps. The first is to consult your conscience. This might be done with really asking yourself if it is right or wrong. The second is to seek alternatives; this might be done with maybe seeking the cheapest ways to get music maybe paying $7.99 a month to get as much music as some music sites offer or by checking out free legal music like iTunes free single of the day. The third is to hold an imaginary dialogue with all parties involved and think about what they would say and if they would want you to have their music for free since it is their professional and job.

 While free music downloading may never stop it is good to look at these situations in an ethical way first. It allows people to truly choose whether it is right or wrong in their eyes and it might help them choose the right decisions. While everyone might do the right thing it will help the music industry get some of their revenue back. It will make the person feel good that their doing the right thing.

Daily Media Stimulation

On Thursday of last week I decided to finally do my advertisement log. What came out of it was more media advertisement then I realized. Every time I wake up I’m exposed to at least a hundred advertisements on my wall from bands to products. Besides glancing at the mass amount of posters on my walls in the morning the first thing I do is check my cell phone. I usually check my Facebook notifications on my phone as well as my emails.  Although on a phone, I’m still exposed with advertisements everywhere!

After thirty minutes of getting ready I leave for class at 9 am. Besides listening to music on my walk to class, I usually tend to notice the amounts of advertisements on peoples clothes, from brands, bands, to names. It’s quite astonishing how people probably don’t even know how much their advertising just from what they are wearing. By the time I get to class I’m probably exposed to maybe 150 advertisements within my first hour up.

 After class, I tend to either hang out in a lounge or walk around somewhere till my next class at 12:00 P.M. Within my hour break I usually fool around on my phone trying to catch up on my iPhone games. The worse thing about having a smart phone is, all the useless advertisements advertisers try to feed us. While playing a game such as, Words With Friends, a person has to view an ad to move on for the turn to be over. Being the iPhone addict I am I tend to put up with this nonsense for maybe at an hour a day.          

                At 1:20 P.M. I usually go back to my room on the way back again I am faced with people’s clothes and my wall full of advertisements when I get back home. I don’t have television so to waste some of my day besides doing homework and being tied down to Facebook, I download podcasts to listen to catch up on the news and sports. Unfortunately for me more advertisements! The podcast are filled with sponsorship for cars to beer and the host will at least a couple times have to promote the product themselves, but again I put up with it because I enjoy when the host actually do get to talk. This Thursday night was not the most fulfilling day, at 7:00 P.M. I took a walk with a friend for a couple hours and ate dinner and adventured around town. From this walk I did notice advertisements all over the place from street cars, bumper stickers, to store displays while they caught my attention they did not have a fulfilling effect on me as I kept walking and forgot about them. This day was full of advertisements maybe not the most advertisements but still too much media in a day. Other than today I usually tend to block it out but with this project I can realize how much it has become part of a persons day.

Family Circle

                                                  

Family circle is a magazine that targets mothers with established families.They seem to target  women between the ages of 25 to 50, with children still in the house along with pets. They might want to buy this magazine if mothers are looking for advice to which meals to eat or cook for the family, house tips, children tips, and fashion and heath tips.  Family Circle tries to give efficient ways for families to save money and live better lives.

 The way they signal in their demographic is mostly by advisement's and knowing mothers will always want to satisfy their family and help their family with better decisions around the house. A majority of the advertisements strongly suggest that this is for mothers. In most family households the mother does the shopping and Family Circle does a good job with showing ads with women around the house, or families in the ads or pets.  They do a good job with signaling their audience. Another observation that people might observe is that the people they choose in their ads are older women, or men. Three celebrities they used in their advisement's were, Ellen, Janet Jackson, and Kris Jenner clearly signaling women in their demographic age.

 

         With the few pictures located to the left of this, people can see that the two show home appliances, and mom with food. These advertisements are the same ads throughout the issue just with different products but mainly sticks with the demographic of  the buyer which i mother who buy the shopping for the food or home appliances around the home.

      While looking at  Family Circle`s media kit it states what the magazine mission statement is , “Every page provides  smart, practical solutions to help moms raise happy, healthy families. With a particular emphasis on the concerns and issues faced by mothers of tweens and teens, Family Circle fills a void as the only family service magazine.” Below that it says that it gives advice  for family and parenting issues. Essentially this magazine stays true to their mission because a reader can just tell from flipping the first  few pages without reading their statement and know who this magazine targets.