Jordan's Best On-Air Moments

All the best moments from the hottest show on Ann Arbor Community TV, "Senior Moments!" Enjoy.

Net Neutrality: Both Sides of the Issue

Net neutrality is a hot-button issue on the web and in the media, pitting the FCC and companies such as Google against Internet service providers like Comcast and Time Warner. But what does net neutrality mean?

The debate centers over whether an ISP’s ability to “discriminate against” certain data on its network should be regulated by the government. This debate reached my Electronic Media Operations class (by me arguing with my professor) after the TA showed the following video and proclaimed, “All corporations care about is money.” Check it out...and beware the evil corporation spaceships.



The video makes some very legitimate points, but blatantly expresses an ideological point of view. (Did you catch it?) If you missed it, here’s some knowledge…

Free Press, a so-called non-partisan media advocacy organization founded by Robert McChesney, sponsors “Save the Internet.” McChesney is a professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the former editor of the socialist Monthly Review. Here is an example of what McChesney believes, taken from his article, “The New New Deal Under Obama.”

"These gains will only be made through an enormous class struggle from below. If won, they will not, we underscore, eliminate the evils of capitalism, or the dangers it poses for the world and its people. In the end, there is no real answer but to remove brick by brick the capitalist system itself, rebuilding the entire society on socialist principles."

A radical far-left statement, if I could say so myself. And I can. While it is perfectly understandable to support net neutrality, the previous comment does not help the cause, and is extremely concerning.

Regardless of personal opinion, I only ask of my professor to show all sides of the issue, not just the one he or she deems correct. So I’m going to do something my teacher didn’t, and allow people to make their own decisions about the issue. Take a look.

Proud to be a Detroiter

The past few years have not been kind to Detroit, most evident in the fact that its unemployment rate sits at 28.9%—the highest in the country. That figure, along with a government full of corruption, doesn't give Detroiters a lot to brag about. The city has become the brunt of many jokes in the media and its reputation as a graveyard to those outside the city seems to have spread.

So where is the light at the end of the tunnel?

Detroit is looking to become the epicenter of the green job revolution. The Green Jobs Initiative, as it is being called, will invest $6 million into training for jobs that can be classified as energy efficient. However, unlike the energy sources this initiative promotes, green jobs themselves have yet to be proven sustainable in our economy.

Still yet, Ford recently posted a surprise third-quarter profit of $997 million, its first profitable quarter in North America in more than four years.

Finally, Forbes recently released a study that places Detroit as the 12th safest city in the U.S., ahead of Chicago and Pittsburgh among others. This announcement comes just six months after the magazine named the Motor City the most dangerous city in the United States. For a place that used to have the highest rate of violent crime in the country, that ain't too shabby.

Detroiters have always been a proud and hard-working people, and this attitude continues to shine through in the face of adversity. Detroit is still the beating heart of the auto-industry, the birthplace of techno, and Hockeytown.

The next time someone makes an unwarranted comment about my city, I may have to call up the boys down on 8 Mile and Gratiot to pay them a visit.

Move over hand sports, here comes soccer!

Americans love fast things- NASCAR, running backs, and EZ Mac- all ingrained in the American psyche. So it’s understandable why soccer hasn’t enjoyed the popularity other sports have. Frankly, the mention of soccer usually makes the traditional U.S. sports fan cringe. Times are changing though, and soccer’s momentum is slowly gaining…and advertisers are taking notice.

With the World Cup fast approaching, ad campaigns showing soccer are targeting more than just mini-van driving soccer moms. The male young adult demo, usually dominated by football and basketball ads, is also being reached by soccer. AXE shower gel, among others, has most noticeably embraced this notion with its “Beautiful Game” television ads and website contest.

The increased attention towards soccer can be attributed to a few things, namely an increase in television viewership for pro soccer events. According to majorleaguesoccertalk.com, Major League Soccer has seen a 15% increase in viewership on ESPN2 this season and a 60% increase in viewership on Fox Soccer Channel. Matches involving David Beckham averaged over 400,000 viewers on the network.

The ever-expanding Latino population (and their buying power) is another reason soccer is seeing the light of day. In the latest annual report on minority buying power by the Selig Center for Economic Growth at the University of Georgia's Terry College of Business, Latino buying power is due to surpass $860 billion in 2007 and exceed $1.2 trillion in five years. At this rate, Latino buying power will be the largest multicultural market by 2012.

What ever your opinion of the “beautiful game,” recognizing the increasing advertising power soccer possesses is something marketers will need to recognize in the near future. As T.V. ratings keep going up- and with no end of Latin influence in sight, soccer is going nowhere...fast.