FINALLY

Special thanks to Miss Dewigah Natarajah for giving me a lot of encouragement to complete the assignment for  subject Media Writing. With help from her, I managed to complete this assignment successfully. I have learned a lot for this semester two. Hopefully all I have learn I will keep in memory. I hope to see you again in semester three soon. Thank you.

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NURUL FAIZAH BINTI NOH

DBRTV

SEMESTER TWO

Health effects of smoking are more dangerous than thought

While smoking has long been linked to an array of health problems, recent research shows that the harmful habit is worse than previously known: A new report from the U.S. surgeon general found that smoking causes diseases in almost every organ of the human body. 

Released in late May, "The Health Consequences of Smoking: A Report of the Surgeon General," cites more than 1,600 scientific articles on the health effects of smoking. In addition to the well-known effects of smoking, such as lung, mouth and esophageal cancers, the new report found that smoking is conclusively linked toleukemia, cataracts and pneumonia as well as cancers of the pancreas, cervix and kidneys. Other complications linked to smoking in the report included diabetes complications, hip fractures and reproductive complications. 

"The toxins from cigarette smoke can go everywhere the blood flows," said U.S. Surgeon General Richard Carmona, MD, MPH, FACS. "I'm hoping this new information will help motivate people to quit smoking and convince young people not to start in the first place." 

The new report was released on the anniversary of the historic 1964 surgeon general's report on smoking, which was the first to draw widespread attention to the dangers of tobacco use. While U.S. smoking rates have notably dropped since the publication of the first report - 42 percent of the public smoked in 1964 versus 22.5 percent of adults today - the practice still leads to 440,000 U.S. deaths each year. 

More than 12 million Americans have died from smoking since the 1964 report, and another 25 million Americans alive today are expected to die of a smoking-related illness, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 

Among the report's other conclusions was that low-tar or low-nicotine cigarettes are not healthier than regular cigarettes. 

Despite the damaging effects of tobacco use, quitting smoking has immediate and long-term effects such as improved circulation and a drop in heart rate, the report found. Even quitting late in life can have positive effects: Giving up tobacco at age 65 can reduce a smoker's risk of dying of related disease by 50 percent. 

The scientific articles cited in the report are featured in a new online interactive database that is available via the surgeon general's Web site at http://www.surgeongeneral.gov. The database will be updated as new studies are published. 

Legislation introduced

The surgeon general report findings came as courts, legislators and advocates stepped up their attention to tobacco control in recent months. 

In Washington, D.C., legislators from both sides of the political table embraced new legislation that would give the U.S. Food and Drug Administration the authority to regulate tobacco products. 

While such legislation has been proposed in previous sessions of Congress, the new bills, introduced in May, are notable in that they were introduced by Republicans and Democrats in both congressional chambers. In the House, H.R. 4433 was introduced by Reps. Tom Davis, R-Va., and Henry Waxman, D-Calif., while in the Senate, S. 2461 was introduced by Sens. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, and Edward Kennedy, D-Mass. 

The bills would provide FDA with the authority for actions such as prohibiting unsubstantiated health claims, requiring changes in the composition of tobacco products to make them less harmful and protecting children from tobacco marketing. A June poll by the Campaign For Tobacco-Free Kids found that 69 percent of respondents favored passing legislation that would provide regulation authority to FDA. 

"Many consumers, including smokers, are surprised to learn that no federal agency has the authority to require tobacco companies to list the ingredients that are in their products - things like trace amounts of arsenic, formaldehyde and ammonia," DeWine said. "No federal agency has the authority to inspect tobacco manufacturers - how the cigarette and smokeless tobacco products are made, whether the manufacturers' machines and equipment are clean." 

FDA regulation of tobacco is supported by health and tobacco control advocates, including APHA, which has long had policy on the books specifically calling for such a move. APHA also supports measures that would provide incentives to tobacco farmers to switch to other crops, such as a tobacco industry-financed buyout of such farmers.

How to Find Good Friends

• Don't judge someone on appearances. If there's someone you don't really know or have never met before, go up to them and introduce yourself, and start talking to them.
• Join some clubs, like mixed netball, a book club, chess club, or make your own! To do this, just write out some fliers and stick them on a notice board advertising for a way for people to make new friends. Many people who just move places don't have any friends, so they would love to go out for coffee and meet some new people.
• Go to events, like store grand openings, or events at your local library.
• If you have children, you can join a mothers club. A mothers club is where mothers get together to discuss their children, problems they've been having or what they've been doing.
• Join online forums, so you can discuss issues with other people, which can quite often lead to new friendships.
• To find good friends, you should get involved with things that you like do, so that if you do meet someone, you'll have the same interests.
• Join an online social site, like facebook, so that if you meet someone you can add them. Even if you don't know them very well, you can see what they've been doing and ask them out for coffee, and then you'll know what they've been up to!

Public Service Announcement

There are many different definitions for a public service announcement (PSA) or public service ad, but the simplified version of PSAs are messages in the public interest disseminated by the media without charge, with the objective of raising awareness, changing public attitudes and behavior towards a social issue.

HISTORY

The PSA in its current form was in many ways shaped by the Ad Council (initially called the War Advertising Council) during and after World War II.

The Ad Council made its mark by implementing on a massive scale the idea of using advertising to influence American society on a range of fronts. Their first campaigns focused on the country's needs during World War II. After the War, the Ad Council expanded its focus to address issues such as forest fires, blood donations and highway safety.

As the ads — particularly broadcast and HBO TV — became more influential and as various social problems grew in importance, public service advertising became a significant force in changing public attitudes on topics such as drinking and driving, crime abatement and various health/safety issues. While stations have never been mandated by the FCC to use a prescribed number of PSAs, they are required to prove they broadcast in the public interest and PSAs are one of the ways they meet that requirement as part of serving as a "public trustee''.

CHARACTERISTIC

The most common topics of PSAs are health and safety, such as the multimedia Emergency Preparedness & Safety Tips On Air and Online (talk radio/blog) campaign. A typical PSA is part of a public awareness campaign to inform or educate the public about an issue such as obesity or compulsive gambling. The range of possible topics has expanded over time.

From time to time a charitable organization enlists the support of a celebrity for a PSA; examples include actress Kathryn Erbe telling people to be green and Crips gang leader Stanley Williams speaking from prison to urge youth not to join gangs. Some PSAs tell people to adopt animals instead of buying them. Protecting our Earth, also known as being green, is another example of a current PSA topic.

Some television shows featuring very special episodes made PSAs after the episodes. For example, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit talked about child abduction in one episode, so it had a PSA about child abduction. Another example is when the original Law & Order did an episode about drunk driving, which had a PSA about drunk driving.

During the 1980s, a large number of American cartoon shows contained PSA's at the end of their shows. These may or may not have been relevant to the episode itself. Three of the most widely known are the closing moral segments at the end of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, the "Knowing is Half the Battle" epilogues in G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero and the "Sonic Sez" segments from Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog.

Some television PSAs have topics such as on not watching so much television, or not taking fictional shows literally; or about television, movie, or video game ratings.