The Media Is A Mirror Of Society, And If That Society Is

The media is a mirror of society, and if that society is by any means influenced by stereotypes, the media will reflect it. Advertising, according to Erving Goffman, author of the book Gender Advertising, depicts how men and women behave as a social purpose and how today’s social purpose is highly unbalanced in men’s favor. Some people say that advertisers should be held accountable for the unethical images they present. Others, however, say that consumers should be to blame because by buying the products being advertised they are, in fact, supporting the advertisers and the images they set forth. The solution to this issue is simple: If these gender messages are ever expected to change, consumers should stop supporting advertising†¦show more content†¦Meanwhile, the bank accounts of these industries continue to multiply. The first reason consumers should stop supporting advertising agencies that portray women as sex objects rather than subjects is that these unequal advertisements, in fact, do create a negative effect on society and gender relationships, especially at the subconscious level. Katherine Toland Frith, author of the essay, â€Å"Advertising and Mother Nature,† published in the book Feminism, Multiculturalism, and the Media: Global Diversities, addresses this issue by saying that advertisements shape the human consciousness and reflect the values and morals of the underlying ethical system. She states that media advertising is a â€Å". . .strong marketing tool and cultural artifact. We must move beyond the surface message of the products and services for sale and explore the deeper, underlying meanings of advertisers. . .† (185). In other words, buyers and consumers in the market must be aware of inequality in the media. Vivian Gornick agrees with Toland Frith in her intro to Erving Goffman’s Gender Advertisements. She explains how advertisements are merely a creative documentation of a highly-manipulated representation of â€Å"real life† for the viewer (xii). Consumers must live and construct their own sense of reality consciously and cannot depend on what the media feeds them as the truth. Another reason that it is necessary to stop support of these industries is because stereotyped imagesShow MoreRelatedThe Media Machine Is A Delusion1331 Words   |  6 Pagesin The Influencing Machine, â€Å"The media machine is a delusion. What we’re really dealing with is a mirror: an exalting, degrading, tedious, and transcendent funhouse mirror of America† (Gladstone xxi). It often goes unnoticed how frequently the media reflects America as if it were a mirror. Popular culture, television, and nearly every social media platform essentially showcases a mirror of American society as a whole. The media typically displays exactly what society wants to see which evidently, isRead MoreMedia As the Mirror of Lebanese Culture1335 Words   |  5 PagesWhat kind of Mirror is the Media of Lebanese Culture? As we discuss media, we must also discuss the nature and function of art. A difference between art and media can be the process by which they are made. Yet in these modern days, the lines between media and art are not lines, but fractals or shapes only described by functions of calculus. That is to say that art and media are heavily intertwined in the 21st century. Some media is art; some art is media. A trait that media and art have in commonRead MoreThe Bad Guy, or Not? Social Media Influence on Self-Perception981 Words   |  4 Pagesgrab a magazine. The models on the cover do not have an over-weight looking body. The right thing to do would be blaming media for giving young girls the idea of a perfect body and also, proving them with the illusion that a body is what they need to have a good, happy, and full-filling life. But, is it really all media’s fault? In today’s world, people are misreading what media is really about, and they have started to blame it for the bad that is in the world. A bad that is changing people’s eatingRead MoreAnalysis Of I Hate The Internet727 Words   |  3 Pagesâ€Å"I Hate The Internet† was a witty approach towards the impact of social media on societal views and reputations. It continues to express the problematic outcomes that social media has created due to its allowance for the usage of the First Amendment. This novel is easily accepted by the reader in regards to humor and interest due to its quick topic changes and thought provoking jabs at topics that are not commonly known to be discussed jokingly. Without Kobeks witty and unfiltered writing approachesRead MoreThe Pluralist View of Mass Media Essay1340 Words   |  6 PagesThe Pluralist View of Mass Media Pluralism is the belief that power is spread widely throughout the world. It is a belief that companies or powerful groups are competing, but within boundaries of consensus and compromise. The idea of pluralism descends from functionalism. Functionalism is the view that society is structured; every institution in society fulfils certain roles and functions. If there was a disruption in one of these institutions then it could affect theRead MoreBeauty Culture: An Examination the Effects Media Has on Society 1440 Words   |  6 PagesSociety is obsessed with being beautiful. One just has to examine the amount differing beauty industries earn early for this fact to be evident. For example, the diet industry is a thirty-three billion dollar industry, with the cosmetic industry following close behind with twenty billion yearly (Wolf 16). However, this obsession with beauty is not without cause. As stated in Body Image: Understanding Body Dissatisfaction in Men, Women, and Children, â€Å"In affluent Western societies, slenderness isRead MorePersonal Growth Sylvia Plath s The Bell Jar1177 Words   |  5 Pagesstruggles of conforming to society. Sylvia Plath In The Bell Jar, the author, Sylvia Plath, uses metaphors, symbolism, and tone to draw attention to the main characters journey through mental illness and her struggle to relate to the feminist expectations of society. Sylvia Plath uses many symbolism to convey her character Esther’s Journey displayed in The Bell Jar. Additionally, she uses symbolism to show Esther’s struggle to relate to the feminist expectations of society. The Bell Jar, spoken aboutRead MoreAnalysis Of Jacque Lacan s The Mirror Stage1644 Words   |  7 PagesWhile discussing Jacque Lacan’s The Mirror Stage for the second time this semester I started thinking about my own younger brother’s introduction to the mirror a few years ago. As I was trying to remember this interaction, I came to the realization that his first interaction with his â€Å"self† wasn’t with a mirror at all- it was actually with an iPhone’s front facing camera- used as a form of distraction while he sat in his highchair. This made start thinking about the fact that the recent generationsRead MoreZombie Symbolism Essay1101 Words   |  5 Pagesempty-headed behaviors and their oozing brains, they are the mai n contributor to the ever-developing market of science and fantasy that is without a glass ceiling. In today’s society, zombies can be considered the focal point of our fear-obsessed environment, literally and figuratively. However, this ever-expanding market has society curious purely based off of the inherent restrictions of the zombie population. When looking into all aspects surrounding the zombie culture, it becomes obvious that oneRead MoreThink Of A Beautiful, Ten-Year-Old Girl Standing In The1281 Words   |  6 Pagesten-year-old girl standing in the mirror, clutching her stomach and tears rolling down her cheeks because she is being teased for not being as skinny as the other girls in her class. She looks at the models on TV and envies their skinniness. She wants to look just like them. At ten years old, she starts running after dinner and not eating as much as she use to eat. That beautiful little girl is just like every woman all over the world; she is pressured t o by the media to have a â€Å"perfect body.’ Women

A Historical Timeline Evolution of the TV(1831-1996)

Television was not invented by a single inventor, instead of many people working together and alone over the years, contributed to the evolution of television. 1831 Joseph Henrys and Michael Faradays work with electromagnetism jumpstarts the era of electronic communication. 1862: First Still Image Transferred Abbe Giovanna Caselli invents his Pantelegraph and becomes the first person to transmit a still image over wires. 1873 Scientists May and Smith experiment with selenium and light, this reveals the possibility for inventors to transform images into electronic signals. 1876 Boston civil servant George Carey was thinking about complete television systems and in 1877 he put forward drawings for what he called a selenium camera that would allow people to see by electricity. Eugen Goldstein coins the term cathode rays to describe the light emitted when an electric current was forced through a vacuum tube. The Late 1870s Scientists and engineers like Paiva, Figuier, and Senlecq were suggesting alternative designs for Telectroscopes. 1880 Inventors Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Edison theorize about telephone devices that transmit image as well as sound. Bells Photophone used light to transmit sound and he wanted to advance his device for image sending. George Carey builds a rudimentary system with light-sensitive cells. 1881 Sheldon Bidwell experiments with his Telephotography that was similar to Bells Photophone. 1884: 18 Lines of Resolution Paul Nipkow sends images over wires using a rotating metal disk technology calling it the electric telescope with 18 lines of resolution. 1900: And We Called It Television At the Worlds Fair in Paris, the first International Congress of Electricity was held. That is where Russian Constantin Perskyi made the first known use of the word television. Soon after 1900, the momentum shifted from ideas and discussions to the physical development of television systems. Two major paths in the development of a television system were pursued by inventors. Inventors attempted to build mechanical television systems based on  Paul Nipkows  rotating disks orInventors attempted to build  electronic television systems  based on the  cathode ray  tube developed independently in 1907 by English inventor A.A. Campbell-Swinton and Russian scientist Boris Rosing. 1906: First Mechanical Television System Lee de Forest invents the Audion vacuum tube that proved essential to electronics. The Audion was the first tube with the ability to amplify signals. Boris Rosing combines Nipkows disk and a cathode ray tube and builds the first working mechanical TV system. 1907: Early Electronic Systems Campbell Swinton and Boris Rosing suggest using  cathode ray tubes  to transmit images. Independent of each other, they both develop electronic scanning methods of reproducing images. 1923 Vladimir  Zworykin  patents his  iconoscope  a TV camera tube based on Campbell Swintons ideas. The  iconoscope, which he called an electric eye becomes the cornerstone for further television development.  Zworkin  later develops the kinescope for picture display (aka the  receiver). 1924-25: First Moving Silhouette Images American  Charles Jenkins  and  John Baird  from Scotland, each demonstrate the mechanical transmissions of images over wire circuits. John Baird  becomes the first person to transmit moving silhouette images using a mechanical system based on Nipkows disk. Charles Jenkin  built his Radiovisor and 1931 and sold it as a kit for consumers to put together (see photo to right). Vladimir  Zworykin  patents a  color television  system. 1926-30: Lines of Resolution John Baird  operates a television system with 30 lines of resolution system running at 5 frames per second. 1927 Bell Telephone  and the U.S. Department of Commerce conducted the first long-distance use of television that took place between Washington D.C. and New York City on April 7th. Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover commented, â€Å"Today we have, in a sense, the transmission of sight for the first time in the world’s history. Human genius has now destroyed the impediment of distance in new respect, and in a manner hitherto unknown.† Philo Farnsworth, files for a patent on the first completely electronic television system, which he called the Image Dissector. 1928 The Federal Radio Commission issues the first television station license (W3XK) to  Charles Jenkins. 1929 Vladimir Zworykin  demonstrates the first practical electronic system for both the transmission and reception of images using his new kinescope tube. John Baird  opens the first TV studio, however, the image quality was poor. 1930 Charles Jenkins  broadcasts the first TV commercial. The BBC begins regular TV transmissions. 1933 Iowa State University (W9XK) starts broadcasting twice-weekly television programs in cooperation with radio station WSUI. 1936 About 200 hundred television sets are in use worldwide. The introduction of coaxial cable, which is a pure copper or copper-coated wire surrounded by insulation and aluminum covering. These cables were and are used to transmit television, telephone, and data signals. The first experimental coaxial cable lines were laid by ATT between New York and Philadelphia in 1936. The first regular installation connected Minneapolis and Stevens Point, WI in 1941. The original L1 coaxial-cable system could carry 480 telephone conversations or one television program. By the 1970s, L5 systems could carry 132,000 calls or more than 200 television programs. 1937 CBS begins its TV development. The BBC begins high definition broadcasts in London. Brothers and Stanford researchers Russell and Sigurd Varian introduce the Klystron. A Klystron is a high-frequency amplifier for generating microwaves. It is considered the technology that makes UHF-TV possible because it gives the ability to generate the high power required in this spectrum. 1939 Vladimir Zworykin  and RCA conduct experimentally broadcasts from the  Empire State Building. Television was demonstrated at the New York Worlds Fair and the San Francisco Golden Gate International Exposition. RCAs David Sarnoff used his companys exhibit at the 1939 Worlds Fair as a showcase for the 1st Presidential speech (Roosevelt) on television and to introduce RCAs new line of television receivers, some of which had to be coupled with a radio if you wanted to hear the sound. The Dumont company starts making tv sets. 1940 Peter Goldmark invents 343 lines of the resolution  color television  system. 1941 The FCC releases the NTSC standard for black and white TV. 1943 Vladimir Zworykin  developed a better camera tube called the Orthicon. The Orthicon (see photo right) had enough light sensitivity to record outdoor events at night. 1946 Peter Goldmark, working for CBS, demonstrated his  color television  system to the FCC. His system produced color pictures by having a red-blue-green wheel spin in front of a  cathode ray tube. This mechanical means of producing a color picture was used in 1949 to broadcast medical procedures from Pennsylvania and Atlantic City hospitals. In Atlantic City, viewers could come to the convention center to see broadcasts of operations. Reports from the time noted that the realism of seeing surgery in color caused more than a few viewers to faint. Although Goldmarks mechanical system was eventually replaced by an electronic system he is recognized as the first to introduce a broadcasting  color television  system. 1948 Cable television  is introduced in Pennsylvania as a means of bringing television to rural areas. A patent was granted to Louis W. Parker for a low-cost television receiver. One million homes in the United States have television sets. 1950 The FCC approves the first  color television  standard which is replaced by a second in 1953. Vladimir Zworykin  developed a better camera tube called the Vidicon. 1956 Ampex introduces the first practical  videotape  system of broadcast quality. 1956 Robert Adler  invents the first practical  remote control  called the Zenith Space Commander. It was proceeded by wired remotes and units that failed in sunlight. 1960 The first split screen broadcast occurs on the Kennedy - Nixon debates. 1962 The All-Channel Receiver Act requires that UHF tuners (channels 14 to 83) be included in all sets. 1962 A joint international collaboration between ATT, Bell Labs, NASA, British General Post Office, the French National Post, Telegraph, and Telecom Office results in the development and launch of  Telstar, the first satellite to carry TV broadcasts - broadcasts are now internationally relayed. 1967 Most TV broadcasts are in color. 1969 July 20, first TV transmission from the moon and 600 million people watch. 1972 Half the TVs in homes are color sets. 1973 Giant screen projection TV is first marketed. 1976 Sony introduces  Betamax, the first home video cassette recorder. 1978 PBS becomes the first station to switch to all satellite delivery of programs. 1981: 1,125 Lines of Resolution NHK demonstrates HDTV with 1,125 lines of resolution. 1982 Dolby  Surround  Sound for home sets is introduced. 1983 Direct Broadcast Satellite begins service in Indianapolis, In. 1984 Stereo TV broadcasts approved. 1986 Super VHS introduced. 1993 Closed captioning required on all sets. 1996 The FCC approves ATSCs HDTV standard. A billion TV sets worldwide.

The Queen Of Hearts, By Lewis Carroll - 880 Words

†§ The Queen of Hearts in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is a nonsense novel created by Lewis Carroll in 1865. The story begins with Alice follows a clothed rabbit to a rabbit hole. She goes to a couple bazaar places and meets talking animals. In chapter eight, Alice encounters three playing cards painting the white roses into red because The Queen of Hearts hates white roses. She is a character who always angry and yells â€Å"Off with their heads!† She invites Alice to play croquet with live flamingos as mallets and the hedgehogs as balls. In chapter eleven, Alice attends a trial because the Knave of Hearts is accused of stealing the Queen’s tarts. Meanwhile, Alice is growing larger steadily. She refuses to leave and tells the Queen and King they are just a pack of cards. The story end in Alice’s sister woke her up from the dream. Lewis Carroll once stated that the Queen of Hearts is ‘the concentrated essence of all governess’. (Nichols, 2014) In the Walt Disneyà ¢â‚¬â„¢s animation version, the Alice describes the Queen of Hearts as a ‘fat, pompous, bad tempered old tyrant’. (Grant, 1987) Also, in Alice’s Wonderland A visual Journey through Lewis Carroll’s Mad, Mad World, Nichols mentioned that Miranda Richardson, the actress who played the Queen of Hearts in 1999 small screen version, made the character into a real mad and arbitrary woman. (Nichols, 2014) John Tenniel, the first illustrator of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, took VictorianShow MoreRelatedThe Theme Of Anti-Feminism In Alices Adventures In Wonderland1558 Words   |  7 Pagesdominate and have control over women. Lewis Carroll proves this fact through a young and innocent heroine’s journey with the reoccurring themes of anti-feminism, unequal treatment of women, and the gender roles dictated by society. In the fantasy novel, Alice s Adventures in Wonderland, written by Lewis Carroll, there are numerous occasions where power inequalit y between men and women are profound through the female characters - Alice, the Duchess, and the Queen of Hearts. To begin with, Alice, theRead MoreA Pen Name Lewis Carroll1429 Words   |  6 PagesAbout the author Charles Dodgson’s also known by his pen name Lewis Carroll was born January 27, 1892 in Daresbury, Cheshire England, and died in 1898 at Guildford, Surrey. He was raised in the country where he was the oldest of eight siblings. He began writing at an early age, mostly as entertainment for his younger siblings. Carroll had physical deformities, partial deafness and a stutter that limited him in throughout his life. Carroll had strict religious beliefs, and attended the Anglican ChurchRead MoreCurious Appetites : Food, Desire, Gender, And Subjectivity938 Words   |  4 Pages In the article â€Å"Curious Appetites: Food, Desire, Gender, and Subjectivity in Lewis Carroll’s Alice Texts,† Carina Garland takes on a classic childhood book and author. She enlightens the reader on the gender aspects behind the Lewis Carroll books Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There. Garland utilizes the knowledge of Carrollâ⠂¬â„¢s peculiar and slightly grotesque history of relationships with prepubescent girls and abhorrence of women, linked withRead MoreLewis Carroll: A Brief Biography785 Words   |  3 PagesLewis Carroll Lewis Carroll was born on January 27, 1832 in Daresbury, England. His real name is Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, but is known by his pseudonym Lewis Carroll. His mother was Frances Jane Lutwidge and Father was Charles Dodgson and he had a grandfather named Charles Dodgson who was an Army Captain. Lewis Carroll’s father was the Bishop of Elphin. He was the eldest son and third child in a family of seven girls and four boys. In 1846 his education began at a rugby school in Warwickshire,Read MoreAnalysis Of The Book Alice s Adventures 1293 Words   |  6 PagesAlice’s Adventures in Wonderland is a novel by Charles Dodgson, better known under the pseudonym of Lewis Carroll to his readers. Published in 1865, the novel centers around a young girl’s lively adventures in a fantastical dream world. She falls into this world after she sees a rabbit with a pocket watch and waistcoat running through her yard and then follows him down a rabbit hole. Although marketed as a c hildren’s story, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland has remained a mainstay with childrenRead MoreAlice s Adventures : A Satire1132 Words   |  5 Pagescards are just some of the un-natural occurrences that take place in Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. In today’s society with competing books, such as Harry Potter, these elements in the book may seem like no big deal, but for the time period the book was published, these were anything but normal. This children’s book was first published in 1865 in the United Kingdom; during the Victorian time period, named after Queen Victoria. The book, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland represents aRead MoreAlices Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll2354 Words   |  9 Pagesis Charles Lutwidge Dodgson also known as Lewis Carroll. Lewis is acknowledged as one of the best writers that have ever lived; he is also well appreciated in the English culture. Carroll was born on January 27, 1832, in Morphany Lane in the village of Daresbury England. Carroll was the third oldest son of the Reverend Charles Dodgson and Frances Jane Lutwidge. Carroll belonged to a family of eleven children where he was the third oldest. Lewis Carroll childhood was pleasant. He was always fullRead MoreLewis Carroll s Alice s Adventures1432 Words   |  6 Pages Lewis Carroll s â€Å"Alice s Adventures in Wonderland and Though the Looking-Glass are classics of the English language, Vying with the Bible and William Shakespeare as source of quotation(Blake, Kathleen 112).† Lewis Carroll s Alice s Adventures in Wonderland has always been a favorite for many children since it came out. It also has been interesting for any adult that has read it. Lewis Carroll is a literary genius even though he wrote plenty of nonsense. Born on Janurry 27, 1832, Lewis CarrolRead MoreJohn Charles Lutwidge Dodgson s The Looking Glass 1366 Words   |  6 Pages Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, best known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, has written many novels, poems, and short stories in his lifetime but his most famous for his children s ?nonsense? novels: Alice s Adventures in Wonderland and the sequel Through the Looking Glass. His works, especially the two mentioned, have influenced countless readers over the years, and references to his writings can be found in every type of media from the song ?White Rabbit? by Jefferson Airplane to the the MatrixRead MoreCriticisms of Victorian Society in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Caroll1078 Words   |  4 Pagescriticized through Alice’s experiences in Wonderland. Lewis Carroll indirectly incorporates his views of society into his book. The three main aspects that are criticized are Victorian Education, Victorian Government, and Victorian C lasses. First, it is widely accepted that Lewis Carroll was criticizing aspects of Victorian Education of children. There is strong evidence that Carroll thought negatively with regard to Victorian Education. Carroll does not explicitly come out and say that he dislikes

Animal Testing (1822 words) Essay Example For Students

Animal Testing (1822 words) Essay Animal TestingThis theme song to a popular cartoon is a farce dealing with experiments carried out on animals. In the cartoon one mouse is made very smart and wants to take over the world while the other is clearly not as smart. While the cartoon makes jokes, the reality is that mice and other animals re being used for medical tests every day. For some people this testing brings up ethical questions. One of the biggest questions: is it really necessary to take the lives of animals in the name of science and for the betterment of humanity? For animal rights activists, like People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), the answer is no. PETA pressures labs into halting experiments because they believe that animals are not to be used by humans for food, clothing, entertainment, or to experiment on (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals 1). Its stance is that any testing is painful, inhumane, and unnecessary when alternatives are available. The PETA website says that animals, like humans, have interests that cannot be sacrificed or traded away simply because it might benefit others. (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals 2-3). Essentially, PETA is of the opinion that animals and humans should have identical rights. In their press releases PETA puts out pictures of rabbits with open flesh wounds and dogs with rashes on their skinsall in an attempt to disgust people into sympathy for their cause. In actuality the number of lab animals used has been cut in half in the last 25 years (James-Enger 254). Of the animals used, 90 percent are rats and mice (James-Enger 1). Moreover, 11 million animals die each year in animal shelters (Americans for Medical Progress 2) and an astounding 95 percent of the animals that die in America do so from human consumption (James-Enger 254). The reason that animal testing is appropriate is that there are regulations in place to minimize testing and pain, the alternatives are insufficient for now, and most importantly the information obtained from experimentation is irreplaceable. While animal rights groups such as PETA advocate abolishing all animal testing that inflicts pain on animals, proponents of testing cite laws and regulations which minimize pain and discomfort. PETAs position is based on the belief that humans are not superior to animals (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals). The vice president of the Humans Society of the United States (HSUS), an animal rights group that is nearly as extreme as PETA, has been quoted as saying the life of an ant and that of my child should be granted equal consideration (Americans for Medical Progress 2). If, as PETA and HSUS say, animal and human life is equal, then putting an animal through any pain is immoral. However, there are laws in place to minimize discomfort and inhumane treatment. The laws limit the amount of distress and pain an animal is subjected to. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), the body that governs animal test ing, must approve all tests (United States Department of Agriculture 2). The USDA must also authorize the numbers and types of animals experimented on (United States Department of Agriculture 2). Tests can no longer be performed if conclusive data is already available. In 1991 it was discovered that Procter and Gamble had performed experiments on 300 guinea pigs when the data the tests was to obtain was already available (Animal Testing by the Cosmetic Industry 2). This is just one of the situations that newer animal testing legislation would have prevented or at least deterred. A fifty-point criterion for assessing pain is in place (United States Department of Agriculture 3). These points include everything from vocalization of pain to apparent depression. If there is no clear criteria then it is assumed that procedures that cause pain in humans also cause pain in animals (United States Department of Agriculture 50). When an animal must be restrained it is to be limited to brief pe riods of around three minutes (United States Department of Agriculture 3). This is similar to the procedure followed when a doctor holds a child to administer a vaccination shot. For all surgeries and painful tests, sedatives and anesthetics must be utilized (United States Department of Agriculture 49). If the test will leave the animal permanently damaged, euthanasia must be administered before the anesthetic wears off (United States Department of Agriculture 48). For humans this topic is still being debated, but animals are put to sleep every day when an owner or veterinarian decides the quality of the animals life will be too low for it to go on living. These few but important changes in animal research legislation have aided in improving animal welfare. PETA believes that the benefits of animal research do not outweigh the costs when alternatives are available; proponents argue that those alternatives are not effective. PETAs stance is that animal life is too valuable to risk on experimentation especially when there are alternatives, such as false human skin grown in culture, computer programs, and using human subjects. Taking a few skin cells and growing them into small squares of skin produces the false human skin. This piece of skin can be used to test irritation reactions to different chemicals. It is being used in the cosmetic industry, which has all but ceased animal testing. One problem with the false skin however is that it can only be exposed to water-soluble chemicals or it suffers extreme damage (D.E. 168). Furthermore, it currently contains no melanocytes, the chemicals that give skin its color, or immune cells (D.E. 168). It is not known how or if these substances effect any laboratory setting, but it is desirable for any experiment to mimic real life situations as closely as possible. Another alternative to actual animal experimentation is using computer simulations. These programs are like encyclopedias of chemical information. They can only run simulations based on information on chemicals and reactions that are already known. This is an obvious problem with this alternative. Computer simulation software cannot accurately predict the effects of enough situations and theoretical chemical combinations to be heavily relied on. What it comes down to is that there currently is no viable replacement for live, responsive cells. Jack H. Botting and Adrian R. Morrison point out that there are no basic differences between the physiology of laboratory animals and humans (Botting, Morrison 85). These similarities are what scientists need for experiments to be accurate. The matches are never perfect, but animal experiments are a good place for researchers to start looking for answers to questions that are important to human health care. Another proposed alternative to animal testing is to use human subjects. PETA suggests using people who have particular ailments who would be willing to participate in experiments. The problem with this alternative is that it is not scientifically sound. When conducting a scientific experiment, all variables must be controlled, and running tests on random human subjects does not give reliable results. Assuming that a researcher could find enough people to run an experiment, there would be too many extraneous variables, such as the subjects environment, genes, and other pre-existing conditions. With lab animals the complete medical history is known, the entire life of each animal is documented. Also they are selectively bred to produce genetically similar subjects. Simply put, lab animals are a cheap, reliable source of information. The benefits gained from animal testing are too widespread to ignore. Everyday life has been changed for the better because of this testing. As 1990 Nobel Prize Laureate Joseph E. Murray, M.D. said, Animal experimentation has been essential to the development of all cardiac surgery, transplantation surgery, joint replacements and all vaccinations ( Americans for Medical Progress 1). The numbers to back up this claim are that over 440,000 open-heart surgeries are performed and 11,000 kidneys are transplanted every year, not to mention that animal experimentation has made possible the salvation of 20,000 kidney dialysis patients each year (Botting 1). Also, the ability to test on animals has made possible the relatively safe and successful use of dangerous chemotherapy drugs to treat cancer (Americans for Medical Progress 1). Drugs such as this cannot be tested on humans because of their strength and potential for killing in inappropriate doses. If the proper dosage were not known, the results would be inaccurate and could be lethal. Many antibiotics and vaccines used today were developed and tested through animal research, as were insulin to control diabetes and nearly all modern anesthetics (Botting 1). It is hard to imagine life without some of these lifesaving drugs, or even the ones that do not save lives, just make life a little more bearable. It is likewise significant to note that animal testing has benefited animals as well. When a pet owner takes his or her animal to the veterinarian to receive shots, chances are that those shots are available because of animal experimentation. Heartworm, feline leukemia, rabies, anthrax, and tetanus are all preventable because of animal testing. PETA and HSUS are honorable institutions with admirable goals, but they are over idealistic and overzealous. That fact can best be described by the following quote: Animal rights activists blocked for two years research aimed at stopping transmission of HIV from mother to child. That research ultimately demonstrated how AZT can prevent babies from getting AIDS (Americans for Medical Progress). Sometimes the good of the many outweighs the good of the few. This does not mean that animal testing should go unchecked. Suffering is kept to a minimum by legislation and advancements in testing alternatives. As these alternatives progress, the number of live animals needed for testing will gradually decrease and eventually the need for them will hopefully be eliminated. But in the meantime, animal testing is too important to stop. The benefits waiting to be had are too important and any possible drawbacks are too insignificant to allow a halt in animal research. BibliographyBibliographyAnimal Testing by the Cosmetic Industry. (20 March 1999). Animal Research Saves Human and Animal Lives. Americans for Medical Progress. (20 March 1999). Animal Research Holds the Key to Saving Human Lives. Americans for Medical Progress. (20 March 1999). Ball, Matt and Anne Green, and Jack Norris. Veganism as the Path to Animal Liberation. The Animals Agenda Sep/Oct 1998: 44-45. Botting, Jack H. and Adrian R. Morrison. Animal Research is Vital to Medicine. Scientific American. 187 February 1997: 83-85. D. E. Skin Stand-Ins. Scientific American. September 1990: 168. James-Enger, Kelly. Beyond Animal Testing. Vegetarian Times. October 1998: 254. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. (20 March 1999). 21 Things You May Not Know About the Animal Rights Movement. Americans for Medical Progress. (20 March 1999). U.S. Department of Agriculture: Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. 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