Almost Famous
Bringing the Masses to Mass Communication: Distribution of Digital Content is the title of chapter 9. Within this chapter there is a real world media ethics dilemma that really fits with that title. the section is titled, "Almost (and Unwillingly) Famous." It is an article that explains how the internet can affect not only orginizations (businesses), but also people's lives. It talks about how people can suffer from public humiliation or loss of employment for something they put on the Web. The section gives an example of a case involving a man named Bill Owens. He claimed that he was pressured to leave his job at Home Depot because of sexual herassment that he received from fellow female coworkers. The herassment had to deal with a pornographic Web site that he and his wife ran from their home that contained videos and pictures of them in different sexual acts. Owens claims that his personal, private life should be none of the company's or employee's business as long as it wasnt taking place at work.

I understand the point Owens was trying to make, but millions of people have acess to his Web site. Some of those millions could include people that knew him. That is something he and his wife should have thought about before they ran this site, and since it is a pornographic site they should be ready for some "feedback" of ridicule. Something the section didn't explain was how the female employees heard about the site. There are thousands if not millions of pornographic sites on the Web, how did they find the one that this man they work with had. I think that Owens, like most men, was bragging about how much money he makes off this site and what he and his wife do to make this extra money. If this were the case, then the women probably overheard or was told about it and was just curious on what it was. Like I said before, Owens should have thought about this more thoroughly before he put things like that on the Web. Seriously, what happens if their children's (or future children) friends or friends' parents would find out about this, what kind of ridicule would the children get for something they didnt have a part in. Owens should have known that every action has a consequence and he can't sue everyone that says something that he posted himself.

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