Class Wrap Up (Week 16)

My experience with the blog posts was interesting. It was a new way to help me memorize what we did in class as well as present my opinion on it. Usually, when I study it’s a strenuous task. I have to go over notes, read over power points and other methods that take hours. However, for this class I would just read over the blog posts and I would have a solid recap of the class. Even while I’m writing it, I feel like I’m taking in more information than usual. I liked the creative flexibility we had in the blog. I’m a big fan of customization; I like to put my special mark on everything that I own so it’s different from everyone else’s. I like the edits that I made to the blog and it gives me a sense of belonging. Other times that I had to do a class blog I wasn’t this attached to it because I had no flexibility. 

The class itself was different than I thought it would be but in a good way. I thought this was going to be a class about more about “media law” like the 1^stamendment and copyright (which it was at first) but it transitioned into conspiracies about the internet/ government and that was fun. Even though your spiels about how “google is watching me” and how “I walked into the classroom already signed into google” were a little repetitive, they were fun and I was happy to see a different side of things. Your thoughts on google and the government gave me a little paranoia myself for a while and I’m happy how I’m educated on the subject. Though one part of me wishes that we had a test on the conspiracy portion of the class, It was fun to learn about it regardless.

Privacy on Internet (Week 14)

Privacy on the internet has been a problem since the early 2000's. Once cameras were added on laptops, computers and smartphones, people accused the government of watching them through the camera lens and up to this day I still see people with their cameras taped. I never understood this type of paranoia people have with the government watching you. I'm not saying that they aren't, they definitely are watching you but why do you care? In this digital age, they can watch you through alot more than your cameras. As long as you're on a public wifi they can probably watch what you're doing on the computer itself and they definitely know your location. At this point, why even try to hide yourself?  If you're not doing anything wrong you have nothing to worry about I understand that it's the general idea that you're always being watched and that can be unsettling but as long as you aren't trying to plan a terrorist attack, they won't really bother you (based on the conspiracy theories). But following my philosophy, my views have changed over the years. I used to have all of my social media private but I don't care anymore. All of the things that I post and comment on are NC-17 so I'm  not worried about my boss being anything that I wouldn't show my grandma. The only social media outlet that I actually keep private is my snapchat because it's mainly for my friends/ people I meet. I don't let strangers follow me on that platform. The trick to keeping things private things "private" on the internet is my not sharing them with anyone and keeping your personal ideas/ memories in your head where they belong.

Newer Innovations- Twitter (Week 11)

Before I begin talking about twitter, I was doing research on newer innovation and I found out that myspace has transitioned away from being a conventional social media site. Nowadays, they serve to be more of a news site than anything else. I just found it interesting that since they were completely overtaken by Facebook and twitter, they ventured on a new path. Sadly their popularity hasn't grown much since 2005. Twitter began in 2006 and it was one of the first social media platforms to promote what they did in such a simple way. People were drawn to the idea of simply posting your thoughts in a public sphere but twitter was one of sites that created the digital sphere. A digital sphere is the same as the public sphere but it's a platform where everyone has an equal opportunity to spread their opinions and thought to the general public. Positives of this are people going viral and achieving fame through social media profiles while negatives include people saying the wrong thing on these platforms and ruining their career. There have been people posting racist comments or been caught being racist on camera that have lost their jobs. Your online profile is a blessing and a curse and it'll be with you for the rest of your life in this digital age.

Presentations Feedback

Today in class we had presentations about the different factors of how communication impacts our lives. The topic that I was most fascinated with was the Illusory Truth Effect. The illusory truth effect is when things/words that are repeated are more accepted and believed to be true. The presenters claimed the repetition of things make them seem easier to understand and safer to trust. I believe that this is true because in this age of media, we're fed information all the time and we believe  almost 75% of the information that we repeatedly see on social media, blog posts, etc. is true. The video when Maddow is contuiuously taking about Russia; talking about Putin and it's effect on America and we truly believe that Russia is a threat.  Stuff like this is also an example of propaganda. When I was in elementary we didn't get much education on what to believe in the media because the internet was just on the rise and people didn't know the dangers/backlash of media. My cousin works in an elementary school in NY and she tells me that they're told to stress to the students about the dangers of the internet that they could be easily pulled into at a young age. Things such as violence, cyber bullying and believing everything that they see. Hopefully, the next generation will be more equipped when it comes to the illusory truth effect and they won't clench on to an idea that they see on the internet until they do some research first.

False Flag

A false flag is a covert political/military operation carried out to appear as if it was undertaken by another party. This operation is usually targeting their own forces/people while pretending to be someone else. False Flag is one of the highest bases of the conspiracy world and we see a lot of it on social media. The most prevalent false flag that you would be aware of is "Bush did 9/11". There's allegations that the CIA met with Bin Laden 2 months before 9/11 and it was all a ploy to get the PATRIOT act in motion. Note: I don't believe these allegations and it's nuts for anyone to believe such claims but this is the topic that I chose for the presentation. A false flag that really happened was when the nazis attacked their own people and blamed it on Poland so the citizens would justify the Nazi's plan to invade Poland. When governments do this it's to justify their goals or to get the country to deem an opposing country as evil through misrepresentations. It all boils down to the idea that the government is the puppet master behind everything that goes on in our society, good or bad.

My online presence

Besides my social media, my digital footprint doesn't lead that far. I can be found by my track records  (which are kept online) and that's about it. Besides Facebook, most of my social media accounts are in different names, the only one that I would say is completely anonymous is my Youtube account (and even that has my initials in the title). I pretend as if it would be difficult for people to realize that it's me but all of the accounts are linked to my gmail so it would be easy for any big name company to track down all of the sites that i'm linked to if they had to. The stuff i post on social media is mainly fashion based, i never really post myself at a party (unless i'm wearing an outfit I like) and I definitely never post myself drinking or doing any other things. My parents told me when I was 16 "If you wouldn't show a post that you posted to your grandma, then don't post it." And i've carried that with me ever since. Most young adults know the do's and don'ts of social media/the internet and don't do stupid stuff like hand out their password, post inappropriate pictures or click on sketchy ads that lead to viruses. I wouldn't be surprised that in elementary school, they're educating kids on the dangers of the internet and how to handle themselves when they get on it.

Most important value of the 8 Values of Free Expression (in my opinion)

In my opinion the most important role of the government is the value to Check on  Governmental Power. Without this value, all the the other values wouldn't be possible. The liberty to allow citizens to check on the government without any retaliation from the government itself is what separates us from a dictatorship, communist regime or a monarchy. The Watchdog role that the media is provided is one of the most essential roles that they have as reporters, actors and writers. If news stations weren't allowed to report their opinions on the government than the government would get no feedback from the people that they are trying to govern (unless there's a riot/revolution). Just look at how upset Trump gets over the slander that he gets from the media on shows like SNL. Late Night shows genially make issues of the government the core segment on their show; by spreading the issues of government and the abuses of power on live television they're educating people that wouldn't usually look into government affairs to see what's going on in our society.

HPU: Public vs Private Property

I've been here for 3 years and it's not a secret that there's a little bit of problems on this extraordinary campus. From the parking/fountain dilemma to the concert slumps, students here would like to see some small changes in the campus but little do they know, their chances are very slim. Because this is a private campus they can do whatever they want, no matter what the students say. Now if they decided to change it on their own accord based on what they heard, that's totally different but we can't force them to do anything; any protest or petition means nothing and they don't have to yield to our demands if they don't want to. HPU is currently of the mindset of: "Here's our rules and if you don't like them you can leave." Sometimes my friends talk to me about protesting for more parking, saying "we have a right to protest as citizens" but not here, not on this campus. It's depressing that we can't protest for the things that we want. This is the same reason why the old HPU newspaper was disbanded because they were saying negative comments about HPU's system and the hierarchy of the school didn't like that so now we have a "school friendly" newspaper which is 100% controlled by HPU.  I really needed to express my feelings towards this campus because I feel like not enough students do. I the direction that we're going I don't think that the connection between campus and students is going to get any better for the rest of my time here. The connection will probably grow farther apart.

18-Year-Old Testifies About Getting Vaccinated Despite Mother's Anti-Vaccine Beliefs

An 18-year-old made national news when he got himself vaccinated outside of his mother’s jurisdiction. Reportedly his mother, kept him away from vaccines his whole life in belief that they would give him autism or some type of disability. This period of “Anti-Vax” mothers has honestly been going on for a while but recently it’s been getting a lot of backlash in social media. People have posted memes and other jokes teasing the Anti-Vax mothers for being foolish and out of touch with society. They make jokes like “Your child won’t get autism if he/she dies from polio instead.” These jokes have been a huge general topic on sites like reedit where the audience ranges around 8 to 17 year olds, so I’m not shocked when a newly turned 18-year-old wants a vaccine shot as his birthday present. This just shows you how much influence the media has on their youth today. But it turns out that the son just happened to be right in this situation; though he was probably influenced from the idea of getting a vaccination from memes and other social media, he later did his research and learned about vaccines from the CDC, the World Health Organizations and other trusted sources while the mother got her superstitions from a Facebook post. This just goes to show you that you shouldn’t let things you see on the internet take control of your whole life.

Donald Trump and the feeding frenzy era

While looking at news websites to find out what I should write for a blog post, I'm continuously seeing articles on Donald Trump and his effect on the government. I understand that the actions of our president are important and he's a role-model of us to the rest of the world but isn't there anything else to talk about? I'm not they type of person who usually talks on political issues but i don't think this is a political issue, its a problem with our media. In my Global Studies class, we talked about the definition and impact of a feeding frenzy. A feeding frenzy is when the media feeds you an unnecessary amount of useless information on a popular subject. They may not be as relevant but there is definitely more important things that we can talk about on the news than "Day 15 of Government Shutdown, Nothing is Happening Still." Michael Che from SNL said on a segment: "God, I hate what Donald Trump is doing but in a way I have to thank him. He makes my job so much easier." Michael Che hosts SNL's Weekend Update segment alongside his co-host Colin Jost and since Trump has began running for president, he's been mentioned every weekend. I'm not saying that we should drop all news on Trump all together, It's the media's role to hold political figures accountable for their actions (Watch Dog Function). But, let's just diversify the conversation a little bit. Please?

Washington post Sued by Family of Covington Teenager

There’s an interesting thing about this story. Does he have a chance of winning? Who knows?

The 250 mil dollars in damages didn’t really specify what type of damages they’re seeking. Basically that figure was arrived because that's what Jeff Bezos paid for the Washington post, it seems a little dubious to me. The other thing interesting was that the lawyers are making the case that the WP acted with actual malice. But is Nicholas sandman a public figure? I’m my Com Law class, we’ve been learning about Actual Malice and what it takes legally to be able to sue someone for libel. Nicholas wasn't a public figure before this happened so he shouldn’t go as such. Just because a person is news worthy shouldn’t change your status from private to public.

The legal team said they are aiming to sue multiple outlets like CNN, etc because it was republished on those outlets. Are all the outlets guilty because they aired the video? I don’t think they’re in the right to sue all these media platforms, they’re just doing their job by reporting current events.

History of the Supreme Court

In this video, we learned about the complexity of the supreme court from the inside. The 9 members of the supreme court brought their take on their experiences and how they feel about the supreme court. One of the members said that: "Being appointed to the supreme court is a kin to being struck by lightning." I can only imagine the intensity and pressure that must come when you're appointed to handle the country's hardest problems. To do a job like this correctly and efficient, you have to be calm but being calm in an environment like this takes time. Another member said "You don't really do your work until you realize you're not there". He said that it takes 3-5 years in order to feel 100% comfortable in this setting which seems extensive for me. But for them, 3-5 years is nothing when you'll be working there for the rest of your life. I'm still barley comfortable with running track here and i've been here for 3 years now. I also found it interesting when another member said that she didn't eat lunch on the day of her first case because of the servers of speaking to such a high level crowd but when she got up there she felt a sense of power and all of the nerves went away. I can only imagine the shift of feelings of having all this power and confidence from you r position while still getting the nerves of how much your decision can effect  the country (especially when all the supreme court's power comes from public faith).

My Favorite News Sources

NPR (National Public Radio)




 I enjoy this News Source the most because of their range of topics from politics to music, arts, life and television. On their website they have a segment called the Tiny Desk Concert where artists of all genres preform in an office space in front of a live audience. The most memorable performances that i've seen were that of Erykah Badu and Tyler the Creator. I usually go to this site for their music recommendations but every once in a while i'll take a peek at what's going on in the world news.

Mass Appeal















Though the site is under reconstruction  right now, mass appeal is a site that reports Pop Culture and World/Political News. Though it's main focus is Music, it covers topics of fashion, art, film and politics. Right now the site is moving towards documentaries of Hip Hop Culture but it will most likely still provide news on the other topics mentioned as well.


New York Times


This is the most reliable news source that I use when I want to hear about whats going on in politics or world news. I tend to try to keep my mind clear of those topics (my mind is stressful enough already) but when I want an unbiased report on what's going on, this is where i go.


Highsnobiety

 
Being a Pop Culture and Media Production major, It's only natural that I  have a favorite website consisting in only Pop Culture News. This site features the latest news on Urban culture with topics of music, sneakers, fashion, design and style. Mainly focusing on fashion and music, it gives you weekly updates of the hottest styles, newest lines of clothing for the season and hot upcoming artists this month. Since Mass Appeal is down this is the website that i use the most.


The New Yorker 




Being born and raised in New York, I can tell you first hand that NYC is a place of many different cultures, ideas and Opinions. The New Yorker provides topics that mirror the core ideals of the greatest city on earth. It's topics include news, politics, cartoons, humor, books, business and tech. It's intriguing titles and captivating home page keeps the viewer glued to the screen when wanting to know "what's going on".