Media Law & Literacy Blog
Monday, July 1, 2024
Living in the Age of AI
Monday, June 24, 2024
Is it Our Relationship with Technology or Technology's Relationship with Us?
As a sports media major, technology has been a massive part of my life. Technology is a significant part of everyone's life. It is just the way that the world is. While there are many positives to it, there are also many negatives, and we do not even know all of the negatives. Since I know all the positives and know that there are negatives, I am cautious when it comes to technology, the amount of time that I use it, and what sites or apps I go on because there are so many apps that will draw you in and before you know it so much time has passed by. Not only does technology affect people's day to day, but it also affects them at night because many people have their phones near them when they sleep. Many will go on their phones before they fall asleep, causing them to stay up later and be tired the next day. I turn my phone on sleep, which is a do-not-disturb mode, so when I fall asleep, I won't feel the vibrations of notifications while I try to sleep.
Friday, June 14, 2024
The Progressive Era
You never tend to hear such antiwar solid voices in the news because there are so many one-sided news sources that only write about the things that they agree with. Very few news sources mention both sides of war or current events, so people have had to make their own sources to discuss the truth and complete stories about war. Due to so many news sources only discussing one side of world events, people only believe what is said. Also, much of society tends to gravitate towards big new source names, contributing to this issue of people not knowing entire stories. Today, unless it is considered a reliable source, many people do not believe what they read from somewhere, even if it is accurate until it is put into a "reliable source." However, these "reliable sources" have to get their research from somewhere, so there is a chance that the research comes from a more minor source.
I am guilty of just looking at the popular news sources because they are what I know and are reliable. Even though I realize I am not getting the entire story of everything, I have been raised to refer to specific news sources. I have never really ventured out, but now I realize that I should because there have been so many times that I want both sides to understand everything before I form an opinion on the subject. I am confident I am not the only person who does this. I know many people who use the same few sources for their news. Almost everyone I know only uses one source majority and is shocked when they find out the other side days later when their source decides to report on it. Even in schools today, they tell students to only use specific sources, eliminating the possibility of hearing both sides.
Personally, I think you have to find obscure websites to hear strong voices against antiwar because big-name news sources are afraid of telling the entire truth if it does not follow what they stand for. If they do what they are against by telling the truth, they risk losing support from readers and watchers because they will be seeing what they do not want to see, so they will become angered, which will affect the entire company. For example, if all of a sudden, Fox News switches sides and starts the opposing side so that viewers will get the whole story, everyone will get mad, including the reporters, no matter if they are getting the entire story to so many people, that is not what is essential. People want to hear their opinions, so they never venture from what they know.
What are Online Influencers?
An online influencer must have a solid following and online presence where they can interact with fans, share opinions, and share products or brands as a whole, promoting them. There are online influencers in practically every topic, such as fashion, dancing, sports, and book reviews. Online influencers have become a form of entertainment for so many people because many make YouTube videos to answer questions or vlogs or post photos and videos on social media, giving ordinary people a form of new entertainment. Online influencers have a good impact on themselves and others. They positively impact themselves because they can make a decent amount of money through brand deals and promotions. For example, Charli D'Amelio is one of the most popular influencers, and she has been since 2020. She has been successful for a long time, bringing her family along. She has been successful because of brand deals, being on contest shows, and her family having their own show.
Online influencers are positive for everyday people because they can be role models for so many young people, especially with bullying showing young people that it is essential to show that what other people say does not matter. Influencers have started promoting positivity more, significantly influencing so many people because it is what they need to hear. Everyone needs more positivity; people tend to take it more seriously or feel it matters more because a public figure said it. While they have such a positive impact, they can also have a negative impact, especially on female influencers with young girls because many influencers look similar, making young girls feel like they have to look a certain way. After all, that is how people look online.
For society, brand deals on social media promote materialism whether they realize it or not. Most likely, if someone sees an influencer promoting a particular brand and specific items from that brand, the viewer will want what they had, and chances are the more popular influencers are promoting more expensive brands. Ultimately, the viewer will most likely like the item because their favorite influencer has it, so they can be like them, potentially having them spend money on items they do not need. Viewers also see influencers do not have authenticity more often than not; it is rare that an influencer posts what they want because most have managers. Since most have managers, they are told what to post, who to promote, and what videos they need to do. Also, some influencers tend to follow trends in their posts on all platforms rather than coming up with something themselves. Almost everyone knows this, so viewers feel like they cannot post whatever they want, which makes others lose authenticity, too. Finally, influencers hurt themselves because they have to share their entire lives on social media, so they feel like they cannot be anything but fine every day, all the time. So many influencers make conscious efforts to include everyone on their platforms. The majority of them do not refer to specific groups of people. Many talk about and post on a wide variety of subjects so that everyone can relate to something that they talk about and can relate to. While many people now talk about various topics, that was only sometimes the case because people have taken time to learn. In past years, people have lost support from their followers because of how they have acted towards a particular group or talked about a specific situation. A growing online personality is Jenna Sinatra, who is in the above photo. Jenna is a perfect example of a personality that does not appeal to just a specific group of people. She talks about and promotes various topics that so many can relate to; she will talk about sports, fashion, school, working out, and shows. She has something for everyone, which attracts so many people to her. While discussing various topics, she is vulnerable on her social media accounts. She will talk when she is not ok; whether something happened or if her mental health is not bad, she will talk about it and promote that not being ok is normal and that she is not perfect and pleasing all the time. Something that stands out about her is that she gets so many mean comments about doing social media or that she lives at home, and she will respond to them. Most of the time, she says that if they do not like her or something about her, they do not need to follow her, which is so brave of her which many people enjoy. Online influencers do not necessarily affect me or my friends. There was a time when they affected me because I felt I needed to look like them, especially during the pandemic. After all, I was constantly watching them on YouTube or seeing what they posted. After a time, I realized that I do not need to look like them because I am not them, but I am not the only one who has compared myself to an influencer in the past; many of my friends and I have talked about how we used to compare or have wished that we were them, but then we remember the dark side of what they do and realize that we do not actually want to be them. Many people in Gen Z feel like they can be influencers or want to be influencers until they recognize the dark side of everything that they go through. At the end of the day, some influencers positively impact society and some hurt society.
Diffusion of Innovations
The Diffusion of Innovations theory is a significant framework; it explains how, why, and at what rate new ideas and technology spread. 1962, Everett Rodgers familiarized himself with the theory in his book Diffusion of Innovations. In the book, Rodgers argued that diffusion is the process by which a change is communicated through specific channels over time with participants in a social system. The start of the diffusion of innovations theory is varied and spans multiple disciplines. According to Rodgers, five main elements influence the spread of a new idea: the innovation itself, adopters, communication channels, time, and a social system. Also, one main thing must happen for the idea to be successful: the idea must be widely adopted. While there is a rise in adoption, there is a point where the idea reaches something called "critical mass." Critical mass is a sufficient number of adoptions for a new idea in a social system, and the adoption rate becomes self-sustaining and forms more growth. In 1989, consultants at Regis McKenna Inc. theorized that the point lies in the boundary between early adopters and the early majority. There are five categories of adopters: innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, and laggards. Finally, there is a specific criterion for adopter categories: innovativeness, which means the degree to which a person adopts a new idea.
Wednesday, June 12, 2024
EOTO Timeline
Today, Netflix is one of the most popular streaming services because it offers various movies, TV shows, and docuseries. In 2024, Netflix had around 270 million subscribers worldwide. The start of Netflix streaming has also spawned other streaming services such as Amazon Prime Video and Hulu. Netflix's and other streaming services' successes are causing a battle with internet companies.
Netflix was started in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph. When they first created the company, it was similar to Blockbuster because you could rent movies, but they would come in the mail. In 2000, they changed the service into an online subscription service with a fee, but you had unlimited rentals for however long you wanted them. Marc Randolph said he feared failing when they first started Netflix. The first time they sent a DVD out was to themselves to see if it would break. When they first started, people did not like what they had created. “People found it confusing. The site crashed. No one behaved the way he expected. No one rented from us.” To get to Netflix was a success; they had a lot of trial and error, and every time they failed, they found something that helped in the long run. Hastings and Randolph started this because of late payments from movie rentals, so they tried to create something where people wouldn't have those issues anymore. The invention of Netflix changed our world because it eliminated having to play for each movie and worrying about late fees. Netflix also changed our world because film comes out on a streaming service like Netflix before it comes out on DVD. This invention also allowed people to get rid of their cable boxes because other services have come out with live streams, such as YouTube TV, which is the same as having a cable box. You can watch stuff on demand, live stream, or just watch regular TV, and you can save shows or movies to your DVR without having a box. None of this would have been possible without Netflix really starting it all. It changed communication because people stopped having to be in the same room or at the same TV to watch the same show. For example, during the pandemic, Netflix came out with an extension where you can watch something on Netflix with your friends on what was essentially a Facetime call. While there were many positive effects, there were also many adverse effects. The start of Netflix started many other platforms. Both Netflix and other platforms continue to add abilities and increase their prices, which means they are competing. A time when this happened was when Hulu had live streams, but Netflix didn’t do live streams. Suddenly, in 2024, Netflix added live streams of shows and games, copying Hulu, but these live streams are increasing the prices, decreasing the numbers since they can get the same thing somewhere else.
Tuesday, June 11, 2024
Our Privacy Online & Off
Everyone feels that privacy is something that they have in their day-to-day lives. But what if I told you that you don't have privacy in places where you think you have it? There are so many ways for everyone's privacy to be stolen, but everyday people don't need to worry about that. We tend to think that only people who are celebrities and are in the public eye need to worry. However, they could not be more wrong.
Juan Enriquez refers to sources threatening our privacy, such as electronic tattoos. He means that an electronic tattoo provides everyone with as much information about you as a regular tattoo would share. After hearing this and how many electronic tattoos there are, it makes me feel that my family and I do not have any privacy anywhere because even at home, I have social media, which is a form of an electronic tattoo. Also, in stores where I thought the cameras were genuinely for security, which they are, but I also felt safe being around them. Now I know that all it takes is for them to photograph me. If I glance at the camera, someone who has access to the camera can find everything about me. Facial recognition is one of the worst because it is getting more advanced and better, which is good, but it actually means it is easier for someone to access your records.
After watching Catherine Crump's Ted-Talk, I feel that the government, while they are endorsing the police departments to have cameras that track everyone's plate numbers all the time they government can still pass laws making the police departments dispose of the plate numbers of people who do not need to be watched. These cameras are a massive violation of privacy that should not be allowed. Not only are they taking photos of people's license plates and then putting them through a machine that spits out the plate so the officers can read it, but also in a space that is supposed to be private. Many years ago, Mike Katz-Lacabe went to his local police station and asked about this camera and the ability to have all those photos of the car and license plate. Mike asked to see what they had of him and came to find that they followed him and could see where he was going and with who. Something that caught me off guard as a viewer was that when Mike saw the photos of his car, they had a photo of him and his two daughters getting out of the vehicle in their own driveway. While watching this video, I wondered why they kept the photos; the reason that they kept the photos is that as storage of the images increases in price, they keep the old photos just in case it is needed, which is how it was for Mike he had not done anything wrong. Yet, they kept all of those photos of him and his car.
So many people think that we are safe and that no one is listening in on our calls or seeing our texts when actually it depends on the service. According to Christopher Soghoian and Apple, if someone has an iPhone and sends a text or calls someone else who has an iPhone, their messages or calls can not be wiretapped. WhatsApp, created by Facebook, also has a security that their messages or calls can not be wiretapped. Not being able to wiretap someone's phone is called encryption. Soghoian said that cell phone companies built their network for surveillance first, which means that if we are on the phone, someone may be listening, including governments, foreign intelligence services, hackers, criminals, and stalkers, unless your network is a Silicon Valley company. A way to protect ourselves from invasions of privacy is for more networks to be like Silicon Valley companies, meaning that more companies should have encryption. While having more companies have encryption will make it harder for police to find criminals, it will be safer for us because it will make it harder for people to hack into our devices.
Living in the Age of AI
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Everyone feels that privacy is something that they have in their day-to-day lives. But what if I told you that you don't have privacy in...
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An online influencer must have a solid following and online presence where they can interact with fans, share opinions, and share products...