Blog 12: Privacy

While we have discussed internet privacy several times in class, there are some aspects that have previously been untouched. After watching several TED talks I learned that there are other ways outside of social media that our privacy is invaded.

One of the speakers, Catherine Crump, addressed something we encounter daily but often do not consider: the police are gathering information about us in ways that were previously considered impossible. Via location tracking, the government can obtain a detailed picture of how citizens act privately- several pictures actually. In addition, automatic license plate readers allow the police to capture images of every car and convert their license plates to readable text in order to catch people for wrongdoing, but also to observe everyone that passes by. Crump then explains that the government has hundreds of photos of people's daily life and that the police just hang on to all of these just in case it is needed some day.

The next speaker, Finn Myrstad, brought up the seemingly innocent children's toy known as Cayla. This was a doll that anyone who had a cell phone could connect to within a certain distance. This entire concept was clearly an invasion of people's right to privacy and was soon banned in Germany, taken off the store shelves, and put in the German spy museum in Berlin. Simple instances of privacy invasion from location tracking to children's toys show that despite there being rules to protect us, there are loopholes that give unknown users too much of our information without our consent.

Sources

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ni4FV5zL6lM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4E_1AB1rsSw

Blog 11: EOTO

This past week in class 4 groups of students presented on certain types of false information which can be categorized into disinformation meant to deceive or misinformation caused by an honest mistake. One of the concepts that really stuck out to me was the echo chamber.

From what I heard during the presentation, an echo chamber is an effect in which media surrounds its user with similar beliefs. This is a lot more common than one might expect as social media such as Instagram and Facebook allow us to pick and choose what we see. We can follow the accounts and hashtags we like or agree with and we can also unfollow or block the ones we dislike or disagree with. When we narrow our feed down to just our own interests, we accidentally create an echo chamber.

Another thing I learned about echo chambers is that they amplify the user's thoughts, beliefs, and opinions by repeating so much of the information that he or she agrees with. These typically lack any sort of counterpoints.

What I have learned from this is that while it is perfectly fine to follow whatever interests us on social media, we shouldn't only follow the things we agree with. We need to be aware of what is happening in the real world and although we should absolutely have our own opinions on events, people, etc. we should not become so absorbed in ourselves that it clogs our feed with the same opinions.

Blog 10: Gatekeeping

Gatekeeping refers to the process of filtering out unnecessary information on news outlets and other media. Sometimes this is used to filter out irrelevant or conflicting information. Long story short, gatekeeping only shows the information that is important to us. Sometimes this can be good, sometime it is bad. For an example of good gatekeeping, news outlets might examine clickbait or hateful articles toward a corporation to see if there is genuine evidence to the situation or if it is just defamation. In other words, good gatekeeping keeps fake news filtered out of our news feed.

Bad gatekeeping can be a tricky subject as well. While it can keep misinformation away from us, gatekeeping can sometimes distract from negative information. For example, some news source could be setting a political agenda and intentionally keeping criticism from being released to the public. This could affect our society as a whole by sending us some of the truth rather than the whole truth. Where we should see the light and dark sides of things, some news outlets might only show one side or the other.

With this being the case, news outlets could be tricking me without me even realizing this. For example, I could be watching the news on my TV and the headlines could be absolutely the truth. However, there is always the possibility that certain news is just being faked or refocused so that we think a certain way. While I generally consider gatekeeping to be a good thing for us, I am sure that some outlets might misuse it.

Blog 9: Online Footprint

When we use social media, it is important to consider our online footprints and how we give out information. On my end of things, I have accounts on Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, Facebook, and LinkedIn. I would say that for Snapchat, Facebook, and LinkedIn, I am pretty moderate. For Snapchat I mostly send my friends funny pictures and generally don't share information. I rarely use Facebook but I only post if it is something I would be comfortable with everyone seeing. Like Dr. Smith has mentioned in class, the thought of Facebook selling my information also keeps me away from it at times. And LinkedIn is only used for business purposes so I just list my professional and community service experience. I treat Instagram similarly to Facebook, yet I post more frequently and include more things like vacations and events. As for YouTube, I watch videos but I never post any unless I absolutely have to for assignments.

So how can these be viewed by an outsider? Someone on Instagram could see my physical appearance, who I spend time with, where I have gone on vacation, etc. but I have a private account so not everyone has access. Then for Snapchat, I doubt people really save data from my account as posts disappear within a day and if somebody screenshots or replays anything I get a notification. And then for YouTube, people would not learn much directly about me but they could probably see what sorts of videos I like. With Facebook, however, everything is public so anyone could pick up on what I look like, where I am from, and where I went to school. LinkedIn is similar where I have to pick and choose what I feel comfortable showing to the public. It's a scary thought to imagine stalkers going through all of our social media. So information has to be managed accordingly.

Alexis C. Madrigal on The Atlantic article brings up how Facebook saves information about what we like in order to encourage purchases. While this may seem innocent at first, he explains that Facebook "the product" works through Facebook "the business" and that "Facebook has 242 million North American users, and if 50 percent of them would feel uncomfortable with Facebook’s core business practice, then that’s a lot of potentially angry people" (Madrigal). If this article is anything to go off of, this is very much an invasion of people's privacy. Add this to the compare-and-despair effect that social media already has on people and social media can really harm an individual both in terms of self-esteem when they are missing out on something and in terms of privacy when media like Facebook sell personal information.

Link to article: https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/01/facebook-users-still-dont-know-how-facebook-works/580546/

Blog 8: Instagram and the Diffusion of Ideas

Over the past decade, there have been several innovations, not only in technology, but in social media. One of these innovations was Instagram. Kevin Systrom, who was involved in marketing, pioneered an app called Burbn which would allow people to check in to different places. Later on, he met up with capitalist firms at a party and raised $500,000 for Burbn. A man named Mike Krieger agreed to join the development of this app and the idea of Burbn evolved into a social media platform focused solely on photographic communication. This became known as Instagram.

On October 6th, 2010 Instagram grew almost instantaneously. Medium states that "From a handful of users, it soon became the number one photography app gathering 100,000 users in one week, increasing to 1 million in two months." As this article shows, Instagram experienced a strong launch and in a short matter of time grew exponentially in its following. These people who installed Instagram during this release period were the early adopters of this medium.

Some could also argue that 2010 was also the tipping point for Instagram given how exponential its growth was. While the technology might not yet be old at this point, I would argue that today's teenagers are late adopters. The people who hopped onto the Instagram train during its initial release are now adults and in an age where social media and cell phones are constantly coming out with something new, today's teens may be a little late to the party but they are making more use of it than ever with the occasional added features.

Link to article here: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/10355980/How-Instagram-took-over-the-world-in-just-three-years.html

Blog 7: The Marketplace of Ideas

 

Last Tuesday, Leo and I partnered up to discuss the eight values of Free Expression. After some conversation, we narrowed the topic down to our favorite value: the Marketplace of Ideas. This concept, founded by John Milton, states that "the test of the truth or acceptance of ideas depends on their competition with one another and not on the opinion of a censor, whether one provided by the government or by some other authority." (https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/999/marketplace-of-ideas)

In other words, expression of ideas should not be censored by the government as competing ideas and truths can form a "market" of sorts. And in a market, the better items will absolutely sell more than the lesser ones.While certain items could be controversial, putting bans on items that could sell well is a bad idea because unless the item is clearly dangerous, it would disrupt the marketplace.

Does this sound like a concept mentioned in class recently? The marketplace of ideas perfectly describes the concept of prior restraint and why we should not have it! The first amendment gave us freedom of speech and the press, yet we had controversial books banned by the government for a while because they were "offensive". This was considered constitutional until the Near v Minn case in 1931. Like the Marketplace of Ideas, texts with controversial messages should not be censored by the government as they can only be banned if they involve fighting words or incitement. There can be a subsequent punishment for causing violence; however, controversial opinions are not meant to be censored by the government. This is the most interesting value because it perfectly fits prior restraint into terms of business.

Blog 6: The Petroglyph

For my media presentation in this class, I chose to research the Petroglyph. I learned throughout this project that this medium originated in 3500 BC and that it was primarily used by the ancient Egyptians for many purposes such as illustrating real-life events, transmitting information, or even religious or ceremonial events. These were so historically significant because they were the first written, tangible form of communication

While I was browsing Google for information, I came across a Smithsonian article titled "Eight Spots in the United States Where You Can See Petroglyphs". The article states that "while we may naturally think of petroglyphs and pictographs being out west, in reality, they are found in more than half of our country's states and territories—meaning you don’t have to travel far at all to get a glimpse of native history." So while petroglyphs are an ancient art, they can still be found at certain places in our country.

The locations for these petroglyphs vary. One of these can be found on a boulder in San Diego portraying the voyage of the ship San Salvador in 1542. Another 40 petroglyphs are visible at Petroglyph Beach in Wrangell Island, Alaska which were supposedly carved by the Tlingit, an ancient tribe that lived there thousands of years ago. These depict faces, spirals, and a whale, but the situation being portrayed is unclear.

Petroglyphs can also be found at Dighton Rock State Park in Massachussetts. This is a half-submerged rock in the Taunton River that Cotton Mather could only describe as being "filled with strange creatures". This one has been speculated to be from the time of King Solomon's reign described in the Old Testament while others believe it is a depiction of a Portuguese journey in 1511. In addition, some people took it as a warning for anyone who was about to enter the river.

So what do these Petroglyphs show about communication? There is not one definitive way to communicate. The petroglyphs were essentially miscellaneous images that once meant something but are now too abstract for our understanding. On other forms of communication today such as phone calls or texting lack the nuance and/or emotion that can be performed during face-to-face conversation. Another thing that comes to mind is our social media; we only post and follow the content we want while filtering out what we do not want to see of ourselves or the rest of the world. In all these different forms of communication, there is always a little bit of context that is not touched upon.