MEDIA LAW AND LITERACY

     News deserts is a term that is fairly new to me but after researching I have learned more about this growing problem. To start, what exactly is a news desert and why is this a problem growing today? A news desert is "a community, rural or urban, with limited access to the sort of credible and comprehensive news and information that deeds democracy at the grassroots level." (UNC Chapel Hill) This definition is on the newer side, it is more broad, and encompasses the risk of losing news through lost access. Lost access can mean one of two things. One being local news papers are not producing content anymore, or two, living in an area with no newspaper at all,  This problem mainly focus' on the local news level as more papers are cutting back on rural circulation/ coverage and people choose not to subscribe to the local newspapers anymore.      Many newspapers have stopped putting out as many issues as before, and it reflects in the quality of...

Privacy in this day and age is something that is taken very seriously, but is also something many people know little about. Social media and technology has become something we use everyday, and it's so important that we know and are inducted about what we are giving out when we use technology or social media. After watching many different TED Talks about the digital age and the treat it can pose on on individuals, its become more clear that the government, and anybody with an education in technology/coding can access information we thought was private.  One TED Talk that stood out to me personally was by Darieth Chisolm, who focused her presentation on "Revenge Porn" or digital harassment. She opened up with a very personal story about how her ex boyfriend created and shared naked pictures of her from Jamaica after she ended the controlling relationship. There was really nothing that she coul...

  Diffusion of Innovation Theory is how an innovation spreads through a population. I will be focusing this post about the diffusion of Instagram and how it has slowly became one of the most popular apps today. In my previous post (blog 6) I talked about the start of instagram and the story of how it was created. Slowly but surly, the app gained popularity and as it became more popular it added new features for new users. Even though instagram has minted its same simple element, it somehow continues to grow and reach new people every day.  In 2009, Kevin Systrom, the creator of instagram started creating the app called Burbn. It was still in age experimental stage. Systrom created the prototype that mainly focused on photo sharing. Then in 2010 he maintained some venture capital funding to get the app up and running. During this time he obtained a partner and together they worked to release the app. The same year, Instagram was released and had it first pioneers of the app. I...

    Facebook        My classmates delivered some very good presentations but one that stood out to me the most was a presentation on Facebook. Facebook was very popular when I was in middle school and I feel like it gets more popular as I get older and become more mature. My parents use facebook and I only got an account my senior year of high school to join incoming freshman groups to try and meet friends for the fall semester. Since then I have kept my account pretty up to date, friending distant family members and friends of my parents that I didn't follow on my other social media platforms. To be honest, I only check my facebook when I'm really bored and have nothing else to look at, so about 3 times a week.       In class the girl who presented the Facebook app mentioned how the app was created for college students, which I find ironic since I only created an account to meet people in college. It actually started as a dating app whe...

      After browsing two websites (antiwar.com and theamericanconservative.com) its become more relevant that strong Anti-War voices are not heard or spoken on mainstream news nearly as much. It makes me wonder why we never talk about anti-war more in present day. These news websites promote news thats not seen or spoken about on channels such as Fox or CBS. There are a couple main reasons why I believe that anti-war is not spoken about nearly as much today, especially given all the new ways to post and share media.      One, the United States is  currently at war with our enemies. We've been fighting this war since 2001 when ISIS performed deadly acts of terrorism on our country. These acts of terrorism have never been taken lightly, so being at war with the country who put so much hurt and death on our country seems like more of a logical reason. American troops have been stationed overseas for over a decade and are still fighting for the freedom and...

I’ve had Instagram since the 6 th   grade and it has changed so much since then. Instagram has been one of my most favorite and most used apps since I can remember and researching it took me back to that time in my life. Instagram first started in 2009 by Kevin Systrom, who used to work at google and Odeo, what later become Twitter. Systrom had very little training in coding but would practiceon during the weekends and at night to become better. Eventually, he built a prototype app called Burbn, an app for people to check in places, post plans and share photos. The photo share is what made Burbn special and different because there really wasn't an app with that feature out yet. In 2010, Systrom went to a work party where he had met 2 capitalists from the Silicon Valley. He showed them the startup of Burbn and decided to meet again for coffee to discuss the app in more detail. Systrom ended up quitting his current job to further develop the app and ended up raising $500,000 in fundi...

     In class there was a discussion of the 8 values of free expression. These speech theories include the marketplace of free ideas, participation in  self-government, stable change, individual self-fulfillment, check on governmental power, promote tolerance, promote innovation and lastly protect dissent. From my understanding, all of these values are how we understand and utilize our right to free speech or the first amendment.      The question of which one resonates the most with me is "promote innovation." Promoting innovation is "a community in which free speech is values and protected is like to be a more energized, creative, interesting society as its citizens actively  fulfill themselves in many diverse and interesting ways." I personally resonate with this value of free expression because I really agree with constantly growing and evolving as a person, and as a society. If you are not growing and learning new thi...