Blogs have been synonymous with words like “Freedom” and looked as Anti-Orwellian mediums to get messages across. However as some of the articles we read show this is not the case. Most things on the internet now are backed financially by one corporation or the other. It would be hard to not believe that the six companies that own 90 percent of the media in the world (Viacom, General Electric, NewsCorp, Disney, Time Warner, and CBS) would not have a stake in the world’s biggest platform, the internet. The Atlantic article goes to show that despite the freedom fighting rhetoric that many blogs hold is in fact not true. However there are still sites that try to give unfiltered political takes from civilians like https://www.counterpunch.org/ .
Feb 15 2018
Bloggers Vs Journalist
From reading the three articles I realized how big blogs are actually becoming. But will they ever replace journalist? The articles show how bloggers really just write about their opinions on actual news that was already published. Bloggers don’t produce news stories. Crazy thing is that you can consider Facebook, Twitter or even Tumblr as blogs and those sites have become huge companies that make a lot of money. With these sites, people have been able to get their selves out to the masses much easier and get their opinions heard. The difference between journalist and bloggers is that journalist have to actually go out to these communities just to find out different stories they an publish. Funny how life works out because now if you are famous off of posting opinions on these social media platforms, they care about what you think more than the actual news a lot of the time. If you are posting a lot of content, people will continue to gravitate and thats when you start to have a name for yourself so your brand may be bigger than outlets where journalists are publishing their stories.
I do believe that bloggers will continue to grow and make a lot of money because we are in an internet savy time of our life where we can find information with our phones or post anything at any time. I do not believe that Journalism will ever diminish though. Journalist still have an important role on big platforms such as CNN, ESPN, MTV etc. There are different types of journalist for what eve you are interested in. A lot of the time they are the ones who get the news before anyone and their brand or outlet can be so big that everyone is tuned in just to find out what they have to report to the world. It is important to have journalists reporting true stories and straight facts about any situation that has happened. If we didn’t have journalist we wouldn’t have actual stories published on real situations and bloggers would have nothing to give their opinion about.
Feb 13 2018
Blogging vs Traditional News -Discussion Post Two
Blogging vs Traditional News
I remembered when blogging became very popular in the late 90’s and in the early part of the 2000’s almost everybody had a blog and if you were a writer it was a must that you have a blog. Newer and more updated technology always replaces older technology so it was assumed that possibly traditional news would have been replaced by blogging. Honesty, I thought so as well. The same way DVD’s replaced those huge VHS’s tapes was the same concept that people that blogging would have done to traditional news. However, in the article Why Bloggers Can’t Replace the Work of Professional Journalists, Rogers confirmed why blogging could never take traditional news place. He stated, “The problem with having blogs replace newspapers is that bloggers don’t produce news stories on their own. Instead, they tend to comment on news stories already out there-stories produced by professional journalists.”
Once I read that quote, the light bulb immediately came on. I never thought but that! All this time it just seemed that since blogging was so popular and informative that it would have easily replaced true journalism. One should really comprehend that true hardcore journalism involves the reporter hitting the pavement and searching to find out what is going on out here in this world, otherwise known as news. They review it and then report on it for the us to see. The flip side to that is that by the time bloggers get to it-it is merely a review of what the journalist found out and had already reported on.
Even so, blogging is still very popular and isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Some would argue that maybe blogging is here to stay but so is traditional news. Since the beginning of journalism whether via television or through newspapers genuine journalism has been needed and respected and a daily part of life. News can be transcribed now via many ways like by the use of smartphones, tablets and even watches. However, the lovely Internet has afforded bloggers to come and try and duplicate traditional news. Nowadays there are even citizen journalists who are people who happen to be somewhere where “news” is happening and they film it with their phones or camera and give their own commentary on it. This is very popular and sometimes becomes funny videos and memes that have went viral online.
Blogging has definitely evolved to mimic traditional news. Carlson agreed and stated in his article, The Rise of the Traditional Blogger, “As a result, as Web critic Nicholas Carr told me, blogging has evolved to become a lot more like a traditional mass medium.” There is even a different way of blogging that is very effective for quick engagement and that is called “microblogging.” Microblogging is still the sharing of someone’s posts of views and ideas on any given subject. The posts are much smaller and to the point and an example of that are posts on Twitter. The social media giant, Twitter had a certain character count for their users to state whatever is on their mind and that is what most people do, especially celebrities and they go viral almost instantly. Microblogging probably won’t replace regular blogging but nevertheless it is a very fun and quick way to get your thoughts across. In the long run traditional news will always remain supreme over blogging as blogging will always and only be reviews of actual true journalistic reports.
Feb 08 2018
Assignment One
Is social media harming us?
Yes, it is. There are many reasons. First the founder of Facebook is held responsible for the many suicidal and violent actions that are posted on Facebook. There are about over 2 million people on Facebook, so its hard control and put restrictions on every violent videos. But he can at least and acknowledge the problem. YouTube also is helping many entrapanuers. Most YouTube videos are created by the youth and are influencing millions of viewers daily. There are also disturbing contents on YouTube that is harming mostly our youth. Many could argue that Social Media has a good impact and does not harm us. Those are mostly people whom have business pages on Facebook and Bloggers on YouTube. Yes, I do agree on that. But their is more harm done with Social Media. People aren’t taking advantage of Social Media for positive benefits. There are solutions we can start little by little. For example, FCC should implement and prevent certain harmful content to reaching billions of viewers world wide including our children. Our kids are growing up around technology and social media. So its hard trying to prohibit them completely. So its not the founder of Facebook or YouTube or Instagram or Twitter, etc… to be responsible for the millions of content upload daily. Its the people and society who have to take in charge to create a safer environment for our youth
Feb 08 2018
Assignment One
So the Zuckerberg article brought up a lot of good points in where theirs a lot of free reign in terms of uploading content that may be harmful to the individual and the society as a whole. This poses a huge dilemma because not only does immoral behavior become widespread and can affect our children but the actions we do that may be harmful such as bullying now have a farther reach. Now the debate comes into fruition where are we better off without social media or does it make us better. To be honest its all a matter of perspective where things like face book can be considered neutral and can be good or bad when in used in that way. In addition there are the conspiracy theories as the article mentioned where Face Book is the “New World Order” or the tower keeping us all in controlling and or indoctrinating us as a collective. What we need to do is realize the situation we are in and act. There is a book called the “7 Habits of Highly Effective People” and in that book it teaches us about two spheres or kinds of people and who they surround themselves with. One is called the “Sphere of Concern”. In this sphere it teaches us that these people are what we need to avoid and what we need to avoid becoming ourselves. I say this because these people only think about problems that far outreach their influence and therefore are unable to act making them complain and complain all day. While on the other hand there is the “Sphere of Influence”. This is where we need to be in terms of whatever we can influence to help solve the bigger problem whether that’s ourselves our families our peers and so on and so forth we need to change that for the better. And with the times changing as rapidly as they are and the use of media and convergence are more apparent these days we need to make sure they are used for the betterment of humanity by starting where it hits first and that is our homes. And this goes for Mr. Zuckerberg as well. His influence is a powerful one and he needs to step up and admit his faults and work on improving Face Book to better serve mankind.
Feb 08 2018
Social Media
Social media has taken over the world in the past decade. Everyone has some type of social media account or is involved in some type of social media. The generation nowadays is all about social media. A lot of people use it to keep in touch with family and friends that live far away or if they don’t want you to have your number. The article about Facebook talks about how Facebook is kind of on a downhill slide. Nobody really knows what is going on with it.
The other article “The Web means Forgetting” talks about how social media could cost you jobs or other great opportunities. There was a young woman who lost her job all because of a post she put of her in a bar drinking. Nowadays you have to be careful what you put up on social media and who you are sharing your posts with.
Social media s no longer how it used to be. It used to be all fun and games and a chill time but now some people use it as a way to bully others or try to be tough. You can post up whatever you want and people share these posts and they could be really horrible posts or threatening posts and people just go along with it. I feel like social media needs to go back to the way it was. Maybe we need a whole different types of social media apps that will bring us back to how it was. Instead of so much cyberbullying, we can learn to appreciate one another again.
Feb 08 2018
Reading Response
Social Media has changed the game of life, in the way we conduct our personal and professional life to be exact. While reading the articles I came across the disasters that can occur on social media. Social Media is changing everything about us, we can see what everyone is doing all the time. When we go to interviews for new jobs they often check out your social media to see if your a good fit for their company. If post about your drugs and how you party all day every day, jobs will not hire you because of the imagine that you will display of their company. An example would in the article that we read the professor was fired for the photo she took with the caption “drunken pirate”. This is why we have to try to censor ourselves as much as possible. Social Media is not all bad it can be used to promote yourself in a positive way if you are trying to build a company or if your an artist and you want to show case your work. Based on what i read and what i see on a day to day basis social media makes and breaks us depending how we choose to use it. We are in control.
Feb 08 2018
Reading response
These articles were about social media and how they may affect us. For example the article titled “ The Web Means the End of Forgetting” talks about how when you put stuff on the web it never really goes away. For example, in the article a 25 year old teacher in training lost her opportunity to become a teacher, due to the fact of posting a picture of herself with a drink In her hand with the caption “drunken pirate”. It is just crazy to me how social media can affect us negatively in terms of getting/keeping a job. I was already cautious about what I posted on social media especially since I’m at that point where I’m starting to look for internships. I don’t want anything from my social media to get in the way of that. This article made me realize why I need to continue to keep certain aspects of my life off of social media.
Another article that I found pretty interesting was “Who will take responsibility for Facebook” to me all this article did was bash Facebook. They talked about how Facebook integrity line was “ A place that helps you connect and share your life” and now that line has gone to waste. I don’t 100% agree with that statement only because it still is a place where you can connect with people. I mean it is nothing like how it used to be because now as soon as I get on Facebook all I see is a bunch of memes or cooking videos, but I just think it all depends on who you have on Facebook. I don’t know if I can blame Mark Zuckerberg for the way Facebook is now. Yes, he is in charge of Facebook, but I think he just does what he thinks the people will like. I’m pretty sure if Facebook went back to how it was a few years ago it would be boring to most people. Especially in the younger generation. I feel like no matter how much people complain about Facebook they will still use it.Its just too addicting for most.
Feb 08 2018
Reading Response 2/8
I found this week’s readings to be quite interesting and extremely poignant. I often think about how quickly the internet has seemed to evolve at such an expedited rate, especially throughout my lifetime, to a point where it is now completely ubiquitous. Social media has become a standard identity for people rather than just a fun way to communicate, and most people prefer to maintain their interpersonal relationships online as opposed to in person. With that said, social media has also proven to be extremely divisive and polarizing– since users are able to display and share their personal information, beliefs and interests all one platform, it is easier for users to make assumptions about others and prematurely choose sides. In the reading Who Will Take Responsibility for Facebook the author raises a good point about how Facebook played a seminal role in the exchange of false information and propaganda amongst users in the 2016 election; “Facebook’s integrity as a place that “helps you connect and share with the people in your life” has been all but laid to waste– as it has served as a clearinghouse for propaganda, disinformation, fake news, and fraud accounts” (Wired, 2017). Aside from the divide social networks are creating between internet users, the expansion of various social networks has also transformed the internet to become extremely divisive. For example, the reading Taking the You out of Youtube describes how bigger companies such as Google buying and taking ownership of independent social networks will eventually lead to the internet becoming a less user-friendly and cohesive experience. I believe that larger companies trying to monopolize social networks will ultimately create confusion on the internet and unfriendly competition.
As for my opinion as to whether social media is beneficial or detrimental to society, I believe it’s a little of both. The advancement of social media does make everyday tasks more efficient such as communicating with others, gathering information, and networking in general, which benefits society by increasing the overall productivity and connectivity. However, if society becomes too reliant on social media, we begin to lose sight of the importance of real-life interactions and experiences. Social media was originally created to supplement people’s interpersonal relationships but has quickly been transforming into becoming our society’s sole form of communication. I foresee this evolvement as being only a hindrance to the development of our society, especially the younger generations. It is for these reasons that I do my best to promote and uphold the sentiment of “log off and live” in my daily life.
Feb 08 2018
Social Media Discussion Post 1
In the last few years, actually, in the last decade, social media has changed the way society operates. Back then, social media was mostly used for communicating with friends and family via the internet. Things have drastically changed throughout the years. Social media can be used for much more. It’s a place where people can make money, post public opinions, and gain immediate access to information. Like most things, social media has its pros and cons. Some of the pros are you can basically gain free marketing and promo. Instead of paying companies to advertise your business on Facebook, you can easily turn to social media and market yourself. It’s very easy to go viral on social media which can be good or bad but either way you’re getting exposure and free promo. Another pro is that social media can bring people together. For example, Reddit is a website that has different communities based on the interests that people share. This is a pro because people can feel comfortable and feel welcomed. Some cons are that social media can be used as a way to bully people. Kids are using social media to embarrass their classmates or a complete stranger which can sometimes lead to suicide. Another con is that criminals such as hackers and scammers can easily find new victims through social media.
One article that speaks on the cons of social media is an article by New York Times Magazine called “The Web Means the End of Forgetting”. This article speaks on the fact that once something is on the internet, It is always on the internet and can possibly haunt you for the rest of your life. This article used Stacy Snyder, a 25-year-old teacher in training. Stacy Snyder posted a picture of herself on Myspace drinking from a plastic cup, wearing a pirate hat. Once her supervisor at the school she was training at found her page, she informed Stacy that her post was unprofessional. This all led to Stacy not being able to receive a teaching degree. This is a perfect example of how future employers can get access to your social media pages or posts and judge your character based on what you decide to post online. This also shows that nothing is ever forgotten on the internet and it shows that you have no privacy on social media. The article states that “The fact that the internet never seems to forget is threatening, at an almost existential level, our ability to control our identities; to preserve the option of reinventing ourselves and starting anew; overcome our checkered pasts” (New York Times Magazine). This statement backs up my claim that the things you post on the internet can haunt you and will never be forgotten.
Facebook may be one of the most controversial websites in today’s society. Facebook has the most users, and when a website is that big, it will always raise concerns and controversy. The article “Who Will Take Responsibility for Facebook?” written by Virginia Heffernan speaks about the corruption of Facebook and how Mark Zuckerberg fails to take responsibility for his creation. For example, Facebook allowed Russia to purchase ads in 2016 which interfered with the elections. Mark Zuckerberg knew about this and failed to take responsibility for it. Also, another example is people use Facebook’s live stream to do crimes or even commit suicide and Mark Zuckerberg still acts as if nothing happens. He fails to acknowledge the flaws that Facebook has.
Another article that speaks on social media and its impact is “Taking the You Out of Youtube?” written by Henry Jenkins. This article talks mostly about the buyout of Youtube. This article talked about Google buying Youtube and how consumers felt about it. Some people felt like it was a bad move because google is known for ads and people feared that google commercialization would destroy Youtube. People feared that google will change the true meaning of Youtube and just turn it into a money-making ad machine.