Final Exam Blog Post

Technology is a constantly evolving aspect of our lives. Because of this, there is always the argument as to whether or not technology is a healthy part of our lives. 

Personally, I have a relatively healthy relationship with technology. I use technology on a day to day basis for multiple aspects of my life. Since my major is graphic design, I am constantly using my computer for my design work. Because I have to look at a computer screen so long, I make sure to wear reading glasses so my eyes do not have to strain while looking at the computer. This has definitely hindered my eyesight slightly, which is not considered healthy. 

Other than using my computer for design work, I use my phone a lot throughout the day. I would consider it an unhealthy amount of time consumed by technology, mainly because when I am bored, I go on my phone to to surprise my boredom. Since technology is such a large aspect in my life, I would say it takes up too much time in life, but not all in a negative way. 

I know that you can not believe everything you see or hear on the internet. However, I do believe that technology is making me smarter in certain aspects of my life. I rely on the internet to help me solve a problem I have while designing. Once I learn how to fix the problem, I will remember it and not have to look it up again, but it is nice knowing that I am able to if I need it. However, I do feel that the use of technology has taken away some peoples common sense. Since we have the ability to search and find the answer to anything, we immediately go to the technology for the answer rather than finding the answer in a more conventional way. 

As I mentioned before, technology is very helpful and has a large impact on my life. I am currently in a 3 year long distance relationship, where my boyfriend lives in Germany. Because of technology, I am able to talk to him everyday, whether that is over text, phone call or FaceTime. Having multiple ways of communicating with him is very nice and helps our relationship to stay strong. My parents were also in a long distance relationship for a part of their relationship. However, they both live in the US, their only ways to communicate was by mail or phone call. They tell me all the time how lucky I am to have technology to positively affect my relationship. 

When it comes to my online footprint, I do have one. I am active on social media including instagram, Facebook, linkedin and others. Although I do post content relating to my social life on my social media platforms, I do not post inappropriate content that would make me look bad to employers. I make sure to have multiple outlets that contain my design work and resumes. 

Even though I have grown up with technology, I have never truly thought about all the negative aspects technology plays in our life. After watching Tears for Fears in class, I realized how much technology can hinder relationships, maybe even more than it helps. Because of that, I am going to make sure to continue to evaluate my use of technology and how it impacts my life. 

Blog 11: EOTO Mainstream Media

In communications, there is something called mainstream media (MSM). MSM consists of large broadcasting and publishing media outlets that reach most of the general public. This type of media is a way to mass spread media to the vast majority. Since this media is determined to reach the majority, some consider it to be biased. Most people know that CNN leans more liberal, whereas Fox news leads more conservative. These are examples of bias. 

According to Maryville EDU, “big companies, under corporate umbrellas with trained journalists and vast resources that report on news stories and disseminate stories through a variety of channels, from print to podcast, are mainstream media.” Because MSM is always under corporate companies, the journalists have access to everything they could need to tell whatever story they please, therefore an easy gateway to bias. 

 

On the other hand, mainstream media is great because it is global. Having access to global news helps inform our country about the good and bad things happening in other countries across the world. Depending on which news station you refer to for news, determines which stories you will be hearing about, or even which side of a story you will be hearing about. As I have mentioned, MSM strives to please their majority target audience, whether that is republicans (Fox news) or democrats (CNN news). Because of this, the news stations must strategically decide what content will be talked about on their channel and how their speakers will go about communicating that. 

 

Overall mainstream media is a good thing, it has been and will continue to be since it gets news across to most of the population. In general, the news industries need people to work for them that can communicate well and professionally, and people who understand the importance and role of journalism, media, and the diverse viewpoints of the citizens and how that play into the media content. 

Blog 09: EOTO Terms & Concepts

Media is all around of. Media is the means of mass communication. Media has always been essential in sharing relevant news and information to the country and the world. Information can be made and distributed in several different ways. Majority of these ideas pertain to the generations they were created in. For example we will be talking about Alternative Media and Citizen Journalism, medias that really strive in the 21^st century. 

Alternative Media

According to J.D.H. Downing, “Alternative media are defined as small-scale politically radical media, using a wide spectrum of communication technologies and formats.” For a better understanding, alternative media is a type of media that differs from mainstream media (MSM) in terms of content and distribution. Alternative media strives to be the opposite of mainstream media. This creates media with a more specific target audience, appealing to the viewers wanting more information and a very particular topic. A major benefit of alternative media is the use of the World Wide Web (WWW) as a platform to transmit and display alternative media, according to Elliot King. King creates a table, shown below, that consists of files extensions being used on the WWW for common media types. Everything listed is considered a type of alternative media. Alternative media affects society by giving them the choice to which media they prefer to get information from. Creating an environment that awaits decisions helps keep us on our toes and mentally healthy. 

 

Positives

-       Specific target audience for people who are less interested in what entertains the majority

-       Alt. media strives to be the opposite of MSM therefore, creating a unique media platform

Negatives

-       Some people believe that alternative media contains only conspiracy theories.

-       Popular growth of alt. media can turn into MSM

 

Citizen Journalism

According to Britannica, “citizen journalism, journalism that is conducted by people who are not professional journalists but who disseminate information using Websites, blogs, and social media.” With the growth of technology comes the growth of citizen journalism. The ability to be at an incident and record or photographic it, helps to get raw, authentic news. When journalists arrive late to the scene of an incident they missed out on information prior to their arrival that they will never be able to visually capture. Journalism having access to a wide variety of information, footage, and witnesses to an incident will help them in relaying the most truthful description of the incident to the rest of the world. Citizen journalism affects society because of the amount of society being used in way of media. Having society watch videos or see photos from a citizens perspective of being at the incident creates more emotion and change in the citizens viewing. 

            Positives

-       Raw and authentic video footage or photographs

-       Involvement of the community

-       Encourages the first amendment rights

-       Instant information, footage or photographs of a disaster zone

-       The ability to share the information rapidly

            Negatives

-       Potential for bias 

-       Potentially untrustworthy

-       Everything is being put online instead of there being discretion

Alternative media and citizen journalism con sometimes work hand in hand to produce the most efficient media for their viewers.

Blog 08: Privacy, Online & Off

What are electronic tattoos? According to Juan Enriquez on TedTalk, Enriquez refers to “Facebook, Twitter, Google, LinkedIn, cellphones, GPS, Foursquare, Yelp, Travel Advisory, EasyPass, security cameras, Wikipedia, credit scores, credit cards” as electronic tattoos.  

Electronic Tattoos are devices or platforms that keep records of everything you do, post, buy, watch, etc. The reason this is such an issue is because of the invasion of privacy. The use of technology to spread private information is good when it is in control of the individual whose privacy it is. They have the right to share their privacy with whomever they please. But that does not mean the applications used to do so, are able to keep records of the privacy shared therefore invading the individual’s privacy. 

 

The government should be stricter on companies about keeping records and information on people, invading their privacy. The thing is, is that the government does the same thing as the other companies and invades our privacy. The government keeps track of all our information through our technology. For example, simply having our phone near us and on invites the government to listen to what is going on around us and our conversations. This is a major invasion of our privacy, but the government feels it is necessary to have in the case of potentially using it against us in some way. 

 

A way that we can avoid and protect ourselves from privacy invasion is being very aware of your surroundings and what you say. Every type of electronic that has the power to pick up sound, can be tapped into in order to retrieve whatever is being said around it. Powering off our electronic devices when we aren’t using them and being very aware of what we say and what we are around when saying it will help to protect us from privacy invasion. 

Blog 07: Diffusion of Innovations

 Blog 07: Diffusion of Innovations

Communication technology is constantly changing and growing in new and innovative ways. The big question that is asked about new technology is ‘how, why and what rates will this technology spread at?’ I will be answering that question today with the Diffusion of Innovations theory by Everett Rogers. 

 

As I mentioned Diffusion if Innovations theory seeks to explain how, why, and at what rate new ideas and technology spread. For a better understanding, Rogers argues that diffusion is the process by which an innovation is communicated over time among the participants in a social system. There are five main elements that influence the spread of a new idea: the innovation itself, adopters, communication channels, time and a social system. 

 

Now I will be looking at the innovation of Ring Cameras and how, why and at what rate this technology spread. Ring was developed in 2014 and has progressively grown since. According to ring.com, “Ring Protect is a comprehensive service that activates video recording, saving, and sharing for you security cameras.” 

 

Now that we have a little background information on Ring cameras, I want to dive into the spread of the Ring technology. 

 

How has Ring technology spread across the world? The biggest contributor to the spread of Ring, is Ring have Amazon as their parent company. This means, Amazon technically owns Ring, and they have effective ways of advertising to increase the spread. Amazon began showing ads on their website and still is continuing to show ads, which increases the amount of people buying therefore, increasing the word-of-mouth advertising from the consumers. 

 

Why did Ring technology become popular and spread? The reason Ring became so popular is because of the comfort it provides for the consumer. When Ring initially came out, people began taking their recordings off the Ring camera and posting them to social media to show how dangerous it can be without security cameras. 

 

At what rate did Ring cameras spread? According to the graph below, the sales in security cameras has continued to grow each year. These cameras have been at a relatively constant purchase rate, growing with the company. This is good because the company continues to create new products that still impress their consumers but differentiates for their other products. 

 

Overall, Ring cameras has had a positive impact on society however, there are negative to follow. The major issue with Ring cameras is that people are being recorded without their consent or knowledge and that has caused major dispute over the years. Since the majority of these cameras are placed on privately owned property, the consent it not need due to the fact of the person coming onto private property without invitation. 

 

Ring cameras have bettered out society with the access to truthful evidence from the recordings as well as stopping people from doing illegal activities because of the mass amount of people who record outside their home, gathering more evidence. 

06: OTTO Communications Timeline - The Radio

The Radio. Who still listens to the radio? A lot of people. 

The Radio was invented in the 1920s, starting out as morse code and communicating news to broadcasting assemblies and playing music. This invention shaped the future of marketing and advertising. Being able to broadcast important assemblies and election returns was something the country needed. 

 

The longer the radio was in use the more people realized they could make money off it. First off in order to make money, the radios needed to be accessible to everyone, so the Crystal Radios were the first to be used and manufactured and were easy to make yourself at home. They averaged at about $2.50 in Chicago in the 1950s and 1960s, therefore making it possible for everyone to have one. 

                        Crystal Radio

Secondly, people needed to advertise their business on the radio, so they have a way of reaching more people than imagined. These companies would pay radio stations to play their advertisement so that everyone listening to that station would hear it and spread the ad from word of mouth. This was a big change in the advertising and marketing industry because companies needed to think of ways to convince people to want their products without them seeing the product. The growth of music being played on the radio helped this problem. Thus, jingles. Companies would make catchy songs to play on the radio so the listeners would constantly have their jingle stuck in their head therefore never forgetting about the company, making a higher chance of purchasing. 

 

Not only did companies and listeners want to have easy access to radios, but they also wanted to be able to listen to it on the go. It was an inconvenience to have to wait around the radio to hear everything you wanted to hear an not be able to do anything else because of the radio not being portable. To help this problem, Chevy was the first car company to install radios into vehicles. This change made radios even more popular thus, more companies buying ads, and more consumers buying products. The radio was an invention that was great for the economy. 

05: Anti-War Voices on Obscure Websites

 

Journalists normally have specialties or passions that they prefer to write about, and most of them end up writing just that. We have all read the vague, not so opinionated articles on national news channels, but where can we hear pure raw writing that is unfiltered. Look at articles on these two websites and see how we are similar or different in our opinions towards these websites. 

Antiwar.com | Theamericanconservative.com

 

Sometimes reading more unfiltered articles about the wrongs and rights happening in the world, is the better way to read about it. For example, the article on Antiwar.com, about a United States Air Force general saying, “when you kill your enemy, every part of your life it better.” This article or simply the quote would not be seen on more nationally recognized news channels because it is to graphic and unappealing. What I mean by graphic and unappealing is, this is something the government and the mainstream news channels work hard to cover up and not bring attention to. This is because they want you to think about the military as focused on protecting us not always having to kill to better their own life. Nobody wants to hear that the people fighting for their country enjoys killing people. 

 

I believe there is a reason why we must seek out obscure websites to hear strong anti-war voices. This reason being, the government doesn’t want us to be against war because to them, that is always the easiest way of dealing with things. The government does not want us to be against our military, the people fighting for our country, because it would look bad on them. In order to get the deep dark truth, obscure websites might be the place to go.