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.