We The Media 4

Chapter 10′s focus on libel was especially interesting to me due to some personal circumstances that have occurred in the past. I feel that journalists or not, Freedom of Speech is critical to our survival as a free enterprise, and aside from blatant untruths, speech should be largely unhindered. I can’t necessarily agree that it is annoying to not be able to control the comments made about your corporation (or self), as we can’t control those in life, anyway. Only social faux-pas prevent cruel rudeness.

In chapter 11, his comments on cookies were interesting. Of course they can be abused, but by and large they end up being helpful. Perhaps they track too much, perhaps not, but from an advertising point of view it certainly helps to be able to identify your audience and target your advertising specifically towards them. I do see the issues available with filtering, especially when it comes to foreign countries that heavily filter their peoples’ access to the information present on the web.

Chapter 12 and I agree on one important thing: the internet is the most important new medium and is a place where technology evolves so quickly that information is spread faster than ever before. It’s also beneficial due to the instant feedback journalists get on their work, allowing them to more easily cater to the desires and tastes of their audience.

My Website

My website

My Media Blog

A review of a flash drive

We the Media 3

Chapter 7 was an interesting chapter about blogging and social media such as Wikipedia. The comments made about the pros and cons of “amateur” journalists were quite interesting. Specifically the lack of constraint on form factor and style. Gilmour’s commentary about blogging highlighted a lot of the positives – the easy and quick dissemination of information in ways that not even professional news media could begin to emulate was a nice touch.
Chapter 8 mentions the ubiquity of technology being useful and I think this is extraordinarily important. The fact that cell phones are affordable and so functional is a great thing for the spreading of information, for example. Cell phones take video, photos, can send emails and text over the internet, and it’s theoretically possible to create a multi-media website and blog with only a smartphone now. As these technologies grow and become cheaper and cheaper, it’s only a matter of time before standard media is gone completely.

 

Chapter 9 taught me the depths that John Kerry was hurt by the commentary on the internet in 2004. While it’s obvious that the more affordable and accessible technology is an overall benefit to the spreading of information, that knife cuts both ways, as it’s evident that both true and false information become easily distributed. The most painful thing about the widespread dissemination of this info is that we can never be trustful of the source. We can assume that the more people that report on a topic, the more accurate the overall response is, but we cannot guarantee that. We can only hope that the readers will have the wisdom to make the call themselves.

 

 

Final Project Plan

For my final project I will create 3 short product reviews for a fictional computer gadget review site. These will be made on my laptop’s integrated webcam and posted on my personal blog, along with a series of photos and links to sites where more information about these products will be found. I will also be using Audacity to edit a soundtrack of creative commons music that will play in the background of each video.

My fascinating lunch experience

My newsletter

Newsletter

We The Media 2.0

Gilmore has a couple of interesting points in these chapters. In chapter 4, he talks about celebrity and corporate blogging, and while I don’t necessarily agree that it should be done in all cases, I can see why it would be very beneficial to do it in certain instances. Most important, though, is to control the message. The tone needs to be informal, but the last thing needed is, for example, two scientists from Coke and Pepsi having a “blog war” about who has the best formula for calorie-free root beer. It brings the level of discourse down to street preachers, which can be a good and bad thing. On one hand, it’s more accessible, but on the other, you start to risk the off-the-cuff remark of the employee who hasn’t quite learned the fine art of not talking himself into a corner. Celebrities can work the same way – with the occasional “celebrity blog” nightmare causing a ruckus in one form or another.

For political blogs, the danger is still there. Just today, on Twitter, Megan McCain, John McCain’s daughter and a very vocal “young republican” posted a picture of herself on her twitter account with a copy of an Andy Warhol book. This would not have been a big deal, except that she was wearing a tank top that was very revealing and had her shoulders pushed together to accentuate her cleavage. This quickly became a PR nightmare, as the ultra-right branded her a “slut” in comments and the ultra-left pointed out that her opinions could not be valid because she has large breasts. Both comments are absolutely asinine, but these are the types of things that she now has to face when she posts things like this on a whim.

In the last chapter he talked a bit about journalism and what it can gain from blogging. As a Journalism student (Advertising major) I’m actually quite a bit disappointed in this area, because I lament the ultra-short messages typical to blogs. 500 words or less (or on Twitter, only what, 140ish characters?) isn’t enough to fully deconstruct a complex issue. While this type of journalism might work fine for local events and fairly simple things like “Campbell Street Fair on Saturday” or “New Speed Bumps Approved for Lincoln Boulevard in Willow Glen”, the format doesn’t lend itself well to something more complex like the Israel-Palestine conflict or a thorough scientific discussion about Climate Change. But each tool has its use, and I think that’s what Gilmore ended up trying to say.

Did you know 2.0

It’s always interesting to see statistics like this, especially in regards to the wide availability of technology. I work in the tech industry (not so unique, out here) and I really  enjoy seeing all these types of things. It makes me feel comfortable that there’ll be some job (even if it’s only one out of 10-14 I might have before I turn 38) for me in the future.  I’ve always been somewhat optimistic about my own abilities to adapt to new information. As a technology enthusiast I like to build new products and read about new products other people are building and designing.

As a student, what worries me more than anything is how the education system will catch up to the internet. Just putting classes online is a nice start, but in 10 years there will have to be full online degree programs that are commonplace, inexpensive, and unhackable. People don’t have the patience and time they used to – we need a radical re-imagining of what life in the 21st century is like. Nobody comes from a single-income family where dad gets home from work at 5:30pm anymore. Nobody’s mom is staying at home vacuuming and cooking all day like it’s the 1950s. Our education system has to adapt to reflect that – a lot more families are dual income or split up. A lot more students have to get jobs to help out. A lot more young people are given more responsibilities than they were 50 years ago.

Anyway, the video was very interesting and brought up some very thoughtful debate with some people that watched it with me.

Considering the topic of today’s class

He's from the future