Media Consolidation - Blog #8

  

        Media has had a huge impact on today’s society when it comes to receiving news or information. Media Consolidation is the concentration of ownership of our news sources into the hands of fewer and fewer corporations. This pretty much means that very few large companies are able to own and control what media is out and fewer individuals or organizations control increasing shares of the mass media. The corporations that control nearly all of US media are newspapers, magazines, tv, radio, wire services, and photo agencies. These are typically a part of everyday use when it comes to hearing about what is going on in the news. In 1983, around fifty companies owned 90% of all American media. By 2011, the same 90% of American media is now currently owned by six companies which include Disney, New Corp, GE, Viacom, CBS, and Time Warner. That is not a lot of companies let alone a lot of opportunity for media to come from different sources. 

       Although, there are a few implications when it comes to media consolidation. The implications include and will lead to less opportunity for the local news to gather information, less local staffing, and less opportunity for communities to interact with one another. If the media is only producing their information from one source then there is no point in communicating with others about the different opinions. When all the news outlets are owned as one collective group then the availability to access other information from other sources is no longer even an option, leaving no room for other voices, stories, theories, or opinions to be made. Typically this could be considered to be a bad thing because having one news source may not be the most reliable or credible source considering the fact that the media might not want to cover every detail when presenting to their audiences. Having many other news sources is important because other news outlets could be inaccurate or be biased which will lead to a lot of misinformation. This is not a good thing when it comes to sharing the news about what is going on in the world. People need the cold, hard truth and nothing but the truth. Corporations that own these news outlets are no longer focused on providing the real news to the public because they are focused on how their business will benefit from it. Their profits help the business therefore, they only want news that will bring them money and ratings. 

       This also affects society as a whole by having little to no access to diverse news sources. There is less local news and more of a left wing slant when it comes to what is being broadcasted by the media. It also depends on what source is being used whether it be Fox News or CNN when it comes to a politically biased slant. Due to the huge impact that the media has already had on society, this has also led to the public opinion being blinded from what is really going on in the rest of the world. Media consolidation will only want to show their audiences what they want to hear. This means that people in today’s society might not be able to create opinions of their own and their opinions will be made for them because they are only able to see what the media wants them to see rather than the whole story. 

https://billmoyers.com/story/media-consolidation-should-anyone-care/

The Invasion of Privacy - Blog #7

  

     With today’s constant exposure to the internet and technology, there is little to almost no privacy. I always knew that nothing is private on the internet. My parents have always told me, “once you put it out there, it is out there forever.” Growing up I always heard this saying, but I have never heard about the comparison between online life and a tattoo. According to Juan Enriquez’s TedTalk he says that technology can be considered “electronic tattoos”. Hundreds of friends, followers, photographers, cameras, rewriters, reviewers, cookies, apps, phone trackers, GPS, and security systems are watching our every move. From credit scores to liked Instagram posts, the internet is keeping track of that data. Facial recognition has also changed the game of lack of privacy. The recognition has gotten so good that we can take a picture of anyone’s face and the internet will be able to not only detect the person but can also gather information about that individual in a matter of seconds. Personally, I chose not to have face recognition on my phone because I know that I do not want the government to have easy access to more of my private life than they already do. In Catherine Crump’s TedTalk she talks about the details that the police are tracking us on. The police have so much to work with when it comes to gathering data about certain individuals such as their recent whereabouts, who they are, where they live, where they work, and more. There are Automatic License Plate Readers that capture an image of every car’s license plate as they drive by. They are pretty much everywhere, even on police cars. They are able to track where you are going, who you are, what car you drive, and etc. just by the license plate on your car. There is at least someone who always knows where we are or where we have been; talk about the lack of privacy! Even the smartphones that we carry around with us everywhere are capturing our every move. Telephone companies and the networks that carry the calls have provided wiretapping assistance to the government for years according to Christopher Soghoian’s TedTalk about how to avoid surveillance with the smartphones in our pockets. Just when you think you are having a two person conversation, always remember there might be an uninvited person listening from the other side. Access to the internet and technology has also made it easier for people to violate other people’s privacy. This is commonly known as “revenge porn” or like Darieth Chisolm calls it in her TedTalk,  “digital domestic violence”. This occurs when people threaten to exploit another person’s private photos on the internet out of hate, violence, or for something in return. Chisolm also shared her own experience of “revenge porn” when her photos were leaked from an ex boyfriend that were taken without her consent. Her photos will now be on the internet for the world to see and she will never live a private life again. 

    This is one of the many ways the internet promotes our lack of privacy. These issues affect me because it scares me knowing that the internet knows exactly who I am just by a few photos of my face or by just a few Instagram posts I have liked. Not to mention the fear of people taking photos of me without my consent and threatening to post it to the internet to ruin my reputation. I have built up trust issues because I do not know who or what app or smartphone I can truly trust. This not only affects me, but also my friends and family who are associated with me. For example, Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat always recommend people I should follow who I already know in person. How could they possibly know that? We are all connected in one big internet circle of life. I believe that the government should provide some form of consent for people to allow them to use them for data. They should also create some sort of website or something to deny and prevent any explicit photo that tries to be posted. This would help stop “revenge porn”. We cannot rely on the government to do everything so it is also up to us to make some choices that will help us keep at least a little bit of our privacy such as making our social media accounts private, not tagging our location or other people, and not putting all of our personal information on any social media or internet platform. The invasion of privacy is a major issue right now that needs to be fixed, no one should be able to access all of our information just from a picture of our faces. The world needs to change and that change can start with us. 

https://www.ted.com/talks/juan_enriquez_your_online_life_permanent_as_a_tattoo?language=ab

https://www.ted.com/talks/catherine_crump_the_small_and_surprisingly_dangerous_detail_the_police_track_about_you?language=yi

https://www.ted.com/talks/christopher_soghoian_how_to_avoid_surveillance_with_the_phone_in_your_pocket/transcript?language=en

https://www.ted.com/talks/darieth_chisolm_why_we_need_revenge_porn_safeguards

The Invention of the Camera - Blog #6

    In 1816 the first photograph came to life. The camera was invented by Niepce and the first photograph that was taken was on silver chloride-lined paper. In 1021, the camera obscura was invented. In 1685, the first portable camera was invented and this was considered to be one of the most monumental moments in camera history because it made it easier to capture more moments in life through photographs. In 1888, one of the biggest camera companies, Kodak, sold their first commercial camera, which helped make their mark on the world. Sales went through the roof because everyone wanted a camera. The camera had many positive impacts on the world which include the art of photography and film, it helped further communication through video chatting, it helped with the development of social media, and streaming services. Although there were many positives, there were also a few negatives such as lack of privacy due to the cameras being pretty much everywhere. The camera allows people to take pictures of anything and with the use of social media, the two go hand in hand causing less privacy among society. Overall, I believe that the camera was one of the greatest inventions of all time because it serves so many purposes that help grow and improve our society today, and not to mention the many memories that are captured that will be saved for a lifetime. 

Hidden Voices - Blog Post #5

   

    In today’s society there seems to be little to no mainstream news that promotes anything related to antiwar. There are so many websites that display news articles that are in favor of anti war that are hidden from the public eye. Websites such as ANTIWAR.COM and the American Conservative are not given the spotlight that they deserve. The people of this country deserve to hear their voices. I believe that websites like this are so hard to find because the media has displayed favor for one side more than the other. Conservatives have especially been painted in a bad light during the many debates of politics. With access to social media, it gives more people the opportunity to use their platforms to share their opinions. If the media is only showing one side as the “better” side, then of course society is going to follow that side because it is “trending” in the news.  It is hard to find websites that contradict what is happening in the media because the media chooses to only show people what they want to hear rather than displaying other opinions and views so that people can choose on their own what they want to actually support and believe in. The media has taken away the opportunity for people to make choices for themselves by hiding other viewpoints that could possibly cause the slightest bit of conflict or debate. It is time to bring websites that share multiple opinions, especially on war, and to finally allow people to be shown different positions so they can make choices on their own rather than following the crowd of only what the government wants to show. 

https://www.antiwar.com/

The Invention of Hulu - Blog Post #4

                                  

On March 22, 2007 the streaming service, Hulu was born in the wonderful state of New York. Creators John Kilar and Beth Comstock named their company Hulu after two Mandarin Chinese words, "calabash; bottle gourd" and "interactive recording". Kilar said that the name comes from a Chinese proverb. Hulu is also Mandarin for gourd. Kilar and Comstock wanted to change the way people watched television. Hulu was created in order to give their viewers access to hundreds of movies and recent episodes from their favorite television networks. The name was chosen in August of 2007, but it went live to the public just as an announcement that big things were coming soon. There was no content yet, but this only built excitement for what was about to come. Before the product began the private “beta” testing process, there was about $100 million invested into the streaming service company from Providence Equity Partners. The company also made many deals with other internet companies. On October 29, 2007, the HULU Syndication Network was the first product to be launched. This was developed and designed by the NBC Universal company. On March 12, 2008, Hulu was finally open to the public for millions of viewers to enjoy in the United States. Instead of going to the movie theater, Hulu is able to bring the movie theater to thousands of homes. How cool is that a streaming service has made so many movies and television shows available by just the tap of a few buttons? According to ComCore, Hulu had already reached 903 million video streams from just two years of being up and running. This almost beat the amount of video streams that the popular company YouTube had around this time. It seems that YouTube was already facing some heavy competition. By 2010, Kilar stated that the service had already made a profit in just two quarters and that the company would be able to make more than $100 million in revenue by the end of summer of 2010. This was way more than its income for the entire year of 2009. Hulu was making video streaming history. Hulu is now currently owned by the Walt Disney Company, NBC Universal, Providence Equity Partners, and the Fox Entertainment Group Company. The streaming service offers more than just movies and television from television networks such as FX, NBC, ESPN, ABC, and more, but in comparison to their leading competition, Netflix, Hulu releases new episodes  just 24 hours after the premiere on network television. This has taken cable television to the next level. Whereas Netflix makes their viewers wait months or even years for new episodes to be released to the public, this also goes the same for movies. Hulu also provides live television for those who still enjoy watching cable television. The streaming service is only available in two countries which include, The United States and Japan. Since the year of 2020, Hulu has gained over 3.3 million subscribers and the numbers are only continuing to increase as the years go by. 

https://www.zippia.com/hulu-careers-26793/history/