Comm 219: The Digital Bible

 Not only is the Bible the best selling book of all time, but it was also the first book ever published due to Gutenberg’s movable type process. With this digital era progressing, it only makes sense that the Bible would eventually be transferred over to the screen. Despite having over 25 million copies sold each year and having a miniseries developed after it, writer Thomas Larson worries that the meaning and holiness of the Bible will be somewhat diminished. Though it might be quicker and easier to access it online, it’s harder for people to break down the true meaning of the text as opposed to a small group reading and interpreting its meaning. “Just because your eyes glance over a text doesn’t mean you have an intimate relationship with it. Giving someone a Bible for Conformation is not like giving them an iPod where you can swipe the screen and read Leviticus.” Because of technology, we begin to lose our personal touch amongst certain objects and fail to recognize their worth. 

  One could argue that through technology the Bible can be better understood, as online discussions on many websites are common. Technology is a great way to provide mass communication, but Thomas believes that after a certain point our conversations will bury the value and meaning of written literature. Almost everyone has some way to access the internet, and because of this they can post anything that they want people to see. Thomas hopes that the Bible’s meaning will still remain powerful and not drown in today’s viral world. I hope that these messages in the Bible and within all pieces of literature can continue to be appreciated and preached. 

Comm 219: Hypothetical Candidates

It’s crazy how Obama isn’t even halfway done with his second term, and people are already speculating who will be running in 2017. Possible candidates are Chris Christie, Hilary Clinton, Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, and Elizabeth Warren. Right off the bat, I think it’s exciting to see two women’s name in this list because I feel like it’s time our country tried something new. Nonetheless, Bob brings up a great point in how majority of Americans don’t start paying attention to elections until the World Series, which is typically only three weeks shy of election day. While talking to The New York Times Magazine’s Mark Liebovich, the two both bring up how speculations are being made of who will win in 2017. Without any doubt Chris Christie and Hilary Clinton are the biggest names on the list, but some are making claims that Clinton already has him beat by a landslide. Some bloggers are even convinced that Elizabeth Warren will be Clinton’s “worst nightmare.” Despite what these statements are, they are all irrelevant to the election at this point in time. 

Just think back to last years presidential debates, and how Mitt Romney clearly stood tall over Barack Obama. However, not only did Obama jump back on his feet, but he was able to sway enough people for his vote yet again. Like Liebovich states, these websites and news programs have the right to speculate their takes on the next election, even if most of the believes will change within time. Between different social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr, we’re prone to spending hours online for useless pleasures to fill up our time. I feel that the election speculations are just another form of useless time consumption to give us something to talk about, and to fill the gaps in our schedule. 

Comm 219: Bullying Does Not Cause Suicide

 This is such a powerful topic to focus on, especially for those who have lost a loved one to suicide. Kelly McBride from Poytner Institute brings up a brilliant point that when it comes to suicides in younger age groups, researchers should be looking at the overall trends and not just pinpointing the cause on one key factor, i.e. cyber bullying. To dive more into what McBride was saying, most teens who commit suicide had a number of things that sparked their final action, whether it was cyber bullying, a lack of friends, or maybe even parents who just didn’t understand what they were going through. So on this side of the argument, it’s important to see all aspects of a suicidal teen in order to avoid future life-or-death situations. At my high school, I was fortunate enough to meet with a public speaker who had lost his son from a cyber bullying incident. Though their might have been several events that led to his son’s death, I believe that cyber bullying was the ultimate cause. 

In a case like Ryan Halligan’s, he always had a small group of friends. He had been in several special education classes as a child, but still persevered with high spirits and depended on his family and few friends. Kids had picked on him throughout middle school and called him gay, so when instant messaging became popular, Ryan tried to prove them wrong. One of the most popular girls in school pretended to like him during the summer of 2003, and when September came, Ryan’s world crumbled tragically. During these years of being tormented, his parents and friends had always been at his side to comfort him and come up with the best solutions to protect him. However in his case, cyber bullying had gone too far, and the “pile on effect” of several bullying occasions had pushed Ryan over the line. What I can conclude from this story and this week’s segment is that sure, not all suicidal cases are influenced based off of one source, but whether they are or aren’t, I believe that anyone who piles onto one’s thought of suicide should suffer consequences. We can only do so much to protect the lives of others.

If you’re interested and want to read the full story on Ryan Halligan, click the link below. His parents are very inspirational people and give wonderful advice for parents or anyone who is trying to save the life of a suicidal loved one. 

http://www.ryanpatrickhalligan.org/

 

Comm 219: Why Nigerian Email Scams Work

One of the biggest pet peeves most people have is opening up their email only to find a bunch of spam. This week’s On The Media podcast featured a segment on email scams, and how the scammers strategize who their targets will be. It seems that most people nowadays will just move these letters straight to the trash. For others that are used to these spam emails all the time are the ones that can also be the most guilty of clicking on them. Professor Daniel Simmons explains this phenomenon, and makes an analogy towards the beeping noises we hear during a hearing exam. When exposed around something for so long, sometimes we might claim that the beeping noise was there when it wasn’t, and in this case, spam might not appear to be spam.

 The best way to avoid these fraud emails is to continually answer them without sending these people the money that they’re trying to bribe you for. Scammers want their targets to be so familiar with their emails to where they can almost trust them, and they look for anyone who’s gullible enough to follow through and send them money. Knowingly making their spam emails as minimally disguised as possible, it’s easier for them to weed out those who will ignore them and those who will believe them. Daniel Simmons explained that people as busy as lawyers are constantly receiving ridiculous emails all day from clients, and unfortunately wouldn’t think twice to send money to these unknown companies. In 2009, 9.3 billion people were guilty of falling for these spams, and it seems like this is a crime that will always be present in our lives. Though we can spread the word of these cruel scams to others, there is always going to be that group of people that are new to the internet and will fall for these traps. I truly fear that based on how accurately our computers can match advertisements to our interests is another reason why these spam letters stand a chance to keep us fooled. You never really know how what exactly technology is up to next. 

Comm 219: Yeah Baby, Yeah Baby, Yeah Baby

The Associated Press can be extremely beneficial for a news company, but can make any journalist look bad once they start getting lazy. Majority of the photographs, and most news articles found online are provided by the Associated Press, and unfortunately some journalists will do anything to take the easy way out. In class we talked about timeliness, and how important it is to break a story before your competitors in order to be the head of the business. However, when deadlines are approaching, some journalists will only use one source and copy and paste the exact script as their story. Not only does this lack in creativity and in accuracy, but there is nothing that will draw the attention from one article to another if everyone takes the easy way out. KWWL News Director Dan Schillinger talks about Conan O’Brien’s segment “Media Reacts,” which shows a montage of different news anchors breaking the same story. When CNN released a script of Mike Myers stating he wanted a second child, anchors all over the US broke the same cheesy punchline that CNN’s script released. While it’s easy to copy and paste any Associated Press story, all journalists would be out of a job if they resorted to this tactic. Without incorporating their own spin, what makes their story any more special than other news stations? Couldn’t we all just copy and paste stories at home if we really wanted to? In order to sell your story, a lot more research is needed to make it the best. It’s honestly embarrassing listening to how not everyone takes their jobs seriously. And if a cheesy punchline isn’t great the first time it’s delivered, don’t use it again.

Comm 219: Lost, Then Found

Similar to what Brooke said in this week’s On the Media podcast, I suppose that we really have to question what is protected about our private lives. Lance, a 38 year old from California had anonymously donated to a sperm bank over 15 years ago, and recently received an email from Ryan. The young boy and his mother Wendy had compared his DNA to others’ in public databases to find that Lance was his father. I can see two sides of this story, both as to why it’s good and bad. For mothers that need to turn to a sperm donor and even for the child, some want to thank their fathers who helped bring a new life into this world. Lance had always been curious to know what his son had looked like, but for other sperm donors, this may not be the case.

Wendy and Ryan’s research brought them to the fact that Ryan also had anywhere between 3 to 9 half brothers and sisters, so they started a group on Yahoo called the Donor Sibling Registry. Originally no one had known about this, but after it being published on the news, more people began to join. Ryan had also sent a saliva sample to a website that would give him all of his relatives, and Lance’s name matched up with one of the names from public databases. While Lance is happy to know who he brought into this world, he worries if his other children will reach out to him as well. In this case, Lance’s anonymous act was to better a family, but for him and other sperm donors, their identities might not be a secret anymore. Unfortunately with the increasing records kept online, more of our actions and personal information are accessible to more people, and those people may or may not be someone we’d like to share it with.

Comm 219: Fake Online Reviews By Real Fans

     My immediate thoughts when listening to this particular segment linked back to a previous segment on On the Media, when the Huffington Post removed the option for posting anonymous comments. Unfortunately, for all of the honest people trying to share their concerns online, it seems as though a larger group of rude attention seekers are making a joke out of their excessive freedom online. Professor Duncan Simester formulated a study between the comments and whether or not the reviewer had actually purchased the product through tracking their transactions. What I found incredibly interesting was that most people who formulate fake reviews are not only negative,  but they are much wordier with their comments by sidetracking the reader with useless details in order to make up for the facts they don’t know. It does not surprise me that a company would go out of their way to pay people to publish positive feedback on their products, but as far as an individual who hasn’t even purchased it, I am really stumped on their motivation behind this. 

     I suppose this is where the correlation between anonymous commentators and fake review writers tie in, wanting to stir up trouble with the public with little to no seriousness behind their words. As strange as it sounds, Duncan Simester mentions that the motivation behind these reviews could also be that the writers actually love these companies, and want to provide feedback on their latest creations in order to keep them going strong. Online public forums are the best way to get the word out to other customers, and although companies are known for posting positive feedback on their products and negative feedback on their competitors, the issue is much bigger due to those typing up inaccurate reviews at home. This segment provided information on how to weed out the good comments from the bad, but it seems as though the solution to stop this hasn’t been cracked yet.

Comm 219: Tracking Your Steps

Brooke Gladstone jokes how dependent she is on her Google Maps app for taking as little as two steps outside of her office, but realistically 74 percent of adults who own a smart phone use location apps to find out about the restaurants and shops all around them. The biggest question is how are these applications gathering this information about so many places? Geographer Jim Thatcher dives more into the details of these upcoming applications, and how these simple GPS appliances operate. Without the help of the GPS, there are several different routes one could take to arrive to their destination. Some paths might be even quicker than what our devices have to offer, so why do these applications provide us with what seems to be less convenient directions? Thatcher begins this discussion with the newly released website called Ghetto Tracker, which warns people which neighborhoods are sketchy to travel through.

This seems like a great idea, as I am sure most people would want to arrive to their destination in one piece. However, most of these location apps are already using this same process in a more discreet fashion. The real question is where the information is coming from, but with a company like Waze that Google recently purchased for over a billion dollars, it gathers and spreads updates from its millions of users worldwide. These applications are becoming much more expensive nowadays for the accuracy they provide, and it is showing how media is as depending on us as we are with our technology. What I don’t like about these programs is the commercialization of certain shops, and how some locations aren’t even appearing in Google Maps due to how much they are paying these companies to show them. Nowadays we don’t even think twice of where our maps guide us as technology is doing more and more of the work, so how much are we missing out on? I guess this is just another long lost tale of how we’re becoming more dependent on technology.

Comm 219: Huffington Post Disables its Comments

 

 

   I have to admit, the cat segment was the first to grab my attention, but I feel like there is a lot more to talk about with this week’s segment on The Huffington Post. Like many online blogs, this website features daily news articles which anyone can access and comment on below. However, the founder Arianna Huffington told On the Media that they recently removed the option to where people can share their thoughts anonymously. Now, as a user of tumblr, I know that there are several websites out there that allow people to post questions or comments anonymously. I feel that too many people take advantage of this. Every day when I check my email, I along with thousands of online users click to see the latest articles on The Huffington Post before carrying on with my day. Those who I’ve seen post without an identity often write something controversial or offensive to one of the other users, as if they’re looking to start a fight. While everyone is entitled to their own opinion, I believe that more and more people are starting to take advantage of the freedom they are given online.

We’ve talked about media literacy before in class, and it is exactly why the comment section exists. This privilege is supposed to allow people to share their thoughts with others and show how well they comprehend each post. Most anonymous comments that I have read often show signs of low media literacy, stating superficial opinions that don’t necessarily have anything to do with the article itself. Anna made the right choice in disabling this option, and hopefully other websites will copy this step in order to prevent those who don’t join these open discussions seriously. It’s important to listen to other people’s point of views, however if they aren’t willing to sign their name next to their words they shouldn’t be saying them. There is no real way to abolish all of the online trolls, but this is the first step I have witnessed in attempts of making our internet a more civilized place.

COMM219: Syria Coverage, Nazi Collaborations, with Hollywood, and More

  What I found most captivating this week was the segment on Nazi collaborations with Hollywood in the 1930s. When looking back at American films around the WWII era most of them were anti-German, but according to Ben Urwand in his recent novel The Collaboration, Hollywood had allowed Hitler and his Nazi government to censor most of our films that spoke against them. The issue first appeared after the screening of the film All Quiet on the Western Front, which was cancelled and soon later banned in Germany for showing their loss in WWI. Although this film was intended to show all hardships of the war, the Germans were convinced that it was an excuse to show their loss, which they believed was caused by the propaganda used against them, which had brainwashed their soldiers to defeat. Universal Studios director Carl Laemmle had agreed to remove any scenes that imposed negative attributes against the Third Reich and then released the revised film in several countries, finally reaching Germany’s approval. Unfortunately by being more concerned with their investments, Hollywood allowed the German government to censor their films as they did not want to lose profit. 

 

  Georg Gyssling, a member of the German Consulate, was one of many who had visited several film screenings and instructed directors what they were to cut out and replace. Something that upset me about this segment was that majority of these Hollywood directors were Jewish, and yet they were still taking orders from Nazi Germany to reconstruct their films. The issue hadn’t ended until 1939 when the United States had officially entered WWII and Warner Brothers released the anti-Nazi film Confessions of a Nazi Spy. While other companies like MGM and Fox had still tried to continue their business with Germany, it soon became increasingly impossible to ship any American films to a number of European countries. Paramount had hired a film crew to capture the war scenes in Germany and made profits of off these clips in the United States. Even though these film reels were claimed to be neutral, it’s a shame to know that many people were unaware of the evils Germany was creating.