Media Law and Literacy

  Whistleblowers What is a whistleblower?     A whistleblower is a government employee who disclose information that they believe may be illegal, fraudulent, or a risk to public safety. Normally, whistleblowers are protected by protection acts, but where it gets messy is when it comes to classified government information. The government can have as many protection acts as they want, but obviously they don't want secret information about them being leaked without consequences. Things like the Espionage Act are often used to create a loophole in such protective acts.     Whistleblowers are an important part of our society. They are responsible for informing the public about their governments actions that may be harmful to them and would normally be completely behind the scenes. Whistleblowing has been going on for ages, and many of the things that have been brought up through whistleblowing have been of great cause for concern.  Pros and Cons of Whistleblowing     Whistleblowing has

  Privacy Ted Talks Intro       Our privacy in today's world is something that is often taken lightly. Many people don't realize how little privacy they have online, and when looking at what people and the government are able to get about you, it can be a shocking experience. Ted Talk #1:     The first Ted Talk comes from a man named Juan Enriquez , who talks about "electronic tattoos". What he means by electronic tattoos is that your information online tells a far greater story than any actual tattoo. There is technology now that can look at a picture, see your face, and bring up all sorts of information about you. The part where it gets really freaky is when he brings up the company Face.com , which is a company that developed a platform for efficient facial recognition. The applications had collected a total of 18 billion faces in 2011, and the really scary part is that this company was bought by Facebook in 2012. Who knows how many faces they have collected at thi

  Instagram     Instagram is a social media app that is extremely popular in today's day and age. It is an app that I have had since late elementary school and is one that I use regularly. The primary purpose of Instagram is to post and share photos for people to see, as well as seeing the posts of people you follow.  Why did it catch on?     The success of Instagram started when Stanford graduate Kevin Systrom decided to create a web app called Burbn. The app allowed for people to post their plans as well as share photos. Photo-sharing was very unique at the time and caught the attention of two venture capitalists. After meeting about the app, Systrom received $500,000 and quit his job to work on Burbn. The primary focus was targeted at the photo sharing capabilities, since they saw huge potential in it. They first looked at the app Hipstamatic since it allowed you to apply filters and such to photos, however, it lacked a social media feature. Kevin Systrom      After working o

  Internet     Tim Berners-Lee created the World Wide Web in 1990. He worked for a company called CERN which was a European Organization. Positives - Limitless Information, more ways to communicate YouTube      Created by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim on February 14th, 2006. Positives - Opened the door for new content needs, new form in income. Negatives - Allowed people to hide behind comments to be rude to others. Google           Sergey Brin and Larry Page struck up a friendship and launched their search engine "backrub". In 1998 the original "Google Beta" was created. Positives - Research Tool, Can be used for advertising, custom search engine. Negatives - Not everything you find is true, expensive to advertise. The Printing Press      Formally invented by Johannes Gutenberg in 1439. He created a specific metal that was durable enough. Impactful on the progression of the Renaissance, Reformation of the Catholic Church, and the Scientific Revolution.

  The Radio     The Radio. One of the most influential inventions throughout history. An invention ahead of its time, that allowed people to enjoy media in a whole new way.  The Invention of the Radio     The invention of the current day radio can be attributed to 3 different people and their findings within their studies. The first person to contribute to the invention of the radio was Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell . In 1864, Maxwell discovered in his studies that light was an electromagnetic wave, and therefore came up with the theory that other types of waves could actually exist. This theory paved the way for future scientists allowing them to look deeper into Maxwell's theory. The next person to make progress in the invention of the radio as well as make serious strides in science was German physicist Heinrich Hertz . In 1885, Hertz discovered that a copper wire carrying an electric current would give off electromagnetic waves when going back and forth between two zin

The Eight Values of Free Expression     When talking about the First Amendment, there are eight values that talk about free speech and why it is important. To me, the most important of these in our country are: marketplace of ideas, stable change, and promote tolerance. Starting with the marketplace of ideas, something like this is important to our country since it not only allows all ideas to be exposed to the public and be heard, but according to John Milton , when truth and falsehood are allowed to freely grapple, truth will win out. This allows us to hear every idea yet still be able to find the truth. The next value, stable change, is especially important. This value, thought of by Benedict Spinoza , states that in a society where angry and alienated citizens are allowed to vent or speak their mind they are less likely to resort to violence. If we are to suppress these citizens and their ideas, it will only make them more angry, therefore forcing them to go to violence as a last r