Media Law and Literacy

  My Online Footprint     I terms of an online footprint that I have, I'd say that it is relatively big. I use the internet every day, whether for work or to play video games, not to mention that I do have social media as well. I do use Google and Google Chrome for every search that I do, and I do know that it would be easy for find out all my searches if someone really wanted to, but I am not overly scared of what they would find. If someone really would go through the trouble to see what I search just to see YouTube, and whatever dumb questions I may look up, I wouldn't freak out unless they obviously hacked information like passwords.     I do have a personal website that I work on and update, but its sole purpose is to be a portfolio for me since I am a game design major. I plan to update it with more of my work that I have done regarding designing video games. As a game design major it is necessary to have a website to act as a portfolio if I want to easily show off my wo

  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