Blog #11

     The concepts of online influencers, whistleblowers, mainstream media, and alternative media are all very hot topics in the field of communication. Some of these have existed for decades while others have only just come into existence. All of them are sure to be important for the future of communication as we know it.

    The term "online influencers" refers to people with large followings on social media that hold influence over their followers. The first online influencers were people known as "Mommy Bloggers." These women shared tips online about raising young kids. They gained large followings of other mothers looking for advice 

    Online influencers can use their platforms to spread information. Like all information, this could either have positive benefits or negative consequences. Some influencers use their platforms in positive ways to build others up, while other influencers spread hate speech and start petty online fights. Most of the influencers who do spark fights end up recieving backlash from other people online and are often scorned by the general public (think Logan Paul). However, some do very positive things like charity work for organizations such as the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

    Whistleblower is a term used to refer to government employees that expose government wrongdoings. Obviously, these people are pretty frowned upon by the government but their existance is vital. Some famous whistleblowers include Daniel Ellsberg, Mark Felt, A. Ernest Fitzgerald, and Coleen Rowley. Each of these individuals exposed some sort of crime the government was committing. Without whistleblowers, there would be no one to keep the government in check when they breach our freedom.

    Mainstream and alternative media are the two types of news common today. Mainstream media refers to the news sources that the general public uses such as newspapers, news networks, and radio news. Alternative media refers to news that is a little less known about such as podcasts, ebooks, websites, and magazines. Mainstream media usuaully has a higher budget than alternative media so they usually have better coverage of big events. However, it seems that most mainstream media has some sort of agenda to push. You're either getting republican news or democrat news. Alternative media is the only place where it is possible to just find news. Alternative media isn't tied to the governemnt at all so they can just report events as they happen. 

Blog #8

    These four videos are all about cybersecurity. cybersecurity is a huge issue right now and it has never been more important to protect the few rights online we have left. All of these speakers made excellent points about very important current topics.

    Catherine Crump's TED talk discussed the use of automatic license plate scanners and other technologies to track the location of innocent Americans. These technologies exist to find people who may have been commited of wrongdoing. However, in doing so they end up tracking more innocent people than actual criminals. Some people may dismiss this as a harmless side-effect of tracking criminals. Police have been keeping this information on innocents "in case it is useful later." This is where the problem lies, in the storing of information gethered on people who have done nothing wrong. This is an obvious invasion of American privacy.

    Juan Enriquez's TED talk was about the consequences of a term he called electronic tattoos. He said drew a comparison between online actions that everyone can see and tattoos. Tattoos send messages about a person before they can say a word. So too, do electronic tattoos. One way to guard against this is to never post something you wouldn't want employers in twenty years to see. It doesn't matter if you delete it or if it's on a private story because it will be seen. Juan claims that immortality may not be a good thing. Sure, everyone wants to be remembered, on paper, but sometimes there are things that should just be forgotten. In the age of the internet, this has proven to be impossible.

    Christopher Soghoian's TED talk provided valuable information on which services can and cannot be wiretapped. This was the first piece of information about internet privacy that I actually found comforting. Apparently, it is somewhat difficult to wiretap FaceTime and Apple's Messages. I primarily use these services so this was wonderful news to recieve. 

    Darieth Chisolm's TED talk was about the horrible effects of revenge porn. This woman's life was almost ruined by revenge porn and she is now using her platform to speak out against it as well as raise awareness about the shockingly relaxed laws regarding it. There are barely any laws in our country regarding this all to common act. Punishments that do exist are all miniscule compared to the weight of the crime. Something should be done immediately in the governemnt to combat this.