November 28th: Who Owns the Media?

Before this week's reading, I had no idea that General Electric played such a huge ownership from the media. Once I found out, however, it made so much sense. I remember one 30 Rock episode I saw once where Alec Baldwin's character was advocating for General Electric product integration in their shows. I find it most interesting that while they have the biggest profit out of "The Big Six," most of their shares are small. Clearly they have someone on the inside who knows and is working all of the loopholes. If they had larger shares, so many anti trust issues would be raised. Currently, AT&T is wanting to buy out T-Mobile, but when it was first suggested, the plan of the buy out was denied because it would greatly lessen competition. Now AT&T is trying to divest some of its shares, so that it would be able to buy out T-Mobile. If they divest their shares, they could possibly become the GE of the cellular world.

This brings out the morale of the situation. Should this loophole be allowed? More importantly, there is no reason why General Electric shouldn't be paying taxes. How many other corporations are getting away with this? To top it all off, GE is an advisor to the president? I am so completely skeptical of this entire situation. It is no wonder why so many people are losing faith in modern politics.

November 21st: Role Of Evolving Forms of Media On Senior Citizens

This week's reading was on a very interesting topic and one that I find most people tend to overlook. Technology is advancing in such a way that you either adapt with its change or get left behind. Technology has come so far that even the most fundamental things that people have become accustomed are needing to change. In this regard the chapter speaks about media. The internet has become such a prevalent part of people's everyday life, and I can only imagine that if it were to vanish overnight the world would be at a panic. Could you imagine a world without computers of the internet? I know that the older generations can. Some may call it an "old fashion" world, others may find comfort it.

Technology has made our world so fast paced since it has made the possibility of things being instantaneous a reality. It is this reality, however, that has left some in the dark, especially the older generations who aren't accustomed to technology. Because of the internet, things like print newspapers are starting to become obsolete, and even outdate. Why wait one whole day to find out something new when you can know the minute that it happens? The problem with this is that not everyone knows how to access this information. In my opinion not much, or rather, not enough is being done to familiarize people with evolving forms of technology. My mother for instance is so computer illiterate. Every time she tries to do something on the computer you can't help but feel a little frustrated and sympathetic. After seeing her, I can't imagine how an elderly person must cope and try to adapt with technological advances. Hopefully in the future communities will be able to organize groups that familiarize those in need of being accustomed to technology. Even certain sites themselves could become more senior citizen friendly. There would be such a huge market for that. However it is easy to see why some wouldn't want to invest in something like that, since it is only a matter of time before all who is left in this world are the people who grew up with technology.

November 14th: Will Evolving Forms of Journalism Be an Improvement?

The rise of new technology and the further developments with the internet has brought forth a new type of Journalism. This new form of Journalism is called participatory journalism according to this week's readings. In my opinion participatory journalism has really been a blessing. It has given a voice to the voiceless. When thinking about participatory journalism, I immediately think of role that social media had on the Arab Spring. Because social media allowed for the oppressed people in the Middle East to have their stories heard I think that it made all the difference in the world for them. More specifically, I am talking about the people in Libya. Their conditions were so bad that there were obvious crimes against humanity taking place. Once their situation got dire, we had sent in military force to protect the people. I really feel that this would not have happened if it wasn't for participatory journalism. If you take a look at other genocides, especially the holocaust, the US could have so many times lent out a hand to Jews in their time of need, but they didn't. I really feel that this was because there was no pressure for them to do so. People were unaware of the atrocities that were going on in Nazi occupied Europe because there was no technology for them to let the world know. In short, based from this week's reading, i do agree with the yes article that evolving forms of journalism will be an improvement.