Final Post My Relationship with Technology

     Technology is something that I use in my everyday life and it will impact myself and everybody for generations to come. I am a strategic communications major who want to work in the field of public relations later in life, therefore technology will be a vital part of my career. Writing press releases is all about assessing the current situation you are trying to promote or dig yourself out of and a big part of that is reading the media and articles about it. Whether that be videos, articles or blogs written it is important to view all sides of a situation and that is made much easier with technology. 

    My relationship with technology revolves entirely around media. Technology has allowed me to communicate with my peers from a very young age. Almost all of my communication is done through technology. The only other time I can think that I am communicating with somebody that is not through the use of technology is when i am having a normal conversation with somebody. The technology that I usually communicate through my peers with apps like Snapchat and iMessage. 

    The use of technology in terms of media consumption plays a huge role in my life as well. Consuming media in everyday life at least for me consists of apps like Instagram, Youtube and ESPN. People all around the world rely on the innovations and use of technology in order to find out news. Without technology it would take much longer for important news to reach everywhere but since a lot of the world has access to the internet we can all be informed of something simply by looking at our phone or the internet. 

    My digital footprint is almost non existent in terms of what you find when you search my name. All that comes up that is myself is my Instagram and LinkedIn accounts. Overall I believe I have a fine digital footprint. I do not think it is good but at the same time I do not believe it is something to worry about.

Artificial intelligence will play a big factor like it does today and years to come. It has already begun to take over manual jobs and I believe AI will continue to evolve and move forward. If we learn that AI is writing code for tech companies in a few years I will not be entirely shocked. Artificial Intelligence will continue to evolve and one day will take over most "normal" jobs. 

Sources:

https://www.npr.org/2023/04/27/1172387911/how-can-people-spot-fake-images-created-by-artificial-intelligence 

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/11/heres-how-technology-has-changed-and-changed-us-over-the-past-20-years/

Citizen Journalism

In the second EOTO I researched Citizen journalism. Citizen Journalism is defined as journalism that is conducted by people who are not professional journalists but who disseminate information using web sites, blogs, and social media.

Some important fun facts about citizen journalism are ...

• Anybody can be a citizen journalist 

• Citizen journalism has grown in population in recent years

• A big advantage of citizen journalism is the fact that it is not done by a professional so it gives normal people a chance to shine light onto not as popular stories

• Citizen journalism has been around in theory for hundreds of years but with the innovations of technology throughout time it has become more mainstream and popular, especially in recent years with the use of social media

There are so many positives with citizen journalism. Citizen journalism provides an active voice for the public, meaning anybody can let the public know about a story that they feel is news worthy. Even if it may not be front page news worthy people still have the opportunity to inform others about it throughout the use of the internet and social media platforms. Citizen journalism can shine light on issues the mainstream media is not talking about. Maybe a story won't capture the attention of the news stations target audience but it is still news worthy. This is where Citizen journalism comes into play. It can reach an audience even though it is not done by a professional. The main advantage of Citizens journalism is nobody can gate keep a citizen journalists story. If somebody wants to report the story they can just do it. They don't need the approval of higher ups and their peers to post it or write about it. They can simply decide to just write/post about it with their own free will.

Like all great things, nothing is perfect. There are some negatives of citizen journalism. It can confuse people since it is not done by a professional. Citizen journalism tends to not follow the same format as regular journalism. Since it is not done by a professional reporter who tend to know how to cover stories and word their narrative correctly people can get very confused. A lot of citizen journalists tend to ramble on and on where as news reporters are trained to be brief and get directly to the main points that they are supposed to talk about. The other big issue with citizen journalism is the fact that they tend to be smaller stories. Meaning they may be worthy of front page news but if a citizen journalist posts something a lot of the time it does not spread as much as it should. Since it is not usually posted on a platform with a lot of followers they tend to get less views than if it was say a story posted on a news website since people are actively searching for news stories and most news sites already have their audience and are credible towards their consumer.

Sources

“Citizen Journalism.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., https://www.britannica.com/topic/citizen journalism.

Dangerfield, Micha Barban. “Power to the People.” Tate, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/p/photojournalism/power-people.

Diffusion Theory

 Diffusion theory can be defined as why, how and at what rate ideas of and technology spread. People fall into 5 separate categories in the diffusion theory and they are innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority and laggards. 

    Innovators are willing to take risks, have the highest social status and have financial liquidity. Early Adopters have the highest degree of opinion leadership. Are interested in trying the new technology and catching on before everybody else. Early majority are people who adopt the innovation after the innovators and early adopters. Tend to set the wave for the general population in terms of popularity. Late majority are those who adopt and realize the importance of the innovation later than most. Are late to the trend but still realize its importance. Laggards are the last people to realize and adopt the innovation. Can be considered followers who jumped on the trend late. 

The best example of diffusion theory in todays day and age that I can think of has to be TikTok. TikTok was an innovation in itself. During my lifetime I have never seen an app get downloaded and talked about so much in such a short amount of time like TikTok was. The average consumer of the app TikTok can be broken down into the same five separate categories as the diffusion theory is. 

The innovators of TikTok would be the early influencers and makers of the app. They paved the way of this new form of social media. They were the first people to realize the potential of this app and how great it could be. 

The early adopters were the first couple thousand people to download the app and share it with their friends. Them sending the videos to their friends in a way influenced them to download the app therefore spreading it more. 

The early majority were the first couple million people to download the app. They started making the app really known worldwide. Wether that be by posting TikTok's or sharing it with their friends. Creators started to be able to make a living when the early majority caught onto the popularity of TikTok. 

The late majority would be the people that have downloaded TikTok in the past year. TikTok really blew up in 2019-2020 so the late majority would be people that have downloaded the app anytime after 2021. The late majority in this case tended to be a bit older and people who got the app from recommendations from their children or grandchildren. 

The Laggards would be the people who downloaded TikTok this year. It is way past the peak of the app and these people are too late to the worldwide trend that is TikTok. 

Sources 

“Networks.” How Diffusion of Innovations Made TikTok More Popular than Instagram? : Networks Course Blog for INFO 2040/CS 2850/Econ 2040/SOC 2090, https://blogs.cornell.edu/info2040/2020/12/16/how-diffusion-of-innovations-made-tiktok-more-popular-than-instagram/.

“Diffusion of Innovations.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 29 Jan. 2023, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffusion_of_innovations.

The printing press

    During our presentations of technology I had the pleasure of learning about the printing press and why it was so important/valuable in early forms of communication. We learned that in1436 Johannes Gutenberg began developing his own model for the printing press. Although he is not the inventor of the printing press he is given credit for making it better. The printing press was created to fill the existing demand for books. The printing press had many benefits. It made it possible for information traveled at light speed which was very important back then and even today. It helped a lot of people back then because writing was starting to become an actual job not just a hobby or skill that you get hired for.

    The printing press revolutionized the way of communication. Books and pieces of literature were able to be produced and spread much faster than before. Newspapers started to become popular due to the fact that they now could print so many so fast thus news would be spread all around the world more quickly and effectively. David McGuffin said "Because of the success of the printing press and related technologies, the sheer number of printed books in western Europe proliferated. Between the first printing press in 1440 and the turn of the century, the ability to print copies of books and texts had been established in more than 2,500 cities across the continent. As a result, more than 15 million books representing more than 30,000 titles were press printed by 1499. Universities and centres of learning began to develop at a rapid pace, also matching the spread of literacy throughout the continent." That just goes to show you the kind of impact it had. Just think to yourself how many more people were able to learn something new that benefitted them due to the invention of the printing press. 

Sources

Roos, Dave. “7 Ways the Printing Press Changed the World.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 28 Aug. 2019, https://www.history.com/news/printing-press-renaissance#:~:text=ClassicStock%2FGetty%20Images-,In%20the%2015th%20century%2C%20an%20innovation%20enabled%20people%20to%20share,and%20faster%20than%20ever%20before. 

McGuffin, David. “Advantages & Disadvantages of the Printing Press.” EHow UK, 14 July 2020, https://www.ehow.co.uk/info_8090557_advantages-disadvantages-printing-press.html.

Anti war

  I am very anti war for many different reasons. This website provides many different and amazing insights in the discussion of war on a global scale and level. The website talks about many different wars from all around the world and goes very in depth with each article written. I believe that we never see anti-war news stories in the news because they do not generate views. If you think about it, news channels main goal is to not only get news out to the public but get the most amount of views possible. Nobody wants to watch or read an article that is anti war because that is not as interesting as reading or watching news about war. In terms of the common consumer they would much rather read and watch about issues going on in the world than a bunch of different countries coming to agreements whether that be a peace treaty or ceasefire clause. At the end of the day as humans we like when things are going bad for some reason and these news stations are going to put out stories that attract the most people and views. 

I also believe that the mainstream media is in favor of wars because of the opportunities presented when countries are fighting. War, although it is very bad in many aspects, can also create a lot of opportunities. War creates millions of jobs throughout the world and can right others countries wrongdoings. America has a tendency to get involved with some issues it maybe should not, which is a good and a bad thing. The only positive thing is that sometimes on a rare occasion we help people who are truly in need of help without causing too many issues or damages to the country. The issue is that America kind of has a history of doing too much damage in other countries. 

The Carrier Pigeon

The piece of technology I chose was the carrier pigeon. The carrier pigeon, although it may not seem like it, was arguably one of the most important technologies ever to exist purely in terms of a way to communicate safely. In the early days of the world one of the biggest issues was communication with people who were not near you. Although we do not know who for sure, somebody thought to train pigeons to deliver notes and return back after they delivered the note. It was a safe and genius way for people to get word to others that were not near them in a quick and effective way of transport. 

As you can see on the picture above the idea was to write a note and tie it on the leg of the pigeon so it would not affect the pigeon's ability to fly. The next step was to train it to fly to certain places and then come back. The pigeon would fly to its destination and let somebody untie the note from its leg. Then if the person receiving the message wanted they could write a note and attach it to the leg of the pigeon so they could respond to the person who originally wrote the note. 

Generals in war realized that carrier pigeons were a genius way to transport messages from camp to camp during a war because nobody could intercept them. The only way that somebody was intercepting one of those messages was either if the pigeon randomly died and fell or they would have to shoot it out of the air. It was a great way for people in power during wars to send strategy plans without the fear of the enemy intercepting them. Sometimes countries would have people deliver messages on foot but if they were captured then the note would never get to the intended receiver and the enemy would now know your plan.

While researching this the only disadvantages I could find was that maybe the note could get wet due to rain or horrible weather conditions and also if the pigeon were shot down or randomly died then anybody could simply walk up to it and remove the note from its leg and read it.

The carrier pigeon did not have any actual negative effects in terms of how it was done. It was safe and very easy to do. Almost anybody could train a pigeon to do it and millions of people were using this technology. But like all good things, the carrier pigeon came to an end. Technology evolved and it was left in the past due to such inventions like the newspaper and eventually telephone. Overall for one of the first ways humans would communicate from far apart it did its job and served its purpose.

Although I am sure some people may be using carrier pigeons to this day they basically went extinct. People started hunting them and would shoot them out of the sky as they flew by so eventually it became a risk sending a message on a carrier pigeon. As time went on less and less people used them and eventually it became a way of the past in terms of communication.

 

Sources 

“The Incredible Carrier Pigeons of the First World War.” Imperial War Museums, https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/the-incredible-carrier-pigeons-of-the-first-world-war. 

Smithsonian Institution. “The Passenger Pigeon.” Smithsonian Institution, https://www.si.edu/spotlight/passenger-pigeon.

Blume, Mary, and International Herald Tribune. “The Hallowed History of the Carrier Pigeon.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 30 Jan. 2004, https://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/30/style/the-hallowed-history-of-the-carrier-pigeon.html. 

Eight Values of Free Expression

 What I learned from the eight values of free expression blew my mind. Two of the eight values of free expression really stuck out to me over the others. Promotion of innovation (The seventh value) and Participation in self government (The second value) really stood out to me for good reasons. 

    Promotion of innovation really spoke to me because it promotes the common American to be innovative and change the world. The thought is having a community in which free speech is valued and protected thus creating a more creative, interesting and energized community. With this value the thought is that the citizens will actively fulfill themselves in many interesting and diverse ways. The promotion of innovation obviously directly correlates with freedom of speech. Innovation can come with free speech in many different ways. Just imagine if some of the world's greatest philosophers did not speak their minds because they were afraid of what the government might do if they expressed their true feelings. That is one of the few things that makes certain parts of America great in my opinion is the ability to speak freely. We see this value in action today throughout all of the world because people are constantly publishing articles that have to do with some form of innovation or making the world a better place whether that be innovation of technology, anthropology or agriculture just to name a few examples. We see these ideas throughout all of the web via twitter, blog posts, news articles and many more ways to publish new ideas. Overall from every single app I believe that this value most represents twitter because there is so much innovation being published on twitter almost every day whether that be from billionaires like Elon Musk or just your average Joe. 

    Promotion of innovation is everywhere today. We see it every single day whether that be in books, online or in person. A great source of it that I have seen my entire childhood growing up has to be TedTalks. TedTalk is a great way to promote innovation and just to think that if we did not have the first amendment and the second value of free expression that we may have missed out on so many great thoughts expressed to the world is crazy to me.

    Participation in self government really stood out to me because I never truly realized that the government gets power from the consent of the government. Growing up I always thought that the government got power from the people but this truly made me realize that every action the government signs off on to do is from somebody else in the government not the average American. I do understand why the government does things that way because it makes sense in terms of maybe the citizens would not make wise or the correct choices when it came time to make a decision. The important thing to make sure is that we "the common folk" elect smart politicians so they can make the correct choices that they are afraid we would make.