Week 15: EOTO (Citizen Journalism)

Citizen journalism is growing around the world. With different easy to use websites and a typing device at our fingertips, any one is able to write. Britannica defines citizen journalism as "journalism that is conducted by people who are no professional journalists but who disseminate information using Web Sites, blogs, and social media". Citizen are able to immediately report about natural disasters, wrecks, and accidents as well as use real time footage that they record themselves! Pretty cool how just about anyone can do this and share with the world.

The term and practice of  "Citizen Journalism" comes from South Korea. Online entrepreneur, Oh Yeon-ho, voiced that "every citizen is a reporter". Unhappy with the Korean Press, he and three other colleagues started an online newspaper in 2000. The online newspaper, called "OhmyNews", used volunteers to write content for the paper that was posted on the cite. When the company started they only had 727 citizen reporters in one country, but in 2007 that had over 50,000 citizen reporters all reporting from over 100 countries.

While some may believe that citizen journalism is great, many do not agree with it. Some believe that citizen journalism threatens real journalist and has a high risk of being fake. Additionally, people believe that real journalists have better critical thinking skills. Personally, I do not agree with this. I believe that citizen journalism allows news to get our faster, is interesting and what other citizens want to hear, and allows one to write as first hand experience and often in the moment.

Citizen journalism is most prevalent on social media. Breaking news often appears on social media before anywhere else! Especially on sites such as Facebook and twitter. A larger audience is able to be reached through online sites like these. This type of journalism allows for all different age groups and types of people to access news in a whole different easy way.

Power Point:





https://www.britannica.com/topic/citizen-journalism
https://artplusmarketing.com/is-citizen-journalism-killing-professional-journalism-b60531ee1d0c

Week 14: Privacy

In todays society, everyone is on the internet and using technology. It consumes our everyday lives and our world revolves around it. In this TED talk, Kashmir Hill speaks about how she was gifted a "smart speaker". According to a NPR survey, 1/6 adults own a smart speaker which is constantly listening to them! There are so many "smart" technologies and appliances available on the market today. Some examples are- smart lights, smart locks, smart toilets, and smart toys. All of these examples are able to connect to the internet, gather data, and talk to the owner.

Hill speaks about how she installed 18 smart devices in her home to the point where her house was almost a "smart home". She then had the other speaker, Surya Mattu, monitor everything the smart home did by installing a router that the devices were connected to. The two speakers wanted to see what information companies where able to see and even sell to others through the smart devices.

The experiment ran for two months. Over that time period there was never a period of "digital silence" in the house, even when Hill left her home for a week! Mattu was able to see when Hill and her husband turned on the TV (for how long and what they watched) and even when they brushed their teeth.

Scary enough, TV companies sell information to the government on what users watch then this information is sold to data brokers and advertisers. Personally, I believe that the most interesting point Hill brought up is the fact that even though you may purchase and own a smart device, the company who made the device now owns all the your data that it collects.

After watching this TED talk, I have gained a lot more information on privacy and how it relates to smart devices. My family does not own any smart devices besides our smart phones and for this I am a relieved! I am a quite private person and the idea of technology listening in on me, without my knowledge, is terrifying.

Week 13: Audit Your Online Presence

When I look at my online footprint at a first glance I wouldn't think too much of it. I have the same amount of social media accounts as my peers, so why would this be a problem? The social media accounts I use on a daily basis, and even more now in quarantine are- Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, and Pinterest. I do not post much on my social media accounts, normally 1-2 posts every 2 months. But even though I am not sharing much information with my followers, these big social media companies are taking my information and using it for themselves and others.

Big tech companies take information off your phone without you even realizing it! Well you may be thinking they just have access to your email and phone number, they are actually taking much much more. A man left the ad industry after realizing how easily and precise target marketing is done. He explained that income records, mortgage details, the type of cars you drive, and political party are easily found. The scariest part of ad targeting he mentioned was how he was challenged to target anonymous people and these anonymous people were actually tracked through out the day. These peoples daily locations were tracked, in particular they tracked a young woman who went to Starbucks, a school, a yoga studio, then back to school. With this information they realized this woman has a child and now have a glimpse into her hobbies.

With companies having the ability to see all of your information and daily life, they have the ability to place ads that will target you individually. After reading this article (linked below) I have realized just how scary it is to have social media and how much these companies influence what you think and see through ads. In this time, especially being quarantined, it is extremely difficult to stay off of social media but I will definitely have to make an adjustment!

https://www.fastcompany.com/90359992/an-ad-tech-pioneer-on-where-our-data-economy-went-wrong-and-how-to-fix-it

Week 12: Diffusion of Innovations

TikToks Rise: Tiktok is a viral video sharing app that has become extremely popular in the last 6 months. TikTok is popular among teenagers and is a platform where users share short videos. These videos can be anything and are up to whatever the user decides to create. For example, some videos are lip syncs, dances, or comical skits. Currently, TikTik has over 1.5 billion downloads and its popularity continues to grow. TikTok is a Chinese company but started with a different name (Musical.ly) and has gone through a few changes since it first came out. 

TikTok was originally only popular among the younger. generation until the past 6-8 months. This younger generation would be considered the early adopters, around pre-teen age and used the app when it was under its previous name "Musical.ly" and around its earlier stages. The early majority adopters would be high school aged kids, this group of adopters started using the app earlier in 2019. Late majority adopters would be college kids. Personally, I downloaded the app around 7 months ago. Laggards would be anyone in their mid to late 20's. The reason behind older users (late teens and up) catching onto the spread of the app was due to influencers and the comedic videos people their age started creating. 

The negative sides of TikTok are similar to those of any other popular social media app. TikTok has a "for you" page section of the app where videos are "funneled to a vast audience based on secret criteria".  TikTok moderators pick and chose what appears in someones "for you" page and there seems to be guidelines for who appears (people who are "good-looking", well dressed, have an attractive background of where the video was filmed). Additionally, TikTok users spend a lot of time on the app without even noticing due to the easiness of scrolling through never ending videos. The app has noticed this and places videos made by sponsors telling users to "take a break the videos will be there later". 

Overall, TikTok's rise to fame this year has been impressive. The app brings people closer together and is especially popular during this Covid-19 time. 

https://theintercept.com/2020/03/16/tiktok-app-moderators-users-discrimination/

https://www.businessinsider.com/tiktok-app-online-website-video-sharing-2019-7#think-of-bytedance-headquartered-in-beijing-china-as-chinas-facebook-both-companies-own-families-of-popular-social-networking-apps-used-by-billions-of-people-a-day-3