Media Law and Literacy

 Diffusion of Innovations  How we seek to explain how, why, and at what rate new technology and ideas are spread can be defined by Everett Rogers' theory of diffusion of innovations . The diffusion theory describes why certain technologies are adopted, not adopted, why some people are early adopters, why some people are late adopters, and why some people simply opt-out of a certain technology. So let's try and apply this theory to Instagram... Instagram Instagram  is an app that allows its audience to share images or videos with others. Instagram caught on and spread mainly because it was something new that hadn't been done before. The app used simple features like photo sharing, liking, and commenting to draw their audience in and become hooked. So many people became early adopters of this platform due to a few factors. First, the app was free. I'm pretty sure I can speak for everyone when I say that users are always if not more willing to test out an app if it is free...

Netflix  Netflix  was founded on August 29, 1997 in Scotts Valley, California by two entrepreneurs, Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph. Netflix is a subscription- based streaming service that allows its members to watch movies and TV shows without commercials on any internet connected device. This revolutionary entertainment service took the world by storm. It is now the go to place for TV and movie streaming, providing its services to millions of people. Coming in as the largest streaming video subscription service in the world, Netflix is available for streaming in over 190 countries. To add to that, they have roughly 209 million global paid memberships. So, how did it all begin? Early Beginnings  The idea for this company was inspired in the 1990's when co-founder Reed Hastings was charged a $40 late fee from Blockbuster for an "Apollo 13" movie. During this time, Blockbuster dominated the home entertainment market. You would simply have to go to the store pick out any m...

  What Happened to The Voices of Those Against War? So picture this, you're looking through a news article or watching a TV new's report about the newest military operation the United Sates government is doing somewhere in the globe. The reports are fairly positive about what's going on talking about the benefits, why they are doing it, the potential end result and you're slowly nodding your head silently agreeing with what's being said. Okay now what if you start seeing on the news say a war the United States gets involved in. Some people would be all for it and others wouldn't. So answer me this... Why is it that looking back all I can recall is hearing opinions on why a particular war is a good thing to be involved in and hardly any voices that strongly oppose this said war? Notice how we only seem to hear about strong pro-war voices and barely any strong antiwar voices in the mainstream media. Why is that? There are two very good websites that stand out...

 Innovation of The Radio Over the centuries, we have seen many changes. Phones became handheld, fashion trends came and went, and cars became more advanced along with so much more. Advancements in technology allowed our society to prosper and evolve to better fit our needs and conveniences. The biggest noticeable change had to do with how we communicated with one another. One of the most significant developments in communication came in 1896 when the radio was invented. In 1869, Italian inventor and electrical engineer, Guglielmo Marconi patented the first edition of radio or wireless telegraph. Now this radio isn't like the one we see today, it didn't transmit voice just a signal. Transmission of voice via the radio would come along in the early 1900's. Timeline of The Radio 1873- James Clerk Maxwell correctly theorized that e lectromagnetic (e/m) waves existed mathematically 1888- Heinrich Hertz detects and produces radio waves 1894- Guglielmo Marconi builds his first...

Online Privacy   We are in what they call the digital age. We are in an age of time where we have made numerous technological strides that have advanced our society. Our everyday lives consist of the use of wireless phones, computers, cars, Bluetooth, and so much more for our convenience. However, these technological advancements came with a price, our privacy. Nowadays, it is more and more easy for our privacy to be at risk. Thanks to modern technology, the government knows way too much about what goes on in our lives. This isn't something that just affects me, it affects all of us. Things we do in our everyday lives also makes us susceptible to having our privacy compromised. With things like mass location tracking technology we are basically just walking around with our information stapled to our clothes. Examples of mass location tracking technologies used include:   Automatic license plate readers which are attached to traffic lights, police cars, or even garbage trucks....

Donald Trump's Accounts Banned/ Suspended on Many Social Media Platforms I n retaliation to being banned on various social media platforms, former President Donald Trump has  filed class-action lawsuits  against tech giants Facebook, Twitter, and Google on the basis that they are denying his free speech rights. The former president was banned on these cites due to concerns that his posts incited the Capitol riots in January and that they may continue to evoke more violence.  Picture taken of the January 6th Capital riots Wait, he's being denied his freedom to speak freely. This is definitely unconstitutional...right? Well for starters, t he First Amendment consists of six clauses which include freedom from religion, of religion, of the press, of assembly, to petition, and of speech. So, yes the First Amendment does protect freedom of speech but in this case, the former President will most likely not win his lawsuit. So why is this? It all has to do with thi...

The Eight Values of Free Expression                                                                                                        1. Marketplace of Ideas                                                                                                                     2. Participation in Self-Government       ...

What is going on in China? Okay you guys might want to sit down for this one. Are you seated? Alright here we go... If you haven't already heard, China has made the decision to restrict online gaming. Yes you read that right, people under the age of 18 will not be allowed to play video games during the week and only permitted 3 hours of playing time during the weekends. Now people reading this are probably shouting in their heads, "They can't do this" or "It's violating their rights!" I know it seemed that way to me too at first, just utterly insane. I mean how could they do that and why would people even be on board with that. The thing is though, we have to remember China isn't the United States of America and they don't play by the same rules we do. China is an  authoritarian state  meaning that their people's freedoms look very different compared to ours. In other words, they barely have any. China's current leader, Xi Jinping, was t...

The Supreme Court  Picture of the Supreme Court building What is the Supreme Court? The  Supreme Court  is the highest federal court in the United States of America as well as the head of the judicial branch of government. Its job is to interpret a 200 year old Constitution and uphold the rule of law. There are nine Supreme Court Justices who serve on this court at any given time. These nine Justices are responsible for ensuring that the American people receive equal justice under the law. Early Days of the Supreme Court Established in 1789, the Supreme Court came to be from Article Three in the United States Constitution. George Washington specifically specified that the court would be made up of six justices, rather than the nine we see today, who would serve for life or until they decided to retire. It should also be noted that the Supreme Court wasn't always as well respected as it is today, actually when it first started out it was hard for them to get the publi...

My Top Five Sources of News and Information In today’s era it has become increasingly important for people to know what is going on not only around themselves, but around the world. Nowadays, it is very easy to access information and news. We see it all over social media, on TV, in magazines, or maybe even hear it from our friends and family. Thanks to the internet we have endless amounts of sources to increase our knowledge and awareness of changes in our society. Now as one can imagine, with all these options it can be hard to distinguish the good sources of information from the bad ones.   Listed below are my top five favorite places to get news and information from… Apple News Starting off with number one is my personal favorite, Apple News. Apple News is an app that puts multiple news sources like blogs, magazines, newspapers, and breaking stories into one place. I find it very convenient because it's on my phone and I'm able to access it whenever I want. If I'm waitin...