Privacy

    There are so many privacy violations that each of us don't even realize are occurring. We sign off on "terms and conditions" without reading any of them almost daily when we download apps or make accounts on websites. By accepting these, we enter contracts of adhesion which are contracts in which one party holds all of the negotiation power. Some of these contracts can change conditions without having to notifying the other party. Aside from these contracts, there are invasions of privacy that we do not consent to. One scary privacy issue that was talked about revealed that there are photos that get taken of people's cars at certain points on the road or sometimes when passed by a patrol car. Files of images, time stamps, and locations spotted are kept on innocent people.  

    The state government can fight back at local police stations about wrongfully surveying the citizens. The government can make people aware of these issues and advise people to take steps to protect their right to privacy. The local governments can simply start conversations with their citizens about maintaining good privacy practices. It is something that many people simply do not think about on the day to day. 

 

    One thing we can do to protect our privacy is use specific messaging applications and services that have codes which are harder for the government to read. It adds a layer of privacy protection to the everyday message and cell phone use of individuals. All this development of surveillance technology is understandable because the world is a dangerous place nowadays, but it is unjust to use it to keep tabs on innocent people. We can also do things like use fake email address or be cautious of the terms and conditions we accept when using our devices and providing personal information.

ANTIWAR

    The news sources have seen a backlash of censorship against media criticizing government's choices concerning foreign nations and war situations. Agenda Setting Theory is the concept that news sources filter what they want to report and place specific topics in focus to make that story or viewpoint more prominent in the minds of the audience. The Antiwar website and the American Conservative both have tons of articles discussing the problems with the U.S. conflicts abroad. The plethora of different topics present show that these antiwar writers have a good amount of content to present and discuss that is completely cast out of the media and therefore is left unseen by majority of the public. 

    The U.S. government has a history of getting involved in wars over seas. Although George Washington famously warned to avoid foreign entanglements, that has proven to be disregarded. The government also has a history of silencing antiwar voices, even though one of the rights in the first amendment is to petition the government. The Sedition Acts of 1798 and 1918 are prime examples of the United States government silencing the criticism from its citizens about the wars it is involved in. This precedent is frightening and is happening currently as well. Social media platforms are widely privately owned and therefore hold the right to censor and dictate what is posted. However, many people use these media sites as sources for their news. This also adds to the lack of awareness from the public about antiwar opinions as well as facts that shed negative light on activities of the government abroad. 

Com Tech Presentation Reflection

     Learning about so many different technologies and the stories of how they have developed over time is something so incredible. The progress technology has made even in just our own lifetimes is large and when looking at our parents' lifetimes is even more extreme. When my mother was born, cell phones were not invented. I never knew a time without cell phones! Hearing about so many different areas of communication technologies was truly fascinating. 

One invention that I enjoyed hearing about was the iPhone. As I mentioned, cell phones were not invented too long ago. iPhones were created even more recent.  Although the original attempt at the iPhone was made in 2005 when Apple partnered with Motorola, it was not how Steve Jobs had pictured it. Therefore, the iPhone we know today originated in 2007.  The iPhone was a revolutionary invention that allowed a user to put music onto their easy-to-use smartphone. Since the model put out 2007, there have a large number of upgrades and new models. Today, the most recent model is the iPhone 13. However, that does not mean there have only been 13 designs. There have been smaller modification models as well like the iPhone 5c or the iPhone XR. The iPhone offers users camera phone qualities (texting, voice call, camera, video calls), music, access to the internet (websites, emails), applications (games, social media, calendar), and so much more. Although there are competing brands developing smartphones with music platforms, Apple's iPhone is the most popular smartphone and was a revolutionary invention for its time. The iPhone continues to thrive year after year with new developments. 

Another technology that was particularly interesting to hear about was YouTube. YouTube was originally created to function as website to share home-videos on. It is a site that anyone can upload onto, whether you are a professional video maker or a person with a camera phone. It is the world's largest video hosting website. It has become not only a huge company but also a huge business platform. YouTube makes money by companies purchasing advertisements that play before videos. It is a great platform for advertising because of the ability to cater the advertisements to videos that would be viewed by a specific matching target audience. YouTube has run into some issues with children accidentally viewing content that is inappropriate for the age group. This is because of the broad range of videos on the website due to the personally ability to upload that each of its users have. 

The Phonograph and Records (EOTO #1)

   New technologies have been rapidly developing for centuries and longer. Each new invention or discovery paths a way for the next. One example of this is the creation of the phonograph. The phonograph was invented by Thomas Edison in 1877. However, before him, Leon Scott’s work in France on the phonautograph acted as a foundation for Edison. Scott’s creation allowed for the recording of sound waves, a technology that would only undergo further developments. This creation, mixed with the invention of the telephone by Alexander Graham Bell inspired Edison in his work. Originally, Edison planned to expand on Bell’s invention and work on a sort of answering machine. His goal was to find a way to have the machine transcribe phone calls; the originally models have ideas of writing incorporated into the design. However, he soon found that there was a way to record vocals. This opened new doors for the invention. However, Edison wasn’t originally too interested in using his phonograph as a method for music playing. He wanted to use it in office spaces as a dictating machine. Obviously, thing changed. There were many improvements made on the phonograph since the beginning. The original invention used tinfoil coated wax cylinders in its design for the sound and the records it used were made of shellac (resin from female bugs native to India and Thailand). Today we know the phonograph as the first way to listen to music that was not being performed live.

   This concept of music that could be played through a machine was revolutionary. Music could now be played in the comfort of someone’s house without a family member of hired musician performing. This had many effects. It gave people the option of live music or listening to a record. Although it may have cost some performers potential gigs, it was a tool to commercialize the music industry used by many artists to grow their own popularity. Artists could make records of their performances and spread their name to households and beyond. Artists could now express themselves to the public through full records and audience members had the luxury of being able to listen to these entire performances over and over again. Music is a way to communicate feelings, passions, and ideas to others. This invention allowed the people listening to really take a new appreciation for the music and listen to the lyrics and nuances added in by the artist. 

  The phonograph was extremely successful and was on a steady incline in success up until 1928. It still remained very popular up until and was the precursor to the development of other music playing devices such as turntables, cassettes, CDs, iPods, and streaming services (ex. Spotify). Vinyl records have been making a significant comeback since the early 2000s. It is now incredibly common for artists to have vinyl’s available of their new albums and to even offer special edition vinyl records. The technological development of the phonograph had an incredibly significant impact on the industry of music and on the future development of other music technology. Music is used as a form of entertainment, expression, and therapy. It is so important in not only my life but in the lives of people around the globe. It is a form of communication that speaks to the hearts of individuals and because of the original phonograph, technology has progressed to allow people all over the world to share a connection stemming from music.

A.I.: "Technology Acts as a Lever to Change the World" (Extra)

    In the documentary series The Age of A.I. part 1, Robert Downey Jr. narrates to introduce artificial intelligence to the audience. The first segment of the documentary follows two different stories of A.I. use. The first features well-known musician Will.i.am., and follows his process of developing an avatar of himself. The second, follows a music technology professor at Georgia Tech and his accomplishments that started with his desire to create a robot that can play and compose music. Whether you fear the advancement of technology or embrace it, the amount of progress made in the development of artificial intelligence is incredible. 

    In New Zealand, there is an ongoing project called Baby X. This project is a virtual baby that is constructed of virtual muscles and a virtual brain consisting of neuro-muscles. The main idea of the project is to create an artificial intelligence that can mimic the human thought process by using affecting computing. Affective computing is a process that mimics human emotion and empathy. The first part of the documentary really brings up the question of how far is too far. Will.i.am goes through the process of having an avatar of himself developed. They take hundreds of photos of him making different emotions and catching all his physical features.  The developers also take audio recordings of him saying specific phrases, from which they can take the syllables and words to make other phrases for the avatar to speak, but still in Will.i.am's voice. The process uses identity and learned data to create an avatar that looks, speaks, and acts like Will.i.am. He stops it at the level where you can tell it is an avatar and not really him. He says that there should remain a difference between what is real and what is not and I completely agree. 

    The second part of the documentary follows a professor at Georgia Tech who was playing around with developing a robot that can produce music. In his process, he found something even bigger. He was able to  create a kind of robotic hand that uses an ultrasound technology, even better than EMG, to allow a man who has no hand to fully control a 3D printed robotic hand, allowing him to play music. Even in the infancy of this development, it changed the life of this music loving man who is now able to play music more easily. The technology uses machine learning to let each finger move separately. This is a game changing invention that can really help improve people's lives. 

    

Protecting Dissent

Freedom of Expression

    Protecting Dissent is an extremely relevant value of the freedom of expression. Right now, there are a lot of circumstances that a large population has the same viewpoint on, such as the COVID-19 vaccination. However, the large and loud portion of the population that believes vaccines should be required and laws are being put in place that limit those who do not wish to get the vaccination. This alienates the population and prohibits equal opportunity to speak freely. This opinion may be unpopular but the minority view should be protected. The recent court case Does v. Mills was brought to the Supreme Court because healthcare workers in Maine were told that they were required to be vaccinated or else they would lose their jobs with not exceptions. Some certain healthcare workers have very strong religious beliefs that prohibit them from getting the vaccine. Because there is no exception for religion, they are losing their jobs. Some people have health conditions and religious responsibilities that prevent them from receiving it. Each person has a right to free speech, religious freedom, and the right to life. Although suing under religious freedom of the 1st Amendment wouldn't work because it can't be used to challenge law that applies to everyone, those who do not want the vaccine should be allowed to freely discuss their opposing view. 

     This can be seen on a private scale on Instagram. Instagram actively blocks anti-vaccine posts and comments. It is completely allowed because Instagram is a private platform but that is where the mob mentality forms. If this platform was not owned by a private company, it would be applying prior restraint. By no means am I preaching anti-vax but I do believe these people have a right to their opinion. No matter how many people disagree and have very strong arguments against the anti-vaccine viewpoint, those people's opinions should be protected. It comes down to the private employers have the right to require vaccines for health reasons but the people's right to express their view and not receive the vaccine should remain. There are entire organizations built on defending dissent as a freedom of expression. 

The citizens who hold the strongest opposing view should be open to the marketplace of ideas. If they believe that their opinion is the truth, then they should be confident that allowing what they view as “falsehood” to be present will not threaten the truth. Milton said that “truth will win out.” Although this was in reference to print licensing, the idea still stands. The biggest issue with the anti-vax opinion is that it is following a pandemic that killed millions of people so it becomes an issue of public health rather than solely an opinion. However, regardless of policy implemented, people should be able to criticize the government for placing these requirements and express their views on the policies. Not only are people supposed to have the ability to rain criticism on the government but also they are encouraged to do it. Completely censoring out opinions that shed a negative light on the COVID-19 vaccine violates this idea and prohibits the voices of the a group of citizens. 

Supreme Court

    The Supreme Court is one of the 3 branches of the United States Government. Although I have learned about this branch in history classes, watching this short video really added some insight as to how the court functions. Because of the 7,000 cases they receive for review , it is often wrongfully reported by the media that the court has upheld that decision that is being challenged. However, this is not the case. The Supreme Court Justices were discussing that although they can only select around 100 cases from state courts to reopen, that doesn’t mean they agree with every other case in the piles that is not chosen. I hadn’t really thought about that. In past years of study, I’ve heard of people trying to push their case to the level of the Supreme Court and getting denied, but I just assumed that the Court agreed with the decision. I hadn’t quite thought of the fact that it just wasn’t one of the few chosen. 

    In addition to the majority opinion, any justice can write a dissenting opinion. The first draft of the opinion is usually done within four weeks. However, decisions are in a multi-month revision process constantly being rewritten and adjusted to try to incorporate differing views or different reasoning behind a supporting view. Majority and minority may flip during this time. These decisions rage from a few pages when the decision is unanimous to over 80 pages when the justices have different opinions. 

    One thing that was interesting was that they took initiative to set a system in order that everyone shall speak once before anyone speaks twice in the discussion. Something as simple as this policy really allows for more open-minded discussion, making it a more non biased decision.

    It’s funny because the interviewer talked about how the Supreme Court is viewed in the minds of the public as this secretive entity when in reality that is not true at all. Behind the scenes is only thoughts and discussions but there truly isn’t a way to have the Supreme Court be secretive in any way. The Supreme Court publishes their thoughts and decision for the entire nation to see and read. They can’t do much without the eyes of the country on them. I really had this subconscious view of the Supreme Court being very secretive and I'm not even certain where that thought initially came from. 

     People tend to embrace the view that the Supreme Court has the longview of the nation in its mind when make decisions and that it will follow the constitution dedicatedly. 

Top 5 News Sources

    In order to stay informed, it is important to consult a variety of news sources. Each news source has its own biases and you can check these biases by fact checking and reading/listening to other perspectives. I use tons of news sources regularly but here are five examples of sources and why I use them.

Fox News is well-known as the main republican news channel. Because of its political party affiliation, it is necessary to consider its biases when viewing the news. Fox reports on topics that are not exclusively political and is reliable for quick recap news. One thing that helps Fox News in its credibility is that often the anchors open up the discussion to members of the Democratic Party allowing for low stakes live debate on certain hot topics.

CNN is the main democratic news channel in the nation. As a citizen of the United States, it is important to educate yourself about the news by listening to channels that hold opposite biases. This combats agenda setting done by the channels. Agenda setting is when media outlets dictate what gets the most news coverage and partners with the practice of framing to present the news in a certain and deliberate way in order to dictate how it is perceived by the audience. Because I watch Fox News, I make it a priority to watch CNN as well. 

Twitter is the next source of news I will talk about. Not only is Twitter my favorite social media platform, but it is also a great news outlet. One of Twitter's most useful features is its search window. Under the search bar, Twitter places tabs labeled "For You," "Trending," "News," "Sports," and "Entertainment." This window reads like a newspaper. You are able to see current and relevant topics as you scroll down under each tab. The best part about twitter though is that when you click on a topic and dive further into it, not only do you see news source accounts, magazines, and politicians or celebrities posting about it, but also real common people. You can see people discussing the news, stories supporting the news, disproving the news, and sharing their own experiences. The best example of the benefit of this kind of news source was during the 2020 BLM protests. News sources would only feature videos and images that supported their biases while Twitter allowed individuals who were actually present at the protests to share their videos and photos. Twitter enables each person with an account to access a whole world of news and information along with thriving as a popular and fun social media platform.

ABC News is another news source that I check regularly. Not only does ABC News cover national stories but also local ones on its affiliate channels. ABC News may lean one way or the other but does not officially publicize a political affiliation. I really enjoy this news source because of its online option. I like the variety of topics covered and that I do not need to hold a subscription in order to read the articles. Although Fox and CNN also have websites with free articles, they have a heavier bias than ABC News. 

New York Times  is another popular news source that I use often. I have a subscription to the daily updates from the paper. The New York Times is very to the point with its language and puts the facts out there. The down side to the New York Times is that you have to purchase a subscription in order to read its full length articles online or purchase a newspaper in person. Although this may seem like a downside to pay for the news, news channels require you to purchase cable too so it isn't an unusual concept, paying for the news.