After reading the materials provided for this discussion and gaining more knowledge about how the law affects media, I now realize it plays a lot more influential role than I had first thought.
Shifts in the Media Environment and Laws
In the media environment that we are growing into as of today, I believe that there seems to be many of our rights losing the value of what we had with them in the past. For example, Europe has now added laws that information created about other must have consent by who it is about or the content can be deleted. Fortunately, this is not the case in the United States, but I do believe rules regarding similar situations are taking away the true value of journalism and the purpose to inform the public on current events.
I think if laws similar to the one I mentioned above were to be enforced in the United States then it would result in a significant amount of information to be hidden from the public and strengthen the distrust between media and public consumers.
Privacy
Furthermore the heavy influence and loss of basic rights is also relevant on the topic of privacy. This topic has been heavily covered over the course of the class and has given a substantial amount of evidence that allows me to assume that our privacy rights are slowly beginning to diminish and lose all its value. However, it can be argued that we are seeing this for good reasoning such as invasion of privacy in order to protect the security of our country.
Privacy violations have also been a topic of discussion within the workplace and when it is reasonable for an employer to invade privacy on its employees. It is understandable if it is the light of the best thing for the company as a whole but should always be justified before doing so. If employers fail to do this, it will also grow tension and distrust in the relationship between their employees.
Censorship
Censorship within media has also drastically shifted in recent years. I don’t necessarily believe this is a good shift that I refer to. For example, a youtube video of citizens exposing live news feed to spread knowledge on what is happening in a specific country was taken down by Youtube because of graphic content. Although there is justification with youtube not wanted to have such content on their platform, it is taking away the rights of those to freedom of speech. In addition, it is taking away the ability for those to spread knowledge on the current events that are happening and emphasizes my prediction that more and more content will begin to become hidden or undercover.
Modifying Media Usage
Although I don’t believe any of these shifts will affect my current media usage, these ideas have created a stronger emphasis on things I should be more aware of. Some of my social media platforms have been changed to private accounts in recent years and I will remain keeping those accounts private in light of potential employers running into them.
As a student of communication and journalism, I find it extremely important that I do not lose my rights to freedom of speech and that we do not allow journalism as a tool to lose its role or value because of such laws discussed above.
