I am ashamed to say that when I was in high school, I cannot remember learning about copyright laws, net neutrality, and others. I knew they existed, and I can thank social media and the rest of the internet for that, but they were not anything that I paid too close attention to. It was not until the summer, taking my first Mass Communications course, that I had a true, in-depth learning experience over media and the laws that exist within it.
After going over this week’s readings and videos, I can say that I will be changing the way I use media, as I will now plan to be more aware of the content I am posting, sharing, or retweeting to my audience.
Something that concerns me is copyright, as a lot of what I post on social media has to do with music and sports, which are two areas where copyright laws are tight and strict. A few years ago, when the app Vine was popular, I had a friend who recorded a clip from a Major League Baseball game. He had recorded a video of his favorite player who happened to hit a monster home run and wanted his reaction in the background. It was not an ill-intentioned video, but when he posted it to Vine, he then also shared it to his Twitter where it was almost immediately taken down by the MLB. He then had his entire Twitter account suspended for 24 hours because of the video. He was not aware that it was infringing on the copyright law, and it was during that incident where I noticed the MLB had really started cracking down on those who post videos of game or game highlights without the right to do so. I understand why they do it, they want all of the media shared to come from them, and it should. However, it is also causing sharing media between journalists and fan bases to become a more of a difficult process.
Now that I have learned more about copyright laws, I have started double checking the media I put out onto my platforms. I make sure to include my sources and ask if I can share something if it is original to a different poster. I only share videos from main accounts (like the NFL, and MLB), as well as making sure I have no copyrighted music in the background of any videos I post myself. These are simple steps, but also easy steps to take to become a better media user.
One other area of concern is Net Neutrality, and where the future of the internet lays. I became aware of net neutrality back in 2017, and at first I had no idea what it was. I remember scouring the internet for sources to read up on the subject because at the time it was making headway across all of social media. Sometimes I am still confused by the whole notion but I turn to this article from Wired.com that breaks it down into simpler terms. Knowing what I know now, I believe everyone should be on their toes about the future and changes that could be put into place. We are a streaming society, things have changed drastically in the last ten years, and if providers now have the chance to slow down competing services that could do major damage to many different companies. Blocking content from other websites and providers will create a harsh environment for social media, and the last thing social media needs is another issue that causes you to take a side.
Overall, media laws are something that I have recently taken into deep consideration. From copyright to net neutrality to censorship, these are issues that we all need to be aware of in our daily lives, as changes seem to be looming in the future.
