Author: Adrianne Rivera-Elrod

Hello to all and welcome to week 8 of my blog!

The final blog for this class……what a great time I’ve had these weeks learning about digital media literacy!  I hope you too have enjoyed our journey throughout this class!

When I think about my future and digital media literacy, I mostly think about my online footprint.  I grew up in a time where there was no internet, no social media, and even less of a need to have a presence online for a job.  Now, I would be lying if I didn’t admit that at times I feel a bit lost in this digital world.  A big reason for taking this class was to start thinking about how I could create a digital footprint for myself while still maintaining most of my privacy and security, in order to make an impact in the Nutrition world in 2019 and beyond.  I don’t want to get left behind in a progressive field I love just because I don’t feel comfortable having an online footprint.  The purpose for me being here, in school and learning about something I love, is to make a difference in people’s lives no matter where they live.  In order to do that, I know, I have to make a bit of a change.

What changes can I make though?  For one, I need to define who I am online (before someone else defines me).  I want my name to stand out for the passion I have in Nutrition and helping others so first thing is to make a digital name for myself.  I don’t believe that will happen overnight, nor do I believe I will be comfortable with having my name online overnight, but I will make that name.  In doing so, however, I will also need to figure out a way to remain as private as I can while making a name for myself.  It may not be easy, but, the job my husband has and my overall uneasiness about online privacy dictates that I keep more privacy than most.  So maybe I don’t have too many social media accounts, such as Facebook or Instagram, but I create a domain for myself as a start.  I also like the idea from Teach Thought in their article, “12 Tips For Students To Manage Their Digital Footprints,” to consider having two emails where one is anonymous.

There is also an interesting article from the National Association of Women Business Owners that refers to a “passive” digital footprint and how to combat that (“passive” meaning what sensitive data we don’t realize we leave behind, thereby again, letting someone else define you).  For the most part I already do most of what this article advises in order to keep a healthy, active digital footprint but the one I appreciate the most (and that goes inline with my cutting social media accounts) is the myth that you do have to have many social media accounts in order to thrive as a brand.  Let’s face it, in essence, I will be figuring out how to brand myself in the field of nutrition so I will do my best to only keep myself involved with the online sites that can help in that process without putting the majority of my privacy or security at risk.

Again, I hope you have enjoyed following my blog and I hope you see my name again, positively, in this big digital world we all live in!

Hello Again and Welcome to My Week 7 Blog!

Almost to the finish line so thank you for staying with me these weeks!  Today’s subject includes the law and media, specifically what I think of how one affects the other after this week’s class readings.  Well, in order to tackle this fickle subject, I decided to break it into two of the many issues within the articles that affect the law and media: following the laws intended to keep everyone safe while keeping the right to protest peacefully and how much information should truly be public (government documents, police arrest footage, etc.).

I read articles like the ACLU piece “Know Your Rights: Protesters’ Rights” and I have to admit certain questions come to mind that may not flow in line with what most people think.  I have in the past believed in the right to protest, however, the way that protests have become in certain cities in the past couple of years, I have thought that maybe there should be more restrictions around certain events.  I know that this is not the popular opinion but hear me out for a second.  In terms of protesting for your rights, the article mentioned above does a great job of talking about one’s rights as a protester but I can’t help but think that these are great in theory but many times protesters don’t go by these “rights”.  For example, it speaks about the right to protest on public property as long as there is no blocking to the building or interference for people going in but I have literally been in the scenario where a protest was going on in front of the capital building and all entrances were blocked by protesters.  Not only that but if the police are doing their job of trying to maintain peace and a group gets rowdy, why is a person allowed to video that police officer doing their job to maintain the peace?  There is also talk about dispersal orders and I can say from experience living in a large city during times of certain protests, that no matter whether or not a rally became a riot, many of the protesters actually stayed and became more violent towards police presence.  While protesters have their rights, shouldn’t they have to follow the law and respect the right of officers to keep the general public safe?

Another article I read that brought up questions was the piece from Wired “Introducing Aaron’s Law, a Desperately Needed Reform of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.”  The truth is that I have always been of the opinion that certain sensitive items, whether government related or not, should remain shielded from the public in every way.  Per the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act was previously put in place to address hacking issues that were more than likely threat related to protect the public and I am sure, government documents.  I appreciate the fact that the article speaks about using the tragedy and loss of Swartz as a way to enact changes within the CFAA for the types of crimes covered under it.  The one thing I tend to not understand in situations like this, where a person may know they are going against legislation currently in place on the use of certain digital media, why hack or make items public if there could be any repercussions that potentially fall under the realm of prosecution?  Again, in this case, shouldn’t people try to follow the legal rules to a “T” while trying to fight for change through the appropriate legal avenues?

The thing is, the law is not without error and I think we all see this play out in different situations on a daily basis.  To that point though, humans are not without error either and there are many times where I have seen people who just do not want to follow restrictions around certain media interactions or what are considered rights such as protests.  I genuinely believe that the intention of many of these laws put in place for media of all types were for public safety.  I do believe that there can be a general lack of respect for these laws as well as a bit of resistance to be lax on these laws, however, I think the only way to affect change is to follow the laws while simultaneously working on the change that may be needed to what is no longer applicable.

Thanks for taking the time to read and until next week!

Hello to Everyone and Welcome to My Blog on Editing a Wikipedia Article!

For this blog, I will be talking about one of the most intimidating things I have done in a very long time: EDITING A PAGE ON WIKIPEDIA!  I hope it sounded as scary typed out as it was for me in person.  Honestly, I cannot even explain how much time I took to create the edit I did in order to get it as perfect as could be (and also to not have expert Wikipedians yelling at me).  Maybe, though, just maybe, my harrowing (enter exaggerated voice here) experience will help someone take a leap to go from small edits to larger edits on pages on Wikipedia.

So in terms of what article I chose to edit, I went for some form of media on TV because I tend to be very knowledgeable on certain shows.  I specifically chose to look at stub articles based on the training we had during the weeks leading up to making the choice.  I found a stub article on the reality TV show “American Beauty Star.”  This article seemed very underdeveloped so I chose to find sources to edit the limited information on this page.  What I wanted to do was add the season 1 and 2 casts, however, after searching for sources I could only fully find the cast for season 1.  So my first step was to actually contact someone on the talk page for this article and ask whether the edit I wanted to make was acceptable in their opinion.  I got a very polite response back to go ahead with the edit and be bold in my edits.  I loved that part of the feedback…..be bold…..something I tend to shy away from being, especially on the internet.

So my next step was contacting another Wikipedian that was my original contact with the Wiki Education Foundation and who was available for help at any time.  I contacted this person because even though I found three solid sources, one had language in their permissions section that made me unsure of whether or not I could use that source.  Again, I got a very informative response about indeed being able to use that source, however, with the caution to also find great secondary sources.  I completely forgot about the types of sources I needed to use and this response actually pushed me to go back to the training again to ensure I was using the correct types of sources.

My last step in this process was to actually edit the Wikipedia article on the show.  I added my season 1 cast, three sources/references, and added the wording as far as what edits I was going to make.  Then it was all about the waiting game and just staring at the computer screen to find potential errors after publishing (am I the only one who would do this?).  To my surprise, shock, and extreme happiness, it only took about 10 minutes for someone to fix the placement of my sources BUT my edits look like they’ve been accepted!!!!  Here is the link for all to see my contributions!

I must say, as scared as I was to go through this process, actually contributing something to a digital media website makes me feel amazing.  I think from past blogs, one can see that my online footprint is less than most, so to be able to accomplish this is a big deal.  So all in all from my experience, I hope you try to make a Wikipedia page more accessible with real information for others as well.  From one Wikipedia rookie to potentially another, I definitely think this activity helped to enrich my digital media literacy.

Until the next blog!

Hello to Everyone and Welcome to Week 6 of my blog!

So today we will be discussing what is referred to as “the grandmother problem” in social media.  Interesting name isn’t it?  I don’t know about you but it makes me literally think of my grandmother trying to figure out social media platforms and just hitting the “share” button till her heart is content.

Seriously though, could you imagine if your closest friends and family members just shared information at will whether it was real or false?  Oh wait, it’s 2019 and I CAN imagine this happening.  While this problem can include people of all ages, in my life, this sums up my dad’s take on social media.  He has a Facebook which I constantly see fake news being shared or propaganda about medical issues, which unfortunately I cannot seem to find any sources to back the information on.  He also has many friends, who happen to be around the same age, and take anything he has shared as truth.  This drives me absolutely crazy and I have probably not always gone about informing my dad about the error in doing this in the right way.

I sometimes wonder, however, what is the right way?  For my dad, I have now started to get into the habit of having him give me the information that he found on the internet (before sharing with the multitudes) and my sister or I researching the validity.  We will show him how to find sources and truly research for the back-up information to make a decision of whether or not he may be onto fake or real news.  In order to help him navigate social media sharing, I had to understand that he came from a different generation of trust.  He sees something online and he wouldn’t understand why someone would create fake news stories so he trusts what the information is blindly.  I consider almost the idea of my parents being able to leave their doors open back in the day without a huge worry of who was walking around in their neighborhood.  Myself, I have a door with three locks and a deadbolt with a security system.  Times are different and unfortunately, scrutiny of news media must be different in order to ensure we are doing our due diligence in sharing news that is real.

The opinion of older generations being more trusting is not just one that I have either.  There are a couple of news outlets such as the American Press Institute and The Guardian that have talked about this “news trust” fake sharing phenomenon in older generations.

Maybe some of the solution to this problem should include classes for less digitally inclined people that teaches them about digital media literacy.  I can definitely say that my dad would take a class like that just to be able to understand the internet in general better.  Until then, the digitally savvy people must take their friends and loved ones under their wings (just as we would hope someone would do for us) and show them the ropes of sharing real, true, and viable information on digital media.

Thanks for reading and until next week!

Hello to all and welcome to my blog for Module 5!

This week is about sources (what I currently consider to be the best sources) related to my topic of interest, parental alienation and child custody issues in family court.  For my annotated list, I felt like in order to understand the issues surrounding family court, a person should have sources that can explain a bit of the background issues that directly deal with this topic of interest.  I will include bigger organizations that hold stake in the issues as well as articles to show how psychologists dealt with parental alienation within the court system.  I hope my list can shine some insight to those following along my blog to a topic I feel so strongly about.

• Documentary Filmmaker and Shared Parenting Advocate Ginger Gentile Joins National Parents Organization as Deputy Executive Director

The first source chosen comes from the group the National Parents Organization (NPO).  This organization is one that follows state laws closely in order to affect a change towards equal parenting rights not only in the family court system but with personal stories of families that have been separated due to a one-parent custody presumption.  This news story in particular is important to the future of awareness on shared parenting as it focuses on the recently appointed executive director for the organization who is also creating a documentary focused on shared parenting and how parental alienation affects people across the nation.

• Two Types of Parental Alienation

The second source I chose comes from the group The Fathers’ Rights Movement.  While the name of the organization sounds as though they are only interested in the welfare of fathers involved in their children’s lives, it has become a bigger movement for the overall idea of shared parenting in the right circumstances across the nation.  The article chosen describes what one father advises is “Two Types of Parental Alienation” and how to tell if one thinks they are being unjustly alienated from their children.  This article serves as an opinion piece as many articles do as many are written by parents in current custody fights.  I believe that a story and group like this offers support to many who don’t know where to research pertinent information that can help them with family court system struggles.

• The Rights of Unmarried Fathers

The third source I chose comes from Childwelfare.gov, which is a government site related to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that provides information about things that may affect the overall welfare of a child, their happiness within families, adoptions, and much more.  The article chosen, which reads like much more of a statistical report, gives great state by state information about what rights unmarried fathers hold based on individual statutes within a family court setting.  It is a source backed by reliable published legislation that can shine a light into the lack of rights unmarried fathers who want to be in their children’s lives currently have.

• Report: States Lack Laws to Support Equal Shared Parenting

The fourth source chosen comes from U.S. News & World Report.  I believe that many people many not always see parent’s affiliated groups as objectively showing what is in the best interest of a child due to what could be perceived as personal views.  So I chose a report from this site that shares a rating system offered by the National Parents Organization which shows where states fall in regards to any present or future shared parenting legislation.  Being that U.S. News & World Report offers news stories from all angles as well as reports showing objective statistics, it can offer more of a black and white statistical view of state legislation where shared parenting is concerned.

• A “Crime” but Not an Arrestable Act: Parental Alienation

The fifth and final source chosen comes from Psychology Today.  Psychology Today is a site that provides a monthly magazine with articles related to all things psychology, written by licensed psychologists.  The fact that this source comes from this particular site is what made me want to include it as a great source for my topic.  It is important to know what licensed professionals think about parental alienation and how it can affect children or the family court system.  This source in specific dives into the subject of parental alienation in a specific court case and what the outcome was.  It gives a deep look inside a typical family custody case where parental alienation played a big part in the separation of bond between a parent and child.

I hope once you read through these sources, you too will understand why they are so important to the media landscape of my topic of interest.  I also hope that you are able to scour the sites I chose to obtain the sources from to gain more insight on parental alienation and issues that riddle the family court system.

Thank you for going through this list with me this week and until the next time!

 

Hello To All and Welcome to Week 4 for My Blog!

For this week, we were to find a major story on the topic I have been searching news stories for in the first weeks.  The story was to be published in the past 2 months and I was to analyze it deeply.  So, in keeping with my theme of trying to open my eyes to both sides of the coin on the topic of parental alienation in child custody cases, I chose a story that challenged my bias on this topic.  I believe if I go down the path of researching all the ways the news looks at my topic, both in the light that I agree with and the one I do not, I will have the opportunity to grow significantly in the area of digital media literacy.

The story I chose goes by the name of “’A Gendered Trap’: When mothers allege child abuse by fathers, the mothers often lose custody, study shows” .  I want to say that right off the bat when I saw the headlines, I expected to find a link to a completed study that shows significant numbers to prove what is being spoken about within the story.  After all, the research that backs the content within the story is based on an in-depth study completed on thousands of court cases involving custody, abuse claims of some sort, and whether it was the mother or father involved in making the claims or losing the custody after the claims were made.  However, some ways down the story, it is made clear that the study spoken about has not actually been published.

Now, the validity of the claims weren’t in question in my mind.  I have admitted previously that some parents will use parental alienation as an excuse to get away with abuse while others will use parental alienation as a form to unnecessarily cut the relationship between one parent and their child.  The problem for me is data, numbers, and statistics being used as a basis to discredit the idea of either parental alienation or abuse based from one gender, without a proper link to show where the information came from.  This part in itself raised so many questions as I read through this article.  Such as: statistics are very biased towards court cases that involve a mother losing custody due to abuse claims but could it be that less fathers have custody to begin with, thereby making the figures a bit off?  Also, it is mentioned that parental alienation is used as a way for fathers to punish mothers accusing them of abuse and the verbiage used is “overwhelmingly”.  What are the statistics for this fact and where has that information come from?

There are so many facts referenced in this article but I do not find that there are enough back-up links, especially without the finished study, to adequately prove the claims as they are stated.  For example, why not provide scientific links that could further explain what parental alienation is such as within the article “An understudied form of child abuse and ‘intimate terrorism’: Parental Alienation” or the study “Depression and quality of life in adults perceiving exposure to parental alienation behaviors”.  Maybe even provide statistics for other studies that show patterns of abuse within the child custody sector such as what you can find with the National Center for State Courts.  That is not to say that the links provided are not compelling, because the truth is that they are.  The stories within this story are horrible and are true examples of abuse where the system not only failed those mothers but parental alienation was used in order to further that abuse.

The writer may have not explicitly expressed their views on the subject, however, the wording does seem to point towards what the writer’s bias on the subject is.  The main thing I would like to see with many of these articles that talk about the subjects of parental alienation, child abuse within child custody cases, or anything within those realms is real provable facts and studies regardless of what side you stand on.  I think those aspects could provide a real unbiased and informational look into issues plaguing custody courts affecting both women and men.  I would give the story a letter grade of a B minus just for the lack of evidence for readers to verify data (not including the real stories used as examples as those were provided).  More so, I wished there could have been more links within the story based on statistics and data that I could research as this serious subject is a powerful one that deserves as much news coverage no matter what side you stand on.

Thanks for reading this week and until the next.

Hello to Everyone Once Again and Welcome to Week 3 on My Blog!

If you have been following along, you will know by now that my chosen topic to focus on in MCO 425 is parental alienation and child custody laws/issues.  As I mentioned previously, this topic is near and dear to my heart as my husband has consistently been going through the hardest battle ever fought to see his son from the day he was born.  Now I fight this battle with him and research to see how the media treats news on this complicated topic.

For this week, the assignment asks for an analysis of sorts on 4 online items that discuss the topic at hand.  So, in my online search travels I decided to find a news and opinion piece that references the same story to make it a bit more interesting.  I wanted to see how the “black and white” news story would be reported as opposed to someone’s opinion on that same story.

For the first set of news and opinion pieces, I found what I consider to be a news story out of Harris County, Texas from 2004.  The news story was reported by The Houston Chronicle and it was an information riddled piece that spoke of a 10 year-old boy charged with the murder of his father, Dr. Rick James Lohstroh, with a gun that belonged to his mother.  The story reported on the fact that the mother and father had just gone through a divorce the year prior.  It also spoke of a discrepancy with a dosage of Prozac, not agreed upon by both parents, that could have led to the shooting based on reports from one side of the family.  These are the basic facts of what happened reported by The Houston Chronicle at that time, without an opinion from the journalist themselves as to what could have caused the shooting.

Around that same time, ABC News reported what I consider to be an opinion piece on this same story which was then picked up by The Canadian Children’s Rights Council.  In this piece, also from 2004, you will see the first mention of Parental Alienation Syndrome (PAS) as it pertains to the murder of Lohstroh by his son.  It not only defines PAS in laymen’s terms but also brings to the forefront the opinion that it could have actually been the cause of the shooting.  How the journalist references PAS, which is defined in greater degree on Wikipedia, along with giving an opinion that it could be the cause to the shooting is telling of the fact that this story is an opinion piece.

For the second set of news and opinion pieces, I chose a story many may remember about the actor Alec Baldwin and his issues stemming from a damaging voicemail to his 11-year-old daughter.  The news story chosen seemed to become a bit of an objective piece of news reported by Newsweek in 2007.  It did reference the facts behind the story in terms of the voicemail that was leaked to the press but it also brought PAS out to the forefront from the beginning of the story.  The opinion of whether this case fell under the issues brought on by PAS is not argued but rather the two separate viewpoints of father’s rights and advocating mothers were reported on.  While I do believe this news story could straddle the line of being an opinion piece, I think it more so follows the lines of an objective piece as it gives all of the information needed for the reader to further follow up and make their own opinion.

The opinion piece on this Baldwin news story is a bit more forthcoming with how the journalist feels about PAS and its implications on custody cases.  The Daily Newspaper from the University of Washington posted the piece in 2007, the day after the press leaked the actual news story.  It does reference the facts behind what the voicemail and it also talks about PAS, however, it grossly speaks about this psychological syndrome as nothing more than a ploy for an abusive partner to use court as the upper hand during custody issues.  It also does it’s best to use statistics to put a face with the label of abuser in most of these custody cases, which the journalist advises is usually a man.  I must say that for myself and my situation, it is a bit disturbing to read, however, it is an opinion piece that does shed light to the other side of the coin of PAS and how some can abuse using the syndrome as a way to hurt others.

I do believe this topic is a controversial and complicated one that has many intricate parts to it.  Depending on the situation at hand and how it is reported in the media, you may change your stance on a daily basis as I have in the past as well.  I look forward to continuing my journey of exploring the media coverage behind it and I hope you do as well.

Until next time…….

 

Hello Again to Everyone!

For this week, I will be discussing a topic that is near and dear to my heart that I hope people will be able to relate to.  For many years, my husband and I have fought an uphill battle to be involved in the life of his biological son/my stepson.  Unfortunately, this has not been a situation where we or even he has been openly invited to share in his child’s life no matter how much he fights for that right.

Prior to being involved in this situation, I worked in various aspects of the legal field but was never truly aware of the issues that plague child custody or family law issues.  While these topics would be too broad with too many working parts and never-ending logistics, I have chosen to focus on the area and state that I follow for reform.

That being said, I will choose to take a look at how media treats child custody issues in the state of Indiana, more specifically, when it comes to alienated parents.  I know this topic may sound like a bit of a dud to most but I truly think there is a lack of media coverage, leading to what I believe is less reform when it comes to family courts.  For now, my resources have been parent equality pages on social media, articles that are either for or against the movement, and family court laws in Indiana.

My hope is that I can do this topic justice and show how it is treated in the media.

Thank you so much for reading as usual and until next week!

Hello to everyone in MCO 425 and welcome to my blog!

How fitting that the first blog assignment for this Digital Media Literacy class is to self-reflect on an average day of our own personal media use.  Or should I say how scary!  I know I was dreading looking at what media I use in a day and especially what news content I interact with.  So let me first start with a timeline of my media use from yesterday, Friday August 23^rd, listed below:

7:00am – Wake up to my child kicking me in bed and get him a banana to eat

while watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on tv

– As he watches cartoons, I pick up my phone and check Facebook

and Instagram

– Reality Blurb is my favorite “news” type media to find out

information on reality stars I follow

7:45am – While making breakfast for child, I play Pandora radio

8:00am – While eating at table with child, pulled up the Bert Show out of

Atlanta, GA and listened to the morning show/certain segments

8:45am – Spoke on phone with mom and sister while watching Sesame

Street on the TV with child

10:00am – Went upstairs to do laundry and had 90 Day Fiancé and Sesame

Street playing in background while I cleaned

10:30am – Turned all media off and read books with child

11:15am – Went back downstairs to get lunch ready for toddler (listened to

Pandora radio while cooking and also checked Canvas online

classes for updates on class forum questions)

11:45am – Sat down to eat with toddler and spoke to mom while eating; then

cleaned up once done and cleaned the kitchen while toddler played

with toys

12:45am – Played with toddler and toys

1:15pm – Husband came home and toddler and I went upstairs to catch up

(Sesame Street was on tv)

2:00pm – Toddler fell asleep on chest and I searched the internet

– looked at Instagram again

– looked at Facebook and Army wives information pages

– looked for swimming lessons online

– was shopping online

– looked for flights online

2:30pm – Put toddler to sleep with husband and read Nutrition book for other

session class

4:30pm – Started to make dinner and spoke with husband about day

5:25pm – Dinner complete and sat to eat

6:25pm – All three of us got up and husband and I started to clean kitchen

6:35pm – Made cinnamon rolls and ate a couple with husband/toddler and

then watched a little bit of Croods on tv

7:35pm – Sat at computer to do school work until 9:45pm

– In between lag times, I checked Instagram to take a mental break

10:15pm – Sat in bed and scrolled through Facebook until I fell asleep while on

my phone

Just looking at my daily routine, I believe what it shows has much to do with my current life situation.  I am a mom to a toddler who is all over the place and I am also married to a traveling soldier in the Army.  One may ask, how would those two aspects truly affect my media consumption in a 24 hour period?  Well, on a daily basis I try my hardest to only have shows on the television that would be what I deem as appropriate for the age my child currently is.  This means that I cut out much of what I used to watch on that form of media such as violence, most reality television, and yes, even daily news gets cut in order for my son to watch his Elmo.  One will also notice that while I search the internet, I very rarely if ever post to any social media sites.  I attribute this lack of a social media post presence to the privacy expected being married to a soldier.  None of my social media sites even show where I currently live nor do I make it a point to post about certain life aspects or repost any form of news.  I made the choice a very long time ago that when it came to social media and posting personal feelings about the world around us, I would tame my tongue in order to keep certain opinions private.

While I do stay away from posting or sharing certain things, as one will notice, I do not stay away from reality television or people on my cell phone.  Reality television is my escape, to my husband’s horror, from all things children.  I will watch certain reality shows on my phone while my son is asleep or see what my favorite reality television stars are up to on Instagram.  In terms of news, I am partly embarrassed that in a day most news content I will search for is on Reality Blurb.  It is a news type entertainment website that reports on stories about reality television.  Outside of reality television information, I mostly look at the ID Channel stories, People magazine stories, and food recipes on Instagram.

As we have moved into a world where many hastily share news articles without research to the content that is later found to be “fake news”, I choose to stay out of the fray.  This being the case, Facebook truly serves as a way for me to keep up with old friends and search the current Army base’s wives page for pertinent information to my location.  I did at one point have many friends who would share news articles, mostly political, but I purposely muted them as it got to be where opinions started to serve more as ways to oust others based on whether they agreed or not.

I would not say that I could potentially rank the credibility of reality television or entertainment websites as much of it portrays story lines in order to draw in audiences such as me.  In light of this, I would only rank the news stories I watch from the ID Channel on Instagram as a 10 as they are based on real past crimes that have occurred all over the world.  My media use timeline would show that most days I wake up ignoring, in a sense, the news that happens all around me.  I even purposely listen to the Bert Show radio station only to hear certain segments based around dramatic issues that certain people call in to get advice on.  Maybe my media use is the way it is because I am focusing on my child or maybe it seems simpler at times to only focus on the more redundant news that reality television offers.

In either case, to most I know it will seem as though I am ignorant or uninformed to the world around us.  My true hope is that this class will provide ways to rifle through the pages of misinformation and thereby stimulate my want of the gritty news again.

Thank you all for reading!