Author: rjohnson

I wasn’t expecting to get as much out of this course than I did. This week especially woke me up to the fact that we live in a world that can be extremely unsafe, especially on the Internet. Even if it is safe, our information is out there for people to find, or even buy. I plan to make a few changes to my online habits and see if I can take back some of the privacy that was unknowingly taken away from me and millions more.

The first thing I did to make myself more secure was install two-factor authentication. I was reading “How to Enable Multifactor Security on Amazon”  when I quickly opened a new tab and followed the instructions on how to complete it. I knew that was something simple, quick, but effective. After finishing the readings this week, I did the same thing with Facebook and plan to for other websites and apps that contain sensitive information. I am choosing to do this step because I believe it is important to protect myself, even in a small way. I like knowing that even if my Amazon account gets hacked or someone signs in on a new device, they can’t get much further without the physical phone that I set up in that instance.

My next big plan is to encrypt my entire computer. I have had no issues with security on my hard drive in the past, but I must not be naive and think it won’t happen to me in the future. I love traveling, and have to bring my laptop with me while in school. If my computer fell into the wrong hands, all my information and files could easily be stolen from me. While I may not being able to fully prevent theft or loss, I can create a passphrase that only me and my husband know to unlock the devices we have. I also noticed that it is different for a desktop than a laptop in the sense that sleep mode in a laptop doesn’t erase the RAM. This article was very useful to me, and explains why I should be shutting down my computer more often, perhaps even if it remains at home. While I can do everything in my power to prevent someone from breaking into my house, it doesn’t make it impossible. Someone can still smash a window and steal my computer, along with my unlocked files.

I haven’t done anything else yet, but I also plan to do something different with my online activity. The problem is this whole security thing can be confusing since we still aren’t sure what information about ourselves is out there. We can guess but I don’t know what websites to avoid entirely, since I still use Google to search things.There was also so many articles to read this week, taking in all that information takes time to absorb. There are also so many things to consider in terms of security. Encrypting my information everywhere will do a better job at covering more bases than I would on my own. I definitely think I am more equipped to protect myself after reading this week’s materials. 

This week’s readings have brought a lot of things to my attention. Normally, I wouldn’t really pay attention or care about the laws in media. If it didn’t pertain to me, or if I had no say in the matter, why bother being educated on it?

It may not matter to me personally today, but I believe in the next decade we will face many obstacles and crossroads regarding technology and the Internet that we will not be able to ignore. We have to learn about the arguments and changes in order to fight for what we believe is right.

For starters, I consider myself to be very handy around the house. Maybe not with technology, but I am more advanced and understand it better than my parents. If I was fixing something and was told that I was not allowed to because I didn’t have the copyright for how it was build, I would be baffled. Why couldn’t I fix something I already own? It was shocking to read that John Deere owners didn’t actually “own” something they spend $100,000 on. While I understand the idea behind this copyright law, it doesn’t make sense in reality. It was refreshing to read that now you can legally repair your iPhone, but it shouldn’t have been that way in the first place.

There should be laws and boundaries in order to create a safe environment online, to allows people to explore without fear of breaking the law. Too many laws, or too constricting laws can alter the online experience for many, oftentimes without their knowledge. Censoring is another thing we are facing that is there that really shouldn’t be. As a user of the Internet in the United States, we should have access to anything we want, within reason. If we want to learn more about a topic, we can. But when there are roadblocks in order to find that information then we have a problem.

There is a lot more that I could talk about that I feel strongly for. This week’s readings opened my eyes to things that were happening right in front of me that I was not aware of. I do plan to alter the way I use media. My goals for the future are to continue to be a media creator, so that I can actively share my thoughts or findings and also partake in media to gain new information. I plan to continue on a journey for media literacy. I believe it is so important for myself mainly, and for those around me. The more I am aware of what happens online, the more I can warn those around me of some ideas or laws that don’t seem quite right.  Those are some pretty broad goals, but they are achievable.

Changing the way I use media will make me a more informed citizen, it will allow me to use my voice to inform others, and to hopefully make a positive impact on the web. Journalism isn’t my major, but even as a blogger, I can use what I have learned to be one of the many people who push media forward, into a better system of news and information. It just takes some people working towards a goal for improvement.

Trying to fix the grandmother problem is much easier said than done. Since writing my blog post about it, I have seen numerous posts shared on Facebook that immediately raised red flags in my head. Not only were they filled with false information, none of the sources were credible in my opinion. It is becoming much easier to feed out the bad sources if they don’t share the author, or make claims that can’t be backed up with a simple Google search.

The problem is, these people that shared the information were people I knew from high school or middle school that I haven’t spoken with, or seen, in years. Reaching out to them to tell them they are wrong, even in the nicest way possible, would come across extremely poorly. I would not be able to share my point and direct them to better sources without them completely discrediting what I say or show them.

I could try posting relevant information to combat these false sources, but who knows how well it will be received or even seen with the algorithm.

I did have a really great conversation with my husband about how sharing things without doing research can be really dangerous for spreading fake news. He doesn’t do it often, but sometimes he shares links he sees on Facebook with me or his friends. Rarely does he share it to his Facebook wall. I was able to share what I’ve learned throughout the course and explain the importance of sharing accurate information. Since we share trust for each other, it was really easy to explain why and he was very receptive to what I said.

By observing how the Grandmother Problem shows up in my own life, I was able to see it better and see that it is really hard to fix. But we have to start with people we are really close with who won’t shy away from tough conversations.

I remember learning at a very young age that Wikipedia is a website that has nearly infinite information, but anyone could edit the text. This is why in throughout elementary to high school, teachers would frown upon using Wikipedia as a credible source. I made a few changes with my friends to see how quickly they would get changed back. To our display, it was only a few minutes. Now realizing that the reason the incorrect edits get changed so quickly is because of the volunteer staff who simply want to educate and share information. I wish I knew that sooner, I wouldn’t have been so quick to write inappropriate things on Wikipedia.

It was daunting to find out this was our assignment for a few weeks. What information did I have to share that would be good enough for Wikipedia? Or information that wouldn’t be immediately changed back. Daunting as it is, it has been an excellent learning experience.

I started out by finding a page that I knew a lot about myself that lacked depth. My husband and I both love coffee, so I chose the page for Chemex Coffeemaker. I began by introducing myself in the talk tab of the page, I wasn’t sure if I would get any buzz because the last edit appears to be from 2012. You can see my edit at the bottom of this image.

I waited a few days, but didn’t get any responses to what I posted under the Talk Page. Assuming no one had any issues, I went ahead and made some changes to the Brewing Method section. To my surprise, nothing was immediately flagged or taken down. I was glad no one objected! The wording seemed to match Wikipedia language with no bias or personal touches.

I checked again the next day and my edits were still there! I was so pleased that my wording and in text citations didn’t raise any red flags to other editors. I was a little bummed that no editors were actively monitoring the page or responding to my post under the Talk tab. It seems that those editing this specific page were doing it for the same reasons I chose this article. I love coffee and have an interest in the brewing methods, and felt like adding information for people who want to learn more about brewing with this type of equipment. That’s the reason Wikipedia was founded and remains such a great tool for people who simply want to learn more.

Finally, I added an additional section on how to properly clean the Chemex. So far, it hasn’t been flagged or removed altogether. I would like for it to remain, but I understand if it is.

Overall, I really enjoyed this process. I saw how hard the Wiki editors work to make sure the information is correct for readers. I definitely have a strong appreciation for them, because I could not do this long-term. I think in the future I will be more inclined to edit if I read something that has missing facts.

Here is a link to the page I edited.

When scrolling through social media, I find more and more posts that include misinformation or information far from the truth. This class has truly opened my eyes to the mass amount of in my news feed from friends and family. It is an extremely tricky approach to bring this to someone’s attention.

In order to acknowledge the false information, I believe we must start from a point of caring for the individual. If they immediately feel attacked from a random call-out, then will not be accepting of any wrongdoing.

It is extremely difficult to reach out to someone we are not close friends with, so there has to be a level of trust between you and the individual. You could try reaching out to them in other ways before bringing this up, or just stick with those who already trust you and know you’re coming from a good place.

It is also very important to make sure that you are correct in calling them out. As we read this week in Chapter 5 of Mediactive, we need to be accurate, and always double or triple check the information. Cross-referencing sources is a great way to truly know if the information is correct or not. Another point in to be fair and civil, invite them to join a conversation with you, do not just talk at them.

When I think about doing this in my own life, I know if the person were immediate family or a very close friend, I would have no issue with having a discussion with them. It is those friends that are not as close that we must take extra care in reaching out to. I think it should always be a private matter, whether that is a text, phone call, or private message. I feel it is best to stay away from direct comments on the post. Those can be damaging to the friendship because it can make them feel publicly called out, embarrassed, etc.

Be encouraging! When reaching out, tell them how important it is to be aware and do our own research. It is great to share new information with others; Facebook and other social media are a good thing. We just have to make sure the information we are sharing is positive and true.

We could also go in a different direction, by posting things that we have fact checked ourselves, things that we have found to be accurate, it could shed some positive light in the overwhelmingly false newsfeed. When posting, add a description of your findings, and why you found it to be true. This is a non-confrontational approach, but it allows our friends and family to see a difference in the content we share compared to others. By being an advocate for accuracy, others may notice and start doing the same.

 

The ideas in this blog post are not directly from outside sources, but came from my knowledge of the readings of the textbook and class materials. These ideas are solely opinion, but ideas that I believe could help me in my personal life and relationships.

I have created a list of articles and a video about the latest Disney, Netflix, Hulu, AppleTV and whoever else in the fight to win over streaming users. I think this selection gives readers a very clear idea of what has been happening in the last few weeks, what has changed, and what is expected.

• “Explosion of Streaming Services Points to Price Wars on the Horizon”

-Variety.com

This article sheds some light on the different prices of new and old streaming services and what that could mean for the future once they all launch.

• “Disney Plus: Launch dates, prices, movies and shows to expect” 

-Cnet.com

Check out the video in this link to hear more about what Disney+’s rollout will entail.

• “Netflix Pays for Serenity Now” 

-WSJ.com

It seems that each company buys the rights for a show every hour. Read more on Netflix shelling out some money to acquire Seinfeld.

• “Disney shares full incredible list of everything that’s on its streaming service”

-VT.co

Disney finally released it’s full lineup for launch day. This will definitely change some things for Netflix and the others trying to gain traction.

 

• “Disney is leading the charge against Netflix by returning to weekly episode releases”

-TheVerge.com

Disney plans to revert to former style of weekly new episodes versus the whole series drop such as Netflix series. Will this hinder Disney fans who like to binge watch streaming?

Since this topic of streaming wars has been hotly debated recently, it was fairly easy to find an article that was relevant and worth reading. Kevin Stankiewicz wrote an article for CNBC titled “Ex-Netflix, Hulu exec Simon Gallagher on streaming service Apple TV+”.

I was immediately drawn to this article because the author was clearly displayed at the top, raising a green flag for me. Once I clicked on his name I could see everything else he had written recently for CNBC, and you can also click the link to his Twitter account. This gives me the impression that he stands behind what he writes and isn’t attempting to fool readers. I like that it is clearly visible, but I would like to read more about the author himself instead of what he has written. What makes him a credible author that readers should listen to?

Now, before even reading the piece, I can tell that the writing may contain some bias simply from the title alone. A former Netflix exec is saying positive things about Apple’s newly announced streaming service. It makes me wonder if he is either hinting that he thinks Netflix is fragile in this situation, or he really believes in the new Apple TV+ service. Either way, there is definitely going to be bias in the material.

The first word in the first paragraph contains a link to another article regarding Apple. The first three links in the article led to more articles by CNBC about related topics. While they may have provided more background information that gives credibility to the new information, there are no outside sources which causes me to be concerned for confirmation bias within the company. Writers need to make it easy for readers to verify information without doing their own extensive research.

After clicking on a link to see the stock numbers for Apple and Netflix, I looked at their charts to see if any information on them was misleading. Now I do not know a whole lot about how the stock exchange works or what is a lot and what is not a lot in terms of numbers, but I read that one point is equal to one dollar. They had the charts displaying each increment as one whole point. This made the lines going down look very dramatic, even though it isn’t a huge drop. I think that information is a little irrelevant to this article, but it is important to see how they regularly display information.

Overall, I give the writing a C. It provided a lot of information and statistics, but there was favor to one side of the story and not the other. There were no links to outside sources for readers to clarify and verify information. As we learned in class, there aren’t always two sides to every story, but in this case there is a lot of information on the other side that the readers here do not see. This is very one sided, and the author failed to inform the readers of the whole story. It doesn’t appear that the author was trying to be persuasive, but either the writing or the information was biased.

Streaming services are continuing to dominate my news feed with their flashy new ideas and what that means for their competitors. I found a video that was particularly interesting because it highlights the facts and leaves opinion out of it. The rest of the article is a good read, but it doesn’t really pertain to today’s news on Netflix. It is a firsthand recollection of when the first CEO of Netflix and his partner almost sold to Amazon. Scroll down to the bottom to watch the video, although the boxing analogy is cheesy, it broke down why new streaming services can hurt Netflix, but also how they could completely crash and burn on their own terms. The narrator shares both sides and does not gives the viewer an idea of how he feels about the matter. Like we learned in the course material, news isn’t about showcasing each side of the story, often there aren’t two sides and it should just be reported how it happens.

Sam Reynolds wrote an article titled “We Aren’t in a Streaming Bubble, But Netflix is Still Overvalued”, which the title alone gives way to me believing it is more opinion than news. The first paragraph shares some statistics about each companies proposed spending for the streaming services, but the news statements were soon trampled by the opinion of an interviewee, Brian Friedman. With each question, he takes those statistics shown at the beginning and skews them, sharing his ideas on how it doesn’t add up or why those numbers are wrong. This is a recent headline, which makes me understand how easy it is to confuse news with opinion for those who are not media literate.

Another news article regarding the situation with Disney+ does a decent job of leaving opinion out of their writing, although there are hints of it. This is on the Forbes website so it highlights some of the expected growth and decline. I noticed that they used a pie chart, and while it was 2D instead of the misleading 3D, the information presented on it was confusing. It had countries mixed in with companies in reference to subscribers, so I wasn’t sure the message they were trying to send.

The last source I discovered falls into the analysis category. It gives us a lot of information about Disney+ and what users can expect, but it doesn’t really give us new information that we can’t find elsewhere. It takes the information already announced from Disney and explains it more in depth, making it easy to understand and easy to see how it will change user’s streaming habits.

I saw a lot of the same information being repeated by newer articles and blogs.  This reminds me of the course material on news reports being focused around crime because of the ratings. Just because there is a new topic going around, does not mean it needs continuous coverage if there is nothing new to report on it. After reading these four different online articles, I do not feel I learned a lot about Netflix or Disney, but was reading the same material multiple ways.

Streaming services have been in the media constantly over the last few weeks. It seems that Netflix is losing fans and steam as many other companies introduce their new services for customers. Streaming is the new cable TV, so as companies lose viewers to streaming, they want to get them back by creating their own, going up against the big dog, Netflix. There are a lot of articles going around saying things like “Disney+ shades Neflix by offering x amount per month”. I see how the media can play a significant role in this new age of streaming by the way consumers are influenced. Depending on what news site covers it, or an article is shared on Facebook, it often portrays one sided material, instead of being informative versus critical. People who are uninformed could end their Netflix subscription without doing a little digging to see if the service will actually decline in terms of content. Because I am an active consumer with multiple streaming services, I was immediately interested in hearing what Disney+ has to offer. 

https://bgr.com/2019/08/07/disney-plus-vs-netflix-vs-hbo-vs-apple-why-12-99-plan-makes-sense/

This article I found on Facebook by Chris Smith does a good job of highlighting the pricing of different streaming services, and shares that Disney+ won’t necessarily kill Netflix due to the wider variety of content and reach that Netflix has. Unfortunately, I feel that not all coverage is this cut and dry. Disney owns a lot of networks, so if I am watching news on ABC I won’t ever see anything negative about the cost, but probably some negative things about Netflix. I am excited to see how the media continues to cover this as both companies unveil their ideas and plans for the future. 

Hi Everyone!

I spent my day yesterday monitoring my media use for 24 hours. I started when I woke up and finished as I was going to bed. I’ve kept track of my usage by time of day listed below.

9:07am Woke up and immediately checked my email, Instagram feed and Facebook feed. My sister and I Snapchat rather than text, so I sent her a Snapchat around this time.

One thing I noticed was the amount of Sponsored Posts on both Instagram and Facebook, I didn’t see a lot of posts this early from my close friends. A few friends on Facebook were sharing stories about the Amazon Rainforest fires. And I saw a video about Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her position, but I didn’t pay much attention to it.

9:30am Turned on Netflix as I had a very lazy start to my morning, watched an episode of Parks & Rec while scrolling through Instagram again. During this time I used an app to pay my credit card bill.

10:00am Log onto My ASU to begin working on classes for the day. I receive a few email notifications on my laptop for various sales.

10:30-11:00am  I continue working on my classes, and I read a chapter of my textbook for computer literacy. I check my personal email again during this time.

11:00am  I sent a few more Snapchats back and forth with my sister.

12:00pm I make myself lunch and scroll through my Facebook while I eat. I see a sponsored post from The Home Depot, nothing else too out of the ordinary. Lots of posts that friends shared or status updates.

12:30pm I began work on my photography class, and watched some videos that the professor posted. They led to external sites where a few ads popped up as I was watching, one for Samsung and one for Android not too long after.

12:45pm More Snapchat

1:04pm Checks Facebook again while watching another video for class. At this point I became aware as I was opening Instagram and stopped myself, I realized how quickly I reach for social media when I get slightly bored.

2pm Turned on TV and started watching SpongeBob. I saw an article on Facebook saying that in 45 years we have killed more than 60% of wildlife. I clicked on it and saw it was from 2016 from a site called Condé Nast Traveler, which I have never heard of.

Commercials on TV we directed at children, not surprisingly, so lots of Nerf guns and Lego sets.

2:30pm I took the syllabus quiz

3:00pm I got ready for work and checked Instagram every 10 minutes or so.

4:00pm I arrive at work and send a few Snapchats, text and scroll on Facebook and Instagram one last time since my phone has to be locked away.

8:00pm Got off work early, check phone and head to friend’s house. Here I wasn’t on my phone as much as usual since I was with a bunch of people, but I still checked every now and again.

11:00pm Once I am ready for bed I check Facebook one last time and see more news on the Amazon and ads for apartments.

Since my days change so frequently, it is difficult to set routines and limit media exposure. I think this post highlights a semi-average looking day for me. I didn’t visit too many news sites or stumble upon them in my day-to-day experience so my rankings list may be small.

Facebook 3/10

Snapchat Not really applicable

Instagram 5/10

Condé Nast Traveler 4/10

Email 6/10

TV 6/10

This assignment really was challenging because a lot of the time I spend on social media, it is because I am bored and mindlessly scrolling. I hope this helps me be more aware of the time I spend online and be more conscious about my media consumption.