Media Law

I think it is scary how much the government can figure out about a person just by looking at their web history or where they go. A lot of people do not know this, but we lost all our privacy rights with the Patriot Act of 2001. This act allowed the government to listen in on phone calls and monitor every aspect of life for everyone in the "search" of terrorism within the country. So, it makes sense to me that phones and computers nowadays are made for the purpose of spying on us. My friends and I make jokes about it all the time when we play video games together. For instance, I named the FBI agent or whoever is in charge of tracking me Josh tell him to stop listening to me or make jokes about him listening in. I also think that the license plate tracker thing is a bit unnecessary because most people carry their phones on them and phones are personal trackers. So, to me it just kind of seems extra, but I understand because then the government will know who drives what vehicle

The video is very surprising because they go into great detail about the clear usage of these technologies that the big tech companies are using to invade our privacy and all other sorts of things. Before watching this video, I had already known that this stuff was happening over in China, but I did not really know how it was happening and the video showed a lot of insight into how things work over there. What scares me the most, is the fact that there are a lot more places already trying China's social credit system than I had originally thought. I think is very alarming because once you start putting labels on people, bad things tend to happen. This has happened over and over throughout history; Hitler and the Jews, Sunni and Shia, and the Uighur's in China. Once you give that kind of power to the government, you already lost because you forfeited your rights away and the government then controls everything. At the end of the video, they were talking about how the Chinese com

According to the Meriam-Webster dictionary, propaganda has three separate definitions with the first one being, "A congregation of the Roman curia having jurisdiction over missionary territories and related institutions." The second, "The spreading of ideas, information, or rumor for the purpose of helping or injuring an institution, a cause, or a person." And the third, "Ideas, facts, or allegations spread deliberately to further one's cause or to damage an opposing cause." Propaganda today is mainly in reference to political material; however, it started out in a religious context. The Congregatio de propaganda fide (“Congregation for propagating the faith”) was an organization established in 1622 by Pope Gregory XV to further Catholic missionary activity. The word propaganda is from the ablative singular feminine of propogandus, which is the gerundive of the Latin propagare, meaning “to propagate.” The first use of the word propaganda, without the r

  I think that it is hard to say what makes a good innovation because of the ability to have access to such innovation. The only reason I say this is because back when computers were first invented they were too big to be inside of a household until desktop computers were invented; even then it took a while for every household to have at least one desktop computer and that was only if they could afford it. The same thing could be said for cellphones because at that point everyone had a home phone with an answering machine or a pager with readily available payphones. With that being said, the first couple of designs for said cell phones were big and clunky and again, not readily available until later. Cell phones nowadays are more easily available and the means of production to produce them are more advanced than when they were first invented. So, I think that is a bit ambiguous to say who was an "Early Adaptor" for some innovations that were more available to some than others

I think one of the main reasons it is hard to find websites like these is because big tech companies, like Google, do not want that kind of information to be easily available because they do not want people to know the truth. There is an information war going on right now between China and the U.S. All the big tech companies like Facebook, Google, Twitter are all based in China because if they become state-based, which they already have, they pay no corporate tax; which is why Trump lowered America's corporate tax. We all know that China censors what its people can see and what they say. We also know they are currently culling their Muslim population and have children working in sweatshops for cents, but for some reason, everyone just seems to look past that. These companies have strong ties in China because they are based there, so it makes sense that they would be heavily influenced by China in the sense that they would make what they promote more easily available than the ideas

  Up until about the 1440s, it was uncommon for people to own books or let alone read. Only the church, libraries, wealthy people of the time would have owned them and really the only people that could read them. This is because, at the time, most books were written in Vernacular; which was like common Latin, and only those smart enough could read them. That is until Johannes Gutenburg invented the Printing Press; which allowed for the mass production of books in multiple languages, so everyone had access to read. The Printing Press came out during the height of the Renaissance era, which allowed the works of great writers to spread throughout the world quickly and easily. Johannes Gutenburg was just a man with a dream; that dream being that everyone has the same access to information that should be common knowledge, but is not because they could not read back then. However, with the invention of the Printing Press, it made it a lot easier for people to get the education they need to b

  Recently, there has been a lot of censorship and banned accounts on social media platforms. Twitter, more specifically, is one of these big tech companies that is involved in this censorship that breaks the first amendment. The internet is an everyday tool that people use for countless things and everyone has the right to use it if they have access to it. Everyone is free to have their own opinion protected by the first amendment; which means people should also be allowed to share their opinion on these social media platforms. However, these big tech companies think it is okay to censor people's opinions while promoting others. Recently, Donald Trump was banned from a lot of these platforms; and even more recently the country of Nigeria banned the use of Twitter after the platform deleted their President's tweet. In response to this, Twitter said, "The internet is a human right and everyone should be able to freely use it" (paraphrasing). Think of it like this, Twit

Starting with the first expression, the "Marketplace of Ideas," I think that it is important in terms of printing/publishing one's own original thoughts because everyone has a voice and those voices should be heard. No one should be required to have a license in order to publish/print their thoughts for the world to see. As John Milton once said, "The truth will win out." The second expression talked about our participation in self-government. It suggests that people will not make informed decisions on who to vote for if the candidates do not have a free and open debate to clearly express their views and what policies they are focused on. I think this is true, but it also up to us, as the voter, to go out of our way to get the information ourselves. With the internet being an everyday tool, it is easy to go online and look up what each candidate represents and what they advocate for, versus a two-minute talking point one saw on a live debate. In my opinion, it w

 I ended up reading the article by the history channel and actually learned a few things about the Supreme Court that I did not know before. For instance, I did not know that the supreme court originally started out with 6 presiding justices. I also had no idea that they shifted the number of justices anywhere between five and ten before finally deciding nine was the right number. I also thought it was interesting that the justices had to make their rounds through the lesser circuit courts before they got rid of that. I think that it would not be as much of an issue today with the tools we have to travel quickly. The fact that only 115 justices have served on the supreme court is also a pretty cool thing to learn. The most important takeaway for me is that the supreme court is there to keep the other branches in check so that no one branch can obtain too much power; which is why we have the system of checks and balances in place. https://www.history.com/topics/us-government/supreme-cou

 Fox News Fox News is the only news channel I will actually sit down and watch on tv and even then I do not really watch it unless Tucker Carlson is on. The reason I like Fox News, more specifically Tucker, is because he is the only one asking the real questions that no one seems to answer and when asked they just get brushed over the shoulder. https://www.foxnews.com/ Social Media I get most of my information from social media; however, I always make sure to look up whatever it is that I see to make sure it is real or not. There is a lot of fake information out there on the internet so one can never truly know if what they see is real or fake unless people take the time to look it up themselves. Especially nowadays with big tech companies censoring the internet. Independent Reporters I also get a decent amount of information from independent reporters that go to the front lines that seek the truth. I watch youtube channels like "Fleccas Talks" or "Benny on the Block&quo

My name is Devin Long. I was born and raised here in Winston-Salem, NC. I am majoring in video game design, but the official name of the major is Interactive Media and Game Design. I enjoy all aspects of the game-making process; i.e. animating, coding, designing, etc. I am currently taking classes that deal with it all. Outside of class, I like to watch movies/tv with friends, travel, play video games, and I enjoy going for a swim during these hot summer days. After HPU I plan to attend a community college and getting a trade degree in the IT industry. This will help advance my career and give me a lot of options to choose from. Ultimately, the goal is to make successful video games, but if that does not work out I will stive have a job working with computers; which is my real passion. I love putting together computers and making them however I like.