Media Law and Literacy

On April 10, 2019 around 10:20 a.m a gas leak turned into a  deadly gas explosion in my hometown, Durham North Carolina. When I was sitting in class at High Point University, I got a text from my bother who is a police officer, with the link to a live feed. I was stunned and scared with what I was watching on the news. I watched the live stream through my entire class and was texting all of my friends that were in Durham making sure they were safe.  The location where the explosion occurred was in Downtown Durham, a block down from my place of work. My coworkers were immediately evacuated for the day. When I got on the phone with the manager there, she told me it sounded and felt like a plane had crashed into the building. The sky was filled with black smoke and alarms were going off everywhere. The nearby businesses all had windows blown in because of the impact. It was terrifying for everyone around the block. A Durham Public School is on the same block that the ...

During my Media Law and Literacy class, we were split into groups and tasked to give a presentation on different topics. I found the group that presented on the topic of Awareness to be incredibly informative, and interesting. The topics they covered in their Power Point were propaganda, disinformation, Smith-Mundt Act, total information awareness, false flag, and five eyes. Some of these topics I was familiar with, and some were new information to me. Propaganda: Propaganda is biased information to publicize a political cause or point of view. All advertisements that are being used to promote something are considered to be propaganda. There are a few different types of propaganda. There is bandwagon, testimonial, transfer, repetition, and emotional words. Bandwagon persuades people to do one thing or another because many other people are doing it. Testimonial is when words of a famous or popular figure are being used to promote a thought or idea. Transfer is linking a prod...

What is MSM, or Mainstream Media? "The mainstream media refers to conventional newspapers, television and other news sources that most people know about regard as reliable." (Collins English Dictionary) A few examples of MSM are ABC,  NBC, CNN, and Fox News. MSM is radio, television, and newspaper. Mainstream media has a strong influence because it is able to reach so many people. It is good that people are able to all receive the same news in an almost immediate way, but some news sources can present information with a bias. This can be confusing if two popular MSM sources are spreading information with different biases. What is Alternative Media? Alternative media is news sources that are everything MSM ( Mainstream Media ) is not. Alternative media cites are smaller websites, news casts, or journals that capture what MSM puts out, and makes it their own. From what I read, a lot of these alternative media sources try to prove what the big time news source...

I remember when I was in 5th grade, I finally was allowed to create a Facebook page, so I went over to my friends house and we spent hours on the computer looking at Facebook, creating our first online profiles, and adding tons of pictures and information about ourselves. As a middle school student, having social media was like... the coolest thing ever. Now that I have grown up, and began my college carer, I have learned all of the dangers that come along with having an online, social media presence. I have all of the popular social medias, including Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, and a newer social media called VSCO. I use Snapchat the most, and Instagram probably a similar amount. I am very active on my Instagram account and find joy in updating my followers on what I am doing through pictures. I also use snapchat to stay in contact with my friends, and even people I do not know as well. Snapchat or "snap" is one of the more personal social medias where you ca...

Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are all examples of social media sites that are sweeping the nation. These apps are starting to bring in more and more young people, and generating more early adaptors. It seems as if more and more young students are using smart phones and tablets, allowing them to be apart of the social media world. We live in a time period that we have both early adaptors and laggers who want nothing to do with social media. The world is heavily saturated with using social media, though there are still some people who do not want to have their lives put online. Social media has had a huge impact on the way we are able to communicate with people whom we are close with, and old friends that we have not seen since high school. Many use apps such as facebook even as a way to sell things they have in their homes that they do not want anymore. They have also made communication more instant. It take no more than 30 seconds to send a tweet out, about an event ...

After great discussion over the Eight Values of Free expression, my peer, Danielle, and I both agree that John Miltons Discovery of Truth, or Market place of Ideas was the most important value of free expression. The concept is associated with the idea of free speech. John Milton's argument was against having a license to publish or print. If Americans were required to have a license to print or publish, every article we read, or website we visited would read exactly the same, due to only one kind of person having the ability to write or publish. The six clauses of the first amendment are supported by this idea of marketplace of ideas because it allows all citizens to speak and express themselves freely. If its through writing a blog online, or going to a religious event, its connected to the big idea of Milton's Discovery of Truth. Even this simple blog post is a product of Marketplace of Ideas. In today's society, social media has become increasingly popular. Everyone...