Privacy Issues In A Digital World

With the revolution of the Internet and communication in general, issues about privacy continue to rise. Although the Internet is basically an information haven, the growing concern is that a lot of people's personal information is being seen by others on the Internet. From social networking sites to sites that advertise to gain more consumers, certain information that people think that some individuals are seeing may actually be seen by almost everyone, especially when dealing with websites such as Facebook. Here's some feedback on how this comes about.

In December, when Facebook made changes to its website, most users of the website opted to use the recommended settings without really understanding that they gave
Facebook the right to publicize private information such as status updates, photos, and shared links. The best suggestion to keep things such as status updates and photos private, each Facebook user should go to the privacy settings and change each privacy option to "only friends". If they don't, then any stranger can see what's on that person's profile page.

Another problem with Facebook in terms of privacy is that a person's profile can show up in search engines such as Google if the privacy settings aren't set correctly. On Facebook, if the search settings are set to "allow", any information marked as visible to "everyone" would be able to find your profile by typing it into the Google search engine. A friend warned me about this a couple of months ago. So, I typed my name in the Google search engine, and sure enough, my profile picture came up, along with other information. That made me wonder who could have been viewing my profile without me knowing? After I saw this, I immediately changed all of my settings on Facebook so that only my friends on the website can view my profile.



Everyone should take the time the change the privacy settings so that future employers won't see inappropriate photos of them at a bar or one of their friends posting something naughty on their wall. Employers do check to see how their potential employers are outside of work, so it's better to be safe than sorry. For more on this issue, look at the following video:



In terms of information on the Internet, sometimes it is openly requested online when we fill out online forms for certain websites. Online websites and advertisers know information about people because of cookies, which are little text files created
on your computer that contain information left there by the websites they visited. The problem with this is that most web users don't understand privacy policies even when they are clearly noted.

This is because privacy policies aren't "preserving privacy at all", according to Marc Rotenberg of Electronic Privacy Information Center. He thinks that "businesses are wrong to post a privacy policy and then believe that it provides a basis for them to disclose the information of others". The Federal Trade Commission favored industry self-regulation, which requires disclosure of information, but not banning the collection of personal data from visitors to websites, despite the fact that Internet users don't want their personal information collected. The following video
has more information on this issue:



Everyone has the right to their privacy. This should go for the Internet as well. No one wants people to know everything about them. This problem has to be fixed soon or we may not be able to keep much personal information secure much longer in the future.

Information used in this blog can be found at the following links:

"The 3 Facebook Settinfs Every User Should Check Now", Sarah Perez, N.Y. Times, January 20, 2010.
http://www.nytimes.com/external/readwriteweb/2010/01/20/20readwriteweb-the-3-facebook-settings-every-user-should-c-29287.html?em

"Internet Users Raise Privacy Concerns", Art Chimes, VOA News, April 29, 2008.
http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/science-technology/a-13-2008-04-29-voa44.html

Videos found at the following links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cjq1LZ9-QM0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9
wgAsFoYLys

Images found at the following websites:
Google Image
http://www.treehugger.com/google-logo-mountainview-01.jpg
Facebook Image
http://www.esquire.com/cm/esquire/images/facebook-logo-0309-lg-59377844.jpg

The Future of Television

With the convergence of television going digital, and the rising costs of cable television, people are starting to use a different alternative to watching their favorite shows, without paying an arm and a leg for cable. Now, people are starting to use the Internet to watch their favorite programs. With sites such as www.hulu.com, people turning to the Internet to watch their favorite program just got much easier.

Before I go into specific details about the future of television, I'll first talk about the "Five Cs of the Post-Network Era, by Amanda Lotz from her book, "The Television Will Be Revolutionized". The five Cs are choice, control, convenience, customization, and community. Lotz explains that choice and control deal with the expectations and adjusted use of networks on television. Convenience and customization resulted from choice and control after network-era norms "eroded and conventions of the multi-channel transition started to dominate". Lotz also explained what Beth Comstock, president of digital media and market development at NBC Universal, said about community. Comstock mentioned that "in the digital age, community is all about gathering people with shared interests and giving them a platform to interact with each other, to engage in relevant content and to create something new".

That last point made by Comstock on community is very true. Blog sites and social networking sites enable what is called "water-cooler" conversation about certain television shows or live events on television. One good example of this would be during the MTV Video Music Awards when Kanye West took the microphone from Taylor Swift during the acceptance of an award she received. This was definitely the hottest topic on Twitter and Facebook. I was involved in this "water-cooler" conversation too because I was debating with many people on Facebook about how West shouldn't have gone on stage to interrupt Taylor Swift the way he did. This shows that television and the Internet work together positively because people can watch shows live, and react with others online about what's going on. Also, people who aren't watching something on television can look on Facebook or Twitter and see that something significant happened during a certain program, and that may prompt them to watch that program.



Most television executives see the Internet as another means of television as a good thing, and not as a big threat. Leslie Moonves, chief executive of the CBS Corporation, says that "The Internet is our friend, not our enemy." He also mentions that "people want to be attached to each other", relating to the water-cooler effect. Maureen Huff, spokeswoman for Time Warner Cable, says that "we don't consider it a threat to our business". It may not seem like a major threat now, but if the cost of cable and satelitte television continues to rise, will it eventually be a threat in the future?

Of course, everyone wants to know what television would be like in the next 10 years. I believe that television and the Internet will be able to interact together completely. I think that people will not only be able to watch programs on their television set, but they may be able to surf the web and interact with people around the world on their television as well. Here's a video that will help to explain this:



Information used in this blog can be found at the following links:

Changing Channels, From Cable to the Web, Douglas Quenqua, N. T. Times, 10 March 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/11/garden/11tv.html?scp=14&sq=web%20television&st=cse

Water-Cooler Effect: Internet Can Be TV's Friend, Brian Stelter, N.Y. Times, February 23, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/24/business/media/24cooler.html?partner=rss&emc=rss


Images taken from the following websites:

Family Guy photo:
http://www.hulu.com/family-guy

Kanye West and Taylor Swift MTV VMAs photo:
http://www.mtv.co.uk/files/imagecache/gallery_wide/2009/09/14/kanye_west_taylor_swift_getty16951150.jpg

Journalism, Blogging and New Media

Journalism is definitely changing daily, especially since traditional media such as TV, newspapers, and magazines are on the decline. So, what's taking the place of traditional media? Why, what else.....the Internet. The Internet has become the new form of journalism, from daily newspapers posting news online, to citizen journalists posting videos or blogs about a new topic.

First, I'm going to talk about citizen journalism. Citizen journalists are basically private individuals that report information like professional reporters do. Their work includes pictures, video and/or audio. They can have information by writing a blog, or by posting a podcast. More information on citizen journalism can be found at the following link and on the following video:

http://journalism.about.com/od/citizenjournalism/a/whatiscitizen.htm



Many people believe that the Internet is hurting journalism. In The Atlantic article titled, "Media Insiders Say Internet Hurts Journalism", Cyra Master reported from a survey from The Atlantic and National Journal that "about 65% of people say that Internet is hurting journalism more than it's helpling", while only 34% of people say that the Internet "helps more". Master aslo points out that the Internet "offers benefits", but the cost of traditional media and news gathering is "too high". An example of this would be the fact that the N. Y. Times has published stories free on Kindle to cut back production of printed dailies because of the high costs. Master also explains that one other benefit is that the Internet has a "widened circle of those participating in a national debate". But, she also points out that the Internet has also "blurred the line between opinion and fact" as well. One last point that Master made was that the Internet "trains readers to consume news in smaller bites", which is bad for magazines and newspapers.

Another issue is that network news sources are also on the decline. Now, with the rise of such shows as "The Daily Show", people are beginning to trust sources like these more than traditional news sources.

Of course, there are those that believe that the Internet is better than the traditional media. In the online article, "How Will Journalism Survive the Internet Age?", President of Media at Thomson Reuters Chris Ahearn noted that "journalism will survive and thrive in the Internet age because of new technologies, retool production and distribution strategies". Ahearn also notes that dominant search engines are "the salvation of journalism". Finally, he sees a platform that "applies consistent metadata to create 'intelligent' information designed to help publishers and broadcasters better manage their own and 3rd party content".

Of course this issue relates to the Long Tail and the Internet as a democratizing tool in several ways. Everyone has an equal opportunity to report or talk about certain issues whenever they want through many different sources, such as a posted video blog on YouTube, a written blog on Blogger, or recording an actual political event in Washington, D.C. and posting it on the Internet. This is very beneficial because now people can keep other people informed instead of reporters always keeping others informed. Also, this issue relates to the Long Tail because media contiues to evolve. Now that traditional media is on the decline, these sources are now turning to the Internet to help them survive. An example would be how the Ann Arbor journal continuously updates its stories online daily. Other dailies and magazines are also doing this on their websites as well.

Well, the question is "What will journalism and news look like 10 years from now?"
There are several suggestions to that. One would be that companies such as Google, YouTube, Facebook, and Wikipedia will be joined by powerful companies to let people find information they want when they want it. Also, interactive touchscreens may be built into everyday work surfaces, which will allow people to share news and information in an easier way. Here's an image of what this may look like:



More ideas on what journalism will be like in the future can be found at the following site:

http://www.fastcompany.com/article/news-flash-future?page=0%2C0&partner=homepage_newsletter



Information in this blog can be found at the following sites:
http://blogs.reuters.com/from-reuterscom/2009/12/11/how-will-journalism-survive-the-internet-age/

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2009/04/media-insiders-say-internet-hurts-journalism/7410/

Video found at the following website:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58iZpMRclwI

Photos found from the following site:
http://www.fastcompany.com/article/news-flash-future?page=0%2C1&partner=homepage_newsletter