Eight Values of Free Speech

Discovery of Truth, Participation in Self Government, Stable Change, Individual Self Fulfillment, Check on Governmental Power, Promote Tolerance, Promote Innovation, and Protect Dissent. These are all of the eight values of free expression. In my opinion I feel that the most valuable is the Protect Dissent. It is a complicated and tricky one to navigate, but it is a crucial one. 

Protect Dissent is the concept that you have to protect the items you don't like in order to protect the ones you do. This concept is almost always applied to speech. In todays America, we see this play out poorly very often. People find that their protected speech is important, but when disagreements arise and the opposing side is revealed, they do not feel it is crucial to protect their speech. Making sure to protect ALL forms of protected speech is crucial to the protection of freedoms in general. By discriminating against certain beliefs within protected speech creates divides and an easy way to further the break down of these rights. 

The Evolution of Technology - Citizen Journalism

Communication technology has evolved rapidly in the last decade. Coming from early cave drawings to cell phones and the World Wide Web is an impressive turnaround for humans, but the last decade has seen unprecedented growth. This has allowed everyday people to become more connected and more involved in how the media is produced and perceived. Tools like cell phones and video cameras have become essential to citizen journalism.

Citizen Journalism is journalism conducted by non-professionals using the internet, social media, websites, and blogs, etc. This blog post you are reading right now is actually citizen journalism! The fluctuation of citizens particpiating in the media has been beneficial to many aspects of the ever changing landscape of the news and media. For one, citizen journalism has become an essential tool for first hand accounts. There are very few events that are not captured on a video camera or cell phone now. This is intact journalism and plays a vital role in professional news outlets today. Another large benefit to citizen journalism is a manner to get information out to the public in countries that have restricted press. Organized press can sometimes be cut off or limited by governments, citizen journalism can be a great tool to get the truth out to the public about a situation.

While this method of journalism has many great benefits it also has its drawbacks. Participants can be harmed during the process of conducting their journalism. Often times people get into war zones or quarantines in order to get footage or details. This is a danger to them and those around them in these scenarios. The validity of news is another concern when regarding citizen journalism. Since the outburst of citizen journalism, the line between real and 'Fake News' has become muddy. It is becoming more and more difficult to tell what is real, what is somewhat real, and what is fake because of the rise of technology and the presence of citizen journalism.

Ted Talks

These Ted Talks were all on the topic of internet security and privacy issues. After watching these I have already made some decisions to change certain aspects of my life regarding privacy. Some of these are simply scary. To think that that my privacy can be so easily exploited and exposed is frightening and causes me to reevaluate how I use the internet.

Privacy is the main issue that is addressed in these Ted Talks. In the context of this class, first amendment topics, there is not much to talk about. However, the personal implications of this topic are tremendous and that is what I will be discussing. The responsibility of our own privacy falls back on ourselves when we are searching for maintaining our privacy. Whenever we sign ourselves up for social media, or virtually anything that involves our personal information we willingly give away our data. Facebook collects and sells tons of people's information for gain, and unfortunately they are not the only company that does this. Cookies that are used on websites are tracking tools. They take data based on the duration and location of where you are on the internet.

It is the sole responsibility of our person to withhold and keep safe the information that should be kept secure. In order to do this an online presence must be kept very limited and responsible practices must be put in place. Always make sure to read terms and services before you agree and never allow cookies to track you on computers.

Disinformation

During class, all of our groups gave presentations on the specified terms that we were assigned. One stuck out to me. It was Ryan Stewart's presentation on disinformation. Disinformation is information that is false, and deliberately created to harm a person, social group, demographic, organization, etc. In an age filled with fear of 'Fake News' and misleading stories, disinformation must be a concerning topic. There are two other topics that Ryan touched on, misinformation and mal-information. Misinformation is information that is false but not created with the intention of creating harm. Mal-information is based in reality but used for the purpose of harming a person, social group, demographic, organization, etc.

In my opinion the scariest of these three is absolutely disinformation. Spreading false information for the sole purpose of harming someone else is terrifying. Government's like the totalitarian regime of Adolf Hitler used forms of propaganda during the Holocaust to kill millions of people. This was indeed a form of disinformation. They spread false information for the purpose of harming a demographic of people. This spread of disinformation is what allowed the Germans to kill so many of the millions that they harmed. 

It is crucial that journalists, the press, and all media outlets make sure to do their best to prevent disinformation from spreading. It can be the cause of severe hurt and tragedy. I feel it is our duty as citizens and supporters of the press and media to hold them to high standards and keep them in check. 

https://en.unesco.org/fightfakenews

My Online Presence

Social media has become more and more prevalent with every passing day. Virtually every person has some sort of social media, may it be Facebook, Instagram, or Snapchat. There are even professional forms of social media such as LinkedIn that aid as a business form of communication and connection keeping. Regardless of type, social media is almost unavoidable in today's world. This can be both beneficial and a hindrance. Employers now check social media even prior to the interview process in order to slim down the candidate pool. This just one of the examples of how social media is drastically changing the world and people's lives in possibly negative ways.

With the concern of the harmful possibilities of social media that I learned about in this class, I looked at my social media. After browsing through my social media, I have not found any glaring issues with my social media pages. I have Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. None of them have any sensitive or controversial information on them. Even though I do feel that my content would be admissible by an employer, I have done parent check, I have been contemplating deleting Instagram and Twitter for personal security and privacy reasons. This class has opened my eyes to the dangers of Internet use especially with personal information.

Roger's Diffusion of Innovations - Smart Homes

When you see a bell curve, often times you have horrific flashbacks to high school statistics class. You think of math, science, economics and really everything else before communications and media technology. However one of the prevalent theories within communications studies uses bell uses bell curves and can actually be applied to many fields, but communications first. Roger's Diffusion of Innovations or Ideas was published in 1962, making it one of the oldest communications theories. The purpose of the theory is to explain how ideas or products diffuse or become more popular overtime. The theory states that during this time period there is a gradual growth which results in the adoption of an idea, behavior, or product. 

This product has been very prevalent in homes since the introduction of AI or Artificial Intelligence. Since being introduced into the marketplace AI has stormed many forms of technology. It is found in phones, laptops, fridges, vacuums, and now smart homes. Essentially they are in home assistants that aid with anything from planning a schedule to playing music in the house, all hands free. This product is very convent and makes some simple tasks of life much easier. This is why the initial product caught on. It was advertised as a life changing and time saving device that is useful for everything in situations you will deal with everyday. This reigns true today and is a reason as to why people have become early adopters and now the early majority. Many homes, apartments, and college dorms have them because they are fun, useful, and cost effective. This easily allows people to make the choice to purchase. 

There are some negatives to technology like this but also this specific application of it. It has been widely documented that these devices give people somewhat easy access into homes. There has been security scares with people who have these devices. Incidents of people hacking these devices have been documented and make many people very uneasy. I am not sure where the saturation point will occur with these devices because I have personally seen them in homes of many demographics - ages and races specifically. 

http://sphweb.bumc.bu.edu/otlt/MPH-Modules/SB/BehavioralChangeTheories/BehavioralChangeTheories4.html

Beto O'Rourke says he would take away Tax Exemptions from Religious Organizations that Oppose Same Sex Marriage

Beto O’Rourke is making large headlines today due to a statement made at a Q&A. During an event hosted by the Human Rights Campaign, the country’s largest LGBTQ equality advocates, O’Rourke answered yes when asked if religious institutions such as schools, churches, or charities should lose their tax-exempt status if they oppose same-sex marriage. 

O’Rourke said, “There can be no reward, no benefit, no tax break for anyone or any institution, any organization in America that denies the full human rights and the full civil rights of every single one of us… And so as president, we're going to make that a priority and we are going to stop those who are infringing upon the human rights of our fellow Americans.”

He gets into an interesting topic here, that honestly I am not well enough versed in law and First Amendment issues to give an answer on. However, it raises the question in my head. At what point does it become an infringement on the rights of religious organizations? At what point do the religious groups overstep their boundaries? These questions are very interesting, especially with the three cases going to the Supreme Court currently. Three members of the LGBTQ community are bringing cases to court claiming their rights have been violated under the Civil Rights Act of 1964. At what point do the individual rights to expression and religion meet, and how do these co-exist? They are two conflicting issues in some cases and will be tough to navigate. 

Jeffery Cook - October 11th, 2019

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/beto-orourke-revoke-tax-exempt-status-religious-organizations/story?id=66213718&cid=clicksource_4380645_null_icymi_hed