Citizen Journalism: By the People for the People

I want to put up some quick thoughts about journalism. The internet is an amazing thing and it is revolutionizing nearly every aspect of our world. Journalism is definitely at the center of that revolution and over the past years there have been considerable growing pains associated with all of it. Tradition media and news sources have been rocked by all of these changes. I am going to discuss just one of the new frontiers that has emerged because of the new technology, citizen journalism.

The basis for citizen journalism is that it is news created by the normal citizens. People that are not trained professionally in journalism but still make efforts to report on events in their area or give opinion on what is happening in their nation. This has appeared as an economical way of presenting news especially on a local level. Since many news corporations are feeling the money pinch(newspapers taking the major hit) that has come with free media available online, they have cut news that does not appeal to a wide audience. Essentially they are eliminating unprofitable news in hopes of staying alive and in the black. So citizen journalism as stepped in to fill these gaps, or at least says that is doing that.

Citizen are able to become journalists themselves because the amount and effort required to be published has be reduced to almost zero by the internet and other tools. Virtually everyone as a digital camera of some sort, whether on their cell phone or in their purse. So when news 'breaks' they can just take a picture and upload it instantly to the internet. So when a mysterious missile appears in the sky off of the California coast, why wait for the mainstream media to tell you what it is? Just snap a photo and put your own conspiracy theories online via Twitter.

The digital tools that make this possible are endless.
-Facebook-
-Twitter-
-Blogs-
-Comments-(when you comment on anything online you participate in journalism)

So at the core of citizen journalism is the conversation that goes on about the current topics. Instead of listening to everything that someone tells you is important you decide what is and then write about it. It is the dream come true of every America. We have long since thought that we control our own destinies, now we even control the media because we are the media. Its perfect, right? Maybe, maybe not.

There are definitely things that are lost without professional journalism. Citizens just do not have the same resources that a professional journalist would have. A citizen based news group cannot travel to other countries and cover news there and I don't think that we can replicate the quality of news that professionals produce. At the same time I think that professionals often overlook opinions of the people and focus too much on making money. There definitely needs to be a healthy balance between the two. It is just going to take some time to get there.

More opinion:
Leaning more in favor of citizen journalism
Leaning more in favor of professional journalism

Media Influence, The Fourth Branch of Government

The mass media's influence on America is huge. We live through media in one shape or another. We grow up on it and whether we trust it or not we are greatly affected by what is said in the media. From the time we are little the media that we watch colors our lives. I grew up on Disney movies and anything that Harrison Ford played in; I listened to NPR on the weekends with my dad and to talk radio in the mornings on the way to school with my mom. I had most songs by Cat Stevens, The Beatles, The Eagles, Bob Dylan, James Taylor and John Denver memorized by the time I was ten and I enjoyed reading Calvin and Hobbes comics. My opinions were greatly shaped by the media I took in and by the media I continue to ingest. Pandora Radio and Google News feeds direct much of my media consumption today.

I want to take a step back and make some brief observations on how media affects politics. I would say that media is the unofficial fourth branch of government. There are a branch of government in that they provide a huge check on what the government does. They do not check the other branches directly but they scrutinize almost everything that the government does and then report that to the people. Government officials are always worried about what their 'public image' is and many of their actions are dictated by how the media will interpret those actions to the public. Will it help them win approval and reelection? Or will is reveal all of the scandals they have been involved with over the years (Bill Clinton?).

This can be a too-edged sword. It can keep government official accountable for what they do but it can also cause them to become so engrossed in what their image is that they fail to do their real job or to keep the nation's best interests at the fore front of their minds. They are under a huge microscope 24/7. I do not envy them in the least.

The media also has great influence on the government because it has a great influence on what the public is interested in. Lets take the legal drinking age in the states. Did you know that every individual state has the right to establish its own legal drinking age? Then why is it that all of the states have uniformly adopted a minimum drinking age of 21? Long story short they were many studies in the late '70s and early '80s that showed an increase in auto accidents in states with lower drinking ages. Much of the public became interested in establishing a uniform drinking age in order to cut back on alcohol related accidents. The media reflected this sentiment and the government to notice. They passed the Uniform Drinking Age Act that restricted federal funds to states that had a minimum drinking age lower that 21. They couldn't actually mandate a uniform drinking age but they felt the pressure from the media and did the only thing they could do, they withheld money from the states that would not conform. And you all know that it worked.

This aspect of the media can also be good and bad. It can help focus the people on the issues that are most important but it can also distract people from the actual important issues. I would consider media that follows celebrities to be a huge distraction.

Some people say that mass media is all really just a conspiracy and that it is run by the 'man' but I would say that media, when used correctly, is a huge benefit to our society. It is up to us to decide what we will watch.

Medical Advances

So the past century has been characterized by huge advances i technology in every imaginable field. I would like to take a different approach to the discussion of how technology has affected our society. I am going to share my own story and how medical technology has affected me personally.

So the Sunday before I was going to start my sophomore year in high school I got out of the shower and I passed out on the bathroom floor. I had passed out before but this time was very unexpected. My mom freaked out when my dad found me on the bathroom floor. I didn't really understand what was going on and the only thing that I was really focused on was the growing pain in my neck and head from colliding with the wall. My mom took the initiative to take me to the hospital which I did not think was necessary but ended up being the right decision.

At the hospital they ran various tests and the one that ended up being the most intriguing was the EKG. The test turned up an irregular electrical pathway in my heart, a condition called Wolff-Parkinson-White. I will not go into to much detail but this visual represents something of what the doctor would have seen when he looked at my EKG in the hospital.

So the next year of my life was spent trying to figure out how serious my condition is. The effects of the disorder differ greatly between people and the doctors were (and still are) unsure if my passing out in the bathroom was related to this condition. I spent a couple days wearing around a portable heart monitor called a Holter monitor to monitor my heart over the course of a full day. (example on left) The information that they received from these tests was apparently not enough to make any final decisions about what they should do with me so we scheduled heart catheter surgery for that March and got ready for that.

So a couple days before surgery I went to the hospital and they ran more test one of which was the echocardiogram which I thought was really interesting and fun, mostly because I could see my heart in live action on the screen. I think that most people are familiar with ultrasounds that are performed on pregnant woman so that they can see if the baby is healthy. An echocariogram uses the same technology to map out the heart. It was really sweet.

The plan for the surgery was then set that they would go up through the veins in my legs using a catheter. They would then induce my heart into an irregular rhythm and then see if they could ablate the region of my heart that is responsible for my problem to remove the irregular beat.

The day of surgery came and I was at the hospital for over 24 hours but I was able to go home early the next morning. (Pretty incredible for having heart surgery!) I was in surgery for about 8-10 hours and the medication they gave me kept me out of commission for about a week. They were not able to solve my irregular heart beat but they did found out that I am low risk for any further problems and that I can live my life normally. I share my story because it highlights many of the medical advances that affect everyone's daily lives. How many people do you know that have had some form of catheter surgery? I bet you know someone who is a ultrasound technician. More importantly, do you know someone whose life was saved because of technologies similar to these ones?

Reflection #2

Historical Content:
- I have made improvements on researching the historical topics and time periods that we are studying. I am incorporating more informations from the periods and it has helped me understand better our discussions in class. (ex1, ex2)
- I still need to improve on reading material that is not on the internet. I have been reading A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court and I can see many correlations in that book to social issues we discuss in our class but I need to bring in more printed information.

Computing and Digital Culture:
- I understand all of the computing concepts that we have gone over. The only one that I did not fully understand was the difference between problems that are computable and those that are not but after Dr. Zappala's explanation in class I was able to grasp the concept much better.
- I am using lots of interesting digital tools that are helping me but I need to do a better job at reporting them. I have reported a few but not all of the ones that I am using. (ex) I have learned to use Google Reader, widgets on my blog, search engines other than Google, and various other ones.

Self Directed Learning:
- I think this is the area that I have improved the most on over the past months. I have really improved my reading and scanning skills so that I can process information faster. I also have made more effort to follow what other people are looking at online (mostly through Diigo) which has helped me find meaningful information faster without having to sift through a ton of material. I have found especially helpful Connexions and other similar education websites.
- I have also learned much more by asking people outside of class about the historical topics we cover. I am able to accomplish much of this through Facebook and email.

Keep Running!

Historic Content:
- Posts show an increased focus on historical content. Trending to more focus on historical content.
- Sometimes blogs only reflect historical readings that have been assigned. Might want to incorporate different sources and ideas.
- The post about the atomic age was really good about bringing in historical content from many different sources. I liked the list of movies.

Computing Concepts & Digital Culture
- Reports well on new digital tools used.(example) Would be beneficial to incorporate some of those tools into the blog. Not possible to do with all of them but some could be.
- Great job connecting with people in the class. Most posts reflect a 'conversation' with other people in the class.   Good job also with bringing in people outside of the class.(example)

Self-Directed Learning:
- Makes good connections with other material other than that covered in class. I like the post about LeBron James and how it was related to Adam Smith.
- I like how the thought process that lead up to many ideas is show. Shows the learning process.(example)

Random Stuffs:
- I like the digital tools are presented in the context that they were learned in. Gives good example of how the tools can be used and applied.
- Might consider switching up the post format more. Continuous paragraphs become monotonous.

McCarthyism: Past, Present, or Future?

So to start off a quick explanation of what McCarthyism is and when it happened.

During the Cold War there was a period of time called the Red Scare. It was a time charaterized by a wide spread of fear of communism in the Untied States. Many people were afraid that communism would take root in the United States and end the democracy that many of them supported and loved. They were afraid that communist already in the United States would use nefarious means to over throw the existing government. This fear was not necessarily inspired by any single group but was definitely fueled by many groups with in the States.

So during this period Joe McCarthy was elected to the senate. He then went on a crusade to 'exterminate' communists from the government and from prominent positions in the American public. Not all of his actions were what we would call today 'constitutionally legal' but many people went along with the witch hunt supposing it to be a necessary evil. Eventually people did come to realize that what McCarthy was doing was, to say the least, too extreme. Not everyone went right along with McCarthy though and there were many good people whose opposition put an end to his actions. Edward R. Murrow was one of those individuals. He was a famous journalist and used his influence to expose many of the inconsistencies in McCarthy's actions.
    Good Movies about this era:  The Majestic, Good Night and Good Luck

So I was thinking about this time period and I was wondering whether there were any other times like McCarthyism. I made a quick list.

The Inquisition
Robespierre and the Reign of Terror
Salem Witch Trials
Japanese Internment Camps
Arrest of Kevin Mitnick

There are many more but I am sure that you get the idea. So the next question is whether this still goes on today. I can think of many things that might fall into this categories but I will be the first to admit that they are mostly my opinion.

The real thing that we need to do as citizens is to pay attention to the things that are going on and decide for ourselves what is right and wrong. Even more than that we own it to our fellowmen to protect them if they are placed in that situation. So its up to you; is water-boarding justifiable?

PS Read 1984.

Why Politicians would make Horrible Parents

So lets talk politics. Better yet lets talk politicians. My favorite that relates these two words came from my neighbor Mike that I grew up next to. He explained the word politics very easily. The first part of the word poli (poly) means many and the second part of the word tics (ticks), which we all know are small blood sucking creatures. So politics simply means many bloodsucking creatures. Of course all of this is a little exaggerated and I am not trying to say that politicians survive by sucking the life out of their hosts but you can make your own decision on that.

So later on in life I was talking to one of my friends who is actually a politician herself. She lives in a town in Central Jersey and serves in city government. We were driving along one day and I mentioned to her a little bit about my friends joke which sparked a very interesting conversation about politics. We discussed many thing and some where along the way I asked the question what a politician's job really is. Her answer was simple and informative. She said that a politician only has to do one thing. All they have to do is be reelected. That is the primary job of a politician to make sure that they are in favor with the public so that they are reelected when their position is put up for grabs.

So what do you think that implies? My most optimistic side hopes that means that politicians do what is in the best interests of the people they serve and that the people then recognize their efforts and reelect them. Unfortunately, I am sure that you can come up with just as many less-than-ideal scenarios as I can as to how this mentality could be abused. So what does this all really mean? It means that a politician can never be the bad guy.

For all of you that have seen the movie The Dark Knight this is a perfect tie in to that point. Why was Batman the best hero for Gotham? It was because he wasn't the hero, he was the bad guy. He did what would be best for the city by taking the blame for everything. He was not the knight in shining armor. He wasn't given an award with Han Solo by Princess Leia in the closing credits. He was the bad guy. He was the dark knight.

He is a quick practical example of how politicians repeatedly fail to take on that role. Fiscal policy in government is highly influenced by Keynesian economics. This school of thinking states that government using deficit spending to stimulate the economy during times of economic down turns and that during times of economic boom the government increases taxes to pay back the debt that they incurred and create a surplus for the next down cycle. It is a little more complicated than that should suffice for the discussion. We have all seen this happen. The government spends money and gives out money to help during economic distress. But how many of us have ever heard a politician use the phrase 'we are going to raise taxes to pay off our debt and took make sure that the slump that is right around the corner is avoided'?  No one hears that because it would make the politicians the bad guys and that is a situation they cannot afford to be in or else they would be facing an 'economic slump' personally.

Now to jump topics briefly. So what makes good parents good at parenting? There are many things but I would say that one of them is that they are great at being the bad guy and in the long run it helps their kids. I never wanted to have a curfew when I was in high school  but I did have one because my dad was really good at being the bad guy. Now that I look back on it I am really grateful that he had the guts to be the bad guy. Was I grateful then? No, and I probably complained more than I choose to remember. Our parents did things that were not popular with us as kids, but they did it to help us out.

So to wrap everything up, the reason that politicians would be horrible parents is because they cannot be the bad guy. They just sit on your skin and get what they want.

Interview Q's for Class Documentary

So Jake, Maggie, and I are working together to make a documentary about the experience of the students in the Digital Civilizations class. We are going to focus most of the short film on interviews with people. So in this post I am going to put up a tentative list of questions to ask. We NEED feed back on this. Please add more questions that you think would be good to ask or comment on questions that you think would unnecessary, redundant, or in any other way just not good questions.

Questions to Ask Students:
What did you think after the first day of class?
Prior to attending the first day of class, what where your expectations?
How is this different than a normal history class?
What was the hardest thing about this class?
What has been the most useful thing you have learned?
How did you personally fufill the learning outcomes and Consume, Create, Connect?
What digital tools did you use doing the class?
What was your favorite historical content from the class?
How did you take control of your own learning?
How was keeping a blog?
       Had you done it before?
       What did you learn about blogging?
What did you find most valuable in this class?

Questions for the Professors:
What were your expectations at the onset of the course?
How did you come up with the idea?
What are your individual backgrounds?
What do you hope the students will take from this class?
What challenges did you see the students face?
What good stuff did you see the students accomplish?
What would you change if you were to do it again?
What did you learn?

These questions are meant to give an overview of the class and to help someone outside of the class see the benefits of this class. There can also be more questions that deal with the draw backs of the class but the documentary is not supposed to be a review of the class. It is meant to draw people into what we all experienced.

Thanks

Panoramic Pics

So I just wanted to put up a quick thing on a neat tool that I found the other day. Its a tool to make panoramic pictures from a series of digital shots.

I really enjoy hiking and I usually bring my camera along with me. The only thing that frustrates me about taking pictures of hikes is that I can never really capture the scenery around me. I think that it should be that way and that is one of the reasons I continue to hike because you can't get the full experience just from the pictures, but I have been looking for some way to make panoramic photos from some of the pictures that I have taken.

So I searched the web to find some type of free software to do that and this is what I found:
Panoramic Plus Starter Edition
It is free software provided by Serif. It is mainly free so that you will buy the better edition. This video is for the newest edition. The starter edition does not have this many features but it does have the same basic set up.


I shared in class how the starter edition works. It walks you through everything which is nice.
Here are some pictures that I stitched together:

The Abacus

So I am pretty sure that most of us have used or at least seen an abacus before. I had one when I was growing up and I mostly just played with it. I don't think that I even tried to make any type of calculations on it. I just used it as an imaginary prison for my little brothers or a futuristic weapon of my imagination or one of many more variations that I could come up with.

Recently the discussion we had about computing in my history class went way over my head. We were talking about Turing machines and whether problems are computable or not. I had been doing a little bit of reasearch before class and I even went to one of my friends who is a math major but none of that really seemed to help me get my mind around the concepts. Talking about it in class did help me understand the general concepts a little better but I decided that I needed to get a better foundation to be able to understand.

So that is when I thought back to the abacus. The abacus as we know it today actually originated in Asia around 1200 AD. There were many precursors to this device the first one around 2700 BC in Mesopotamia. That device was based off of a sexagesimal number system. It uses 60 as a base number as opposed to our decimal system which uses 10 as a base number. These devices aided in calculating large numbers. All though they do not compare to modern computers and calculators they helped dramatically in simple arithmetic operations.

So after I looked up some of the history of the abacus I decided that this my chance to learn how to actually use an abacus for it's intended purpose. I found this great site that explains fairly clearly how they work. It is very simple and can accomplish some very cool things. Also, check out this video


So I learned a little more about primitive computing. Maybe this is what my parents had wanted me to learn when I was a little kid. Well I guess better late than never and I think my childhood use of this intrument was probably a little more entertaining.

From Philosophy to Psychology

Psychology ids the study of the human mind and behavior and even though psychology as we know it today has not always existed the study of the mind and behavior can be traced back to many ancient civilizations and especially to the writings of the ancient Greeks. Their writings are typically thought of as philosophy but really modern day psychology is based off of philosophy. So what is the difference between the two? It is the use of empirical data. The shift form thinking about human behavior and the human mind to the actual use of empirical means to study it marks the creation of modern psychology as we know it today.

So who is the first historical person that comes to your mind when you think of psychology? I think that most would probably say Sigmund Freud; which is a perfectly fine answer. I think that most people bring him up because he had some crazy ideas that are way out in left field. I will come back to why I think he was important but first I would like to draw some attention to Wilhelm Wundt.

Wilhelm Wundt was the first person to set up a experimental laboratory in psychology. He was the man who applied the scientific method to psychology. He ran experiments that focused mainly on the conscious experiences of people and many of the modern psychological fields sprang from his research. He used introspection and asked people how certain stimuli made them feel. He recorded his observations and provided a model of testing for others to follow him.

This is a great timeline of some of the major events in psychology and this gives a great description of a few of the key players in its early development.

So now back to Sigmund Freud. What was his greatest contribution? He was the first to try to apply what had been learned in the field of psychology to help people with mental disorders. He might have been wrong about many things but he got us going.