Questions for “Can Blogs Revolutionize Progressive Politics?”

1.      Why do the Democratic leaders embrace blogging as a potential political communication considering the traditional media landscape in politics?

Young people tend to vote more for democrats and also tend to adopt new technology more readily than their older counterparts.

2.      Blogging encourages a participatory culture. In what way does the participatory culture in blogging expand digital media convergence?

Participatory culture in itself expands digital media convergence by turning digital media into an auditory experience.

3.      In the article, the author says: “The ability of the Internet to erase geographical distances can become a structural weakness in elections where district lines and eligibility are key.” How can blogging counter this weakness in the process of turning the netroots to grassroots?

With the use of blogging, politically active people can encourage change not only in their own voting district, but in others as well. Television and radio do this to a degree as well, but only on a corporate scale. Blogging allows anyone with enough knowledge and time to become politically influential.

4.      The author spends the second half of the article discussing the lack of diversity in current blogosphere dominated by elite bloggers. Please use the concept of digital convergence to explain how blogs can become the real bearer of freedom, democracy, egalitarianism, and participation in the new media communication?

Blogs allow anyone to rise to the top and become an “elite” blogger with enough hard work. People are often found on the internet (twitter, blogs, etc.) and given writing jobs with little-to-no experience other than what they write in their blogs. Influential people have started blogs and almost instantly become the “blogging elite,” but others have started from nothing and raised themselves to the same level with their own hard work. If anyone can become influential due to blogging that leads to the idea that blogs can become the bastion of freedom, democracy, and egalitarianism.

The Keystone Pipeline Debate

The Keystone Pipeline is a planned pipeline system that will bring crude oil from the Alberta Tar Sands to refineries on the Gulf Coast. While there has been much debate about the environmental effects of the pipeline and much discourse about its implementation, the facts show that the alternatives could be even more detrimental to the environment. 

Some people believe that we should not exploit the Alberta Tar Sands at all; that extracting the oil itself would be environmentally dangerous and would set us back in the development of new energy resources that could eventually replace fossil fuels. There are two problems with this argument; one is that we have yet to develop these new technologies and the infrastructure to deliver them to the people.  We still currently depend on fossil fuels for everything from driving our cars to fertilizing our fields, and we are much better off getting our fossil fuels from Canada than from the tumultuous Middle East. The other problem with that argument is that stopping the pipeline will not stop the exploitation of the Alberta Tar Sands, it will only change the way the crude oil is being shipped. 

Others believe that oil pipelines are too dangerous and that running them through the United States creates too large of an environmental risk. The problem with this argument is that we already have many oil pipelines crisscrossing the United States. Another problem with this view is that if we do not use an oil pipeline to ship the Crude from Alberta to the Gulf Coast then the rail system will be utilized. Shipping the crude by rail presents the same environmental concerns as shipping by pipeline, but since rail shipping of crude has only recently become so utilized, the contingencies for major disasters are far fewer than those set in place for pipelines. While it is true that there have been less oil spills due to trains than pipelines in the past, the increased use of rail to ship crude will also lead to increased number of disasters associated with it. According to an article by James West in Mother Jones Magazine, last year alone 1.2 million gallons of crude was spilled from trains—more than every year before it since 1971 combined.

The Keystone Pipeline will create jobs, tax revenue, and a reliable source of energy for years to come. Opposition to the construction has valid points, but when the alternatives are considered the Keystone Pipeline is the safest and most environmentally conscious way to move the crude oil from where it is to the place that it is destined to end up.

Questions for the documentary “Virtual Revolution”

1.      The web is celebrated as the revolutionary technology that is great leveling of humanity creating equal opportunity, equal access, and equal potential. However, there are only a quarter of people on the earth who can use it. How do you explain the controversial argument here?

If only 25% of the world is actually connected to the internet, then it I not creating equal access to everybody (thus, making it not equal).

2.      How is Wikipedia the best example to implement the leveling ideas of the Web rooted in the cultural revolution of 1960s, namely the Libertarianism in the counter culture? How does it explain some of the digital convergences?

The Libertarianism movement was opposed to censorship and state control, Wikipedia allows all users to share information and to have control of the information their sharing. This is an example of convergence because it allows users to interact and generate their own informational pages.

3.      How does the Web make it possible for different kinds of digital convergence?

The Web makes different kinds of digital convergence possible by providing a platform for things like video, audio, and text to come together.

4.      How can the Internet become a challenge for traditional authority? Use the political landscape changes in some counties to illustrate your answer.

When people can freely share ideas on the internet it allows for them to organize and spread their message. The best example of this would be The Arab Spring where people organized massive protests that led to the revolution and the overthrow of the Egyptian government.

5.      Do you believe that getting information free can set us free eventually? Why or Why not? Do you see any concerns of the complete freedom or self-expression without limit on the Internet? Why or why not?

I don’t think that getting free information can eventually set us free, because the quality of the information will not be regulated. The concerns that I see with complete freedom of the internet is the ease at which people can now propagate lies. People can choose their information which is leading to people thinking that they can choose their facts. Facts aren’t subjective and shouldn’t be treated as such.

6.      In traditional media communication, it has the “vertical” authority. In the Web communication, it becomes “horizontal?” How do you explain the change? How does this create the possibility for digital media convergence?

Web communication is “horizontal” in authority in the sense that the users control the flow of information whereas traditional media is simply run as a business. This, again, creates the possibility for digital convergence by making the Web a completely interactive place for its users.

7.      Why is that the Web is free critical for the success of the Web itself? How does that clash with the corporate business ideology? How does that pose challenges for copyright issues at the same time? What will happen if the Web is not free?

The free aspect of the Web is critical for the success of the Web itself because the Web needs users to generate content. This clashes with the corporate business ideology because the control is not in the hands of one (or a few) person/people. This poses issues to copyright laws because if someone publishes copyrighted material to the Web, then even if they are ordered to take it down, twenty (or a hundred) more people can put it right back up. If the Web becomes controlled by a few, the interest level would falter, the content will become stagnant and static, and the Web would need to either return to its earlier free state or parish.

Questions for the article “Historical Development”

1.      Why is broadband service the key for the success of online communication? What are the social effects of broadband service? How does the broadband service make digital convergence possible?

Broadband service is quintessential for the success of online communication because without a broadband connection communication via video or audio cannot happen in real time. The social effects of a broadband connection are that different behaviors are displayed by users with faster broadband connections. Broadband service makes digital convergence possible by making streaming videos and audio available at high quality.

2.      Why does the use of World Wide Web open the door of the Internet communication to a much wider audience? In what way does the Web with graphical web browsers move the online communication to “acoustic world” discussed in the pervious class?

The World Wide Web opens the door of Internet communication to a much wider audience by making access to parts of the Internet to the public; before the development of the World Wide Web only the government and academic institutions had access to the Internet. Graphic web browsers move online communications into the acoustic world by combining pictures, video, audio, and text together.

3.      How might telecommunication change if the government supported the development of broadband Internet for everyone?

If the government supported the development of broadband internet for everyone, then people from different socioeconomic backgrounds would be able to benefit from the same access to the Internet and its ideas.

4.      News organizations were changed by the telegraph, and a whole new business of news, that of the wire services, was created because of the telegraph. Discuss other industries that could benefit from rapid dissemination of information and how and why they would benefit from it.

Really any industry could benefit from the instant dissemination of information, from the most up-to-date marketing strategies to instant recalls and spreading of crisis information.

5.      Choose one of the common methods of online communication and think of how it could be improved in terms of facilitating communication between people, ensuring quality communication, and enabling the greatest number of users to distribute information.

If Facebook provided video chat it would get rid of the need for other applications like Facetime. It would also get rid of the need for a completely separate address book, as Facebook would provide you with your friends list.

Questions for the article “Digital McLuhan”

1.      What are the differences between the pre-literate acoustic world and the alphabetical visual world? How does the media of television become a part of the acoustic world?

The pre-literate acoustic world was fully immersive where the alphabetical visual world removed one from other senses. In other words, when one is engaged in a conversation they are using their ears to hear, their eyes to see, and their mouth to talk, but when one is reading they are focusing down to only their visual sense. The television has become part of the acoustic world because of its immersive values. You’re using both your eyes to see and your ears to hear, but you can also multi-task and still absorb the information that the television is sharing.

2.      Why does the alphabet have the segregating tendencies? How exactly does the printing press reverse the segregating tendencies?

According to the article, the segregating tendencies of the alphabet are that the written word (in the age before the printing press) was extremely hard to come by, very few people had books and very few knew how to read, and the written word could only be read by one person at a time, whereas a cave painting could be viewed by several. The printing press made it so that one piece of written information could be copied in such a way that many more people were able to take part and share the message that it delivered. This did some to reduce the segregating tendencies of the alphabet.

3.      How does the alphabetic communication in online communication make cyberspace acoustic? How is the online acoustic world different from the television, radio, or print acoustic world?

The alphabetic communication online is acoustic in the sense that it provides an outlet for feedback. This is what also makes the online acoustic world different than television, radio, or print—in addition to the fact that the internet provides almost anyone with the ability to deliver a message to the masses.

4.      Not only do we invent media and media technologies but also we select their uses in different contexts. What are the two selection criteria? According to the selection criteria, please discuss what will happen to our online communication in 20 years.

The selection criteria that we have for choosing new media technologies are that the media will expand out communication possibilities beyond what we can do from a purely biological standpoint, and that media must recapture some semblance to biological communication. From the criteria listed, online communication should become more and more tuned to a combination of video and sound, and the written word should begin to phase out.

I hope these are at least kind of right, this reading material is pretty thick if you ask me.