NMC 301 Reader Responses

Reading Response 1

Articles Read: The YouTube Presidency, What Type of Commenter Are You?,  Student ‘Twitters’ his way out of Egyptian jail

The article The YouTube Presidency delved very deeply into the world of rehearsed media of the president that gets posted on YouTube. Things that would never be nationally televised or only hold a 30 minute spot on CNN are popping up on YouTube. These kinds of videos allow people to see thin gs like never before. Since Obama records everything and posts it to his YouTube account, everyone can view it. People can see a number of different things from the signing of bills to speeches directly made for YouTube. Viewers can post comments on any of the videos within the channel and the channel is one the highest viewed everyday.

The Obama administration understands the vastly growing importance of new media. Media through many different channels reaches nearly everyone. Unlike those before him he understands that the kind of media emerging now is the future and needs to be embraced rather than ignored. Things like Twitter are taking over the internet and a simple tweet can let people know your situation.

Arrested and on his way to jail James Buck sent a simple “Arrested” tweet to his friends to let them know that he was in trouble. Twitter is basically the online way of text messaging like a phone has, but many people at once can read it. However it is mainly used the way the status updater is used in Facebook. Constantly updating what a person’s status is every minute of the day is the extreme. But it did help free Buck from the unsettling situation he found himself in after being arrested at a protest in Egypt. If he had not sent the message or had the ability to do so and something happened within the jail he may have been lost forever.

The tweet allowed Buck’s friends to find him a lawyer and free him from jail. Twitter is an ever-growing center for people to quickly connect with each other and is all the rage for instant journalism. Journalists can now update what is happening throughout a certain crisis to interest whoever is following the tweets and then possibly get them to be the first to read the actual story. Twitter allows instant connection from anywhere in the world with and internet connection. It may lead us to a new way of journalism that has already begun transform. The danger with online writing or blogging are the commentors.

There are many different types of commenters. Many just looking to stir things up and some to act tough that really are not. As in the YouTube Presidency article it stated that there are some comments that attack the president and what is shown. As Malone states in his article What Type of Commenter Are You?, “Pretty soon, in a feedback loop between writer and reader never possible in the print world, you find yourself writing on those topics, and in that style, that will provoke the most reader response.” No matter good or bad the writer always depends on the commenter for their opinions to achieve satisfaction for their article. However rude or inappropriate commenters are they always find their way in that space below your post because they think they can write it better than you!

Reader Response 2

Article:Social Media is Like a Buffet Table

http://www.edelmandigital.com/blog/2009/03/social_media_is_like_a_buffet.html

Social Media is like a buffet table. There are so many choices that regular people don’t know where to start. This can create problems because how are people supposed to know which ones are good and connect with most people and which ones are not. How do we learn to use these sites? We wonder around and put every possible app on them to make them attractive even if it has nothing to do with us. She makes a very good point about this in her article. Because social media is such a new phenomenon businesses don’t know where to start and who to reach.

Just the fact that businesses are trying to reach people through social media announces that new media is here and needs to be recognized. People need help with it because they don’t have a clue how to work it half the time. Just the sheer amount of media that is out there is a lot to handle so we must work together young and old to help each other learn an ever-growing field of social media within new media.

Article: Students Sue Prosecutors in Cellphone Photos Case

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/26/us/26sextext.html?_r=1

Within this article it is very clear that whatever is posted or saved in the digital world can and most likely be found someone you don’t want to find it. Sexting is the primary issue within the article and man feel that it is not okay and that the people doing should be punished with jail time. The girls involved with the whole thing sued the prosecutor because he violated their first and fourth amendment rights by threatening them.

I believe that it is a total invasion of privacy to go through someone elses phone and look at their pictures. Like the article said confiscating the phone and going through it are not the same. This does however show how easy it is for your personal stuff that is in the electronic world to fall into the wrong hands and how easily it can be perceived as the wrong thing. The point of the article is to be careful about what you are putting in the electronic world because many different kinds of people can interpret it how they want and accuse you of a whole number of things.

Article: The Kindle 2 Won’t Save Newspapers

http://gnbuzz.com/2009/03/01/the-kindle-2-wont-save-newspapers/

The Kindle 2 is a very unique devise that allows all the newspaper subscriptions you want to be delivered electronically. There is good content within the papers that are delivered via Kindle 2 and great bookmarking and side notes features. However the categorization of a real newspaper is not there. Top stories are not listed first they are buried down the list. Also there are no pictures within Kindle 2 especially from papers that are renowned for their great photography. It is still not the easiest thing to navigate.

Kindle will eventually take out newspapers and possibly even books but that is way off in the future. Newspapers are more likely to diminish because people like having it right at the palm of their hand all the time and don’t have to carry around a bulky newspaper. Kindle also uses no paper and that will be a focal point in the near future as our population continues to grow. But until Kindle can offer some kind of categorization of stories and pictures I don’t think it will become that much more popular than newspapers. So newspapers are safe for another couple years anyway.

Reader Response 3

This video is very accurate in what I think would happen if someone actually met one of their online friends. They would be totally confused and embarrassed if someone they only knew online came to their house and startedharassing them basically. It also does a very good job of portraying the reality of the stuff we put into the electronic world. We may not always realize what we are putting into the electronic world until it rearsits head in the real world. These things can have very real consequences like loss of job or girlfriend or being embarrassed when your mom finds drunk pictures of you. Everything that is put onto Facebook and into the electronic world can be seen. It can be found and seen by anyone of your friends, friends who then can pass it on to their friends and so on until it makes its way to somewhere you don’t want. The point is be careful about what you put out there!

In the article “Calvin College Student Suspended Over Lewd Facebook Message” a student was suspended for a degrading remark about an ex-girlfriend he posted on Facebook. Again we are brought back to the point of someone getting in trouble for what they post on the internet. The message continues to be the same, people are monitoring these sites more and more since the emergence of new media. They have ways of finding them and they will. One other thing that was interesting was that the college had a rule of basically internet usage for derogatory things about other students. It is nice to see that new media is beingacknowledged and that it also needs to be monitored to protect others. This is only the beginning of what may need to happen in the future because of the rapid growth of new media outlets like Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube and others.

This video is interesting because he makes very good points to defend Facebook. Facebook does everything in its power to protect you and make sure your private stuff is not leaked. But onceagain you the person putting the stuff up is responsible. When hackers doe steal and sell your stuff Facebook sues them. The main point of the video however is I think the point that one media is trying to slander another to attract more readers. They do this so that people come to their site or blog and click on the ads sotherefore the site owner makes money. This is terrible because there is a lack of trust and authenticity when this happens. It is bad for everyone involved and everyone who reads it because now the reader believes something entirely false. Come everyone can’t we all just get along?