Media Consolidation

 Media Consolidation is a business strategy that has been expanding right in front of our eyes. Media consolidation is plan that big companies own smaller companies, making it so there are few companies that own almost everything. Media used to be separated into many small companies that worked on their own, to produce their own products, but over time large companies have started buying out these other business. In the chart below you can see that 50 companies turned into 6 purely because of media consolidation and these companies buying out others.

One major example of Media Consolidation is the Disney Company, Disney owns everything. Their productions, Star Wars, ESPN, ABC, they are constantly expanding and gaining more and more money. This is a danger for a few reasons, one being that these big name brands get to say what goes out and what stays in, this will affect what kind of product gets put out and in some cases, what kind of news gets out. Major Media Consolidation can also lead to the lacking of small media outlets which, if they are a news site, can limit what news small areas and towns get to hear.

What is the Overton Window?

 The Overton Window is not something known by many, but it has a significant affect on our life. The Overton Window is most easily described as the area of what is socially acceptable. It is the window can be used for any broad topic, and within the window is what is acceptable to mention at that time. This window can change over time, whether it would broaden out, shrink up or just move. The window is a chart that is shown in a vertical order, with the more free ideas being at the top and the more government restricting ideas being at the bottom.

The window applies to life in plenty of different ways, in your normal day, the impact it has is to what you think is okay to say and how other will react to what you say. Since the Overton Window is based on what is socially acceptable, you won't see people talk about things outside of that window, and if you do they will normally get pretty weird looks. The window shows what people think is okay to think about on a topic at a certain time and the change in the window is normally pretty gradual and people will adjust to it without thinking. The window itself isn't the thing that affect what is acceptable, rather it represents what has already happened. It is nothing to base yourself off, it reflects society.

In the image above you see an example of an Overton Window with the idea of kids schooling, as you can see there is a list of possible opinions with the top one saying that there should be no government involvement and the one on the bottom saying that all kids should go to government regulated schools. On the website, you are able to move the blue area, which is the actual Overton Window, the things that are okay to say. This is a good way to show how the window works because it lists examples of what people could think about a topic and also how the window works and looks. 

Another place that it is seen more commonly in life is with politics. In politics, polititians will direct their thoughts and opinions towards what is in the Overton Window at the time as it is what the community wants to hear, it also has the most people who will follow their ideas. The politicians that go outside the window are the people seen as radical and are normally not as popular with people as they like outside the common ground.

The danger of the Overton Window is most prevalent in politics. As I said, politicians will direct their ideas as to what matches the Overton Window at the time, this could lead to a misleading leader who says one thing and does something else. The window could also be good as it is a way that the community as a whole has an influence on how others think and can help guide things to common grounds.

The CDs History

 

The CD, the middle ground between what started with home audio and what we have now. A little disk that is full of music. The influence and change it had on our society was drastic. Before its invention in the 60s the walkman and cassettes were the main way of listening to music or listening to music while traveling. The introduction of the CD changed that. It is made easier to walk with and also the audio was made different.

When the CD was first introduced everyone was immediately on board with the idea and it took off very quickly. It replaced the walkman and cassettes very quickly, even though it wasn't too different from the walkman. Both being audio devices and both being able to be moved around easily while still walking. The main difference with the CD was the difference in audio, and the constant improvements that was wanted with the CD. After coming out, the plan was to find a way to make the CD digital, to make travel easier. They called it the CD-R and was a way to have your CD online, make it easier to travel and less work to have to change CDs. Another thing the CDs had available was to burn, you could burn songs or audios through a computer onto any CD that you would like. This gave a lot more freedom to people and also improved popularity.

The CD was a massively influential invention that gave way to a lot more inventions in the future. The CD was an improvement over the cassette and by the time the CD's time passed, it was digital and new things like online music was now available and was the new best thing.

Catching On: The Process of Public Inclusion of an Idea

Ideas and inventions always start with a single person or small group. Apple, Google. Facebook, even things like cars and airplanes weren't always at mass popularity. All of these things started with just one person or a small group of people. They slowly gained popularity from the public, more and more people use it, and soon, it's everywhere.

This is the pattern for all products or ideas. It starts with the pioneers, the Gerald Fords, who create the product and the first few people who used it. Slowly over time more and more people were getting cars. In the chart you can see the slow rise of the use of cars over the years. There are the people who started the ideas, then there are the early adapters, those who hop onto the trend early, before it becomes a sensation. A time where the product is either not as popular, or if it's a physical product, can be relatively cheap. Then as the popularity grows, you see a change of supply and demand as more and more people get the product to the point where almost everyone has one.

The biggest thing to know about trends like these, trends where a product is getting more and more popular to the point where almost everyone has it is that it won't be everyone that has it. There are always laggers, those who think the product won't last, or those who prefer radio over CD or something like that. There will always be people who stay off the trend for their own reasons. This leads to a point where there is normally not a product that everyone get behind within the lifespan of those people. What I mean by this is that there will be people who are introduced to this new product but not buy into it. Most of the time, if these people end up passing away and the new generation grows up with this product, they will all have it. So over time a product can be used by everybody, but in a shorter span of time, you will never see everyone follow the trailblaze of products.

The Privacy of the Internet

 We are at a time that makes technology the most important thing in our lives. Everyone has a smartphone, or computer or some form smart technology. This isn't something that people can ignore anymore, people are forced to get something whether it is for communication, work or even just travel. We are surrounded by technology but we don't really know the power of the technology and the access that they have to your life. In the image below and through an article on pcmag.com, websites have a ton of information about you, like your name, image, birthday and a lot of other information but those are the things that you have to give them.

As said, these are what you need to give these companies, you can give Twitter your name, gender and birthday, they just aren't required. You are giving these big companies so much information about you just to have an account and you don't know what they are doing with that information. They are a business and they want to make as much money as possible so you do not know what they are doing. There has been times where these big companies have been hacked and someone has had access to all of this information and more about all of the users. 

You are not just being traced online, but all throughout life you are being tracked, whether it is by police and your car and gps, or through security, you are almost always being watched. People know a lot about you, people you have never seen or will never meet. The new era of technology creates what is supposed to be a safe bubble of having people know everything about you but is actually just a target for people with bad intentions. But can the government do anything about this stuff? They can, they can regulate what businesses ask for, but they won't. The government works with some of these companies to find information on people, so why would they want less security and give up information. The issue isn't that you can have a hacker find information about you, it's the amount of people who have information about you, and who know everything about you, even the things you want to keep hidden.

There are ways to keep yourself and your information safe, there are companies who goal it is to help people protect their information. VPN's, or Virtual Private Networks, are additions that you can make to your computer that basically encrypt your data so it is harder to track and this protects you from things like hackers or websites that do things such as track your location. Norton, who is one of those companies also has a list of different ways to protect your data. They recommend not going on shady websites, searching on incognito, and just be aware of the information you share. 

Technology is tough these days, its tough to avoid the amount of data you are giving out to others and there is a lot of information that people have on you just because you do things like leave the house, own a phone or even just own a car. It doesn't seem like the government would stop this because they are one of the groups that benefits from this break of security, but there are ways to limit the amount of data that get out to these companies and people need to be more aware of those options.

The Evolution and Impact of Video Chat

 With the COVID-19 pandemic turning everything online we got really used to using video chat. Websites like Zoom became an overnight sensation and everyone learned how to get connected with each other. Now, video chat is all over, whether it is live video like Facebook live, or the more common one on one chat like Apple's FaceTime. The use of video chat has become second nature to some people as their choice form of calling, but it hasn't always been like that. Let's look at the history and impact of video calls.`

History

The idea of being able to talk to someone through video is one that started soon after the invention of the telephone. All the way back in 1876 it was planned that there should be video that can go along with the audio transmissions made by Alexander Graham Bell. Now just because the idea was thought of didn't mean any major advancements were made near that time. It took years for the technology to advance to the point where video was even a thing, never mind two way live video, but things began to happen. In 1964 AT&Ts Bell Labs created the picturephones which were little phone booth like places where people could have a video call with someone. Now the locations were very scarce, only being in New York City, Washington D.C. and Chicago, along with it being extremely expensive, about $255 in todays money for just three minutes, the picturephones did not last long. But technology kept advancing and in 1982 videoconferencing was created, giving businesses the ability to have a video conference with large groups of people at the same place. With this being new technology it wasn't cheap at all being sold at $250,000 for the computer to run it and costing companies $1,000 for each hour they were on call. Prices like that made no companies rush to install such technology so it would still be a little bit of time before video calling became more of the norm. 

Over time, the technology has made advancements which made quality better, cheaper and more mobile, in 1992 AT&T made a home videophone. This was a major creation as it was giving video access to more and more people, this product was too great though, giving colored video, but running at 10 frames per second. Over the next few years different companies would make their own at home videophones, changing things from AT&Ts like size, frames per second, color but all of this would adjust the price as well. These products would be the only option until the internet became the place to be and websites like Skype was created for the public. The early 2000's were a huge jump in video chat, the invention of Skype being on the free web, this gave access to video chat to anyone who has enough of a set up. Now, not only could people have a video call in their house if they paid for a videophone, but anyone could have a call if they had a camera. This paved the way for a lot more improvements in all different senses of video chat, whether that is accessibility, like putting it on your phone, or its the amount of people that can be on a call. 

Impact

Video chat has changed how people communicate by making as close as possible to be with someone that you can't actually be with. The creation of video chat gave people the ability to chat long distances, talk long distances, and also show emotions long distances. The biggest impact that video chat has had on humanity as a whole happened just recently. With the recent pandemic people used video chat every day as that was the best way to communicate with people and feel like they were there. This is all thanks to apps like FaceTime and Zoom and other apps or websites, but all of this really traces all the way back to AT&T and Bell wanting to create these video phones about 150 years ago.

Now just because something revolutionizes how people communicate does not mean it gets to avoid all negative parts about it, video chats have a ton of issues. The main issues that people have with it is privacy issues. You are giving an app or website access not just to your voice, but your voice and face and some times more personal information. It is always tough to know who to trust and who you cannot, as well as there is no way of knowing if something gets hacked. The issue of privacy is something that a lot of people have on their computer and something like hacking a video website or app isn't just a fear, but has been reality.

Values of Free Expression

America gave its citizen rights and freedoms in its Constitution, the First Amendment gave a lot of freedom to the people that most other countries have. The First Amendment giving people the freedom of speech, assembly, protest, for and from religion and freedom of press. The value of the entire First Amendment may not be immediately prevalent to everyone, but it does have an affect on everyones life. 

The freedoms of expression that the First Amendment gives the people are extensive and are used in all facets of life. One of these freedoms is based off the idea that we are allowed to promote innovation, I really like this one. The freedom that we have as Americans to be able to say what we want creates more confidence and determination to go and create more. The freedom of speech opens up so many opportunities as a country and this is just one example, it promotes ideas and gives people the ability to express those ideas to others. I also feel like the freedom of speech, and more specifically the part that I mentioned, takes away a potential dark cloud over the community. Being able to talk to people about what you think, to bounce ideas off, creates a more exciting environment as a whole.

All parts to the freedoms that we gained from the freedom of speech and expression all are extremely important and valuable to the country and its history but I think the most important ones are the ability to promote innovation, check on government power, and the openness to stable change. The ability to promote innovation was referenced earlier, but basically this freedom has given way to a ton of different inventions, whether that is physical inventions or just the invention and spread of ideas throughout the countries history. The ability to check on government power is something that has been especially important in the past, this right gave way to the events of Watergate. What I mean by this is that the freedom for the press to go against the government, and speak out negatively about the government led to the public knowing about the shenanigans going on and it later led to the resignation of President Nixton. The third important freedom given through the First Amendment was the openness to stable change. This freedom allows people to rant as they would like, it has been shown to result in less violence in people as they get their anger out in words rather than actions. I think this is an important freedom because this is something that I think would save a lot of events from happening. Getting anger out through noise and words makes people feel a lot better, there is less pent up anger that would lead to violence. It is important for the people to be able to "vent" about whatever they are upset about, whether that is something personal or even the government, and not get punished for it. It also gives the government opportunity to clean through what may be seen as verbal chaos to determine real threats. So not only does it help the people, it helps the government and the country as a whole.

I, personally, like the freedom I was just talking about the most, the idea of stable change. This ability doesn't just help the people, making them allowed to be as angry as they want verbally, but also help the government and greater community. It is great that someone is able to say what they want without facing consequences, especially if it is against someone or something like the government, something that won't fly in other places. The other part of this freedom is a bit more hidden, but is just as important, the free speech ability also leads to the government being able to see who is truly a threat to the people based on what they say rather than just having a hectic country full of people who are mad about random stuff.

The subpart of the freedom of speech that I am seeing be used today is the Individual Self-Fulfill. This part describes how people are able to identify themselves and are free to do that. It is seen all over the place now with all different groups identifying themselves and being proud of themselves, whether that is
with BLM and people being proud of their skin color, or the LGBT community and their idea of accepting who you truly are. The ability to freely speak your mind, not just verbally, but emotionally and physically shows the real power of the First Amendment and the freedom of speech.