Democracy 2.0 The online constituents presence

Democracy 2.0 / Democracy and political influence in social media.

As I was researching this topic I came across to links that helped me understand it more thoroughly that what I had known about it before. Here are the links

http://journalistsresource.org/studies/politics/digital-democracy/social-media-influence-politics-participation-engagement-meta-analysis

http://www.business2community.com/social-media/impact-social-media-democracy-0911687

The articles tell us that social media or what they call Social Networking Sites (SNS) undoubtedly have the ability to bring people together and create democracy like what was seen in Tunis and now in Syria but on the opposite side of the scale, SNS usage of democracy and politics is less certain. From data collected we know that around sixty percent of adults in the United States are on some form of social media and engage in posts and comments related to politics when they become large public discourse agendas; however from the research collected so far these waves of information in the political sense away from revolutions don’t ster up much difference in voter turnout or gaining or losing votes for a person running for office. Its seems like more research is needed in order to conclude these topics. There is one segment of these studies that shows significant amount of voter turnout and political involvement is the youth crowd as seen in the 2008 election of president Obama.

From what I gathered from my research is that these new tools of social media and SNS are bring more people together in political events that in turns strengthens democracy for the people participating because not only can they get more information and share it to educate more people but from voicing their thoughts makes them better at civility. There might be a negative side to this aspect as well the more I think about it. Many people who are proficient in social media often customize their news feeds to show only the things they like to see and read, because of this they might only get a biased portion of a candidate or bill instead of looking at it from both sides to truly understand it; hence they are left with only their partial knowledge and this could be harmful to democracy. So with social media and democracy one might have to take it all in with a grain of salt.

Thanks for reading.

OTM: Exxon's History of Climate Change Research

This week’s On The Media story I chose to cover is Exxon’s history of climate change research. I found this topic to be quite interesting because it seems that the changing of climate due to pollution is getting ever bigger in the media world. So here is so back story to the report. Throughout the 1970’s Exxon was not just doing research into climate change and how the ocean absorbs Co2 from the atmosphere but they were leading it. Thats right, through found documents one of the biggest oil companies out there was in front calling for change and more research knowing that if earth’s global temperature increased it would have massive negative effects on living things on the planet. Then after the price of oil sank in 1986, Exxon had to layoff hundreds of workers including those scientist researching climate change. Not until the year 1989 was the topic of climate change brought up again did the media see Exxon have a stance in the issue claiming they knew nothing of the topic and founded groups to defend and question the claims of climate change.

Physical: Exxon went 180 degrees from leading and calling for action in climate change research to denying it not knowing anything about it. Pollution from the burning of fossil fuels makes the air we all breath toxic along with changing the climate faster than what most organisms can adapt to.

Temporal: The topic of climate change began in the 1970’s with little coverage of the research and today is one of the biggest issues and problems facing our society today. Also nearly 100 percent of scientist around the world are concerned about the effects of climate change.

Social: What we are seeing from Exxon, a large oil company, is almost a direct parallel to what happened with the tobacco industry. The companies themselves knew of the danger of their products well in advance to the general public and then hind or denied evidence of harmful effects.

Psychological: Exxon has lied about their research and its finding even when they knew the consequence the whole time. This is a textbook scandal when in part infuriates the public and governing bodies finding out evidence that they were lied to which reflect a negative public image of the company occurs. After an event such like this one it is hard for those companies like this one to recover for example look at the BP oil spill and the negative backlash it had both environmentally and in public discourse.

Cultural: I feel like once this information of negligence becomes better known to the public we’ll see people coming together both in protest and in social media to support better understanding of climate change and what we can do to help stop it. This could also be seen as people writing to their government representatives asking for more regulation or more research in helping the matter at hand.   

Thanks for reading.

Learning 2.0: Innovating the way we teach classes.

Learning 2.0, what happens when I think about that term is that this second version should be better than the one before it. So thinking logically Learning 2.0 should stand as learning in a new and better way. As I was researching this well informed topic I was starting to notice something. We as a class represent Learning 2.0 because of our means of coursework and research. We’ve all created blogs and posted to them along with our own facebook pages. This is totally different than anything I have done in a classroom setting before so this course is unique to me. I believe that just from this first third of the semester that I’ve learned things in a new and better way than traditional course work and I think that more and more class throughout k-12 with colleges will adopt this new set of learning tools. I also read this article here which helped me understand how their new forms of social media can enhance the learning experience.  http://www.edudemic.com/how-to-use-social-media-as-a-learning-tool-in-the-classroom/

I remember going into the third and fourth grades and learning how to use a computer. Looking back my parents must have been astonished that I was learning how to operated such equipment at such a young age because that how I felt when I found out ,a year out of high school, on the local news that children in younger grades than I had been in at the time were learning how to use an Ipad and do their class work on it. These new forms of education through technology and social media will create faster and higher levels of education. Thirty years ago most people didn’t learn algebra until upper level college courses and now in our present times kids are learning to do algebra in middle school. Its interesting to see what will fit into our general education systems in the next ten years and I think technology and social media will only boost its potential.

Thanks for reading

OTM:3 Refugees or Migrants.

During this week’s show of media coverage I listened to the topic story: Refugees or Migrants. They talked about how people getting ready to run for political office and news agencies are using the two terms interchangeably, or just stating that there is a migrant problem in Europe. The reason behind this change in terminology, as the show went on with its guessed speaker telling us to question political terminology, is that countries are allowed by international law to put up fences and deny entry of migrants; however a country is not allowed to deny refugees entering.  

Physical: With the name change of hundreds of thousands of people fleeing their home countries in order to find safety, they can be turned away from help and shelter. It pretty close to dehumanizing these people who are in need.

Temporal: There are still thousands of people coming into countries every day by any means possible, either by land, sea, or air that are dying trying to find safety. So instead of deciding what we should call them we need to focus more at the problem at hand and aid them to prevent further loss of life.    

Cultural: What can be said about a culture or society that places high values on helping others but turns away people in need when the burden becomes too big? Our county, yes the USA has only taking in 1500 Syrian refugees but we have committed to accepting 10.000 more over the course of a year. Is this figure comparable to those counts that european countries have taking in?  Germany has taking in 100,000 so far along with Sweden taking in 50,000 plus. We could be somewhat accountable for these people since we indirectly helped them win a civil war to kill their dictator but who remembers stuff like that since it happened a couple years ago.

Psychological: What happens when you dehumanize people? That's when you stop thinking a person is a living human being and instead see them as an animal or less. For starters it could spark a mass genocide. The Nazi's didn’t murder six million Jews over night. It was a slow process that started out with them changing the definition of a political term. The Psychological aspect of these refugees is extremely important so that we a people all living on earth don’t make the same mistakes that we did in the past.

Number figures found at this website article.   

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/09/16/us-syria-crisis-usa-idUSKCN0RG2O320150916

Facebook Campaign Gear Heads OF Southern Utah

Link: https://www.facebook.com/GearHeadsOfSouthernUtah

My page's purpose or mission is to create a community hub for car culture and other things that are related to that nature where people can come together to discuss cars, bikes, trucks, mods, events, cruises, meets, ect. I want to establish a better culture of people who are into this genre in the Southern Utah area.

Personas:

Jim is a 35 year old man with a family who enjoys working on his classic car on the weekends and frequents GHOSU often to check in to see if there is a car show to take his family to so they can get a perspective of the classic car scene. He shares his work on his car so others can follow along in the build process.

Taylor is a early twenties female who like to ride her motorcycle when she has free time away from work or school. She goes on GHOSU to look for fellow riders whom to go on cruises with. Also she contributes to online content of the page to try to reach out toward other female riders with tips and tricks about riding.

Matt has just turned 18 and his parents have bought him a entry level used truck, Matt is into trucks but doesn't know any places to go off-roading so he hits up GHOSU to inquirer about easy trails he can take his rig and is met with lots of hospitality and is invited to go on a poker run with some other members. Matt also contributes to the page by sharing content he finds entertaining on the internet that is related to trucks.

Bill is a 65 year man who is retired from his long career as a import car mechanic. He checks out GHOSU regularly to check out what others are posting about vehicle modifications. He owns a heavy modified vintage BMW set up to "haul the mail" and likes to produce how to videos then posts them so others have an idea of DiY  that they could do to their own car.


Like my page and become a Gear to the community!

OTM "The Bitter Advertising of the Iran Nuclear Deal"

Backstory, Congress is getting close to passing an international agreement that will limit Iran’s nuclear development by lifting economic sanctions. There has been speeches, rallies and million of dollars spent on both sides of argument of support or discredit. With the use of rhetoric both sides have twisted the facts of the deal for their side. OTM’s guest host told us about how this deal is beneficial compared to scraping it and hoping that the next presidential committee would come up with something better. So this “deal” essentially better than nothing.

Physical: If this legislation is passed it will be the first step in better foreign relations with Iran while limiting their nuclear development including the chances of a nuclear war. This would be a major leap forward toward peace in the Middle East.

Psychological: Opposing sides of the argument say that rules set in the agreement for allowing inspections of nuclear sites and military bases in Iran are too relaxed in time frames; comparing Iran to a drug dealer with a twenty four day warning to hide drugs and evidence, but in this case weapons of mass destruction. This applies to psychology well since this is causing fear in the people watching the development of the deal (fear of nuclear war) and making them write to their congressmen to stop the legislation.  

Temporal: If this agreement is past it will be the first time in history that Iran and the US have come together democratically in an attempt to settle political differences for peace since Iran became an independent state.

Social: The news of this matter coming to congress’s attention has had substantial attitudes shown through paid media campaigns. All this propaganda has people spit on their position of the deal venting how they feel about it on their social media accounts making posts slamming or praising the event. Social media has made it possible for people to reflect how they feel by informing major mainstream media outlets which I feel bring people closer together through this communication.   

Cultural: I think if this agreement is passed more people will feel like what happens over there effects what happens over here so to speak. While naming this agenda a “deal” many people gather ideas about it before learning exactly what it is to begin with which in turn causes missguided arguments and backlash on the part of the legislation. In the world we live in today there is a “World Economy” that dictates the markets of many nations including the USA and having sanctions reducing trade on another country’s market is hurtful to capitalism.

Racism 2.0, About ones face on the WWW.

I'm not the best person to talk to when it comes to racism mostly because it hasn't played a large part in my life growing up but just because it hasn't been a problem for me doesn't mean its not a problem for others or our society. Yes everyone is different but we should all be equal because at the end of the day we are all Americans.

let me start this blog with a little background on myself. I am a 22 year white male from Eastern Utah who basically didn't have any first hand experience with large confections of race or racism until I came to college here at Dixie and became friends with people who had. I went to a small high school (roughly 130 people in my graduating class) were there were a large population of Hispanics and Latinos and Whites but they from my point of view got along pretty well. There is always going to be young people juiced up on hormones that are eager to provoke fights and conflicts but will that stage of adolescent ever pass? hopefully. A lot of people say racism is learned and passed down through parenting but how much of that is learned from the media and more importantly through social media.

The article I read that stuck me the most is this one that talks about how some people think that racism on the internet isn't real.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/olivia-cole/on-the-oftrepeated-lie-th_b_4575754.html

The people who I've been able to really call racist are older people I've worked around in construction instead of the high school kids who sit next to each other calling themselves racial slurs to gain a reaction from the students around them when the teacher isn't there. However this isn't the case with online interactions. I'm not sure if many of you are familiar with communication terms but the term face is used to describe how someone thinks they are seen by others. Your face is made up by how others perceive you as a person. This is done by information collected over time to establish knowledge of that person in order to reduce uncertainty about them. While online one can become anonymous. They have no other post, comments, or information about them so they are more free online to say whatever they want without hurting their “face”; so is that racist remark made by them reflecting who they really are? The content is real. It had to be typed into a computer and the post button had to be clicked. It might not be as prevalent on social media outlets like Facebook where you need to fill out your first and last name, but if you’ve ever scrolled through the comments of let's say a YouTube video ,where people can make up any user name, there isn’t a progressive topic of discussion. Its nothing but racial slurs, hate, and garbage coming out of the fingertips onto people's keyboards. We shouldn’t dismiss what we read online as “oh those are just angry, mad trolls on the internet looking to vent because everything thing on the internet is premeditated. They had to think about it and then type it out and then on top of all that press send. Its not like someone stubbing their toe and yelling out profanity, it's cold sought out racism that by all means is real. Just because it happens online doesn’t mean it’s not real.

Thanks for reading.

OTM: The Little Pink Pill with Big Implications

Lately a new drug has came up to be put on the market that is very controversial in the public eye. That drug is Flibanserin aka Addyi, a FDA approved pill to help combat the effects of sexual dysfunction in women. The drug's purpose is to help women who feel like they have a disorder. This drug sits in the same category as Viagra (a male sexual dysfunction drug) however these two drugs are no where near the same thing let alone work the same way. I am not here to contemplate this drug's impact on a scientific level, instead I will look at its cultural, social, physical, and psychological effects on our society here in the United States.

Cultural: Here in the USA we have had as a nation, a very conservative view on female sexuality through most of our history, but this drug coming to market creates a turning point in our beliefs and cultural norms. From my point of view looking at female sexuality is a topic that was considered to be taboo or highly frowned upon whether it be in the media or talked about in conversation until within the last twenty years with pop music glamorizing it. From there on it has become more and more of the media’s agenda. I for one can only look at this from a male biased simply because I am a straight male without any female siblings to give me any knowledge of the thought processes or the what, how, or why of female sexuality. There has been quite a bit of coverage of equal rights toward the LGBT community and now considered to be a cultural norm since the supreme court has legalised gay marriage for the the entire nation. Will this drug aid in women's rights or could it be seen as hurtful? This could just be another drug for older people with health disorders, however I strongly believe that it could go 180 degrees the opposite direction and be all over the press and social media as a drug that creates heated arguments over its potential outcomes.

Social: We see advertisements everywhere for male sexual performance drugs; they’re on websites, news outlets, tv commercials, radio broadcasts, gas station bathrooms of all places. These performance enhancers are all about male sexuality. It has become part of the culture here in the US. From high school sports teams to working in places of high male demographic job areas the topic of male sexuality is commonplace. To see how big it has of an impact on our society look at any recent music video and it's easy to see who the video is aimed at. Now there is female sexuality commonly discussed but it's out of most of the media’s eye. One can find it on websites solely dedicated to female users such as pinterest for example. With this new drug supposedly already nicknamed “the female viagra” will it bring out significant focus about female sexuailty into our modern day agendas in the media and other social impacts?

Physical: We as a people label drugs as bad things except when prescribed by a medical doctor. There is a huge market for food and other goods that are “organic” or made without drugs. This little pink pill is no different than any other drug created, it has the possibility to be misused and abused. In the OTM report they said one of the ways this drug works is by upping dopamine levels in the brain. For those of you that don't know dopamine is a chemical used by the brain to control emotions of happiness and so on. Essentially this drug works kinda like an antidepressant but for female sexuailty. We could see this drug become very addictive and used by people who don't have a medical condition in the first place. The is already a huge problem with “date rape drugs” and this could become a tool for those who want to take advantage of women.

Psychological: Female sexuality isn't an exact science, and this pill might not be a pill to fix everyone or everything; however it is a step in the right direction of total equality. The psychological impacts of this new drug could range from happier marriages to horrible addictive substances only found in back alleys and black markets. I think it is more of a matter of time to truly see how this will affect people and our society. In the end this is still a drug which by definition is a substance that has an effect on the human body and brain.