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?

Democratic leaders embrace blogging as a potential political communication because it allows them to reach out to a younger, more Internet-based demographic through the use of different popular websites like Facebook or Twitter.

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

Blogging encourages the expanding of digital media convergence because anyone can post their thoughts online, regardless of their expertise in the subject, they can publish their thoughts to world.

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?

Blogging counters those weaknesses in the process by making sure that those individuals most impacted by the article will be the ones reading it. Because of that ability to access the information more easily, it gives it a much more basic feel as opposed to being so complicated. When you subscribe to a blog, you are automatically notified when that blog has a new post – like when you are subscribed to a newspaper or a magazine and they send it to your house whenever a new copy is released.

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?

Digital convergence’s main goal is interactivity between users on the blogosphere. Blogs can become the real bearer of freedom, democracy, egalitarianism, and participation because absolutely anyone who has access to a computer and has an opinion can share information with the world.

Questions for the documentary “Virtual Revolution” part 1, 2, and 3.

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?

The main issue is that some countries that are not able to access the internet 3rd world countries, like Africa, and even certain 1st world locations that can’t afford a computer or the costs that come with one.

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?

In Libertarianism, expertise and hierarchy don’t matter – which is what Wikipedia is mainly about. Anyone can post whatever they want on Wikipedia and have their voices heard regardless of their level of expertise or knowledge on the subject. It's a perfect explanation of digital convergences because it’s mass amounts of individuals who connect with each other and share information through the World Wide Web.

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

The Web makes it possible for different Internet users from around the world to connect through alternate types of social media online.

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

A Russian feminist band called Pussy Riot uses the Internet to challenge authority and defend the rights of the people of Russia. They video tape their protests and use them in their music videos to attract more attention on the Internet. More recently, two of the band members were arrested and convicted of ‘hooliganism motivated by religious hatred.’ The trial and sentence attracted a considerable amount of attention around the world, mostly in the west.

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 believe that getting information could be a good thing and a bad thing. On the better side, anyone could get on the Internet if it were readily available to them and vocalize their opinions. However, these opinions could get altered and changed into what some people would take as facts. No one would have any credibility. There is already a lot of freedom of expression on the Internet, and giving everyone the ability to use the Internet for free whenever they want can also lead to a lot of overcrowding – with a lot of website crashes and server/network problems.

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?

In traditional media communication, there was much more credibility to a "vertical" model of authority. However, by throwing out the expertise behind posts, and putting everyone on an equal level of credibility, it becomes more "horizontal." This creates the possibility for digital media convergence because what people write on the Internet would now have a greater effect on people and influence facts – this results in a wider spreading of information.

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 fact that the Web is free is absolutely vital to its because that’s how the Internet received most of it’s users in the first place. If they take that away from people, they’ll lose users at a fast pace. However, there are a lot of issues with corporate business and copyright issues. If the Web is not free, the digital divide mentioned will get exponentially larger. Fewer users will use it and the balance will shift drastically.

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 the key for the success of online communication because it has brought about the new acoustic world in the digital age. One of the biggest social effects of broadband service is that we can access more information in real time based upon the creation, transfer, and consumption of information. Broadband service makes digital convergence possible by allowing users to access the World Wide Web – making for quicker Internet and streaming.

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 the Internet to a larger audience by providing different web servers to anyone and everyone who wishes to access the Internet. The Web moves the online communication to the "acoustic world" by allowing the Internet to be interactive and interactivity is the key to an acoustic world.

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

Telecommunication supported by the government could change the way that information would be created, distributed, and consumed. Information would be much more readily available for any person who wanted to make use of it regardless on money status.

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.

Commercial companies would be able to make a lot more money and reach more people while their ad may still be relevant as opposed to being too late. If commercial companies could find out the moment something happened, they could create an advertisement playing off of said event, which would reach more people at a more rapid pace, which would wind up making more money for their company.

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.

Twitter is currently one of the fastest growing websites in the world. You can communicate with not only those close to you, but others like celebrities of even presidents. Twitter is also big form of newscasts. It was revealed that on multiple occasions, Twitter was the first to receive news stories – before important officials even knew. In 2011, one twitter user unknowingly live-tweeted the entire raid of Osama Bin Laden’s compound.

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?

In the pre-literate acoustic world, information was able to accessed anywhere, however, in addition to this, in the alphabetical visual world, everything was given meaning and purpose. The media of television becomes a part of the acoustic world because it plays to our five senses – it is "musical, mythic and immersive while lacking a defined perspective."

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

The alphabet itself is rather intricate and will obviously have segregating tendencies. The printing press altered the segregating tendencies by making things like printed articles and texts more available to the general public so everyone is able to gain more knowledge 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?

Alphabetic communication makes cyberspace acoustic due to its tendency to cover all different forms of communication. The online acoustic world also includes text which connects to all our senses. In the case of television acoustic, everything is closed and mostly visual aspects and graphics.

 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 two selection criteria are that "We want media to extend our communication beyond biological boundaries and we want media to recapture elements of that biological communication even though we have exceeded it in our extensions." Based off of this, we can infer that technology is ever-changing will continue to grow and advance twenty years from now.