Media Law & Literacy Summer 2021

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2btguTTywi0      Apple’s latest ad for the iPhone 12 shows us in a funny way just how scary technology can be. In the ad, a guy orders a cup of coffee from an app on his iPhone, then as he’s leaving the coffee shop, the server jumps over the counter and follows him out of the store. As he goes through his day, the iPhone user picks up people everywhere he goes – his bank, the drug store, even his home. When he sits down on his couch at the end of his day, there is a huge crowd of people with him that he has “picked up” throughout his day. Apple closes the ad by showing us how the iPhone 12 allows us to limit who tracks our data.      We don’t think a whole lot about privacy (at least I don’t) when we Venmo a friend to pay our portion of a meal we shared, order a new pair of jeans from our favorite store’s website, or download a movie to watch on a plane ride. Think about it – companies now know who you ate dinner with ...

  The Case Against War      Isolationism in America is not new. As far back as the 1930s, Americans opposed the involvement of the United States in World War II. People thought that the government should focus on domestic issues, particularly since the stock market crashed in 1929 and the economy of the country was devastated. But wars tend to be good for the economy because all of the industries associated with them, companies that make airplanes and tanks, guns and ammunition, boots and uniforms, to name just a few, increase production. When production increases, jobs are created. Many economists actually think World War II was a major factor in pulling the United States out of the Great Depression. So while just about everyone would agree that war is ugly and costly in terms of human lives, wars can be especially profitable for lots of businesses. And those businesses have powerful voices that tend to be louder than the antiwar voices.       Wa...

  PROPAGANDA      Propaganda and advertising may seem very similar. Advertising is something we encounter every day: Think about all the commercials we see on television, the ads we scroll through on social media, or the pop-ups on websites we visit. While some ads may exaggerate the benefits of, or fail to disclose the negative traits of the products they promote, the Federal Trade Commission is the government agency responsible for making sure that the message delivered by advertisers is generally true. Propaganda, on the other hand, is information that is deliberately biased and is used to try to influence the way people view an idea or a belief. Britannica defines propaganda as “dissemination of information – facts, arguments, rumours, half-truths, or lies – to influence public opinion.” (Britannica, 2019)      It only makes sense then that war seems to cause a lot of propaganda. In Nazi Germany, Adolf Hitler created the Ministry of Enlightenment a...

The Record Player      Not many people own records or record players anymore, and if they do, they’re probably not 19 years old. But a few years ago, a record player was the #1 item on my Christmas list, and I was so excited to find one under the tree on Christmas morning! Maybe it’s just in my blood. My grandfather was in the radio business, and I’ve up listening to him tell stories about the music and radio industries, so when I reached out to him about the EOTO project, he was eager to tell me his recollection and opinion of how the phonograph and records changed music forever.      Before Thomas Edison invented the phonograph in 1877, the only opportunity people had to hear music was if it was played live. If they didn’t live in a city, then they most likely had very limited access to things like orchestras, vaudeville acts and marching bands. Some of the earliest recordings were of military bands, comedy skits, and even “artistic whistling.” (Thompson,...