Blog #6

 Antiwar Voices 

People speaking about Antiwar is not something you hear every day because the Government does not want you to hear about it. There are many websites that have strong voices and opinions that should be a lot more popular than they are. I think you really have to search hard for these voices because the Government doesn't want you to see them and side with them. The mainstream news doesn't show these voices because of the possible side effects it could lead to. 

I have heard of The American Conservative before from my sister and I think she may have seen something on Instagram from them and then looked into it. But it is definitely not something I see and hear about every day and that also goes for the Anti-War website. I have never heard of or seen the Anti-War website and it has a lot of good information posted there too. 

One headline that stuck out to me on the Anti-War website was about TikTok, China, and data privacy. The article shared how American lawmakers were sharing concerns about China and TikTok but at the same time, United States social media platforms are consuming just as much data. This is a side of this topic where this is my first time hearing about it. And this is something everyone needs to read about but they won't because it is not on a head Newsline. 

Another topic I have not heard about is how Country music is now political and the article shares some really interesting and different thoughts. The article talks about how country music is not how it used to be, "This is not the first time country music has gone dark. In fact, unlike most of its radio hits of the last several decades, the subgenres of folk and blues from which country music sprung are known for dealing with such heavy topics." I actually really enjoyed reading this article and I learned a lot from it. 

These websites share real, hard facts that some American people do not want to hear but need to hear. It will turn people's perspectives on certain topics. It will also open them up to actually seeing the real issue. These are the websites that need to be published more but they won't be and that is an issue. 

Blog Post #5

 The First Newspaper

    

The first Newspaper was written by Johann Carolus in 1604. It was a weekly newspaper that was published in Germany. It was considered to be a "true" newspaper because it covered the four categories that make up a newspaper. Accessible to the public, published at regular intervals, the information is current and it covers a variety of topics. In 1618, other German newspapers followed with the world's first broadsheet printed in folio size in Amsterdam. 

The first English Newspaper was published in 1655 in Oxford, England. It was known as the Oxford Gazette which later switched to the London Gazette when it moved to London in 1666. It is also still being published today. Soon after the newspaper was spread throughout the European countries, it finally made its way to the New World. 

The first "true" American Newspaper was published in 1690. The publisher, Benjamin Harris was later arrested after his newspaper was published because he wrote about political criticisms, and all other copies were later destroyed. In 1704, John Campbell published the Boston Newsletter, it was the first successful newspaper in America. 

At first, Newspapers were only available to wealthy people. The cost of a subscription would be the same amount a laborer would make in a week. So most could not afford them. That all changed in 1830 when advances in printing and paper-making made it so each copy could sell at one cent. The telegraph was later created which made it a lot easier. 

This article, shares why newspapers are so important to our civil society. Newspapers provided information to citizens or really anyone in the area that was looking to read about recent events or issues. It connects people in the community, city, state, and the world and fills them in on recent news and issues. 

Today's World 

Nowadays, everyone turns to their phones to find out about recent news and issues. Some sources online are giving out false information that people actually believe. Not a lot of people buy newspapers anymore. The only person that I know still does is my grandfather! 

Newspapers are continuously decreasing in today's world. According to this article, “More than one-fifth of the U.S. population--approximately 70 million Americans--now live in an area with little or no access to local news.” That goes to show that people are not being told the right and credible news. Having a lot more access to newspapers would allow that issue to go away and people can have access to local news. 

Newspaper businesses are continuing to lay people off because they are not bringing in enough money to fund all of their workers. Local journalists are now not able to be profitable. The market is letting it go when it is something that we need and can be very beneficial. It is a way where everyone can learn and read about everything going on in the world and their communities. It can also bring everyone together in hopes that it will form a strong community.

Everything on social media is now favored to where they are going to put things on your feed that they think you want to hear. They can be totally in control of your thoughts and beliefs. People are going to TikTok to find out "reliable" information, which is the complete opposite of what you actually should be doing. People need to be finding out information from reliable sources and Newspapers are just one example of a reliable source.

Blog Post #4

 Stable Change 

    Stable change is a theory in the world where society has the right too vent and speak their thoughts on all platforms. People think that when more people start to do that it will resort in less violence and also give the government a sense of any violence that might happen in the future where they can stop it from happening. I think this is a very important topic that should be discussed and it has become more popular within the past couple of years. 

I think this happens a lot, especially during covid and the presidential election a couple years ago. Everything between the liberals and republicans that was happening online and also in person. For example, The Capitol Riot that happened, I think the police and Government could have had an idea that it was going to happen through social media. Also, all of the BLM protests around the world, I think that some of them were posted on social media before they actually happened. I think the Government knew about all of those through all of the platforms that they were shared on. But then you think about how some platforms, for example, Twitter and Facebook will delete things you post because of what you believe. That is not having the right to vent and speak your thoughts. 

Individual Self-Fulfillment 

    This is a theory that free speech allows people to express themselves and show off and create their own identities. Then, free speech then becomes a piece of human dignity, human agency, and autonomy. 

This is something we see a lot of in today's world. People create their own identities and they have the ability to express themselves on all platform levels. It is reflecting on the views of human dignity, human agency, and autonomy. I don't think the later generations have the same values and views as a lot of people had years ago. I have the same values and views as my parents and I kind of grew up with this theory but my parents didn't and it is a lot for them to understand rather than me understanding it. The thought and definition of human dignity, human agency, and autonomy are continuing to become more and more open and I just think that they should stay set and stone as it has for many years. 

Promote Innovation

    Promote Innovation is a theory where a community's free speech is valued and protected. And the environment is a lot more energized and engaged. It is also more diverse and they were all learning from each other. I can definitely relate to this one a lot because, at my high school, I was very limited in what I could talk about. I was worried that my opinions and thoughts would get me into trouble because some of my friends who actually spoke out had to talk to the Deans. It was not an open and respectful community where you could share different perspectives, I felt like there had to be one perspective and that was not mine. But I was able to talk to my friends about stuff but I could not take that conversation into the classroom. 

At High Point University, I feel comfortable sharing my thoughts about certain issues and topics because I feel that a lot of people are open to hearing new things but are also respectful of them. Having an environment like that allows for a lot more participation throughout the classroom and also just allows everyone to be more involved and learn. 

Real-World

There have been many conspiracy theories throughout the years. One that popped into my head was the theory of COVID. There were definitely many during that time. One that I remember hearing is that COVID was created by a lab in China which I believe was later found out that it actually was. In this article, it shares some different conspiracy theories about COVID. 

Blog Post #3

 The Supreme Court

The Supreme Court is the highest court of the federal judiciary in the United States. After reading the article about the Supreme Court on history.com; I learned a lot of new information. Before reading the article, I did not know a lot about the Supreme Court at all, so most of the information was new to me. I was aware that who is on the Supreme Court is very important. If you are a Republican or Democrat it is very important who is on the Supreme Court if the President is a different party than you. 

I think the most important thing to know about the Supreme Court is that they have the power to go over any of the actions made by the executive branch and the legislative branch. They are responsible to go over any laws within the United States and can go over the constitutionality of those laws. The Supreme Court bases its actions and decisions off of the Constitution. 

There are many historic Supreme Court Justices. The chief justice, John Marshall was the fourth Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. In 1803, Marbury v. Madison, he settles the Supreme Courts' power to review and rule the constitutionality of federal laws achieved by Congress. 

The most interesting information that I learned while reading the article was all of the important cases that took place. I have never read about them, I heard about the Roe v. Wade one but that was really the only one. One that really surprised me was in 1962, Engel v. Vitale case was about how prayers in public schools violate the first amendment. 

Overall, reading this article did not change my perspective on the Supreme Court but it did help me gain a better understanding of it. I learned a lot of new information that I was not aware of before.

Blog Post #2

Online Privacy & Data

How much privacy do you think you have? 

The answer is you basically have zero privacy when you are posting things online. Your online data is being built up over many years, it will actually last longer than you will. Everything you share from social media posts, TikTok, emails, text messages, etc, is data about you that keeps building up. Data lasts FOREVER.

All of this data can tell a lot about you. Where you have been, who you are with, what you have been doing, how you feel, and much more. We have no control over our privacy and the data that is being collected about ourselves. The feeling and meaning of privacy are going to be totally different in a few years. Without you even knowing it, social media apps can have access to a lot of your personal information. For example, all of your photos in your camera roll even when they are not shared on that certain app. People rarely read the Privacy policies before signing into an app and that gives them permission to find information about you without you actually being aware it is happening. 

How old were you when you got your first phone?

I was in 6th grade and it was a flip phone that had a purple case. I could only use it to call or text my parents or siblings. Looking back I am so grateful that my parents kept pushing me not to get an iPhone for as long as they did, even though I complained a lot. They were trying to protect me from everything on social media. I had no ability to post on social media; at that point in time with my flip phone. Nowadays, kids in kindergarten are begging their parents to get them a phone to go on social media. And some parents actually get them iPhones when they can't even read yet. Today, kids are growing up with social media and sharing everything about their lives online. With a click of a button, someone could find out everything about another person. The growing generation is going to have zero to no privacy left because privacy is completely changing. 

How do we PROTECT our privacy?

First, I would read more into this subject and educate yourself a little more because I believe that not many people know about how much your "private stuff" is actually public. I would also share these issues and use your voice. Help educate other people who might not be aware of this issue. The government can be a HUGE help to this issue. They can make sure that the internet and social media platforms are safe and they can enforce rules.

My Top 5 News Sources

One of my top sources is WCVB which is Boston's News Leader. I have their app downloaded on my phone which gives me easy access to see all of the latest news. The reason why I like this source so much is that it gives me local news and stories but it also covers a lot of different things. I can click on all of the tabs and it has so many topics to choose from. They have 5 Alert Traffic, National News, Politics, Health, Money, Sports, etc. They have all of the information you need in one place which I like. This is an example of something that I like to read about on their app. This man from Plainville, MA which is just a town over from me was struck by a vehicle Man Struck by Vehicle. But then it also shares the latest stories on health care and everything you need to know about that, Health Care. These are just a couple examples of how WCVB has such a variety of information to read from. 

Another source I use is Fox News. I use this News source because it is sided more on the Conservative side of things which is where I like to gather some of my information from. I am not a huge News watcher but my parents sometimes have it on at home. I like going to Fox News to see a different perspective on things and I usually go here for anything political and to read about the latest stories. This is also a news source that I feel like I am able to trust more than others. One of the more popular news headlines lately is about the Murdaugh's Murder Case and this would be a source that I would rely on for that information. 

In the Sports world, I like to get my information from ESPN. This source has all the information you need on sports. I am someone who loves sports and has ever since I was little. ESPN also allows me to watch games live on their app or online. I also use their app to check the scores of live games, I really like this factor that they have because it allows me to stay up to date with the games. It covers everything and anything about Professional or College sports. But it also covers the PGA and UFC, etc which is really helpful. I enjoy ESPN because it is very convenient for me to look in one place for anything about sports.

The Daily Wire is another News source that I go to. I follow their account on TikTok and they share short clips of Conservative news, opinions, and entertainment. I love watching their videos because they're pretty entertaining but also informative. Candace Owens is part of the Daily Wire team and she is a very educated women and I like to hear her perspective on topics. She is also someone who I share some opinions with and in my opinion she is a trusting source. If I want to learn more about what they are talking about in one of the TikTok's I just go to there website to learn more about it. It is really convenient and gives me easy access to find information. This is an example of what I was talking about, this TikTok is Candace Owens talking about Teen Girls lives and she shares some interesting statistics. 

My final source is through my friends and family. I am not one to sit down and watch the news but I will if it is already on the tv. My mom and sister are more involved in the latest news and topics than I am. So when they mention or talk to me about it I will then go on my own to read more about it if it interest me. These are people that share the same values and views as I do so I trust the information that they are telling me and they like to keep me informed.