Potentials

Eric Klinenberg: "The Net and the News"

Important things to remember from this chapter:

-The expansion of news onto the internet does not actually create more choices, because most people just go to the big media websites anyway. AND, people of lower classes are the most likely to use these big media websites (Page 177).

-However, independent online news sources as well as local blogs (like Gothamist and Baristanet) can be successful even in places with plenty of mainstream news sources, because they are more personal and the journalism focuses on things that actually affect the readers (Page 192). Independent news sources, if they are good, don't just recycle or echo the stories from the mainstream news. They have original journalism with an eye toward the local culture.

Check out this independent news website for San Francisco right here. This website is a great example of why people might choose to visit independent news sites instead of corporate ones. I linked to the Drug War page because this is something you wouldn't ordinarily find on a Big Media site. This week, they put up an article about the upcoming 4/20 holiday, including the history of the event and a bunch of locations of international celebrations. Here is an excerpt:

"The 4/20 smoke-outs are a series of cannabis rallies that demonstrate the impracticability of enforcing the current marijuana laws. Drug peace activists invite all herb enthusiasts to join them in defiant solidarity."

This is clearly a biased perspective. The way the author (credited as Cannabis Culture) uses the word "impracticability" to describe the current laws, without a shred of self-doubt, makes it obvious that this person is Anti - Drug-War. Same with the term "defiant solidarity." My point is that independent newspapers/websites leave more room for personality and honesty, instead of needing their articles to be approved for corporate PR.

Another cool thing about the San Francisco news website is that there is a list of regions on the left side of the page, which you can click to get news for even more specific locations. The choices range from "north bay" and "east bay" to "santa cruz" to "us" to "international."

For a really messed-up news story from the South Bay region, click here. This also reports things that the California government probably doesn't want exposed (that their police are shooting retarded people, etc). Would we get this on CNN? I don't think so!!!

More important facts:

- Local news websites like NOLA.com were useful after Hurricane Katrina, for local, personal news and message boards for locals to communicate. BUT, even these websites had much more information available for the more affluent neighborhoods, so poor neighborhoods were still screwed (Page 193).

-Online news sources are a great opportunity to pass off conspiracy theories, rumors, and false news reports as the truth, to many people at once (Page 179-182). And, by the way, there is still a very serious and important-looking website about [|dihydrogen monoxide].

News on the internet has been and will be a revolution. With recent technologies receiving information through the internet has been very easy. It has not always been that way since our generation is the first who have really experienced technology through the internet. It is important to understand how the news has changed in so many ways. From only television broadcasts and newspapers to just an internet website. This is important because more news companies are able to spread with relatively low costs of entry. Knowing so more people are able to access the news through the web. Seeing this one can say that the internet has revolutionized the way people will live their lives and how they are able to access information. It is important to view how news on the internet has changed the way people utilize the current technology in order to receive media.
 * News on the Internet**

A clip that is interesting is a showing of the first uses of the internet and adapting it into the internet. They had translated the current newspaper into the computer and sent it out into the internet. This is important because it had shown the first uses of news over the internet. media type="youtube" key="5WCTn4FljUQ" height="385" width="480"


 * Herman S. Gray: //Is (Cyber) Space The Place?//**

This article is kind of confusing to understand so I hope all you find this information helpful.

Basically what Gray is trying to get across is the idea that because of all the new technology, information is now accessible everywhere. The way our culture is structured influences how we receive that newly accessible information into our brains. According to Allucquere Stone, all forms of technology have to be understood socially and culturally.( pg 135) This is important because in order to understand something socially you have to use the culture to make sense of the social life.

Gray has interesting idea on pg 136 about how the new technologies (internet etc.) are now the main places where people store and find information, not just news but all things cultural and social and that this causes "new social relations are forged"

"Culture is a decisive site of struggle over efforts to make visible and reconfigure the social, political, and epistemological terms of the social terrain." pg 137

How does this affect Blacks in particular?

Stuart West and Connor Hall essays- Blacks have entered new stage of history after 1990. They challenged black intellects to put information out there in this new world of technology, not so much focus on who is receiving it. This new way of receiving information has favored the global economy.

By redirecting the information flowing through the world of technology you have a way to create winners and losers. pg 139. What you can see examples of happening in areas across the world when there is no investment, the towns shut down and do not flourish, where there is investment, people with money move there creating an area of privilege that the others (less privileged) don't have access to. This could be happening online, in the media, anywhere that new technology is present.

The idea that the internet is a fake place or dreamworld where one can be anyone suggests that ones identity can be stripped. The way that we are culturally and socially structured to view one's race or gender can be changed significantly because viewing the second world version of someone may not be representative of who he is in real life. (The cultural discourse of what it means in our society to be black, white, female, male etc.. is not in affect) Check out this website [|Second Life] for an example of how to change your biological makeup and enter the technology world where our cultural discourse is changed.

However, Gray argues that blackness is always going to be a historical sign that carries meaning even if the way our culture views blacks changes with the new history of black era begins.


 * Lawrence Lessig: "Liberate the Music- Again"**

-In this chapter Lessig discusses copy right laws and how they apply to music. -Lessig writes "The aim of copyright, with respect to content in general and music in particular, is to create the incentives for music to be composed, performed, and, most importantly, spread."(302)

-The difference in the types of file sharing that people partake in are described by Lessig as Types A,B,C and D. They each have their own meaning with Type A being the most widely used and most harmful to the music industry. Type A is file sharing as a substitute for buying CDs. Here is a blog bout how music file sharing hurts the industry. [|Click here]

-Lessig proposes that in a matter 10 years it will be easier to stream music directly onto your device rather than downloading and transferring the music to different devices. He foresees the internet being widely accessible so that they way people share music today will be obsolete. -