The "TROLLS"

On to a more humorous but still serious topic... The INTERNET TROLLS! As the article mentions, internet trolling can actually get pretty nasty, and turn into anything but a laughing matter. Internet trolls are the people who like to go online, and bash, hate, and rebuttal with people who are just trying to share an opinion. It's no secret that as a human, part of your rights in the First Amendment, is freedom of speech as we learned in class. Therefore, there is absolutely no reason that when one goes online to make a comment, or share a post, someone should fire back calling them wrong, or simply dismissing another persons opinion. Trolls can be mean, and disgusting, and are typically most common at places like the comment section of YouTube videos, Blog Comments (hopefully none magically appear on mine!), Forums, Email responses, etc.
Trolls can be depressed, or self conscious, resulting in them feeling an urge to hop online hiding behind a computer screen, just to bash other people. While the trolls are also protected by the First Amendment, it is somewhat unfair that they can behave in this inhumane, disgusting way, and still get away with it. Specifically when it comes to things like controversial topics, the trolls are everywhere. And by controversial we all know I really just mean Politics!! Overall, internet trolls are everywhere, and will continue to be everywhere, and after reading this article, I can honestly just say, Ignore them! As I mentioned in my presentation, I have been trolled before, and it really doesn't bug me, because I know most of them have an IQ of ketchup. While everybody takes these trolls differently, it is important to remember although they may act better than you, they are not. Everybody has the same rights, and everybody is entitled to an opinion.







https://www.lifewire.com/what-is-internet-trolling-3485891

Propaganda More Dangerous

After reading an article, I am shocked.... Today, we all know and love them... Memes. Believe it or not, propaganda is now more dangerous than ever. As seen in the photo below, this poster of uncle sam "recruiting" for the U.S. Army has been seen millions of millions of times, since the early 1900's. Unfortunately, this reappeared in 1968, and is still reappearing today. It is a known fact that propaganda posters can teach us a huge amount of information about psychological effects of politically pointed art. For example political comics, these are still considered "memes". The dangerous aspect of this is that memes are no longer centrally orchestrated pieces, they are no longer designed to advance the public good. But instead, be negative, or even worse, mind bending, or manipulative to its audiences. Because this article is from the Washington Post, we know it is most likely reliable. Through the power of mass media, and mass replication, anybody at this point can spiral into internet fame by being "funny" but there could be darker or more manipulative messages behind these "memes". However in some RARE cases, they can be positive... For example the egg on Instagram that still holds the record for most liked photo at nearly 55 million likes, all for no reason. This account turned out to be a plot to manipulate people into listening to messages about the dangers of mental health. This was good, because that is a topic that millions of people are still ignorant to. Overall, it is fun to look at memes, but we need to be careful, because now more so than ever, they can be targeted at us, to act, believe, or think a certain way. The power of persuasion.....






https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/03/12/why-propaganda-is-more-dangerous-digital-age/?utm_term=.6ed2ba3f8e39

Mainstream Media

When we think about the massive amounts of news and media outlets in existence, it can be overwhelming. First and foremost are the most popular media sources, these are things like ABC, CNN, NBC, FOX, etc. Because most people know about these, and consider them to be reliable, these are known as mainstream media sources. If you turn on the television to watch news, most likely one of the previously named sources is what any given household will pick. However mainstream media, specifically when it comes to politics, can have especially negative connotations, because we know many media outlets are in fact biased. This may cause some households to prefer the news sources that bias with their own viewpoints.  On the other hand, alternative media sources are things that are not mainstream, or media sources not everybody knows about, some examples are given below, like BuzzFeed, Inside Edition, The Daily Beast, etc. While these can still be reliable, they are not considered to be mainstream.

When we think of problems in media or even life, whistleblowing is a massive one. Internal Whistleblowing is something like spotting a co-worker stealing money, or doing something they should not be doing, and telling the boss about this. This does not always have to be something bad, as it can at times serve justice. External whistleblowing is similar, however it would mean reporting it to someone external of the company, who is not affected directly, for example the police. Confidential sources can help journalists reveal transgressions in the Government or in other organizations. But whistleblowers all around, do get a bad wrap, as it's in a way "snitching". Sometimes it can be good as mentioned before, especially when it exposes a politicians wrongdoing.




**Information in this blog post was gathered from notes on a fellow classmates presentation.**
https://www.allsides.com/media-bias/media-bias-chart

Smith-Mundt Act

• The Smith-Mundt Act was first established in 1948. In 1948 when it began, it was firstly considered the information and educational exchange act of 1948. This was to keep people from knowing what this act was really about.The Smith-Mundt Act authorized the use of propaganda  by the Government, however it was only authorized to be targeted at people from different countries, not ours. But that is when 2012 came along, and the act was repealed, and modernized. This meant nothing but bad news for us as a country, because this new "modernization" made it essentially legal to now direct propaganda at the United States' own citizens. Essentially what this means, is it is now legal for OUR OWN Government to direct propaganda at us, without us even knowing when it is used, or how it is used. This is why now in modern society, it is so difficult to tell when the Government is deceiving us, or telling us the truth.