EOTO #2: Mainstream Media

Mainstream Media are Media Outlets typically owned by large corporations such as Fox News, CNN, the New York Times, and the Washington Post, that report conventional news like Sports, Politics, World News, and Entertainment. Mainstream Media is delivered to us in many different forms today. There's the newspaper, television, websites, and most recently, social media. All of these ways of communication is for the companies to reach the maximum amount of people they possibly can. Social Media is the most effective way today because 4.9 million people are on social media and a lot of teenagers prefer social media over physical media also caused the shift in prioritizing social media over conventional.

A good thing to come out of Mainstream Media is that it spreads awareness very fast. Prior to the internet, it would take about a week for news on the other side of the country and even the world to reach us. But thanks to mainstream media, we are able to get the latest news instantly without having to wait. A recent example of this would be the wildfires in Hawaii that happened 2 months ago. Without mainstream media, we wouldn't have known about the fires for at least a week or two after they happened because a reporter would have to get on a boat or a plane. go to California to tell them about the news, then the people there would call everywhere else in the country to write up a story about it. With Mainstream Media we are able to get that information very fast and keep up to date on the latest about the fires.

But Mainstream Media also has its disadvantages such as being very biased depending on which outlet you visit. For example, Fox News tends to be very conservative in its news while CNN tends to be liberal in theirs. These differences in views have caused the public to be divided which sucks because we shouldn't be fighting over who's right and who's wrong, we should learn to get along and agree to disagree with each other. Just because someone else has a different view than you doesn't mean you shouldn't be friends with them. It's healthy to debate and have a civil conversation without hating the other person's guts which is now a norm for us today. Another disadvantage of Mainstream Media is that with such a large outlet to post on, there's fake news that can be spread throughout it. This was a major issue a few years ago but as of recently, I feel, it has decreased substantially but there are some instances here and there. A big takeaway from fake news would be to do your own research on the article you are reading and make sure that it's telling the truth and that the sources are reliable and accurate.

Mainstream Media doesn't affect people my age and younger because we don't look at mainstream media at all, it's mostly TikToks, Instagram posts, and celebrities that are our priority, not what's going on in the world so that demographic is not to worry about. But other segments should worry because of fake news, which is misinformation spreads through mainstream media and people believe it, it causes people to worry and put thoughts in people's heads about stuff and gives them bad ideas. My message to everyone is to always do your research when you see something insane said, check if it's taken out of context to pose the person in a negative light, check if the sources are reliable, and if it's an echo chamber or not. Then you can form your own opinion about the situation because you now have all of the facts laid out for you. If the article is lying then find out the truth and base your opinion off that instead of the fake news.

Sources:

https://byjusexamprep.com/upsc-exam/what-are-the-advantages-and-disadvantages-of-mass-media 

https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/our-research/how-young-people-consume-news-and-implications-mainstream-media

https://www.waldenu.edu/online-bachelors-programs/bs-in-communication/resource/the-pros-and-cons-of-mass-media

Privacy Online & Offline

 

It is very important nowadays to keep your digital footprint clean, especially as college students looking for jobs and internships very soon. The first TED talk I watched was Juan Enriquez's Permanent Tattoo. The Electronic Tattoo talk was very intriguing to listen to because everyone is affected by it. With everything we post, it's immortalized in a database and it knows who you are and what you like which is scary. I like how Juan talked about Greek mythology and related all of them to us posting online. But the most intriguing one was the Andy Warhol quote about how everyone in the future, which is now, will only have 15 minutes of fame. Quite scary for a quote said back in 1966 because it's pretty much become a reality with apps like TikTok and Instagram and people get that short-lived fame when their post goes "viral".

The Next TED talk I watched was Christopher Soghoian's How to Avoid Surveillance. I already knew that the government listens into phone calls all the time, that's a no-brainer. But what I didn't know was that iMessage and WhatsApp have message encryption which the government isn't happy about and the government is trying to get rid of that so they can view our messages. I think that's bad because most of the population are normal, everyday people texting friends and family. Just because there are a few bad apples in the pile doesn't mean we should compromise everyone else. But having that knowledge of the fact that the government can't see my text gives me ease that they're not always listening to what I say and reading what I write.

I think that the government should not be nosing into everyone's business unless there's an actual threat to someone or something that'll happen. There should be a trigger for their system when someone is planning something instead of having thousands of employees listening in on phone calls each day keeping track. Just have a robot do that and find out who is sinister. Spying in on normal, everyday people just talking about what they did that day to whomever they're talking to is eerie to think about. I understand the importance of government surveillance but it's a bit too much for people.

We can protect ourselves from privacy invasions by, as I mentioned earlier, using iMessage, FaceTime, or WhatsApp to communicate with each other as the most secure communication method. We should also be careful of what we post online which could potentially damage our reputation and prevent us from future employment. In my strategic communication class, we recently talked about how it's difficult to build an image but it's easy to take down. What that means is that it takes years to make a good reputation for ourselves but it can all come crashing down very fast with posting bad things online. So, always be mindful of what you're posting online and stay safe.

Diffusion of Innovations

The Diffusion of Innovations theory by Everett Rogers explains how ideas and technology spread through a market share graph. This graph shows us the lifespan of a new product introduced to the market. In this case, it'll be a new piece of technology.

This article from the Corporate Finance Institute gives me a more condensed definition of each of the 5 stages of a product. Innovators are the first people to try out the new technology, early adopters are the people who are willing to adopt the new technology into their lifestyle, the early majority are the people who buy the new technology before the average man gets around to it, the late majority are the people who were skeptical about the technology at first but eventually caved in and bought it, and the Laggards are the people who don't care about it at all.

An example of a piece of technology that follows the diffusion of innovation is streaming services. Netflix was the first-ever streaming service for television with 1000 movies available in its catalog. But it was still early on when Netflix had thousands of DVDs with its rental service. 

Hulu was the next streaming service to launch and it came a few months after Netflix launched theirs. I would consider Hulu to be an Early Adapter.

Now for the longest time, there was no competition for Netflix for years, Netflix had a monopoly on the streaming service realm. The only other competition was streaming services like "Crunchyroll", a streaming service for Anime but it was only for anime while Netflix was for pretty much all popular media. That was until Disney released Disney+ in 2019, the first true competition for Netflix, and people for once had a choice for streaming services because all of Disney-owned IPs; Star Wars, Marvel, Pixar, you name it were all on there whilst Netflix still had everything else. That was until all of the larger companies saw how much money Netflix and Disney were making from this and decided to cash in as the Late Majority during COVID.

A downside of all of this is there are way too many streaming services now. Prior to now, it was just Netflix with a $10-$15 subscription. Now you need a subscription for Netflix, one for Disney, Max, Hulu, Peacock, Paramount, and the list goes on and on where instead of paying $15 a month, you're now paying $500 for all of this stuff. It would be so much easier for everything to be on one service for like $20 and you'd get so many users but nope, all of these companies are greedy for your money and don't care about convenience. 

It's really hard for the positives to outweigh the negatives in this situation because streaming services have become oversaturated with every large corporation wanting a piece of the streaming service pie. My suggestion would be to figure out what show you want to watch on its respective service. Pay for it and once you finish the show, cancel it and move on to something else. It's tedious but it's the most cost-effective.