...harms and benefits of the "zing"

In the past seven days (as of 4/20/14), here are some of the latest world headlines:

4/14/14    “Bus station bomb in Nigeria kills 71, injures 124”

4/15/14    “Hamas praises shooting that killed Israeli man, wounded his wife and son”

4/16/14    “At least four dead and hundreds missing after South Korean ferry sinks off country’s southwestern coast”

4/17/14    “Fate of over 100 kidnapped girls is unknown, Nigeria says”

4/17/14    “South Korea ferry riders texted desperate messages to loved ones as boat sank” 

4/18/14    “Thirteen Sherpa guides killed in Mount Everest avalanche ahead of televised jump”

4/18/14    “NASA discovers Earth-like planet that could support life”

4/19/14    “Hoaxers send fake texts claiming to be from South Korean ferry victims; ship’s captain charged with five violations”

4/19/14    “7.8-magnitude quake strikes near Papua New Guinea”

4/19/14    “Wyoming landslide splits a home in two as it creeps down a hill”

4/20/14    “South Korean ferry crippled with confusion and indecision before it sank”

4/20/14    “Malaysia Airlines flight rescheduled after emergency landing”

4/20/14   “Police investigating possible pipe bomb at Portland college”

"...harms and benefits of the "zing."

Wednesday, April 16, 2014. 8:55 a.m (Tuesday, April 15, 2014. 5:55 p.m. our time): A South Korean ferry carrying nearly 300 high school students began to tip over and sink into the Yellow Sea.

Thursday, April 17, 2014. 3:02 a.m.: A woman drops off a 10-pack stack of USA Today newspapers at the front desk of Quality Inn. The headline boldly reads “HUNDREDS ON FERRY FEARED DEAD.”



This is how I get my news. I choose to not use social media to get information, relying, instead, on printed newspapers. Does this make the news any more accurate? No.

Every reporter buys into the “zing” of reporting. It’s part of the job. Are ethics thrown out the window when doing this? For the most part, I say yes.

Looking at the above headlines, note the ones listed in red font. For the first brief part of this blog, I am choosing to narrow my focus on the recent South Korean ferry that sank into the Yellow Sea.

The earliest-dated headline from the New York Daily News reads: “At least four dead and hundreds missing after South Korean ferry sinks off country’s southwestern coast”.

The next headline from the New York Daily News reads: “South Korea ferry riders texted desperate message to loved ones as boat sank”. Skip a day in the reporting on this story (at least on the home page of World Headlines at www.nydailynews.com) and the next headline reads: “Hoaxers send fake texts claiming to be from South Korea ferry victims”.

Hold on just a minute: www.nydailynews.com makes this bold headline as if they themselves aren’t included in the “hoaxers” portion of the headline. Aren’t they just as guilty? Didn’t the Associated Press jump on the previous headline and related story just as fast as anyone else? This begs the question, how reliable are the sources of the New York Daily News?

The zing of trying to report devastating news can most certainly cause further devastation for those directly involved. Think of those parents who first heard of the disaster and held onto hope of their child surviving. Then they receive a text, stating that their child is fine, or at least they are given hope that the child initially made it to safety. Waiting on pins and needles to hear the next update, they are then told that the text was a hoax. This in itself is horrifyingly wrong, but for the reporters who jumped in on the zing of it, makes it doubly wrong.

These days it doesn’t even seem to matter if the news is reported inaccurately. The news outlets only seem to care about who releases breaking news first. If there are things reported that haven’t been verified, and they later prove to be false, the media will simply do an “update” without even apologizing for the earlier misinformation.

I don’t have a Twitter account and when I feel like having a Facebook account I rarely use it. One could say I’m not up-to-speed on catching the news. I wait around for the print and even then I don’t read all of it. The headline is usually as far as I get.

Ironically, I took up a job working for the news where I was required to write more than just a headline. I never wasted my time reading the rest of the day’s publications because reporting the news was far too much news in my life.

While working for St. George News, a local online news publication, I picked up a little of an “authenticity zing” of my own. I covered over 100 stories, 37 of them being uniquely my own. My zing started with jealousy when a reporter from KSL or The Spectrum would show up on what I would claim as my turf for getting there first.

When the event being covered would come to a conclusion me and all my little competitor reporter buddies would all jump in our cars and race ourselves back to our computers. Then it was a pattern of “type, type, type” on my story and then “refresh, refresh, refresh” on all my competitor’s sites. Type, type. Refresh. Type, type, type. Refresh, refresh. Type. Refresh.... You get it. It’s a race against time, your competitor and your own best knowledge of the event.

If I was the first one to publish the story I would feel stressed that The Spectrum would later release theirs with more information. Maybe they were making a phone call, gathering more information, while I speedily wrote my short story and got it out to the public first. Then if I was the last one to publish my story I would be worried that the public would be bored of the subject by then and wouldn’t need the one who’s late in the race. There was no “let’s hold hands and hit ‘publish’ at the same time” with my competitors and that was the jealously issue I had with my zing. I would be willing to bet that this attitude accompanies most reporters.

Social media can be good because people listen and watch and are eager to be the first to pass on the “news”. It can be helpful to the police and can promote a better qualify of life for us. As for “the sort of zing of authenticity” when using a police scanner, it can have pros and cons. Police departments will often use private channels to communicate but sometimes their conversations get broadcast across multiple channels. If you don’t have every channel programmed into your scanner, chances are that you’re not getting the full story. This certainly will impact our perception of what’s really going on. As with the Boston Marathon story and the interview with Brooke Gladstone and Alex Goldman, I personally think that the whole situation could have really gotten out of control if the bomber had been able to listen in on the police scanner or to read the Twitter feeds to find out the updates of their strategies. Many lives could have been compromised.

Because of social media, we can expect to be informed in real time on just about any topic. Our family members and close friends act as reporters and alert us when they feel something important has happened or is happening. We are always connected. But sometimes, as evidenced in this blog, it can steer us off course.

Douglas Rushkoff, in his blog “There’s More to Being a Journalist Than Hitting The ‘Publish’ Button”, states, in part: “...a professional journalist isn’t just someone who has access to the newswires, or at least it shouldn’t be. A professional newsperson is someone who is not only trained to pursue a story and deconstruct propaganda, but someone who has been paid to spend the time and energy required to do so effectively. Corporations and governments alike spend hundreds of millions of dollars each year on their public relations and communications strategies. They hire professionals to tell or, more often, obfuscate their stories. Without a crew of equally qualified—if not equally funded—professionals to analyze and challenge these agencies’ fictions, we are defenseless against them.

“And thus, we end up in the same place we were before—only worse, because now we believe we own and control the media that has actually owned and controlled us all along.”

Every wants to be first with the news. They want the zing. They want to brag about being the first to report the “news”. Who wants to report the “olds”? This is evidenced in several commercials from AT&T where they brag that the new HTC Vivid phone keeps you up to date, and that other phones’ speed connectivities are “sooo 47 seconds ago”.

Everyone wants to be first, especially in the case of a disaster. I think that the zing is more prevalent when it’s bad news. I leave you with comments from George Carlin, a comedian who takes a no-bars-held approach to how humans operate, and describes it best:

“...I enjoy chaos and disorder. Not just because it helps me professionally. They’re also my hobby. You see, I’m an entropy fan. I’m an entropy fan. When I first heard of entropy in high school science, I was attracted to it immediately. When they told me that in nature, all systems are breaking down, I thought, ‘What a good thing! What a GOOD thing! Perhaps I can make some small contribution in this area myself!’ And, of course, it’s not just in nature: in this country, the whole social structure [is] just beginning to collapse. You watch. Just beginning now to come apart at the edges and the seams. And the thing that I like about THAT is that it means it makes the news on television more interesting. It makes the television news more exciting, makes it more fun. I watch the news on television for one thing and one thing only: entertainment. That’s all I want from the news: entertainment. You know my favorite thing on television? Bad news! Bad news and accidents and disasters and catastrophes. I want to see some explosions and fires. I want to see shit blowing up and I want to see bodies flying around! I’m not interested in the budget! I don’t care about tax negotiations! I don’t wanna know the country the fuckin’ pope is in! But you show me a hospital that’s on fire and people are on crutches, jumping off the roof, and I’m a happy guy! I’m a happy guy! I’m a happy guy! I want to see a paint factory blowing up! I want to see an oil refinery explode! I want to see a tornado in church on Sunday! I want to see some guy running through the K-Mart with an automatic weapon, firing at the clerks! I want to see thousands of people in the street, killing policemen. I want to hear about a nuclear meltdown. I want to know the stock market dropped two thousand points in one day. I want to see people under pressure! Sirens! Flames! Smoke! Bodies, graves being filled, parents weeping. Exciting shit! My kind of tv! I just want some entertainment! It’s just the kind of guy I am! It’s the kind of guy I am! You know what I love the most? When big chunks of concrete and firey wood are falling out of the sky and people are running around, trying to get out of the way! Exciting shit! ... Hey, at least I admit it! At least I admit it! Most people wouldn’t admit to those feelings. Most people see something like that on television and they say, ‘Oh, isn’t that awful! Isn’t that too bad?’ (Snort) Lying asshole! Lyin’ assholes! You love it and you know it! Explosions are fun! And, hey! The closer the explosion is to your house, the more fun it is! Did you ever notice that? Sometimes you have the tv on and you’re working around the house and some guy comes on television and says, ‘Six thousand people were killed in an explosion today..’ And you say, ‘Where? Where?’ And he says, ‘In Pakistan.’ And you say, ‘Ah, fuck Pakistan! Too far away to be any fun!’ But if he says that it happened in your hometown, you’ll say, ‘Woah! Hot shit! C’mon, Dave, let’s go look at the bodies! Let’s go look at the bodies!’ I love bad news! I LOVE bad news! Hey, the more bad news there is, the faster this system collapses. Fine by me! Fine by me!” 

48 HOURS (is) HARD (here's) EVIDENCE

I participated in Eric Young's assignment of going 48 hours without the use of any form of media, electronic device and even took it as far as not driving anywhere. I also shut my A/C system completely off for the full 48 hours and didn't eat anything that needed to be cooked (we're not allowed to have open fires in my association and I don't know how to make coal heat up meat).

This assignment was relatively easy for me... the second time. The first time I tried this assignment I failed by logging onto a public library computer while trying to find a book to borrow to keep myself entertained for the next 40 hours. So I started this assignment all over again a few weeks later. I had a lot of prepping to do for this 48-hour electronic fast. 

On Saturday the 8th of March, I spent all afternoon getting ready for my fast. I bought a bunch of can foods, fruits, peanut butter, grape jelly and white bread (wheat bread was a little too pricey at Harmon's). Then I drove myself somewhat across the street over to Lowe's and starting buying up their whole garden department. I bought a hoe, a rake, a shovel, a spade, several packs of gladiolus flowers, a whole bunch of sunflower seed packets, three one-pound bags of grass seed, some wild bird seed and some little pink gardening gloves. 

I took one look at my weed-infested rectangle dirt patch of a yard and decided it was make-over time. My little brick patio is cool but I wanted it to stretch out to my back wall. I had a brick pathway that lead to the inclosed master patio but it really didn't need to be that wide. However, though I could take some bricks from the pathway and move them over to the main patio it wouldn't be enough bricks to reach the back wall. So my solution was to spread the bricks out more and do a checkered pattern. It was the perfect solution for a prettier backyard! I was able to maximize the use of the limited quantity of bricks, thin out the extra large pathway and extend my patio with a unique chess board looking design. 

Here's the sketch I drew up before I started: 

My handwriting is ugly when writing with a stylus - just to let you know. 

Here's a bunch of "before" pictures that my fiancé took of my yard: 

The over-sized brick pathway.

My fiancé's cat Booger Jeans standing in my weed-infested yard.

I got my hoe out and hoed up half my yard within an hour. Pfffft, it was so easy. (There are no photos of me because I may have been multitasking by trying to get an awesome tan while working and wasn't dressed appropriately for photos.)

The fiancé helped me with this part. This was not easy.

At the end of day one we were both very tired and he went home to go to bed. I trusted him to come back over and help me again the next day without me having to call him and reminded him.... But he forgot.... 

I ended up doing this part by myself because I didn't want to slip into the temptation of easily calling someone up over the phone to have a conversation. I had planned on only having in-person conversations. (I may have slightly cheated and may have turned my iPhone on to take these pictures.)

The new thin, little pathway.

Then I spread grass seeds all over the place... Kinda messed it up because I suck at following instructions... I blame the fiancé for not being a man and helping his woman.

I casually ran out of grass.... And this was perfect timing because my 48 hours were complete and I was able to go buy more grass seed!! ...cause I don't carry cash around...

Overall, my experience in this device abstinence didn't really bother me. I was over-prepared for this and I think that would have changed the outcome just a little bit if I had went cold turkey out of the blue with no foreword.

Of course I kept myself busy and entertained with my backyard project but there were a few times when I had an itch to go get my iPhone and open my Pandora Radio app. I also had the itch to Google "how to properly spread grass seed" and that will forever remain a mistake.... I mean, just look at that horrible grass job I did...

I guess one thing I learned was that when tough situations arise the best ethical way to go about it is to do the greatest good for the greatest number... and for me, that would have been to use the Internet or some form of social media to ask for help to achieve a prettier backyard so that one day I will be able to sell this house for twice as much as I bought it for. 

Any takers? I'll be asking for $198,000 in the year 2020. 

Film to Digital Convergence

How many of you have ever taken a video with your camera phone and then uploaded it straight to YouTube from your phone?

How many of you have ever distributed a professional film through distributor's such as Netflix or even a professional studio to get it up in theatres? 

Best Device: Oculus Rift

Oculus Rift is a new virtual reality, 360 degrees head tracking, stereoscopic, wearable and affordable ultra wide field of view headset. It's a device that you wear strapped around your head which then gives you a real life perspective into a video game. In simpler terms, its a personal video game screen in a box attached to your face.

Is it really the "best advice"? According to The Verge, Wired, Engadget, Business Insider, Gizmodo, CNN, Time Magazine, TechRadar, The Wall Street Journal, and so many more, this new virtual reality device is turning heads wether you're wearing the headset or not. As for my insignificant opinion on the device, I think it makes you look like the biggest anti-social person ever. I mean, your face is being consumed by a box. You're in your own little world and there's no escaping until your mom says "dinner's ready!"

As far as convergence goes this device is still just a prototype. Once it becomes more readily available it will provide the performance of a game into a whole new world. The interactivity of this device is entirely visual. You don't actually push buttons or touch the device once it's sucking onto your face. All you have to do is just look around and move your head from left to right to experience the interactivity thats happening in your interpersonal bubble. You are entirely in control of what you look at when you play a game with this snow-goggle-looking tumor hanging in front of your eyes.

With the research I've done on this device I found that a lot of people have been giving their own personal reviews and a few of them have said the phrase "without even leaving the comfort of your home." I understand that it means you can go have fun and get the thrill of a roller coaster without having to get dressed first... but does that mean that one day cars will be obsolete? Because we can just do everything from home?

The developer of the Oculus Rift, Palmer Luckey, says that he wanted to be more involved with his games. He wanted something that would give him an experience like no other. But he couldn't find anything that he was looking for so he just started developing it himself. Other people must have had the same desire as Luckey because suddenly this device had $75 million invested in it.

For some people, gaming is just a temporary escape from reality. But for others, gaming is their reality and their whole world. So why not make it a virtual reality? The technology is there. Go for it.

This device started on KickStarter and raised $250,000 in no time. “All of the components in this prototype have existed since late 2008" said Luckey. "It's old stuff: four-year old technology. We have fitted it with a more modern display and a better tracker since [the Kickstarter campaign], but what everyone has been writing and raving about since then existed in 2008.”

“Even though it’s reliant on external hardware, whether that’s a PC or mobile device, that definitely won’t be forever necessarily,” said Nate Mitchell, Oculus VR’s vice president. “It’s just the inevitable direction the industry is going to go in, especially for VR and [augmented reality]. The Rift is going to support plugging right into your mobile phone or tablet."

However, the compatibility with the XBOX One or the PlayStation 4 doesn't look so good right now. The only way to play new games is to find a developer and have him or het make a game fitted to the Oculus Rift... Oh... and did I mention that they're hiring?

Overall, the Oculus Rift has been awarded many "best of..." and "best concept/prototype/design..." but is it really the best device so our social society? ...I don't think so. I don't think the Oculus Rift brings anything to the table except entertainment. I see it as unpractical and destructive to our social capabilities and our economy.

Would you buy this?

Hey Eric,

Would you buy this for one of your kids? 

http://mashable.com/2014/02/20/wikibear/

Just wondering. 

-Sara

No Sex Please.

Did you know that in Japan there are more old people in diapers than there are new babies in diapers? Did you know that seven years ago there were 128 million people and by 2060 there will be 87 million people? Why is that? Why are there so many old people and why is the birthrate lowering? 

The answer is technology. 

They've taken social media to a whole new level - interpersonal media. In Japan, the anime and manga culture is so huge that it's actually consumed lives to the point of no desiring to procreate because maintaining a human relationship is too hard and messy. Instead the men have real relationships with computer animated girls. 

It's not just a "teenage thing to do." Anita Rani, from BBC, finds two men over 35 who are both deeply involved with thier virtual girlfriend. Her documentary No Sex Please, We're Japanese introduces us to Japan's culture and fascination with anime and manga.    

Sarah Eberspacher wrote an article called Everything You Need to Know About Japan's Population Crisis where she also sees these virtual relationships as a factor to the crisis. 

Assessment One: There's a Lazy Way for Everything

Yeah, that's right. I said it. There really is a "lazy way" to do just about everything. And it's all because of the Internet. Thanks to the Internet you can now order pizza online, buy your socks and underwear online, go to school online, watch TV and movies online, hang out with friends online, even tour the Grand Canyon online... and better yet, protest online. What? Yeah, apparently so.

**Begin New Content**

So I saw this bumper sticker the other day while driving to an undisclosed location: 

I had the kindness to blur out the dude's license plate... But is it all that nessiscary? I mean, look at the bumper of his 4Runner. From the back of this guy's gas-gobbling SUV you can see that he's a firefighter (special license plate), he's a right-winged republican (Mit Romney bumper sticker) and he doesn't believe in the liberal media (the obvious one). 

Well sir, thank you for all that information. Now if only you had a sticker with your name on it... Then I'll be able to look you up on Facebook and see what high school you graduated from and all sorts of other information about you. 

I guess I could do that with any car on the road - stalk them and such - but this guy is making things extra convenient for me by displaying who he voted for and what kind of person he is. 

This guy seems like a genuinely cool guy. He drives a pretty cool car that can get over 200,000 miles and still drive like new. He's a firefighter who relates to the hardworking, conservative American. He's obviously a very smart guy... Who also disagrees with the liberal media. 

Why? 

Why would you have a biased bumper sticker about biased news? And another biased bumper sticker regarding your biased opinion on who you think should be president?  

I don't play the little game of "I'm pro this. I'm anti that." Overall, I don't do politics. At all. I don't have a stance on abortions, I don't care who the president is and I don't care all that much about this dumb gay debate. 

I mean, who am I to say that gays can't get married? I don't care. So go do what you wanna do, leave me out of it and leave me alone. 

In other words, stay out of my life and off my Facebook profile, everyone. 

***End New Content***

Assessment One: 

"How [I] believe public opinion may have been influenced through social media and new devices"

Let me ask you something, you know those posts on Facebook that go around saying "click 'like' to find a cure for cancer" or something dumb like that? Well did you ride the wave of changing your profile picture to a red equal sign during that equal rights debate in the summer of 2013? Because apparently some people think that counts as voting.

In an article on Mashable.com, Alex Fitzpatrick asks the question "Did Red Equal Sign Avatars Affect Court's Marriage Decisions?" Although the answer to the question seems to be undoubtedly "no" there are still some people, such as those who participated in the "changing your profile picture for a cause" phase, who believe this is a strong show of protesting. (I only see it as affective as a bumper sticker.)

The definition of "voting" is: to express a wish to follow a particular course of action. And voting is generally submitted anonymously. So why would anyone want to tie their name, their martial status, pictures of their kids and what they're a "fan" of to their vote for the government to see? Doesn't that seem like a lot of free private information? Is that the cost of being lazy and not protesting out on the streets or even simply doing some homework on this liberal communist before voting for him because "he's cool because he's black"?

I believe social media has the power to made anything look good (and sometimes bad), but I still need to ask myself if what I'm observing and learning from the Internet is really what it appears to be.

"How social media [has] contributed to the push for action, either in efforts to petition for or against marriage equality in Utah, and to organize for civil protest"

Facebook lets people express freely and instantly. It's able to catch the attention of people in power, much in the same vain as what happened with proposition 8. People outside of influence, in an entirely different state, were able to make an impact. The Internet and social media give us the opportunity to voice our opinion and come together with people with the same values and perspectives. 

People who participated in this movement changed their profile pictures hoping that the government would see the red box with the pink equal sign and then make gay marriage legal. So... that means these people are okay with the government spying on them and looking at their profiles? Well, so it looks like you guys got your way, I'm sure it helped but it didn't entirely convince the courts - according to Fitzpatrick.

So now that you gay guys can get married what're you going to do next? Try to legalize sodomy? Yeah, let's not put up pictures of that all over our Facebooks.

Moreover, I don't think changing your profile picture should be considered a valid ballot. Fitzpatrick's article states that the red equal signs showed a great deal of support and it wasn't over-looked but it didn't actully affect the court's decision. I don't think the government should be looking at our private social media outlets for opinions or votes. Everyone on the Internet is opinionated. Myself included. But the government needs to restrict itself when it comes down to our private lives. 

"What [I] think about technological determinism's role in this"

I think technology should never take the role of parents or social activities. It can be a great tool but it needs to be used responsibly. Advances have given us more opportunities to learn and explore, all from the safety of our own home, but it's important that we get out of our home and learn how to be a normal civilized person and function properly in society. 

I've seen how influential social media can be and its foolish not to believe that it hasn't affected gay rights. People use the Internet to let their voices be heard and this topic is no different. 

When the TV show Glee comes on in the homes of our society it becomes "normal" to see gay people having a good time and enjoying life. All we want in life is to be happy and when we see someone expressing happiness we are happy for them. I'm not gay myself but I do see that there are happy gay couples and I don't want to be the rude one that doesn't support their happiness. But at the same time I didn't change my profile picture to support their happiness.