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Media and Society: Free Speech

December 8, 2010 in Blog, College with 1 Comment

How free is too free when it comes to free speech? This is the question that has been raised multiple times over the last few months as the controversial website, WikiLeaks, has published secret government documents ranging from the complete logs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to hundreds of thousands of diplomatic cables containing top secret information. Wikileaks says they are releasing the information to promote freedom of speech and government transparency. The questions remain, however: is this the right way to go about it and, even if it was not, do the web service providers have a right to block access to Wikileaks?

While little of the information in the recent diplomatic cable release was terribly shocking, much of it was potentially offensive to foreign governments and has the potential to damage some long-standing diplomatic relationships the U.S. maintains. The war logs show much information we already knew about the war, but also reveal some new information regarding civilian deaths in the wars. None of the information as of yet has created a massive uproar or revolution against government. But it has raised some interesting questions regarding government openness.

This article at ReadWriteWeb asks about the many web services (Amazon, PayPal, EveryDNS, Visa, Mastercard) that have blacklisted WikiLeaks from using their services for “illegal activity.” There remains a deeper question here: is it illegal? As of yet, a court has yet to pass any judgement on this question. This then brings into question the presumption of innocence in the United States. Are these businesses denying WikiLeaks a constitutional right? Are we bringing into question the true freedom of the internet?

There are many more questions than answers presented in this post, I know. That’s because I don’t know the answers. I can’t tell you.  I’m neither a legal expert or a web expert. What I do know is that the WikiLeaks scandal presents many issues regarding media freedom. The media industry in the U.S. is dependent on this freedom. Are we now questioning it in the name of national security?

Media and Society: Neutrality

September 20, 2010 in Blog, College with 1 Comment

Net Neutrality

Image from Francesco Lapenta.

“Net neutrality.” It’s a very technical sounding term you may have seen thrown around, but what does it actually mean? Wikipedia defines net neutrality as “the principle that all Internet traffic should be treated equally.” However, of late the term has taken on a more broad definition to include all public networks, such as cellular, telephone, and television. Debates have raged between media providers (such as YouTube, Facebook, and Google) and internet service providers (such as Verizon, AT&T, and Frontier) over whether we should embrace total net neutrality or whether heavier users of Internet resources should pay more.

This issue has resurfaced this week with T-Mobile considering a small charge for every text message sent through their network by a text-processing company, such as ChaCha. However, they’ve created exemptions for major operators such as Facebook and Twitter. This has raised the ire of many small companies far and wide as it makes it more difficult for them to compete in such an environment.

Our access to media far and wide could be jeopardized by the decisions made both by media providers and those who deliver that media. In time, the media you have access to may become increasingly more dependent on the amount of money you have to spend. The messages you take in online could be increasingly controlled by someone dictating what they do and don’t want you to see or hear. This already happens many times internationally in nations such as China and North Korea, but even sometimes in environments we choose to subject ourselves to such as colleges or workplaces with filtering systems. Our ability to learn new things in order to build new knowledge structures and develop our personal locus could be dictated by a select few. Our competencies and skills could be crippled because of a lack of access to certain types of information.

While I predict the day when net neutrality is a critical issue is far off, it’s a concern that needs dealt with today before it ever becomes a critical issue. Maintaining a media-literate society is dependent on being able to access whatever form of media we would choose. Neutrality can open the door for our society to be more media literate across all socio-economic levels.

Media and Society: Re-welcome

September 8, 2010 in Blog, College with 1 Comment

So it’s September now. And the last time I wrote here, it was May. Yes. I know. I committed blogger sin. But like Jesus, I know you, my kindly readers, are very forgiving. So thank you.

It’s been a while, so let me introduce myself anew to both my regular readers and new readers who will be coming along for the ride. I’m Evan Doyle, and I’m the Technology Director at KidzMatter. Perhaps more entrancing for the next few months will be the fact that I am currently a sophomore at Indiana Wesleyan University double majoring in Public Relations and Christian Education.

As part of my Public Relations program, I’m currently in a class called “Media and Society.” In this class we are not only analyzing media and the impact it makes on our society, but also what the media does to make those impacts. I’m very excited about it. One of the projects for this course is a weekly (or more often) blog analyzing a piece of media. Each of these posts will be preceded by the same tag as this post here: “Media and Society.” When you see that prefix, you’ll know you’re about to read a post about, well, what else? Media and Society.

I’m really excited about this. I can’t wait to see where we go between now and December. And maybe even beyond. Go college!