"Google This": A Critical Approach

                                         
     Google is an excellent example of how a media enterprise adapts to convergence and the digital age to embrace the power of media in everyday life.  Technology changes society’s expectations of mass media by arranging culture in hierarchical categories like "skyscrapers" (Cunningham, 2015).  As people "Google" this or that, media companies influence over the order of the information displayed.  In searching for information about a topic, the initial information displayed does not always reflect proven facts.  Traditional arguments against the convergence popular culture of Google expresses concern for changing society’s expectations and distractions from serious literature, art, and philosophy  (Cunningham, 2015).  This can cheapen public life by allowing powerful and complex themes thought of as trivial by creating click and go ethical standards.  Society may begin to conceive ideas or information as short-lived.  Thus, sole dependence on “Googling” information runs the danger of corrupting political processes and blocking social change by inhibiting rational thought. 

     New media environments defined by convergence does not offer neutral changes to society’s expectations of mass media and culture.  Today’s “participatory” nature of new digital media with unprecedented media access and information gives society a sense that it is better equipped to participate with in public life than before (Rapoy, 2013).  As technology globalizes the world this creates a radical shift from national to the global concerns (Rapoy, 2013).  As society’s expectations change for mass media, more people are eluding national policy and seeking to mix their own media and communication cocktails based on their own cultural perceptions. 

     The future possibilities of data have a lot to do with the preferences of the handful of people who control the biggest social networks like Google, Facebook, and Twitter.  Author, Evan Bailyn believes that technology is creating what he calls the “Pandora of People” where you would “Google” the name of a friend and a detail profile of their likes, interests, and personality traits would appear (Bailyn, 2012).  Data would be available to compare people’s interest to others anywhere in world. Globalization with the abundance of data could soon be compared to a Facebook friend's suggestions on steroids and even offer people opportunities to find mates.  This wealth of data creates an interdependent environment in which the national culture of society may be in danger because it dependent on mass media to answer questions within the Google search bar that may set expectations that dissolve or transform communication within and across cultural, national, and other identity divides.

References

Bailyn, E. (2012). Outsmarting Social Media. Indianapolis, IN: Que Publishing.

Cunningham, P. (2015, February). Mass communications: A critical approach. Retrieved from https://prezi.com/cqldx0hl7ot_/mass-communication-a-critical-approach/

Economist, T. (Author). (2012). Is Google making you stupid [Video].

Rapoy, M. (2013). Communicating with and across cultural, national, and other identities. What society needs from media in a the age of digital communication. Oxford, UK: Social Trend Institute. Retrieved from http://www.socialtrendsinstitute.org/experts/experts-meetings/civil-society/what-society-needs-from-media-in-the-age-of-digital-communic

Mass Media and Public Perception

                                                       

  

Image courtesy of Leverage Edu

       The constant reinvention of mass media raises expectations as gone are the days where we were limited to how we received information.  Through the invention of television, society could now, not only hear what is being said, but they also get to put a face to the voice.  An example of this is the 1960 Presidential debate between Vice President Richard Nixon and Senator John F. Kennedy where it allowed for people to not only hear what these candidate had to say but they also got to see the facial expressions, posture and the overall physical appearance of these men (Saylor Foundation, 2009).  This newest invention to the media family changed society’s expectations and helped America to decide whom to elect as the next President.  

      The growing impact of mass media created a pivotal time in American culture as the country got to witness for the first time politics through the lens of their own eyes without the limitation of only the sound in radio.  The appearance of candidates became just as important in politics as knowledge of current affairs.  Kennedy looked handsome, confident and in control where Nixon appeared to be nervous and sweaty (1960: The First Mass Media Election, 2015).  This added visual information through television created a new era where media had greater influence over society’s expectations.  The result was Senator Kennedy and his wife began the first mass media icons (Swaby, 2014).

       New media technologies both spring from and cause cultural change.  The newspaper was an essential medium for Europeans that settled in what was to be America to stay connected and develop their way of life to offer an initial expression to American culture.  Technological innovations such as the steam engine, electricity, wireless communication and the Internet have all had significant and lasting effects on American culture  (Saylor Foundation, 2009).  Electricity altered the way people thought about time because of lighting people were no longer restricted to daylight hours to accomplish tasks.  Wireless communication erased distance and the Internet changed the way information is stored and retrieved.

       Media historians Asa Briggs and Peter Burke said that every crucial invention came with “a change in historical perspectives (Saylor Foundation, 2009).”  Social theorist, Marshall McLuhan believed that media mediums are more important than any content that they carry because people and society expectations transform through the dominant media of their time.  Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg explains that the rise of social media mean that today’s culture no longer have expectations about privacy and are comfortable exchanging information (Johnson, 2010).  Mobile technologies offers everyone immediate and consistent access to Internet and its plethora of information.   
                  Recent Internet phenomenons like YouTube enables users to upload videos, television clips, and music videos seen worldwide within seconds (Saylor Foundation, 2009).  With access to so much information, society’s expectations develops a culture with convergent expectations that demands mass media to present news as it happens.  Mobile technologies created opportunities for members of society to become citizen journalist, or create their own brands into the next movie star or rising musician.  Social media establishes a medium for anyone to reach the masses with messages that can shape public perception and raise expectations of a culture.   

References

1960: The First Mass Media Election. (2015). Retrieved from The New York Times Upfront: http://teacher.scholastic.com/scholasticnews/indepth/upfront/features/index.asp?article=f100608_tp_jfk

Saylor Foundation (2009). Understanding media and culture: An introduction to communications. Retrieved from Saylor.org: http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=5&ved=0CD8QFjAE&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.saylor.org%2Fsite%2Ftextb

Johnson, B. (2010, January 10). Privacy no longer a social norm says Facebook founder. Retrieved from The Guardian: recent Internet phenomenons, few have made as big an impact as video-sharing

Swaby, S. (2014, January 13). Removing blinds through television invention. Retrieved from Marciaswaby.wordpress.com: https://marciaswaby.wordpress.com/2014/01/13/richard-nixon-vs-john-f-kennedy/

 

The Lost Cell Phone

                                               Picture courtesy of Google Images

It was a typical day of May in New York City; Ivanna woke up to a digital alarm clock (The Saylor Foundation, 2009).  Wiping the sleep from her eyes, she pushes back her covers to reach for her cell phone.  Ivanna checks her cell phone for the for today’s weather updates.  She then goes into the kitchen for a cup of coffee and breakfast Danish and as she sips her coffee she opens her laptop and begins checking emails, Facebook and Twitter accounts for the latest news.  Ivanna turns to her iPod for some disco pick up music to help get her to the shower.  On her phone, she orders a taxi to take her to work, not knowing that this would be the last time that she used her phone.  Ivanna leaves her phone inside the taxi cab. 

Sasha Gomez, 16, of Queens is the next passenger who luckily finds the expensive T-Mobile Sidekick that sold for $350 (Confessore, 2006).  Sasha began using the phone as soon as she found it.  Sasha sent instant messages and photographs to friends and family.  These seemingly harmless communications helped Ivanna and her media-savvy friend Evan Guttman to log into her account and track down Sasha with her phone (Confessore, 2006).  Evan contacts Sasha and asks her to give the phone back.  Sasha told him to take a hike.  Evan sent out communications to the New York Times and Sasha’s friends on MySpace.  Evan created a website that had two blogs dedicated to stolen phone.   Soon emails from around the country and even as far as Africa and Asia began coming in sympathy for his friend’s phone. 

Outraged citizens formed an online community that began investigating the story and sent Evan information through thousands of emails concerning Sasha’s family.  Police officers and lawyers began sending Evan legal advice by email.  Sasha still refused to give up the phone.  Sasha’s brother was military policeman that reached out to Evan to threaten him to back off.  He posted the brother’s comments online and public outrage was so great, word of the situation reached military authorities and results in the brother being told by his superiors that he was in violation of military policy.  Stubbornly, even with thousands of disgruntled emails and now the real threat that in frustration Evan would go directly to the police, Sasha still refused to give up the phone. 

The police arrested Sasha and charged her with possession of stolen property.  The story was in the New York Times, the International Herald Tribune and broadcast on MSNBC.  Sasha and her family experience public shaming and ridicule that would only be possible in today’s media culture.  On the hand, Evan became a cultural icon showing how society’s expectations of technology and media’s impact a culture that has to understand in order to maintain sense of society, digital freedom must come with responsibility.  In a 2011, NPR’s Clay Shirley podcast "Here Comes Everybody':  What's Next on the Web" made some bold predictions concerning the Web 3.0 and society’s expectations.  Today’s digital technology incorporates all of everyday life. Evan and many other citizens are able to use technology with media to create an ethical stance that the entire world could hear.

Reference

Confessore, N. (2006, June 21). Tale of a lost cellphone an untold static. Retrieved from New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/21/nyregion/21sidekick.html?_r=0

The Saylor Foundation, (2009). Understanding media and culture: An introduction to communications. Retrieved from Saylor.org: http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=5&ved=0CD8QFjAE&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.saylor.org%2Fsite%2Ftextb