COMM325: Blog Entry 4 - Wikipedia

Prompt: Blog entry writing prompt: Assess the benefits and drawbacks of Wikipedia. Does the crowd sourcing truly prevent misinformation? If so, how? 

Wikipedia is a great tool. I use it often usually to satisfy a random question or trivial curiosity. I also use if as a starting point for more serious research. Wikipedia is a great resource for vetting topics for research. By looking up the questioned topic on Wikipedia you can easily see if it is written about often. Even though the actual information can not be used in serious scholarly documents it help to know that other people are interested in the same topic.

Unfortunately I don't think crowd sourcing prevents misinformation. The information is most likely not provide by subject matter experts and even if it is the articles do not receive the same kind of scrutiny that a scholarly journal would. This could potentially cause the information to be bias either by someone with motive or by ignorance of more complete research. I think this is why Wikipedia serves best as a starting place. 

COMM325: Blog Entry 3 - ProPublica and Creative Commons

Prompt: Why does ProPublica use Creative Commons licenses?

ProPublica uses Creative Commons licenses to give readers and follows the ability to share the stories posted on the site. ProPublica does this to increase their readership and the public impact of those pieces. ProPublic and Creative Commons differ from traditional media licenses in that sharing and copying are encouraged. This encouragement is bound by the agreement of the person/site sharing to note that ProPublica is the source of the story and to include the Propublica "PixelPing." This HTML tag, called PixelPing. allow Propublica to track the hits on a particular story in a non-invasive way. This allows them to further track readership and helps them to determine what types stories to pursue in the future. I think that ProPublica is the future of traditional journalism. The site is a great example of a sharing economy. The use of Creative Commons makes it even easier to pass information through the internet without hinderance

COMM325: Response to Postman Article

Prompt: Thinking of digital media as tools, how have they affected our culture? Postman says the tools “become the culture.” Do you agree? Why or why not? Think of a comparable invention today that changed society and explore its potential impact.

I agree with Postman. Our digital tools have become our culture. In today's age it is unusual to know someone that doesn't have some form of digital footprint. So unusual that those people will most likely receive a strange look after that admission

I like to consider myself a bit of a throw-back. I rarely use social media. I still buy physical books, CDs (though I rip them into MP3s), and the newspaper still gets delivered to my door. But the draw of digital is undeniable. As I sit typing this there no CD playing to produce the music I am listening to. Rather the tracks are pulled from the ether and I have nigh unlimited choices of what to listen to. Classical guitar I got it, new alternative metal well I got that too. All via a little app on a phone (Amazon Prime music service via iPhone). No more digging through dusty bins of CDs for me. No more ripping, no more concerns of running out of computer memory. I don't even have to know the whole name of the band or artist I want to listen to. An obvious must for those CD bin dives of the past. No now I can type in what I think I'm looking for directly into the app search box. That's how I found the aforementioned classical guitar. I typed into the search box on the app instrumental guitar and about five recommendations popped up. Through a quick trial of those five I found what I wanted for my reading soundtrack for the next hour. 

The streaming service like this app is where I think the biggest impact comes from. Now and even more so in the future media will be consumed on demand. We already have DVRs, Netflix, and a slew of websites dedicated to streaming movies, music, television and news that's updated to the second. I think this trend will continue and I believe streaming, on-demand media will eventually be the only way to consume media.I In 20-30 years maybe even sooner that broadcast TV network will go the way of VHS. I don't think the studios of these networks will go away just the delivery system.
I can see it now - 20 years from now - a family gathers on a couch  in front of the warming glow of a television and chooses a movie to watch on Netflix or maybe a compilation of silly cat videos via YouTube. Now that's entertainment

I Don"t Practice Santeria...Wa-What?

Been awhile...end of semester craziness, holidays...life gets in the way...blah, blah....excuses, excuses


I was in Wawa today. While I was getting coffee I noticed that Sublime's Santeria was playing. Weird right...not really what you expect to hear while in convenient store. Well even stranger was some of the Wawa Muzac edits...

                             Well I'd pop a &%$ in Sancho & I'd slap her down.

The word "cap" was edited. Probably a good word to edit for the young kids and elderly...I mean God forbid if the children start running around talking about popping caps in someone...Oh but this was just the beginning
This was classic editing...

                              Daddy's got a new &%$@!-&*!$
                              And I won't think twice to stick that *&!!#$ straight down Sancho's throat.
                              Believe me when I say that I got somethin' for his *&%$ !$%%.

At this point its just silly...I mean why play the song? And for what reason was punk edited?

I guess it could be offensive if you heard someone singing about killing a dude while you're waiting for your hoagie. But punk? Come on...

The funniest part was the style of editing. It wasn't the usually silly word dubbed over the "bad" word but this jarring sound like a tape being fast forwarded...

Somehow I still enjoyed it...horrendously edited Sublime is still better than most MUZAC

I wonder if I can make a request...hmm...maybe Smoke Two Joints or Forty OZ to Freedom