Amelia: Media Law and Literacy

          "Hate Speech" taken from Who What Why Blog In learning about the eight values of freedom of expression the one that stood out the most to me was promoting tolerance. The foundation of this value essentially says that it’s important to protect hate speech in order to promote a more tolerant society. When you first read that statement it can be a hard pill to swallow. Why would anyone want to protect hate speech? I continued my research on this and was able to find some interesting information.             Erwin Chermerinsky the dean of Berkeley Law  discusses in an interview    with the New York Times the importance of hate speech being protected by the First Amendment. Chermerinsky says that hate speech, although hurtful, stresses an idea. By taking away a person’s right to express an idea we move closer to a society of censorship.  The core problem that arises ...

The creation of the Internet has been one of the most groundbreaking technologies our world has seen today. Without the internet you could not even be reading this blog right now! Here is a quick timeline of how the internet came to be leading up to before the World Wide Web was created.            1962 JCR Licklider proposes idea of having a networks of computers communicate 1969 The first message from one computer was sent to another using ARPANET(Advanced Research Projects Agency Network) which was the government’s internet network. One computer at UCLA sent a message to another computer at Stanford saying "Login". Only the first two letters were sent but this was the first time any type of messaging between two computers had been successful.  1969-1970: Other computer networks added all across the world in Hawaii an London to name a few major ones. But there needed to be a way for all computers to communicate even if the...

            This video is an incredible visual of the empty, self-absorbed world we sadly are a part of. We are prisoners of our phones, social media and the fake persona we display to the world. We completely value what we show to the world through platforms and altered identities instead of valuing relationships and quality characteristics.   How sad is it that we hide behind computer screens and phone screens and never truly look at what's in front of us? As a 20 year old college student I cannot tell you how many times I hear, "I can't wait to go to this event this weekend so we can get a good Instagram picture!" We live our lives and judge our characters based upon likes and shares and comments. Pictures we post on social media are truly our "highlight reel" in order to hide the reality and the pain that sometimes life doesn't look like the beautifully posed picture of you on vacation or the picture perfect couple at Disney World. ...

     The ever affluent notion of today's society to challenge national traditions and holidays continues with the rise of Indigenous People Day. Indigenous People Day is the new proposed name for Columbus Day. Columbus Day was originally found as a national holiday by President Roosevelt in 1937 to celebrate European expansion into America. In other words, the "fusion" of two cultures coming together.        Activists in support of a more diverse American history are in favor of erasing the Columbus from Columbus Day. The idea stems from the fact that the indigenous people were here first so really they should be the ones receiving the credit.   The governor of Maine as well as Senator Elizabeth Warren are both highly in favor of the name change and claim that there is a high amount of power in the name in which we choose to honor.       The author of the article linked below discusses the fact that changing the name...

    Facebook, do we really trust it? Do they really care about their users? Seven states and Washington DC have issued an anti-trust investigation into Facebook. Facebook certainly does not have the best record when it comes to keeping their user's privacy private. The states feel an overwhelming amount of responsibility in order to determine if Facebook's actions put users at risk by "endangering consumer data, reducing the quality of consumer choices or increasing the price of advertising." The investigation will look into data surrounding these three concerns with a large focus on breaking privacy and trust policies with users.        With that being said, this investigation also hopes to draw answers to the question if other social media platforms and competing networks are also being affected. The increased risk of harm stemming from Silicon Valley companies is raising a lot of red flags for the population and Facebook is not the sole com...

                     The Supreme Court I the highest level court in the United States. This Court has seen incredible amount of change and influence over the course of the last 200 years. This video  Supreme Court Video  gives a noteworthy insight into the history of the Court as well as personal stories and reflections directly from the justices themselves.               It is important to note that truly what kick started the grand influence of the Supreme Court was the Marbury v. Madison case of 1803. John Marshall had just been named the Chief Justice and under his term, the Court had struck down an act of Congress and deemed it unconstitutional. FOR THE FIRST TIME! This was a landmark case in the country’s understanding of judicial review. This case set a precedent for future Courts and justices, shaping the judicial courts into what we kno...

        Homeland Security Secretary McAleenan spoke, or attempted to speak, at the annual immigration conference at Georgetown University on Monday. McAleenan repeatedly tried to discuss his current thoughts and plans in hope to spark a discussion and have a Q&A session with Georgetown law students afterward. Each time he began, pro-immigrant protesters interrupted him by screaming, yelling and not allowing McAleenan a word in.   It was evident how upset McAleenan was.        On the last interruption McAleenan walked out of the conference with the quote, "I will try this one last time but if not I am going to get back to securing this country."   Georgetown law students who attended the conference in hopes of setting politics aside in order to learn, were extremely disappointed in their fellow students who "robbed" them of the incredible opportunity. Georgetown University was criticized for not asking the protesters t...