Media Convergence

Media convergence, what is it? How does it work? Is media convergence good or bad? These are all questions that the media world is asking, but what are the answers.
Media convergence is the idea that because of the progress in technology, various different types of media are combining into a single media. An example being, newspapers, magazines, tv, radio, and internet all being combined and accessed on our cellular telephone.
Media Convergence can be both good and bad as it all depends on our view. We may have different in view points if we see it economical, relational, or efficiency. A different stance could be taken on all of them as media convergence has a huge gray area when breaking it down into good and bad.
Economically media convergence is a huge influence of where money is going and who it’s coming from. It is usually more apparent in the buying of new technology, like computers, cell phones, palm pilots, or iphones. This is a process of constantly buying the technology to make life easier; fueling companies to make more advances in technology to constantly grow. Thus, making more opportunities, more places to invest; you know economics 101. But, if we are buying the new more efficient way to get all our media, who is buying the magazines, papers, cable, movie rentals. There really isn’t a need, because it’s all now in the palm of our hand.
Efficiency is a goal in our lives; the more we get done the more successful we are. This is apparent, but how do we accomplish these goals? Media convergence is suddenly making everyone a multi-tasker, we can get everything in one place. Your e-mail, cell phone, calendar, GPS, and another thousand applications are now found inside something called an iphone, which is no bigger than a poptart. Technology has made media so much easier to access and a hell of a lot cheaper to view, all your news papers, articles, videos, and time wasting games are now free.
Does media convergence help our relationships? It brought us facebook, myspace and every dating site know to man. It enables us to communicate by voice or text anywhere at any time. IF we have this much access to communication, we should all be that much closer, right! This does not seem to be the case, we in fact have grown further apart. We can communicate with each other 24/7 but what is the content of that communication. Our motivation has suddenly flipped, instead of caring, encouraging, considering, and affirming, we are looking to just please ourselves. None of us log on to facebook saying “man how can I help someone today.” It’s a selfish motivation to flaunt ourselves, hide our weaknesses, and see the latest gossip. It has corrupted the foundation for healthy relationships, which involves transparency, vulnerability, and sacrifice. None of which can be easily done through our wireless modem.
Media convergence is very gray area, as it all depends on our standpoint, where coming from, and what we’re trying to accomplish.

Review of "Just make it HackMe"

For this blog assignment I decided to critique the article "Just Hack Me" written by Ashlee Vance for the New York Times. The article focuses on the underestimation that we put on passwords as users, that many different users all seemed to use the same password in a recent study.

The articles main source of information comes from the site Impera. Impera contains information on the case that involves a hacking of a large number of user names and passwords on RockYou.com. After RockYou was compromised, Impera reviewed over 32 million passwords and complied the passwords in to most common used, which included password, 123456, and 123abc, but who's passwords where they.

The site RockYou is a software creator for sites like facebook or myspace. It provides its user with add-ons including slide shows, picture management and everything you would need to make your profile aesthetically friendly. Who would used this sort of software? I do not see this site as a priority for a strong password, nor do I see that anyone using it would have anything to be stolen as probably most of the users are 12-18 year old girls, looking to make something cute for there pages.

So if the data that is collect are the used passwords from 12-18 year old girls, how well is the article representing the amount of our population that use passwords to protect bank accounts or stock exchanges. I feel that the article scrutinizes the rest of society because of the misrepresented data provided.

I do feel that the article had very good content, as I agree that some people do not take their passwords seriously. They don't understand how easily it is to steal someones identity until its too late. The article also does a good job at finding explanatory quotes from seemingly reliable sources, but the quotes do seem to overload the topic.

The article is very un-balanced and unfair because of the misrepresented data, and the extreme use that is put on it. If the writer would have found more data proving his point, then I feel that the article would have drastically improved its worth to us readers.


“If Your Password Is 123456, Just Make It HackMe”, written by Ashlee Vance. It was published on the New York Times' website on January 20, 2010.

Haiti in Ruins

On January 14^th 2010 Haiti was shaken into rubble by a massive earth quake. This quake was so intense that is reached 7 out of 10 on the rector scale, 10 being the highest. The quake’s location was near the largest city in Haiti Port- du- Price, where over 2 million being affected by the disaster. The people of Haiti were left in ruin. There were thousands of people buried under the rubble and not enough rescue teams to save them in time. The suspected body count was near 100 thousand.

One man stated that “For the moment, this is anarchy,” said Adolphe Reynald (NYT), an aid to the port-du-price. There are thousands in need of food, water and shelter. The streets littered with dead bodies from the collapsed buildings.

The media acted swiftly to cover the story, as the reporters trying to get the destruction, horror, and grief on the papers back in the states. This included pictures on the New York Times site of the said dead bodies lying among the rubble, the morgues piling the ones that were not so lucky from the traumatic event.

My question is, does it seem right to show someone’s loved ones mangled and broken in our newspapers or on our websites. Are we disrespecting the lost lives of the disaster, or are we helping by using the graphic photos to better explain the devastation that unfolded. This picture would or could lead the people of our nation to help with the cause.

The point of a journalist is to set light in the darkness, to show people what needs to be seen, was the New York Times in violation of an ethical problem that the media has to deal with everyday. It’s hard to say who is right and wrong, yes the truth needed to be shown, but maybe not with a pile of bodies on the street.

Cave, Damion, Ruth Fremson, Neil MacFarquhar, Helene Cooper, Micheline Maynard, Donald G. McNeil Jr., Jack Healy, Sharon Otterman Ginger Thompson comp. "Patience Wears Thin as Haiti’s Desperation Grows." New York Times. 15 Jan. 2010. Web. 15 Jan. 2010.

Welcome

This is my first blog, My name is Drew, I am a senior graduating this May. I have been at the University for 4 years in Survey Engineering Technology. I am graduating in May hopefully, and I have no idea what my plan is.

A few things about me..
I love the outdoors, most of it includes a lot of water and elevation, or the too combined. My focuses in life are my family and God.

I have no interest in being a journalist. This is mostly because I am not much of a writer, but hey no worries, I'm sure that I will learn a lot in this class.