1. Social media represents a major shift in the media environment. How so?

Why
should we care about this phenomenon? (15 marks)
- social media represents a major shift in the media environment because it
has allowed us to communicate with others in ways that were not possible
before. For example, nowadays, we can message our friends from across the
world using popular social media apps. Furthermore, social media creates an
online space that allows us to share ideas and communicate with each. Such
recreational activities used to happen in coffee shops, can now happen in the
pawn of our hand.
However, while this rapidly growing phenomenon has made our lives easier, it
has also introduced new problems as well. For example, while social media
has enabled us to communicate with virtually anyone that’s also using the
same platform, it has introduced us to cyberbullying. This raises concerns,
especially to those that knows someone that has been a victim or is a victim
themselves, since it can be hard to monitor, and the solutions are still unclear.
In addition, the ethics, morals and laws are unclear when dealing with
anything social media related. Questions such as “should Facebook sell my
information in exchange for advertisements” is a debate that is still presently
going on. Regardless, although social media might seem second nature to
those who grew up with it, it has become a relevant phenomenon to those of
us that are affected by it.

2. What is media literacy (in your own words)? Why do many people consider it to
be important for society? (15 marks)
- I would define media literacy as one’s ability to understand the ins and outs of
a given media content. Furthermore, the goal of media literacy is to give
insight to how media works and how a person can produce their own media in
the future. By critically examining many aspects and types of media, one
could elevate their own understanding and interpretation of media and apply
them in real work scenarios.
Many people consider media literacy to be important to society due to the
overbearing dominance media has on our society. For example, nowadays, it
would be near impossible to live a day without being exposed to some sort of
media. Moreover, the ways medias have seeped into our daily lives and have,
perhaps, influenced or alter some of our decisions is alarming.
However, with better understand of media through media literacy, instead of
fearing it, we can learn how to coexist with it. This is because despite the
mysterious nature of media from a perspective of a newcomer, media, in
general, has made our lives easier.
3. Choose three ideas/topics that Gordon-Levitt discusses in the video and explain
how they are related to concepts or theories that we’ve learned in this course.
What is technological determinism, and does JGL fall into the category of a
technological determinist? Why or why not?
- “Social media platforms are selling our attention” is a concept that JGL talks
about in his Ted Talk. He talks about how social media are getting us to give
them attention, so they can sell to advertisements. He also talks about how
social media get us addicted to their platform so they can sell more attention.
This relates to the idea of “mass communication and its digital transformation”
since it introduced a new business model. By making their services free, they
are relying on getting as much users to use their product and then sell the
attention that is gain.
- “Our lack of ability to Pay attention” can decrease productivity since we focus
so much of what others think instead of the tasks that we were give. This
could be the effects that social media has had on us since our desire to get
approval of others on Instagram has made us more insecure. This is an
example of media effects and how media has influenced the way we behave.
- JGL mentions that “technology is just a tool”. This is the idea that technology
itself is not evil despite what some might claim and that its purpose is to help
make our lives better. This can relate to technological convergence since
technology is there to make mundane tasks easier and more convenient to
do.
- Technological determinist is the idea that the technology that we create can
shape our lives and it can also change the way we fundamentally see/do
things. JGL falls in this category because with the rise in popularity in social
media, he has able to gain more followers and spread his name around. He
has used to rise in popularity of social media to spread his name around.
Whereas before the age of social media, actors mostly got their names
around by showing up on talk shows, celebrity greetings, the films that they
were in, etc. Many of those options before were costly and time consuming
and social media has made it free and more effective.
4. Should we be scared of technology? Why or why not? Be sure to incorporate
concepts and ideas we’ve learned from the course. This does not mean that you
have to agree with all of those ideas – if you don’t agree with them, explain why.
- We should not be scared of technology due to the inevitability of technological
convergence. Technological convergence allows us to let technology take
over parts of our lives for our own convenience. It has made rudimentary such
as using a dictionary, searching up direction, reading e books, etc. easily
accessible and is constantly expanding into different fields.
Furthermore, technology has gave us access to social media for use of mass
communication. Although, this raises moral and ethical questions as to how
technology should be handled. For example, should a person be punished for
spreading misinformation? This can raise concerns to the general public
when technology is used irresponsibly. However, while some people have
abused technology for their own self-interest, there are many of us that rely
on it for everyday tasks
Therefore, the introduction of technology has brought concerns to the general
population, media literacy can educate and shed some light on what
technology can do for us. Although, there will always be those that abuse
technology out of their greed, technology has improved our lives in ways that
would make it difficult for us to go back on.