The Effect of News Deserts in Today's Society

News deserts stood out to me because I have been all too privy to the effects of misinformation on rural, white American communities. I am from Charleston, WV, and when I heard about news deserts, I related to it immediately because it is a very real problem that I see every day.

Since the 2016 election, the nationalization of media has had a negative effect on areas without robust local media, those who want and need news about their local communities. The slow death of local media has created an epistemic closure in conservative, rural areas. This has lead to the popularization of "fake news" stories being widely spread on Facebook, which are usually untrue and extremely misleading. 

There is no easy solution to solve this problem and contradict the narratives that lots of rural white voters have come to believe are true. It is nearly impossible to combat all of the fake news with "real news," especially because most of the sources offering the real news aren't trusted by those in the small communities.

Local media outlets used to be that trusted news source for those in small communities. They are slowly being economically strangled, however, by today's political environment that requires them to turn to nationally syndicated programs and stories, instead of focusing on local events. These problems would most likely be solved by a more robust local media presence, specifically a larger local media online presence, but they lack the means to pay for that.

How the Internet is Fueling Domestic Abuse

So it is no secret to my friends and those around me that I am a feminist and I am very vocal  with my thoughts on the cowardice behind domestic abuse. Individuals who perpetrate domestic violence are weak and awful people and the internet has provided them with new means to harass the men and women they choose to attack. 

The two TED talks that I have included below really inspired me to speak out against the terrors of domestic abuse. Hearing about these two strong, amazing women and what they went through truly shook me to my core, and they truly changed the term "victim" for me. 


In the second video, Darieth Chisholm, TV personality, author and women's rights advocate, talks about her horrible experience with revenge porn. In her talk, she says that 1 in 25 women have been impacted through cyber domestic violence. And for women under 30, that number changes to 1 out of every 10 women!

When I was researching this topic for this blog post, I had difficulty finding any information on this, despite the staggering number of people affected. I found two articles on the subject that, but that isn't nearly enough considering how popular this method of abuse has become! Legislation has failed to be passed to help these women out of this situation and no one seems to be concerned.

TED Talks:
https://www.ted.com/talks/darieth_chisolm_let_s_call_revenge_porn_what_it_is_digital_domestic_violence

https://www.ted.com/talks/leslie_morgan_steiner_why_domestic_violence_victims_don_t_leave?language=en

The Overton Window and Political Opinion Today

The Overton Window is the range of things that constituents are willing to accept and consider. These ideas are what politicians use to run a successful campaign. This window shifts over time, depending on the trends of social thought and norms.

With the political landscape shifting in sometimes startling ways, the Overton Window theory is becoming more and more relevant. Things that were once just an obscure idea have started to gain broader relevance. 

The Overton Window has become a useful tool to keep up with what's going on in the world around us. Policies that were once dismissed for being too extreme, like "Medicare for all", a 70 % top tax rate, sweeping action on climate change or abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement, are now being discussed in mainstream political circles.

But the window is a description, not a tactic for achieving political power. Shifting it doesn't mean proposing extreme ideas to make somewhat less extreme ideas seem more reasonable. Overton came up with the theory to explain that the key shifts begin with the public, and political organizations is not to get politicians to support policies outside the window, but to convince voters that policies outside the window should be in it. If they are successful, an idea that was previously thought of as unthinkable can become so inevitable that it is hard to believe it was ever otherwise.

Joseph P. Overton was an executive at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy in the 1990s when he introduced the concept now known as the Overton window. He died in 2003.Creditvia The Mackinac Center for Public Policy

I

My Online Footprint

I have never had a good relationship with social media, but I have always had one because it felt like a necessary evil. I was a popular target for cyber bullying when I was younger because I was the first girl in my small, sheltered Catholic school to ever get a 'boyfriend'. I got slandered with the words "slut" and "whore" in person and on my social media pages from the age of 13-15 and that was traumatizing to me. I just remember thinking, "who is seeing these things, and thinking I was a slut when I hadn't even kissed a boy yet?"

Because of that, I have been an advocate for how important it is to teach young girls the emotional dangers of social media. I don't think its fair or appropriate that we are exposed to that kind of sexist ridicule at such a young age, because it really takes a toll on your self esteem and it has a lasting effect. However, as much as I am an advocate of that, I had never actually practiced what I preached. I kept all of my pages, untouched, expect for once every couple of months when I had some photos I felt needed sharing with family and friends because I was truly proud of them. I just couldn't make the plunge into deleting my pages entirely, until my instagram was hacked a couple of weeks ago.

I tried desperately to get it back, but to no avail and I had no choice but to just let it all go. It was isolating, freeing and altogether terrifying. It sounds dramatic but thats the kind of power that social media can have on the youth of today. It goes from a fun way to connect to your friends to a nightmare all too quickly.

Snapchat and the Diffusion of Innovations Theory

Everyone on my campus has a Snapchat account, and usually their parents and family do, too. For me, it is a fun way to share snippets of my life with those that I may have lost touch with and see what my friends from high school are doing in college. Snapchat stories, the most public form of communication on the app, are only 24 hours and so it is a fun way to let people know what's going on with you in a less formal manner than any other social media platform. You can also have private conversations with people that "disappear" when you click out of them, so it provides the personal connections that come with texting with the social aspect of other platforms.

According to this Forbes article, Snapchat started gaining popularity in Los Angeles high schools in 2011. This timing was important because Apple came out with their front facing cameras around the same time, so as the "selfie" became popular, so did the app. It's popularity grew as students encouraged their peers to download the app, similar to how Facebook became viral. The biggest key to the app's amazing success was the early team; they were incredible at listening to and understanding users' concerns and they made changes when they felt they were ready to do so.

Finally, Snapchat started making a lot of money when they provided advertisers and other companies with a way to individually target users in a way that no other app had before. It didn't feel invasive because you still had your personal side of the app, that included conversations with your friends and no ads. On the public side of the app, you could view your friends public stories with ads that you can click through, as well as stories from bigger companies like BuzzFeed and Cosmo. The bigger companies stories include ads that you can't just click through so you have to view the ad for a few seconds if you wanted to continue the story.

They have really turned the app into a viral sensation that is part of my everyday life.

The Importance of the 5th Value of Free Expression

5. Check on Governmental Power (watchdog role)           

 As Watergate, Irangate, Clintongate and all the other “gates” demonstrate, freedom of the press enables citizens to learn about abuses of power – and then do something about the abuse at the ballot box if they feel so moved. We, along with the press, are part of the check-and-balance system to restrain government power and abuse of power.  

I am a huge believer in this value of free expression because I believe that everyone should be involved with their government, in order to keep them in check. Our government has a lot of power and if no one is doing anything to keep them from taking advantage of that then things can go horribly wrong. That’s why I could argue that this rule is more important than any other on this list because with unwielded power, the government could take away our right to free expression all together. Now, that is a bit extreme, however, I believe this one is still one of the most important.
I mean come on, of course I do, I’m a political science minor and a communications major, meaning I believe in civil conversation about government actions more than most 20-something-year-olds. I love when my friends get excited about politics; I mean some may call it yelling, but I call it excitement. I think that every young person should be passionate about what they believe is right or wrong, which a lot of them are because we always think we’re right. The important part of having those strong beliefs is also listening to others’ beliefs, having the facts to back up your opinions, and being able to agree to disagree at the end of the day. 

I digress, the point I am trying to make here is we’re never going to all agree on the same thing, and who would want us to. But the one thing everyone can agree on in politics is that they want to know what is going on. That’s why everyone reads the news every morning isn’t it? Why we watch our favorite nightly news network every evening? We, as human beings, are naturally curious creatures. We want to know what’s going on in the world around us and how it may affect us personally and that is why this freedom of expression exists.

How does the Internet empower us?

There is a paradox to our relationship with the internet when it comes to empowerment and agency. Does it empower us or does it enslave us? Perhaps it depends who you ask.
Agency becomes an extension of literacy, and our ability to properly wield the powerful tools that are available to us. For some the empowerment is derived from a confidence that comes through proficiency. For others disempowerment is a consequence of the anxiety that comes through not understanding how the technology can and should be used.

The reason literacy plays such an enabling and empowering role is the requirement for rapid learning in the digital age.

It’s not as if there’s a finish line to the Internet, a point where you can say you’re finished, and you’ve learned it all! On the contrary, lifelong learning is the new norm, and those who embrace their own daily education are empowered and find navigating society a breeze.

Literacy is not just the ability to read, but at a more fundamental level the ability to recognize patterns. The ability to read text and actually comprehend. The ability to surf the web and find that needle in the haystack you sought out to find.
Perhaps it is the attention deficient culture that makes it difficult for many to make that connection, whether with other people, or with the emerging tools and environments that can be empowering.
How do we slow down? How do we take the time to focus when we live in such a fast paced world?

Cohen's Key Points

On February 27, 2019, Michael Cohen, President Trump's former fixer testified before members of the House Oversight Committee. Say what you will about Cohen's Testimony, it was still an important part of our culture as we know it. The trials, in my opinion, were a great indication of how much our world has changed since Donald Trump was elected President because I have never heard so many young people talking about a televised House hearing so passionately in my life. This is so important because we are the future and I am so proud to be a part of a generation that cares so much about what is going on in the world around them. I would just like to have that said before I begin discussing my thoughts on the trial. If you didn't have the time to watch the trials yourself, C-SPAN has many clips on their YouTube page and website, if you'd like to check them out. If not, I will highlight the 4 things that I felt were key takeaways so you are all caught up.

1. The evidence and claims that Cohen and his team provided could be even more damaging to his reputation than we thought.

Cohen said that the president had firsthand knowledge of the payment made to Stephanie Clifford. Stephanie Clifford, known by her screen name Stormy Daniels, is an adult film star that Trump supposedly had a sexual encounter with. Cohen was prompted by Trump to pay Ms. Daniels $130,000 just before Election Day in 2016. He also presented a copy of a check dated Aug. 27, 2018 for $35,000 from President Trump's personal bank account that bore Trump's signature. Cohen said that the check was one of 11 installments that the president wrote to reimburse him.
Furthermore, Cohen said that the president directed him to lie about Trump's knowledge the payment.

2. Trump might still be involved with Russian entities.

Cohan testified that Trump asked questions about negotiations regarding the construction of a Trump Tower in Moscow, on at least six occasions in 2016. In his opening statement, Cohen says, "Mr. Trump knew of and directed the Trump Moscow negotiations throughout the campaign and lied about it." He later explained that Trump never explicitly told him to lie about the negotiations. Rather, Trump spoke in a sort of "code" that Cohen was able to discern after over a decade of working with him. Additionally, he said that Trump knew about WikiLeaks scandal before it happened, mentioning a meeting between Roger Stone Jr. and Julian Assange where the information dump was discussed.
I think it is an interesting thing to think about and these claims say a lot about our president, but he did not provide enough evidence for this particular claim to make it infallible. He left himself open to a lot of scrutiny, which caused his words to be less impactful than they should have been.

3. Cohen defined his role when he was a part of Trump's team.

Cohen is known as "a fixer," meaning that his job is to fix problems that come up through any means possible. He most commonly had to stop negative articles before they were released, made easy by working with the company that owns The National Enquirer. He has also written threatening letters to schools, warning them against the release of Mr. Trump's academic records, and paying off individuals with compromising information about a presidential candidate. 

4. Cohen's testimony felt personal when he went after Trump's character.

It is very difficult to gather hard evidence assessing someone's true motives and character. It takes years of trust and friendship to really know what a person is truly like and that was why Cohen's testimony was such a hot topic. He said that Trump made bigoted remarks about African Americans in the US and about predominantly black nations. He said that Trump would boast about his assets when it served him, and undervalue his earnings when it came to tax purposes. The only exculpatory information that he offered about Trump was that he did not hit his wife, Melania, like he supposedly was caught on video doing.

So we're left with the big question on everybody's mind: is Cohen is a reliable source? It's a logical and important question, especially in a world where "fake news" is everywhere. He was recently accused of perjury, but prosecutors are used to questioning witnesses with credibility problems. But Robert Mueller and federal prosecutors in the Southern District knew this before beginning the trial and so they made sure that every statement made by Cohen was backed up using corroborating evidence. It is your choice whether you wish to believe his words or not, but veracity aside, they were damning enough to make you think 'is Trump is the right man to lead our country?' 

Why Aren't Young People More Politically Active?

In recent years, young people's attendance has fallen behind at the polls. According to Gallup, for example, 82 percent of people age 65 and up have an interest in voting, whereas only 26 percent of those under 30 do. 

One possible explanation is that young people have a negative reputation when it comes to politics. Even if they were to come out and vote in the midterms, they likely still will be called out for not participating, from both left and right sides.

Of course, that's not true, many millennials are very politically engaged. Look at the leaders of popular movements such as Black Lives Matter, the climate justice movement, or March for Our Lives. And millennials have recently started running impressive campaigns for and winning public office. But over and over again, the query remains: Why aren’t more young people more politically active?

If we are really passionate about increased participation in politics among the generations coming of age in the 21st century, a few things need to change.

Many people are ashamed to admit that they don’t know how to vote, and a lot of the times the issues they are going to be voting on have not even crossed their radar. Young people are afraid to ask these questions for fear of looking "dumb," but why is that? It is not a secret that civic education is severely lacking in today's high schools and most teachers do not want to talk about politics because it is too controversial. But here's the thing: civil discussions on political matters are so important! Young people need to see that so that they will be able to discuss things in a civil manner in the future. When every news source we have is showing us severely segmented discussions about political matters, how our we ever supposed to get along??

And this segmented way of life that pits Republicans and Democrats against each other doesn't stop when you get to college. Today, one of the most common ways that students can get politically involved on college campuses is through College Democrats or College Republicans organizations. Yet, more often than not, these clubs only serve as networking opportunities for like-minded individuals. You really don't get to learn about the important issues and you definitely do not learn how to see the other person's point of view. 

Instead of shaming young folks for not knowing where to get stamps, why not help them learn?

It’s time to ask: Why aren’t more adults willing to be mentors? Teachers, parents, counselors; you are who young people look up too. You are responsible for shaping the young minds of America. So please, instead of just trying to impose your own political views on us, teach us about the issues that really matter, and allow us to develop our own opinions. Don't keep us in the dark any longer. 

Shifting attitudes are no substitute, of course, for laws that make political participation easier—such as strong civic education, automatic and same-day voter registration, and lowering the voting age. But mentoring is a big step everyone can take immediately to help end critical barriers to youth participation once and for all.

Facebook: Positive Innovation or Attacker of Privacy?

 In its time, Facebook has become one of the most powerful and profitable companies the world has ever seen. Facebook had it's 15th anniversary recently, which prompts me to ask: is that a good thing or a bad thing?

On the one hand, Facebook provides news and entertainment. It helps users keep up with their loved ones, and connect with people from all walks of life, especially the generation that grew up without cell phones. It even goes beyond bringing people together, it has helped people to launch businesses, and enhance their brands. It provides an outlet for creativity, which all in all is a huge plus. Most importantly, Facebook has made our world smaller, connecting people with friends and family in ways that weren't possible before.

On the other hand, Facebook has had its problems, many which have serious implications. Facebook has warped the notion of privacy, changing the way media businesses operate. And we all know about the bullying and negative comments, the foreign interference, the recruitment of terrorists, plus the way dictators worldwide are using Facebook to monitor citizens and to restrict their news content to government-sponsored information only. It has disrupted democratic systems and facilitated a global disinformation crisis. These are just the challenges we're aware of, there are surely more to come. There are regulations that are coming soon, but will that be effective? Only time will tell.

Where I get my News

New York Times

I like the New York Times because it's a moderate to slightly liberal news source, but I feel as though it describes most events from both sides of the aisle. The New York Times has a lot to look at, in addition to news they have opinion pieces, arts, living, and more with many diverse topics in each category. I think it is a great general news source that everyone should check out. The only negative about this news site is it does require a subscription to view most things, but it is only $1.00 a week for the first year!

USA Today

USA Today is one of my favorite news sources to read because they cover a wide range of topics and their layout presents easy to read articles that encourage me to stay connected to the world around me. They cater to a centrist audience, meaning that they are searching for a peaceful, nonpartisan, middle-ground solution to political issues. They also offer amazing human interest stories and cover political issues from both sides of the isle.

BuzzFeed News

BuzzFeed News is news source that specifically caters to young people who are interested in news stories that affect their everyday life. They publish stories that are popular on social media and that appeal to the issues that are important to millennials. It is a heavily left-leaning news source that, despite winning a few Pulitzer Prizes, they have been heavily criticized on their journalistic integrity. I still believe that BuzzFeed is a great place to see stories about women's rights issues and the LGBT community, so I personally enjoy viewing their articles.

Vox

Vox's Mission is to explain what is going on in the world in a way that their readers can understand. By including more background and context information than any other news site. They have stunning displays and a beautiful website that makes stories easy to read and digest. They want their readers to form opinions for themselves and so they try to be as neutral as possible and show both sides of a story to give the full scope of information.

C-SPAN

I love C-SPAN because it offers a direct channel of communication from political leaders to their constituents. They are one of the only news sources that offer a completely unbiased view at our government's proceedings. Real, live news with no edit, filter, commentary, or distortion.