Blog #11 EOTO Reaction

 It's always interesting for me to learn about different types of media. Especially during this round of presentations there were a lot of terms I never heard of that were actually very interesting. The presentation that really struck my attention was on Citizen Journalism. 

Citizen Journalism is defined as the collection of news and analysis of news by the general public by means of the internet. 

I think this can be a positive thing for society however it might not be so good for the actual journalists who are going out and reporting stories. 

Having the public report on news is a good way to get multiple perspectives of a story. Sometimes the hired journalists have promises made to higher up people and can't honestly report on breaking news. 

The public has ties to no one so they can write what they want and tell a story how it is. They can open up stories that hadn't reached the big news outlets yet and give a head start to the people about what's going on. 

A famous example of a story opened up from citizen journalism is the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. News outlets eventually picked up this tragic story but it was because of the videos and pictures posted online that really grabbed peoples attention. 

It was really good in this time of disaster because people were able to inform each other about what was going on. The people involved were no doubt shaken so hearing from others that went through it established a connection of humanity and made people realize they weren't alone in it.

However there are issues to this. Citizen journalism is a good thing when disaster hits. These people can instantly tweet or post videos about what happened and be a first hand account of what's going on. 

Since they are on the seen its easy to just record and post without having to be a professional journalist.

The problem comes later when articles about the incident start to surface. It's really hard to disinherited citizen journalists compared to real, paid journalists. This can lead to a misconception about who is really writing and posting news. 

Theres also the problem of bias. Having bystanders and random people report on top stories because they witnessed it means they are only reporting what they saw and what they think. 

They aren't trained reporters so they don't know how to make an informative, unbiased piece which can lead to a lot of controversy in opinions. 

Citizen journalism is still a helpful tool for immediate news and information about something that is or currently happened. It also shows a more personal side of the story instead of news anchors just talking at the tv screen. 

You get to see what real people went through and what it was like being involved and so close to the scene.

Blog # 10 The Age of AI

The introduction of AI started off as a small cool new technology. I remember hearing about it for the first time and thinking how cool it was. Thinking about AI now I don't think that it's cool anymore. It's starting to make me scared. 

AI has started to take over the world. It can do anything you ask it to. If you want it to write you an essay about US history it can do it. 

If you need it to solve a math problem for you it can do that too. It can even create a new piece of art if you needed to create something original for an assignment or just for yourself. 

The big thing is AI taking jobs away from people. Already we see that factories don't need as many workers and are firing people left and right. 

There are even people working in healthcare who are getting replaced by artificial intelligence machines because they are cheaper to use. It's starting to expand into so many different job fields that AI is becoming a threat to the population. 

AI has been introduced into cars and trucks now as well. Self driving trucks are taking the jobs of truck drivers (scary) and Uber drivers. 

I think AI can be a positive thing and can really help out the human race but I don't want it to take over the world. I don't trust AI with certain things like driving a truck or an Uber with people in the back. 

I also feel like if AI can not compare to the human connection.

Humans are naturally social creatures and we need to interact and talk with one another. I cant imagine getting into a car and seeing no one in the drivers seat. It's scary but also boring. Having no one to talk to would make me feel so lonely. 

I don't want the world to turn into a lonely place. We need that human connection to stay alive and I don't want people to revert into quiet lonely people. 

AI is good for a lot of different things. It can help with travel questions, make security more advanced, and help with a multitude of customer service problems and questions. 

I love that AI is helping make things easier for us as a society but I hope it doesn't cross a line over into taking over our lives. I don't want to be surrounded by AI but rather have to find it when I need it. 

 

Blog #9 EOTO 2

 Going into this assignment I had no idea what Five Eyes was. I think that was their whole mission; to keep their alliance a secret.  The group wasn't officially made public until 2010 so they were able to stay under the radar for 64 years. Five eyes consists of five countries who have all agreed to share data and intelligence to keep these countries safe. Five eyes consists of The United States, The UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. 

Up until now there hasn't been much knowledge about what the alliance actually does. It was said that the group exists to pool together resources and share intelligence to enhance the security of its member countries.

It does this through sharing signal intelligence. It used to be through radio signals but since technology has advanced information can be shared through digital tracking.

It all starts back in 1946. The US and UK signed a secret agreement to to share intelligence between the 2 countries in order to combat the Soviet threat.

In 1950 Five Eyes was responsible for the defection of Russian Spy Vladimir Petrov. This event is what caused Australia to join the alliance group. New Zealand would join shortly after that.

In the 1970's Five Eyes hit a low point in time trying to get information about Russia because of all the controversy with political figures.

Richard Nixon was the main cause for the hard time Five Eyes was having. With all the scandal revolving around Watergate Five Eyes didn't want to risk getting outed so they held back with trying to spy on the Russians.

There was also a huge negative reaction towards the Cold War and the US entering into it with Russia. This was another reason why Five Eyes thought it would be a good idea to step back and hold off.

 After the cold war ended, the only thing they said about what the group did was to just keep people safe. They claimed to only prevent attacks, not carry any out themselves. At this time the alliance was still a secret so not much was said about the actual acts of the group.

The current role of the Five Eyes has many aspects. They look over the ‘maritime domain’ which is where the group watches shipping traffic pass through strategic maritime areas. They also watch over the ‘aerospace domain’ which covers missile tests, foreign satellite deployments and the military activities of relevant air forces. 

The group most recently has been watching out for terrorist organizations and weapon business deals. Five Eyes was very involved

 In 2013, with the massive leak of NSA documents by Edward Snowden revealed the five nations were not only spying on foreign countries and on each other but also collecting and keeping data on their own citizens. 

The Canadian government through the data and tracking of five eyes has publicly said they see the intelligence allegedly linking the Indian government to the killing of father, Hardeep Singh Nijjar and to find out if it was a targeted killing. 

Five eyes was able to help this family move closer to a reason why their father was killed.

This shows us through this case that Five eyes can also be used for good reasons and that they really do want to protect the people.

Blog #8 Privacy Online And Off

 Just because you don't see it doesn't mean it's not there. This quote from the Ted Talk by Catherine Crump really stuck with me. Hearing her talk about the surveillance all around us made me really start to question some things about the government. 

The police have cameras everywhere and are in most cases in places we cant even see. 

I don't like the idea of having a camera on me all throughout the day. In the video, Crump mentioned a person who was being tracked because of his license plate. 

The man had done nothing wrong but the cameras were all license plate readers and kept taking pictures of his care whenever he passed by. 

Another thing that really freaked me was the website Face.com and how it was sold to Facebook in 2012. The website exists to just keep track of faces online. 

People can also use it to try and identify people in pictures and find out who they are and some basic info about them. Police have also gotten really good with facial recognition and can use AI to identify anyone, even if it's a blurry surveillance photo. 

The fact that there could be pictures of me out there just like that makes me feel uneasy. It's interesting that the government takes these pictures just to hold onto them in case they are valuable in the future. It's like they are building evidence to use against you even if you have done nothing wrong. 

There was another video where the speaker kept talking about tattoos. He said that our digital footprint is like a tattoo and can follow us everywhere. Everything from a picture we liked on instagram to a store where we swiped our credit car. It's all there and tracked for the government to see. 

It feels strange that the government would need to know that someone spent money at a grocery store or went out to eat at a restaurant. It's useless information about a person except where their favorite place to eat is. 

I understand that the government wants surveillance because they want to keep their citizens safe. However I feel like it's wrong for them to be tracking and recording people who have done nothing wrong. It makes me feel under a microscope and question everything that I've done. 

I know that I haven't done any wrong but now seeing these videos it makes me wonder what information the government knows about me. 

I don't think the government should be allowed to spy on people like they are. It's a total invasion of privacy and makes me feel uneasy. 

I don't think the government should have as much access to peoples personal lives as they do now and I think more people need to start talking about it.