Annotated Bibliography

"‘Dangers of Surveillance’: Privacy Expert Reviews Why Increased Spying Is Bad." The Blaze. Liz Klimas, 2 Apr. 2013. Web. 01 Dec. 2014.

I believe that this website can contribute to my Digital Story for many reasons. First, this website has a satisfying common ground between both views on government surveillance. Since I'm doing both sides within my Digital Story i thought that a website based upon common ground would fit just right. The article says that surveillance is okay to a certain extent. Too much can cause an infringement on privacy and too little can be a safety issue.  The author says we can find a happy median without sacrificing our privacy.

Martin, Jessica. "The dangers of surveillance - it’s bad, but why? | Newsroom | Washington University in St. Louis." Newsroom | Washington University in St. Louis. Washington University, 1 Apr. 2013. Web. 1 Dec. 2014.

This article will fit well in my Digital Story because it gives facts on why government surveillance is bad. It is not only opinions but facts based upon laws. The article by Richards allows for a strong argument within my Digital Story and strengthens the side that believes surveillance is wrong. His article talks about how the government has no right to spy because of no warrants and no authorization. It also talks about how domestic surveillance is illegitimate to the citizens of the United States.

Gallington, Daniel. "The Case For Internet Surveillance." US News. U.S.News & World Report, 18 Sept. 2013. Web. 2 Dec. 2014. <http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/world-report/2013/09/18/internet-surveillance-is-a-necessary-part-of-national-security>.

This next article deals with why government surveillance is vital to our national security and gives a good opposing argument to the previous two articles. This article goes to talk about how government surveillance is vital for national security. It says that most countries around the world do it as it is necessary for protection. This article also mostly talks about how the government should do surveillance but not "spy". They should get warrants and executive orders for special occasions to do surveillance on suspected threats.

Gerald Walpin - We Need NSA Surveillance." National Review Online. National Online Review, 16 Aug. 2013. Web. 2 Dec. 2014. <http://www.nationalreview.com/article/355959/we-need-nsa-surveillance-gerald-walpin>.

This article also talks about how surveillance is necessary which brings in a good point of view to balance the opposing sides. This article goes against the allocations of the constitutional rights in the previous articles. This article goes on to say that what they use for surveillance does not go against the 4th amendment due to that information such as phone calls are not privacy protected. It also gives examples of how tracking the phone calls based from crime scenes can capture the suspects.

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Digital Story

For my Digital Story I plan on doing surveillance and how it is used in todays society. I will use SlideRoll, One True Media, or PowerPoint to depict my story. I will create a slide show with pictures and text underneath to describe the picture. I have not decided yet, but I was also thinking about playing music in the background, or taking out the text on the screen and doing a voice-over.

As we all know, government surveillance is an issue that bothers many people. In my slideshow, I will create a first person narrative about what I believe and some of the facts that are present. The reason I chose surveillance is because I believe that it as a great example of something at the intersection of digital media and social justice. As said before, I will incorporate my opinion about government surveillance as well as general facts found through online resources. In my opinion, I have nothing to hide when on the internet and so on. That does not mean I am for the government to continue tapping into our electronics. Some people are against it even if they nothing to hide due to it being a violation of their freedom. I am 100% for the government still using surveillance to catch terrorists or anyone that threatens our country or people. It does not make sense to spy on innocent people who have no ties to terrorists or any organizations along those lines. Its a tough subject because if the surveillance is halted altogether than its hard to catch terrorists, but on the other hand, if we do keep allowing them to spy on us but only for security purposes, how do we know that they will only spy on terrorists and not regular civilians? I do not know very much on this topic, just the basics, so it interests me to research it more and develop more of a backed opinion in order to create  a Digital Story. I will likely research the positives and negatives of the topic and decide what point of view I want to portray my story.

The first part of my story will be background information about the topic of surveillance, along with the Edward Snowden case. The middle part of my story will consist of my formed opinion on surveillance, facts, and first hand experiences. Lastly, the conclusion part of my story will consist of what i believe our government and country should do next. To elaborate more on how my story will be organized, I will most likely have pictures relating to the corresponding text box along with music. I was also considering doing a voice over explaining the text boxes in  more depth.

Sulmasy, Glenn, and The Opinions Expressed in This Commentary Are Solely Those of Glenn Sulmasy. "Why We Need Government Surveillance." CNN. Cable News Network, 01 Jan. 1970. Web. 20 Nov. 2014.( This source is joing to be used in my story on why surveillance is good)

Hightower, Jim. "8 Terrifying Facts About NSA Surveillance." Alternet. Alternet, 16 Apr. 2014. Web. 19 Nov. 2014. ( Used for facts pertaining to surveillance)

Murphy, Dan. "Americans Say They Are Pretty Comfortable with Expanded Government Surveillance." CS Monitor. N.p., 11 June 2013. Web. 20 Nov. 2014. (Used as well for facts)

Education- Web log 11

One of many social justice issues that is overlooked is access to education. In todays generation, it is almost necessary that one attends college to have a solid job when they are older. Someone should not go to college just because they can't afford it. I do not have a solution, it just seems unfair that some people can't attend school because of financial issues. If more people attended college our country would be better off. It would allow for jobs to be more competitive and to get the best of the best. Drop out rates for individuals between the ages of 16- 24 with low incomes are seven times more likely to drop out of school. Granted some of them might have dropped out due to bad decisions, but some of them also may have dropped out because of money issues. Even though school is free up until college, teens still have to have transportation to school, the supplies, and internet access. If you do not have these things it is extremely hard to keep up. Less than 30% of students in the bottom quarter enroll in a 4-year college, and less than 50% of them graduate. These stats are real, and something needs to be done

https://www.dosomething.org/facts/11-facts-about-education-and-poverty-america

Permission for SAP

For our SAP, we are using the PollEverywhere to create polls with questions about cyberbullying. We are going to post flyers around campus with the questions and the number students can text to give their answers. We learned we need permission to post flyers around the school and they needed to be approved so we went to Rodman Hall to see if they could help us. They told us that we would need to go to the student center. We walked to the atrium and then up the stairs and found a room over the university bookstore that was the office of student activities. There, we spoke with a woman named Janet Paradise. She told us that she was in fact in charge of approving flyers that go out on campus. We explained to her our project idea and how we want to execute it. She seemed to like the idea and explained that we should create an original copy of the flyer with the information we need and bring it back to the office. Then we would give her the flyer, and if approved, she would stamp it saying so. She would give us back the flyer and it is our responsibility to make about 65 more copies. We would bring the copies back to Janet and she would distribute them that day. We are going to create two sets of flyers. The first will have the questions we want to pose to the student body. The second set will be the results so everyone can see how the polls worked out.

DigitalStory

I have not came to a conclusion for what my digital story will be, but i have a couple ideas. My first idea deals with digital media and how surveillance affects our decision. Not only does surveillance deal with just government, but with companies as well. Companies use surveillance to view their employees/ future employees social media profiles. Knowing companies see this information, it affects what people post, such as myself. Surveillance can also deal with family. I have a Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. and i am extra-careful of what i post due to my family seeing. I will use an app from Cogdogroo in which i will share my personal experiences of how i am extra careful of what i post. 

My second idea lies along the intersection of digital media and social justice, because it deals with cyberbullying, which is also what I'm doing for my sap project. I will use OurStory and create a timeline in which it shows my experiences and the actions i took. I will add pictures and captions, adding on to the affect. Although i have not come to a conclusion, i believe that these two ideas will be the ones i work with. I was also thinking of using six.com to create a website, such as one of the previous students did in the examples. By using a website i can spread out my information i need into separate categories and add a video if necessary.

Literature Review:

A. In an article I found, Technology Hurts? Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Youth Perspectives of Technology and Cyberbullying, they used 18 students who were either gay, lesbian, or bisexual. Within this article they took a survey and asked them what the predominant reasons they were cyberbullied for. 61% of the participants said they were targeted for their sexual orientation, while 33% said they were targeted for revenge. Although the participants all deviated from the norm, it still shows that the majority of them were cyberbullied because of their sexual orientation. As they were questioned about why they got cyberbullied, they were also asked how. The two most used ways, according to the participants, were electronic victimization and electronic action. Electronic victimization was said to be used 78% of the time, and electronic actions were used 44% of the time. One teen said people would text him and message him on social media saying "You look like a faggot" on his photos after he came out via social media. Another participant said that he has seen it all, and one of the electronic actions used against him was someone sending him a virus because of his sexual orientation. One of the individuals stated that cyberbullying was predominant in his early years of high school, but as the 4 years went on, it slowed down. This proves that as we get older, people start to mature and realize their actions. We are in college and cyberbullying still occurs but not in a big manner like high school. Our group will use our polls to target why people are cyberbullied and pinpoint the most pressing issue to raise awareness and help put a stop to it. 

B. The form of social action project our group has decided to do is creating polls to pinpoint why people get cyberbullied. We will be canvassing the community via electronics to get peoples feedback. What were planning to do is create 3 different poll questions from an internet website. These three questions will be: Have you ever been cyberbullied? What have you been targeted for? Have you ever cyberbullied an individual based on choices from the previous question? These questions will all be multiple choice. The first one will be true or false, the second one will consist of answer such as: Appearance, opinions, friend groups, sexual orientation, personal actions, or other, and the third question will also be true or false. Our group plans to contact the school and send out a mass email to the student body making them aware of the polls and how they can respond. Along with the polls, we will also create flyers and place them around the campus, such as in dorms, the library, the student center, and the cafeteria with the approval of the school. The flyers are used so students can see them because most of us disregard the emails from the school. The flyers will consist of the same questions and different text numbers to reply to in order for feedback. Although the emails are often disregarded, they are worth the shot. The website we will use is poll everywhere.com. This website allows for people to create polls at their own capability. We can receive 40 responses per poll without a subscription, but to make an impact we will use the funding or our own money to create a membership to allow for 250 responses per question. I believe with that amount we can work with a great deal of data to pinpoint why people get cyberbullied. These polls will be based upon people entire lives, not just while in college because it is not as predominant as high school. After we receive the results, our group will create a big poster with the results and we will place this poster in the student center for people to see they come and go. Our goal is to create awareness, and as people see the results they all think twice about cyberbullying. With our results, we can also create multiple posters and ask permission of nearby high schools and grade schools to post the posters in their school to stop cyberbullying in its roots. Another idea with our results is that the group in our class doing cyberbullying as well can post the facts on yin yak and twitter page that they have created to get the information out there on social media, connecting the John Carroll community. 

Discussion questions:

Why is it that video-games draw a lot of attention?

What are video-games good for?

Are video-games the answer to social issues since they are easy to relate to for our generation?

Cyberbullying SAP intro.

What our group decided to do was to collaborate with the other group focusing on cyberbullying. Our original idea consisted of wearing shirts around campus that had words on them that we were self-conscious about. We are transitioning by joining the other group and bringing in a speaker. This speaker will come and speak in the auditorium, meanwhile, each individual group member will post 5 Yik Yak's per hour. This should draw attention to the topic of cyberbullying, even if it is neglected by the users of the app. 

The reason for such an urge to minimize cyberbullying is because of an increase in technology and how much our generation is dependent on the internet. Everyone is using the internet to communicate, be entertained, and stay updated, which allows for cyber bullying to occur more often. We plan on drawing attention to the John Carroll Community, due to the effects of cyberbullying. The social effects from cyberbullying can lead an individual down the wrong path, including: drugs, alcohol, and social isolation. The political effects from cyberbullying can include raising awareness for human rights. No kid should have to go to school afraid, be scared to open their messages or social media account, and sacrifice his/her true self to fit in. Another effect from cyberbullying is culture. Our society is transitioning to the point where everyone is on the internet. Kids are also getting cell phones earlier and earlier, allowing for more cyberbullying. As technology grows, and more social media websites pop up, so does cyberbullying.

I do believe that bringing in a speaker to campus will draw attention to this topic, and if they do not hear about the speaker, I'm sure they will see the posts on Yik Yak through out the day. 

Illegal Immigration

A current social justice issue that I believe needs to be addressed is illegal immigration. There is an estimated 10 million undocumented aliens, which is good for the economy and the attractiveness of America. On the other hand, it shows how open our borders are. For the most part, these illegal immigrants come to America for a new life and more opportunity. As Americans, we cannot allow them to keep crossing our border and taking the jobs of our fellow citizens. The United States also loses money on taxes with them because they are not documented as citizens and we don't know they exist. Also, when illegal immigrants come to our country, they for the most part do not speak english, causing more confusion, as well as the continuous bilingual debate. As sad of a story it is with children endangered with violence and crime wanting a better life, there has to be a point where we draw long and understand how having our borders not secure can negatively effect us. Lastly, with the current pressing issue of ISIS, having our borders wide open is a huge risk. It allows terrorists to come into our country and pose potential risks to our people. My solution would be to tighten up our borders and have a certain percentage of illegal immigrants be allowed to apply for American citizenship.

Title: The Pros and Cons of illegal immigrants
Link: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5309849
Date accessed: October 15th 2014

Social Action Project- introduction 

The topic I want to research for my social action project is cyber bullying. Cyberbulling is bullying with the use of electronic devices by intimidating or threatening a certain group or person. It has to be involved with a minor, whether that be the instigator or the victim.  The reason kids cyberbully is because they might be filled anger, revenge, frustration, or just simply do it because they are bored. It is easier for the perpetrator to use his/her electronic devices to bully because they do not need face to face interaction. Individuals can pretend to be someone else or create a fake account to spread embarrassing pictures of someone so it does trace back to them. Cyber bullying can lead to anxiety, depression, and suicide. 1 in 3 teens or adolescents have been bullied through some sort of online communication and of the 1/3rd, 1 in 10 tell their parents. Also, 1 in 5 teens say they have sent or received sexual content on their cell phones, and if it ends up in the wrong hands, it can be devastating. The ethical significance of this issue is that it is causing minors to harm themselves or others. They believe that they are not doing anything immoral because their actions are through the internet so they think they are not physically harming someone. The historical significance of cyberbullying is that it has drastically grown. When minors grow up around electronics it becomes the norm of communicating, therefore it allows easier access to cyberbullying. As technology keeps advancing, cyberbullying will grow. In order for this to stop, it has to be prevented and actions need to be taken.

Title: Cyberbully Stats
Link:http://www.bullyingstatistics.org/content/cyber-bullying-statistics.html
Date accssed: 8 October 2014

For my social action project I would make a twitter account that tweets facts about cyberbullying. These facts would be used to draw people's attention to how important this is and how fast it is growing. Obviously this would not just blow up with retweets from the start, it would need help from bigger people. I would hope to have influential people retweet the tweets and sponsor the idea of stopping cyberbullying like the "Don't Text and Drive" campaign, but on social media. Cyberbullies use the power of the internet and how fast things can spread to their advantage, so I would as well. There are plenty of accounts with the same idea as mine in the past, such as the link attached. The one thing these do not do is reach out to more influential people to help them, which is what I would do. This type of response to the issue of cyberbullying works out perfectly. As is said earlier, cyberbullies use the internet to bully people, and I am using it to stop them. It is sort of like the saying " taste of your own medicine". There are many other options in order to prevent cyberbullying such as flash mobs, protests, civil disobedience, but I think this fits best to the idea of trying to stop it because it allows for people to relate to due to how predominant social media is on our lives today. 

Twitter account: @StopCyberBullies
Date accessed: 8 October 2014

Discussion questions #2:

When you buy an electronic product, are you indirectly pushing a Foxconn employee to commit suicide?

Even though Foxconn is one of the most employee-friendly factories in China, is it still "just" because they provide housing, food, etc.?

Are Foxconn employees being overworked for what they are paid?

CyberBullying

I believe a pressing issue in our world today is cyberbulling. Cyberbullying is a form of bullying with either the cell phone or online which makes it easier to be harassed, embarrassed, or put down due to how fast pictures and posts spread. Cyberbullying is easier for individuals to say whatever they want because it allows for them to create screen names so people cannot identify who the bully is, rather than saying it in person. These threats made online can cause mental and physical harm to the victims, leading to suicide in some cases.

About 1 in 3 kids say they have been cyberbullied, and it is most common a gens 9-14. Online bullying can range from online video games, social networks, and instant messaging. USA today reports that girls mock each other about appearance and boys make more sexually explicit comments. Girls are also twice as likely to be cyberbullied than boys.

There are several ways to stop cyberbullying: don't respond, sign off and block the bully, change ones contact information, save all of the bullies messages to send to your internet provider in order to have them blocked, and don't assume kids will tell their parents because a majority of them won't. 90% of kids who are cyberbullied will not tell their parents/ any adult. In recent years, cyberbullying has been increasing which means something needs to be done now.

Title of article: Social Justice Project on Cyberbullying
Link:http://cyberbullyingin2012.blogspot.com
Date accessed: October 3rd

Democratic Cartoon:

http://www.toondoo.com/cartoon/7935498

Poverty

A social justice issue today that I believe needs to be addressed is poverty. In 2005, 12.5% of the population was living in poverty, while 58% of those people were working full-time. Poverty is a serious national issue where there is no answer that is going to solve all of the problems. People should not be living in poverty if they are working full-time but they should not expect to have money growing on trees, because there is always going to be a lower class in an economy for it to work. Taxes are a good way to help those out who are in need of it and who are proving they are working full-time in order to receive that help. I do not have a solution for this issue but I do feel hesitant having the taxes from my paycheck being used to fund people who do not work and have no desire to work due to them receiving a check every month to live off of.  There needs to be  incentive for these individuals to find a job, even if it is minimum wage because i personally have no problem helping someone out if they are working hard and making an effort. Obviously, there are people in this country who do not have equal opportunity to work, or earn a living, and thats where the government comes in because I do not have the answer either.

Title: "Mounting Poverty"
Link: http://www.socialworktoday.com/archive/marapr2007p24.shtml
Date Accessed: September 26 2014

Racism and Social Media

An issue that has been predominant for hundreds of years and still exists in todays society is racism. Racism, as we all know, was a way of life when slaves were used. Looking back on it from present time, racism has came a long way and is a huge improvement. Racism will always be around, in my opinion, just because of the way people were raised and how they pass it down to their children. Racism is a terrible thing and as our society continues to grow, racism does as well. With social media emerging in the last 5 years, it has made it easier to be racist. Twitter, for example, allows people to say anything they want behind a computer screen, which makes it easier for an individual to  express themselves to anyone they want all across the world. When you hear the word racism, most people will think of white on black racism. As our society continues to grow, so does the idea of reverse-racism, which is black on white racism. Although this word does not necessarily make sense, it is used to differ between black on white racism and white on black racism. I believe both should be labeled under the same word, racism. Some individuals will say reverse-racism does not exist because they believe whites will always have societies upper-hand, but  I disagree due to witnessing it myself. An example of "reverse-racism" in the world today is in South Africa. White citizens have claimed to be scrutinized by the "black" African government. Social media, as I said before, allows for racism to be more common, especially when people can make accounts where their name is not not shown and say whatever they please.

Title: Why there is no such as "Reverse Racism"

Link: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/07/15/884649/-Why-there-s-no-such-thing-as-Reverse-Racism#

Date accessed: 19 September 2014

Discussion Questions

Isn't a  group chat on an iPhone with friends the same as the Circle 6 app?

Is sexual assault really becoming this big of an issue within colleges? 

How many people would realistically download this? 

Electronic Waste:

The first social justice issue that I am going to touch base on is the dumping of electronics, which our class went over earlier in the week. The reason I am coming back to this topic is because after doing research and reading about it, I found the topic interesting. The dumping of electronic waste in countries such as India and China is obviously harmful, but when was the last time you heard about this topic on any social media websites or saw a commercial about it on TV?

In article by CNN titled China: The electric wastebucket of the world,  they say most electronic products were initially manufactured in China, then they return to China after they're done being used. 70% of electronic waste ended up in China, and most of these products have harmful materials in them that cause toxic waste, in which the people breathe them in.  When computers and electronics are recycled the right way they can be good for the environment, but if they they aren't, it can be devastating to the environment. Recycling electronic waste is not impossible, it is just that companies would have to spend more money to properly recycle the waste or make their products without harmful toxins. The more profitable way for them to get rid of electronic waste is to send them to China. There are companies that exist where the owner can actually pay money to them for their unused electronics to get recycled properly.

I had no idea this issue existed until it was talked about in class, but I do believe that this is a huge problem due to the magnitude of how damaging it is.  In order for this issue to become known world-wide, I believe that we have to use the power of social media and television to spread it. With everyone around the world being so big into technology, the possibility to spread this problem via social networking and through television seems doable.


This is the video that goes along with the article I referred to:

http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/world/2013/05/30/pkg-aoc-watson-china-e-waste.cnn.html

Source: http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/30/world/asia/china-electronic-waste-e-waste/
Title: China: The electric wastebucket of the world
Date accessed: 11 September 2014

Personal Information:

My name is Jakob Wendell, but I go by Jake, and I am from Lakewood, Ohio. I am interested mostly in adding to my knowledge while attending John Carroll, such as in business. I also enjoy watching sports and keeping up to date with what is going on, most importantly hockey. I have played hockey my whole life and I am continuing that by playing here at John Carroll. Recently, I have found myself  reading articles on news websites to keep my mind fresh with what is going on in the world around me due to my interest in the current events. I would also like to strengthen my stance in politics and have strong opinions in various topics.

Learning Style:

I am most comfortable in a class where there are a lot of discussions and where everyone can share their ideas to the class. I am willing to take risks in a class as long as the professor can see where I am coming from and interpret different ideas.

Technology and Social Justice:

As most people have said already in their blogs, I believe that the most important technological invention would have to be the internet. The internet has taken "staying connected" to a whole new level. Before the internet families and friends would have to mail each other to stay in contact, but now a days we can reach out to anyone we want by just a simple text or e-mail. We can FaceTime our families and text them while we are all away at college, but 25 years ago we could not. The internet not only allows us to stay connected but we can also find information by a couple taps on our phone wherever we are.

To me, social justice means equal opportunity for success and wealth among everyone in the world. Some issues in the world today that involve social justice would have to be ethnicity, race, and religion.  I have not done anything major in pursuing social justice, but I do believe that while I am at John Carroll i will have plenty of opportunity to make a difference.

About Dr. Shutkin:

What have you done for social justice?
What do you believe is the biggest social justice issue we have to address?