The Digital Divide

The Digital Divide is a classic story of haves vs. have-nots. Except in this case it is not access to nutritious food, clean drinking water or safe neighborhoods. It is about access to digital devices and the Internet. The theory is that growing up on the wrong side of the digital divide can harm your present and future life in significant ways ... access to education, for example.

This report is from WUNC, the NPR station at the University of North Carolina.

Questions...

•Why did the college student featured in the story spend an unusual amount of time in a local McDonalds parking lot?

•Why do around 20 million Americans lack access to broadband Internet?

•How did the federal government help rural America from falling behind the rest of the country in the 1930s?

Zooming into Controversy

Zoom is the videoconferencing platform of the moment. As schools across the world (including Glendale College) moved to remote education, Zoom became the most popular live presentation app. But Zoom has been an imperfect classroom tool. NPR reports.

Questions...

•Why has Zoom triggered an FBI warning?

•What are some examples of "Zoom Bombing"?

•According to the security analyst interviewed for the story, what features does Zoom lack?

•What disclaimer did NPR make about its coverage of this story?

Rightful Protest or Heckler's Veto?

The following is a MediaNote Classic. It was originally presented to MC101 students in May 2017.

These are tense times on college campuses. Politics are polarized and some controversial speakers have been disinvited due to worries that the speech could turn violent. Now, a Libertarian think tank has proposed model legislation that limits the power of administrators on public college campuses to take a political stand or disinvite a controversial speaker. Proponents say they are furthering the First Amendment. Opponents worry about hate speech. NPR reports.

Questions...

•What do you think of the legislation described in this story?

•What should be the line between acceptable protest of a speaker and an unacceptable protest?

•What should be the line between a controversial speaker and a hate speaker?

Screens Great and Small

The following is a MediaNote Classic. It was originally presented to MC101 students in October 2017.

Academic researchers have done a tremendous amount of research over the potential damage that can be done to children if they are allowed to watch too much television. But what about children (8 or younger) who spend a lot a time online? NPR reports.

Questions...

•Which do you feel is worse: letting small children watch a lot of TV, or spend a lot of time online? Does anyone want to make the case that a lot of screen time is beneficial to small children?

•Which is more addicting: TV or the Internet? Why?

•Which is a better teacher: TV or the Internet? Why?

•Under what conditions would you allow an 8-year-old go online?

Apparently, The Force Was With Us

The following is a MediaNote Classic. It was originally presented to MC101 students in January 2017.

One of the things that makes a great city a great city is that it has cool things that practically everyone can enjoy. That said, Los Angeles bagged another cool thing recently as it was named the site of The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art. The museum, which will be underwritten by Star Wars Creator George Lucas and his wife, will focus on storytelling through pictures, from cave paintings to present. It will be in Exposition Park, near the Coliseum and USC. It is expected to open in 3-4 years. KCBS News reports.

Questions...

•Name all the ways that we tell stories through pictures.

•What pictures can you think of that evoke an emotion or feeling?

•How do you use pictures to tell stories in your life?

•What academic departments at USC could benefit from having this museum nearby? How?

•Is this museum good for Los Angeles? How?

How to Unsell a Product

The following is a MediaNote Classic. It was originally presented to MC101 classes in May 2016.

Cigarettes are bad for you. That has been apparent since the Surgeon General's report in 1964 on smoking and lung cancer.

And yet, more than a half century later a sizable percentage of young people continue to take up smoking. It is as though they are in a hurry to get to the sick and helpless years of their lives.

Your federal government has responded with a series of youth-oriented anti-smoking ads. Will they do any good? NPR reports.

Questions...

•These are PSAs, or Public Service Announcements. What other PSAs can you think of?

•Why is there music in ads?

•Fees collected from tobacco companies are put into anti-smoking campaigns. Are these ads a good way to spend that money?

•If you can sell shoes or cars in an ad, can you also sell anti-smoking in an ad? Or is this somehow different?

I Can Stop Any Time I Want

Addiction is a nasty word. It suggests a loss of control, and an inevitable downward spiral into helplessness, or worse. Some large shareholders of Apple, including the California State Teachers Retirement System, think smartphones are addictive, especially to children. They want Apple to invent ways for parents to monitor and limit their children's smartphone use. NPR reports.

•In what ways are smartphones addictive? In what ways are they not?

•What tools should parents have to prevent problematic smartphone use?

•At what age should a parent give a child a smartphone? What could go wrong if a child is given a smartphone?

Free Speech Case Hits Close to Home

It's easy to think that the big political protests, and the legal questions that they raise, are restricted to campuses like Berkeley or Harvard. However, sometimes major First Amendment battles are being waged at community college near us. A case in point is a matter involving L.A. Pierce College in Woodland Hills. The Washington Post reports.

Questions...

•Do you agree with the general idea of "Free Speech Zones" on campuses and other places?

•Is there anything wrong with Pierce College's free speech zone?

•Do students, faculty and others have a right TO NOT be drawn into protests?

•How would you like this case to turn out?

Anti-Social Media

The following is a Medianote Classic. It was originally presented to MC101 students in Spring 2016.

At its worst, social media can be cruel, creepy and dangerous. Most of us are able to avoid the worst effects, but adolescents are disproportionately damaged by abusive posts, photos and texts. NPR reports.

Questions...

•Is the internet more dangerous for girls than boys? Why or why not?

•What is the line between acceptable and unacceptable online banter between middle school or high school boys and girls?

•What do parents, teachers and other older people not understand about cyberbullying?

•A Crescenta Valley student committed suicide a couple of years ago after being cyberbullies. The school district responded by hiring a company to scan student social media posts for mentions of drug use, gang membership, cyberbullying or suicidal thoughts. Was this a good idea or a bad idea? Why?

Podcasts Vs. Parents

It is a longstanding rule of successful parenting: Parents who read to their small children will result in children who have more vivid imaginations, do better in school and become more successful adults. But now parents may be relieved of at least some of their reading duties because an increasing number of children's tales are now available in podcast form. NPR reports.

Questions...

•Are we witnessing the death of reading? Why or why not?

•Can children--or people in general--learn as much through the spoken word as they do through reading? Is one superior to the other? Why?
•Are books in podcast form as good as books on paper? If half the MC101 class had the textbook on paper and the other half had the text in podcast form, would each half of the class do equally well on tests?

•Would you rather have your textbook in podcast, ebook or paper book form? Why?

Print Lives!

Student newspapers often exist in semi-obscurity. But they are often the only media to provide news coverage of a campus on an ongoing basis. Glendale College's student newspaper is the El Vaquero. We will take a look at it in class.

Questions...

•What stories in this issue will probably only appear in the El Vaquero because they are GCC specific?

•What ads in the paper are directed at the GCC student?

•What skills are the students on the paper developing, and how can they be put to use in the world beyond newspapers?

•What should a student newspaper do? What can it do to appeal to young adults who do not usually read newspapers?

F for Fake

The great (albeit flawed) filmmaker Orson Welles made a documentary about fraud and fakery entitled "F for Fake." Maybe Welles was ahead of his time, because today we have difficulty telling fake news from actual news. We will discuss the graphic posted above.

In response to concerns that it is a leading disseminator of fake news, Facebook has recently implemented modest changes in what you see on your news feed, how to report suspected fake news, and warnings before sharing items. CNET reports.

Questions...

•Why does news have to be grounded in fact? Why not simply have news that is entertaining?

•Why do you think fake news is a bigger problem than it was 20 years ago?

•What are some news sources you trust? Are those news sources always accurate?

•Who is the source of the graphic posted above? What do you think of the source?

•What do you think of Facebook's changes to its news feed?

Are We Losing the Human Touch?

You hear stories about people getting fired or dumped or whatever by text message and you cringe. You see people spilling out their most private thoughts on social media and you cringe. How we express ourselves and how we interact has certainly changed in recent years. Young police officers have to be taught how to talk with people, for example. NPR reports.

Questions...

•Does social media make us more social or less social?

•Name things we do over social media and the Internet that we used to do face to face or in a phone call?

•Who besides police officers need to read face-to-face social cues?

•Schools used to teach "the social graces"? Should we revive that?

Get Real!

In the olden days, it was pretty clear what was news and what was "news" ... in other words, the fake stuff was pretty obvious. But now it's tough to figure out what is factual, what is fake, what is an ad and what is written by actual journalists. This bewildering world of information, pseudo-information and downright lies is most confusing for young people who often have little exposure to actual high-quality journalism. NPR reports on a Stanford professor's study.

Questions...

•How do you determine whether news is accurate or not?

•Should computers at schools and libraries have browsers that read only stories from reputable sources? Why or why not?

•Should spreading fake news be illegal? Why or why not?

•Is fake news a threat to democratic societies? If so, how?

•How should we teach Glendale College students how to evaluate news and academic sources? Suggest some research questions for a Winter 2017 research paper on the topic of fake news.

How Much Is Too Much?

This is a MediaNote Classic. It was originally presented to MC101 students in Fall 2014.

We intuitively believe that too much time in front of a screen--whether it's a TV or a computer screen--is bad for people. And we tend to believe it is particularly damaging to children.

It turns out that some very successful people in the technology industry feel pretty much the same way. NPR reports.

Questions...

•What are all the reasons to limit a child's screen time?

•How is the Internet worse (or more hazardous) for children than television? How is TV worse for them than the Internet?

•Which is more dangerous for children: That advertisers have near unlimited access to children or that children become addicted to the screen?

•Does it make sense that reading is considered good for children and the Internet is considered bad? What's the difference?

•What rules would you have for your child's Internet use?

Turning the Page

We have a strong sense of what a library is: a book-filled quiet haven for the studious. But is that an outdated model? A library in Omaha, Nebraska may be a glimpse into the information future. NPR reports.

Questions...

•Is this progress, the end of literacy, or something else?

•What tools should the local library have to help children learn literacy and love learning?

•What, besides books, should the GCC library have to help students?

•What functions should libraries leave to the capitalistic marketplace? (Example: Libraries typically don't show first-run movies.)

Gotta Catch 'Em All

Pokemon is a little like a horror movie. Just when you think the monster is dead, it rises up once again.


Just when you thought you were through with Pokemon, it rises up in the form of Pokemon Go, which has become an immediate sensation. NPR reports.

Questions...

•Who has played Pokemon Go?

•How could the Getty Center use augmented reality? How could it be used for a Hollywood Boulevard walking tour?

•How much of Pokemon Go's success is due to escapism during a time of police shootings and other turmoil?

•How could Pokemon Go be used to get children (or adults) more physically active?

•What negatives could come rom Pokemon Go?

•Will this be a short-lived fad, or something that will hang around awhile?

Wikipedia: The World's Brain?

Wikipedia has become a go-to information resource for nearly everyone. Nevertheless, most of us (Your Humble Blogger included) remain a little uneasy about its accuracy. But have we considered the various viewpoints that its large number of contributors bring to Wikipedia? NPR reports.

Questions...

•How often do you use Wikipedia?

•How is Wikipedia an example of the "Democratization of Information"?

•Does it matter that 85 percent of Wikipedia contributors are men? How does that affect content?

•What are some examples of information that requires more expert information than Wikipedia is equipped to provide?

Too Soon?

Comedians will tell you that disasters aren't funny right after they happen, but eventually they can joke about even the most awful things. Entertainment and sporting events are sometimes rescheduled after an awful event. The following Los Angeles Times story discusses this uneasy intersection between tragic news events and entertainment in light of the recent events in Paris.

Questions...

•Are there any disasters so horrible that they should not be turned into movies or TV episodes? How long should we wait before turning tragedy into entertainment?

•When should entertainment TV shows and sports events be suspended? (this happened after John F. Kennedy's assassination)

•How do movies, TV shows and other entertainment help us make sense of the world?

•What responsibilities do movies or TV shows about historic events or recent tragedies have to be authentic?

Point. Click. Breathe.

Your Humble Blogger is thinking of the famous graphic that traces the stages of human evolution, from the hunched-over caveman to the fully erect beings of today. Maybe future humans will return to being bent over, and will have a flat face to make it easier to look at a screen.

Common Sense Media has released a survey of teenagers and screen use, and the results make YHB wonder if he should recreate Mass Comm 101 as a smartphone app. NPR reports.

Questions...

•Do these results surprise you? Why?

•Do you have a social media account because you want it, or because you need it?

•Why do girls spend more time on social media than boys? Theories?

•Do you have a strategy for minimizing your online distractions when you study?