Agenda Setting Theory

     Everyone has an agenda. Everybody wants to push a cause they want to spread. However, how do people go about spreading an agenda? Agenda Setting Theory is where the focus of a subject is influenced to push an agenda. It can be used in many ways and is typically used as a manipulation tactic. Here is what the theory can do.

    Whether you realize it or not, the media holds a great power over the public that watches them. The media spreads around information, and can intentionally control how we think about an issue. The angle of a story, the contents of a story, or even a small statistic of a story. The media will find any detail that interests them, and uses it to make the public do what they want. The theory truly is a scary one at best and a destructive one at worst.

    It's entirely possible to promote a cause by shifting the focus of any incident. Take elections for example. Media can control the subjects of their news to get the effect they want. For example, 2004 Presidential candidate, Howard Dean, was leading a somewhat promising presidential campaign, until he made an excited scream at the end of one of his speeches. The news reported his scream as "un-presidential" and suddenly, his support dropped like flies.

    Another example would be 2014 England Prime Minister candidate, Ed Miliband. Miliband was promising candidate for Prime Minister, right up until he was caught on camera eating a sandwich. The photo was spread around by the media very quickly. All his political enemies focused on how he struggled to eat it, and called him a clumsy old man who shouldn't be in power. The tactic worked, and Miliband lost all support for his campaign. Yes, a man's political career was ended because of a sandwich. It's as stupid as it sounds.

    

    Both of these incidents involved the news covering a specific aspect of the respective politicians. They portrayed them in an incriminating manor, and stirred up the public to turn away from these men. Keep in mind, the scream Howard Dean did back then is child's play compared to the antics modern Presidential Candidates can get into, such as Trump and his endless supply of childish tweets. And Miliband having him lose his election over a bacon sandwich is about as crazy as it sounds. Guess who turned it into a scandal, the media that controlled the public.

    In Conclusion, anything can be a scandal if the media wants it to be. This is why you need to be careful of news you read. Mainstream news feeds on drama and viewership, and they'll do anything to find that dirty laundry the public craves. Obviously, it's better to look at everything in a situation rather than dwell on one insignificant detail. Next time a scandal breaks loose, make sure you have all the facts on you rather than a cherrypicked detail. The world would be a better place if we took the time to research things beforehand.

https://books.google.com/books?id=py3pfMtLoOgC&lpg=PP1&ots=KJUSo24JCN&dq=agenda%20setting%20theory&lr&pg=PA4#v=onepage&q=agenda%20setting%20theory&f=false

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6i-gYRAwM0

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ed-miliband-bacon-sandwich_n_5bbe27b0e4b01470d0580898

Privacy, Online and Off

     

    It's no secret that modern technology has made life far more convenient. Whether it's for work or personal life, computers and all their features work wonders. However, this technology may not be on our side. Multi-million dollar companies are infamous for invading the privacy of its users. Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and many more love to collect user information to target adds to the customers, maximizing profit at the expense of the consumers privacy. Here's what can happen when privacy invasion is at its worst.

    When you use any online utility like email or a google search, that search is not entirely private. It's collected by the company who provides the service. If you make a search for dogs, google knows you are interested in dogs and will write that down. This is no secret, it gets much worse. The truth is you really don't have to do anything to get your data collected. Companies and even the government can learn everything about you just by looking at you. Facial recognition technology has reached a point where it can pull all public information about you from reading your face. Your locations are also tracked, whether you allow location or not. The government and companies know about where you go on a weekly basis. The government can even read your license plate numbers in an instant with traffic and police cameras. None of this happened before these technologies came out.

    GPS, cell towers, cameras, and online data. These utilities are only some of the many ways companies and governments track people every day. How in the world can we protect ourselves from this? There are several methods. The biggest option is encryption, a layer that prevents outside parties from reaching into various communications like calls or facetime. The problem however is that backdoors in phones were built in from the beginning to track potential criminals. These backdoors have saved lives, but that also means anyone can be listened into by anybody. So it's a complicated choice. Is it better to monitor criminals, or is it better to protect the publics privacy? If we protect the public, criminals will be less detectable, but if we make them hackable, the public is at risk. What do you think?

    In conclusion, the fact that our data can be instantly pulled from anywhere for any reason is terrifying. Perhaps the most terrifying part is that there may not be a way to go back. Even if we all use firefox, vpns, encryption, and limit computer use, we'd still be tracked through other methods. If we go further than that and stop using this technology altogether, we wouldn't be able to function. We are living in an age where it's impossible to function stably without these gadgets. They are necessary for jobs and everyday life. Is it too late, or is there a way to truly save our privacy? Only time will tell.

https://www.ted.com/talks/christopher_soghoian_how_to_avoid_surveillance_with_the_phone_in_your_pocket?utm_campaign=tedspread&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedcomshare

https://www.ted.com/talks/catherine_crump_the_small_and_surprisingly_dangerous_detail_the_police_track_about_you?utm_campaign=tedspread&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedcomshare

https://www.ted.com/talks/juan_enriquez_your_online_life_permanent_as_a_tattoo?utm_campaign=tedspread&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedcomshare