Class Discussion- The Internet

The discussion we had in class today about the internet and what it might be capable of in the future was eye-opening. I had no idea that we had technology capable of making clones or printing physical objects. It's weird to think about a world where we can get anything we need just by printing it out. I also hadn't known about the extent of the damage the internet has inflicted on the other mediums, especially books and TV.

Classmate Response #1

http://alfrey99.blogspot.com/2013/10/class-talks.html

I completely agree with Drew's thoughts on media popularity. I doubt that the people who created the internet in 1969 thought that over 2 billion people would use it on a daily basis forty years later. Something else that really impressed me was that we can download entire movies and TV shows from the internet nowadays, but back then the whole thing crashed after they typed two letters. If the internet's creators could see it today, I bet that they would be completely shocked.

Local News Relevance-Man Hit by Train

http://www.wdrb.com/story/23667001/kansas-man-is-hit-by-train-gets-up-and-walks-away

Honestly, it's surprising that this story came from a local "news" station and not from Fox News' website. It holds zero relevance to anyone except the man who was hit, and even then he only received minor cuts and bruises. What was really surprising though was the fact that this "story" takes place almost halfway across the country. Even if it were locally relevant, it wouldn't matter because we're nowhere near there! It wouldn't be shocking if the only reason they reported on this story was because WDRB didn't have any important stories to report on and they needed something to use as filler. This story is proof that modern news organizations focus too much on making the interesting important, and not the important interesting.

http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2013/09/24/man-gives-his-porsche-cayenne-funeral-at-its-last-resting-place/?intcmp=features

        First of all, it's frankly humiliating that Fox News would report on something as silly and unimportant as a man giving his car a funeral. Second of all, this article goes against at least three of the 9 principles and 7 yardsticks of journalism; making the important interesting, newsworthiness, and local relevance. The fact that a man gave his car a funeral will never affect anyone, nor does it have any relevance to the public at large. This article is also a prime example of making the interesting important, instead of the other way around like it should be. This story was not only unworthy of being on a major news website, but also being reported on at all.
        There's nothing that can be done to improve this story. But instead of reporting about the "funeral," perhaps instead they could have reported on the accident that "killed" the car. At least then the story would have been somewhat relevant.

I learned a lot during the lecture about the printing press. I thought that Gutenberg had been the first to think of the idea, but it turns out that humans have had them for thousands of years, going all the way back to Mesopotamia. I also hadn't known about the huge impact it had on Europe at the time, or how different our world would be without the printing press.

I thought the lecture about music was very interesting. I hadn't even known about Edison's phonograph or Berliner's gramophone before the lesson, or how different modern music would be without them. I also hadn't really seen music as anything but entertainment, or that it was used to inform back in the Middle Ages.

I really enjoyed the lesson on newspapers several days ago, and thought it was very informative. Before the lecture, I was sure that newspapers would be gone within 20 years because of the internet. But now, after learning so much about their history and important qualities, I have hope that newspapers will still be around for many years to come.