DIG 245 Group 2 Readers

 

Is internet freedom a tool for democracy or authoritarianism?

The author claims that internet doesn’t always promote democratic ideals. He points to the use of censorship, propaganda depicting the internet as a “scary world full of threats,” and political and economic intimidation by authoritarian regimes as tools they harness to prevent political discourse from occurring on the web. From this argument and the under-discussed issue of whether internet users with good entertainment options are less likely to be involved politically–they boldly assume that all people have the same likelihood of watching a movie as posting a political comment on facebook, the author concludes that “free internet” does not guarantee online political engagement. We believe this line of argumentation is not well articulated. Of course, if an authoritarian regime is employing tactics that dissuade individuals to comment on political discourse, they will be unable to. But if they have “free internet,” meaning that it is not censored by the government, and the government is pursuing policies that go against the will of majority of the people then the internet will, at the very least, serve as a platform for political criticism. We can see a number of examples of this during the Arab Spring, where citizens used different forms of social media to share instances of protest, communicate, and generally effectively organize to resist their authoritarian leaders. The biggest flaw in this article is the assumption that in those instances where citizens engaged with social media and a “free-internet” to challenge their undemocratic government that little to no other events precipitated revolution. In any country, if people are content they will not revolt. It was only after shocking, out-of-the-norm events came to light and were performed, like mass-killings, huge coverups that the people of these countries used the web as part of their means to push for meaningful political change. Therefore, we believe the author used a variety of both meaningful and not relevant data to make a broad unsupported argument.
Internet and the Political Public Sphere

Rasmussen presents a number of arguments on how the internet has affected the public sphere.  Jurgen Habermas approves of the current public sphere, believing that it acts as a “ ‘sounding board’ for problems that must be solved by the political system, and a ‘warning system’ with sensors that are unspecialised but still sensitive throughout society (Habermas 1996, 359)”. Social media has greatly helped formed movement like Black Lives Matter as well as protests such as the women’s march in Washington.  However, while the internet has helped bring important issues into the public’s awareness, it is also doesn’t facilitate the challenging of views, but rather just presents them all side by side.  Rasmussen states that “when contrary or conflicting positions rarely get the possibility to meet and challenge one another, they tend to develop more extreme views and develop further distance from one another.”  A recent example of this can be found in the charlottesville riots.  The white nationalists group grew from websites like Breitbart and TheDailyStormer where there is little diversity of thought and radical views go unchallenged.

201 Group 6

In the BBC article titled How Supermarkets Tempt You to Spend More Money?, we learn the trade secrets behind how large corporations can market to consumers in the most effective way. We find that there is a lot of strategy behind where each individual item is placed in a store. This phenomenon exists not only in physical stores; we believe that it is most prevalent online. For example, when shopping Amazon, many times there are suggests that the company makes to supplement your order (i.e. a charger with your calculator purchase). We believe that the personalization behind these suggestions online is more powerful than that of a tangible store, as all data is accessible and malleable in real-time. In comparison to physical shopping, it would be as if the entire store reconfigured itself after every single item that one puts in one’s cart. The question is not whether or not companies can effectively target a consumer to their perceived needs, but it is whether or not it is ethical to do so?

Big corporations are not the only entities that benefit from big data. In Tufte’s Envisioning Information, we see data visualization being used for scientific knowledge. Big data is a catalyst for individuals to navigate an ever-changing complex global society. For example, one of the diagrams in Envisioning Information depicts a train map of China. This diagram shows that data is important and useful to everyone. Without data that is easily accessible, there becomes a lack of knowledge that is detrimental to mankind.

Group 3 Observers: Phones, Computers, Watches, and Shoes.

Saad Farooq’s Study on Phones:

Method:

I noticed who had his phone out either on the desk or in their hand, during  the class period.

Intentions:

I intended to see how the this affects student participation in class.

Generally comparing how having the phone out or phone not out could differ a person’s level of concentration. Does the phone become a distraction for most students?

Jason Feldman’s Study on Computer Presence:

Day	With Computer	Without Computer
Tuesday	16	8
Thursday	18	6

Collected these data by observing who had their computer out on their desk during class. The idea was to see how much this number changes from class to class, whether the number of computers steadily goes up or down, etc… I wanted to see how it may affect participation, but there were issues with the ability to keep track of participation and what was the best way to actually measure it.

Andrew Feld’s Study on Watches: 

As someone who wears a watch somewhat religiously, I was curious to see how many other people within our class (including Owen) wear a watch. I defined a watch as any item worn on the wrist, in which the item’s main function is to keep time and has an assumed lack of electromagnetic communicative ability. To study this, I arrived early to class Tuesday and Thursday (August 29^th and 31^st) and used a counter application (called Counter+) to count every person who entered the class wearing a watch from my arrival until Owen signaled the beginning of class by taking attendance.

My question would best be answered in terms of a proportion, therefore, I counted the number of students present each time Owen called a name and the student confirmed their attendance. I kept up with the total number of students using a simple tally-mark system. My intentions for these data are to cast light on the possible redundancy of watches in a society saturated with mobile devices that can keep more accurate and precise time than their simpler counterparts. Also, it is my hope that this data will either start or add evidence to the debate about how we define objects, as technological innovation expands the utility of objects.

Nick Fantuzzi’s Study on Shoe Brands:

Method:

 

Survey question sent to the entire class via email.

 

Context/ Breakdown:

Last week, I chose to observe shoe brands to gain more information on brand preference within our class. Since I only tracked these brands for two days, the results are relatively inconclusive, but I did make a see an abnormality related to the method. For 8/29, I sent out the survey in class and then a follow up email the next day. I received 22 responses out of a possible 26 (25 classmates + Owen). For 8/31, I sent out the initial survey, but did not use a follow up. I only received 13 responses for this day. This could be an anomaly, but I did find the disparity interesting.