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Short Answer Quiz #3 Due 11/20

1. Determine what kind of social media site you are creating. Then answer the following questions, explaining your decisions. (Remember the key here is to create an ethical algorithm model).

The social media site that I would want to create is one that is similar to Twitter in which people can post whatever they would like and however they feel, but with a limited character count. However, this kind of social media site would be called UNITE, and it would be a space for people to be able to talk freely about racial and ethnic injustice that they have witnessed or personally experienced. They would be able to post videos of injustice and threads talking about what happened.

2. What will you measure? (ex: likes, hashtags, how long someone stays on a page, etc) Be sure to explain all your decisions.

What will be measured will be the amount of likes a post or hashtag receives to see what people are most interested in on the site, which will move that post to a trending page that people can click on within the site. Comments will also be measured to make sure people are not replying with anything inappropriate and that they are respecting other people’s points of views. What will also be measured is the number of retweets a post or hashtag receives to see what is most popular within the site community and to see what is being passed around to people’s followers, which will also move that post to a trending page.

3. How will you weight these factors? (rank factors from most important to least important)

The most important factor would be amount of likes a post of hashtag receives. This is the easiest way to tell what people on the site are interested in and what is trending because it is just one click. Comments would be the next weight factor because not everyone takes the time to comment on a post, so there would be a lot less comments than likes on posts. Lastly, the retweets are the next weight factor because they do not provide very much information, but they do get posts to become more noticed on the site.

4. What factors will not be measured? (what will not be measured in your algorithm and why)

The first factor that will not be measured is the views because just because someone viewed something does not mean people really enjoyed the post or thought it was important. I will also not measure how long someone stays on a post because I do not believe that gives any information. People could just set their phone down while still on a post and not even be looking at it. The demographics of users will also not be measured because anyone can join the site and express their opinions on things.

5. How will the model learn or adapt to new information? (this can include changes in language, etc)

The model will adapt to new information by moving the popular posts and hashtags to the trending section of the site and anytime there is something new trending, it will be placed at the top of the trending page. There will also be monitoring of the new posts, pictures, and videos to see if there is any kind of inappropriate comments, posts, or hashtags. Also, there will be fact checking on the posts and videos to verify if the information being displayed on the post, comment, or hashtag is correct. If the information is false, then there will be a bar under the post saying that the information above is unreliable.

6. What biases will be built into the model? How will this change the algorithm’s outcome?

The biases that will be built into the model are giving the user the ability to sensor, hide, or discard content on the site because negative, inappropriate, and offensive behavior on the site is not tolerated. This is supposed to be a safe space for people to discuss injustices in the real world. Yes, people will have different opinions on those topics, but this is a way for important things like this to be brought up.

7. How will the model live out the (un)ethical practices we have discussed?

The model will live out the (un)ethical practices we have discussed in class by allowing people to be who they want to be online, with restriction to being offensive and inappropriate. The algorithm will continuously be looking for inappropriate or offensive behavior on the site to ensure the safety and inclusivity of the site. Additionally, trolling will not be tolerated, so information will also be continuously fact checked, which includes the user’s information. This site is all about having credible information so if the information being presented is not credible it will have a warning on the post or become deleted. People’s posts or comments that are deleted will also have the opportunity to prove that their information is correct if they want to dispute the deletion, if they really believe their information to be true.

[winderbecky]

Week #12 Blog Post due 11/11

1. Why did Intel pull the ads that they had on Gamasutra? Was it smart to remove the ads?

Intel removed their ads on Gamasutra because they realized what they had gotten into with the gamers. According to Hathaway, “The company appeared to realize it had been duped by gamers—and fake gamers—into supporting a misogynist movement” (9). They made a statement that said that they were sorry if they offended anyone, and that they do “not support any organization or movement that discriminates against women” (9). This was very smart of the company Intel to realize this and removed the ads right away. They do not want to be associated with things that discriminate against women, and they also do not want to lose women as customers because they were putting their ads on Gamasutra.

2. Why are Black females targets of regulations regarding their hair and hairstyles? Is this fair? Why or why not?

Black females are targets of regulations regarding their hair and hairstyles because they have different hair than white people do. Their hair is harder to manage most of the time, so they need different hairstyles to be able to manage it. Being in the U.S. Army they would have to keep their hair out of the way anyway, so what is so wrong with them putting it into cornrows, locs, braids, or twists? According to Lee, “Retired Sergeant Jasmine Jacobs of the Georgia National Guard, who started a petition on the WhiteHouse.gov website asking the U.S. Army to reconsider its regulation of ethnic hairstyles, stated twists are a popular style for Black female soldiers because they are easy to care for when in the field” (94). In other words, twists were an easy way for Black female soldiers to keep their hair out of their way. Lee also explains, “An army veteran, using the alias ‘Tonya,’ stated that in her experience most Black women in the military wear their hair natural and therefore wear cornrows, locs and twists because they often do not have the tools needed to straighten their hair when deployed” (94). So, it is unfair for the U.S. Army to expect Black females to straighten their hair or stray away from putting their hair in braids or cornrows because they may not have the tools to keep their hair the way the U.S. Army wants them to keep it.

3. Why did afro hairstyles become associated with criminality and anti-American identities? Is this still seen today?

People with afro hairstyles have been deemed as either criminal or anti-American beginning with a few times that this has been true. Lee states, “Angela Davis, who was deemed one of the country’s ten most wanted criminals in the 1970s. Throughout this time media outlets used a photo of Davis with an Afro; this photo was used to construe a violent, anti-American, and Black militant identity for Davis” (94). So, because one person with an afro was a criminal, people and media outlets deemed a lot of people with afros as criminals. Lee also explains, “Audre Lorde who, in the 1970s, was not allowed to, cross borders, pass immigration in Tortola, British Virgin Islands (BVI), because of her loc’d hairstyle…loc’d hair was tied to notions of criminality and a particular brand of religion” (95). So, again, the way she had her hair deemed her as a criminal even though she showed no reason to draw suspicion to her. This is still present today with people looking at a person’s skin, hair, and body type to determine if they should be surveilled or not, which is so terrible because that is judging a book by its cover. People don’t look at the persons personality or body language to determine if they should be watched, they look at what the person looks like.

4. Why is the internet a “social leveler”?

The internet is a “social leveler” because not many people talk about race or ethnicity. According to McLaine, “Nakamura (1999) dismisses the utopian notion of the internet as a “social leveler,” considering that its neutrality is only valid because issues of race and ethnicity are avoided, rather than accepted…The anonymity of the internet can work both ways. True, no one can see what color I am, but no one has to see what color I am. Therefore, the touchy subject of race can be brushed under the mousepad” (235). People want to show their race on the internet, but they also do not because then the issue of race and ethnicity may be brought up. People simply just ignore the issues of race and ethnicity online, which has in turn resulted in the “digital divide” (235). So, yes, the internet is “a social leveler,” but it shouldn’t be. People should want to bring out the issues of race and ethnicity on the internet because they need to be addressed.

Sources:

Hathaway, J. (2014). What Is Gamergate, and Why? An Explainer for Non-Geeks. Gawker.

Lee, L. (2015). Virtual Homeplace: (Re)Constructing the Body Through Social Media. 91-111.

McLaine, S. (2003). Ethnic Online Communities: Between Profit and Purpose. 233-254.

[winderbecky]

Week #11 Blog Post due 11/4

1. What is black Twitter and what is its purpose?

Black Twitter is a community in which people come together on social media to talk about things that they have experienced in the world that deal with racial bias and discrimination, particularly to African Americans. According to Professor Lee, “Black twitter can be a space for jokes, for social viewing of a television series, and a space where people can voice anger and frustration” (2). Also, black Twitter uses “the creation of ironic, yet cutting-edge hashtags to create a space to address social issues of racial bias and discrimination” (2). This community allows people to come together to express their feelings toward issues in the world, and some posts include jokes to make people see how bad people sound. An example of this was when the Associated Press reworded their tweet.

2. Why were African Americans seen as delinquents and criminals? Why is this considered today?

African Americans “were targets of surveillance throughout the United States” (Lee, 3). From the beginning the government always wanted to keep an eye on African Americans and make sure they identify everyone. It was not that African Americans were actual criminals, but it had to do with “the scientific constructions of inferior, superior, and biological notions of criminals were based on older (racist) notions of differences between white and black races” (Lee, 3). Basically, White people saw African Americans as inferior, so they deemed them as criminals and delinquents. Nowadays, it is still seen that African Americans are criminals because police patrol black communities more, they stop and pull over black people more than White people, and they watch them in stores and shops to make sure they do not steal anything. People assume by the color of someone’s skin, if they should be surveilled or not and that is because it has been engrained into American society to do so from the beginning. People need to stop using racial bias and give black people a chance, don’t decide by the color of their skin that they are a criminal.

3. What are the types of Internet activism and what do they mean?

The types of Internet activism are awareness/advocacy; organization/mobilization; and action/reaction. Awareness deals with people trying to make people become aware of things that are happening outside of the mainstream mass media because they do not report important things like serious violations of human rights. According to Vegh, these different “networks being in place proves extremely useful when the moment for political change arrives.” As for advocacy Vegh states, “The primary uses of the Internet in online advocacy revolve around organizing the movement and carrying out action.” In other words, advocacy means to do something about what everyone is upset about and what has happened. Mobilization is also a type of Internet activism because to make sure something gets done about what happened, people need to be organized so that they know what to do. An example of this is to sign a petition online or go to a site to protest or boycott something. As for action and reaction, these types of Internet activism deal with what people do to fix the problem or fix what happened.

4. Why is the internet having to give information on things going on in the world? Why does mainstream mass media not report on such things that the internet does?

The internet has to give information on things going on in the world because mainstream mass media does not report on certain things. Each mainstream media outlet has their certain beliefs, so they usually report on things that are important to them and the community that watches and listens to them. However, certain things like violations of human rights are not reported on these sites, the internet has to cover those subjects because if mainstream media outlets do, they may lose ratings and people who watch or listen to them. So mainstream media is very careful on what they report on. The internet has nothing to lose, so they post everything they can to show the injustice in the world. Having a phone with a camera is very important at this time because it is much easier for people to catch certain things on camera and be able to blow it out to the world through the internet.

Sources:

Fuchs, C. (2004). Social media and communication power. In social media: A critical introduction (pp. 69-94). London: Sage Publications Ltd. doi:10.4135/9781446270066.n4

Lee, L. (2017). Black Twitter: A Response to Bias in Mainstream Media. Social Sciences, 6(1), 26. doi:103390/socsci6010026

Vegh, S. (2003). Classifying Forms of Online Activism: The Case of Cyberprotests against the World Bank.

[winderbecky]

Week #10 Blog Post due 10/28

1. Do you think that Twitter knew and saw the tweets that kept attacking Leslie Jones?

Yes, I feel like Twitter knew about the tweets and their whole thing about harassment deals with users reporting that type of behavior. If people do not report it, they technically do not have to do anything about it. So, I felt like Twitter saw the harassment and was waiting for it to become serious enough for people to report it and make it a big deal before they did anything about it. I mean like, it took calling Twitter out and taking it public for them to finally change their harassment and reporting terms.

2. Where are women and young adults more likely to experience online harassment? Where are men and young men more likely to experience online harassment? Why?

Women and young adults are most likely to experience online harassment on social media because they are the ones who are usually on social media the most or post the most. Men and young men on the other hand, experience online harassment on online gaming sites because they are usually the ones who play online games. Women also play online games, but not as much as men do. Men also use and post on social media, but women are usually the ones who use it the most.

3. What are the different definitions of the word “troll” according to Bergstrom?

There are different definitions of the word “troll.” According to Bergstrom, “Based in Norse mythology, trolls were said to be supernatural creatures with less than benevolent intents” (1). In other words, trolls are creatures that want to do bad things. Bergstrom also explained, “To troll is to have negative intents, to wish harm or at least discomfort upon one’s audience. To be trolled is to be made a victim, to be caught along in the undertow and be the butt of someone else’s joke” (1). In this definition of a troll, someone tries to hurt someone or make someone uncomfortable. Another definition of a troll is that “the application of the label ‘troll’ can also be used to as a justification for punishing those who transgress (or are accused of transgressing) an online community’s norms” (2). In other words, people who go beyond boundaries of an online community, like harassing someone online, are considered to be trolls and the use of the word can be used to explain why that person who is trolling should be punished.

4. What is an example of how a sub-reddit got trolled? What do you think the reason was for doing this?

An example of how a sub-Reddit got trolled was with the Reddit user Grandpa Wiggly. Grandpa Wiggly posted on the IAmA sub-Reddit twice claiming to be an older man who made a mayonnaise recipe and who lived with his crazy cat lady wife with seven cats. However, it was soon revealed that Grandpa Wiggly was really the reddit user Wordsauce who also pretended to be Grandpa Wiggly’s grandson. Wordsauce explained that he just wanted to entertain people and not hurt people. He also offered to explain why he made the Grandpa Wiggly user, but IAmA sub-Reddit’s moderators banned him from doing so on their sub-Reddit. I think that Wordsauce trolled Reddit because he wanted popularity. However, I do also believe that he wanted to put a character together and see how people would respond to it.

Sources:

Bergstrom, K. (2011). “Don’t feed the troll”: Shutting down debate about community expectations on Reddit.com. First Monday, 16(8).

Duggan, M. (2014), “Online Harassment”. Washington, DC: Pew Research Center.

Phillips, W. (2015), “Defining Terms: The Origins and Evolution of Subcultural Trolling”. This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things: Mapping the Relationship between Online Trolling and Mainstream Culture. pp.55-57.

Silman, A. (2016). “A Timeline of Leslie Jones’s Horrific Online Abuse”.

[winderbecky]

Week #8 Blog Post due 10/14

1. Why is technology considered to be feminine?

For one, women are seen as friendly, nonthreatening, and emotional humans. According to O’Riordan, “The gendering of the interface mentioned earlier points to a conceptualization of digital hardware as actively friendly, nonthreatening, desirable, and malleable” (p. 248). In other words, technology is considered to be feminine because it is explained to be friendly and nonthreatening. O’Riordan also explains, “As feminized figures, the level of intelligence can be understood as that culturally attributed to women. Thus, computers can even be conceptualized as more emotional and less rational than their (hu)man users” (p. 249). Women are considered to be less rational and emotional so when technology is merged with reality, the simulations look like and act like women. Also, men created technology, so it would make sense that technology is considered to be feminine because that is what those men liked.

2. How do simulations in technology change people’s perceptions of people in the real world?

The simulations can help people appreciate the real-life bodies of other people or of themselves. However, it can also give unrealistic expectations. According to O’Riordan, “Theorists of cyberculture have long considered the implications of the body’s entering cyberspace through some version of immersion or jacking in…Virtual bodies, it turns out, are not the human translated into data but the data embodied as a fantasy of the female” (p. 250). For example, this reminds me of photo shop, in which people import a picture of someone or of themselves and they change the size, shape, or color of the person in the picture. The person in the picture after photo shopping would be the “fantasy” of that person.

3. Why is it so important to choose the right username in Stormfront? Does this still apply for people who create usernames now on Twitter or Instagram?

It is important to choose the right username because people want to send the right message of who they are when they post something in a forum. According to Daniels, “Screen names are an important site of racial and gender-identity construction at Stormfront as well as an indicator of the male dominance of white supremacy online. Screen names suggest some of the ways that white supremacy has shifted from the print-only era to the digital era” (p. 68). In other words, screen names, or usernames, on Stormfront can describe the user’s gender, race, and sexuality. This does not still apply for usernames created on Twitter or Instagram. People who use Twitter and Instagram do not usually have usernames that have anything to do with their race, gender, or sexuality. Normally, people create usernames on these social media platforms to show and talk about their lives and things going on in the world around them.

4. Why do women feel comfort and empowered when confiding in a women-only forum about things that they have done in their lives?

Women feel like they finally have a place to talk about certain things while actually getting responses. According to Daniels, “Online communication in mixed-gender settings generally tends to disadvantage women, and it is often the case that women and girls in mixed-gender online groups create a space of their own. Women in mixed-sex online discussion groups post fewer messages and are less likely to persist in posting when their messages receive no response” (p. 69). So, when online spaces are mixed-sex, women’s posts go unnoticed compared to posts made my men. The women-only space gives women a chance to give their opinion and give them a chance for people to actually care about what they wrote. In the women-only forum, some women relate to each other and that can be comforting when thinking that nobody has seen, done, or gone through the things you have seen, done, or gone through.

Sources:

Daniels, J. (2009). Gender, White Supremacy, and the Internet. Cyber Racism: White Supremacy Online and the New Attack on Civil Rights (pp. 61-86). Rowman & Littlefield.

Haraway, D. (1991). A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century. Simians, Cyborgs, and Women: The Reinvention of Nature (pp. 149-181). Routledge.

O’Riordan, K. (2006). Gender, Technology, and Visual Cyberculture. Critical Cyberculture Studies (pp. 243-252). New York University Press.

[winderbecky]

Week #7 Blog Post due 10/7

1. Why do you think that women on the online dating source OKCupid “sought out White men as partners” (Senft and Noble, p. 107)?

For one thing, White women claimed that they had “no preferences” on whether or not the man they were looking for was of a certain race. However, they only really answered back to men who looked like them. In other words, they did have a preference, and they wanted to be with a man of the same race. A reason they might have done this is because, according to the research blog of OKCupid there was “a huge fear on the part of the commenters about being labeled a racist” (Senft and Noble, p. 107). Hispanic and Asian women also looked for White men as partners. The reason for this may be because our country is run by White men.

2. What is “Black Twitter”?

“Black Twitter” is basically the idea that “25 percent of online Blacks use Twitter, as opposed to 9 percent of online Whites” (Senft and Noble, p. 114). In other words, more Black people use twitter than White people, and they use it to connect to people who may have similar experiences as them. According to Senft and Noble, “For Black users, signifyin’ on Twitter allows not only opportunities to reject ‘colorblindness’ but the chance to connect with others to ‘create and reify a social space for the ‘Blackness’” (p.114). Twitter allows people to find their safe space, where there are people who have gone through the same things as them and want to fight to make things better for everyone.

3. How is it possible that Netflix can tell what race a person is?

Netflix can tell a lot about the shows and movies that someone watches. According to Benjamin, “Netflix and other platforms that thrive on tailored marketing do not need to ask viewers about their race, because they use prior viewing and search histories as proxies that help them predict who will be attracted to differently cast movie posters” (p. 43). They are going off the idea that Black people will be more attracted to movies or TV shows that have a strong Black cast member, and White people will be more attracted to movies or TV shows that have a strong White cast member.

4. Why have White supremacists had great success in the digital era?

For one, Twitter has a “relatively hands-off approach when it comes to the often violent and hate-filled content of White supremacists actually benefits the company’s bottom line” (Benjamin, p. 49). Twitter doesn’t really care or do anything about censoring content that is posted. White nationalists “generate harassment campaigns that target people of color, especially Black women” (Benjamin, p. 49). People who see harassment are expected to report the harassers, if they do not, then nothing happens. Twitter basically puts it in the users hands to determine if what is posted is okay or if it should be considered harassment.

Sources:

Benjamin, R. (2019). Race After Technology: Abolitionist tools for the new Jim Code. Cambridge: Polity, 41-88.

Senft, T., Noble, U. N. (2014). Race and Social Media. The Social Media Handbook, 107-125.

[winderbecky]

Week #6 Blog Post due 9/30

1. Why is it so difficult for people to talk about race?

It is so difficult for people to talk about race because it is such a controversial topic to talk about. According to Kolko, Nakamura, and Rodman, “The ‘race is biological’ argument…seemed intent on nothing so much as killing off the race thread entirely so that the list could return to safer, less controversial topics.” In other words, people wanted to talk about simpler topics because talking about race was difficult and required a lot of work, especially because people have to be careful with how they talk about race. The authors included this statement, “Though no one ever officially proclaimed race to be an unacceptable topic for discussion, for months afterward even the most innocent and ‘safe’ references to race were regularly met with snotty asides about how ‘we don’t want to go into all that again.’” This is an example of how hard it is for people to discuss race.

2. In Ow’s chapter, what is the point in the creators of 3D Realms saying, “If this game offends you or anyone, go play another game. We won’t mind.”?

This, in my opinion, is basically the creators saying that they don’t care if what they create offends anyone, it is their decision to play or not. They seem not to care if they lose players because of what they said. Ow seems to think that playing these games that are offensive to some people can create people who agree with those offensive behaviors. Ow reveals another comment made by the creators of 3D Realms, “Our intent was not to make a racist game, but a parody of all the bad kung-fu movies on the 60s-80s. We wanted to make a ‘fun’ game that didn’t take itself too seriously.” I do not think that mixing up the Asian cultures and stereotypes was a great way to make a game fun; instead it makes it seem like the intent was to make fun of and be racist towards Asian cultures.

3. Do games, like the ones that 3D Realms creates, make offensive behavior seem as if it is okay?

Yes, these games include things like saying racist comments or treating women as objects. Being able to do certain things in the games makes it seem as if it is normal and okay to do those things. For example, Ow states, “3D Realms situates all female characters nude in contrived conditions, such as bathing underneath a waterfall in the midst of a battlefield or sitting on a toilet in Master Leep’s temple…he can ‘talk’ by pressing the key that denotes ‘action,’ resulting in lewd questions and comments that are hardwired into the game: ‘Those real tits?’ ‘Ha ha! You go poo poo! I leave room.’…the gamer is compelled to kill these stationary women in ‘self-defense’.” Being able to make those comments in the games would teach some players that it is okay to make those kind of comments in real life.

4. How has technology and social media impacted peoples lives when fighting for what they believe in or when trying to get others to stand up and fight?

Technology has become something to inform others about what is going on around them. People can pass on information in an instant now. According to Daniels, “Democratic movements, organized at the grassroots by people of good will with Internet-enables mobile phones, have transformed elections.” With people having internet on their phones, it makes it quick and easily accessible to information about candidates, so it allows people to be more informed on their decision when voting. Having access to the internet also allows for people to become more involved like in this example that Daniels states, “In 2007, using e-mail, blogs, Facebook, MySpace, and YouTube, cyberactivists organized nearly ten thousand people to the march in protest against a white supremacist judicial system in Jena, Louisiana.” Another example was “almost ten years earlier black women excluded by the white-dominated mainstream media and the male-dominated African American press took advantage of the participatory quality of Internet technologies to organize the Million Woman March.” In these ways, technology and social media has become a platform for people to get involved in the world around them and fight for what they want and believe in.

Kolko, B. E., Nakamura, L., & Rodman, G. B. (2000). Race in Cyberspace: An Introduction. Race in Cyberspace (pp. 1-13). Routledge.

Ow, J. A. (2000). The Revenge of the Yellowfaced Cyborg Terminator: The Rape of Digital Geishas and the Colonization of Cyber-Coolies in 3D Realms’ Shadow Warrior. Race in Cyberspace (pp. 51-68). Routledge.

Daniels, J. (2009). White Supremacy in the Digital Era. Cyber Racism: White Supremacy Online and the New Attack on Civil Rights (pp. 3-16). Rowman & Littlefield.

[winderbecky]

Week #4 Blog Post due 9/16

1.Why is it so important to choose a child’s name very carefully?

It is important to carefully choose a child’s name when naming them because it can represent where their family is from, sometimes the status of their family, and biases about their race. According to Benjamin, “The stakes are high not only because parents’ decisions will follow their children for a lifetime, but also because names reflect much longer histories of conflict and assimilation and signal fierce political struggles.” A person’s race can most of the time be assumed by their name or in other words, “names are racially coded.”

2. According to Noble, what is the main reason for algorithmic oppression?

The main reason for algorithmic oppression is that human beings create the automated decisions. Noble states, “The people who make these decisions hold all types of values, many of which openly promote racism, sexism, and false notions of meritocracy.” People who create these technologies to “make things easier on people,” but instead they only make things easier on certain people, specifically white people.

3. Why is Google not such a reliable source for information?

Google has been accused and proven that when searching about other races, racist information comes up. Even searching for pictures of people of other races comes up with racist information. For example, Noble states, “Its photo application had automatically tagged African Americans as ‘apes’ and ‘animals’.” Noble also did a search of her own for “black girls” and what popped up was porn sites. This proves that Google is not a reliable source for information because they give information that is offensive when searching for things about African Americans or other races.

4. What does Benjamin mean by “The New Jim Code” and how does it affect people and how they name their children?

According to Benjamin, “The New Jim Code is the employment of new technologies that reflect and reproduce existing inequities but that are promoted and perceived as more objective or progressive than the discriminatory systems of a previous era.” In other words, it means that with the new technologies and algorithms being created, discrimination is still present, but in a more advanced sense. The New Jim Code makes people really think about how they want their child to be seen when they grow up. Names hold stereotypes about who the person might be or where a person is from. The New Jim Code is judging people before you even meet them solely by their name.

Benjamin, R. 2019. Race After Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code. Cambridge: Polity.

Everett, A. 2002. The Revolution Will Be Digitized: Afrocentricity and the Digital Public Sphere. Social Text, 125-146.

Noble, S. 2018. Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism. New York University Press.

[winderbecky]

Week #2 Blog Post due 9/2

1. What does slacktivism mean?

Slacktivism is online activism that makes you feel good. It is just when you click on something in support of something or against something, and it makes you feel like you are getting involved and making an impact on the world. An example of this is signing internet petitions to make something happen or change.

2. How would one tell the difference between social media and not social media? What is social media?

People believe that social media is only when you interact with someone, but how does one determine if something is considered interacting with someone? According to Fuchs, “All computing systems, and therefore all web applications, as well as all forms of media can be considered as social because they store and transmit human knowledge that originates in social relations in society.” So, if something contains human knowledge, then it should be considered social media. However, social media has “multi-layered meanings.”

3. Does having access to so many news sources benefit society or disadvantage society?

It should benefit society because the news sources allow people to be more aware of what is going on around them, but people choose not to keep up to date with the news. People are so misinformed now that people do not know what is going on in their own city. The people may choose not to follow the news because of how much false information is being presented. González and Torres state, "The believability of our nation's news organizations has plummeted sharply in recent decades." However, if people listened to the real news, it could cause panic or change people's viewpoints.

4. How is race involved in American news?

The news has been from the start, aimed towards America’s white population. America’s “key newspapers, magazines and broadcast stations were owned and operated by whites; the content they produced was aimed largely at white readers and listeners.” Not only has the news been reporting to the white Americans, but more times than not, “the white press portrayed the victims of racial attacks as the instigators or perpetrators of violence.”

Fuchs, Christian. 2017. Social Media: A Critical Introduction. 2nd Edition. Los Angeles: Sage Publications.

González, J., & Torres, J. 2012. News for All the People: The Epic Story of Race and the American Media. Verso.

[winderbecky]

Week #3 Blog Post due 9/9

1. Why are people enabling technology to single out and target people for fraud? Technology can’t see or understand the whole situation.

People are moving towards letting technology make decisions based on certain boxes that are checked within the system because it makes it easier for people and companies to find out when something fraudulent is going on. However, technology cannot understand each situation. For example, Eubanks’ situation with their partner portrays that they could have been using the insurance company fraudulently because they had just gotten new insurance cards and were already making claims. The information that the technology did not understand was that they actually did need the insurance to help out with medical bills because of the attack.

2. Would it be a good idea to increase the rate at which technology is becoming like “digital security guards”? Would it be beneficial, or would it be detrimental?

I do believe that technology should keep growing into our society with GPS tracking, to a point, and keeping track of fraud, but at the same, I also think that technology makes too many mistakes. In the example with Eubanks’ situation, their family shouldn’t have been targeted because they were just trying to use their insurance as they were supposed to. A human being makes mistakes too, so technology helps catch more cases that humans would miss. However, humans are able to understand that some things can look a certain way, but really be something different.

3. What is meant by “digital divide,” and who are the people that would be affected?

A digital divide is basically the divide between who has access to computers and the internet and who does not have access. The digital divide has been on the basis of class rather than gender and race. It is thought that the poor can’t get access to computers and the internet, and according to author Jessie Daniels, “Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Anthony Walton do not hesitate to assert that Black culture is ‘the problem’ when it comes to the digital divide (Wright 2002, 2005).”

4. What are some examples that show that “the internet is a ‘tool’ to be picked up and ‘used’ by women for ‘empowerment’”?

One example is when an Afghanistan group raises awareness of the “repressive Taliban regime.” Another example is when groups in “South Asia challenged gender-specific abortion.” Another example is in Mexico where they are trying to be able to support people globally “in pursuit of a more gender-equitable society.” These are all internetworked social movements put together to support global feminism.

Daniels, Jessie. 2009. Rethinking Cyberfeminism(s); Race, Gender, and Embodiment. Women’s Studies Quarterly. 37, 101-124.doi: 10.1353/wsq.0.0158.

Eubanks, Virginia. 2018. Automating Inequality Introduction.

[winderbecky]

When Technology Turns On Me

Ever since I got a new iPhone, when I try to put it in my back pocket, it turns on the flashlight. I have had this happen many times, and since it is in my back pocket, I don’t realize that the flashlight is on until someone tells me. I feel like people think I am taking a video of them or a picture of them, so I get embarrassed when this happens.