Silencing Anti-War Voices by Olivia Moran

     After watching all the videos and taking in our discussions during class I had a lot to think about when it comes from the government trying to silence anti-war voices. Back in 1917 after
World War One breaks out in Europe our U.S. government came up with the Espionage Act

which would silence anti-war voices in employees under the United States government. After hearing that it was perplexing to hear that the government would silence its citizens using its power to throw them in jail. I can only imagine people being scared to speak about the war along with the threat of being thrown in jail for simply speaking their mind. Then in 1918 and the Sedation Act everyone was at risk of being thrown in jail no longer just government employees. Then in 1919 brought “the Quartet” which included Shienck, Debs, & Fohwerk who spoke out about the war and expressed their disdain for it, in order for the government to get them in jail they used incitement against them which means Speech that causes violence or lawless action (your words are going to provoke something to happen) also known as a clear and present danger against the well being of the public. 

When thinking in terms of the present and after looking over the antiwar website I was stricken with many thoughts. As asked why does the media not cover these stories for the public to see? I believe that the end goal is to only get what the government wants you to see. Using the example of “ISIS Attacks Iraqi Kurdish Village, 13 Killed10 Peshmerga slain, along with three civilians” by Jason Ditz that ISIS took no credit for that attack which is unusual along with a great tragedy that ensued. I looked up the title online with a quick Google search and found no mainstream media like FOX News or CNN had covered the issue. 

    I think that online you have to search for an anti-war voice outside of the mainstream media because the government has so much control over the news as a whole. You will find what you are looking for and with great websites such as Antiwar.com a collection of stories are out in the world the government just does not want you to know about it before they have a chance to either ignore it or respond to the situation.

Through the Lens of the Diffusion Theory By Olivia Moran

    I will be using the EOTO #1 subject I had researched which was the evolution of
the DVD. As we know it was invented by Sony in 1995 but released to the public in 1996, DVDs then caught on because they were better than LaserDisc who had recently released their technology. DVDs were lighter smaller and easier to transport and this catapulted it into the future starting with the pioneers which then lead to early adopters.

    Through the lens of the Diffusion Theory, we can see that the new technology was explosive and adopted early by many people but prices did and will always affect how many people are able to buy the product. With a slow start it still was found by 2000-2003 the majority of families owned a DVD

player and sometimes along with a VCR (VHS player) and we know these families to reside in the early to late majority. As we know there will always be that 15% who do not adapt, like the laggers, to the new technology like DVDs even though car manufactures were implementing them into their new releases. As we know the DVDs are long gone but they were as big as online streaming is now, you have Netflix, Hulu, and Disney plus, all that have even been added to remote controls for your TVs. There is that same structure as we saw with DVDs, it was just the revolutionizing values that put DVDs at the starting point of all the streaming technology we have now. Overall, DVDs on the Diffusion scale show the true evolution within people and technology adaptation, with such an immense revolutionary product.

EOTO #1 DVDs by Olivia Moran

LaserDisc technology was first invented by David Paul and James Russell in 1958. In 1978 LaserDisc was released in the United States of America. When compared to the DVD as we know it LaserDiscs were nearly three times the size. LaserDiscs were constantly compared and very similar to vinyl due to the fact that watchers would have to flip the disc in the middle of their movie in order to watch the second half.

    The DVD or Digital Videodisc was invented in 1995 and released to the public in 1996. It was amazing to see that all audio and video that a LaserDisc could hold would be as compact as a CD and much more. A notable fact is that the movies Twister and Mars Attack were the first two movies released by Hollywood available on DVD in 1997. The first DVD player was the Toshiba SD-3000. I was first released over in Japan in November 1996. Soon after the PlayStation 2 was released in 2000 and in addition to playing games, it could also play DVDs which was a huge selling factor at the height of the DVD’s reign. Then Yahoo, yes, the new and upcoming email service, manufactured and released their own DVD player in 2005.

For years VHS tapes were the household friend of the family, throughout the 70s, 80s, and up to 90s VHS tapes were all people knew. You could watch it, record over it, rewind, and fast forward but, by the year 2000 people were stocking their shelves with DVDs instead. Netflix co-founder Mark Randolph and High Point University’s Entrepreneur in residence gave Netflix its place in the world when he used DVDs in April of 1998. With less weight to ship compared to the VHS the company saved money, skyrocketed profits, reached a wider audience, and changed the way we watch movies for good. Oh! They also ran Blockbuster out of business except for one which resides in Bend, Oregon.

DVDs have changed the movie game for everyone, some benefits were as stated before they were lighter, more compact, and more portable. It would only take a little time to find DVD and Blu-Ray players in every household along with automobiles. It was merely the stepping stone that got the world to where it is now, with more information being stored on such a small item it became revolutionary. DVDs were everywhere and while Netflix was not the only video service it represented a revolution. I look back on the nights where my family would rent to newest movie from the video store that is still somehow in business to this day. Movie night we would pick up our favorite pizza and the family would come together to watch a DVD that hopefully wasn’t scratched.

With DVDs being now long gone we can still look fondly on when we would play The Land Before Time on VHS in the living room. Or your favorite movie in the back of your mom's car. Thank you DVDs for making us all introverts.

 

Work Cited

Wallace, Dillion. “THE HISTORY OF THE DVD.” South Tree, southtree.com/blogs/artifact/the-history-of-the-dvd. Accessed 13 Nov. 2021.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. “DVD | Definition, Development, & Facts.” Encyclopedia Britannica, 21 Sept. 2021, www.britannica.com/technology/DVD.

“History of DVD.” Did You Know?, didyouknow.org/dvdhistory. Accessed 13 Nov. 2021.

According to new research… (“History of DVD”).

CLIR. “5. Conditions That Affect CDs and DVDs •.” CLIR, 26 Jan. 2017, www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub121/sec5.

“How DVDs Stole the Spotlight from VHS | Video 2 DVD Transfers.” Video 2 DVD Transfers News | Transfer Your Previous VHS Tapes to DV Format at Competitive Prices, 31 Mar. 2021, www.video2dvdtransfers.co.uk/blog/2019/06/21/how-dvds-stole-the-spotlight-from-vhs.

Values of Free Expression By Olivia Moran

 When reading over the Eight Values of Free Expression I found the most profound out of the group to be number three which reads as follows, “Stable Change (aka Safety Valve) — see Benedict Spinoza, Tractatus-Theologico Politicus; It has been suggested that a society in which angry and alienated citizens are allowed to speak their mind, or "vent," will be more stable, as people will be less likely to resort to violence. It has also been pointed out that allowing the alienated and discontented to speak freely enables government to better monitor potentially dangerous groups who would otherwise act more clandestinely. Ultimately, it is in the government's own self-interest to allow such venting.”

Without letting that take up all the words required and the minimum amount that constantly knocks at my brain. I find that this value exhibits the idea of what the world would consider a therapist, with words used such as, rant, stable, and alienated. This leads to many different ideas and if government involvement or the First Amendment is even supported by this value. I ponder if the First Amendment is supposed to tribute to peoples’ feelings, the short answer is no but the long answer is yes and that is where everything gets confusing. We have seen time and time again that people question that very theory such as, Gitlow v. New York.

Humans get more complicated by the minute and yes, somehow people make cases for their bad days, and sometimes they just need to talk to someone, this in turn brings up the idea of health care. Without getting too off-topic I want to bring in a lyric from a song. At the risk of this not making any sense the lyric reads, “Why are there terrorists, what if they just saw a therapist, changed their ways, and moved to the Americas,” this is from Questionnaire by Chris Webby. If you get the chance to listen to the rest of the song I will tell you that it still remains one of my favorites when I heard it whilst working in the back of a Chipotle. Anyway back to why I even brought that up in the first place, well if you reading this you probably don’t need me to tell you that it is a thought-provoking question

    Tracing back to the idea of ranting and free health care and all the ideas that are little chance of happening. If all people were able to talk to someone at all times there would be a lot more therapists but also a crisis and it may overlook the people who desperately need a therapist but who else is going to listen and give trained feedback? Surely not the government, as sad as it is, they don't have time to contribute to people of the public. Whether all those ideas came out to one big mess or in some way you followed along I am going to move on to the Second Value of Free Expression that made a true impact on me and to save us both some headaches.

Number four reads, “Individual Self-Fulfillment ( aka Self-Actualization) — see C. Edwin Baker, Human Liberty and Freedom of Speech; Free speech enables individuals to express themselves and thereby create their own identity — and, in the process perhaps, find kindred spirits. Freedom of speech thus becomes an aspect of human dignity, human agency, and autonomy.”

When reading this my brain immediately turns to, and for lack of better words, hippie idealistic. By this I mean yes, everyone should have their own qualities and ideas who make up themselves and I do see a lot of that in this generation, Gen Z if you will. I find this to be the most accurate value of Free Expression when it comes to currently in action today due to the fact that everyone can speak their mind as long as there are no threats to harm themselves or anyone else. My thought directly goes to an example of a peaceful protest even though those are hard to come by nowadays. I imagine someone standing on an old soapbox with an elegant speech to make higher-ups see that the people want change. No matter what you stand for or speak out about it is your own, your words are individualized to you which could be one of the reasons plagiarism is found upon. I find myself trailing off again but I still cannot fathom what it would be like if I could not say what I wished to during class, publicly, or even in the confines of my own friendships.

Overall, I find it truly inspiring and liberating to see that with all the negativity around this country for basically my entire existence that freedom of speech remains one of my closest allies.

Workings of the Supreme Court Reflection By: Olivia Moran

     I learned information about the Supreme Court today after watching a 20-minute informational video. I learned that just over 100 Supreme Court justices serve an average amount of 16 years bench twice that long some even remain decades after the president who appointed them has left office. I also learned that the Supreme Court receives more than 100 new cases every week which accumulates to a rough 7,000 a year.

    I would find that the most important takeaway about the Supreme Court is the unbiased yet opinionated justice system that falls in the laps of Nine justices, this includes fighting court cases for people of the public along with passing and rejecting laws that are made.

    I found that the most surprising thing that I learned was most who send letters to the Supreme Court or petition for certiorari, meaning a letter stating the lower court was wrong in their ruling and that person wants their case moved to the Supreme Court. I also learned that the Supreme Court only takes about 100 of these a year, out of the many letters non-extreme cases have a slim to no chance of getting to the Supreme Court.

While I have much respect for the Supreme Court I did not realize all the work that they have to do while they spend it sometimes more than half their life working the same job. Both I and the public cannot acknowledge all the work that is put into making this country run efficiently. From writing statement after statement, paper after paper, describing why your opinion matters and how it may persuade other people on the justice can be tiring and mentally exhausting. Overall, it is really exhilarating to see that so many dedicated people are appointed to our elected offices and the Supreme Court justice.

Top Five News Outlets by Olivia Moran

Daily Mail is a British daily newspaper and online news source published in London. Through Daily Mail, you can find that there is a lot of true crime and celebrity news. While I don’t watch or read much of political news outlets, I do get a lot of worldwide updates from Snapchat or other social media platforms. I especially like this news source because of its true-crime aspect which I like to keep updated on such as, their newest caption reads, “Freed suitcase killer Heather Mac is reunited with prison born six-year-old daughter, she wanted to leave behind in Indonesia, as a pair are deported to America.” This new source goes into great detail about true crime stories along with keeping us updated on celebrity scandals which is my main source of news intake.

                    

CNN was the first 24-hour all-news service and covers many political views over its showings along with the weather segments and updates on the world around us. I find this particularly interesting because it focuses on the more Democrat side of political views which can be tricky when strictly watching CNN. I find many new short clips on YouTube along with updates on social media platforms in general. I really like CNN’s wording and the way they phrase political views to their audience. CNN covers a lot of topics such as political, business, entertainment, sports, health science, and weather coverage, along with topical in-depth analysis and interviews.

 

On the days that I watch Fox News I try to primarily balance it with CNN so I can get both political sides and views. While Fox News primarily covers the Republican parties' views on worldwide subjects and also election opinions. Fox News’ mission statement is described as, “Our mission is the same as it was over a century go give the people a simple pleasure of being transported via a story on the screen.” Fox News also prides itself on being, “Fair and Balanced,” with their slogan in favor of, “Most watched, most trusted.” While this can be true in some parts it is hard to trust for people who just wish to be informed on the news. If I were to recommend Fox News I would recommend it to a more Republican-based viewpoint along with recommending that the person watching finds all viewpoints on what political worldwide story may be occurring.

              

E! News (Entertainment News) is primarily focused on celebrity livelihood and any drama that the rest of the world may need to catch up on. As their top post from October 2, 2020, is the new Witches trailer starring Anne Hathaway. While I do not look at their website often I find most stories on Snapchat are updated daily. E-News features stories and drama involving celebrities as well as films, music, and television. This industry and has been around since the mid-2000s while it has taken a turn in their media coverage, I find that they do not stay updated on their website as much as they do on other social media platforms. I really do like this news source though because of its constant updates on the world around us while also focusing on the livelihoods of people in the public eye. E-News has been around for a long time and has done many TV shows including Keeping up with the Kardashians, Real Housewives of New Jersey, and Botched. 

 

Youtuber News by Pop Buzz is a popular Snapchat news hosted by Benedict Townsend. During the short 10 minutes, you’ll find multiple stories about scandals between Youtubers, Tik Tokers, and/or influencers in general. I recommend this to anybody who wants to stay updated on social media and celebrity news in general. I like this because it brings a fun twist and the commentary by the host is clever and concentrated on what he is talking about. Whether that’s a new marriage between Debby Ryan and Josh Dunn or strictly cancel culture and the updates on that. I find this news media outlet to be the most entertaining when I want updates on the drama between people in the public eye.