Global Media in a Digital Age

  Dealing with Defeat: Fake News and Desperation in Ethiopia By John Harms Since November 4, 2020, Ethiopia has been at war with itself. Disputes over political control spiraled into violence after the Ethiopian Government moved military units towards the northern Tigray region, sparking a preemptive attack by the ruling Tigray People’s Liberation Front which saw the army’s Northern Command essentially obliterated. In a single night, a significant segment of the Ethiopian military was either dead, captured, or had defected to join the TPLF. The war which followed was rather quick, with the Ethiopian government calling in old enemies turned allies in Eritrea to attack Tigray from the north, while the ENDF supported by Amhara militias attacked from several roads in the south. The offensive to take all the major cities in Tigray was complete in a month. Over the course of the next 7 months, however, the TPLF retreated into the countryside. You see, the TPLF had a plan. They had prep...

Forums are great and they are not great. During my times with forums I've made great jokes, horrible cringey comments, and gotten owned. Forums allow us to spread ideas and share thoughts. Meme culture has flourished, with subcultures of all kinds being able to form groups and communities for people around the world to join. Herein lies the problem. The spread of ideas online has meant that once fringe ideas have gained legitimacy in the minds of exponentially more people than the past. This is the case with things such as flat earth, anti-vaccination, astrology, and countless other moronic things. Astrology especially annoys me because it's so prevalent in society (particularly with women) and people base their whole lives around something which is useless. It's essentially a religion but there is no moral code.  On Facebook, conspiracy theories spread like wildfire as Facebook is neglectful with these groups. Flat earth communities which in the past may have only numbered...

 Sorry this is a wee bit late, but we've all been a wee bit late with things this crazy semester!! Freedom of Speech is Journalism is always a fun thing to talk about because we can all easily come up with outlets which we would love to see shut down or journalists we'd love to see censured. Unfortunately, freedom of speech means sites like the Daily Stormer  will likely stay online until Andrew Anglin runs out of money.  Freedom of Speech also means that bias can infect outlets quite easily. There is no obligation for news organizations to stay neutral when reporting, regardless of the guidelines. As a result of this, our news seeks sensationalism in order to get attention. Organizations such as Fox News and MSNBC have continually found that their most opinionated segments are the ones that get the most attention. Therefore there is no reason to be unbiased. And here is where our free speech kicks in. They can say some of the most ridiculous or unfounded crap in the worl...

 Social Media is a business. A very lucrative business. Social media is an interesting sphere because its users are both the consumer and the product itself. On platforms especially such as Facebook, users consume ads and buy products which make the company money. The company (we will focus on Facebook) also sells you to corporations and businesses who wish to advertise to you and sell their products or services. Your data is extremely valuable. Facebook tracks everything you do on their site. Who you talk to, what you say, what you watch, what you follow, what you click on, what you search. It also tracks what you do off the site . Yes, even if you are not a Facebook user, they are tracking you.  That is because your data is worth thousands of dollars, potentially tens of thousands of dollars. Your data is the most valuable asset that you don't know about. There are only limited ways for us to avoid giving our information out like candy, such as denying cookies, using web bro...

 For companies, the most important thing is how much money is made. Much of that money comes from advertisement and subscriptions, so it's very important to have a good image in the public, or a loyal audience which will stick with you. In the most recent years, we have seen campaigns led against advertisers of media outlets in attempts to get them to pull sponsorships and deprive disagreeable outlets of cash. This has been met with mixed success. Brands want to appease the public. In reality, corporations largely don't care about social issues or justice. They care about money. If it makes them money to make their logo a rainbow, they'll do it. If it doesn't they don't. I was in Egypt during pride month. Not. One. Single. Rainbow.  I find this exhausting. I'm not really interested in some big commentary on pink capitalism or corporate double standards, but it's just so tiring. People rush to get Coca Cola to pull ads from YouTube because of a single racial ...

 Video games are a growing part of entertainment. The industry continues to get bigger and more profitable as more people are able to access video games. People like to harp on about microtransactions or gatcha games or their favorite consoles or the best PC parts, but what everyone is failing to recognize is the rise of Asia and Africa in gaming. Online communities are becoming more and more diverse as more people get access to video game consoles or free to play games. PUBG Mobile for example is still widely popular throughout Africa and the Middle East, where anyone with a smartphone was able to download the game and play for free. Though internet is limited for billions still, any access online means they are keen to join the international community of gamers. Competitive tournaments, once dominated by American and Japanese players, now has spread to Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East, with Africa slowly joining in as well. Games such as FIFA or Smash Bros cultivate lar...