I really enjoyed the way this class was constructed and the different types of activities we did to keep us engaged. The blog posts and tweets were two ways of class engagement that I have never done before. The first learning outcome, is understand and communicate current trends in communication technology. I feel like I best learned this by reading about and researching current trends in the technology such as the shift to 5g, Augmented Analytics, and the improving of the cloud. The second learning outcome, is understand and demonstrate the use of several theoretical approaches to studying communication technologies. Some examples of this technologies effect on culture and the role of media in organizations. Instead of calling you can text or email family and or co workers. The Third learning outcome, is to understand and communicate the role of political, policy and economic factors in the creation, use, abuse, success and failure of communication technologies. A good example of this is the game we played to learn about how fake news is created and distributed including the different techniques used to spread the fake news and get people riled up, It was developed by researchers at Cambridge University in the UK and a Dutch fake news research organization. The game shows how a fake political account can gain traction and lead the public to fake news. The public who bevies the fake news starts to spread it even more so that eventually the fake news has been spread so much that many believe it to be true. Even though they did no research on the source that it came from. The last learning objective, is Be able to critically examine and communicate the role communication technologies play in our lives and society at large. The fake news game is an example of this, but also how media companies collect our data and sell it to companies that use it to their advantage. The data is mined to gain insight. There is structured data and un structured data. Structured data is available in rows in columns like a table format, un structured cannot be structured in a rows and column format. All of the data comes from everything we do online everything we buy, everywhere we go, and even in our car. Big data is used business, health care, education, and media. Finally, now there are laws going into place such as the California Consumer Privacy act to protect us from unwanted spying, it gives us rights and protects the consumers privacy. I really enjoyed this class and it is a shame that the person lectures had to be cut short. I learned a lot about the history about communication technologies and where we might be heading in the future. My favorite lecture was on big data. This was my favorite lecture because most of the time when you search a product, you get ads for that product on all different media outlets. Now I know why and how it is done, also how easy it is to collect data on a user. All in all i really enjoyed this class and will take away useful knowledge on media technologies. 

I did not hear about FOMO up until 2 years ago, and when I had it explained to me I was shocked. I had felt it before but never really thought much about it. As a young kid when your parents tell you, you can’t stay the night at your friends you get upset and it usually ends there. Now as an adult if you can not go to an event or a party for some reason, you have to see everyone you know there and see how much fun they are having. I believe everyone has probably felt fomo at least a couple of times and not even know why the feeling is there.

I do not believe that net neutrality should be revisited. I believe this because if it were to restored, these companies would find away to bend the law and do what they want at all costs. If something benefits these big companies they will find a way to make something seem unmoral but not illegal like they have before. I do not think it is necessary to go through it also, because it would have to be a law signed in by the President and I am positive since he helped repeal it, he would not sign it back on.

I do not believe it should be a law for images in the U.S. that are altered to state that they are altered like France. A law is a little extreme to my liking but I do believe it should be common knowledge that it is very easy to touch up and alter these images of models. If you introduce younger people into picture altering platforms, I believe it would be more effective to actually show younger people how it is done than turn it into a law. By showing how it is done it gives it a sense of realness instead of just believe what you see.

I believe that inclusive gaming is very important, especially after learning about women in gaming and reading the article. When hearing about how women are treated and looked at differently in the gaming community, I believe it starts at a young age. When it comes to little girls growing up, if they are gaming with male characters eventually they will start to wonder why there are no female characters. Young girls dreams are crushed at an early age with situations like wanting to be the first female in a male dominant sports. This is due to not being able to visualize it. Some young girls play baseball at a young age instead of softball and dream about being the first female MLB player. When playing MLB video games, there is no option for them to customize a female character. This leads to the short and disappointing answer of girls don’t play baseball. Which will eventually crush the dreams of a young girl wanting to play baseball. If video games just gave the option of creating all different kinds of avatars and characters it would help everyone who feels out of place out. By giving the options of making trans, female or any other kind of characters hurts no one. It includes people who feel like they are on the outside looking in. Lastly, this benefits everyone by including more people and bringing the gaming community together no matter gender race or sexuality.

The digital divide is a real thing that has been going on, and will continue to go on unless something is done. The crazy thing is that this assignment has lined up perfectly with the Covid – 19 virus that has caused everyone to stay at home and not attend school. This virus has brought more attention to the digital divide. By not allowing students to go to school this is limiting students learning opportunities. This is happening because not all students have the resources to learn from home. When it comes to college students a good majority have laptops and phones, and are able to work from home. If they do not have these resources universities have been good about loaning students laptops to use at home. The problem is with younger children who cannot afford these technologies. Elementary, middle schools, and junior high schools are lending out ipads and chrome books to students who do not have these products. If they do not have wifi xfinity is giving out free internet at this time of need so that these students can use the technology and learn. I think that schools should be funded to have an x amount of ipads or chrome books on hand so students can also learn and do online homework at home. Xfinity should run a program similar to what they are doing now with the virus crisis during the school year to make sure these students do not fall behind. Doing this will set these students up for success and when they get to an age where they are in need of these technologies they will not be behind. They will be familiar with the products and succeed like the rest of the students.

After learning about the 2019 IFPI Global Music Report, I believe that the future of music will be all digital when it comes to purchasing. According to ifpi (2019), “Overall digital revenues grew by 21.1% to US$11.2 billion in 2018, crossing the US$10 billion mark for the first time ever and now accounting for 58.9% of total recorded music revenues. Within this format, the picture was varied with streaming pushing growth up strongly (increasing by 34.0% to US$8.9 billion), while downloads saw a decline of 21.2%, dropping to 7.7% of the total market.” The digital streaming platforms are already very popular but are going to continue to grow and reach more countries. I believe this will also lead to more artist getting together and launching their own platforms like tidal. I believe this because “Paid audio streaming in particular was again a key driver (+32.9%), with almost all markets reporting growth in this area. Digital now makes up more than 50% of revenue in 38 markets” (ifpi,2019). Artist could get together and claim you can only listen to their new music on a certain platform and once they get the numbers they want, then release it to other platforms. This is a tactic that Kanye west used when releasing his album “The Life of Pablo.” After this I believe that live still be very popular, but i think as we advance in technology so will live performances. There is already a technology where you can put a hologram of an artist on the stage in a live performance, but this will advance even more. I think that with digital streaming reaching more and more people, there will be more of a demand for concerts. This will lead to 100% hologram concerts in different places all over the world. So artist can be in more places at one time increasing the revenue.

Jovanovic, J. (2015, February 2). How does Shazam work? Music Recognition Algorithms, Fingerprinting, and Processing. Retrieved from https://www.toptal.com/algorithms/shazam-it-music-processing-fingerprinting-and-recognition

This article is important because it shows the background and technology model. Which is important to know when trying to build a similar recognition product.

Segall, L. (2012, March 6). How Shazam went from startup to full-fledged company. Retrieved from https://money.cnn.com/2012/03/06/technology/shazam/index.htm

This article isa good introduction to the process of creating an app like Shazam. It is important to know the ups and downs and possible road blocks that can come about when trying to create a similar platform and be successful.

The communication technology that I will be talking about for this blog post is radio. Not because radio is this new crazy technology, but it has a decline and interests me. Radio used to be the main sources of entertainment and information for listeners around the world. This was not the case for me when I was growing up, there were iPods and tv entertainment and stuff like that. But as I grew a little older I got more into sports and started listening to more sports talk radio. What interests me most about it was it was and still somewhat is very popular in local media outlets who want to be up to date with the sports going on around that area. When I first got to Chico State one of my first media professors talked radio and its rich history and a couple of other things, but then stated that if a new car was made and it did not have a radio in it. That it would probably kill radio. Which really got me thinking. Radio makes a lot of money from advertisers and if you are listening to radio, you have to sit through the commercials. With all the new podcast, apple music, and Spotify you can skip these advertisements. Which is very convenient to consumers. What interests me most radio is if it can stay alive through all of the changes in media and new media outlets. To counteract the loss in listeners to sports radio a lot of local sports talk host, record their show and upload it to podcast networks. Just so they can stay up with the times and if someone missed the show they can tune into the podcast and catch what they missed. I think this is an idea that other radio host should consider. If for some reason someone isn’t driving and wants to listen to a show they usually can not listen to it. If radio shows all recorded their shows and uploaded it to podcast networks they could keep and increase their listeners. This could also work for music radio it would be like the station making a playlist for the consumer.