Jus394Huff_Amanda

In our country today we enjoy certain rights to get the word of the people out for all to hear by the use of information technology. This information technology is our internet and the venue that some people choose to express this out to freedom of speech is through the popular internet site of www.youtube.com. The political cartoon that I will be discussing is title “The Economy 2009: The Humor and President Obama.” The publishers of this cartoon have taken the light hearted route of a cartoon to turn it into something of just the opposite. They are taking a devastating turn of an events of our economy and made it to be somewhat as some would say humorous and light hearted by using cartoons and comic strips. Some of this major issues that have been brought up in this political cartoon is the stock market with its downfalls, the issue with the value of the dollar, the gas crisis with its rise and fall, the unemployment problems, and issues with banks with money and getting a loan. This cartoon brings up some of the major issues in the past year. It is does not fully explain, but touches on them to get people involved. Through technology and knowledge the publisher of this political cartoon has found a way to produce a quite clear way to inform the masses about what is going on in our world with a different spin. I think it is very intelligent because it informs, gets people thinking, it is not dry and it is interesting. This is a venue that get people interested and involved that is reaching out to a new demographic.

For week four I was drawn to the case of the Diebold Voting machine in regards to the Networked Public sphere. In the case of the Diebold Voting machine this issue of public debate and voting was brought up. The electronic voting machines were not representing the online community of voters. This case was should a great issue because it showed people how they can fight back. It was the start of a revolution of people getting their voice heard in the cyber world. In this new age of technology the “sphere” or realm of possibilities for people to voice their opinions has moved to a virtual world. The internet has brought about a “new public sphere” in which people to communicate together as a whole no matter where they are located. This new sphere has created a what is referred to as a “global village.” It is in the new global village or community that the issue of the Diebold Voting machine has stirred up issues. The Diebold Voting machine is causing people to not be represented in their government. This act violates the global village which the government has said that the Communications Decency Act backs up. It states that the Internet must get the highest regards of protection under the government. Even though the Internet is a fairly new venue of governance compared to most it still must be regarded with the up most best protection because it is dealing with the protection, voice, and liberty of the people.

The dawn of a dark day is seen with the rise of the sun, but when daybreak emerges it is found by streets that are quiet. It is January 1st, 2050; A new year and a new day, but the question is why is there barely any activity. People all around the world are surrounded with technology. A technology that has gotten so advance that people seem obsolete. Information Technology is now transmitting by computers that were programmed by humans to retain and learn new information as they go along. If people do communicate through information technology it is all monitored by computers. Nothing in this new world is private. Now, if you want to get things done you can at the speed of light, but there is no privacy. Jobs can now be ran by computers and technology that the people themselves built making the people obsolete. Technology, machines, and computers dominate the world. The unemployment rate is up and people that went to college for jobs such as being teachers and engineers are being replaced by computers that are programmed with the new information technology. The Digital world has over powered the real world. People in this new world made a trade for fast pace cyber information technology and efficiency for privacy and jobs. They could have tried to stop this if they wanted to in some degree. They could have looked at the history of technology and how it altered and changed life in this first half of the 20th Century as many scholars of the past time did. A diverse group of scholars David Houndshell et all ( Winner p. 5) observed for example of the assembly line changed and shaped their economy. It was a new and fast way to create cars, but at the expensive of jobs. We could have used this as and example to see and predict on a much larger scale as to what happened in our current economy. When creating these new information technologies all we saw was the good it would do for us, but now that it is in power we can only see and feel the consequences of its problems it has created for us. Our new world is powerful and efficient with the new Information Technology. Our new world is also flat, economy is down. People are becoming obsolete, and it is not far fetched to wonder when people will not even be needed for most jobs. People have created this technology to help them, but for the most part it is taking over and creating and imbalance of power with gloomy outcomes. Our new Information Technology is a self created since of slavery that we have brought onto ourselves. Technology has brought us into slavery with no privacy where we no longer control our everyday lives and no way of turning back.