Blog Post #5: History of the Printing Press

     The Printing Press was a revolutionary invention created by a German goldsmith named Johannes Gutenberg in 1436. It is worth noting that he didn't start automated book printing, as various types of it had been going on for about a century in both China and Korea. However, Gutenberg's became the most successful and influential. His machine included a screw-type wine press that pressed down on inked metal type. 

    The machine didn't originally gain much popularity at first. It was a revolutionary invention, but distribution of the printed material became a problem. Gutenberg could sell a few books around his town or nearby areas but found distributing to a greater population proved difficult. Because of this, Gutenberg ended up dying penniless before his invention took off in influence and popularity.

    The struggle with distribution was solved eventually, with solutions including sending copies of printed material with people who are traveling to distribute them on their travels, eventually creating a global market. 

    The literacy rate still wasn't very high when the printing press began getting more popular, so those who were literate were paid to read for those who weren't literate. 

    The most prevalent texts that were distributed were religious, informational, and scientific texts. The fact that the global market expanded also led to faster distribution of ideas and information. This in turn led to faster scientific discoveries and technological advances. 

    The Italian renaissance began before the invention of the printing press, but it's creation again sped up the process of gained knowledge and known ideas, as well as giving more people access to it, Printed material became cheaper and easier for people to get, not just the upper class. Less censorship was able to be done on fringe voices because of the weight and volume of printed material being sent out into the world.

    Because of the printing press, Martin Luther became the first best selling author in the world, with his writings making up almost two-thirds of books being sold in Germany at the time.

https://www.history.com/news/printing-press-renaissance

Blog Post #4: Eight Values of Free Expression: Which Ones Are Most Prominent?

     The Eight Values of Free Expression are all very useful to know in the modern day when expressing opinions on things. They are very useful and important to keep in mind in the modern political climate. The Eight Values of Free Expression include:

Marketplace of Ideas, Participation in Self-Government, Stable Change, Individual Self-Fulfillment, Check on Governmental Power, Promote Tolerance, Promote Innovation, and Protect Dissent.

    I think the most important value in regards to politics nowadays and in the past is Check On Government Power. The definition of this is that freedom of press allows citizens to learn about abuses of power, and allows citizens the option to try and do something about it, thus keeping the government in check. The government often tries to hide things it does and attempts to cover it up, and this is true on both sides of the political spectrum. The government often manages to hide or undersell what they have been doing, which leads to scandals, or in some cases absolutely no repercussions whatsoever if they get away with it. Keeping a check on government is always a good idea, as it at least makes it harder for the government to get away with doing things under citizen's noses. We live in a democracy, a government in which the citizens decide what is best for the country, but that is impossible if the government is doing things without confronting the citizens and country they are governing. Without giving the citizens a full picture and allowing them to decide what they feel and what to do about it, the government is depriving people of the basic right of a democracy. 

    Another one of the most important values in my eyes is Promoting Tolerance. The definition of this is pretty much how it sounds, stating how society should be more tolerant overall. It notes that hate speech is technically protected by the first amendment because society will condemn those who use hate speech themselves, serving as just enough punishment and curating a more tolerant society in the process. This is often seen on something like social media. If someone were to spread hate speech, they could get their account banned, could lose their job, or other such punishments. While not punishments done by the government, they are strong enough to make most people know that hate speech is not something to spread around and should/will be condemned. 

https://www.aclu.org/other/freedom-expression 

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12142-020-00608-8?awc=26429_1681316387_20ff5e6b293999fd8c631429adc39c09&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=awin&utm_campaign=CONR_BOOKS_ECOM_DE_PHSS_ALWYS_DEEPLINK&utm_content=textlink&utm_term=143466

Blog Post #3: Supreme Court

     Based on the this article by the History Channel about the Supreme Court (https://www.history.com/topics/us-government-and-politics/supreme-court-facts), I have learned a few things about the Supreme Court that I wasn't originally knowledgeable about. 

    As is common knowledge, the Supreme Court is is the highest federal court in the entire United States and is the head of the judicial branch of the government. Originally, there were only six justices appointed, which was new information to me. In the modern day, there are nine justices that serve on the Supreme Court. 

    The first case the Supreme Court ever came to a decision on was West v. Barnes, a relatively small money dispute between a farmer and a family he owed money to. It was very interesting to know the Supreme Court once handled cases like these and not huge cases that the entire country has their eyes on like they do today. 

    The chief justice is the justice that overall has the most authority out of the other members. A specific type of trial they look over very closely are impeachment trials, like that of Bill Clinton or Donald Trump.

    One fun fact I learned was that William Howard Taft is the only person to be both president and chief justice. 

    Overall, I learned a lot more than the overall surface level information that I had previously known about the Supreme Court, and feel more knowledgeable about the Supreme Court itself and the cases surrounding it, as well as the actions that can be taken by justices and the chief justice.

Blog Post #2: Digital Tattoos

     In Juan Enriquez's TED Talk (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fu1C-oBdsMM), he speaks of electronic tattoos. 

    He makes a very good argument about how websites and corporations find out things about you through the things you look up, and the data that is a part of you. He compares this information about you to physical tattoos, which often show a certain message or part of someone. 

    He then brings in the metaphor of electronic tattoos. Like stated earlier, these electronic tattoos are the data about you, your face, your interests, what you look at online, your credit score, purchases, things of that nature. Big corporations, like Facebook for example, will take that data to learn as much about you as possible, leading to them knowing way more about you than is probably comfortable for most people. 

    Enriquez brings in metaphors about Greek mythology as well, which I found engaging. One that stuck out to me was that of Sisyphus eternal struggle to roll a boulder up a mountain, continually falling back down and pushing it back up. Enriquez compares this to someone's online reputation, constantly shifting up and down, with people always trying to push it upwards. 

    Juan Enriquez' TED Talk was overall a very engaging piece. 

Blog Post #1: My Top 5 News Sources

 News Source 1: Social Media

      It may seem obvious, but social media as a whole is an incredibly useful way to find news, and is usually the place I first hear about things from. The two social medias that I believe are the most useful for discovering news are YouTube and Instagram. Instagram is a good way to initially hear about news incidents and get a surface level idea of what is going on in the news. It isn't too in depth, but it's a great jumping off point for deciding what news you are interested in investing your time in and learning more about it. YouTube bounces off this, as while it may not be as reliable for finding news stories as fast, the video format allows for a lot of information to be shared in little time that will keep the attention of whoever's watching. For both examples, there are quick ways to see different posts/videos about each news story from multiple perspectives. The ability to jump from different perspectives and news sources allows for whoever is interested in the news story can get the full unbiased picture in a relatively quick and concise manner.

News Source 2: The Washington Post

     

    I use the Washington Post quite often when I'm looking for unbiased political news. The Post does a good job not really picking sides and sticking to the facts of a situation. This is good for when I don't know much about a situation and want to know all the facts about it before deciding how I feel about it. Choosing to use the Washington Post to gather information about topics I don't know much about is very useful, as from then on I can decide my own views on the matter, which will affect how I look at other, more biased news sources. This makes the Washington Post a very prominent part of my political views, as they are the groundwork from which I build my own opinion and viewpoint.

News Source 3: ABC News

    When it comes to televised news, I tend to watch ABC News. It's the one that I've become most accustomed to, as it's the one my dad always watches. It seems that NBC and FOX both lean in opposite directions in terms of bias, with NBC heavily leaning left and FOX heavily leaning right. Because of this, I like ABC News for similar reasons I like the Washington Post. It is a fairly unbiased news source that focuses mainly on facts that educate, support, and go against both sides rather than only supporting or going against one side. The stories presented in the news can obviously range, which is why I don't always rely on televised news for bigger stories due to the fact that there's only so much information they can fit into the time they have. Still, I find ABC News to be a reliable news source.

News Source 4: Apple News

    

Apple News, similar to Instagram, YouTube, and other social media, is incredibly convenient. Since it's already on my phone to begin with, it's an extremely quick way to get updated on things going on in the world. I don't rely on it as much for politics, as it caters to whoever is using it, so I'll mostly get things with a bias towards me. Still, I use it very often for news unrelated to politics, as most of the time the way the app caters itself to it's users makes it easy to find out about stories I would find interest in much faster than on other news sources.

News Source 5: Google

More of a general way of getting news, Google acts as a connecting tissue between information. It is where I go to look up sources and find new and interesting ways to gather news and information about things I'm interested in or would like to know about.