Digital Story

http://prezi.com/yqjvrnjzf6lm/twittered-to-no-return/

Story board

The focus of my presentation is to educate the class on social networking and the various effects of it on our lives. I will use Prezi to present my story. I will start of by giving a brief history of social networking. I will have the class then take a survey using their cell phones to answer the question. the site I will be using is polleverywhere.com. Finally I will show example of how social networking and social justice have collided.

NSA Issues

Upon revealing the leak of data by Snowden we now understand that many laws have been repeatedly broken by the NSA. They had private auditors that broke privacy regulations numerous times. Which brings us to the question, can mass-surveillance ever be viewed as a good thing?
From reading the articles on The Guardian I became amazed at the fact how private companies cared so much about receiving intelligence. This has become a major fear of private internet users. At any point we can be located, even from a simple tweet. As we saw in class the information we post in a tweet is more than just our personal opinion. The gathering of our information and the fact that privately owned businesses have access to it can not be justified. We need to take action on the subject and find a way to resolve this issue. It is amazing to me how whistle blowers such as Snowden put their lives on the line just to find some sort of justice to these atrocities. Snowden even says in the interview we watched that his biggest fear isn't being caught by the US government but he fears that all the information he released will go unnoticed by the US citizens and that we will accept this mass-surveillance.

DS proposal

For my digital story I am going to talk about social networking and its effects on society as a whole. I will get into detail on how social networks affect our social status, personality, actions and how it affects us from a global stand point. Social Networking has grown over the past century exponentially. I hope to show my readers what social networking has become and where it is going.
I will also give my readers an explanation on how to use social networks. I will show them where these networks started and why they got to the point they are at today. I will give my readers the pros and cons of social networking and possible solutions to the cons. My interest in social networking and the cross between social justice branches from the many ways we utilize these networks today. I hope to show my classmates how they can utilize these networks to their advantage and how they can be affecting society themselves.

Robert Alai

Robert Alai is an activist of social justice. He gives over 90 million impressions with each social networking post he has. Alai has been in the news all over the world including articles in Epoch Times, Boston Newspapers, Australian and Canadian publications and even had appearances on BBC. Most Notable for his coverage on the West gate Mall terrorist attacks in Nairobi, Kenya. He kept over 100,000 people up to date with what was happening. He had noticed that the Kenyan government was hiding information and trying not to let this attack be seen by the public. Alai thought this was unjust and was going to do whatever he could to voice the attacks. In an interview Alai talks about wanting to be a voice for the voiceless and helping those who cannot help themselves. He has helped many throughout Kenya from a child sending school fees to the wrong person to a full on terrorist threat. He looks to help right the wrongs of this world and strives to see social justice upheld properly. He is hated and loved by many and understands that he may come off as "crazy" sometimes but he does what he thinks is right and in the end that is all that matters to him. I believe we need more people like Robert in this world. He is a person who chooses to do the right thing even when no one else is.

Social Action Project

For My social action project I would like to teach others the concerns of e waste and its affect on the world. I will present information displaying how e waste affects us economically, physically and environmentally. I will begin by first displaying the corrosive materials that are used to make many of the electronics we have today. Second I will speak about how mining these materials harms our earth and our health. I will also explain what we do with these electronics when we are done with them. My partner and I will go in depth on the demanufacturing and dissembling of these products. We will speak about the big businesses that participate in the outsourcing of said waste and the conditions of the individuals it is sent to. I will briefly describe the crippling affects of the breakdown of these electronics and the work conditions of the people who are breaking it down.  we then hope to get the audience's view on the subject after the information has been displayed. I want to know what they think about this subject and see if they have any ideas on how we can help prevent e waste. We hope to get answers to big questions like is e waste ethical? and what are going to be the long term affects of just "throwing out" our electronics?
I have chosen to do a class teach-in at my high school. One of my favorite teachers actually is teaching a social justice class there currently. This will be a great tie in for his class. It will also be good for the students to see how social justice is affected from a technological standpoint. My partner and I will try to get in touch with as many faculty members as possible and hopefully will be able to do a couple teach ins so we get our points across on a broader scale. We will make a power point presentation displaying all the information explained above. We will present some videos showing the affects of e waste on individuals in the countries it is shipped to. This will help the students obtain a better understanding of how other countries deal with our waste. Many of these high school students will not have a clue what e waste is so I want to give them as much information on the topic as possible. However, I also want to see what they think about the subject and get a discussion going on the topic. My main focus of this social action project is to make others understand that if we simply do not take action then no one will. My goal is to get the students to leave my teach in with a different mind set on how simple things might not be so simple after all and how our actions can change the lives of those living all around us even if we aren't exposed to it.

Tumblr to the Rescue!

On October 8th, The digital media tool Tumblr will hope to impact the courts hearing of McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission. The case deals with the capping of political contributions. The FEC is trying keep political contributions capped to avoid certain corruption of politics. With the cap lifted many politicians can receive any amount of direct funds. Many anti-corruption activists are working hard to put a stop to this. while on the other end the Republican National Committee wants to see the cap lifted.

One well-known scholar and political activist is trying to help sway the court, his name is Lawrence Lessig. Lessig looks to route corruption in U.S. politics. He belives that lifting the cap would be very detrimental to our society and will do anything to keep it in place. As an outside expert he can submit an "amicus brief" which allows those not directly involved with the case the ability to introduce valuable testimony to the court.

One portion of his amicus brief will include a blog submitted on Tumblr. The title of the Tumblr is "'Corruption' originally" and it explains the feeling of our founding fathers on the term corruption. Many of the Justices are considered originalists, meaning they take what the constitution to its most literal sense. Lessig believes that if he can sway court members with his definition of corruption many of the originalists will not want to life the cap.

The purpose of the Tumblr is to collect every mention of corruption by our founding fathers who framed the constituion. Lessig hope to prove that the Framer's idea of corruption would want to put a stop to politicians dependency on donors.

A cut out from Lessig's blog:

“If they look to the original meaning of “corruption,” they would see that they have no legitimate sanction for restricting the meaning of “corruption” to “quid pro quo” corruption alone (as some recent cases suggest at least some believe). And if they did not restrict it to “quid pro quo” corruption alone, then the regulation in McCutcheon, which limits aggregate contributions, could be justified: it’s purpose is to limit dependence upon large donors; that purpose is a perfect valid “anti-corruption” purpose, at least in the view of the Framers.”