How Gatekeeping and Agenda Setting Affect Today's Society

There will be two theories that I will be discussing and thy also coincide with each other, those two theories are Gatekeeping and Agenda Setting. Firstly, there is Gatekeeping, Gatekeeping was a theory started in 1947 by a social psychologist named Kurt Lewin. It is defined as "The activity of trying to control who gets particular resources, power, or opportunities, and who does not". In more simple terms, the media chooses what information gets released and which does not. This is used as a filter in order to maintain a particular bias. Gatekeeping is mainly about control and making sure the majority of people have a skewed opinion on a certain idea, person, situation, etc. This implies that essentially Gatekeeping is bad and this affects society more than people realize. 

More specifically, we see this everyday through various forms of Social Media. Social Media has become the main form of communication among news rooms, media and journalists. We tend to see journalists posting stories using specific language, presentation, and even carefully choosing which sources are linked in the article to draw the reader in to frame their opinion. This is one of many examples where we see how Gatekeeping is doing more harm than good in any situation. 

 Gatekeeping is definitely seen as classist and racist in one form or another. In my generation it is seen as blocking people out and only allowing a "close knit" community to experience or have something. One term that is used often that I have seen is the phrase "nepo baby", for people unfamiliar with the term it is a child of a celebrity that have very successful careers because of their famous parents. We see this all of the time, including in the infamous show Euphoria where actress Maude Apatow who stars as Lexi in the show. In real time, Maude's parents are comedian Judd Apatow and actress Leslie Mann, many people did not know that those were Maude's parents and this information went viral across all social media. Rumors sparked that maybe Maude did not deserve this role and could have taken it away from someone who was more deserving than she was. Since she grew up wealthy and already has parents in the industry which helps her chances of getting that role significantly rather than someone who was just starting out and does not have someone already in the industry. That is only one of the many examples where people see this as Gatekeeping in one of many forms. 

Now getting into the social media part of it, how does this influence Generation Z? There is a new social media platform once known as musically now referred to as Tiktok. This platform allows a new job called influencers, this job entails endorsing different products and working with various brands but mostly makeup companies. The problem with this issue in my generation is the people who usually end up becoming influencers are white, blonde, skinny, and blue eyed. It does not have much room for minorities to have a say in these jobs or products because their videos do not get shown as much as what can people see as "ideal". Luckily, there are people attempting to break this toxic cycle and have influencers from all different types of backgrounds, body type, skin color and much more. 

Secondly, there is Agenda Setting, this was first theorized by Dr. Maxwell McCombs and Dr. Donald Shaw. It is the "ability to influence the importance placed on the topics of the public agenda", the media uses Agenda Setting to essentially communicate what issues are important and relevant. There are three types of Agenda Setting, 1. Public Agenda Setting, this is where the public determines which stories are important 2. Media Agenda Setting: it is when the media decides which agenda for stories is important and lastly 3. Policy Agenda Setting, both public and media agenda's influence the public policy makers. This implies that Agenda Setting is relatively good, it only brings to light what people think are the most pressing issues at this time, but this can also be seen as a negative. There is a possibility that other problems might get overlooked and in doing that they get increasingly worse. 

This is extremely prevalent in our society today, Agenda Setting determines where we focus our attention to and Gatekeeping will frame our opinion on that certain issue. Both of these theories have their  positive traits along with their downfalls. Like it or not we have these theories and they will continue to remain in our society. 

EOTO Technology

 One of the most interesting forms of communication I learned about from one of my classmates EOTO, was the history of paper. Paper is a written form of communication that our society has been using for thousands of years, but first let's take a look back as to how paper was created. Before paper, Chinese Officials recorded their drawings and writings on sheets of cloth, whereas other cultures would attempt to record their findings on bamboo. It was soon realized that these methods were ineffective, this led Chinese court official Ts'ai Lun mixing mulberry bark, hemp and rags with water. This combination would form into a pulp then pressing out the excess liquid and hanging to dry outside in the sun, paper was born. 

The creation of paper stayed relatively local to China, and the news of this discovery did not leave China until the 8th Century, roughly 300 years after it was created. The secret of paper first traveled to the Middle East, but it took another 500 years for paper making to enter Europe as a whole. The first paper mill was built in Spain and from then on Europe had paper flowing throughout multiple countries. Since Europe was extremely successful in adapting the creation of paper from China, in they were able to supply the colonies with a generous supply of paper for many years to come. Unfortunately, the United States was a bit behind on the innovation of paper and it was not until the year 1690 that paper making had reached America. 

America was able to continue the traditional Chinese method of paper making for a bit but the demand for paper grew to be unmanageable and the United States had to shift their methods. The U.S. began to use fiber from wood instead of cloth because there was many more trees than cloth. Fast forward to today, we have various types of communication and technology such as iphones and computers. People would much rather use the new and improved Apple computers than write on a piece of paper. The United States and China produce the majority of paper produced today. We are in a desperate hazardous time with paper making going unregulated, the consequences we experience because of this are pollution, deforestation, and many other environmental issues. 

Diffusion of Innovations

 For my first EOTO assignment I studied the history of the VCR and how it has impacted our society along with its permanent impact on the Television Industry. The VCR was not originally adopted when it was first invented in the 50s because there were too many negatives that outweighed the positives. Fortunately, when the VCR was changed for the better it was then adopted because it had that interest and spark of something brand new. There was nothing like it back then which made adopting this invention that much easier. 

Rogers' Diffusion of Innovations is a great example of how and why we adopt different types of technologies. When a technology is not adopted, it is mainly because it did not reach everybody in its intended audience. An example, referring back to when the VCR first came out, it was not adopted because it did not reach everybody and wasn't the most accessible product. The reason why some people might adopt different types of technology late or not want to adopt it at all is they do not want to change the ways they are already in. We are not accustomed to be in a constant state of change, it is usually considered unappealing to the average person. Even if it is an amazing, life changing product, some people are incredibly stubborn and stuck. 

When Facebook first came out it spread like wildfire worldwide, you weren't considered cool if you didn't have Facebook. It was new like no had seen anything like it, it reached thousands if not millions of people in a short period of time. For its time Facebook was extremely innovative and creative which gave people that appeal to join the app. Facebook went through Rogers' process fairly quickly as everything happened very fast which is an important element when looking at this process. There is a time frame where if it does not reach as many people needed in a specific time period it is very likely the invention will not make it. 

Unfortunately, Facebook now has lost all of its appeal and not many people have joined over recent years. That is because other companies such as Instagram and Snapchat were able to grasp other people'e attention and Facebook simply fell through the cracks. Facebook failed to stay relevant like Rogers' theory says, it came to halt and stopped reaching people. 

The Progressive Era

 Our Freedoms and America have come a long way over the years, and the Role of Dissent has played a role in that, especially during war. The Role of Dissent is an opinion, it allows for developing reasoning on a certain stance or issue. The reason why the Role of Dissent is common throughout war is because people often wonder the exact reason for why everyone is fighting. Extensive bloodshed, loss, violence, and for what? Luckily, now people have a choice to if they want to fight or not in America, but in other countries sometimes they do not have a choice like us. 

Now, we have freedom of voice and opinion unlike back in the day when people were imprisoned for voicing how they felt on specific matters. Sites such as Antiwar.com and The American Conservative have many different articles all speaking on different issues worldwide and it wasn't until today that I had heard of both of them. This is most likely due to a mix of different reasons, first being censorship. The government only wants us to read and hear specific things surrounding other situations. I do not think I realized how heavy the censorship has gotten over the past recent years. Sure you see your daily Fox News and CBS, but nowadays you have to go looking for someone's hardcore opinions. 

Along with the censorship, there is what you type in the URL and how it is put in. Playing around with the search bar can produce different results if you try hard enough and get a little creative. Of course there are many other reasons that contribute to this issue but I believe these two are a few of the most important. 

Eight Values of Free Expression

 We, as Americans, value our Freedom of Speech immensely, because it protects our right to say anything that we desire, even though it might not be everyone's favorite opinion. Citizens in other countries do not have the same luxury as Americans do. Don't get me wrong, America is not perfect in any way shape or form but Americans should be grateful that we won't get shot or executed simply because of a difference of opinion. 

The Eight Values of Free Expression are Discovery of Truth, Participation in Self-Government, Stable Change, Individual Self-Fulfillment, Check on Government Power, Promote Tolerance, Promote Innovation, and Protect Dissent. Out of the Eight, I believe that Participation in Self-Government resonates with me the most. The idea of Self-Government is that the people of America have the freedom to govern themselves as an independent state. This came from Ancient Greece when Democracy was on the rise and beginning to form. It started in Athens but then quickly spread throughout the entire Greek Empire. Fast Forward to today and here we are using the exact same values and concepts. 

Even though this idea came about long ago, the use of Self-Government has shifted dramatically throughout the years. With technology being extremely prevalent, it has opened up a new door as to what people can freely express and what is the extent of it. I, personally, do rely on social media but more specifically, Instagram and Snapchat. Technology and Social Media as a whole has become increasingly difficult as to knowing when the line has been crossed on various issues that are going on in our world today. 

One example is that we have the on-going issue of privacy and companies taking advantage of our information, what we say and do online. This cuts into our Freedom of Expression and our right to privacy. Many of us, including myself, sign contracts before signing up to join a site and we never truly read what rights we are giving to these social media companies. Technology is pushing boundaries to the point where it cuts into our Self-Government, and Governments Power. The Government throughout technology and social media is censoring what we are allowed to do. Censoring insane things like a Google search, and no one would even think to realize what is not being allowed. 

One theory that can explain what is happening in the world currently is Promoting Tolerance. In today's world we still have an issue with accepting others only because they do not have the same beliefs as you. Over the years, politics has been continuously driving people further and further apart. People do not want to be even associated with you because of it, no one is given basic respect and our society continues to form this lingering issue. There are violent verbal and physical fights most of the time probably every day at this point, unfortunately, it is only getting worse. Overall, our society has much to do in order to apply these freedoms correctly in order to properly correspond with everything that happens in our world today. These Freedoms of Expressions are there for a reason and we must continue to use them.

History of VCR

 Let's start from the beginning, what is a VCR? VCR stands for videocassette recorder and is an electromechanical recording and audio from broadcast television. VCRs were invented by Charles Paulson Ginsberg or to others he is known as "father of the videocassette recorder". Ginsberg started working for a company called Ampex which gave him the opportunity to lead and create the first official VCR in 1952. The videocassette recorder was used to film video and audio that was shown on TV. 

Fun fact about the VCR is that it was initially known as the VRX-1000 and was extremely complex to control. In the VCR's first release there were many downsides to this gadget. It initially cost $50,000 to purchase, people needed a technician to come over to their home, set up and operate the machine. On top of that the VCR would only last a few hundred hours maximum, after people would have $50,000 down the drain. Which is why there was no appeal at first, it was not accessible or affordable to the regular person. 

Fast forward to 1971 after many tweaks and changes put into the VCR, it was finally developed for the better. During this year the first ever VCR commercial known as the Sony U-Matic was released which permanently changed the world. This technology demonstrated how great the VCR can be by showing how convenient it has become. The VCR was created to establish convenience in the TV Industry. That way people don't have to drop everything that they are doing in order to watch a show they enjoy. Instead, this allowed people to record a show then broadcast it at different times. This ended up taking the world by storm and its appeal was understood worldwide. 

VCR forever changed the route of the Television industry. There are multiple ways the VCR altered the world and how we view the Television industry. The videocassette recorder gave us something us humans crave the most, control. For the first time people were able to control their TV experience, it is an understatement to say people quickly fell in love with that idea. As for communication, the VCR did not do much in that department. Since it was a recording device and not something like messenger on an iphone it didn't do anything for baseline communication. On the other-hand this revolutionized entertainment forever and the VCR became an opening for the Television Industry as a whole. 

This solved many issues, including but not limited to accessibility, affordability, convenience, and comfortability. Even though we have as a society has shifted from the VCR, it is impressively nostalgic for many generations. It became a gateway for so many technological advances. If the VCR was not created then we would not be where we are today and many things would have been done differently or not created as a whole. The VCR was a crucial piece of technology and it may be out of style now but people still refer to the VCR as a life changing development for everybody worldwide.