Assignment 12: Why is the U.S. Falling Behind?

There are many principles and policies that the Internet follows today. Many of these principles lie in the form of internet governance. Internet governance is the development and application by Governments, the private sector and civil society, in their respective roles, of shared principles, norms, rules, decision-making procedures, and programs that shape the evolution and use of the Internet. It refers to how the internet is run and has been the topic of many debated issues within the internet including whether or not the internet the Internet should facilitate free communication of ideas and information. One topic which I believe falls into this category, but has not yet been made into law and has been highly controversial and debated upon within the world of the internet, is network neutrality.

According to K.C. Jones in his article about network neutrality, there is no one, agreed upon definition for network neutrality, but I believe that Rock the Net describes it best. They stated that network neutrality is the principle that preserves a free and open Internet. They also acknowledged that network neutrality ensures that all users can access the content, or run the applications and devices of their choice. The debate on this topic is between who supports this free and open internet system and who opposes it. The extent to which this issue has been covered is only by the FCC, and they have only laid down some guidelines, not laws. The government has yet to play a big role in network neutrality but should do so in order to ensure that the “ongoing legal and political wrangling in the US regarding net neutrality” will come to an end. In order to ensure that everybody is able to access and use the Internet, network neutrality should be supported by not only people alone and companies, but also by the government in order for network neutrality to officially take a form of internet governance.

So what is at stake here? The U.S. is, theoretically, supposed to be considered and thought about as not only a free country with the people calling the shots, but also one of the most technologically advanced countries in the world. However, with countries like Japan who is able to get an internet connection up to sixteen times faster for only a small fraction of what we here in the U.S. pay for DSL services. Because of our lack of a national policy encouraging competition between providers, our country has forced itself to fall behind countries like France, South Korea, Finland, and Canada, broadening the digital divide not because of a lack of resource, but because of a lack of unanimous support for network neutrality (Turner 2005). So in actuality, the interests of the citizens of this country are all at stake concerning this issue in terms of cost and efficiency of our internet connections. We are living in such a technologically advanced world today that you can barely get by without internet access, if at all.

So who is benefiting? Only the big companies who are profiting from this lack of competition among providers allowed by the feeble policies made by the FCC are benefiting from this ongoing debate about network neutrality. The longer the battle goes on, the longer they can get by selling overpriced internet services nation-wide. As quoted from the Wall Street Journal Classroom Edition in September, 2006:

The big phone and cable companies, like AT&T, Verizon, Time Warner and Comcast, argue that there's no need for the government to get involved in regulating their business. They say they have no intention-nor would it be in their business interests-to block anyone's access to the Internet. But given the huge costs involved in building and expanding the broadband Internet pipeline, they don't see why content providers should be protected by the government from paying their share of the cost.

These big companies are correct in the fact that they are not blocking anybody’s access to the Internet, but what they are doing is depriving us of a cheaper, more efficient service of Internet that is offered in other countries all over the world. So, without the support of these major companies, the people themselves have to be more involved in working towards getting increased government support for network neutrality.

Citations:

(2007, November 13). Network Neutrality. Retrieved November 14, 2007, from Wikipedia Web site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_neutrality

(2007, September). A Battle for Control of the Web. Retrieved November 14, 2007, from The Wall Street Journal Classroom Edition Web site: http://wsjclassroom.com/archive/06sep/htop_netneutrality.htm

(2007, September 20). Internet Governance. Retrieved November 14, 2007, from Wikipedia Web site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_governance#Controversy

Jones, K.C. (2007, March 16). Net Neutrality Debate Remains Contentious. Retrieved November 14, 2007, from Information Week Web site: http://www.informationweek.com/shared/printableArticle.jhtml?articleID=198001557

Musicians Support Network Neutrality. Retrieved November 14, 2007, from Rock The Net Web site: http://www.futureofmusic.org/rockthenet/

Turner, Derek (2005, October 18). Free American broadband!. Retrieved November 14, 2007, from Salon.com Web site: http://dir.salon.com/story/tech/feature/2005/10/18/broadband/index_np.html

Assignment 10: Journalism and the Internet

When talking about journalism, one would not usually think of the internet right away. Journalism is, in fact, a discipline of gathering, writing and reporting news in various media that Wikipedia lists as newspapers, magazines, radio, and television. The internet, however, is mentioned in the article as a challenge to “the traditional journalistic professional culture.” Although present day news can sometimes be unimportant information about pop culture and celebrities, for example, what kind of trouble Britney Spears is getting into this week; people need to realize that current events are important to keep up with as well. I believe that people tend to get lost in these kinds of alternate realities of celebrity gossip, forgetting about more important issues in the world around them that comes from more reliable sources. The most traditional sources of this kind come in the written form of newspapers, magazines, or even news websites on the World Wide Web.

One of these online sources includes CNN.com. This website includes local and national news as well as videos, photographs, and a search bar to search for news whether it is recent news or older news. One source that does lie within the traditional journalistic professional culture mentioned before is the newspaper, USA Today. One article that both of these sources share that has received quite a bit of media attention is about the fire which occurred at a beach house in Ocean Isle Beach, North Carolina, killing seven college students. Many articles have been written about this event which occurred on Sunday, October 28^th, but the most recent newspaper article I discovered was Wednesday, October 31^st and the most recent CNN report online was on Tuesday, October 30^th. These articles both share the same topic, but because of the different media displays, they also have many differences in how the information is presented to the reader.

In the newspaper, USA Today, the article lies in the Health and Behavior subsection of the paper. The headline reads: N.C. beach house inferno highlights well-known risks and the sub-title reads; Tragedy that claimed lives of 7 students looks similar to other high-profile fires. Within this article, there is one picture of the house in which the fire took place. The content of this article focuses mainly on college housing and fire statistics, especially within the Greek community on campus. The article stresses the importance of fire safety and includes interviews of mainly authority figures from colleges and fire experts, leaving little room for doubt because it is composed of strictly facts, rather than opinions. The website CNN.com, however, presents not only different information, but in a much different way.

In the article provided on the CNN news website about the North Carolina fire, the headline reads: Three Carolina fire victims were high school buddies. This article, although only published one day before the article in the USA Today, provides almost none of the same information given in the newspaper. Instead, the content of this article revolves around the people involved in the fire and the incident itself. The article goes on to name the victims, as well as the survivors of the fire and touches on the actual occurrence of the fire and what the scene was like. This article also held a lot more emotion than that of the USA Today. Quotes were taken from interviews of some of the witnesses, as well as family members and friends of the victims of the October 28^th fire in North Carolina, bringing the reader to a more personal level with the event. Not only were there differences in content in these two articles but because of technology, other differences are allowed through the internet rather than print sources.

Because of technological advances in journalism, the internet has brought on a much more interactive way to present the news. In this particular article on CNN.com, people are able to comment on the article and receive feedback from people on their comments. The internet also allows multiple pictures as well as videos to be shown that relate to the article. Multiple photos of the “devastation” of the fire as well as the victims themselves can be found within this article by simply clicking on a link. Videos are also available for viewing on the site within the article such as video recordings of some interviews that took place. You also have options to e-mail, save, or print the article. These features together makes the online article not necessarily more informative seeing as though both articles contained different information, but definitely more convenient in the sense that the photographs and videos allow the reader to identify and to react more to the article and the online article is also a good way to be involved by being interactive and commenting on articles that you think are important or that you have a strong opinion on.

Citations:

(2007, October 30). Three Carolina fire victims were high school buddies. Retrieved November 5, 2007, from CNN.com Web site: http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/10/30/beach.fire/index.html?iref=newssearch

(2007, November 5). Journalism. Retrieved November 5, 2007, from Wikipedia Web site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journalism

Davis, Robert (2007, October 31). N.C. beach house inferno highlights well-known risks. USA Today , p. 8D.