Wirelessing the World Quiz

1. CWNs are Community Wireless Networks that allow free wireless access for the community. This allows for equal access to information for all people in the community regardless of socio-economic status. Within society there is a digital divide separating those who have access to new technologies and media information and those who do not. Those with affluence are able to afford computers with high-speed internet access which provides them with a large advantage over communities of low socioeconomic status who can not afford this access. CWNs provide everyone access to the same high-speed information, creating information equality for people of all socioeconomic backgrounds.

2. Internet users spend a very small percentage of their time on the internet actually using the bandwith allocated to them by their internet service providers. Because ISPs know this, and consumers often do not, providers often oversell their bandwith and consumers are forced to pay higher prices for bandwith that their providers know they will never use. Bundle packages and interoperability also allow businesses to sell products only compatible with other products that they sell. This not only allows businesses to sell more of their products to consumers that truly believe that they can only buy same-brand products for maximum efficacy but it allows corporations to maintain monopolies and push smaller competitors out of the market.

3. Corporations who have the money to spend are able to pay huge premiums to control new technologies before future competition has the opportunity to afford these new technologies. These corporations then make back the money they spent on the premiums by jacking up the prices for their consumers. On example of this is Motorola's buying of XtremeSpectrum (an Ultra-Wideband (UWB)) in 2005. Before this product was even properly tested and before standards were officially set, Motorola purchased thus UWB in an effort to secure its authority over UWB protocol standards. Because these large corporations essentially own the market smaller competitors are forced to declare bankruptcy. The corporations that forced these competitors under then buy the assets of these failed ventures (as T-Mobile bought out MobileStar in 2001) giving these corporations an even stronger monopoly empire and resulting in fewer large corporate conglomerates owning more and more of the wireless market.

The Perpetual Debt Cycle

4. What needs be changed to allow the creation of a "sustainable economy"?

The video “Money as Debt” discusses the fact that because the general population has no conception of the term ‘exponential’ the fact that the U.S. experiences 3% economic growth per year appears to be a good thing and convinces the masses that our current system is working and working well. Because the 3% is a 3% increase from the previous year’s total, this is a 3% exponential increase. In order for the economy to sustain its similarly exponentially increasing amount of debt, it must continue to grown economically exponentially as well—which calls for the exponentially increasing consumption of a limited amount of economic resources. Because the growth is exponential and the amount of available resources is limited, it seems that in the current system there is no way to sustain our lifestyle forever.

“Money as Debt” proposes several ideas that could help us move away from this debt cycle and the resulting rampant consumption of our resources and move towards a sustainable economy.

One idea is to advocate for honest money which the video defines as gold- or silver-based money. This would seriously limit the amount of fake money that banks can produce because all of the fake money produced by the bank would need to include some element of value in the form of gold or silver. Currently, banks manufacture millions of dollars in paper money. Because we have an essentially unlimited supply of paper, the banks can essentially print off as much money as they need to finance the inexhaustible amount of loan applications on which they depend to run their empire.

Another interesting idea is the concept of a local exchange trading system. The banks print off enough money to cover the cost of the loans allocated but not enough money to cover the high interest rates associated with these loans. This results in an economy in a perpetual cycle of borrowing just enough money to never be able to pay back the debt in full. In a local exchange trading system banks loan with no interest. Instead of depending on the practice of usury (formally considered an immoral practice) to make money off of money loaned, banks could require the debt be paid by labor. A certain amount of work would have a specified monetary value that would allow the individual to pay off his or her loans while simultaneously benefiting the community rather than solely benefiting the banks and perpetuating the economic debt cycle.

The video “Money as Debt” calls for change and makes the argument that the current economic system is essentially a form of slavery. The only difference between this new form of slavery and its historic connotations is that under the current form, it is impossible to distinguish as a form of slavery because the relationship between the citizen and the bank is an impersonal one, whereas in the traditional idea of slavery there is a clear identification of master and slave.

The FCC

1. Do broadcasters use radio and television to quickly and effectively respond to the local communities needs and interests? Give examples to support your answer.

Television largely does not respond to local communities’ needs and interests. Most Television networks are owned by large corporations that have more to gain from catering to the interests of as many viewers as possible at once which makes addressing interests of the local community almost impossible. There are some public access stations but they seem to be mostly an empty gesture. Local public access channels generally serve the purpose of humoring high school or college students looking to practice their broadcasting skills. Rarely do my local public access channels address the real concerns of the community.

Radio stations address community interests more than television. Radio stations broadcast over a much smaller area than television stations and can provide more audience-specific information. The audience is often encouraged to call in and give feedback. Despite these things, however, most of the bigger radio stations have frequencies that broadcast over the area of multiple communities and so often the information isn’t specific to an individuals particular community. Additionally, the information broadcasted by radio often mimics the messages of the more impersonal television media.

2. Are there certain kinds of local programming (Public Media Values) that should be available, but are not being provided by broadcasters? what could some examples of these be?

Mainstream media has a vested interested in fighting open access to the airwaves because allowing broader access to the media could destabilize the old media system by which mainstream media corporations benefit. The smart radio that Newman and Scott reference could be one way of making public media values available. Smart radios would allow for the representation of communities which are underrepresented (if represented at all) in mainstream media.

3. What could the Federal Communication Commission do to promote localism in broadcasting? Explain three of these examples of public-service-oriented projects that are already in process across the US.

In an attempt to provide affordable and ubiquitous access to media a municipal broadband systems and community wireless network project seems to be one of the most promising routes. One of the largest endeavors is Utah’s UTOPIA (Utah Telecommunication Open Infrastructure Agency) project. Utah proposes the installation of fiber-optic cables in the homes of its citizens that allows for the capability of high-speed digital television and telephone services. Another public-service-oriented project in the works are community wireless networks that would allow access to broadband information in especially rural areas, for example, where there are not yet any wired networks. These public-service-oriented projects are important because without the help of local governments it will be impossible for all Americans to obtain affordable telecommunication services.

Candidacy and Corporate Control

The current presidential campaigns illustrate many of the points McChesney makes in his article "The Emerging Struggle for a Free press." One of McChesney's main points is that the media is owned by corporations with eyes for profits only. These corporations give financial support to campaigns in return for favors if the candidate they purchased wins the election. In watching the presidential debates it is clear that while the candidates claim to be seriously concerned with the middle-class American, the vast majority of the issues discussed revolve around the economic crisis primarily affecting the extreme upper-class. Is this truly because they fear the top-down effects that will eventually hurt the middle-class if the wealthy corporations fail? Or is it more because the financial backing for each candidate's presidency will be severely impacted if their corporate sponsors go under? It's difficult to know for sure, but it is interesting to note that problems affecting the lower-class (a class more concerned with being able to afford basic necessities than funding political campaigns) are rarely discussed in comparison to the frequency with which issues relating to big businesses are addressed.

The government essentially gets to decide which problems are considered most pressing to the public with the frequency with which they address specific issues. The more a topic is discussed, the more important the public believes it is- after all, why would the government and the media be wasting our time with stories of little value? In the same way that the corporate-owned media decides what issues are pressing to the public, they also decide which issues are of so little concern that they aren't worth addressing publically. As a result, issues not addressed by the news media generally fall under the radar of the common man. The candidates dedicate a lot of time to talking about issues relating to foreign policy, the economy, and increasingly the environment, but seldom do they address issues relating to free press and media monopolies. If big corporations own the media as well as fund political campaigns, it follows that if candidates want to afford their campaign costs they may tend to overlook the issues surrounding corporate media control.

Issues like corporate control of the media are not reported while the media is inundated with slanderous stories and negativity about both candidates. McChesney criticizes the media for only giving the public what they think they want. People are attracted to stories of betrayal, dishonesty, questionable pasts and media mishaps and these are precisely the kinds of things that are often reported of the candidates. News stories are just as likley to be about Obama's possible secret Muslim faith as they are to be about Obama's economic policy, but which story is really of the highest interest to the general public? This election and its media coverage are distorting the issues and convincing Americans that they care more about news stories regarding Sarah Palin's pregnant teen daughter than they do about Sarah Palin's ability to be Vice President.

Steve Kurtz

Knowledge and dissemination of information plays a pivotal role in today's society, but apparently only when that knowledge is possessed and disseminated by those deemed as experts. Steve Kurtz, an amateur scientist and artist-activist headed a project that intended to make the general public aware of the questions surrounding genetically modified food. Because the questions Kurtz encouraged the public to ask was contradictory to the government's general agenda, Kurtz was prosecuted to the fullest extent and his research and projects confiscated. Kurtz's status as an amateur as well as the US PATRIOT ACT enabled this injustice to occur and to continue over such a long period of time.

Kurtz's status as an amateur scientist and artist put him in a unique position to share his research with the general public in a way that was well-received. Unfortunately, his amateurism was also partially the basis of the accusation. When police discovered research equipment in his house they called the FBI with suspicions of terrorism.

The US PATRIOT ACT allowed the government to search Kurtz's house, phone conversations and emails. They discovered that the materials in Kurtz's research came from Dr. Robert Ferrelll. Because the government had little else to go with, Kurtz and Ferrelll were both charged with mail for neglecting to fill out the necessary paperwork. Since the inception of the US PATRIOT act this "crime" carries a much stiffer penalty. In the unwarranted search of Kurtz's house they also found an invitation to his art show that included Arabic writing. This finding allowed the government to formulate an accusation of terrorism.

Because of Kurtz's status as an amateur he had little credibility as far as the FBI and other government officials were concerned. Because of his status as an activist and the nature of his research government officials were encouraged to go to extreme lengths to prosecute him, ending his research as a byproduct; and because of the US PATRIOT act the government has successfully effectively stifled Kurtz's research. Fortunately because of the overwhelming public support of his cause Kurtz's research has been stifled, but not his message.

Hopefully this case will set a precedent for other cases of this nature, which are sure to arise in the future of this age of surveillance.

Quiz Cult of the Amateur

Ultimate Life Goal: Looking Cool on YouTube

Surveillance is becoming more and more pervasive throughout our lives. New technology allows for the constant surveillance of everyday people doing every day things everyday. Using Google's tool, Google Earth, anyone can type in any person's address and often receives a relatively recent photograph of the person's house. Using scroll features it is even possible to view a house in relation to its location to other houses in the neighborhood.
Google Earth allows anyone to see recent pictures of anyone else's house without the homeowner's knowledge or permission.

This constant surveillance may have serious implications for our society. Because people are becoming increasingly more aware that their every action is being surveyed by some camera at some point, for some people it turns real life into a stage of sorts.
One Dunkin Donuts employee fended off a robber without regard for his own safety because his first thought was that if the surveillance tape somehow ended up on YouTube he didn't want to look like a wimp. (full article here)

This growing awareness of surveillance modifies and motivates the behavior of individuals more concerned with being surveyed the way they want to be portrayed.

In a way it's almost as though people recognize that their privacy is being completely invaded but rather than being dismayed, some people not only accept it but also attempt to use it to their benefit.