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How Digital Tech Impacts Social Change

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During the Civil Rights Movement, there were three forms of digital mass media communication: television, newspaper and radio. All three played a huge role highlighting the plight of black Americans, as we know, the revolution WAS televised. Take for instance the photographs of Bloody Sunday , without these photos, the public would have been largely unaware of this unprovoked attack by law enforcement against peaceful civil rights protesters. But, what if these civil rights activists of yesteryear had access to the Internet? What role could social media have made in the fight for equal rights? What difference would access to digital technologies and current technological advancements have made? Equality in America is (unfortunately) a never ending battle and social media technologies have changed the way we fight. Protests are accompanied by hashtags;  #blacklivesmatter , #stopthebans . There are websites, Twitter pages, Facebook groups dedicated to organizing marches, creatin...
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How Digital Tech Amplifies Global Voices

For many, social media is an echo chamber; we "follow", "like" and "subscribe" only to information and people that share our interests. What we see on a daily basis only affirms and repeats information that we already agree with, are aware of, and care about. But social media and digital technologies allow us to break free from these affirmations (if we choose) and open ourselves to hearing voices that we may have otherwise been deaf to. American's live largely in a vacuum, we are often ignorant of people and events that happen outside our borders. But there is a vast and varied world of people out there, and social media and digital communication technologies have given these people a voice that we should want to hear. "With Internet technology, social media platforms have made the communication process faster, interactive, user friendly, and enabling user-generated contents. All these make the influence of social media usage far reaching; wi...
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How Digital Tech Changed Educational Expectations

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Technology in education isn't just smart boards in the classroom; it is using technology to educate those who would otherwise go without, it is using technology to bring students of different races, cultures, and countries together, it is using technology to foster cultural bridges that could one day save the world. "[I]n the years after the 9/11 terrorist attack, some educators began exploring how to promote student voice and global understanding to bring together American's and peoples the Middle East through cross-cultural communication learning experiences," (Tuzel et al. 2017). These educators hoped to encourage cross-cultural understanding through shared experiences, such as service learning projects and working with international students from local universities (Tuzel et al. 2017). Social media and digital communication technologies have made it easier than ever before to connect American students with international students. According to Tuzel and authors,...
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How Digital Tech Changed Journalism

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Digital media has changed the way people interact with news. "Modern twenty-first century media audiences have demonstrated quite clearly they are unwilling to be passive; they demand to be active participants in what they read, listen to, watch, comment on, and even pass along to others," (Kolodzy, 2013). Digital technologies allow audiences to be more interactive than ever. Virtual reality technology is changing the way journalists reports news and they way audiences consume it. "Immersive journalism, which is the production of news in a form in which people can gain first-person experiences of the events or situation described in news stories...it allows the participant, typically represented as a digital avatar, to actually enter a virtually recreated scenario representing the news story," (Pena et al., 2010). At the New York Times, they are experimenting with immersive journalism through the production of The Daily 360, 360 videos created by Times journalis...
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How Digital Tech Changed the Definition of "Journalist"

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The term "journalist" has seem some changes in the last couple decades. There once was a time when a journalist was simply someone who investigated and reported the news, either in print, on radio, or on television. But today, being a journalist can mean...well almost anything. Podcasts, video blogs, social media shows, it's all journalism by nature, if not by name. "A lot of people doing “journalism” or calling themselves “journalists” these days are no longer working in traditional journalism jobs for traditional digital or print newsrooms," (Molla, 2019). Because journalism had gotten such an expansion, due in large part by recent innovations in digital media and technologies, the route to becoming a journalist has changed as well. “Ten or so years ago, journalism was a job that was stable and predictable, and it was something you could prepare for and there was a known pathway,” said Chris Daly, a professor in the journalism department at Boston Universi...
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How Digital Tech Changed What it Takes to be a Journalist

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Sixty years ago, all one needed to call themselves a journalist was a tiny notebook, keen people skills, and an overzealous desire to seek and report the truth. Sixty years later, the only thing those skills will get you is unemployed. Digital technologies have completely changed what it takes to be a journalist today. Employers and journalism professionals recognize the importance of employing journalists who have the skills necessary to utilize this new media. The ability to navigate a minefield of online information, manage social media accounts, and create digital content are all skills that the new age journalist is expected to have. "According to research from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford, social media is used each week by more than half (51%) of online news consumers to find, discuss and share, news content," (Radcliffe, 2016). Most communications/journalism students are expected to take at least one course that i...
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