Stop Online Piracy Act

Internet Blackout

Vote Postponed



In the Huffington Post article entitled "SOPA Blackout Aims to Block Internet Censorship Bill" (01-18-2012) Ryan Grim and Zach Carter describe the blackout protests enacted by major companies such as Wikipedia. The article elaborates on what the bill entails which is that the government and major companies will have the power to shut down entire websites accused of copyright infringement without any trial or proper hearing. The article goes into great detail of many politicians and their views on the bill.

Two Days later Zach Carter and Luke Johnson posted a follow-up article "PIPA Vote: Sen. Harry Reid Postpones Vote, Seeking Compromise on Anti-Piracy Bill." (01-20-2012) The delay to the vote on the controversial bill is in direct response to the internet blackout and protests described in the previous article.

CNN's The Situation Room Dan Simon does an exposé  on the SOPA and PIPA Bills. He gives an example of people downloading the newly released movie War Horse causing financial hardships on the entertainment industry. Such websites as Piratebay.org make movies available days after they are released in theaters. The newscast continues to describe the fight  between Silicon Valley and Hollywood through the use of
Legislation.

CNN's coverage on SOPA was continued during   the GOP debates on January 19th. Republican nominees Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney, Ron Paul, and Rick Santorum all gave their opinions on the bill and across the board agreed that it infringed upon American's freedom. What started out as just an ordinary bill, has evolved into a topic that will be debated as a controversial issue  in the upcoming presidential election.

           
                      SOPA            Update

On the Dilbert Blog by Scott Adams he opens the discussion of SOPA by saying that he is writing to a rational audience that is struggling with controversial points of view. He offers many opinions on the matter including: Rule of thumb logic, expert opinions, Cross-over opinions, and concludes with his opinion which he describes as being against the bill because he cannot predict all of the impacts that the bill may have.

One day later he posts an update saying that for all intensive purposes SOPA had been killed by the internet. Within several hours the most pressing issue of the country was destroyed by internet protests. It amazes me how fast news can change and how obsolete the most pressing of issues become.

                                                                         Full Story                                    

                                                                  

                                                                                                                                                                      

                                                             Full Story 

The MSNBC twitter page is a very active feed. A humorous tweet from the show Red Tape Chronicles says "Red Tape: Stop pirating my stories about #SOPA, or I'll have to support it." It then links to a full version of the story and a link to the twitter page of the Red Tape Chronicles. SOPA appears in a hash-tag(#) in order to track the story with all other SOPA updates. It is a funny sarcastic tweet that engages followers to read the whole story which goes on to describe how hypocritical some news agencies are.

Several days later another tweet is made by MSNBC saying that a "Congressman withdraws #SOPA anti-piracy bill" This informative tweet summarizes the entire story in under 140 characters so it does not interest followers to continue reading the whole story. The use of twitter is perfect for describing the  practical end to the bill.

Analysis 

• Social Media is used in each example by having a Facebook, twitter, and google +, post button to promote each story. All of the media utilize each other's strengths such as the seemingly boring Huffington Post has many videos related to the article. The twitter feed has a link to a much longer news story. The merging of the many types of media channels creates a more engaging experience for the viewer. 
• Obviously,  the "Hard News" is going to be the most reliable. News broadcasts are typically editorialized to be more interesting for the viewer so the facts tend to be slightly watered down. Since blogs rely heavily on opinion and user generated discussions they are the least reliable; however, they tend to be the most eye opening because bloggers are free to say what news companies cannot. Social media sites are the nice middle ground between blogs and hard news because they report the news story in a manner that is easy for the masses to understand.
• Even though most of these media vehicles have multiple gateways in which they can spread and update news, the message is modified to utilize each type of media. Video feeds can rely on images to persuade audiences where a print story must utilize the actual facts of the story. Although the message and tone is the same, it has to be presented in a different manner. When the online portal is opened stories are able to be conveyed instantly with the click of the mouse, whereas a news show will have to wait until its scheduled time-slot. A story online usually has links to each different type of media channel from that distinct company.
• The rise in Citizen journalism is due in large part to the video technology and blogging ability of the general population. Everyone has the opportunity to post their side of a story and their thoughts upon any matter. This is keeping news companies more honest, by having people that were there at the right time, the right place, with a recording device allows the truth to be captured as it occurs. The first amendment right of freedom of speech and press protects citizen journalists and gives a more realistic and truthful view on the news.