Multimedia impact on messaging, week 9 blog.

How does multimedia enhance our messaging? Are certain multimedia techniques more effective than others? Provide examples using multimedia tools and post the links to the blog to support your thinking.

How Does Multimedia enhance our messaging?

Multimedia strengthens our messaging by allowing us to use videos, pictures, audio, and links at any time. Multimedia creates an experience for viewers by bringing words and messages to life. Many times you can view a website and just read, read, and read some more until you are falling asleep. With the impact of multimedia, you can read, create messages, follow twitter updates, watch videos, view pictures and listen to audio recordings to help keep you engaged. With multimedia, audiences can stay engaged, they can respond and they can learn while viewing any website online. The biggest thing about multimedia and how it can enhance our messaging is the fact that no one person has the same learning style. Everyone learns a different way and with multimedia being presented, people have the opportunity to learn in whatever way suits them best.

I personally do not believe that there are certain multimedia techniques that are more effective than others. As I mentioned above, everyone learns a different way so the technique that I think is most effective may be the least effective for you. As we have learned throughout this course, the role of a writer is to keep everyone engaged and keep their readers entertained. What better way to do that than to use multimedia tools. I personally find live updates and videos most appealing when I am viewing a webpage as they keep me involved and engaged, but also add extra content to what is being written. My favorite multimedia site has to be www.ESPNBOSTON.com as with this site I am able to view twitter updates, follow stories and videos about the Redsox, Celtics, Patriots and Bruins. I can view images and podcast that pertain to each team as well. ESPNBOSTON.com always peaks my interest and always keeps me engaged with their stories as their are always options to increase your experience.

I have always been fascinated with the fact that you can find information for anything that you are looking for. The other day, the battery in my lawnmower died and for someone who is not mechanically inclined, means there was a lot of time of me staring at the battery and trying to figure out what I needed to do first. After about 10-15 minutes of trying things and getting very frustrated, I decided to look up on YouTubbe.com how to change a lawn mower battery. I was presented with 100’s of how to videos that showed step by step what needed to be done. Some videos would explain in detail how to change the battery while others just showed pictures or images or each step. I decided to use the following video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pif0TMu1iLU as it walked me through how to change my battery with step by step instructions. Without YouTube and without multimedia tools, I would still be outside in the pouring rain staring at my lawnmower trying to figure out what the heck I need to do. There are so many different techniques that can help enhance our messaging platforms, but for me, being able to watch video and being able to follow tweets, and audio podcasts of sports topics, keeps me interested, engaged and eager to learn more each day. Without multimedia tools, I do not think I would follow the sports websites as much as I do and I wouldn’t really use the internet too much. So all in all, there is no right or wrong way to enhance an article, story or website and there isn’t one particular multimedia tool that is better than the rest. Everyone learns at a different pace and different style so what appeals to them, may not appeal to you. Without multimedia tools, web pages and articles would be boring and wouldn't capture our interest as easily as they do now.

Analyzing the functions and substance of a Blog

Choose a blog and analyze the functions and substance of the blog as a form of writing and information delivery. In your opinion, what are the “best practices” when creating a blog to ensure appropriate form, function, and substance? Provide a link when responding to classmates and post your opinion along with your rationale.

What is a blog? That is a question that until recently, I have always asked myself. When I first read this assignment, I was 110% positive I was going to choose a sports blog as my topic as that is all I know. I, however, have recently noticed that I tend to follow a many blogs without even noticing and thought about writing on one of those. When I started writing my blog about one of the other blog sites I read frequently for this assignment, I couldn't help but realize how drawn to ESPNBOSTON I was. I was unable to get more than a few sentences in before I realized that I have to write about the New England Patriots Blog on espnboston.com because I literally check the blog out about five times just to keep up with what is going on daily. When it comes to blogs, I have recently been able to dissect and understand what it is that makes a blog a blog. When creating a blog, you need to be able to keep in focus the audience that you are trying to write for, you need to be truthful and accurate and you need to be able to accept criticism and feedback.

Blogging opens up many avenues for people to interact with one another and to speak their mind on a particular subject. Because I have been able to understand from my perspective what it takes to create and maintain a quality blog, I have been able to start searching around the web for other blogs that I find interesting. Although many catch my eye and peak my interest, I have a hard time leaving my sports blogs. To me, the New England Patriots Blog on http://espn.go.com/blog/boston/new-england-patriots is my bread and butter. They keep you up to date with the daily news about the team, you can interact and comment on each blog, and you are able to view the other sports teams in the area such as the Red Sox, Celtics and Bruins if you choose. I would be a hypocrite if I chose to write about any other blog that I read without mentioning this blog.

A few things I have learned from blogging myself for assignments in the class and by reading blogs on a daily basis is that in order to keep your audience and to keep followers to your blog, you need to be accurate and you need to be able to put in words your opinions and facts about what you are blogging. If you are not staying true to the intent of the blog; such as blogging about food and movies when your main audience are sports fans, then you are losing the point. It seems pretty simple when trying to blog and when trying to create your own blog. Without followers, your blogs will just be empty words that are never read. You need to make sure that you capture your readers attention and that you do it in a manner that allows them to feel involved.

The New England Patriots Blog at http://espn.go.com/blog/boston/new-england-patriots is all Patriots all the time. Although I follow this blog more than any other on ESPNBOSTON.com, is ironic as baseball is my favorite sport but football allows for weekly conversations and can intrigue me on a day to day basis. This blog stems from quarter by quarter reviews of each game, to practice updates and even personal interest stories on the players. I can choose and decipher between what information I am looking for and what topic peaks my interest that day. ESPN is a trustworthy source as they have been reporting on sports for over 30 years and are considered the worldwide leaders in sports. If you are a DIEHARD passionate fan of all things Boston when it comes to sports, then this site is the place to visit. Like I said, I follow mainly the Patriots blog, but you can choose to follow the Red Sox, Celtics, Bruins and even local colleges. The beat writers for this blog are incredibly knowledgeable as most have inside access to all things Patriots. They can get inside the locker room and get quotes and updates daily from the team and they can create a sort of relationship between the players and the fans. Because of my familiarity with ESPN and sports in general, I can relate to the blogs on ESPNBOSTON.com. I have over 26 years of experience either playing, coaching or watching sports and because it is my passion, I easily can remember players names, stats, records, etc without even blinking. ESPN is and always will be a trusted source for me and will be something that I continually monitor and follow because of the writers they have and the knowledge they share about the New England Patriots. All in all, the New England Patriots blog at http://espn.go.com/blog/boston/new-england-patriots provides readers with everything they want to know about the team and is a blog site that I would reccomend to any Boston sports fan. To check out ESPNBOSTON, visit espnboston.com and roam around until you find your team of choice.

The Passing of a Legend

THE LEGEND IS GONE

College Station just isn’t the same anymore. After serving 62 years as the Penn State Nittany Lions Football Coach, Joe Paterno, 85, has passed away from lung cancer yesterday January 22, 2012. Paterno coached five undefeated teams that won major bowl games and, in 2007, was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach. In all, he led the Nittany Lions to 37 bowl appearances with 24 wins (six of them later vacated) while turning down offers to coach National Football League (NFL) teams, including the Pittsburgh Steelers and the New England Patriots (Wikipedia).

Paterno, or should we say JoePA-was known for his gameday image--thick glasses, rolled-up dress slacks (by his admission, to save on cleaning bills), white socks and Brooklyn-tinged speech” (Schlabach, 2012), left the game as the all time leader in wins for any Division 1 coach. His tenure at one school was something matched by very few. A bronze statue was constructed of JoePa in College Station due to his high standing amongst school board members and students at Penn State University.

JoePa spent his last year fighting and denying any involvement in a child sex abuse scandal that led to his dismissal from Penn State. On July 23, 2012, the NCAA vacated all of Penn State's wins from 1998 through 2011 as part of its punishment for the child sex abuse scandal, eliminating 111 of the games Paterno had coached and won, dropping him from first to 12th on the list of winningest NCAA football coaches (Wikipedia).

His family released a statement Sunday morning to announce his death: "His loss leaves a void in our lives that will never be filled” (Schlabach, 2012).

JoePa is survived by wife Suzanne, 5 children, and 17 grandchildren. Everyone who has ever crossed paths with Joe will surely miss him as he was a polarizing figure in the NCAA.

 

References:

Schlabach, M., (2012).  Joe Paterno, 85, dies in state college.  Retrieved from  www.espn.go.com: http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/7489238/joe-paterno-ex-penn-state-nittany-lions-coach-dies-85-2-month-cancer-fight

Wikipedia. Joe Paterno. Retreived from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Paterno

 

 

Facebook Status Update:

WOW!! According to espn.com, Joe Paterno has passed away from cancer at age 85 today. JoePa was a mainstay at Penn State and will always be remembered as one of the greatest coaches of all time. R.I.P Joe Paterno. Thank you for all you have done for college football.

My Top Three Social Media Tools.

Choose three of the Social Media Tools presented on this website to try. Post links to your attempts. Share your thoughts about which new social media tools will reach audiences most effectively. Explain your rationale.

There are many ways people can reach an audience through social media and I have chosen the three that I use that most. These tools are great sources of information that can reach a large audience quickly and engage people who might not always be engaged to start with. The three social media tools I have chosen are:

Blogs: This class is my first experience with blogging and I have quickly realized that blogging is a great way to share information and to get your ideas and opinions out to a large audience at one time. Blogs differ iin styles and are endless in topics. Blogs can be personal, interactive, informative and even professional as there are no limits and no guidelines to the basis of a blog. Some blogs may have many followers while others may have a limited or select few followers, but either way they still can provide information rapidly to different audiences. One blog I have recently been following is the ESPN Blog page located at http://espn.go.com/espn/blogs. I love reading the weekly blog updates on the current sports season such as the NFL and MLB playoffs. The home page allows for easy access and gives the reader (ME) the choice of what blog to read. Most of the blogs on this page are short, such as the recent one from ESPN.com reporter Mike Reiss, which states that Center Bryan Stork of the New England Patriots has been ruled out of the game for Sunday. You can read this blog at http://espn.go.com/blog/afceast/post/_/id/72629/center-bryan-stork-ruled-out-by-patriots. These sports blogs provide instant updates for fans and media members and allow for the reader to be involved on all transactions and rumors that are going on instantly.

Another effective social media tool that, I feel, reaches audiences in the most effective way is any social networking platform such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest, etc. I personally only use Facebook and have seen the impact that it has on people’s everyday life. At Facebook.com, you can create an account, if you don't have one already and then you can search for anyone or any group and quickly be connected and start viewing their information, pictures and in a sense, their blogs. Facebook, as well as, the other social networking sites, are structured much like blogs, however, you have more variety of where to post things and you don't always have to prove what you write about. Facebook allows for opinions and ideas of your own anytime you post something. With Facebook, you can instantly connect with friends, you can follow and read about someone's daily life, you can view photos and videos instantly, and you can spread any amount of information you would like and designate who can see your information. Facebook is a great networking tool as you can chat privately or publically and you can get updates on many of your friends, your networks and your family at anytime. I have yet to get involved in the other social networking sites, but when/if I do, I most likely will start a Twitter account so that I can keep up with what is going on with people and sports instantly like at espn.go.com/mlb.

The third and final social media platform that I feel reaches an audience quickly and effectively is that of video sharing. VIdeo sharing  can provide an audience with a view of what is happening. You can show news clips, or comedy sketches, you can show informative, step by step, videos or personal opinion blogs and you can teach someone how to do something by having them watch a video. To me, video sharing has been huge and something that I use frequently, just recently, I needed to attend a wedding and didn't have a clue on how to tie a tie so I went to YouTube and typed in just that. I was presented with 100’s of videos about how to tie a tie in minutes and was successfully able to accomplish the feat. Through YouTube, I not only learned how to tie a tie, but I have been able to view and try to learn other guilty pleasure items such as beatboxing as I have always been interested in beatboxing and would love to really learn someday. Because of my interest in beatboxing, I searched for it on YouTube and came across this site https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNZBSZD16cY which really blew my mind as this guy was simply incredible and he made everything seem so effortless. Video sharing provides opportunities that you may never have in your everyday life and it allows people like me, who have that interest and guilty pleasure in something, to view and try to learn the art of beatboxing. Yes, you can post videos on Facebook and you can post videos in blogs, but they do not have the same effect that video sharing has. WIth sites such as YouTube, when you search for a particular topic, you are presented with multiple pages of videos for your choosing and not just one video that someone suggested on Facebook. As you can see, I am a big fan of video sharing and have thought about possibly creating a video blog where I can give my opinions and ideas on daily topics in sports and where I can reach out and find groups that are interested in video games such as Madden Football. There are many guilty pleasures that I view on a daily basis and without video sharing, I would probably not have that escape to fall back on to experience something that I have an interest in.

It would be really hard to say that a particular social media tool is more effective than another because they all provide what the audience is looking for. If you are looking for updates on restaurants and areas of travel, or updates in sports and recreation, than blogs may provide exactly what you are looking for. If you are just curious in day to day activities and keeping updated on friends and family statuses as well as personal opinions, than social media networks may be your thing. Finally if you are anything like me and want to be able to learn something that you would never sign up for or would never pay to learn, than sites like Youtube, where video sharing is most prominent, will help you learn a new craft and will satisfy that guilty pleasure that you have. All in all, social media tools are used daily and are the lifeline of our existence today. We can find anything we want via social media and it is just a matter of what you are looking for.  

ESPN, Espn Blogs. Retrieved from http//www.espn.go.com/espn/blogs

Reiss, Mike, October 11, 2014. Center Bryan Stork rules out by Patriots. Retreived from http://espn.go.com/blog/afceast/post/_/id/72629/center-bryan-stork-ruled-out-by-patriots

Thum, Tom, July, 2013, Beatbox brilliance: Tom Thum at TEDxSydney. Video retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNZBSZD16cY

Blog Post 3.2 Unrestricted Web Publishing

Choose an online news article published by Time, The New York Times, or The Huffington Post and track its cited sources. Visit each source online and evaluate its credibility based on the guidelines set in Criteria to Evaluate the Credibility of WWW Resources. Draft a blog post that briefly states a potential impact of unrestricted web publishing through mass media as it relates to this article.

Browsing the site of the Huffington Post, I came across an interesting article in the healthy living section. Now let me set the record straight, I am coming off of about two hours of sleep from the night before, and tonight it is past midnight. I can barely function and have been laughing at the dumbest of things for quite some time now. I am way over tired, but hey, what can you do when you have fun filled weekends with the kids. We were gone from 8 a.m Saturday 9/19 until 9 p.m that same night. By the time we got home and settled in, the kids didn’t get to bed till roughly 10 p.m and then my four month old decided to have a night where he woke up every hour until 5 a.m. So fair to say, I didn’t get a lot of sleep. Now back to the story. The article I came across was titled “Is it bad to wear a bra to sleep?” which was featured in the healthy living section of the Huffington post website. Unsure of why I even clicked on the article, I found that it was actually pretty interesting. Now being a man, I would have no clue if there are or aren’t benefits of going to sleep with a bra on, however, I would make an assumption that it would be more beneficial just because of how a bra can hold everything together per say. This is just the opinion of an uneducated male who is naive to the experience.

In order to determine if an article is credible, we should be able to determine if the author has any credibility in the field in which they are writing, as well as, whether or not the article is opinion based, such as sites like theonion.com, or if they are actually based on true facts  (Montecino, 1988). Finding that the author is Amanda Chan, I decide to Google search her and come across with the following: She has written over 20 articles and many pertaining to healthy living topics, she is Senior Editor, Health News, at The Huffington Post. She previously worked as a staff writer for MyHealthNewsDaily (now LiveScience Health). She has a bachelor’s degree in journalism and mass communication from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University, and a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University. Right away I am finding that this author is a credible source just based on the fact that she has experience in what she is writing about. I continue to read through the article and am made aware quickly that although it may not be very comfortable to wear a bra to sleep, there are however, no negative health effects that pertain to this situation. The article talks about rumors that state, wearing a bra to bed will cause some sort of breast cancer. That rumor is put to bed quickly as Amber Guth, M.D., an associate professor of surgery and director of the Breast Cancer Surgery Multidisciplinary Fellowship at NYU Langone Medical Center, previously told HuffPost Style, “there is certainly no evidence that sleeping in bras is either helpful or harmful (Chan).” I decided not to google Amber as the author laid out her credentials for me in the article. The article focused a lot on the idea that wearing a bra to sleep could cause cancer and that was debunked by several other sources, including Amber. As stated in the article, “And in general, wearing a bra doesn't seem to have any effect on breast cancer risk. A recent case-control study published in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention could find no association between breast cancer risk and bra-wearing among postmenopausal women (Chan).

Again to help prove the point, Amand Chan uses a statement made by Lu Chen, MPH, who is a researcher in the Public Health Sciences Division at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Chen stated “The risk was similar no matter how many hours per day women wore a bra, whether they wore a bra with an underwire, or at what age they first began wearing a bra, (Chan).” After reading that there are no direct links to cancer from wearing a bra to bed or any other time of the day, I am relieved as I was starting to worry about the impact of women wearing bra’s. I don’t know what I would have done. HINT. Sarcasm involved. The article mentions a few more random details about wearing a bra and about the size of the bra and how a bra that is too tight can dig into your skin, and it credits the Huffington post Women, and Huffington post style for such statements.

I was really pretty intrigued about the whole article and found it to be well written with accurate and credible sources. The author has the knowledge and experience on writing in the Healthy Living section of the post and she is able to bring in quotes from M.D’s and other professionals in the field of women’s health. I am able to establish credibility of the article by using the steps in the criteria to evaluate the credibility of WWW resources helpful hints article (Montecino, 1988) from our reading. The article states how we need to determine if the article we are reading is based on facts, not opinions, whether or not the information we are reading is current and the type of website the information appears on. Amanda Chan covers all this in her article and I, being a male, was even able to learn something about Bra’s and their impact on the the health of women.

Montecino, V (1988, August). Criteria to evaluate the credibility of www resources.Education & Technology Resources,  Retrieved from http://mason.gmu.edu/ website: http://mason.gmu.edu/~montecin/web-eval-sites.htm

Chan, A (2014, September 18). Is it bad to wear a bra to sleep? The Huffington Post, Retrived from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/18/wear-bra-to-sleep_n_5824510.html

How do you know what you know? Name one new thing you learned using a social media site today and explain why you believe it is true. What source did you use to acquire this information? At times, are social media sites reliable for obtaining credible information?

How do you know what you know? You know what you know by experience. When I was a child my parents taught me to ask questions to seek answers and to never be satisfied with an answer I didn't like. When it comes to knowing and believing things, I am really a skeptic on all accounts. I have a very hard time believing something that is told to me or that is written, unless I have experienced it or seen it with my own eyes. My dad has always told me to believe half of what I see and nothing I hear and that has always stayed with me. I generally am one who challenges answers and asks questions to gain a better understanding on something before I can make any type of determination. I truly believe that someone will never really know anything until they allow themselves to open their minds and accept what is perceived as being true. What I mean by that is unless we have first hand knowledge of a situation, we can not fully trust the source and the information being provided, however, if we are able to believe based off our own checks and balances, then we can better understand and prepare ourselves for what we are seeing/reading or hearing.

Social media plays a part in my life every single minute of every single day, whether I want it to or not. Facebook keeps me up to date with what all my friends are doing and what the latest trend or stories are. Take today for example, I woke up at 7:00 a.m, looked at my phone and saw that I had an update from Facebook. I open my Facebook app and the first thing that hits me is a story from the Chicago Tribune about Adrian Peterson, who is one of the best running backs in the National Football League (NFL). Because of everything that has been going on in the NFL and because of my almost crazy obsession with anything sports related, this caught my eye. The Chicago Tribune isn't really a source that I have viewed so I was unsure if the information was accurate or not. The article talked about how Peterson was found guilty and charged with child abuse for beating his child and leaving him with cuts, scrapes and bruises all over his body. It didn't go into great detail but only talked about how he would be deactivated for his game this Sunday 9/14/2014 and how this legal matter was something that the NFL needed to look into. At this point, I was so curious about the story and because of the lack of detail, I needed to check multiple sites such as ESPN, NESN, CBS Sports and Profootballrumors.com, in order to recover as much detail as I could so I could make a determination for me, as to whether or not the information I am reading is credible. After finding out that Peterson turned himself in to authorities within hours of being charged and hearing the remorse in his voice from his interview, I quickly looked into what caused this behavior. I read in the articles that he was trying to discipline his child for causing harm to another child, and in order to get his message across, he treated his son with the same form of discipline that he was treated with. That meant he told his son to go get a tree branch or a switch and bring it back so he could spank the child with it. Come to find out, Peterson didn't seem to realize that this is not okay in today's time and that what we grew up with and how he was disciplined cannot be accepted today. The article talked about how before and after he disciplines his kids, he talks and explains to them why they are getting the discipline and then after how he is sorry and tells them that he is trying to teach them a lesson. What I am trying to get at is the first update I received at 7:00 a.m led me to this story. The original story I received what choppy and really just gave a headline with no exact details. I didn't trust the source and retreated to other sources I did trust. Once confirming the real story, I have since deemed the Chicago Tribune as a credible source and will continue to trust their stories.

Although I found the above story to be true and I learned about it from a Social Media website, I would not use Social media platforms as the only reliable source of information. For the most part, I think that social media plays a huge part in the falsification of information due in large part because it allows for anyone to post anything at any time. Twitter allows for many different iterations of a news story and is available for the world to see at the touch of a button. Social media can be reliable, however, I like to research multiple media outlets before making any determinations of what is accurate or not. I have said time and time again that it is the media's job to entertain us, so I have a real hard time believing everything I read and hear, unless I have experienced it for myself.

What forms of new media do you use daily?

If I have to go a day without using my phone in order to check my sports pages that I love, then I am apt to go crazy. I constantly use the internet to check up on anything sports related to keep me sane. I browse Facebook daily, even though I believe I have posted something maybe a total of 3 times in 8 years since I  have had it. I really just get on every morning to see what people posted and how outrageous some of the posts really are.  I do use it to interact occasionally with friends and family but I have most of their phone numbers so texting works just as fine. I frequently check while I am at work and it a slow period of the day. I have no idea how to use Twitter or Instagram or any other cool social media outlet and I don’t think I really want to learn, as I have a hard enough time keeping up with what I do use. I am really not into all the gadgets and technology buzz that everyone else seems into. I have a pretty new phone with millions of apps and features on it and I hardly use any of them, let alone even know what most of them do. I am pretty simple with the technology. If I can keep up to date with sports and the occasional random Facebook updates, then my day is complete. I tend to  gravitate more to the video games on a daily basis then I do anything else.

How has new social media influenced your perspective of events?

Using social media to stay up to date is possibly one of the most difficult things to do. First, you never know what story to believe, you log onto Facebook and you have certain people posting articles about the latest topics, you have other people challenging those posts and articles, then you see a web page that has completely different information. It is very hard to trust anything nowadays that you read as you never know who is reporting actual facts. Most media outlets now are trying to be the first one to get a story out and  if that means part of their story is fabricated and they have to backtrack later, then that is what it is. Social media has influenced my perspective of events by allowing me access to multiple platforms to seek out what information and news I am looking for. Also, social media has afforded the opportunity to be updated quickly in a real time fashion with any breaking news. It is very hard however to really believe what you see on say Facebook, Yahoo or whatever news outlet you are viewing, when you see multiple stories on the  same subject and they all talk about different things. Take for instance the missing Malaysian airline that was reported. The first thing I saw about that was on Facebook as someone posted an article which stated that the plane had been missing but there were parts of the plane in the water and a dive team was searching. Then the next few hours, articles came out about how they had no information about the missing plane and another about how they felt the plane may have gone off course and landed somewhere else. They prematurely stated that everyone was dead before any research was conducted.  Its articles and news like this, that make it hard to truly believe  anything you read. .

Are these positive or negative influences?

Social media has both positive and negative influences when it comes to news and the impact on my life. I follow Facebook and get most of my “breaking news” from articles that people post on their and in a way, even though I never watch the news on tv, I feel like I am somewhat in the loop of what is going on. If I read something that I find interesting, I will take the time to Google more information about it and will continue to gather more facts to fully understand it. This is what I consider the positive of social media and how news is reported and how it impacts me. The negative is the fact that with social media, anything at any time can be reported by anyone. To many times I see a Facebook posts about someone ranting about something they are uninformed about and making themselves look ignorant to everyone, then they backtrack and posts something about how they were just frustrated or they try to use bogus facts to back up their claim. The dangers in social media such as real time transactions are a huge negative for news and for me. To be fully honest, I really don’t follow current events that close, because I feel that everything we ever read about is negative and there's never any positive news being reported and also, I am really not one who worries or cares what is going on as long as it is not impacting me or my friends and family.  It is great to be able to have the ability to keep up with what is currently going on in the world today, but I really have too much going on in my life to spend a lot of time reading about it and really getting involved with it.