"We the Media" reflection

While reading chapters nine and ten of We the Media, I could not help but think about privacy rights of the ‘digital native generation.’ How are first amendment rights (freedom of speech) protected as the conversation expands at a rapid rate via the Internet?

In the case referenced on location 3959-69 (for all the non e-readers out there, sorry I do not know the page number) Intel Corp. vs. Kourosh Kenneth Hamidi, “the justices struggled, unsuccessfully for the most part, to come up with apt metaphors” to apply the first amendment to the case. In a small 4-3 margin, the courts in California ruled in favor of Hamidi, stating he “wasn’t legally trespassing on Intel’s computers by sending unsolicited email because there was no harm to the company’s system.”

I found this case interesting and applicable to my life growing up with constant change in technology, particularly because the justices struggled and required metaphors to make a final decision. I highly doubt the Framers of the Constitution anticipated freedom of speech and copyright protection to extend to the “copy-and-paste” nation on the Net that exists today .

Location 3997-4007 references the misuse of others’ work and society’s general concept to cheating; “We may never be able to precisely define fairness, but we all know what cheating is. Society accepts too much of it.” I found this quote extremely relevant to a case of academic integrity I found myself involved in last fall.

I took a course in the spring semester of my freshman year where a T.A. gave points back on exams if students asked him to do so in the recitation. Clearly, the students in this section considered it a no-brainer to get points back they had missed, and consequently, this T.A.’s student’s grades inflated and changed the class average. As a student who consistently struggled with the content of this course, I never found myself on the “winning” side of the curve and found it completely unfair the class curve was inflated because of this T.A. Long story short, after testifying in front of a Lehigh administration panel on my experience in the course, the grades were altered by the professor to their original marks, and everyone who took the course had a change to their grade. Even though I “played by the rules,” I felt guilty, as though I was in the wrong because I was going against the norm the T.A. set for the students, which they readily followed.
Before I had my hearing for this course, I was unsure how to contest my grade. I know I have a copy of the “Rules of Student Conduct” somewhere in my desk because it was in my freshman orientation packet, but does anyone really give that a read?

Three years later, I am now a student of political science and journalism, I would like to contribute to “the conversation” on the Internet, but also spread the knowledge of that conversation to my peers. How do I engage my audience though?

In light of the discussion we had in our previous class about formspring and other public mediums to spread conversation, I began to wonder – how much is too much and how can we, as students growing up in the ‘digital native generation’ be smart about what put on the Internet?

I know it would be difficult to keep up with the constant changes to Facebook, Twitter, and other social medias, but I think it’s important students understand the implications of their actions on these sites and how to appropriately protect themselves.

Maybe we can begin this change at Lehigh in some sort of freshman orientation/seminar type of workshop. I think the students should be aware of how their actions on social medias sites are permanent, in both positive and negative lights.

To help spread conversation, as discussed in The Cluetrain Manifesto, as well as to engage the Lehigh student population (which I feel sometimes exists in its own bubble exclusive from real-world topics), students should be required to start a Twitter or Blog account in their freshmen year. I personally feel the Twitter function for this course on Coursesite.com is a great addition to keep the students engaged with each other, the material and the professor. It is also a more interactive way to share information, as photos, hyperlinks and more can be “tweeted.” It would be great if every class could benefit from a class hashtag, just as we do in #J325.

However, this “orientation to social medias” should alert students as to how much access administration has to their personal social media forums, i.e. Facebook. In light of recent events within the Lehigh Greek system, where evidence found on Facebook lead to administration investigations of many organizations, I feel now more than ever is a great time to learn about risk management on the Internet. Perhaps a good idea would be to increase awareness within the student organizations about social media “etiquette,” as well as how much access the university has to student’s posts, photos and wall postings on Facebook.