Themes of the Opening Remarks
Robert McChesney: In his book The Political Economy of Media, Robert McChesney discusses the relationships and concerns with journalism as tied to commercial means, suggesting that media conglomerates and corporate powerhouses have always had an upper hand with the way journalism is reported, managed, and controlled. Journalism is subject to market pressures and loses its objectivity because of this. Traditional media outlets have financial backing and adhere to the views of their backers. In the new media landscape, McChesney continues to concern himself with the limits on journalism, yet denies the promise of blogging in the democratic sector.
Ken Auletta: As the leading expert of the ins and outs of the Google enterprise, Ken Auletta is most concerned with the future of Google in terms of Google continuing to provide the best service it can in the most unbiased manner possible. Google’s motto is “Don’t Be Evil”, a motto which Auletta suggests is credible since Google is determined to make sure that the best information will float to the top of search results. Committed to provided a conclusive, accurate, and “crap free” service to its customers, Google has gained the trust of all participants. Believing that the Internet is free and should continue to be so, Google is passionate about making search effective and accessible to people worldwide.
Daniel Solove: In a society where people are documenting their entire lives on the Internet, it becomes increasingly more important to manage your personal assets and reputation online. With the Internet comes permanency and exposure of information, and if you are not careful about where, when, and how you display this information, your privacy can be threatened. Users of the Internet (so, the whole world), participates in information sharing through platforms such as social networks, credit fields on retail sites, any place you enter personal information, and sometimes even non-secure banking sites. In its young stages, the Internet is dangerous in terms of protecting privacy. It has not been around long enough, and users have not been participating long enough, to understand the effects that information sharing on the Internet can have on privacy. As a society, we still have semi-antiquated view of privacy. With new generations, this view will change, citizens will become better at concealing their personal information, and new safeguards will be set in place to protect privacy. Businesses must understand that future users (and even current users) will demand stronger privacy protections, such as opt in policies as opposed to opt out policies, as Facebook has recently embodied.
Jonathan Zittrain: In his book The Future of the Internet, Jonathan Zittrain discusses the Internet’s future by analyzing the terms generative and non-generative. Generative technology is that which allows for additions and alterations, such as computers that allow users to create content and push it onto the Internet, allowing for creativity and innovation to flourish in an open platform (computers and Internet both being generative). Non-generative technologies are those that “come as are” and allow for little to no alterations, serving as fixed mediums. The iPod is a non-generative technology, one that serves a specific purpose as it plays music and videos, yet a user doesn’t alter any of the internal settings/functions of the device.
The onset of the Internet saw many generative technologies and platforms, where users were able to exhibit their creativity by being instrumental creators of content. Wikipedia is one of the most popular generative platforms, allowing for constant updates and collaboration. Some people, such as Zittrain, foresee a movement toward a more non-generative Internet, one that does not “overwhelm” the majority audience, limiting majority control, and allowing for specialists to create and manage content. People seem to be content with their non-generative technologies (iPod sales dominating), and seem more at odds with the generative (allowing for non-generative technologies to become dominate). However, the generative is what makes the Internet the Internet, fostering creativity of all users. If the Internet moves toward a non-generative approach, will creativity be lost? Zittrain thinks people will prefer the non-generative technologies, ultimately signing themselves up for security, stability, and ease of mind, where users don’t have to contribute to creation, they can instead reap the benefits. These benefits, however, will be non-generative, benefitting the technology provider in a closed product.
TRUST AND PRIVACY: Auletta and Solove
Placing trust in new online media platforms is a growing issue in our changing media landscape. Auletta, author of Googled, speaks extensively on trust connected to Google as portrayed by its relationship between the search engine and the customers. This grand concept of trust and the Internet is further explored by Solove, author of The Future of Reputation. The following information about Google’s trust policies and practices will be discussed, followed by an analysis of how to best leverage the connection between trust and privacy as suggested by Solove.
“Trust is essential to Google, as it is to much of modern commerce” (Googled, 191). Google is an extremely successful interactive media business and is so because of the trust they share with their customers. Google started as a company that provided a search engine created by talented engineers who took every stride to create algorithms that resulted in the best search results for users. Over the years, Google has updated their algorithms and focused on their users even more in order to ensure speedy and accurate search results. Ensuring the reliability and user friendliness of the platform of the search engine is Google’s most important focus. If Google is able to provide a trustworthy platform, users will flock to Google because they trust Google. Google must be able to trust that users will trust them, but first and foremost, Google must be the initial party to exhibit trustworthy qualities before they themselves can be trusted. With the trust of their customers (and they have an incredible trust following), Google can be sure to succeed. As stated in Googled, “Google may be viewed with suspicion by many media industries, but it enjoys a well-deserved reputation for earning the trust of users” (Googled, 190). Google must make the protection of user data and user demands its first priority. If Google was to misuse user information or enter a conflict where users began to lose trust, Google could fail as a company. “If users lost trust in Google, believed their private data was being exploited and shared with advertisers (or governments), the company regularly judged one of the world’s most trust brands would commit suicide” (Googled, 120).
The last quote echoes many of the privacy and trust issues that Solove discusses in his analyze of reputation and privacy. In a society where we do trust large platforms such as Google, we need to be aware that just because Google is credible today does not guarantee that Google will be credible tomorrow. At any point in time, Google can change their privacy policies and exploit our information. As Google already has access to most of our information, it would be easy for Google to manipulate the information as they see fit for business. In recent years, Google has begun to acquire more content by purchasing YouTube, the popular video-sharing website that generates the majority of the traffic of online video watchers everyday. YouTube results appear at the top of search results, directing user traffic to the site. Does this goes against Google’s philosophy of providing the most accurate search result based on user profile analysis? My point is to suggest that if Google begins to control content, will they be blindsided by the monetary gain of directing users to their content sites instead of providing the best search results for each user determined by what is best for that specific user? How will Google be viewed by its users then? Will users be offended and worried that their search results are based on the content Google owns, and will they lose trust and credibility in the system they use on an everyday basis? With day to day changes and advances that Google encounters and creates, users will begin to manage the amount of information they provide on the Internet. We are lucky that Google is so seemingly interested in providing the best privacy rights for its consumers. This does not mean, however, that it will always be this way. Not knowing the future, and being able to understand that the future is unknown and practices can change is one of the biggest take-aways from Solove’s analysis.
