Websites like Facebook, MySpace, and many others have been sending data to advertisers about their users without any consent from the consumer’s. This information is in regard to their interests, and demographic information. Therefore, advertisers can have a greater understanding of whereto target their consumers and how to reach them in coherence with their interests/needs.

“The sites may have been breaching their own privacy policies as well as industry standards, which say sites shouldn't share and advertisers shouldn't collect personally identifiable information without users' permission. Those policies have been put forward by advertising and Internet companies in arguments against the need for government regulation.”

Since people have found out more about this issue, they have demanded these sites to increase their privacy settings and to give consent before sending out information. Facebook has done this, because of the consumer demands, but companies can still buy softwares to hack into consumer profiles to gain consumer information.

            In the article Vital but Complementary, author Barb Palser writes about striking a balance between traditional journalistic reporting and the ever-evolving field of social media.  Palser uses the example of the earthquake in Haiti to prove that although social media sites like Twitter and Facebook can spread pieces of information sometimes faster than traditional news sites, it’s often impossible for the public to garner a “full picture” of what’s going on in the world without having access to thoughtful, complete news stories.

            Palser writes about how information on social media sites is fragmented and unstructured.  As a result of this, social media could never replace traditional methods of journalism as a “primary source of information.”  Palser does not discount the ability of social media (especially in the example of the earthquake in Haiti) to disperse information that contributes to saving lives, but she does make sure to delineate that social media and traditional journalism are so inherently different that they shouldn’t even be compared side-by-side. 

            Palser writes, "If anything, the growth of social media amplifies the need for somebody to sort through the anarchic mass of blog entries, Facebook   posts, Twitter entries, YouTube videos and Flickr photos that will follow every major news story in the future.  This is a role that professional news organizations could take on, in addition to their central mission of original newsgathering."

            Palser ends by stating that during every major news story the role of social media becomes even more important, but exponentially so does the role of traditional journalism to sort through masses of information on the Internet and compose something that gives readers a complete picture of what’s going on.

By Laura Dauer

There have been many debates recently involving the crisis known as the "digital divide." It has become both an international debate as well as a national debate in some countries on authority and access to the internet. As Nick Couldry states in Chapter 15 of Web Studies, "The first is concerned with the absolute differences between different countries' telecommunications infrastructures, information transmission capacity, numbers of computers, website hosts, and the like; the second is concerned, within one nation, at the gap between those who have access to that society's Web resources and those who don't."

Many attempts have been made to overcome this divide, but none have really proven to be successful as there is still limited to no access in many of the poorer countries. It is interesting to imagine my life without the internet and the access I have. Since I was young computers were provided not just at home, but in all of my schools and many other public places. It's hard to believe that so many people do not readily have access computers the way I have throughout my whole life.

By: Brian Oristano

To get information today it is very easy all we have to do is turn a computer on a google whatever we need to know. I think it is sad that everybody in the world does not have access to the internet or their government sensors what they can view. Nick Couldry calls this problem the digital divide. Couldry writes this chapter from a positive perspective saying that since there is such a big divide that it will create a lot of opportunities. These opportunities will come in the form of organizations being formed in order to address the problem. These organizations have started to address the problem by bringing the internet into poor countries in an effort for them to connect to the world and help their economy. This has not been very successful because it is like giving somebody a dictionary in another language and asking them to teach themselves how to speak.

For me this is a strange topic because I grew up with the internet. For the most part I always knew more then my teachers when it came to the internet. Also I was fortunate to grow up in a town that offered advanced computer courses which gave me an edge when I went to high school and the college. I couldn't imagine just getting a computer now and knowing how to use it. It is a good thing that people are trying to close this divide but more needs to be done in the future to help it along.