I'm Liz and welcome to my blog! I have always come across blogs but have never considered starting one until now that my CIS class requires me to do so. I really hope that I come to enjoy blogging; from the blogs I have encountered I have come to see that they can indeed create a sense of community and are much fun!
I have done quite some reading (the ones I've been assigned for this class) and believe that new media has paved the way for many new forms of communication- such as this one. Of course these have not come without new types of concerns. Among them are issues such as security, cyberbullying, anonymity and, free speech concerns among other things. One particular reading that interested me was "Pentagon Keeps Wary Watch as Troops Blog". This article addresses the armed forces' concern about troops blogging, claiming that control has to be exerted over what the troops say. In essence, the Department of Defense considers it necessary to "police" members of the American military.
This claim has many implications, many of which are understandable given the sensitive nature of information that may be shared and made public. However, the building blocks of new media- blogs in particular, such as making news mainstream and personal by anyone and creating communicating communities, is in jeopardy. In particular, I believe that the breadth and reach of free speech is one of the issues at hand here. Should soldiers be limited in what they choose to blog about or should there be no limits because it is a right every American has? This, and many other questions arise from the new medias being created in the contemporary world. Will there be clear and straight cut answers? That is very unlikely, but new media has indeed catapulted our times onto many new things.
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