Homework Exercise #1: Blogging on Politics

Based on my research of the topic, it seems that the mishandling of important government documents is becoming a recurring theme when you take a look at the last two presidents. However, both cases have been found to differ drastically from each other. In Donald Trump's case, it was reported that around 11,000 documents were recovered from his Mar-a-Lago home, with around 100 being marked as classified. These documents were discovered almost an entire year after Trump had left the White House. Trump's lawyers has also previously sworn certification that all government records had been returned. When faced with this case, Trump had claimed to have declassified all the documents before taking them and treated the case with disdain and in compliance. In the case of president Biden, it was stated that around 6 classified documents were discovered in his Wilmington, Delaware home, all of which were taken into the custody of NARA the next day. Biden and his attorneys have reportedly been compliant in the search, with Biden claiming that he had no knowledge of his ownership of said documents.

Both cases imply the lack of security in the White House in the case of classified documents. These cases prove just how easy it may be for officials in the White House to retrieve important documents regarding classified information. Both cases are being utilized against either president by members of the opposite party to delegitimize their competency. I believe that these cases have been downplayed as simple political munitions to attack either political party, rather than being treated as real crimes separate from politics.

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Questions for Documentary

 1. The web, while revolutionary, can only be used through certain devices, primarily phones and computers, which are not always readily available to everyone across the globe. Financial status, location, and demand all play a role in whether or not someone has the ability to be connected to the web. However, the web's influence plays a large role in all areas of society, regardless of people's connectivity.

2. Wikipedia embraces the idea of trust in your community and those like you, rather than blind trust in invisible authority. It allows for people to come together and create a world of information by the people and for the people through many forms of digital media convergence, like books, television, and scholarly articles.

3. The web makes digital convergence not only a possibility, but a necessity when using the internet. Television, music, art, and messaging are just a handful of what the web has to offer in regard to digital media convergence.

4. The internet gives anyone and everyone a voice to speak out against an authority and the ability to spread their messages all across the world. A somewhat recent example can be seen with the protests in Hong Kong against the Chinese government. The brutality of Chinese law enforcers against Hong Kong citizens was able to be revealed to the rest of the world through social media and news outlets. An injustice that could have gone unnoticed by the rest of the world was given a platform through the internet.

5. The change from vertical media authority to horizontal can be explained by the web's ability to give everyone an equal platform to speak out on, thereby leveling the playing field. Because of this, the possibility of digital media convergence is near infinite, as anyone can utilize both physical and electronic forms of media on the web.