Nava - Media Law & Literacy - Blog

     The emergence of social media, a technology that has captured millions of users around the world in just a few years, has revolutionized society. Social media has contributed to shape politics, world culture, personal relationships, education, business, and many other matters that impact our everyday life, as social media has become a powerful communication tool with an extensive forum where individuals, diverse groups, media outlets, and public figures let their ideas and information flow in a casual and spontaneous environment without cultural barriers. Currently, about 72% of people in the Untied States use some type of social media, and this trend has grown even among older adults.     Besides interacting and staying in touch with others and nurturing relationships, most social media users are there to freely express themselves, even if certain views are not popular, and this brings visibility and increased awareness of other issues in the marketplace of ideas. In order to cre

     In the late 19th century at the time when motion pictures first appeared, nobody imagined that motion pictures would become a mass entertainment media worth of billions of dollars. Nobody anticipated the power of motion pictures to reflect not only our culture, but also the capability to influence our society and transform it. Nobody foresaw how this innovation would develop as an instrument of artistic expression for cinematography, acting, screenwriting, directing, design, and music, and then as a new form of art that would trigger people's emotions, and would take people through imaginary journeys across the world and time, and fictitious spaces. In fact, the potential of motion pictures as the industry it is today developed and evolved with the talent of people and incorporating new technologies to achieve a final product with new or improved features and superior quality, new ways to create effects and show feature films capable of attracting larger and diverse audiences.

Introduction     In over one century, motion pictures have transformed the world, developing into the most popular and influential media of the 20th century and beyond, with great impact on cultures, societies, politics, and arts, as motion pictures achieve widespread presence to be viewed not only at movie theatres, but also on television broadcast, streaming services, and digital technology that constantly reach millions of people day after day.     Motion pictures, also called films or movies, became a form of art. Motion pictures emerged at the end of the 19th century and were quickly recognized as perhaps the first truly mass form of entertainment. Movies connect people with appealing stories about shared interests, dreams, or concerns, allowing people to perceive the world and understand others through a combination of art, talent, industry, and technology. The Beginning of Motion Pictures Muybridge & Marey     In the 19th century, motion pictures resulted from experimenting

The voices rarely heard in mainstream news, the thoughts hardly found in the internet search engines or in social media newsfeed, and all types of expressions promoting views that can be perceived as radical, unpatriotic, or overcritical are destined to become the stifled opinions of dissent. These are small factions that defend unpopular principles and viewpoints against the ones of prominent organizations that have extensive power in the government system holding a widespread influence on society. Examples of such voices can be the webpages or social media portals of libertarians, socialists, or American conservatives, or those from anti-war movements particularly in times of war. The question is if the First Amendment protects them. The First Amendment protecting the freedom of expression has been tested in numerous occasions. In times of war or internal social turmoil, people who dare to express ideas that challenge the government have faced repression, censorship, and severe jail

Back in 2013, the Black Lives Matter movement began to slowly emerge in the Black community as a hashtag on Twitter to bring attention and promote online discussion on racial profiling and police brutality against Black Americans. Police brutality comes in part from the misconception that a police officer's authority allows brutal conducts without being held accountable for such actions, a belief reinforced by mild disciplinary actions such as being suspended, or even exonerations as in several high-profile cases such as Michael Brown's in Ferguson, Missouri. These notorious cases of Black people being killed by police force propelled #BlackLivesMatter from social media to its development into a broader offline social movement, when the hashtag began to be used to organize protests. After George Floyd, a Black person who did not resist arrest, died under the callous choke restraint of a police officer, Black Lives Matter has been at the center of the most widespread and persist

"Congress shall make no law about respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances." The six freedoms of the First Amendment are in place to protect us from government excess of power, and the way those six freedoms interconnect become an important device for us to assert our autonomy, individuality, and participation in the government. A peaceful protest march is the way to put into use our freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, petition to government, and freedom of press as news and opinions also circulate in media outlets. Gathering in public as a large group to voice concerns and views on an issue to create awareness on others and make the government to act on that problem is the main purpose of a protest. The issue of police brutality against Black people have persisted for de

It is difficult to imagine why in 1795, John Jay, the first Chief Justice in the Supreme Court, resigned the highest court in the nation to become the governor of New York, and it may result incomprehensible that the newspapers of the era considered this move as a promotion. In John Jay's opinion, the Supreme Court of that time lacked power and dignity. The problem was that the Constitution did not define the judicial branch's organization and precise powers. The appointment of Chief Justice John Marshall in 1801, who served in the Supreme Court for thirty-four years, brought a significant transformation to the court that earned it public respect and elevated it as a co-equal branch of government, being one of those changes establishing the judicial review - the power of the Supreme Court to review actions of other branches of government and determine if such actions are constitutional - as the foundation of constitutional law. In over 200 years, the interpretation of the Const

For over a decade, social media platforms have been transforming our society in a way that nowadays it is difficult to imagine life without them. Social media platforms became powerful communication tools for an enormous forum without frontiers where, in an open environment, we not only can connect with family and friends, but also with groups of diverse interests to express and share information, our opinions, beliefs, emotions, and causes to mention some. The powerful impact of social media platforms is still shaping many aspects of life, culture, education, and politics. And how this would not happen as Facebook has 2.6 billion active users, and Twitter with its 330 million active users is now the preferred platform for domestic and international politics? Obviously, these social platforms have certain rules in order to maintain people's interaction and participation in public chats as safe and sound as possible. Countless users from the general community, public figures, and so

My Name is Alec Nava, and my hometown is Cary, NC. I am majoring in Media Production & Entrepreneurship with a minor on Sports Media. In my classes, I focus on learning and apply that knowledge to the real world, and to develop more skills professionally and personally. Outside class, I like to create graphics related to sports using Adobe software, and I also run. As a previous cross country runner at my high school, running is not only a sport for me, but also a way to feel freedom and relax my mind. After HPU, one thing I hope to do is make movies, while another thing I want to do is sports broadcasting.