Where to Invade Next

In the documentary Where to Invade Next, the main character, who was born in the U.S., decides to visit and explore different countries in Europe in order to take their successful ideas and bring them back to the United States as a sign of invasion. During the documentary he visits countries like Italy, France, Finland, etc. All with different good qualities and characteristics, and some specific ones that our main character decided that are good enough for being imported to the U.S. Some examples of the things he brings back to the United States are free tuition, healthier food, paid holidays, or no homework. The take home message of this documentary is a wake up call to a country that everyone who lives in think it is the best, showing a different reality and a more accurate objective perspective of it. The United States has the potential to be the greatest country in the world, as it was not a long time ago, but still has a long path to go.

In my opinion, this documentary fairly represents the reality of the world we live nowadays. Each country has great ideas and proposals, but they are all far from beecoming perfect. Woth technology we can now learn and understand, to a certain point, what the situation is in other countries and try to improve by the example of others.

As an international student, one of the biggest changes I have seen is tuition. In countries like Spain or France tuition is basically free; while, in the U.S. the sotuation is completely different. That being said, the college experience is also far from being the same in both countries. In the UmS yoy pay for room and board, you pay for a experience, for sports, for different events during the year, for food, for extra activities and free trips offered by the school, etc. On the other hand, in France you pay a minimum amount but you only go to college for a maximun of 3 hours per day. In France, a student doesnt live on campus and his/her life is not related at all with the college besides those 3 hours. No extra activities, no college sports, no dinning hall, etc. Just a classroom for 2 to 3 hours. Sometimes, the grass looks greener on the other side, only until you get to the other side. Things are not always as perfect as they look.

Toyoma Chapter 5-7

From chapter 5 to 7 of Greek Heresy, Toyoma spends most pages talking about social changes and the promotion of such by media. For the author, this idea can sometimes go wrong. Sometimes, the knowledge in a specific place about a certain medium doesn't  meet the requirement of such medium. In other words, if a specific population doesn't have all the necessary information and capacities to use a specific technology, the consequences of that media in relation with the social change would be different than expected. The specific population won't benefit from such technology because they don't have the skills to use it. Within these chapters, multiple examples are giving about when media does not promote positive social change; but, nowadays, we can also see some examples of when this social change does occur in a more powerful and prodictive way because of different media and the correct use of them.

These chapters bring an interesting discussion to the table: to what extent can media be useful to promote social change? With examples that argue in favor of both sides of the discussion, now is up to the opinion of each individual to understand and explain why or why not media and new technology should be used to promote a social change.

I personally think that media has been helping, in most causes, to make revolutions and social changes more effective and powerful than they would be without them. By connecting a social movement or a social change with social media, an interaction with other people is established. This connection strengths the movement and improves it by adding new ideas to it over time. That being said, it is true that in order to make every social change more powerful by media, we need to be able to use the right media for each population. This means, some information has to be taken into consideration in terms of demographics or development, for examples, in order to use a medium that meets the requirements and skills of that specific place. A great example of a good job taking into consideration differences in demographics, was the social movement hole-in-a-wall that we talked about in class. In that case, the medium used was known by the population, but was considered relatively knew. It helped strengthen the movement and make it more successful over the years.

Greek Heresy

In the Introduction and first chapter of the book Greek Heresy, by Kentaro Toyama, the author focuses his efforts in explaining and asking us questions about technology and the power that it has in our society and social changes over the years. Toyama finds specially interesting how technology has been able to change our lives and how we are capable to, nowadays, reach the world by a simple click using our fingertips. Unfortunately, not everyone has the same power in terms of technology. Demographics, the place you have been born and raised, is key in terms of power and reach. Opportunity, as the author of this book perfectly describes, is not equal and fair to everyone; therefore, talent is not always shown fairly because the conditions are not always the same for everyone around the globe.
The point that Kentaro Toyama brought about demographics was specially interesting for me as an international student. Overall, also considering that West Europe and the U.S are pretty similar in terms of conditions and opportunities, I personally see a big difference in opportunities among countries in terms of technology and the privilege some people have compared with others. 

To be completely honest, what I have to say about a specific political topic in the U.S is not going to be taken into consideration as equal as what a person from Uganda, just mentioning a random country and with no intention to harm anyone, has to say about that same topic. People simply won't see it as equal points of view. And, opportunity to reach out your perspective to others is a key concept in this situation. In this specific case, I would have a big advantage in terms of reaching other people, more technological access and advantages, and in terms of demographic privilege. All goes together. Toyama tries to explain to us, using the topic of technology, the differences between countries and demographics, and the outcome of those differences. As one of the sentence of the book said "Talent is universal, opportunity is not." It is time to realize this difference and, with the power some of us have in comparison to others in terms of technology, use our power to try to minimize this situation and give everyone and equal opportunity to talk and express themselves with the using of social media and technology in general.

Black Mirror Episode 2

The second episode of Black Mirrors introduced us to the topic of Advertisement and how involved it can be in our lives. In this episode, our main character lives in a world of monotony in which his one and only work is to pedal on a bike in order to get points to then be able to buy everything they want. It could be defined as the currency in that world. The days consists of doing the same thing over and over; never seeing the natural light. Our main character, and the rest of the characters in the episode, are commonly bothered with different advertisements, mostly porn or a talent show, about how they can change their lives and have a better life. Those advertisements also try to convince people to watch those TV shows so they can get more viewers. In order to delete the advertisements a fine has to be paid. Our character meets a girl who is a great singer and falls in love with her. After convincing her and paying for her ticket to participate in the talent show, he sees how she is convinced to end up on the porn channel and is taken away from him. With hard work and consistency, he gets a chance to now participate in the talent show and let everyone know how he feels abut this advertisement world and fake lives they are selling them on TV. Finally, he gets offered a job in that world that he accepts it, making him one of them.

This episode of Black Mirror brings an interesting statement to the table of how the real world works and how it can end up being in the future. Media is nowadays presented in every single moment of our lives, and advertisement is one of the big things that media is exposing us to in a daily basis.

Media has changed our lives drastically in the last decades. We are now way more attuned to everything that is happening in the world, we can access things quicker, buy things easier... But, we are also giving up a big amount of our privacy that can be used at any point against us. This episode was a way to open my eyes in terms of how advertisement can be able to control our lives to the extreme. We can already find adds personalized to our interests every time we access the internet. What now only appears while we are in the network, can easily appear in the future while we are walking on the street, or any time we are outside, which could have a totally bigger and different impact on us and make us act different towards the world of advertisement. What nowadays is helpful for us to find the things we like, can easily end up being a nightmare for a lot of people in the near future. The world is constantly changing and not every change is good.

History of Advertisement

Advertisement is, nowadays, one of the most powerful weapons to communicate and interact with people, captivating them to do what you want them to do. Although, we see everyday new and better ways to advertise in our communities, advertisement has a long history since the beginning of it as such. On Thursday November 3rd, Liza Vedder, who works at Free Press Media as an Advertisement Sales Manager, came to talk about the history of Advertisement and how over the years has changed at the same time that has also changed our way to perceive media and advertisement.

I wasn't able to attend class that day; but, from what I heard from classmates and friends, it seemed like Liza Vedder really did a good job comparing and differentiating the advertisements we were used to see in the past and the advertisements nowadays. Changes have happen from the reach of the advertisement in terms of population and distance, to the media used in order to advertise a particular item or movie. Advertisement has changed, and the future is scary. Advertisements are able to control us in an unconscious way to unimaginably levels, are things could get worse. As we have been talking in class about domestication, we are so used to advertisement that nowadays they appear everywhere and we are not even aware of it. We are in a phase where advertisements are starting to control us in ways they weren't able before. People behind advertisements of a particular product are people trained to know what people want to hear and people with enough experience to make things look and seem better than how they actually are.

A good example of an advertisement that has changed drastically over the years are Trailers. Movie trailers have advanced a lot since the first movies came out. As an example, the difference in terms of the trailer since the first Star Wars movie and the last one that came out a year ago are enormous. From new and better special effects, to more entertain and intriguing audio and visuals that captivate the audience, are some of the changes that trailers have been going through. But, advertisement for movies doesn't stop just in trailers. Nowadays, a trailer is just one small piece of the advertisement of the movie, while in the past trailers were the only way to advertise a movie. Apps, video games, or messages and posts in different social media are just examples of how advertisement has grown in the last decades in terms of movies. A growth that doesn't seem will stop any time soon.

Creators Guide to Transmedia pt.2

During chapter 5 and 6 of the book Creators Guide to Transmedia the author talks about the different important steps in order to create a good transmedia storytelling and how to conduct that story through the length of it with a good plot, characters, and connections with the audience, In the first chapter, the author specifies that a transmedia story is created in order to make a business case and use somebody's creative vision. In order to create a good transmedia story four things are necessary. First, you need to create a world around your story; this can be a real world, like Romeo and Juliette, or a fiction world, like Star Wars. Then, creating the characters. The characters of the story are the ones who create a connection and an interaction with the audience, who will be the one involved with the story and spending the money on it. Ionic states, the change of the characters and environment within the story, and backstory and exposition, parallel stories that can help to understand the main story, are also key in order to create a good transmedia storytelling. In chapter 6, the author broadly talks about how to create and develop such story using all the potential it may have.

While reading this two chapters, two things attracted my interest in a special way. On one hand, the importance of the characters, for the author, and their development thoroughout the sotry; before, druing, and after. On the other hand, how transmedia stories use alternative types of media just to explain or give a background story of what happens in the main story. It is a way to explain why things are the way they are, but that it wouldn't make sense to explain in the middle of the main story. This new media stories create more interest in the audience and create a higher number of spectators.

Good examples of this two characteristics can be Harry Potter and The Office. Harry Potter is a great example of the development of the characters within the story. During the story of Harry Potter, their books and movies give us an idea of how the characters were before and at the beginning of their adventure. Then, as the plot develops, they develop and grow with it. At the end of the main story, the characters are completely different than how they were before. Also, books and theater plays, other media, also represent how they are after the story. Also, a movie that will be released this December, Magic Creatures and Where to Find Them, tells the story of how Hogwarts was created and why the creatures that appear in Harry Potter are there and are the way they are. The Office, on the other side, is also a good example of character development through the 9 seasons of the show, the creation of new characters, and the death of others. The office is also visible in other platforms that tell background stories of each character. Finally, there are also rumors that a new movie may be coming up for next summer.

Transmedia Storytelling

Transmedia storytelling is broadly defined by the author of this article as the telling of a story by using a combination of different medias, all related to each other to a certain extent. Transmedia uses multiple platforms with the goal of telling a single unified story. Stories in each medium can either be a segment of a story that connects with other media to tell the full story, or a stand alone story. During the reading, the author distinguishes two types of transmedia storytelling; west coast and east coast. For the author, east coast is more related with independent movies, theater, or books; while west coast is considered the Hollywood and big franchises word. Within each group he also gives some examples.

Transmedia is a concept that most people, included myself, are not related to hear on a daily basis. But, the definition of such concept is something that definitely sounds more familiar to me as an individual, and probably to most people that have heard of it. Good examples of transmedia storytelling are stories that we see and hear daily like Entourage, or books and movies like Star Wars.

Entourage is a world known story that combines multiple platforms as TV shows and a movie. In this scenario, the stories told in both platforms are stand alone stories; but, when the platforms are combined the story interrelates. On the other side, Star Wars is a combination of books and movies that are segmented but connected together with the purpose of creating a complete story. Both the books and the movies are based upon the same content. These are both examples of West coast transmedia storytelling. Good examples of East coast transmedia storytelling would be Bear 71 or 3 Weeks in May, both examples of small budget interactive stories that combine blogs, websites, and videos all available for the public.

Vimeo

Vimeo is considered a video-sharing website in which people are allow to update videos, making them availiable to the rest of the world, share them, and rate them by adding comments. This website was created in 2004 by Jack Lodwick and Zach Klein and was the first website that exclusively used high definition videos. One of the biggest differences between this platform and YouTube is the type of users that consume them and the type of people that upload the videos. Youtube is a platform used by anyone in the world in which everyone updates videos no matter what the content or intention is. On the other side, Vimeo is a webpage meant for people who want to upload professional videos and, in a certain way, become important in the video editing and producing world.

I personally think Vimeo is a really helpfull platform that gives people a chance to  become 'professionals'; and, for a couple of minutes, reach some type of fame that would be impossible for them to enjoy otherwise.

The reason why I think this is because Vimeo brings an opportunity that YouTube won't ever bring to the table. YouTube is mainly used by amateurs whose main reason to use it is having a good time and enjoy any 'absurd' video that makes them laugh. On the other side, Vimeo is mainly used by professionals, which give its users the opportunity to receive a critical analysis and constructive critique of their videos and performance. Also, if the video is considered a quality video, users can have the opportubity to join the professional world by being scouted by a company or a sponsor that can offer them contract or a project.

Black Mirrors: The entire history

In the third episode of the British TV show Black Mirrors, the director brings us to an early future scenario. In this environment technology has a really important role in people's life. A chip called "grain" is installed in their skin and allows them to reproduce past memories at any desired time with the simple click of a button. In this episode, the main character, Liam, leaves a interview from a possible future job and he is not happy about how it went. During the ride back, he decides to go over his interview and analyze every single aspect of it. Once he arrives to his destination, he joins dinner with his wife and a couple of friends at a friend's house.In order to remember some of the names of the people at the house, he decides to go over his memories with them to learn their names. Once he arrives he tells his wife and the people at dinner that his meeting didn't go as well as he though. People ask him to reproduce his memory on the big screen so they can talk about it and exchange perspectives, he refuses to do it because he doesn't want them to see it. During dinner, a discussion about the chip is brought up. Everyone around the table has one except a girl who decided to take it off her skin. Most people agreed that the "grain" is a great advantage and it is really helpful; but, this one girl argues that she would rather have her own memories in her head, than rely in that chip to reproduce them. During the rest of the TV show, Liam uses the chip to try to learn more about his wife's relationship with one of the people that were at the house. After going thru memories and memories of him, his wife, and the other guy ( by forcing them to show him the memories), he finds out that his wife has been cheating on him during their marriage, and that the kid they had together wasn't actually his. The episode ends with Liam deciding to eliminate the chip out of his body forever.

This episode brought us to a fiction world not too far away from the reality that we live nowadays. Technology has become such an important part of our lives that, to a certain point, it is taking full control over us.

As Liam and the rest of the characters experienced during the episode, their lives were exposed to the rest of the world taking away from them any type of privacy or intimacy desired. Because the "grain" was attached to their lives, they were fully dependent on it for whatever they wanted to do. Memory wasn't an important skill anymore. Cheating or lying wasn't an option because everyone would be able to find out the truth at some point. Memories would be recorded forever and it was up to the character to reproduce them or not. This situations are still far from what we see in our day a day lives; but, there are also a lot of common points and similarities between both situations. Nowadays technologies and apps like text messages or Facebook bring us to the same spectrum as the chip does with the characters of the episode. Text messages controls our communication in so many different levels, giving us the option to save and replicate messages for as much time as we want. They also make our memory useless in some case because with text messages you have now the capacity to retain information that doesn't need to be in your head anymore. Finally, apps like Facebook have the same impact in our lives. A timeline of pictures, posts, and events is saved there for the rest of our lives. Privacy and intimacy become useless because of the social and cultural impact of Facebook, people can know what we are doing or what are we up to at any given time. In other words, technology has always been an important part of our lives; but, in the past years, the situation has become extreme. We are at a point in our lives that technology has taken power over us and over some of our skills that distinguish us as humans, skills like memory or privacy. If this situation keeps getting worse and worse, in a couple of years we also will be talking about "grains" and repruction of our memories.

Nancy Baym: "Making new media make sense"

The second chapter of the book "Personal Connections in the Digital Age" has as a main topic new media and the impact it has in our lives. Nancy Baym drives to the conclusion that new media has such an impact in our lives that it is starting to take control over us, mainly because we don't know how to properly use it. The author of the book talks about this technology from a social point of view, trying to understand what it brings to our society from a cultural and historical perspective. Also, she makes reference to how new technologies, new media, affect us in a personal way. Finally, she states, indirectly, that these new technologies are replacing what we know as personal relationships, or face-to face as she refers to, instead of being an addition to it.

From a personal point of view, I fully agree with Nancy Baym and her perspective on new technologies and how they affect us on our day a day basis. New media is making us more independent from each other, separating us from the rest of the world, especially with people that we used to spend most of the time with. 

In order to back up this statement I want to use examples text messages and Snapchat. First, text messages have grown to limits that might seem impossible in the last couple of years. Nowadays, text messages are such an important level in our lives that we wouldn't be able to survive without them. Text messages aren't only good to communicate daily messages and share information, they are also really important nowadays in order to communicate important information. In other words, information that a decade ago would only be given face-to-face. For example,being in the same building and asking someone what their plans and if he wants to hang out, nowadays you can do it with a simple click on your phone. Text messages have changed our lives, making it much easier in some ways, but also converting us in 'machines' that we weren't suppose to be. On the other side, Snapchat has also changed us in a drastic way. People are nowadays more focus on showing themselves to other people, than actually focus on their actions and activities. What in the past would be a great moment hanging out with friends and having a good time, nowadays is a perfect scenario to be on our phones taking pictures of a moment that could be but never will be because of our addiction to our gadgets.

The Victorian Internet

During chapters 8 and 9 of the book The Victorian Internet the author talks broadly about the telegraph and specifically about some stories or anecdotes related to it. In chapter 8, the author focuses on the story of love and telegraph. While most times we hear that telegraph was used mostly for spies and war, love was also an important and interesting piece of it. The author talks about two specific stories related to love and telegraph. The first story talks about how the telegraph, and the operators, were witnesses and fully participants of a wedding happening between a girl in New York and guy in Boston via telegraph. The other story, showing the down side of it, talks about telegraph stations built in the middle of the frontier between Scotland and England, preventing, unintentionally,  runaway couples for marry because of the marriage of declaration differences between both countries. During this chapter the author also makes references to the telegraph operators and how important they were in making this revolution possible. There were, as in any other job, different levels of operators. The really good ones, called "bonus men", would be in main telegraph offices receiving and sending an incredible amount of messages per day. Other operators, with less skills, would be established in rural areas with few or none messages per day. Women were also an important part of telegraph operators. They were known as "admirable manipulators of instruments," and their skills and soft hands were really useful in the offices. The author also refers to Thomas Edison as the fastest operator and a person who always would be trying to find ways to make communication faster. In chapter 9, the author focuses more on how telegraph make people's life easier and was an improvement to what people had seen until that date. Before telegraph, there were a lot of problems in communication. As an example, newspapers could only report local news, and international news would only be reported weeks or months later because of how slow communication was. Telegraph changed life for communication, news, sales, wars... And people were now forced to instant reaction.

As we can see in the book The Victorian Internet, telegraph had a drastic impact in our life. Telegraph was the concept, the word that was used to talk about this revolution; but, the real machines, what made this revolution possible, were the operators. We, humans, were the machines; and, to a certain point, still are nowadays. We are the machines who make improvements in technology possible.

In other words, the telegraph was an invention designed and created by us, as we do nowadays with new Iphones, Laptops, Tablets.... So, aren't we the machines then? we create them and we make the possibility of faster communication become a reality. Our DNA are in those machines, we are the parents of technology. In the case of telegraph, this definition is even more obvious. Telegraphs are just the device in which you send a combination of 'beeps', a code, which doesn't make any sense in our heads. That combination of beeps is sent to to the telegraph operators, the real medium, who transform those beeps into an understandable human message, which is sent to us again later. We are the medium, we are the operators of the telegraph who make possible the communication between point A and point B. I like how the author of this books spends a good amount of her time talking about the operators and what they used to do in their day a day, their routine, and what the differences where between the good and the bad operators. By reading this chapters I understood that the author of the book also thought that the key to the success of the telegraph wasn't the device itself, but the people behind it making sure the message was transformed and delivered.

Personal Connections in the Digital Age

Nacy K. Baym is the author of the book Personal Connections in the Digital Age. In the first chapter of this book, the author talks about social media and how nowadays there are more ways to interact with people than ever. Baym strongly thinks that people react in two different ways to new media. Some people see new media as a new opportunity to interact and connect with people, and also a way to build new relations. On the other side, other people see new technology as a threat to their privacy and freedom, seeing it as something not helpful at all. Baym states that new technologies give us the opportunity to interact with people without having to be there in person, something that would be impossible to think about a couple of decades ago. This situation creates a lot of questions and problems. As an example, Baym talks about a couple eating dinner in which one of the people of the couple is constantly on his/her phone. She/He is still there physically, but where is she/he actually mentally? The author also makes references to the privacy and freedom that we loose by using most of the media we use nowadays. Finally, she states that there are seven key concepts to differentiate digital media and how each should be used. This seven concepts are: interactivity, temporal structure, social cues, storage, replicability, size of audience or reach, and mobility. In order to help understanding this seven concepts in a better way, the author uses the internet and mobile phone as examples.

At the end of the chapter Baym asks the readers a question, which later she will also try to answer: who uses social media? The answer, from my point of view, is everyone. Everyone nowadays is aware of social media and uses it to a certain extension.

In order to back up this statement I can use examples by generations. It is obvious that the new generation, up to 25, uses social media almost every day, seven days a week. Technology and social media are involved in our day a day life. Whether you are doing homework for class, seeking information, or as a form of entertainment in our free time. Adults are also nowadays used to social media. A new world of opportunities has been opened in the last decade in terms of work in social media. People now use social media to find jobs, hire new people, create and introduce new companies to the world. Adults are involved in social media to an extend that in some cases their lives are the way they are because of it. Finally, older people are nowadays also exposed to social media. In their case social media is new and something they haven't use since they were born, so their level of comfort or attachment to it is not as extensive as for other generations. Older people are using TV as a source of communication to be updated of what is going on in the world, which makes it a social media. Also, most people nowadays have a smartphone, no matter if they know or don't know how to use it. A mobile phone is a form of social media that allows us to communicate with other people instantaneously. Finally, email is also a tool that most people have, no matter the age. Although email doesn't allow an instantaneous communication , it connect us with other people and is considered a form of social media.

The Question Concerning Technology

The German philosopher Martin Heidegger is the author of the article The Question Concerning Technology. In this article he talks about human beings and the relation they have with technology, he is also concerned about what type of behaviors technology causes on us. With technology as the main point of the article, he proclaims two definitions of the word at the beginning of it. He argues that "technology is a mean to an end," and also that it is considered a human activity. Heidegger promotes that this two definitions are attached to each other.

In my opinion, this two definitions explain really well the attitude that Heidegger has towards technology. By saying that technology is a mean to an end I think he tries to emphasize the fact that we are always trying to go further and further with technology, exploring things that were impossible to even think about a decade ago, trying to reach a limit that also keeps getting further because of the unlimited opportunities we have. It is an end that we are trying to reach by creating all this technologies, but that we will never be able to accomplish. This definition makes even more sense when it is combined with the other one: technology is a human activity. We create technology and work to improve it. It is attached to us because it has our DNA, is part of us, we are the 'parents' of technology. These two definitions also go along with the point he makes about he being worried about us going too far with it and how that can end up affecting us to a point we loose control over it.

Finally, in order to explain in a better way what Heidegger is trying to display in his article, we can use cars and Facebook as examples of technologies. Cars could be considered a positive example of what Heidegger is trying to say because they are helping us connect with other people easier and faster. We are trying to go beyond the limits trying to reach perfection that would make them and us safer. On the other side, a negative example could be Facebook, which started with the same purpose as cars, trying to connect people faster; but, little by little, has been taking control over our life (and still does) making us more insecure and taking privacy away from us.

Black Mirrors

Black Mirrors is a British TV show focused on a science-fiction argument. The show is directed by Charlie Brooker and was created in 2011. Each episode has a length of 40 to 70 minutes. This TV Show is a great representation of the power of media in our day a day life. Technology and media are what drive this show and makes it different from many others.

During the 1st episode of the season, a group of 'terrorists' kidnap the princess of England and send YouTube video directed to the Prime Minister in which the princess explains what he has to do in order to break her free. The task for the Prime Minister is to have live sex with a pig on TV. The situation just described already shows us how media interferes in our life and how much the society has changed over the years. Terrorists now send videos via public networks so everyone can see them and feel insecure; also, people now look forward to public humiliation of other people. The video goes viral within the first minutes of being posted on YouTube, allowing people to copy it or download it; making the government's attempt to delete it impossible. Again, we have an example of how media impacts people's life,  taken control over their life. The video got viral in a time lapse of 10 minutes, which also explains how impossible is to delete something from the media once it is already there. After the video gets viral, TV channels are trying to be the first ones to publish the video on the News; while the government is trying to stop them from doing that. This is a great example of competition between channels and the manipulation that sometimes can be shown in the media, in this case the government trying to protect the Prime Minister image while the entire population was wondering why the TV Channels weren't talking about it. The video at this point is posted in every media, which also creates a lot of different reactions, comments, and opinions among people. This situation affects the Prime Minister and his family, being exposed to any type of comments. Finally,, technology also affects the back up plan of the government if they are not able to find the princess before the video has to be send. Their back up plan is to create a fake video  while using Photoshop, Illustrator, or any other type of program made to manipulate images. This back up plan would be a big relief for the Prime Minister, who wouldn't have to actually do the task he was asked to do.

It is really difficult to know what the actors could have done differently in order change the outcome of the show. To be honest, the situation is already difficult enough by itself to be able to radically change its outcome. One of the things that they could have done differently would be to try to delete the video from YouTube earlier. The problem of the situation starts with the fact the video is going viral. In order to stop that they should have deleted that video sooner than they did. Other way to change the outcome would be to convince the TV channels not to use the video in the news until they are able to gather more information and try to find the terrorists without having to also deal with media, society... One last thing characters could have done differently is to try to use media as a tool to find the terrorists. Media connects everyone of us to each other and by using media we can't hide from the world. There are many ways to track down someone because of his or her use of media. I think they could have done a much better job by using media as a tool.

Finally, this TV show brings us a really dystopian world and society. In an utopian society the princess wouldn't be kidnapped and the terrorists wouldn't use media as a tool to humiliate the Prime Minister. Also, citizens of England wouldn't have made that video viral so the government could have more time to just worry about finding the terrorists instead of also worrying about dealing with the media and the society. After all, society has the tools to make something a big deal or not. In an utopian perspective, every citizen would understand that and wouldn't help the terrorists by making that video be everywhere in the world.

Marshall McCluhan: " The Medium is the Message"

In the first chapter of the book "Understanding Media: The Extension of Man" Marshall McCluhan refers mainly to the concept of the medium. From his point of view, everything that makes us advance and impacts our life is considered a medium. Besides the main sources of media like radio, TV, newspapers... things like airplanes or electric light are considered a medium too because they control the form of human association and actions, they are intermediaries. In other words, McCluhan thinks that all technologies have a message that is determined by the impact they have in our society. We are moved by those innovations and we advance socially and politically to new levels because of them.

After reading the first chapter of McClahun's book the idea that came to my mind is that a medium doesn't need to have a content in order to be labeled as such, but it has to cause an impact or have an effect within the society. This impact is considered the message that the medium is sending to the world.

This statement is present in every paragraph of the book when the author tries to warn us about how most people do not see many media as such because of their lack of "content"; but, as he uses as an example, the light does actually bring a message because it communicates something to people around it, such as the TV does. The impact that an airplane has in humans in terms of time and space makes it too a communication medium, as the newspaper can be. In other words, the message doesn't rely on the content, instead it relays on the effect it has.