Abby Holanda: Media Law & Literacy

From the late 1990’s through the early 2000s, one of the most popular forms of technology was the MP3 player. People were able to walk around while listening to music, which seemed unheard of during the era of the CD player. However in 2000, Steve Jobs, founder of Apple, wanted to create a better version of an MP3 player.  Head of the hardware department of Apple was Jon Rubinstein and it was his job to create it. After a few weeks, he said that technology was not advanced enough to create such a device. The product would either be too bulky, the battery would be bad, or it would have limited memory. Fortunately, Rubinstein takes yearly trips to Toshiba, Tokyo which is one of Apple’s hardware suppliers. There, they showed him their new prototype for a 1.8-inch hard drive. With the new technology, Rubinstein recruited engineer Tony Fadell to work alongside him on the hardware. Together they created the first iPod which launched in 2001. The iPod held 1,000 song...

Throughout the history of the United States, during every war there have been groups that have protested. They believed in an anti-war movement. One of the most well- known examples of this is during the 60s. The United States was going to war with Vietnam and over 500,000 people marched through Washington D.C., making it the largest political rally in the country’s history.  Protesting violence not only happened in the past, but it happens currently. Most times the news does not report much about anti-war protestors because they are occupied with stating all of the facts about the war itself. Finding anti-war protestors takes some online digging. The first website I came across is a project from a larger foundation called Randolph Bourne Institute. The people who post on this website all have libertarian political viewpoints and the articles all relate to U.S. foreign policies. The other website is from a nonprofit organization, the American ...

In the fall of 2019, Google was under investigation for its dominance on the internet and its “potential monopolistic behavior”. The main focus of the investigation is to see if Google broke any laws gaining rule in the advertising industry. The investigation is being done by fifty state attorney generals and is led by Texas. Antitrust regulators are predicting that Google might have to create a spin off search as a separate company.  Google has become a universal name, and anybody who uses the internet knows what Google is. According to eMarketer estimates, Google controls 31% of global digital ad dollars, which surprisingly beats Facebook. Also, 9 out of 10 searches are conducted through Google, so it makes sense that Google is so well-known. Alphabet, the parent company of Google, has an income of $31 billion, revenue of $137 billion, and had a market value over $820 billion last year. The director of privacy at Stanford’s Center for Internet and...

The Supreme Court was created as part of the United States Constitution in 1789. President George Washington’s signing of the Judiciary Act of 1789 allowed for the formation of the Supreme Court made up of six justices; requiring each to serve until retirement or death. The justices are chosen by the President and accepted or denied by the Senate. There have been over 100 justices that have served an average of 16 years each. However, becoming a justice is not easy. When a new justice is instated, the existing members believe that it takes about 3-5 years to get accustomed to the duties of the position.   The Supreme Court building in Washington D.C. has had a statue of the fourth chief justice, John Marshall, since 1884. He worked as chief from 1801-1835 and during his time as a justice, he made a significant impact on the court. With him on the court, the court gained lots of respect from the public. John Marshall, fourth Supreme Court Chief Justice  ...