ML&L Final Blog Post: Relationships with Technology

 In today's Media Law and Literacy blog post, we will discuss our relationships with technology and how the previously mentioned technology can control us. 

What is our relationship with Technology?

Photo Credit (reviewed.com)

All in all, I personally believe that technology has a strong connection to our lives as a whole. Personally, I live on technology 365 days a year, 24/7. I use a Fitbit watch to track my sleep, workouts, and daily activity to monitor myself and make sure I am on the right track within my workouts and daily requirements to stay healthy and perform on the field as best as possible. While I am monitoring myself on my watch, I use my phone and laptop to stay up to date with my school work, family, work of multiple jobs as well as keeping in touch with friends and teammates.  Personally, I believe that technology and my time away from the screen are skewed because of school, but in regular times, I tend to try to steer clear of as much technology as possible and let my screen time come while I am on the grind at school. Sometimes, technology is no better than an addiction. It has its positives or negatives, but either way. It is apart of our society and how we communicate every day. 

How it connects to my Friends and Family + My Online Presence 

Photo Credit (facebook.com)

Technology relates to my friends and family in a positive and negative way.  The positive part of this is that both groups can stay in contact with me and keep in touch among the many activities people do in relation to technology. Negatively, having friends and family connected to technology could create "paper trail" and "bread crumbs" which could lead to secure documents as well as more familial contacts. Footprint wise, upon googling myself, I found multiple obituaries in my name along with my social media as well as my Linkedin (professional networking account). As one who is more of a scroller than a poster, I am confident I put off an important yet professional image. I show my affiliations as well as my current and previous employments on LinkedIn. An employer would see the same as I just described. 

Photo Credit (HPU Men’s Club Lacrosse/Roger Davis)

On social media, I do not post much. When I do, I make sure what I post is positive and celebrating something. An example of the former would be our Spring 2022 NCLL conference championship and National Elite 8 placement for lacrosse or a picture hanging out with my family. In fact, I could already tell you what my next two will be, my lacrosse senior day here on April 23rd, 2023 and walking across that stage on May 7th, 2023 at Roberts Lawn. One social media site I never post on is Twitter. There, I would consider myself as a serial scroller. Especially with the current climate on the application/social media service is pretty open for debate, especially with the new ownership of the company. On Twitter, I follow just about 150 people and have tweeted maybe 50 times. I use the site for most of my news from around the world and sports news, especially the NFL. 

EOTO Reaction #2: Total Information Awareness

 In today's Media Law and Literacy blog post, we will be reacting to another presentation conducted in December 8th's class meeting in the Qubein School of Communications. 

Major Factors

Photo Credit (Wikipedia/ US DOD)

The overall pieces of the Total Information (later Terrorist Information) created by the US Department of Defense. The program itself focused in the areas of Data Mining, a way in which to decipher data and pluck/pull out data of interest that could be flagged for dangerous use. A massive piece of this TIA program was the extreme interest in Predictive Policing, a way to stop terrorist acts and attacks. The TIA (Total Information Awareness program) was called and considered the "Manhattan Project for counter-terrorism services"

My Reaction

Photo Credit (US Department of Defense)

All in all, I enjoyed the presentation pieces of this course. In the second and final EOTO presentation of the semester. For todays reaction post, I am reacting to Tyler B's Total Information Awareness. It was a program that was created by the DOD, or Department of Defense. Originally created in 2003, the program lasted less than a year due to privacy concerns and their program funding was cut. The government also looked at discrimination, especially against the Arab community. As a society, one that typically tries to use their voice, if this was to happen today, I personally believe that there would be multiple large protests  and this program would last less time than what it did back in 2003, which was a total of about three months. 

EOTO on Policy: Sherman Antitrust Act and Media Consolidation

 In today's Media Law and Literacy blog post, we will be discussing the Sherman Antitrust Act as well as Media Consolidation.  

The Sherman Antitrust Act 

Photo Credit (US National Archives)

The Sherman Antitrust Act was a measure passed the United States congress to ban "Trusts." The act itself was passed under the Secretary of Treasury in the President Hayes administration on July 2, 1890. Trusts themselves are "arrangements by which stockholders in several companies transfer their shares to a single set of trustees. In exchange, the stockholders receive a certificate entitling them to a specified share of the consolidated earnings of the jointly managed companies. " (Archives.gov) The act itself allowed the government to dissolve trusts and charge those involved.  Those involved in trusts were subject to a one year sentence in jail as well as a 5,000 dollar fine. The original meaning of the act was designed to restore competition in all business markets but because of the loose wording of the  act itself. Five years after it was signed into law, the Supreme Court dismantled the act. More recently, the federal government used the Sherman Antitrust act against against then media giant, Microsoft. "The investigation aimed to determine whether Microsoft was trying to monopolize the personal computer market. The federal agency soon ended its investigation, only to be brought up against the company by the US Department of Justice in 1998. The charges brought against the company "involved sections of the Sherman Antitrust act, which included laws designed by governments in order to ensure fair competition in the market." (corporatefinanceinstitutue.com) All in all, Microsoft lost the case against the government, the judge presiding, the late and Honorable Thomas Penfield Jackson, "ruled that the company violated multiple sections of the Sherman Antitrust act."  This decision was landmark for competition in "big tech" as it paved the way for companies like Google and Apple. 

Media Consolidation

Photo Credit (WJLA/Wikipedia)

Media consolidation is the collection of ownership of news stations and channels that have been purchased by massive and monetarily well off corporations. For something that sounds so positive, especially if you are in a company that holds an apparent monopoly, "only about 20 percent of Americans have confidence in television and in newspapers." (billmoyers.com) Those who even view their news online have less trust than most in what they read from their preferable sources. A true issue of Media Consolidation is the creation of narrative's by the ownership companies as well as home/national headquarters of the news agency the local station is contracted by.  An example of the media consolidation and narrative making is the Sinclair broadcasting message regarding "fake news and social media" The ownership company made all of its contracted stations read the same statement at the beginning of a news hour in their "fight" against fake news. The compilation of the stations delivering Sinclair's message went viral on Twitter, a well known social media website/app. This was a honestly hilarious way to deliver a message when all the company had to do was release a statement and tell the news stations to mention it on the air and in online media, instead they embarrassed themselves. 

Privacy

 In today's Media Law and Literacy Blog Post, we will be discussing Privacy and how it relates to me, my family and friends along with what the government should be doing about these issues raised along with some ideas on how to defend ourselves for invasions of privacy. 

How do Privacy issues affect me, my family and friends?

Photo Credit (avast)

Privacy issues are universal. They could be physical, emotional, or most commonly and recent over some type of technology. Just like anyone, these privacy issues have affected me, my family and my friends as much as another person! In fact, just recently, as my friends and I were playing the just released Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, my neighbor, who lives 250-300 yards from me, was DDoS'd by a hacker on the game. DDoS is a way to remotely turn off all wifi and cut service to an entire home network. The reason why this occurred was because my neighbor was winning more games than the hacker, who got upset and took it out on my friend. My family has also been affect by these attacks, which seem to be at random, in relation to their email accounts. Their passwords and accounts were hacked and held for ransom, of course which was never paid. Attacks like the one my family suffered happen almost every second of every day in our country and around the world. 

What should the US Government be doing in relation to these issues + How do we defend ourselves?

Photo Credit (Fortune)

All in all and realistically, the government has very little control over what these issues of privacy mean to their civilians as well as themselves. In fact, The government itself has been accused of spying on its own people. This information was obtained by Edward Snowden, a dissident of the United States as well as former intelligence operative who worked for the CIA, NSA, as well as Booz Allen Hamilton. In June 2013, Snowden leaked thousands of classified documents which in the eyes of the government, violated the Espionage act of 1917.  Another question is how do users of technology protect themselves. There is no real answer to that question because users would have they would have to spend money to have some degree of "protection." If one was to spend money for protection, most people who need security use VPNs or secure servers that cannot be tracked. 

Living Age of AI

In Today's Media Law and Literacy Blog Post, we will be discussing the Living Age of AI and how it relates to Privacy, National Security and Online Security / Identity theft. 

What is AI?

Photo Credit (US State Department)

Artificial Intelligence is the gathering of information by machines in opposition to human and animals that have preceded the former. As defined by Oxford,  AI is "the theory and development of computer systems able to perform tasks that normally require human intelligence, such as visual perception, speech recognition, decision-making, and translation between languages." (Oxford, AI)  A few examples of AI are IBM's Watson,  Apple's Siri along with others. 

How does AI relate to Privacy and what are its Pros and Cons?

Photo Credit (Law.com)

AI is a major risk for consumers' privacy in relation to their security on their devices as well as their privacy in their homes and daily lives. As a an example, Google Chrome is advertised as one of the most secure enhanced browsing systems available, not to mention its "private" Incognito mode which rivals Safari (Apple) and Firefox. The one issue with Googles incognito mode is that while it says it is not collecting data and location data from searches, it secretly is. This has been caught and challenged by 40 American states for just near 400 million US dollars. The lawsuit challenged that the app and company at large tracked its users even they had turned location services off. Positively, AI allows users to easily assist searches as well as pieces of home technology (Amazon Alexa/Echo dot, Ring cameras, etc). But negatively,  users will not be aware when the AI and the persons who created the AI begin watching and recording the user's tendencies without their distinct permission.

How Does AI relate to National Security and Online Security + Identity Theft?

Artificial Intelligence relates to National Security in both positive and negative ways. Positively, our military structure and system are using AI to one day create fully autonomous ships, have facial recognition as well as create software which informs service members when items need replacement among others. Negatively, our biggest national competitors like China and Russia are using AI for defense purposes as well as ways to cyber attack other states. Defensively, the Ukraine is using AI, more specifically Javelin AI and DJI AI systems (drones)

In comparison, there are still many uncharted waters in relation to AI. Some of these pertinent questions pertain around the overall security of AI along with the systems that they support along with the possible theft of people identities and their personal information. This includes usernames, passwords, credit information and so much more. These items are free and accessible to  AI and that should be address sooner rather than later. 

Diffusions of Innovation

 In today's Media Law and Literacy Blog Post, we will be discussing the diffusions of innovation and its related theory. 

What is Diffusions of Innovation?

Media Law and Literacy Chart in Relation to DoI-(HPU/Smith)

According to Wikipedia and [Everett] Rogers, Diffusion of Innovations "is a theory that seeks to explain how, why, and at what rate new ideas and technology spread" (Rogers,Wiki). Rogers believes that the diffusion itself "is communicated over time among the participants in a social system." (Rogers,Wiki) Overall, he proposed that there are five main elements that influence the spread of a new idea; "the innovation itself, adopters, communication channels, time and a social system." 

How do the ideas spread; My opinion

Overall, ideas spread from person to person. It is kind of like playing the social and team building game telephone. In the game, main ideas are passed from the starting point to those all the way down the line of people all the way back to the start. By that time, the reaction and overall topic has been spread to many different people, socially. This allows for people to become early adopters of a new invention. This falls under the experimental and pioneer areas while moving into the early adopter. Once the early adopters begin to spread their opinions about the new technology, the critical mass and majority/late adopters begin to get involved and pump up the popularity and user friendly ability of a new technology. 

How this connects to my EOTO presentation

Photo Credit (en.wikipedia.org)

Facebook is a company that follows this chart almost to perfection. A few Harvard students created thefacebook.com which was originally meant for college students to have a community and discuss their experiences. This social media site went from the pioneers to early adopters, and jumped all the way to the critical mass in which made Facebook one of the most popular social media sites if not the most popular in a matter of 3-4 years. 

EOTO Presentation Rection

 In today's Media Law and Literacy blog post, we will be discussing the EOTO Communication Technology Timeline Presentations that took place on November 10th, 2022. 

Twitter in Connection to Technology Timeline

In the world of Communication and Technology, many different things have changed how we as people have communicated. From smoke signals to twitter, humans have always found a way to upgrade the ways that we communicate. 

Photo Credit (apps.microsoft.com)

Twitter has changed the way that many people, especially now, communicate. They communicate with one caveat, that being their messages and posts are limited to 280 characters (the previous number used to be 140 characters allowed but was upped to 280 in 2017). On twitter, a user can type out a message and include a picture/video or another attachment like a .gif or a poll for other users to vote on. Another piece of twitter is the "hashtag." Users use hashtags to put their tweets into categories within the service. As an example, if one was to say #Ravens within a tweet, another user can click on #Ravens and see all of the tweets users and news media organizations sent out regarding the hashtag. 

Another piece of twitter is the connection between Organizations and Users that follow them. As an example, the Buffalo Bills (an NFL team) have a massive social team which creates content daily for their fans as well as fans across the league. These fans take to Twitter to view and react to the posts which those previously mentioned engagements lead to more followers and more fans of the team. 

The Progressive Era

 In today's Media Law and Literacy blog post, we will dive deep into the inter-workings of the progressive era and discuss current events that are intertwined with the former. 

My Reaction

After exploring the websites directed, those being antiwar.com as well as The American Conservative, it became quite shocking on how censored and topic based large and prominent media is in our country and around the world. An example of this is within articles about the Ruso/Ukraine war (Special Military Operation in Russian terms), and our (not so) beloved American way of sticking our nose in every conflict.  This article describes distention in the ranks among the American National Security Council (NSC) within the topic of peace talks in the ongoing conflict. Current Chairman of the Joint chiefs of staff, Mark Milley is calling for peace talks while others, including National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and Secretary of State Antony Blinken do not align their ideals with talks as they majorly side with US President Biden and his policies toward the conflict.

Photo Credit (i24news.com)

While the pentagon, the military headquarters of the United States believes that winter could bring a "chance for a political settlement while [US senior military officials] believe Ukraine cannot achieve it's war aims. (Fun fact: these same officials predicted the country would fall in 72 hours, they were wrong, so take this with a grain of salt) The Ukrainian military still continues to defy the odds and win battles and pushes Russia back daily. Honestly, it seems as if the US, or the US official quoted in the article wants to throw away the good work of the nations warfighters just for Russia to regroup and hit Ukraine again under the guise of peace talks saying "Why not start talking about [peace talks] before you throw another 100,000 lives into the abyss?"

All in all, Antiwar readings and websites are so hard to discover because it is not what production and news companies want you to hear. It all goes back to the process of media, if there are more clicks and more viewers on a story or a newscast, those who view are far more likely to come back at a later time to watch other stories. In connection with this, companies like Sinclair broadcasting can spin a message that all of their contracted news stations have to discuss. (view the hyperlink for an example of the former.)

Extra/Added Piece: What Do I Believe and Where do I see the News from Ruso/Ukraine

Photo Credit: (youtube.com/speakthetruth) 

As a person highly interested in the conflict in Ukraine, I have steered away from typical news media sources for updates regarding the war/special military operation/whatever you want to call this conflict. Daily, I watch updates on YouTube from a former American special operations sniper who has sources on the ground in Ukraine and publishes true and unfiltered updates of what is going on in the conflict. Speak The Truth is hosted by Robert Terkla and within the show, he and his team show mapping of the ongoing conflict, he predicts what is going to take place over a 24-48-72 hour timeline, shows videos from the ground (all except videos with blood, gore, weapons etc, due to YouTube T.O.S.), leaked Russian soldier phone conversations with their loved ones, and what may be the most comical piece of the conflict, Russian state media clips where there are constant stories and topic being made up by the Russian media to act as if the Russian military is winning the conflict in a landslide, or once they realized they were losing handily, start preaching outlandish ways to get back in the driver seat of the conflict. Some of those ways being the use of Chemical weapons like Napalm, White phosphorus munitions and others with the most severe being a nuclear strike.  

Key Post: EOTO- Facebook

 In today's Media Law and Literacy key post, we are going to discuss the creation, history and impact of the social media company, Facebook. 

The History

The social media site Facebook (Originally called thefacebook.com) was created in 2004 by a group of Harvard University students who took their idea created in a dorm room to the largest and most popular social media website/application in the world. 

Photo Credit (en.wikipedia.org)

The original founders include Mark Zuckerburg, Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes. Facebook was once a webpage that was shut down by Harvard University administrators in 2003. At the same time thefacebook.com was a place where 250,000 students at 34 different universities came together and built an online community. At the end of the 2004 calendar year, Facebook had a community of users that totaled over 1 million.  A piece of facebook from the beginning of the company, is that all of the users of the website or application have to be transparent about their identity and users are not allowed to to have false profiles or false identities. A famous time where this rule was broken was the Manti Te'o fake girlfriend controversy which caused Te'o's draft selection to slip in the NFL draft.  Facebook's policy is that "transparency is necessary for forming personal relationships, sharing ideas and information and building up society as a whole. " (Britannica, 2022) The company's policy also promotes "peer-to-peer connectivity among Facebook users make it easier for businesses to connect their products with consumers. In 2006, Facebook opened its membership beyond students to anyone over the age of 13. Two years later, Facebook surpassed MySpace as the most visited social media application/website. Finally, after 8 years as a privately owned business, Zuckerburg and Facebook went public.  Initially raising $16 billion dollars but giving it a market value of $102.4 billion. Later, in 2021, Facebook announced it was changing its name to Meta Platforms in an attempt to sell users and consumers on virtual reality environments, also known as the Metaverse.

The Impact

Facebook is a company in which that is free to access and use. It has brought users together by "creating profiles, uploading photos, joining a preexisting group or starting a new group. " (Britannica, 2022) In addition to the previous functions, users can also can post messages on the Status board as well as the News feed which explains to users of their friends profile updates and posts. Another piece of this is the private messaging functions and the liking of posts which also appears, more commonly on almost every social media webpage/app in 2022. 

Photo Credit(en.wikipedia.org)

Another one of the major impacts that Facebook has had is the political movements that have taken place within its platform. An example is the 2008 US presidential election. Within the run up to that election, there were more than a thousand facebook groups to support of either democratic candidate, who happened to be Barrack Obama against the late and great John McCain. All the way until today, Facebook has also been working with third party companies to generate business while using Facebook as an advertising area. For a 2004 founded company, by 2009, Facebook's contracted third parties had earned an estimated $500 million in revenue. All in all, Facebook has been the biggest success in the technology and communications world by adding multiple dimensions for users to communicate, share, find new opportunities, and consume both information and products. 

Key Post: Values of Free Expression

In today's Media Law and Literacy Blog Key Post, we will be discussing the Eight Values of Free Expression. 

Which Resonates with Me most?

I personally believe that number eight, Protect Dissent, is the value that resonates with me most. All in all, Protect Dissent describes that the first amendment protects everyone's views, with popularity being a non factor. The first amendment also describes your right to disagree with the government, or whoever else you want to as well. According to protecting dissent, it is your patriotic duty to critique the government. 

Photo Credit (USAToday)

As an example of this, is the protests against Former President Donald J. Trump back in 2016. The protests came to a head when Portland police had to employ tear gas and flash-bang grenades. In a USA Today article, the news agency mentions five "big cities that had protests the same night that did not become violent while Portland Police sent a tweet describing the protest as it is happening. "Many in crowd trying to get anarchist groups to stop destroying property, anarchists refusing. Others encouraged to leave area." (Portland Police, 2016) These protests sent a message. One that said that a piece of our population and community of Americans was not happy with the election of Trump. Others were ecstatic to see a different kind of President, one that was not a politician, one that ran the country like a business. Even the New York times, one that was extremely critical of Trump, before, during and after his presidency, was somewhat positive on the topic of Trump. The article states that "it was a decisive demonstration of power by a largely overlooked coalition of mostly blue-collar, white and working class voters who felt that the promise of the United States had slipped their grasp amid decades of globalization and multiculturalism. " After accepting candidate Clinton's conciliation, Trump called for unity by saying "Now it's time for America to bind the wounds of division, It is time for us to come together as united people." (New York Times, 2016)

Which Values are Most Important?

Out of all of the eight values. I personally believe that Marketplace of Ideas, Check on Governmental Power and Promote innovation. To start off, Marketplace of ideas resonates with me because it allows the people to perceive what is true and what is not and it demonstrates First Amendment freedoms to a T.  

Photo Credit (Share.america.gov)

Another value that is important is the Check on Governmental Power. This value is important because the people have an opportunity to question and ultimately hold government accountable when it comes to the governments power.  A few good examples of this are the Watergate, Iran contra, and Clinton scandals in which the American people were upset about and demanded action which they received with a varying amount of success. Finally, the next important value is Promoting Innovation. In this value, a group within a community is more likely to come together, create and find more ways to be inclusive as well as promoting diversity and diversity of thought. 

What is Happening Today?

Overall, the value that is happening more today is Promoting Tolerance. One of the major issues within our country is the issue of free speech. 

Photo Credit (firstamendmentwatch.com)

People are using language that is defamatory to others every day and it goes un-checked because of the claim of the use of the First Amendment. The promoting tolerance piece of the first amendment fight is teaching us as Americans to be more tolerant in not only this aspect of life but the other aspects as well. While the freedom of speech may be somewhat counterintuitive, it teaches us how to learn the norms of acceptable conduct. 

History of SCOTUS

The Supreme Court is the highest level court in the United States. In today's blog post, we will discuss the overall history of SCOTUS and what is important about the high court. 

The History, Current Figures and Important Figures

Photo Credit (naimun.modelun.org/scotus)

The Supreme Court of the United States was founded in 1789 just years after the American Revolution broke out in 1776. Since the courts' inception, there has been a total of 116 court justices. The court itself is located just off the National Mall in the center of Washington, DC and serves as the judicial arm of the federal government. There is a total of nine justices headed up by a Chief Justice. Currently, the chief justice is John Roberts with associate judges of the likes of Clarence Thomas, Brett Kavanaugh and most recently appointed by Pres. Biden, Ketanji Brown Jackson. All in all, the Supreme Court is the most important and powerful court in the United States. They handle cases that have been appealed and sent all the way through the local jurisdiction courts, state courts and their respective appeal courts, maybe even some federal courts. If an appeal makes it all the way, the Supreme Court can choose to hear the case or not. Most times out of not, if there is a quality basis for appeal that made it all the way there, they take the case, most times, offering an objectified and solid decision and opinion. 

Surprising Information

One thing that had me surprised about the supreme court was the arrangement of how the judges sat while in the Courtroom. Being from the DC area, I always knew the Chief Justice sat in the middle of the group, what I did not know was the tradition of  alternating seats by seniority within the court. The senior associate justice sits to the right of the Chief justice, and the second senior is on his/her left and alternating from there on. 

        Photo Credit (www.supremecourt.gov)

Media Selection and Reaction 

One thing that took my interest from the media selection was (now former) Justice Stephen Breyer. His words on the humanity of the court surprised me. He described the justices acting on their conscience and making it clear that the public has no impact on the courts decisions they make. It was also striking how history involved the court is. This was a made clear by the Marbury vs Madison decision written by Justice Marshall.  John Marshall was a true leader back when he assumed the role of Chief Justice. In fact, it was so far back, the Supreme Court building haven't even been built yet. The court and its justices were working out of the freshly completed capitol building in Washington, DC. His work earned the respect of the then Congress and the President as the equal third branch of government. 200 years later, Justice Kennedy also described the wisdom and misfortune gained by the history of the decisions made within the court. Kennedy also described the ill-informed sentiment that the public has in connection with the actual work that is completed within the court. 

Photo Credit (harvardmagazine.com)

Top Five News/Information and Sources

 Introduction

Almost every person consumes some type of media every day. In many cases, people rely upon news websites and social media to gain an understanding on what is happening around the world which could have an effect on their daily lives. Listed below are my top five sources I gain information from on a daily basis.

Photo Credit (apps.microsoft.com)

Twitter is a web company which provides a platform for all who decide to participate with one caveat, users are limited to 280 characters within a post. In most cases, people would go to Twitter to find what is trending or find news sources from many media networks like NBC News, ABC News, BBC News and  countless others.  In addition, people may visit Twitter to find news about their favorite hobby or pastime. An example of this is the National Football League (NFL) News Media,  who always seem to battle to see whoever can post breaking news about the league the fastest. While there are many favorites among people who enjoy the league, the people among the top are Adam Schefter, Ian Rapoport, or Ari Meirov. 

Photo Credit (mobile.twitter.com)

Instagram is a web company along with being a subsidiary of Facebook, another web company. Users on Instagram are required to include a photo when making a post. In most cases, people go to Instagram to follow their friends in whatever they post in the moments in their lives. Many organizations and companies use Instagram to promote items as well as their employees or influencers being paid to promote their items. People also go to facebook for news regarding many industries including News media, fashion industry accounts like GQ, and more. All in all, Instagram is a great source for information that is requested by the user and recommendations made for the user by Instagram based off the user's browsing history and mutual accounts followed. 

Photo Credit (en.wikipedia.org)

Facebook is one of the original social media companies available to everyone in the world. As of 2022, it is still going strong as many of its original users are still active on the website and the mobile applications. It is also popular for Colleges and Universities to have pages for students in graduation class to connect with their current and future classmates. It's network also provides an opportunity for users to "like" and follow public pages which could involve news agencies and public pages for users to follow with no paywall. All major media networks like Fox, CNN, MSNBC and more. 

Photo credit (nbcwashington.com)

NBC 4 Washington is one of the nation's top local news stations. In addition to covering local news in the DC/Maryland/Virginia area, it also covers main stories from around the country to give viewers a better sense of what is happening outside their viewing area. They also cover the biggest sports stories from the day at the local, state, and national levels. They also cover the weather with one of the most trusted and liked meteorologists in the country, Doug Kammerer. NBC4 is also live, for free, with no sign on needed for anyone through their website. It allows for those who are less fortunate to watch the news and be informed of what is going on around them. 

Photo Credit (en.wikipedia.org)

Along with NBC4, ABC7 (WJLA-TV) is one of DC's top news broadcasts. They operate on Sinclair's broadcast networks so they feed off what is going on locally but also at the national level. They also work closely with ABC worldwide, especially ABC's World News Tonight. They regularly have discussions with host David Muir, who tells the story and provides a good teaser of the ladder for his show which follows. Like NBC4, ABC7 also does sports and weather which sometimes rival the coverage of the other local stations. What separates the two is the lesser coverage of the national aspect. ABC7 focuses more on the local side of broadcasting and brining the news to the viewers watching.