I completely agree with Jay Rosen’s blog and how the once audience now has so many different powers of media at their hands. The media giants no longer have the power of putting out media that people are forced to settle on. The horizontal citizen-to-citizen transfer of media described in the blog is much more effective because it allows for a flow of subjective comments that lead to a widespread of factual opinions instead of the conventional objective reporting that the audience is used to. People now have the ability to relate to other bloggers about their opinions of the controversial media. In fact, there have been many instances where people completely disagree with the media’s projection of certain events and create their own reports of the stories.

A perfect example of this change in control is when Baruch students protested last Fall about the tuition increases. They used public demonstrations to educate New Yorkers about what was going on in the CUNY system and there were videos being uploaded everyday of students giving their opinions of tuition increases.

While reading this blog I couldn’t help but to disagree and think that Rosen was wrong and how the audience would always exist. The reason I felt this way is because people will always listen to the radio, watch breaking news on TV, and follow other sources of mass media because individuals don’t have access to the same information that media giants do. Then towards the end of the blog, Rosen made a connection to what I was thinking about and how people will always use mass media. He ended this connection by saying something that I believe sums up his entire argument. Rosen’s comment was, “But were not on your clock anymore.” This statement shows that people want the media to realize that they are not the only source of information, and as a result, the information they’re putting out there better be good.

I created this meme, or an attempt on creating a meme, using a character from one of my favorite movies. I was trying to think of the most random ideas for my meme and this is what I came up with. My favorite part of this process was researching other memes to get ideas of what type of text has to be used. People come up with very creative ideas and this is my attempt at doing the same.

To create this meme, I wanted to use a picture that was completely random. I thought of the movie Weekend at Bernie’s and started looking through google images trying to find a goo picture of Bernie. Then, I uploaded the picture I found into the meme generator website  that Professor Gershovich posted in the class blog. After cutting out the edges of the picture, I used a quote from the movie for the caption of the meme.

Shirky makes arguments that the majority of America can relate to. What I realized after his reading of cognitive surplus is how technology has changed over the years, and as a result, how people have changed too. Years ago, when technology was not that interesting and advanced, families would rather go for a day trip to a park or the beach. Instead, many families today consider their family time as gathering and watching TV shows and being a “couch potato.”

I personally agree with Shirky’s connection of gin and television. When I was younger, my entire day consisted of beings outside and staying active. However, when all the new improvements to internet, gaming systems, and TV came about, it was the end of my active lifestyle. Now I spend way too much time on the Internet and watching TV. In my opinion, it is quite sad how powerful the TV and the internet can be and how it takes people away from the more basic enjoyments of being productive outdoors. What will it be like 10 years from now?