VCR- Impact and History

 The VCR or "Video Cassette Recording" was invented in 1970 by Charles Paulson Ginsburg, who is also known as the "father of cassette recording".While it was invented in 1970 it was not on the shelves until 1972 and did not gain popularity until the 1980s. From 1985 to 1990 the number of households that had VCRs jumped from 14% to 66% and then peaked in 2005 where an estimated 90% of households had a VCR. Originally VCRs were very expensive and could cost anywhere from $1000-$1,400, but then dropped in the 1980s for about $200-$400. A VCR in 1987 adjusted to inflation prices today was about $2,434.76.

However, this new invention had both ups and downs to it becoming so normalized. For example, media production companies did not enjoy VCRs because it allowed for piracy to become more accessible to the public. You could record thing on your TV and sell it and make a profit, while giving none to the studio that originally produced it. 

Sources:

            Overly, Steven. “The VCR Is Officially Dead. Yes, It Was Still Alive.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 5 Dec. 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/innovations/wp/2016/07/22/rip-to-the-vcr/. 

Wallace, Dillon. “How Much Did a VCR Cost in 1980?” Kodak Digitizing, Kodak Digitizing, 26 Nov. 2021, https://kodakdigitizing.com/blogs/news/how-much-did-a-vcr-cost-in-1980. 

“Charles Ginsburg.” Lemelson, https://lemelson.mit.edu/resources/charles-ginsburg. 

SCOTUS

 

The Supreme Court of the United States or "SCOTUS" is the highest federal court in the United States established in 17989 in Article 3 of the Constitution. The US Supreme Court has "ultimate jurisdiction" in court, meaning that they have the ultimate say in the outcome of the cases presented to them. With this source of power that truly matters this has created a heirachry in the three branches of government, with the Supreme Court being on top.  However, the Supreme Court is made of a diverse set of people making arguments from multiple political perspectives to attempt to make an educated and informed conclusion to very important decisions, at least its supposed to be. The reason for the "diversity" in the Supreme Court is because presidents nominate justices and they are supposed to remain in place until they either die or retire. This insures that multiple political parties voices are heard and insure that the president does not step out of line.

Internet privacy

 In todays day and age, you basically have to live under a rock in order to think that your internet privacy is your own. From the random robots that follow your Instagram, to using your credit card on a trusted website, to even just walking down the street, our "right to privacy" is becoming nonexistent. Just by signing up for Facebook you give away your face, your words, and your instructs. The craziest thing about this, is that it is exactly what you sign up for when you sign the terms and policies that you more than likely did not read before you checked this box. Facebook and other social media platforms aren't the only culprit here though. 

In the state of Tennessee it is known as a "one party consent state", meaning that only one party has to consent to being recorded, which can be the person recording you. If you wanted to record someone without their consent all you have to do is turn the camera to yourself (the person recoding) or another party that has consented to even just being in the background of this video or picture and the actual victim being recorded now has no power over the video or picture and the person who recorded and thus "consented" can do whatever they want with the product. This is a complete invasion of privacy with people being able to film people in any context and have full rights to it and the party being filmed can do nothing about it.

My top sources of information

 Trying to figure out where to get your news can be very hard. With there being so many different platforms with different points of view, it can be very overwhelming. Even for the non-political person, having all of these options can still be a very stressful due to the fact that there are just so many options. These are the places that I have found work best for me personally. Of course I still fact check these news sites no matter what, but by fact check I reeky mean I type into google the story that I found interesting to see if there if anything that contradicts what I saw originally such as recipes, statistics and witnesses. 

Tiktok 

Tiktok might sound like a strange place to get news, but some accounts I have found to be very informative and supringly truthful. One account that I have found is called @bikinibottomnews. This account takes the news castor fish from the kids show Sponge Bob Squarepants and created a Tiktok account where he tells you what is going on in the world in a very non biased way, and people also have the ability to discuss this news in the comments and put their ideas and extra facts in the comment section. Two other accounts I have found to not spread fake news are accounts called @goodmorningbadnews and @goodmorninggoodnews.  

ESPN 

ESPN is probably one of the most used sports news outlets, at least in America. You can get accurate scores of a game, player stories, and accurate and up to date stats on all of the players. ESPN has many journalists and sportscasters that have a lot of knowledge about the game. For me in particular I rely on ESPN to give me regular and accurate updates on a game that I cannot sit-down and watch myself and be consistent.

www.espn.com 

Instagram 

Instagram has been an interesting way of getting news. I usually see different news stories that people repost about current events that I can then further investigate the news and stories that I have seen. Obviously I have to take Instagram news with a grain of salt but it has broadened my horizons to different types of news.

Commercial Appeal 

The Commercial Appeal is my local news source from Memphis, Tennessee and that is where I can get news on my local sports teams, high school sports, restaurants, and what is going around Memphis.