Abigail Berman

Category: Digital Media Literacy 2

Blog posts made for Digital Media Literacy 2

Reddit Blackout: Who owns our discussions?

I am relatively new to using Reddit. Before I had an actual account, I still sought out Reddit threads because I thought that its users had valuable information that I couldn’t get at other places. As someone who does various fiber arts crafts, I found Reddit to be a wealth of information, with many users explaining different and new techniques. One of my biggest faults is that I’m incredibly impatient, therefore I’d much rather read a reddit comment about how to change colors while crocheting than watch a 3-minute-long video. However, you can only see so much without an actual account.

So, I bit the bullet and created an account, just before the Reddit Blackout of 2023. I was barely getting used to the site before the subreddits I had become so attached to went dark. As a new user, I had no idea of all the different apps that people were using to be able to access their favorite forums. Reddit had announced that third-party apps would have to pay for their data.

Why is this an issue?

It’s an issue because third-party apps are essential for many users to be able to access Reddit. Many disabled users turn to other apps to access the site because they offer better accessibility than Reddit’s app. If third-party apps must pay for data, it would potentially end them or require users to pay for those additional apps, which would severely limit access to disable folk.

Additionally, moderators use third-party apps to more easily monitor their subreddits. Moderators are volunteers, many of whom would not have the time or ability to moderate without the help of third-party apps. Without them, subreddits would not have the structure that we’ve grown accustomed to.

And thus, we have the blackout.

The blackout was an online form of protest, users opted out of posting online to prevent the company from generating income. Unfortunately, it wasn’t entirely successful. Many third-party developers were forced to shut down. Although Reddit did commit to not charging third-party developers for their accessibility tools.

However, this blackout asks the question: Who owns our conversation?

I follow subreddits such as r/crochet and r/embroidery, I love seeing all the creativity of the users, sharing the most creative and interesting pieces of art. However, I also follow many subreddits about books. Although this blog is centered around digital media literacy, I’m an English major at ASU with a passion for literature.

I frequently visit subreddits such as r/52book , r/suggestmeabook, and r/bookclub, but I also search through a many other literature based subreddits. I love discussing books and delving deep into hidden meanings and other things that could have been missed. I also visit them quite frequently when I’m reading a required text for a class. I frequently visit these sites to remind me things that happened in a book, or to find something that I may have missed. Being that my school is online, I find that these discussions simulate those I miss in the classroom.

But do these discussions belong to the users or the hosting website?

Theoretically, I don’t believe that anyone can “own” your discussions. Although they may be physical (in a sense that they are written down), they’re still our ideas and thoughts. Discussions are more than just written words, it’s a conversation you have with others. It’s an experience, and nobody can own your experience. Even if a website “owns” your discussions, they don’t own the experience you had and what you learned, nobody can take that away from us.

December 7, 2024
Using AI to Generate Text

ChatGPT and other AI tools are used all the time to generate text. The high school my fiance works at encourages teachers to utilize ChatGPT in lesson plans, yet students are constantly being forbidden from using AI text generation for assignments. As a student, I understand why. AI isn’t perfect and students need to be expressing what they’ve learned, which we cannot do if we upload an assignment to an AI program.

I decided to try it myself. I prompted ChatGPT to create a blog post for me. I asked it to explain why Trump chose his cabinet picks for his second administration. I was curious as to what kind of reasoning it would provide for some of his more outlandish choices. However, I was extremely disappointed.

ChatGPT framed it’s response as to what it would assume Trump would pick if he were to be elected again, and the nominees were based on prior cabinet members. But unfortunately, Trump did win and his cabinet picks are worse than we could have imagined. I put ChatGPT’s response into a Google Doc so I could edit it. The introduction and conclusion were very general and didn’t need much fixing other than the tense of some words. However, the bulk of the post required a decent amount of fixing. Aside from changing names and removing the secondary assumptions, some of the picks did not carry the same qualifications as what ChatGPT had suggested.

Using ChatGPT to generate a post made it painfully obvious that it was AI generated. It took more time and effort to correct the text than it would be to write my own, and less enjoyable. I would have much preferred to talk about the horrible picks such as Elon Musk, Dr. Oz, or Linda McMahon.

And let this serve as a reminder, to NEVER use AI to complete a school or professional assignment. ChatGPT was so incredibly wrong in it’s generated text that it would make it obviously false to anyone who read it. And even if you did decide to use and edit it, that is way too much work.I still may play around with AI and see what it can do, but my use will remain recreational. I have used ChatGPT in the past to summarize a text, but after this experiment I will not be doing that again.

November 25, 2024
Editing Wikipedia

This week I worked on editing a Wikipedia page, which ended up being much more difficult than I had imagined, yet easier than I thought

I would assume that most people are familiar with Wikipedia. It’s touted as an unreliable source, yet I always find it to be amongst the top when searching for something online. And typically, these pages can be quite insightful, with a massive amount of information. I know I frequently turn to Wikipedia because it’s provides a comprehensive explanation about a topic. I’m more likely to look at a Wikipedia page to get a general understanding before doing some more research to get further detail.

When thinking about what page I’d like to edit, I had some difficulty but came up with some good ideas, or so I thought. My original idea was to add someone to my hometown’s notable people list. I went to highschool with Kariselle Snow, an influencer who has been on dating shows such as MTV’s Are You The One and Netflix’s Sexy Beast and Perfect Match. Additionally, she participated in the Miss America pageants and was a cheerleader for the Baltimore Ravens. However, it was difficult to find sources that weren’t online gossip mills about the shows. I was forced to look elsewhere. Rachel Harrison, who wrote books such as Cackle and Such Sharp Teeth went to highschool with my fiance. However, I was unable to find substantial proof that she actually went to school there. Unfortunately, I can’t cite personal yearbooks on Wikipedia.

I decided I need to think a bit smaller and broader. Finally, with some inspiration from my fiance, I stumbled upon a Wikipedia page that hosted a list of skateparks throughout the world. I finally found something I could add! Skateparks in the United States were categorized by state, and none were listed for my home state of New Jersey. Perfect!

I searched through NJGrind and GoSkate for a list of skateparks based on my location. There was a lot… Too many for me to feel comfortable with adding to this Wikipedia page. I enlisted my fiance’s assistance once again, as he is someone who regularly visits various skateparks around the state.

So, instead of adding 20+ different parks to Wikipedia, I added some that were important to the community. Or at least according to him. Once I finally knew what I wanted to add it was pretty easy. Using the visual editor I could clearly see what I was doing. I was just typing onto the page, adding hyperlinks and citations was really easy. And I had little difficulty finding sources, as most of these parks were recently renovated and featured in papers. And ones that I could not find sources for had pages dedicated to them through their municipality.

Now, Wikipedia has five parks listed on their list of skateparks in New Jersey!

Overall, editing a Wikipedia page was not as difficult as I ever though it would be. My experience in the processes makes me for confident in trusting the information provided on various pages. And although I will never use it to cite in an academic paper, I think it’s a great place to get a quick and comprehensive overview of a topic before diving into it. And next time I notice something missing from a Wikipedia page I won’t be afraid to add it in!

November 23, 2024
Media Literacy and Unions

I take a lot of pride in being able to go back to school at ASU, and I’m very thankful that my job at Starbucks provides me with this opportunity. My studies at ASU have made me more mindful of the media I consume and have taught me how to do better research.

However, I do not just work at Starbucks. My store recently unionized, and I was lucky enough to be selected as its union representative. This week, I will be involved in my first bargaining session as a delegate! It’s been a challenge adding this new workload on top of already working and going to school full-time, but I’m very excited to work with all the other delegates and fight for my partners!

In the process of unionizing, I noticed a lot of misinformation about unions from my partners and people who don’t even work at Starbucks. Unions play an essential role in the workplace. Aspects of media literacy also pertain to our daily lives. It’s important to be able to identify misinformation in the media and spread by word of mouth. Either way, misinformation should be faced with proper research.

Misinformation about unions is incredibly dangerous. Workers have the right to choose whether to unionize or not, and feeding them with misinformation can deprive them of the benefits they would gain. I have coworkers who are afraid they’re not going to get paid, either from union dues or because they think Starbucks would outright withhold their paycheck.

Media literacy is an important skill. Witnessing a workplace unionize has shown me how being media illiterate affects people in their daily lives.

Misinformation

When Starbucks stores first began to unionize, Starbucks committed numerous NLRA violations. These actions resulted in employees being fired, disciplined, and even withholding pay. With the help of the media, these violations became wild accusations on social media. I heard partners tell me that they didn’t want to unionize because we would stop getting paid. And although this is technically true, it’s been blown out of proportion. This misinformation is harmful to workers. I hear my coworkers complain constantly about our working conditions and pay. It upsets me to know that they are falling victim to misinformation that is deterring them from the union when it will fight for them and their wants and needs. We need to put an end to the spread of misinformation. If you read something online or a friend tells you something and you think, “Wow! That’s crazy!” take a second and do a simple search to double-check if that information is true.

Research

Unionizing takes work. Union busting is a challenge that all organizing workers face, regardless of their employer; this is not something that is unique to working at Starbucks. But the question stands: how do you organize workers without being blatantly obvious and putting your job in danger? How do you communicate effectively to a large group without it becoming workplace gossip? It’s hard to find information about what the union will do for workers, especially with Starbucks Workers United. Since this union is new and there hasn’t been a contract, there is little information online. No facts are being shared; they are simply goals they want to achieve. People lack media literacy skills concerning research. Even outside the union, we’ve all been asked questions that could have easily been googled. But it’s important to have this skill. People don’t do their own research to see if a union is something they want but then proceed to ask someone who feeds them with misinformation. It’s a dangerous cycle, both online and in person, and at or outside work.

Media literacy is an important asset that can impact our daily lives. Being able to identify misinformation or to do proper research can negatively affect us, as I’ve shown with unions. In today’s world, it’s important that we have a voice and fight for our rights, and learning how to be media literate is the first step!

Disclaimer: I am not speaking on behalf of SBWU nor am I promoting unions.

November 18, 2024
Can I use AI to create embroidery?

I have recently added embroidery to my repertoire of various fiber arts crafts. With this new skill, I have embroidered my name and some cute designs on my Starbucks aprons. I embroidered some foliage for the fall season and recently just finished some string lights on my red holiday apron. My next project will be to embroider some snowflakes! However, I’ve had a lot of difficulty finding a pattern that fits my vision, but this won’t stop me!

Instead of pouring through books and browsing Etsy, I decided to take matters into my own hands and create my own pattern! The first step was to do an image search of snowflakes to get some inspiration for the individual snowflakes. I want a variety of shapes and sizes, and I found some great resources!

This image I found on Vecteezy. It’s a great starting point! The snowflakes have great simple lines I can follow, and I can move the different snowflakes around to place them where I’d like them. Some of them are a little more detailed than I’d like, but I can always alter them!

But my search for inspiration continued! The free images I found online are great, however they will require a lot of manipulating to be able to use them. I’ll have to figure out sizing and replacement. And although these aren’t major issues, it’s a little more effort than I’d like to be putting into this project. As someone who works full time and takes a full load of classes, I don’t have a lot of free time! I’d like to make this process as easy as possible.

That takes me to my next source: AI! This is the first time I’ve ever used AI to produce an image. I did encounter a few difficulties along the way. I tried to be as specific as possible and found that DALL-E 3 did not want to help me when I mentioned Starbucks. And of course, AI can only do so much! Even with all the details I provided, I still wasn’t getting exactly what I wanted. In fact, the more I prompted it to alter the image the wonkier it became.

Then I decided to simplify my request. I asked for an image of simple snowflakes, and was provided with an image that more closely resembles the free images from Vecteezy. But, since I had previously asked for snowflakes that would be easy to embroider, it gave me snowflakes that were embroidered.

With all of these resources I’ve gathered, I think I’m prepared to get started on my project. It will definitely take some finessing, but there’s never a project that works up perfectly!

November 11, 2024