Blog Post #4: The Phonograph

  Phonographs: What are they?

 Speech serves as humanity's greatest asset maybe aside from opposable thumbs. Speech, gestures, sounds are all methods of communicating our thoughts in order to coordinate actions with others. There are some things that people may struggle to convey through conventional means of communication though. Many have found their outlets in the arts; music, dance, physical art. All serve as profound and sufficient means to tell a story. Music serves as one of the most powerful means of communication. A song can tell the hardest stories of one's life all the while showing the very real emotions behind the story. Music has served as one of the world's most beloved methodologies of subverted communication but was confined to technological shortcomings up until beloved American inventor Thomas Edison created the very first phonograph. Edison's vision was a product that could deliver music to every home in the world allowing those unable to go to live showcases to indulge in musical deliverance without having to play or leave to listen.

    The phonograph was/is a device that uses a needle on wax discs to reproduce a recorded sound. The original design utilized tin foil to create sound. While many know the phonograph was one of the first autonomous music delivery systems, it was an offshoot of other technologies that served as blueprints or inspirations. Devices like music boxes and ridged music turnstiles gave Edison hope to add on to devices previously made or at least incepted such as the paleophone or the phonautograph. One was a visual recording device with flawed calibrations that weren't actually perfected until this century whilst the other was strictly conceptual. There was no device that could both record and reproduce music other than humanity at the time. 

    The phonograph was and is something for America to be immensely proud of. Without the hardware Alexander Graham Bell's telephone concepts would be drastically different and the hardware near unrecognizable. Bell improved upon and altered the phonograph to create a device through his laboratory that would be able to have alternating wax discs allowing swift change from sounds and were also more durable than the heavily damageable foil sheets.

    The phonograph gave way for the evolution of musical performance. Artists were given more power than ever before to speak their truths in manners that could reach all corners of the American and soon global public. Music is a universal concept that is completely subjective. Whether or not an aspect of it is negative is completely up to the listener at that point in time. 

    Edison's idea was to bring a phonograph to every home in America to indulge the people in what he thought was entitled culture and shared experience. America in modern day may be able to say we made at least one founding father's dreams a reality with the existence of technologies that give the people these abilities through smartphones, computers, and all other streaming devices. All in all, the creation of the phonograph and its offshoots gave way for groups of people who have no idea the others exist to share in a conveyed emotion and truly communicate in a way that simple speech or actions could never do successfully. Below are some great articles about what the phonograph did for not only Americans but human civilization as a whole!

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/phonograph-changed-music-forever-180957677/

https://www.loc.gov/collections/edison-company-motion-pictures-and-sound-recordings/articles-and-essays/history-of-edison-sound-recordings/history-of-the-cylinder-phonograph/

Citations:

1.  "Article about Edison and the invention of the phonograph". Memory.loc.gov. Archived from the original on 2016-08-19. Retrieved 2022-06-15.

Blog Post #3

 When speaking on the eight values of free expression, two stand out to me as key principles for the continued success of freedom of speech in America. The ideas that humanity must promote tolerance and have the opportunity for individual self-fulfillment through speech stand firm in my mind as the most imperative as a forward thinking nation. 

Progress and change scare a lot of people and that's totally okay, no one is saying that everyone must accept every thought process at face value without discussion or disagreement. However, the option for tolerance exists for Americans to grow towards a stronger and firmer people, in that growth is how we as a nation are able to compete on the global mainstage. What allows America to stand apart from the rest of the world is our ability to discuss and grow from discussion openly, stagnating in that only promotes a gridlock of debacles. As it stands, the political landscape of America has begun shifting in a not so innovative way. Our leaders are in direct opposition at any given moment and our people are not much better. On one end of the spectrum, people are concerned with people's feelings and what is right or wrong. On the other, people do not respect freedom as something that exists with boundaries or rules. Without those rules and regulations, that freedom shifts into anarchy. The debate has gotten increasingly more tense as people have misconstrued tolerance with acceptance. Just because you do not agree with a thought process does not necessarily mean that you have to accept it, just let it exist without persecution.

Without that tolerance people are not on equal playing field. Imagine existing every day being told that you're wrong for your passive behaviors that you have held since your conception. Racism, religious persecution, homophobia, or ableism all exist and they're not going away tomorrow but it starts at home. People raising their children in a modern framework hold the power to begin the eradication of such hatreds but why don't they? Answer, free speech. People are all entitled to their beliefs and opinions regardless of what a societal medium may attempt to tell you. In America however, our nation is founded on freedom of expression as well. These two concepts are difficult to balance as they are inherently the same yet fundamentally dichotomous. Freedom of expression comes along with a physical and behavioral additive whereas speech is surface level being the act of speaking. 

The nation as a whole, is a beautiful melting pot but free speech is both the people's greatest tool and weapon. With speech laws, certain aspects are protected such as; one's capability to make money, the upholding of one's reputation in the public eye, and hate speech. In recent years with the development of cancel culture many people feel threatened but the central idea is try to be a halfway decent person. That said, its completely subjective. America is wading in dangerous waters. Where do we draw the line? On the left, many phrases and microagressions are now the ruination of people's reputations and on the other people want to be able to say genuinely offensive things. Policing speech is where fascism begins, controlling the news to reflect only positively of one side is dangerous. Limiting people's speech is dangerous. How can tolerance be executed without limitations? I will let you know as soon as we can come to a consensus. The era of information has brought about so many questions of how free speech can exist anymore. Cancel culture is both a way to allow freedom of expression but at the cost of a genuinely free speech. Comedy is dying and complaining is growing. Does this limit our society's ability to true freedom of expression? Maybe. Does the world really know how to make it work properly? Definitely not. Twitter has been around for less than two decades and has actually wrecked careers over things people didn't even think about prior. America is attempting to gain proper freedom of speech again with new limitations and that can either be seen in a positive or negative light but once again, it is completely subjective. Can there even be free speech anymore? If so, why do so many people feel so limited. We as a country will kind of just have to sit by until a general agreement can be made without Karens destroying your name on social medias. Below is the government definition of free speech in America. https://www.uscourts.gov/about-federal-courts/educational-resources/about-educational-outreach/activity-resources/what-does

 The Supreme Court

The Supreme Court stands firm as The United States' largest and most definitive legislative power. Washington decreed the first supreme court would consist of six justices and would hear the nation's greatest figurehead in what would become the American judicial branch. The court has since then been tasked with hearing extremely trying cases that would result in fundamental changes to the nation's framework. Today, the supreme court serves as the paramount legislative body capable of crafting or destroying judgments that singlehandedly direct the nation's direction in social, legislative, and economic matters. A few things that I found interesting that I had no idea about was that one, the first supreme court meeting was postponed due to transportation issues! Such modern problems root all the way back to the 18th century. Second, originally, the court was housed in the capitol building. While these are trivial observations, it is rather comical to reflect on the most powerful lawmaking body being seemingly treated as an after-thought back in the beginning stages of the nation's formation. The supreme court's judicial hearings are responsible for some of the most pertinent political issues of modern day. Whether that be Roe v. Wade, Brown v. Board of Education, or Obergefell v. Hodges which deal with abortion, integration in public schools, or same-sex marriage legalization respectively. I have a bit more of a firm respect for the body itself as it truly is the most important body within the three branches of American government. Their efforts have brought about some of the most progressive changes in American history and stand as what keeps America fair. While many will say America is not necessarily fair, they hear thousands of cases annually and do practice objective judgements in their hearings.

https://www.supremecourt.gov/

Top 5 News Sources

 Week 1 Blog #1: Top 5 News Sources

The news as we know it has begun to circle the drain so to speak as Americans are becoming far more weary of the ideologies of "fake news". Whether you are left or right leaning, it is fairly evident in most journalistic sources there exists a political bias. My generation is in a precarious position of being educated from a young age on discerning said bias many times even before we finish the article. Picking and choosing what to believe is not really how news should be interpreted. It is important to find the gist of the information and analyze it through multiple sources of many different positions to figure out what exactly is going on.

    Every morning I wake up and check my Bing homepage for any groundbreaking or earth-shattering news. While it does not show a very in depth look at the happenings of the global community, it is fairly comprehensive in its delivery of political, global, and entertainment news stories of the past 3 hours. If there is an event that I as an American, need to know it will show up there. For instance the conflicts in Ukraine were immediately published and gave me the push to begin a further in depth analysis of the situation through other sources. https://www.bing.com/

    After I look at literally the headlines on Bing, I typically gravitate towards closer analysis via the Washington Post, CNN, or MSN which are usually the top sources on the browser. From my understanding these are fairly left leaning but reading through bias is the point of critical thinking in a political landscape as treacherous as the current in the US. These major news sources provide a specified journalistic approach to the news as the general public views it. As these are major publishers, they serve as secondary and primary sources for the happenings of modern society. https://www.msn.com/en-us

    As a young adult with too much screen time, it is no shock that a great deal of news is delivered to me via social media. I do not follow political figures or celebrities so at least they are coming from objectively more credible sources in the SM landscape. A major account I follow on Twitter is The Associated Press or AP whatever you wish to title them. I like the AP because I know that they are not affiliated with Disney or any of the corporate media giants that flow information through their pipelines across their desired demographics. The Associated Press is a non-profit organization that is a writing collaboration from multiple publishers and members of the Newspaper Guild Union. https://twitter.com/AP?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

    I thoroughly enjoy the political landscape of the United States. While bipartisan politics has failed us as a nation, the media storm it has created is wildly entertaining. But therein lies the issue, if I want actual political news I feel less inclined to believe quite literally nothing from any major news source detailing political affairs. I get a majority of my political news from foreign press coverage through Australian SkyNews or if I really want to listen to a domestic take on matters will turn on C-SPAN. https://www.skynews.com.au/

    As someone entering into the entertainment industry via the music business, I do make it a point to stay up to date with new entertainment headlines. Varying from pop culture to business and law aspects of that side of industry, I retrieve articles from rags like the DaillyMail but also look to things like Time and People for the latest and greatest. During the Johnny Depp and Amber Heard trial I did tend to gravitate towards Tiktok for livestreams and legal analysis in duet capacities. https://people.com/  https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ushome/index.html