MCOM 4003 - Katherine Ledbetter

  Freedom of Information Act Requests     " The basic function  of the Freedom of Information Act is to ensure informed citizens, vital to the functioning of a democratic society." This act requires the full or partial disclosure of previously unreleased information and documents by the United States government upon request. This act makes agencies functions more transparent and allows for the public to have a look into the governmental functions. The Freedom of Information Act website is set up to help people determine if filing a FOIA request is the best option and helps with the creation of requests.       The website states that the steps in filing a request starts with doing research before a request.      “Before making a request, first see if the information is already publicly available. You can find a lot of useful information on individual agency websites and you can also  search acr...

 Global Media Law      Many countries are not as lenient with journalism as the United States. “ Under Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, everyone has the right to seek and receive news and express opinions” . A majority of countries follow these principals and allow opinionated expression through journalism. Some countries, though, are the opposite and defy these international standards and ban or severely repress independent media and intimidate journalists with imprisonment threats, digital and physical surveillance, and other forms of harassment. The media serves as the representative for the country, so media laws are strict. In countries with strict media literacy policies foreign journalists are usually not permitted to enter, and when the select few can, they are closely monitored. There are repercussions against freelance journalists and actions are taken against these people.   North Korea is an example of a country that has exce...

  Pinterest and Misinformation      Pinterest is on a mission to ban climate change misinformation. This past Wednesday, the site announces new policy which prohibits users from sharing climate misinformation on its platform. This policy change makes it the rare social platform to outright ban such content . The update states , "Our new policy makes Pinterest the only major digital platform to have clearly defined guidelines against false of misleading climate change information, including conspiracy theories across content and ads." The site is working to remove content that denies climate change. This ban is said to include content that denies the existence or impacts of climate change, as well as denies that humans influence global warming. It is also stated that inaccurate posts about natural disasters and extreme weather events will also be removed.  Pinterest has been graced with the expansion of sustainability searches on its platform, and they didn't wan...