The Transhistorical Relationship Between the Press and the Government

Over the years, the press and the United States government have had multiple occasions of knocking heads with each other. Due to vastly different cultures, cultures that clash and conflict with each other, a tense relationship has formed between the two with characteristics and traits of the relationship being categorized as transhistorical; not limited to one historical period but has existed throughout human history.

The government’s job has always been to make sure that the nation it governs is safe and secure while the job of the press is to get the truth out to the public and keep people informed about what is going on in their nation. In the interest of the First Amendment, the United States courts have “held that the press has a ‘watchdog’ role over the government and is not subject to prior restraint or registration.”

As the “watchdog,” the press works hard to keep an eye on government activities, making sure they withhold no secrets from the public. However, in the interest of national safety, the government does whatever it takes to keep secrets from the public. This includes creating new laws to restrain the press from spilling private government information, but by doing so, the government is violating the Freedom of the Press Clause in the First Amendment: “Congress shall make no law…abridging the freedom…of the press.” This clause states that even if it is important information to the government, any person can publicize law-abiding knowledge in the absence of government penalization.

Isn’t freedom of the press a key ingredient in any successful democracy? Yet, the United States government has made countless attempts to take away this freedom by challenging the constitutional rights of its citizens, and as a result, many disputes have arisen. In the Declaration of Independence, it is stated that “Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” This fundamental rule lays out the importance and power that the people have over the government. The government’s source for all of its power is the people! So when the First Amendment also states “the right of the people to petition the government for a redress of grievances,” it is saying that if the people don’t like or agree with how the government is running things then they have the right to speak up and change it! The ability to express opinions and take action against the government is a constitutional right of the American people, and for a long time now, the press has been able to assist the American people in doing so by being the main channel for public discourse, relaying messages from the people to the government. However, some have taken advantage of this by using the media to sway people towards a certain political opinion.

In the movie Good Night and Good Luck, which takes place during the 1950s, we are given a look at the relationship between the government and the press. A democracy and journalism. 

During this time, the Red Scare was occurring in the United States and mass hysteria was transpiring as a result of recognized Communist threats during the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. In the movie, U.S. Senator Joseph R. McCarthy accuses countless federal employees of being disloyal to the government, claiming they are Communist spies. These types of people were referred to as “Reds.” However, when broadcast journalist Edward R. Murrow becomes aware of this, he feels that McCarthy is wrongfully accusing innocent people and decides to take immediate action to expose McCarthy on a television show. Although this didn’t turn out exactly how Murrow wanted it to and gets accused of being a member of the Communist Party, he was ultimately successful in his desire to lift awareness.

Edward R. Murrow was a voice that was suppressed. Just like the antiwar voices in the press during the Civil War era where Abraham Lincoln brought terror into the eyes of reporters by taking drastic measures to arrest editors and suppress countless newspapers. Nevertheless, the tense relationship between the government and the press depicted throughout this movie helped me see how relevant their relationship is today. Events like these are still occurring and people like Julian Assange are arrested and seen as criminals for exposing the truth. Assange is referred to as a whistleblower for releasing confidential but UNJUST government information relating to the Iraq War. Whistleblowers are very disliked by the U.S. government and have been for a long time. Even though some see them as heroes, the government looks at them as traitors and have put them through many unfair forms of punishment. 

It absolutely baffles me that the first amendment doesn’t protect people like Julian Assange against these punishments nor did it in the past. It is obvious that too much power can make someone use it in the most unethical ways and with technology and social media progressing and advancing, it might only get worse.

https://usa.usembassy.de/media-freedom.htm

https://www.revolutionary-war-and-beyond.com/freedom-of-the-press-clause.html

http://www.crfcelebrateamerica.org/index.php/ideas/51-consent-of-the-governed

https://books.google.com/books?id=8q00DwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_atb#v=onepage&q&f=false

Barbara Walters

American writer and journalist Barbara Walters was born on September 25, 1929 in Boston, Massachusetts. Barbara graduated with a bachelor’s degree in English from Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York in 1953 and soon landed a job working for an advertising agency. Afterward, Barbara took on a new role as an assistant to the publicity director for a television station based in New York City called NBC. After obtaining a great deal of skills and experience in television production and writing, she was offered a job from the CBS television network as a news and public affairs writer/producer. 

As Barbara gained further skills and experience in this field, she continued to receive more job opportunities. In 1961, NBC’s morning show hired Barbara as the Today writer where she did occasional on-air feature stories. Barbara was then asked to be the “Today Girl," but this was a particularly hard job because it conventionally included more than just reading out commercials, performing small talk, and being good-looking. However, Barbara was able to expand beyond this inflexible role and position herself amongst a panel of newsreaders and commentators on the Today Show. Barbara’s knowledge and appearance on camera coupled with her strong journalistic efforts, allowed her to become one of the most well-known people on the show. This also helped Barbara become the co-host of the Today Show with Hugh Downs in 1974 where her excellent work resulted in an Emmy award.

Soon after, Barbara became the first female co-anchor of an evening network news program when she signed a contract with ABC. During this time, Barbara was the highest-paid journalist with a $1 million yearly salary. This was an enormous accomplishment for a woman during this time, as the industry was male-dominated and women delivering and reporting major stories were accepted by very few, making it difficult for women to create any sort of impact. Later on, in 1997, Barbara became a co-host on the daytime talk show The View. However, in 2014 Barbara announced her retirement from both The View and television news broadcasting as a whole.

Although Barbara said farewell, her fearless efforts caused her to become a huge icon for the public. Barbara is highly recognized for her talent and skills, as she has received many awards including the “Overseas Press Club's highest award, the President's Award, in 1988; induction into the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame in 1990; the Lowell Thomas Award for a career in journalism excellence in 1990, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Women's Media Foundation, in 1991; the Muse Award from New York Women in Film and Television in 1997; the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in 2000; and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2007, as well as 34 daytime and primetime Emmy Awards.” Barbara has also earned honorary doctoral degrees from numerous colleges and universities.

I chose Barbara Walters because she has paved the way for a great number of female broadcasters and journalists. For, she is highly respected in the interviewing field and an inspirational leader to many. She has also interviewed a large number of important and well-known figures. During these interviews, Barbara did an impressive job of asking questions that the public wanted answers to while inserting her personal opinions and comments in order to uncover the truth. Barbara’s style and techniques are extremely effective. Her success has been attributed to her passion and dedication along with leadership characteristics and drive to accomplish her goals. Even though Barbara did not develop the interviewing process, she most definitely has remodeled and improved it.

Barbara Walters Timeline

Fidel Castro Interview With Barbara Walters

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Barbara-Walters

https://www.biography.com/media-figure/barbara-walters

Yellow Journalism and Muckraking

What was yellow journalism and muckraking? What was the difference between the two? How do they play a role in our society today?

During the early 19^th century, yellow journalism was introduced; a specific news reporting style that played an important role in the turn of American Journalism. The concept of yellow journalism was coined from a particular type of writing in which authors would write from their individual point of view in order to publicize or convince people about a certain belief or political cause. This type of newspaper reporting manipulated people’s opinions and deterred itself from being both factual and true. However, these news stories were successful in grabbing readers’ attention.  

The main goal for yellow journalists was simply to entice readers in order to sell papers. They had the ability to influence public opinions and reactions to specific events through the use of personal ideas and information consisting of a biased nature. The most common examples of yellow journalism included appealing and misleading headlines which were typed in bold, large letters. It also included fake interviews and information from unknown sources. We are familiar with this type of journalism method today, as unproven evidence and the citing of unknown sources are still common. Today, some refer to this journalism style as “fake news,” which is a term used to describe news reporting of inaccurate events or events that never even occurred. Some of today’s media like CNN have acquired a reputation for misinforming and misreporting the news. Nevertheless, this type of news reporting is still successful in attracting public attention because people thrive on gossip. 

Muckraking was another journalism concept that played an important role in the turn of American Journalism and was also introduced during the early 19^th century. One was referred to as a muckraker if they were a journalist who attempted to expose corruption occurring in a business or the government to the public. These types of journalists worked extremely hard to put a stop to corruption and injustices.

The journalistic approach of muckraking can easily be compared to the act of whistleblowing. A modern-day example of a muckraker is Julian Assange, who was the founder of a website called Wikileaks. Assange used this website to share confidential information with the public and exposed the government by posting military documents about the war in Iraq. Instead of being admired for his work, Assange was arrested and thought of as a criminal. However, he was proud of his efforts and successfully used today’s technology to get the truth out to the public.

We sometimes don’t realize that yellow journalism and muckraking have been around since the early 19^th century. However, it seems to be more prevalent today. Our advanced technology has allowed news to quickly spread and stories to become instantly viral due to people’s reactions. Nevertheless, both people and news sources are becoming more and more aware of this and are realizing how fast negative news travels, especially about celebrities, politics, and public figures.

Related Wikipedia Articles:

Penny Press

Yellow Journalism

Muckraker

Yellow Journalism Video

Shanghai Air Quality Monitoring

During my time in Shanghai, China, my Environmental Science class and I got the opportunity to visit Fudan University. This day consisted of a hands-on tour of the air quality monitoring station at the Department of Environmental Science and Engineering. Here we were given the opportunity to learn about Shanghai’s highly polluted city and the striving efforts to improve the quality of their air. One of the environmental researchers at the university showed my fellow classmates and I how pollution was analyzed by using special instruments to gather data. This experience allowed us to better understand how poor air quality negatively impacts the current and future lives of the people living in China.

While observing the measurement site, we experienced many processes and techniques used in measuring air quality all while learning about regional transport and the chemical process of air pollution. In the researcher’s lecture, she explained to us that you can figure out the concentration of certain gasses by using special instruments to look at light from the sun. One of the measurement techniques talked about was the Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy (DOAS). This technique is based on beers law, also called Lambert-beer law. This technique looks at gaseous pollutants to see how they absorb light. DOAS systems are usually divided into two groups; passive and active. The active DOAS system uses artificial light, whereas passive uses the sun as its light source. The length of the light path in the atmosphere for active DOAS is very distinct, but for passive DOAS it is hard to make out. Later on, we discussed external energy sources and how the energy flux from the sun varies with wavelength. We even learned about black body radiation along with the different laws associated with it like Planck’s Law, Wien’s Displacement Law, and Stefan-Boltzmann Law.

During our visit, we also experimented with MAX-DOAS; a widely-used method that is implemented when observing trace gasses. This method allows you to identify the type of radiation you get for each wavelength and the concentration of certain gasses by using special instruments to measure light. We were able to do so by looking at sunlight wavelengths through a measurement instrument on the side of the building which provided us with data that was projected on a computer screen. We were also shown two instruments that measured air pollution through different means. One instrument was UV, and the other, LED.

The air quality in Shanghai has been at hazardous levels for quite some time now. These levels tend to be at their worst in the winter season due to the trade winds. For, in the winter Shanghai gets wind from the North instead of from the ocean (like they do in the summertime) which is much cleaner. The winds from the North carry a lot of pollutants and gasses to the South, causing more pollution in the air. An outstanding amount of China’s air pollution is also due to the production of goods for exportation along with emissions from many factories, and since Shanghai is overpopulated, much of this pollution comes from the people themselves. Not to mention, the impact of poor air quality is a serious health issue for children. Since their lungs are still developing, they are more affected by the poor air quality. Plus, children tend to spend more time outside playing and participating in activities causing them to acquire serious asthma problems.

After the tour, we visited The Wusong Paotaiwan Wetland Forest Park and learned more about how Shanghai is trying to improve its air quality. The city of Shanghai and other parts of China have provided the growth of various types of vegetation through the development of wetland parks. This plays a helpful role in the improvement process of air quality in urban areas. For, wetland parks contribute to biodiversity and vegetations can help eliminate air pollutants. These wetland areas also contribute to the people living nearby and help improve their quality of life and counteract the effects of climate change.

Civil War & The Press

In 1861, the United States Civil War divided America into two sides, the northern United States (Union) and the southern United States (Confederacy). Although the war brought forth a long devastating period filled with bloody conflict, it was an incredibly important time period for journalism because it changed the way people received the news.

Journalism’s role during the American Civil War and the excessive rate at which people from both the North and South demanded information regarding the war is discussed by historian Ford Risley in his journal when he writes “More than they had ever done before, citizens of the Union and the Confederacy turned to the press for news. With Americans fighting against Americans, the war was the biggest event in people’s lives, and they could not get enough information about what was taking place. The war helped make the United States a nation of newspaper and magazine readers” (Risley, Civil War Journalism). During the war, the newspapers gave the public the ability to receive continuous insight and knowledge regarding up-to-date news and events. However, in both the beginning and throughout the duration of the Civil War, conflicting ideas and opinions caused not only the country to be divided in many ways but also reporters and journalists. David B. Sachsman, author of the book called, A Press Divided: Newspaper Coverage of the Civil War, discusses “the role of the press before, during, and even after the Civil War to determine the influence of newspapers on public opinion” (Sachsman, A Press Divided: Newspaper Coverage of the Civil War). Prior to the war, journalists and writers shared similar opinions with one another. However, when the war began, the press ”was sharply divided politically and regionally. In 1860, Southern newspapers were split between two different political candidates, John C Breckinridge and John Bell, whereas Northern Democratic newspapers generally supported Stephen A. Douglas, and Republican newspapers supported Abraham Lincoln. At that critical time in American history, public opinion differed enormously depending on where one lived and which partisan newspaper one favored” (Sachsman). Although reporters from both the North and South desired to share their opinions and stories, journalism in the North was generally in favor of the war, “exaggerating Union victories and minimizing Union defeats” (Risley). Whereas, journalism in the South was more against the war and in favor of slavery. They “emphasized Union problems, and explained the consequences of defeat” (Risley).

In addition, the press from both the North and South tended to use illustrations and photos to deliver stories and events about the war to the public in order to express their opinions. However “The great majority of illustrations and photographs appeared in the North. Three illustrated weeklies published the sketches of full-time artists in the field. Cameramen made photographs that could not be published, but were turned into illustrations and shown in galleries. The South had fewer magazines and most closed because of insufficient manpower, supplies, and advertising. The South also had fewer photographers and most of them did not have the equipment, supplies, or financial wherewithal to record the war" (Risley).

Reporting about the war became an art during this time period and journalists went to great lengths to be the best in such a highly competitive time and field. According to Sachsman, “both sides feared the power of the press to subvert national unity. Abraham Lincoln and his Republican government turned this fear into action by arresting editors and suppressing hundreds of newspapers” (Sachsman). During the Civil War, the press was constantly fighting their own war. A war against an enemy who’s goal was to demolish reporter’s methods of communication and unfortunately more than not was successful in doing so.

Sachsman and Risley help us realize that the journalism techniques and styles from both sides during the war required a strong possession of knowledge and skill as well as symbolic representation and writing. Thanks to the war and its resulted spread of talented reporters, the public was able to stay informed about the war through not only newspapers but also through visual representation.

https://books.google.com/books?id=8q00DwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_atb#v=onepage&q&f=false

https://www.essentialcivilwarcurriculum.com/civil-war-journalism.html

Global Warming and Pollution: Is There Still Time?

While visiting the island of Mauritius last year, I got the opportunity to visit a coral reef conservation at one of the many beachfront hotels the island has. Here, I learned about local efforts that the island of Mauritius had been taking in order to protect marine life. The coral in the water is becoming more and more bleached and tourism is causing a lot of negative impacts on the environment. Tourism plays a positive role in the economy of Mauritius but the beaches are continuously being polluted by tourists, which will eventually make people not want to visit anymore.

Additionally, while driving around, I noticed a significant amount of trash on the sides of the roads. Since there is only one landfill on the island, there is nowhere to put it all and it eventually just ends up going into the oceans. It seems that people aren’t taught very well about caring for the environment in Mauritius; no one separates trash and no one recycles. However, the hotels along the beaches have decided not to use plastic straws in order to help out with the plastic issue, but there must be more efforts than this in order to make any progress because their government isn’t making very many changes to protect the environment. There have also been problems with invasive species in Mauritius, along with a lot of native plants disappearing. Additionally, there is a lot of native wildlife in Mauritius but since invasive species are being brought in, certain animals aren’t able to survive. For, it brings in a lot of new predators.

Not only is pollution an issue on the island, but so is global warming. However, global warming is impacting our entire planet. From the melting of the polar ice caps to the destruction of our ozone layer, global warming is becoming a dangerous threat, and if we don’t act soon and try to reverse the damage we have already done, it will plague earth for millions of years. It is a known fact that the earth goes through a naturally occurring temperature flux where the temperature will either drop or increase every few millions of years, but the increase of carbon offsets in astronomical numbers has sped this cycle up, which is unhealthy for the earth’s ecosystem. Any non-bias set of eyes can evaluate the evidence and clearly see that global warming is a real issue in today’s world and that it has been caused by humans in many different ways from pollution, to creating climate change.

In Mauritius, intense rainfall episodes and sea level rises have caused landslides, cyclones, and immense flooding. Over the last decade, climate change has led to many issues in today’s society like harder-hitting storms in not just Mauritius but also in the United States. An example of this is Hurricane Sandy. The warm water available at the time of the storm striking allowed the hurricane to do extremely uncommon things. This allowed Hurricane Sandy to pick up massive amounts of warm water, turn it into vapor, and (upon hitting land) dump it on top of our east coast. In years prior to Hurricane Sandy, this would have never been possible due to the fact that the Atlantic Ocean is usually cold naturally because of water current patterns. This produced major flooding all over the east coast, and almost put Manhattan completely underwater, which has never been done before. Climate change has significantly enhanced the effects of storms by creating higher water levels, giving the storms the ability to produce a much higher base than usual and pick up more water from the ocean on its way to land. However, it was also able to carry more water with it than seen from other storms in the past. Some scientists also believe that storms are becoming more powerful in the Atlantic Ocean due to ice caps declining in that area. This has been great news for the shipping industry who no longer needs to worry as much when looking out for icebergs, but it gives the ocean’s surface more room to absorb sunlight and heat at an even faster rate, which will diminish other ice caps even faster and create a speedy cycle of doing so (Freedman). We can see that climate change is a very high impacting accomplice when it comes to global warming.

All in all, global warming and pollution are detrimental subjects that we must face not only as a nation but as a coalition with other nations to combat it and stop it if at all possible. Every industrial nation is responsible for causing it in some way or another. Either out of ignorance or because it was a cheaper alternative to act one way, so we must work together to stop it so that we can preserve the earth for generations to come.

Source: https://www.climatecentral.org/news/how-global-warming-made-hurricane-sandy-worse-15190

Hong Kong McDonald's

In the article “McDonald’s in Hong Kong: Consumerism, Dietary Change, and the Rise of a Children’s Culture,” James L. Watson discusses the booming success of McDonald’s in Hong Kong along with his experience visiting one. I have personally visited a McDonald’s in Hong Kong before and in many other countries as well. I have made it a goal of mine to visit a McDonald’s in as many countries as possible and plan to visit them in other countries moving forward. I will continue to do so just because I find it very interesting to experience the many differences and/or similarities to the McDonald’s restaurants in the United States.

I was curious to read this article because when I visited the McDonald’s in Hong Kong, I found it rather fascinating how different the experience was versus how it has been for me in the United States. Hong Kong’s McDonald’s restaurants are chock full of surprises. First off, I found it strange that the children in Hong Kong choose to have their birthday parties at McDonald’s. Even though children from the United States also have their birthday parties at McDonald’s, it shocked me because I thought that they would follow more traditional ways of celebrating. In addition, their menu includes some very interesting selections like soy milk, Thai chicken wings, and macaroni and cheese toasties. I was also fascinated by the service that was provided. I was not expecting an employee to personally deliver my food to me and also take my plate when I was finished. It made me feel somewhat guilty. I know wages are low in Hong Kong so it also made me feel the need to tip the employee since it was obviously the reason they were doing it. Most of the McDonald’s restaurants are open 24 hours a day and are always full of people, even when it is 5:00 am, which is when I happened to visit. There are even children doing their homework and homeless old men catching up on their sleep. On the other hand, just like in the United States, I didn’t see any recycling bins which is the one thing that didn’t surprise me. I plan to visit at least one McDonald’s in every other country I travel to going forward so that I can experience how culturally different they are from the ones in the United States.

Read the article here: http://faculty.polytechnic.org/gfeldmeth/mcdonaldsinhk.pdf

Ida Husted Harper

Ida Husted Harper was a well-known journalist and advocate for women’s rights during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries when the United States women’s suffrage movement was occurring. Ida wrote for countless newspapers all over the United States about various articles on women’s issues.

Ida Harper was born on February 18th, 1851 in a small town located in the state of Indiana called Fairfield. Ida lived in Fairfield for approximately ten years until she and her family packed their bags and moved to the city of Muncie, Indiana. After Ida graduated from high school at the age of 17, she decided to attend college at Indiana University. That is until she dropped out to become a teacher and also a high school principal in Peru, Indiana. Not too long after, Ida got married to a man named Thomas Winans Harper and relocated to Terre Haute, Indiana where they gave birth to a girl named Winnifred Harper. Later on, Winnifred also became a writer. Since Ida’s husband was not only an attorney but also a politician, he had many strong connections in the city of Terre Haute, connections that allowed Ida to write woman’s columns for the Terre Haute Daily News. Even though she did so without Thomas’ approval. In 1887, Ida began to focus on women’s voting rights and even helped create a women’s suffrage society in Indiana. Ida’s impressive and brilliant writing skills helped her become the Secretary of the women’s suffrage society.

A few years later, Ida and her husband realized they were unhappily married and eventually got a divorce. But this didn’t slow Ida down. She immediately moved to Indianapolis with her daughter and got a job working for the Indianapolis News. A few more years went by and Ida was still writing columns for newspapers. Ida and her daughter then set foot on a journey to the state of beautiful California where Ida began taking classes at Stanford University. In 1896, Ida committed her time to be a part of the National American Woman Suffrage Association where she spent a lot of time working with Susan B. Anthony, a women’s rights crusader. While Ida served as the press relations leader for their campaign towards a state suffrage amendment, her and Anthony became close friends. Anthony eventually asked Ida to move to Rochester, New York to become her official biographer after seeing how well she did with the campaign. Ida then left California and headed to New York where she lived with Anthony and wrote and published three volumes about Susan B. Anthony’s life and work. Ida stayed persistent with her activism in the suffrage movement and later died on March 14th, 1931 in Washington, D.C. from a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 80.


Work of Ida Husted Harper:
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/15220/15220-h/15220-h.htm

Political Cartoon

Political cartoons are meant to be funny and ironic but at the same time informative and somewhat persuasive. The main purpose of a political cartoon is to make the person viewing it reflect upon the political issue being presented. They are also created in hopes of swaying people towards the illustrator’s views. Although I haven’t created my political cartoon yet, I have already planned out how I will design it. I have learned a lot about the negative effects of plastic on our marine life and the strong impact it has on tourism and economies in various countries. Numerous efforts from many different countries are being taken in order to protect the Earth’s marine life but human pollution is tough to fight. The garbage we currently produce, especially plastic, is not only ending up in our oceans but also into the stomachs of fish. Fish that we consume! According to many scientists and their findings, most of the seafood sold in markets have been found to have a disturbing amount of plastic inside of them.

Deciding what to create for my political cartoon came quick and easy for me. I wanted to make my cartoon fun and interesting to look at while also allowing the people viewing it to understand what is being shown. Therefore, I would draw a fish and place it on top of a dinner table with a clear view of the inside of its stomach, and inside of its stomach, would be plastic garbage like water bottles and straws. I would draw this for my political cartoon because I want viewers to receive the message that pollution in our oceans has become a global crisis. I think this cartoon idea would be effective and also ironic because it shows people that our pollution is effecting ourselves first-hand, which causes viewers to look deeper into the issue of pollution and be more aware of their actions. There are many seafood eaters out there, including myself, and if we continue pollution at the rates they are we could eventually have more plastic in our oceans than we do fish! So how can we phase the consumption of plastic out of our lifestyles? There are many ways we can reduce consumption but some include spreading the word, quit drinking bottled water, shop with reusable shopping bags, and recycle properly.

Julian Assange's Innocence

A whistleblower is anybody who reveals illegal or unethical information or activities that occur within a company or government, and they have been around for quite some time now. The United States government has had a long history of disliking whistleblowers and have dealt with them through many forms of unfair punishment, mainly because they don’t appreciate when the truth is revealed to the public. In some cases, articles are written about these whistleblowers being heroes, but many others deem them as traitors. Recently, a whistleblower case regarding a journalist and editor from Australia named Julian Assange has been up for strong debate. In 2006, Julian Assange founded WikiLeaks, a website that was created with the purpose of gathering and sharing confidential information to the public. In 2010, WiKiLeaks came to international attention when they published United States documents about the war in Iraq. In 2012, Sweden had tried to charge Assange with rape, so he immediately sought refuge at the Ecuadorian embassy in London. Assange was also afraid that the United States would try to put him in jail. Little did he know, the U.S. government was spying on him during his time at the embassy and had even placed cameras and microphones in his bathroom. Seven years passed and Assange was still in hiding at the Ecuadorian embassy. That is until he was arrested for skipping bail and is now currently being held in a British maximum-security prison.

There has been a rising concern that this punishment is too extreme for Assange’s whistleblowing acts and personally I agree. The prison holds some of the most dangerous and ruthless criminals. He has little to no contact with anyone and is forcefully confined for 23 hours a day. Doctors have even begun to worry about Assange’s health, saying he is close to death. In my opinion, Julian Assange is a victim and is going through an ugly form of torture for just doing his job and speaking the truth. The United States government has no right to put Assange through such harsh treatment when he hasn’t even been charged with anything. I think Assange’s whistleblowing acts was him being ethical and don’t understand why the first amendment doesn’t protect him against this. As a U.S. citizen, I feel that I have the right to know when illegal or unjust activities are occurring and Assange helped people discover the truth and allowed the world to focus on important issues. These days, being active in politics is important because it is how we fight for what we want and have a voice and freedom of speech. I am baffled by the fact that whistleblowers release stories about wrongdoings, corruption, and crime but the people who do all of those injustices are given zero punishment while the journalists/whistleblowers get punished. How do the U.S. laws still apply to Assange if he wasn’t even an American citizen? It isn’t fair that the U.S. government had enough power to reach into another country, pull him out and place him in prison. They interfered with another country’s government.

Julian Assange arrested at Ecuadorian embassy:https://youtu.be/8oqJiNzJQ_E

Reflection: Working With Live-in-Labs

During my time in India last year, I got the chance to talk with students my age who were exploring sustainable solutions towards problems faced by villages in India. Live-in-Labs members have touched the lives of countless residents during the past several years. So I was excited to find out that my peers and I were invited to help with their program’s marketing efforts involving their service-learning program. This program is designed to help students address challenges and come up with innovative solutions that test problem-solving abilities through fieldwork and projects. Live-in-Labs helps students learn first-hand how to give back to the communities while living in the communities themselves. I was very impressed after hearing about all of the projects Live-in-Labs has successfully accomplished, along with their strong efforts to develop a program focused around exposing international youth to issues of rural communities. Working with them showed me how much Live-in-Labs truly cares about the villages in India and how much time students from across the globe devote to coming up with creative and innovative solutions that help teach these communities how to live better lives. I really enjoyed meeting and interacting with the engineering students and getting the chance to learn about all of their projects and how they are formed/implemented. 

My favorite part of the day was hearing about the various marketing ideas everyone came up with. I gained a lot of valuable information from not just my peers, but the engineering students as well. Before going into the meeting, I imagined that there would be no hierarchy, which there surely was not. Everyone’s thoughts and suggestions were just as important as everyone else’s, which made me throw out more ideas! This is important when going through the brainstorming process because sometimes people (especially interns) are afraid to speak their minds. I also liked how the floor was always open to questions. Sharing their lessons from specific projects helped everyone expand their knowledge and learn how to effectively implement new techniques. We left better marketers! We were organized and extremely focused on our goals. My class was given a valuable opportunity to participate in their marketing efforts and be a part of the Live-in-Labs program. I thoroughly enjoyed experiencing the brainstorming process of marketing and I believe I gained a lot of valuable skills that can help me in the future.

Below is a pamphlet idea I created for my presentation to the Amrita students: