DS proposal

            Ten years ago I was in grade school, music, books, and newspapers were bought in stores, and if anyone wanted information about charity work they had to go looking for it. Today all of these things are available at the tip of my fingers all because of digital media. Social justice is the fairness and equality in all ways of life for all people. As free citizens, it is our obligation to inform ourselves about acts of injustice and work to bring justice where there is not. While on the internet I discovered organizations like Charity: Water and Invisible Children these organizations exemplify how digital media can be used to achieve social justice.

            Charity: Water is a non-profit organization that brings clean and safe drinking water to people in developing nations. They have used digital media to complete 4,282 projects and have helped 2,060,000 people to get clean water. Charity: Water uses Youtube, Twitter, and Facebook to inform and promote its work. They use Google maps and GPS coordinates to show where every dollar is going. Members of their staff all have blogs to talk about ways to donate. In Le Guin Ursala’s The Ones Who Walked Away From Omelas she talks about the differences between those who hide and shielded themselves from the problems of others and those who are brave enough to try and help others. Charity: Water is a good way of testing people to see if they will hide from the problems of others or if they will reach out and help. On the Charity: Water website you can create a profile, fundraise money, and then they use their GPS technology to see how your money is being put to work. Ursala talks about how the people that walked away from Omelas were challenged by the fact that they were alone. Charity: Water is also a challenge because it challenges people to give up their money and time, but in order to achieve social justice it has to be done.

            Another example of how digital media has been used to work towards social justice is the work of Invisible Children. Invisible Children uses digital media to attempt to end the use of child soldiers in Joseph Kony’s rebel war and restore LRA affected communities in Central Africa. Joseph Kony is the head of the Lord’s Resistance Army which is a guerrilla group engaged in a violent campaign, to establish theocratic government in Uganda. He has forced 66,000 children to fight and forced the internal displacement of over 2,000,000 people since the rebellion began in 1986. Like Charity: Water, Invisible Children uses social media to promote their work. In order to raise money, for Invisible Children anyone can create a fundraising page. Invisible Children created their fundraising page through a website called stayclassy.org. Stayclassy is a nonprofit fundraising cite. Through the efforts of Invisible Children an FM radio tower has been built which sends “come home” messages to LRA members. They have made great strides in working to create rehabilitation, family reunification, and post conflict recovery for the child soldiers. They have also done a lot of work to promote the arrest of Joseph Kony and other top LRA leadership. D. Miller defines distributive justice as “A fair distribution of benefits among the members of various associations (1).” This is what the organization Invisible Children is trying to achieve. The Child soldiers have no benefits or voice, that’s why they are called invisible. Invisible Children is working to give them the rights they deserve and take away the power from the unjust.

            Organizations like Charity: Water and Invisible Children are what social justice in digital media means to me. They give us opportunities to achieve justice and we are called to act. They give a voice to those who have none and as a free citizen we are called to help those in need.

Sources: 

http://www.charitywater.org/

http://www.invisiblechildren.com/

Weblog6

I am somewhat Twitter literate. I don't have a twitter so because of that I am less informed than many people that do. I sometimes go on twitter to follow professional athletes or celebrities that I am interested in. I prefer to use facebook because I started using that first and I don't really find it necessary to have two forms of social media. However I may end up getting a twitter in order to promote stories that I write because I want to go into journalism. That is how my twitter literacy is evolving. As I become more and more interested in twitter I start going on it more and getting more comfortable with it. Right now I just know the basics about what it is and the purpose of it. If I do end up making one I will learn how to use it to communicate and get informed about things. I would define 21st century skills as knowing how to use technology such as social networks and cell phones for not only social activity but also ways of being productive and informing yourself. You acquire these skills by using the technology a lot and having a desire to be informed. School can teach these skills somewhat because they can make opportunities for students to become better at technology but ultimately the student has to be willing to learn in order for it to work. Your culture definitely has a lot to do with your 21st literacy rate. If you are from a poor area you won't have as much access to technology so that will keep you from learning. It will cost you time and money because you may have to travel far in order to use a computer and the cost of your time and money may prevent you from wanting to learn. If you are from a wealthy area it's much easier to learn about technology. Your schools have computers and your house probably does as well. You also probably have access to the internet in another way as well, such as a smart phone. By having so many more opportunities it's much easier for someone to learn about technology.

Weblog5

I'm always using the internet. When I was younger it was to play games or go online shopping, now I use it for my schoolwork, socializing with my friends, and I write on a blog. The internet makes doing research easier and has opened me up to new job opportunities. My ICT skills have grown over the years because the more things I try on the computer the more I learn. I use a lot of social media like facebook and tumblr. When something goes wrong on my computer I can usually fix it which I didn't use to be able to do.
My education has helped me to use the internet a lot. For example I'm taking digital media right now. Also I use it for doing research. As an aspiring journalist, my job helps with my internet skills. I'm constantly communicating with others, as well as blogging, and finding information. Also my interests draw me to the internet. If I want to know how a sports team did, or watch a television show I can always do that online. I'm also able to get the news online, and go shopping. I buy clothes online but I also use itunes to buy music as well.
I could see how people without internets lives could be limited. It's harder to hear about news and information. It's harder to get work done for school because their research options are limited. It's harder to communicate with people. Having the internet is definitely a privilege.

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Weblog 4

          Social Justice should apply in young asserts of power because the youth are the future. Students should be allowed to speak their minds freely and pursue opportunities. Young people may have a different view of the world than older people. By robbing young people of their asserts of power the world is being robbed of a view point.
          Social Justice is a way to destroy domination and oppression. In order for social justice to be achieved, one person cannot have all of the power. The power has to spread out evenly among the people. A social class can not dominate, a race can not  dominate in order for true justice to be achieved.
         Oppression of any kind cannot happen in order for social justice to be reached. Oppression contradicts justice because justice means justice for all. If oppression is happening, justice is not. In a just world, when oppression is occurring there should be action taken to stop it.

Weblog 3

         D. Miller defines distributive justice as "a fair distribution of benefits among the members of various associations"(1). Clearly in the story, by Ursala Le Guin this was not happening because one group was reaping all the benefits, while the ill child had none. They sacrificed the well being and sanity of the child to maintain happiness for a larger group. Rather than experience some pain or discomfort to give this child some joy they hid it away so the masses could benefit from this one person's suffering.
        This can be applied to real life because as a generalization the wealthy have more benefits than the poor. Education and job opportunities are much more obtainable to people from upperclass backgrounds than people from lower class backgrounds. Similar to the story by Le Guin it's common that people who have more benefits do not want to give them up to help someone with fewer benefits. It's fair to say that America does not have distributive justice because often the beneficial people will turn their heads to problems like poverty or unemployment rather than try to fix them.
          Miller also explains an element that is needed to establish social justice "Social justice requires the notion of a society made up of interdependent parts, with an institutional structure that affects the prospects of each individual member, and that is capable of deliberate reform by an agency such as the state in the name of fairness" (4). In Le Guin's story, the ones that walked away from the town of Omelas, were acting as the agents to achieve justice. Even though no one actually helped the child, by leaving the town they were also leaving behind the type of thinking going on in Omelas. Also the story says that when they left Omelas they were starting a life of darkness and loneliness, which implies at some point they would be willing to accept the pain that comes from helping another. By leaving that town and that way of thinking they were working to end that way of thinking.
           In real life, he agents are the people that are able to separate themselves from this type of self-centered thinking. Often times that does mean having to deal with some hardship, like giving up time or finical stability. The ones that are able to remove themselves from the typical way of tinking and are willing to experience pain are the ones that will help achieve justice.