A Curious Twitter

Good evening to everyone "tuning in" to this blog! 

Today I bring to you a tale that's literally out of this world. The space rover Curiosity is doing fine while exploring the vast desserts on Mars. All the while, the spunky rover is tweeting to its many followers back on Earth.

The tech savvy robot has over one million followers. That's a lot of people for a program that just had its budget practically ripped to shreds. Money doesn't seem to be a problem for NASA at the moment though with enough private donors have gathered together to make this Mars mission possible.

Unlike when the first moon landing occurred, this extravagant event wasn't watched just on TV. The news of the landing was also streamed online and, oddly enough, tweeted about by the very rover making the landing.

Did the scientist at NASA create a talking robot? Not necessarily.

The rover's twitter is controlled by three women of NASA:  Veronica McGregor, Social Media Manager, and Stephanie L. Smith and Courtney O'Connor, both Social Media Specialists.They are the brains behind the personality of Curiosity.

That's why the rover seems so knowledgeable about pop culture and memes as it references them frequently on its, or her, twitter feed. Maybe that is why the Rover has gained such a large following. The first person accounts, brassiness, and knowledge about current trends make the twitter feel more like a real person.

This also wasn't the first rover to use a twitter. Curiosity's predecessor Phoenix also had a twitter run by a member of NASA back in 2008. Where they found first person was a lot easier to use than third person. So that may be why the Curiosity started using first person speech as well.

More and more people are coming up with new ways to use social media. I've heard a lot of people talk about how things like twitter and Facebook will burn out soon and people will get bored with them. With everything that's been going on recently, I kind of doubt it. As long as someone can think of a new and inventive way to refresh the site or whatever they are using, it can keep going for a long time.

What NASA is doing is just one example. If the Rover was just shown landing on TV in the news, people might not have cared. Why care about a program that's lost funding and has generally been seen as stiff and stuffy? Well, now NASA is interacting with all of the public in a new way. They are approachable by using social media, and just being themselves. (Like having a star spangled Mohawk)

I hope to see more things like this on twitter in the future. Maybe I'll make my car a twitter and document all its adventures with me! Or not.

Tune in next time for more shenanigans on this or any other planet!

Click "Unlike"

Hey there to everyone tuning in for some more shenanigans. This time I’m wondering if you’ve heard about this story that happened over the summer concerning the “like” button on Facebook.

Now, most of us probably don’t think much about the “like” button because we see it almost every day. Why bother to think about it? Someone likes your post or doesn’t like your post and you move on. Well, here is why you should think about it.

People are using Facebook for more and more complex things that are not just chatting with friends, posting motivational quotes, or telling a family member about what’s going on in their life. Some people are now using Facebook to petition. They can petition for laws to be changes, for action to be taken against bullying, or even to have a TV show put back on air after it was canceled. 

This may still not seem important to you, so listen to this.

A case over the summer concerned six men who were a part of police department. The men “liked” the page of the opponent running for Sheriff against B.J. Roberts. When Roberts won the position, the others were fired. Now, Roberts claims that there are more reasons than just the Facebook shenanigans for dismissing the officers, but that has yet to be seen. So, the men take him to court because Facebook is protected free speech. Right? 

Well, apparently not. According to U.S. District Judge Raymond Jackson, merely 'liking' a Facebook page was insufficient speech to merit constitutional protection. Thus, the workers were ruled against, and now must appeal their case. 

Facebook, however, said “clicking 'Like' was the 21st century-equivalent of a campaign yard sign.” What do you think? Should hitting a mere button be considered freedom of speech?

Personally, if the results are people losing their jobs over it, then I am all for it being protected. Actually, I’ve never heard of not having enough speech to be considered first amendment protected. Now, I don’t usually like the slippery slope argument, but this is a steep hill with a sudden drop we are approaching and maybe we should apply some breaks.

Let’s look at the first amendment for a second.

Amendment I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Well, I definitely don’t see anything about needing a word count for my opinion to be protected, but the constitution has always had wiggle room for interpretation. Considering the time frame that the first amendment was written, they probably couldn’t even imagine something like Facebook would ever exist.
However, hitting “like” on something is still a form of opinion. Our right to voice what we feel should always be protected no matter how small! If hitting the “like” button is not protected, what will happen to everyone protesting and petitioning using Facebook? They won’t be able to do that anymore because they won’t be protected.

So I say we put a stop to this craziness and make sure all of our speech is protected, no matter how big or how small.

Thanks for tuning in. Make sure to keep watch for my next entry. This is DJ Shenanigans signing off!

Welcome Ladies and Gentleman!

Hey everybody, this is MC Shenanigans and welcome to the show! Or, the blog I suppose.

This will be the must have introduction post! My name is Shannon Marks and I am a Communications and Media Arts Major at Bethany College, "a small college of national distinction",  in good old West Virginia.

I am pretty active on campus. I am a member of the Alpha Xi Delta Sorority. I am president of our school's Public Relations Student Society of America(PRSSA), the vice president of our Mass Media club, I do promotions for our school's radio station WVBC and sometimes DJ for it, and I am Vice President of our SGA. Just reading this makes me want a nap, ha ha! Now, these things may change by the time you start fallowing this blog, but I will try and keep you informed of what's going on in my universe.

Other than that, I am working very hard on a communication campaign for our schools Relay for Life event. Over the summer I had the privilege of working with Bechtel's corporate affairs office as a Summer intern. They were all about planning, and now I am too. I can't wait to implement my devious plan to make Relay more popular than ever! Evil right? I'll post the results on my website when they come in! I will also link to my website when I finish building it. I made a website last year, but it's getting a face lift at the moment.

After all, you have to keep things fresh in this ever changing internet world.

And finally, the most important part of all...what will this blog be about? Well, if I told you that, it would ruin the whole performance, so I suppose you'll just have to read and find out! I can tell you that there will be diverse posts on all kinds of subjects and maybe even some audio commentary in the near future!

So stay tuned readers for more shenanigans in the future.