During the event of the Boston Marathon Bombing, news coverage took off, thus police, journalist, and the public used social media as their main source of coverage for quick and easy access

In Massachusetts the third Monday of April is known as Patriots Day or more fondly called "Marathon Monday".  This is the day that the Boston Marathon happens every year.  Patriots Day is also a state holiday during which multiple reenactments of the first battles of revolutionary war take place throughout the area and the Boston Red Sox play just a unique morning game so that fans can watch the end of the Marathon after the baseball game. The whole community of Boston rallies around the marathon and supports all the runners that are participating in the race. People come to watch the marathon and cheer on the many runners that are participating even if the people do not know anyone in the marathon. However, on April 15, 2013 a major tragedy occurred.  First, a bomb exploded at the finish line and then just 12 seconds later a second bomb exploded just a few blocks from the first explosion.  Three people were killed including an 8-year-old boy and an estimated 264 others were injured.  Due to this surprise unexpected terrorist attack, the quickest way to get the news/information out to the public was through social media outlets such as Twitter or Facebook.

Much of the public uses social media within the United States, as it can be a large part of spreading information.

In the society that we live in today it is estimated that there is about 75% of adults that use social media, and of this segment about 70% use Facebook and 25% use Twitter from the research of the "Pew Research Center". Thus, since much of society today uses social media, one of the quickest ways to receive news coverage is through Twitter or Facebook.  From this UMD survey the results were able to show that more than 50% of the students would rather view news from social media rather than the actual news coverage sites such as CNN or Fox News.  For example, here are two students that would choose to use social media as their main source of news coverage rather than major news outlets. 

In order for the public to get the information as quickly as they could about what is happening during the Boston Marathon Bombing, they rallied around the social media outlets.  As stated in the article “Twitter as a Sentinel in Emergency Situations: Lessons from the Boston Marathon Explosions" the authors discuss how news and public safety officials were able to disseminate information related to both public safety and general informational news as quickly and accurately as possible. For example, during the bombing incident the amount of people who started following the Boston Globe Twitter account increased and the mentions to the @BostonGlobe increased by a large amount. 

During the Boston Marathon live tweeting became the main source of how information would get out to the public as quickly as possible.

Once the attacks occurred the main source of giving out information and news to the public was through social media.  The main objective was to get news out as quickly as possible to the public and as accurately as possible.  The Boston Globe usually tweets about 40 times a day, however, during the day of the attacks the Boston Globe tweeted about 150 times roughly four times greater than normal.  This shows that reporters were told to make sure that they were live tweeting and using social media in order to get the information out as quickly as possible to the public, since it was the most efficient method given the speed with which the events were occurring in and around the City of Boston.   Social media communications were now being used as a two-way communication with the public. The public was actually using social media accounts to receive live up to the minute vital communications from public and private sources and was also communicating directly back to these agencies creating this two way communication path.

During the Boston Marathon attacks, David Mazza from Harvard University, explains in the following interview how he was able to follow the news reports through twitter and that it was the easiest way to track what was going on and to receive relevant information.  He also explains exactly where he was at the time, which was very close to the incident that occurred within Boston and also the resulting manhunt for the terrorists.

Due to the increase of tweets and social media information being spewed out into the public, many people started to follow more and more news coverage accounts through Twitter. Also, this behavior again shows that social media is the easiest and quickest way for people to access and get information from breaking news. For example, from the graphs depicted you can see the difference in the amount of people who follow the Boston Globe before, during, and after the terrorist attacks.  Also, there is a graph that shows the amount of @BostonGlobe mentions there are before, during, and after the attacks.  This data clearly outlines the increased use and efficiency of social media outlets to distribute news and public safety information. 

Social media played a huge part in the "manhunt" of the terrorist for the Boston Police Department.

As soon as 10 minutes after the bombing, the Boston Police Department (BPD) Commissioner Edward Davis told his department to start using social media and to let people know what had occurred", as noted in the article "Social Media: Big Lessons from the Boston Marathon Bombing".  It became quickly apparent that Facebook and Twitter were the best source of information about the "manhunt" due to the use by the Boston Police Department of its twitter account.  Stated by Lt Zachary Perron a public information officer from Palo Alto, Californian, "The BPD twitter account became the news source during the crisis. It was a watershed moment for law enforcement and social media."

The two-way communication with the police enforcement twitter accounts is a prime example of two-way communication between public safety agencies and its constituents – the citizens.  Social media accounts of Police departments are an excellent example of how this process should work with various police agencies communicating directing with the public through its social media accounts. The public was able to directly contact and ask questions to the BPD, and the BPD was able to quickly and efficiently respond to various inquiries. Given the highly connected nature of social media, the public was also able to quickly propagate the authoritative news and messages of the BPD through retweets.    

False reads from some of the news coverage sites also occurred due to the volume of use of social media and the speed with which this material was being distributed by all parties.  For example, in the article, "Social Media and Police Leadership: Lessons From Boston" the authors explain how there were some instances when sites such as CNN were giving out false information.  In the early afternoon of April 17, 2013 CNN reported that the arrests were made on the terrorist and within minutes that news was prompted nationally.  Thus, the BPD replied in the matter of minutes back to CNN to let them know that "through Twitter, that no arrest had been made. CNN retracted its report almost immediately, and the BPD tweet was amplified by nearly 11,000 retweets."  This is a stunning example of the two-way communication benefit of social media outlets.   

The over arching theme that is expressed is that social media can play a huge part in peoples lives today as it will help the public receive and disseminate information from major news sources and provide important and accurate information about the most current news and events happening in society. 

The trends of video games tend to change over time due to the quality of the game from user interface with age and the nature of the video game industry

As a child I would always find time to the play with my friends our favorite video game, Super Smash Bros. This game was played on a console referred to as a game cube, which was made by Nintendo, as was Super Smash Bros.  My friends and I would always sway into playing this game rather than others because it was a multiplayer, fighting, and action packed game that did not show gruesome and violent killings, but friendly cartoonist fights.  We would refer to this game as our favorite game since it was quick and always fun as it dealt with many characters that we were fond of from different games and it would be put into this game as a character that can be used.  This game caused much friendly competitiveness with each other, which created much fun every time we played, the game was never the same as there was always a new fight or funny aspect of the game being portrayed.  Also, it was easy to set up and use when we were children because it was played on a game cube, which was very simple to use and set up, as it just had cords to connect to the television and an on/off button.

Change of age from younger to older tends to make the user play different video games such more graphically inclined or shooting and violent games

As I got older I tended to sway away from games such as Super Smash bros or cartoonist games like Pokemon as well, and started to play more shooting and "Mature" rated games.  This is because my friends started to play other games than the ones that we had played before.  Also, the game consoles changed overtime and technology started to become more infused into the internet and online play rather than multiplayer play with mutual friends.  Since more games started to use online play with strangers there would be more players online rather than a couple mutual players, and it created more fun and interesting play.  Also, since I got older my friends and I tended to sway away from friendly violent games to more realistic and shooting games such as Call of Duty or Grand Theft Auto.  When we started to get older we started to understand the realistic world more and understand the facts on what would happen to people in these violent activities.  Therefore, we then started to play more "Mature" rated games since we knew and understood the "real world" outcomes.  Since, more games such as Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto have an older age group playing online, it makes for more people to play online, which caused for my friends and I to sway over to more shooter and "M" rated games.

The use of technology is able to bring an older age group to video games due to the online play

As technology started to get better as time went on the greater percentage of people started to play on the internet and online based games or computer games, stated in the article by the MarketingCharts staff.  Also, stated in that article is that most of the gamers are from ages 18-29 started to play games on mostly consoles and any device such as on a touch screen tablet.  This was another reason why my friends and I tended to play other games or stopped playing Super Smash Bros because due to the new technology and devices being made, more and more people started to play games on apps and cell phones.  Since more technology was being created this made my friends and I move away from our childhood games and start to use the newest devices being portrayed to society such as online shooting games or playing apps on tablets which also used more of a social media aspect that was able to bring about an older age crowd of young adults.  Then, due to the better creation of graphics and images being used in later video games, it allowed for an older audience rather than just children, which also allowed me to sway to different video games and stop playing the game that I did as a child.   Therefore, from our textbook, "Converging Media" from question six on page 184, I was able to explain a video game that I loved to play as a child and explained reasons why I tended to stray away from that video game overtime.  

From this chart you can see the different ages of people who play online

From my reasons of why I tended to stray away from my childhood video games to other games, as I got older was from the aspect of how the video-game industry was able to appeal to that certain age group.  Since gaming started to become stronger in the technological world, more people started to like the aspect of socializing within games and use the online aspect of video games.  Therefore, as you can see in the chart above that video games when I was a child did not have online play and as I got older, online play was appealing due to the many players playing that game at once.  Thus, I started to play more online games since the video game industry emphasized that aspect and created a larger margin of younger adults playing online video games.  Also, within the textbook it explained that since there are a lot of people who use Facebook, therefore, a good amount of people will use online video games.  With regards to social play in video games due to the user interface of video games, people tend to like to use more communication devices, which allows them to play more online play, and play more games that involve communication with other strangers either on an app or on a console.  Therefore, technology with easier user interface is able to connect to the audience better, and will allow them want and use a product such as a console or tablet product as explained on this website about the new "Android" cell phone.  The use of communication and easier video game access with the use of apps on cell phones is able to give the audience an easier user interface and stray them away from childhood video games as it did for more.  Overall, as I grew older I tended to change the types of video games that I played because of the increase of technology, social gaming, such as the way the video game industry portrayed games overtime, and better graphics or images as this was able to appeal to older audiences and allow for a change in gaming from one age to the next.

  

The Osama bin Laden assassination caused Polio vaccinators to be put under threat in Pakistan

The disease of Polio was a devastating aspect to lives of many people in the past.  However, now the threat of this disease is on a rise due to the killings and threats of many vaccinators in Pakistan. According to the article, "How the bin Laden raid put vaccinators under the gun in Pakistan", it states that after the assassination of bin Laden there has been about "327 new cases in 2014, 60 percent of the world total."  This photo is able to depict the struggles of many people in Pakistan and what they have to deal with once they have Polio.  This crippling disease can show a crippling person, as they are crumbling in pain, and the concrete is torn apart due to the terror and wars that is taking place in Pakistan and countries around it that people and vaccinators are dealing with.  Thus, this photo is able to portray the pain and threats that are coming back into the world since, people are killing vaccinators and causing terror to innocent people.  Therefore, from the photo itself and the major aspects in the peripheral, it shows the pain and terror that is surrounding the people in Pakistan, from wars to diseases.  

The photo on the right is able to portray the type of security that is shown during an attempt for vaccination of polio.  The struggles that Pakistan and vaccinators have to deal with is very tough and since the assassination of bin Laden, it has only gotten worse.  The security is very intense and "showy" as the man is holding an AK47 machine gun, in order to make sure there is a very small chance of threat to this medical procedure.  Since there are major wars and threats that are present in Pakistan and surrounding countries, it is true that there should be this intense amount of security in order to protect something that can spread to many people around the world and cripple many societies and people.  The main point is that a story can be told in this photo and shown from the peripheral views of this photo, from the security guard holding a machine gun, to the child receiving a vaccination for polio.  Thus, from the photo itself and the images surrounding it in the peripheral, it can show the major impact that polio has in Pakistan and the importance there is to protect and take away the disease.

Bio

My name is John and I am a sophomore at the University of Maryland, College Park.  I am currently on the baseball team here at Maryland and excited to get the season going.  I am interested in the study of kinesiology and or criminal justice, as I am currently undecided.  I enjoy traveling and hope to view the many landscapes of our world, and I enjoy playing baseball.