“Access is a process of control rather than liberation” Unrembering the Forgotton Tim Sherratt

“But power over a platform requires knowledge of what it purveys. And where we collectively lack that information, we lose the capacity to steer creation’s course.” What’s on top of TIKTOK Tess Mcnulty

“Media doesn’t just record life; it shapes it, making mediated experiences central to social reality.” A Life in Lived Media Mark Deuze et all

“Truly democratic spaces allow knowledge to be shared without fear of repercussion or backlash.” Is Twitter Any Place for a [Black Academic] Lady Marcia Chatelain

This week’s readings were particularly powerful, it describes different facets of media, how its presented, how it can be analyzed, benefits and short comings of social media metadata and looking at media’s past present and future. The quotes above allowed me to rethink social media, how vast, powerful, useful, and elusive it can be. The readings that stood out to me the most was Chatelain’s and Mark Deuze et. All’s pieces. It was captivating to hear of the #syllabus movement in Is Twitter Any Place, how it connected scholars and teachers, current social uproar and the classroom, how political conversations are just as important on and offline. A Life in Lived Media, brough forward how important and all-encompassing media is in the current day, it’s not a tool but a part of daily living, a part of making sense to our culture and our worlds. All readings showed many topics we’ve touched upon this semester, creating accessible tools, sharing blocked or difficult to find knowledge, foster collaboration and conversation. Looking at different ways scholars use data of media platforms, for what purposes and what issues are they facing, is especially concerning. With the change in Twitter’s policy, and many other social media platforms it raises user anxieties, like what is being done with our data behind these closed doors? The data, like described in Life in Lived Media, is in the background, how can we understand what we consume if certain pieces of information are kept hidden?