Lessig

I feel the overall point of this article is information and expression of information is free, accessible, and democratic. Information that is free and democratic is being threatened by legal issues. The article not only explains this overall point it goes beyond it and expands the thinking of it within the four examples.

Lessig writes about Kodak as increasing people’s ability to express themselves and Just Think! enabling children to explore film as a means of understanding and exploring culture. Over the past 30 years media has dramatically come into the lives of children and young adults. Just Think! assists in the teaching of this media and further decreases the barriers to expression. This knowledge about media encourages kids to further get involved with it. The internet increases the democratic information and the media controls their information content. I think it takes discipline to remember this. When I turn on the television I assume that representation of information is fair. It is difficult to remember that information is controlled and the news does not necessarily provide the most important or correct information. Blogs assist in breaking down the barriers from the media. They open dialogue between people everywhere and engage readers. Blogs serve another purpose: they increase the life of information. I think this is important because it enhances expression by allowing people to discuss an issue as much as they want. Also, it increases empowerment of people’s opinions. Ward Churchill and his article Some People Push Back: On the Justice of Roosting Chickens is an example of the life of information and how the life of information can have an impact. I agree with Lessig when he writes about how the different media allows us to triangulate the truth. Open source software, software whose source code is shared, further expands learning and the ability to teach and create culture. According to Wikipedia, Mozilla Firefox and GNU General Public License are examples of open source software.

This article is also about empowerment, understanding media, and creating empowerment within children. Empowerment comes from the ability to express oneself and the knowledge that is gained. This empowerment causes children to get involved with their lives and the community beyond being just a consumer in order to create their own culture as active participants in life. However, the law that is being written is threatening the empowerment, free information, and the ability to learn and create culture.