lareina: presentation + ppt

Last Friday, as we all know, is black Friday, perhaps the most awesome shopping festival in US. According to the Washington post, The physical rush of Black Friday and the armchair browsing of Cyber Monday are increasingly blending into one big holiday shopping event as more customers buy items online and pick them up at brick-and-mortar stores.

Adobe Analytics reported Saturday that more customers are going to stores to get items they bought online. That trend contributed to a record $6.22 billion spent online Friday, up nearly 24 percent from last year.

But the fastest-growing online shopping day is Thanksgiving. Online sales totaled $3.7 billion on Thursday, up 28 percent from last year.

It's a sign that retailers are merging online business with their physical stores even as fewer people travel to those stores on Black Friday. Walmart, Kohl's and Target are among major retailers that are expanding the number of stores where shoppers can pick up online orders.

Next piece of news is reported by the new york times. More than four decades after Britain tied itself to its Continental neighbors, Prime Minister Theresa May obtained the approval of the other 27 European Union members on a formal divorce pact from the bloc, a consequential step intended to take the country on a new, if unclear, path.

Months of difficult negotiations produced the legally binding withdrawal agreement and a vaguer set of pledges concerning a future relationship with the bloc, both of which were officially adopted in Brussels on Sunday. A few last-minute issues had remained to be resolved, including The sovereignty of Gibraltar.

Under the plan, Britain would leave the European Union in March but adhere to the bloc’s rules and regulations at least until December 2020, while negotiators try to sort out the longer-term future.

Although it still needs ratification by the European Parliament, the blessing of European leaders on Sunday finally put on the table a formal divorce deal that would chart for Britain a gradual and orderly departure.

[https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/25/world/europe/brexit-uk-eu-agreement.html action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage]

Next one is the latest progress of the camp fire in California. According to the Los Angeles Times, reported by Ruben Vives and Sonali Kohli, It is saying that More than two weeks after the deadliest fire on record in California swept through Butte County, killing at least 85 people and destroying 14,000 homes, officials announced Sunday that the massive Camp fire was finally 100% contained.

The devastating blaze, which began on Nov. 8, scorched more than 153,000 acres and destroyed more than 18,000 structures, according to California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection officials. The number of residents still missing stands at 249, and thousands more have been displaced by the massive blaze. At the centers, which are scheduled to be open through Dec. 8, residents affected by the fire can get help filing insurance claims and applying for FEMA assistance. They can also receive advice on how to clean up, repair and rebuild their properties.

[https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-camp-fire-contained-20181125-story.html]

Recently, Facebook was trapped in Cambridge Analytica scandal, facebook was hit by the UK’s information commissioner with a £500,000 fine for enabling the illicit harvesting of 87 million users’ data. In fact, it is not the first time that Facebook met such crisis. Perhaps, the most we'll known scandal of Facebook is his election, which I would talk about later. First all, lets look at the several headlines of Facebook scandal from the wall street journal and the new york times. For the wall street journal, one of the headline quoted the original words of Zuckerberg without any attractive words, another one uses the idea of scapegoat, turning the company into a kind of victim. These headlines showed certain friendly attitude towards facebook. On the contrary, the new york times uses harsh words such as “Poison, CAN NOT be trusted, Folly, Scandals, Missteps” to criticize Facebook. It obvious oppose Facebook rather than stand by its side. We can see this varied attitude more clearly after the more detailed analysis of the selected reports.

Fist of all, lets go back to the times’s news report written by Clare Foges. In the selected paragraph, Clare Foges described her lunch experience with Facebook’s chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg, whose words were interpreted by Clare Foges as the ambition to global domination. Then, she reminded readers of Facebook scandal in 2016, showing the content of the memo and attacking the word maybe. She used several parallel sentences to express her anger towards the indifference and scorn that the Facebook executives showed to Facebook users. Then, she pointed out the restriction of the law seemed to be invalid in new power modal. It said that…

In her opinion, the best way to regulate and punish Facebook is to “hit where it hurts”, that is to call upon advertisers and consumers quit using Facebook. She conclude that “in a world where the tech giants can’t (or won’t) be brought to heel by governments and regulators, in a time when they do as they please and do great damage, people power may be the best weapon we have.”

As we can see, in this report, the author used many strong and negative words as well as parallel sentences to build the negative tone of the whole report. This is not only the criticism she said to the Facebook’s scandal of purposely leaking user’s information but also the message that she wants to deliver to people, calling upon people to leave the Facebook.

As for the new york times’ report, I found one that has a quiet subjective tone. The article is not written by the professional journalist but a It pointed out a philosopher. In fact, Dr. Liao is also the author or editor of The Ethics of Artificial Intelligence and several other books, he also gives TED talks. Accordingly, We can see obvious personal style and emotional tone in this report. In the report, Liao gives his reasons why one might have a duty to leave Facebook, which I summarized as follows: from the prospect of the duty of self-care, Facebook can be time-consuming and addictive, to no fruitful end. Moreover, research find out that Facebook use can worsen depression and anxiety. While from the prospect of one’s duties to others, Facebook undermines democratic values, spreads hate speech and fake news, leaks user’s information and becomes a large echo chamber, all of which damages the value of society. However, Liao’s idea is not as aggressive or negative as Clare Foges, he didn’t urges people to quit facebook, rather he points out users’ responsibility and claims that he would stay on Facebook until it crossed the moral red line.

Tracing back to the March 17, 2018, The Guardian and The New York Times initially reported the explosive expose that 50 million Facebook profiles were harvested for Cambridge Analytica in a major data scandal. This number was later revised to as many as 87 million Facebook profiles.

The articles sought to outline how the data of millions of Facebook users ended up being given to Cambridge Analytica. Christopher Wylie, a co-founder of the political data analytics firm, revealed the alleged practices to both newspapers. Wylie claimed the data sold to Cambridge Analytica was then used to develop "psychographic" profiles of people and deliver pro-Trump material to them online. This chart in the report explains how the process is made, which connects the Facebook, the Cambridge analytics, and Donald Trump together. Moreover, the guardian also adopted people’s view on this issue.

Last piece of news is from the wall street journal, it starts with the response that the new york times is accurate but incomplete, and the Washington post’s report is rather a too simple investigation. ao, all of the them are not convincing. Then, it begins to raise its point, saying that Facebook is just a scapegoat while the people and politician are the one to blame. It is claimed that what divided peoples not the message or ads in the Facebook, rather its more realistic issues that with lots of uncertainty which Politicians may manipulate. He pointed out that the investigation should focus on politicians rather than the scapegoat - Facebook.

Foamy perspective, the first piece of news is the most aggressive or radical one, claiming that people should abandon Facebook; the second one as well opposes Facebook, pointing out the harms of the Facebook, but instead of abandoning the Facebook immediately, it suggested to stay on it and quit it when it across the bottom line. however, these two are lack of evidence to support thenselve, esp. the second one. While the third piece of news has strong and accurate evidence, and with the compile of evidence, the tone of the report is more objective. Moreover, the various opinion presented the report makes it more convincing. The last one holds the different stance, it defends for the Facebook, claiming that Facebook is also the victim, the scapegoat. Although it counter attack other posts and raises its point, I think the response as well as the points are not strong enough, there are rather plain. To conclude, these news reports presented different attitudes on facebook scandals with various writing style.