lOMoARcPSD|266586 02
Pridmore 1
Amanda Pridmore
Professor Frank Meyers
SCOM-110
28 March 2022
Think Critically: Convergence, Books, and Print Media Assignment
1) What is convergence? Describe what convergence has meant in your life and how it affects
you.
a) From my personal interpretation, convergence is the culminative development of certain
things that causes objects to become monopolized into one form. For instance, bringing a
book, a gps, a camera, a cd player with cd’s/headphones, and your wallet on a trip is no
longer necessary in today’s modern day. This being due to the fact that smart phones
possess the abilities of all said items.
b) Being in my early twenties, I vividly remember the days before smart phones existed.
During my years of childhood, if I wanted to talk to my friends outside of school, we
would email or call each other via landline. In my years of being a tween/early teen, I
would use my pink razor flip phone to call or text them. If I wanted to listen to music, I
would turn on my iPod nano, play CDs in my cd player, or even play the music videos
through my computer via YouTube. If I wanted to play video games, I would either log
onto my parent’s desktop computer, use my Nintendo DS, or use my family’s Nintendo
Wii. If I sought directions to an unfamiliar destination, I would turn on my Garmin gps
system. Today, I can accomplish all those things with a click of a button through my
Apple iPhone. This has caused my life immense ease in being able to do numerous tasks
in one small, powerful device.
lOMoARcPSD|266586 02
Pridmore 2
2) Which culture should receive the most credit for the invention of printing? Explain.
a) Johannes Gutenberg has been held on a pedestal as, “the inventor of the printing press”,
although he merely just furthered the advancement of the print press system via creating
molds for its system. Truth be told, it was conceived centuries before he existed, in Asia.
However, it was done differently with less advancement.
b) Let’s piggyback this information to the modern-day precedence of the Apple iPhone.
Although Steve Jobs created the first smart phone, he did not invent the first telephone.
Jobs merely attributed to the advancement of cellular technology, just as Gutenberg did
long ago with the printing press.
c) The bible was one of the first things to be printed on Gutenberg’s printing press. This
aided in spreading Christianity further and more seamlessly since it no longer had to be
individually handwritten.
3) When you go online for news, what kinds of stories most attract you? Do you look for detail
and depth, or do you chase “click bait?” Why? Does it have anything to do with what you
have come to expect from online content? Name a few news outlets that use click bait
techniques to attract readers? Explain your answers.
a) As a typical twenty-three-year-old female, I always tend to favor news that has to do with
fashion and pop culture. However, when I seek the traditional news story, I tend to
gravitate toward stories with the most “shocking” title, initially. Or the leading headlines,
rather. This is a normal trait of all humans, to feel attraction toward things that are most
flabbergasting. I always follow up with further research, though, as the issue of “fake
news” is at an all time high.
lOMoARcPSD|266586 02
Pridmore 3
b) While “click bait” always ends up having the most views due to its shock factor, it isn’t
always the most reliable information. I recall when I was taking one of the required gen-
ed courses at my original undergraduate institution, Elmhurst College (now called
Elmhurst University), we dived into this topic in immense depth. There are two versions
of “click bait”, one being an article with an obscure title that immediately draws the
curiosity of thousands of clicks. The other being websites pretending to be well known
news outlets.
c) In this class, it was uncovered to me that some websites will pose as legitimate news
outlets, such as ABC, NBC, etc. However, they will alter their URL slightly. One way to
see whether the site you are on is indeed the site it says it is is if they have a strange
domain name. This could be something along the lines of “FoxxN3wz.org or
CNMNew$.com”. Fake logos will often be displayed, as well as misspelled address bars
(http:// with no S), poor grammar, and false contact information.
d) Moreover, articles with abrupt, shocking titles will naturally attract a popular number of
clicks. While the titles will be alluring, the information within it will likely be false. Why
would anyone do this? Simple; profits per advertisement clicking. Meaning, “if a reader
on the publisher’s website clicks an ad, that advertiser will pay the network. The network
then shares some of the revenue with the publisher” (Gillin). With this said, the context
and accuracy of the article’s entailments do not matter. All that does is that the title of the
article is shocking enough to captivate enough people to click on the page, then perhaps
become distracted by an advertisement or two, then clicking on said add and putting
money in the publisher’s pockets. This spreads false information like wildfire, causing
society to be in a trance of delusion with not knowing what is and is not factual reality.
lOMoARcPSD|266586 02
Pridmore 4
e) A passage from Proverbs that resembles the topic of fake news is as follows, “A faithful
witness does not lie, but a false witness breathes out lies” (Proverbs 14:5). This indirectly
addresses fake news perfectly. Those who are true to God will refrain from spreading
falsehoods, while those who are not faithful to Him will spread ingenuine information for
their own selfish, personal indulgence.
lOMoARcPSD|266586 02
Pridmore 5
Works Cited
Baran, Stanley J. Introduction to Mass Communication, Media Literacy and Culture. Eleventh
Edition, McGraw-Hill Education, 2021.
Gillin, Joshua. “Politifact - the More Outrageous, the Better: How Clickbait Ads Make Money
for Fake News Sites.” @Politifact, Poynter Institute, 4 Oct. 2017,
https://www.politifact.com/article/2017/oct/04/more-outrageous-better-how-clickbait-ads-
make-mone/.
Herrick, Kate. “How to Spot a Fake or Scam Website.” Online Security, ASecureLife, 18 Dec.
2019, https://www.asecurelife.com/how-to-spot-a-fake-website/.
McCarthy, Michael. “History of Printmaking.” About Printmaking Through the Ages, Tribeca
Printworks LLC, 26 Feb. 2021, https://www.tribecaprintworks.com/history-of-
printmaking/.
