World Wide Web Importance

Jacob Robertson

Media Law and Literacy

10/5/20

The Importance of  the World Wide Web

The World Wide Web was created by Tim Berners-Lee, a software engineer, originally to help scientists share and transfer information across the world without as much hassle. This led him to try and create a database of sorts, which was the first web page ever created. In the year 1990 Berners-Lee finalized the idea for the web at CERN, the group of scientists that he worked for. CERN was an organization of scientists and researchers that spanned across the world in a number of different settings. Some were at colleges or universities while others were at research centers, but what made sharing information with them difficult was the fact that these members were all over the world. Berners-Lee wanted to try and make this easier for people to get access to their information and ended up creating a huge part of the internet as we know it today. Besides coming up with the idea for the web, Berners-Lee also wrote three technologies that are still the basis of the world wide web today. He created the HTML language as well as the URI and HTTP that are still present in web links today. The URI is how the internet keeps track of all of the different assets on the web, while HTTP allows you to bring up those assets. The first server came online at the end of 1990 at the CERN headquarters and a second server followed the next year in America at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. As more and more servers began to pop up, Berners-Lee realized that CERN couldn’t handle all of this work alone and so he turned to the internet for help. People saw the idea for the web and wanted to help work on it, giving the project more and more traction. At the end of 1994 there were more than 10,000 servers across the world and millions of users. The world wide web took off from there, growing bigger and bigger until it grew into what it is today. The importance of the World Wide Web is the fact that the work that Berners-Lee did laid the groundwork for the web pages and internet that we all use today. Berners-Lee set up the International World Wide Web Consortium, which was created to protect the internet from being privatized or having its access restricted. Berners-Lee knew other people would want to work with this code, and so he made it public for all to use and alter. These actions are what gave us the World Wide Web that we all know and use every day. (Tim Berners-Lee pictured below at CERN)

Supreme Court Springboard Blog

 Jacob Robertson

Media Law and Literacy

Supreme Court

          The Supreme Court is the head of the Judicial Branch in the US government. They are the highest court and are the end all be all for laws in the United States. The evaluate the constitutionality of these laws while also serving as a corrective measure for cases that may have gone wrong. This branch of the government has the power to check the other two branches and has done so multiple times in history. Serving on the Supreme Court as a supreme court justice is one of the highest judicial honors that a person can have, and they can hold this office as long as they want or until they are impeached. Since 1869 there have been nine Supreme Court Justices, including one chief justice that presides over the others. All of these justices are nominated by the President and then after that are confirmed by Congress. Before 1869, back when the Supreme Court was just established under article three of the US Constitution in 1789, there were only six supreme court justices. During the early days of the Supreme Court they didn't really take any cases, focusing more on organizational issues within the newly established government. The first actual decision that the Supreme Court handed down happened in 1791 in the case of West vs Barnes, a relatively simple case between a farmer and a family that he owed debt to. The Supreme Court has weighed in on all types of cases and issues that have happened during the history of the United States, everything from civil rights issues throughout the entire history of this nation to issues with government officials abusing their power. The Supreme Court has provided guidance on major issues throughout the history of this nation, both good and bad, and has been an important factor of the development of the United States into what it is today.

News Outlets That I Use

Jacob Robertson

8/26/20

Media Law and Literacy

News Outlets That I Use

          One of the most trusted sources of news that I use is the Washington Post. Even though the Washington Post sometimes leans to the left they still provide accurate information and give me a differing political view. Having a left leaning view is important because it shows me criticisms of things or people that I might not hear about on other right leaning news outlets. The Washington Post provides accurate information on world events and gives a left leaning political view. https://www.washingtonpost.com/

          Another one of the sources that I use for news is The New York Times. The New York Times is one of the most trusted newspapers in America, and I follow them on the news app on my Iphone to try and keep up to date with what is happening in the world. The New York Times may sometimes lean toward the left, but they still provide incredibly accurate information the majority of the time. https://www.nytimes.com/

          One of the news sources that I use for information on the economy and stock markets is The Wall Street Journal. The Wall Street Journal provides incredibly accurate information on the stock market and has interesting articles with opinions on the economy that I enjoy reading. I would recommend this news source to anyone trying to learn about the economy or just business in general. https://www.wsj.com/

          Another new source that I use frequently even if they do tend to lean to the right on most issues is Fox News. Having a right perspective during election time is important to me because they tend to lean towards keeping things like freedom of speech untouched as well as the right to bear arms. I use this news source to give me a different political perspective most of the time. They also have lots of information on everything from the disasters that are happening on the west coast to the new border policies. https://www.foxnews.com/ 

          Another really frequent new source that I use is Associated Press News. I use Associated Press because of the wide variety of stories that can be found on their website. From election news to global events, the information that this news source provides is accurate and encompasses a large number of topics. https://apnews.com/