The Pro-Clinton Google Search Conspiracy

We all have our different views and opinions when it comes to politics, of course. But when it comes to a search engine that millions of people access every day that displays political information that may be biased towards favoring one candidate over the other, this is crossing the line in my opinion. I recently read an article explaining how back in June, a news channel SourceFed created a Youtube video stating that Google was manipulating auto-complete suggestions in its search bar to promote favorable searches relating to Hillary Clinton. Google found this criticism of their website and had to release a statement that explained the policy of suppressing offensive auto-complete suggestions in relation to a person's name. The article went on to state that this controversy didn't end here because Robert Epstein, a Psychologist, conducted his own study on this issue, and the results were released to the public. Epstein, and his team, used proxy servers to minimize bias, and looked at Google auto-suggestions in responses to hundreds of election-related search terms. He came to the conclusion that SourceFed was right because he found it hard to get the Google search bar to portray any negative searches related to Hillary Clinton. Epstein then went on to say, "Bing and Yahoo, on the other hand, often show a number of negative suggestions in response to the same search terms." 

This is a ton of information thrown out in one article, so I am going to do my best at addressing what I think about it, and try to keep my political opinions to the side because it is important to have an open mind when it comes to politics. To start, I find it alarming that Epstein and his team accessed other search engines, Bing and Yahoo, to type Hillary Clinton's name into, and found many negative suggestions towards her. But when they tried to perform the same task on Google, they found nothing to portray any negative searches related to Clinton. Yes, Google is much more popular than Bing or Yahoo, but this does not mean they can take advantage of this popularity on the people that are accessing their website for information. I feel that they should not be able to literally go into their website and take advantage of others by displaying only the political information they want to display. In this case, making no negative suggestions of Clinton come about when people search her name in their search bar. I also understand that Google is a place where people can access the information they want to access, so if they want to find out the negative news about Hillary Clinton, they could simply type this into Google and find many different websites that will give this information to them. This is an article that my opinion can go either way. I am more on the side of believing that Google is taking advantage of their users by displaying a bias towards favoring Clinton, but I understand that it is, ultimately, the users choice on what they want to search. 

As far as my concluding statement goes, in my opinion, no big company that is well known all over the World should incorporate any sort of political pitch, suggestion or bias when it comes to accessing their website, unless it is specifically meant for politics. I am a believer in keeping my political views and opinions quiet when communicating with anyone else because I do not want them to act differently towards me because of this. And this is something that Google may want to keep in mind, and possibly act upon so they do not have any confrontations related to this topic again. As any other company should keep in mind too so they, also, do not have to come out with a statement to address something like this, and have the chance of hindering their public reputation.

Steve Clevenger's Suspension Due To Twitter Posts

The shooting of a black man by a police officer in Charlotte, North Carolina sparked strong emotions from people across the US, as every other shooting does. This then, of course, led to protests taking place in this city by the well known group, Black Lives Matter. Everyone is entitled to have their own opinions when it comes to this group, but posting your feelings on social media right after the unfortunate event takes place is not the most intelligent idea. Especially when you are a MLB player that people look up to. I understand that people want others to know how they feel about these events that keep happening, but you should take the time to thoroughly write your opinion in a respectful manner. You should not start posting on social media in the heat of the moment when you first hear the news. This action just fuels the fire, and can lead people into developing negative thoughts about you. This is exactly what Steve Clevenger embarked in. 

Steve Clevenger is a backup catcher for the Seattle Mariners, and is now, suspended without pay for the rest of the season due to the tweets he posted about Black Lives Matter. One of the posts read, "BLM is pathetic one again! Obama you are pathetic once again! Everyone involved should be locked behind bars like animals!" I do believe that Black Lives Matter has gone way too far with their protests, especially when they shut down 35W in Minneapolis. This not only puts them in danger, but everyone else involved. Throwing materials at police officers, preventing people from going anywhere, and being a complete disturbance to society is not how protests should be done. If they want to protest and spread their feelings, they should do so in a peaceful way. 

Anyways, back to the point of addressing Clevenger's Twitter posts. Like I said before, he should have thought what he was going to post about thoroughly. I thought the posts were rude, uncalled for, and unknowledgeable, to say the least. On the other hand, I do not think the General Manager of the Seattle Mariners should have come to a conclusion of suspending him the day he found out about these tweets. In my opinion, he should have reviewed the tweets, developed a message to state to the public when he noticed the tweets, and then proceed to suspend him within a couple days once he has grasped the whole story of Clevenger. 

As far as the suspension for the season without any pay goes, I believe this was slightly acceptable. Clevenger should be suspended for the season for the tweets he displayed to the public because he has to understand that this type of behavior will not be tolerated, and is not acceptable. But, the no pay aspect for the rest of the season is the one thing I am still unsure about. Yes, he did wrong by stating his opinion in an offensive way, but can people not get a second chance to redeem themselves, and reflect on the mess they put themselves in? The salary is something he has earned and makes his living off of, and for twitter posts to completely demolish this salary, I do not know what to exactly think about it. He did, though, come back with an apology statement after the suspension stating, " I am sickened by the idea that anyone would think of me in racist terms. My tweets were reactionary to the events I saw on the news and worded beyond poorly at best and I can see how and why someone could read into my tweets far more deeply than how I actually feel." He added: "I just ask the public not judge me because of an ill worded tweet." He could have totally stated this to try and gain his reputation back, but I truly believe what he is saying is true. Because of the fact he has had the time to think about his wrong doings, and how these wrong doings affected his life. 

From this story, overall, I have noticed how social media truly can run our lives....whether it is positively or negatively. One tweet, or one Facebook post, could demolish your image in public, and prevent you from partaking in your job that you thrive on, and make a living from. With this said, I am, and alway have been, extremely careful of the posts I display on social media, especially when it comes to my political opinions because I know how deeply people can feel about politics. And I do not want to ruin my relationships with others because of these political opinions that I have. 

How Much Do You Trust the Celebrities and Social Media Stars You Follow?

I recently read an article that I found interesting and something I always find myself questioning. The article I read was titled, "How Much Do You Trust the Celebrities and Social Media Stars You Follow?" It explained how marketers see social media as an important tool in displaying their ads to reach a tricky type of audience, especially when there is a picture of a celebrity saying how great the product really is. The article used the example of the Kardashians posting pictures on social media of themselves with weight loss products they, supposedly, used to prove that these products worked for them, so they will work for you. But the viewers of these Kardashian sisters may have noticed a new addition to these types of posts. At the end of their post about these products there is the hashtag of, "#ad". This is new addition is due to the Federal Trade Commission having a problem with how these paid brand endorsements should be handled so people know these are strictly just ads. Although the Federal Trade Commission mentioned and encouraged these celebrity endorsers to place, "#ad" or "#sponsored", on their posts, there is no set rules or guidelines in place that anyone has to follow.

I have a problem with these celebrities posting their opinion and pictures about a certain product to draw their fans into buying it because I feel they, truly, do not even know how the product works. For example, if you were to ask them specific detailed questions such as, "How would this product work if I am gluten free?" In my opinion, when you are displaying a product to the entire public, you should know the exact details about the product because that is what the workers of the company you are promoting have to do. They work extremely hard to make a living by hard work and determination of encouraging people to buy their products, and answer any questions consumers may have. Sadly, these workers will never, in a lifetime, make the kind of money these celebrities make, obviously. The least the celebrities could do is invest research into the product they are promoting because they charge, on average, "$187,500 for a post on YouTube, $75,000 for a post on Instagram or Snapchat and $30,000 for a post on Twitter", as the article states.

Whatever the product consists of that these celebrities are posting, I do not believe I would be more likely to invest in buying the product. Even if it was, in fact, my favorite celebrity or athlete. When I am scrolling through my news feed on Instagram or Facebook, I usually bypass any sort of celebrity post that is promoting a product because I find this very annoying. I think this annoyance is triggered by how often they perform this act. I feel that the celebrities post a different picture with a product almost every day stating how great it is. These constant promotions get old easily, and a lot of times I actually unfollow them due to this. With that said, I am sure other people feel this same way, which means these celebs may actually be losing a good portion of their fans, instead of gaining their fans interest, by contributing in this ad dilemma!

Don't get me wrong, I do understand why people would totally be influenced by a celebrity promoting a product, and be more likely to buy it because of this celebrity. But promoting something is just another way for these celebs to earn an absurd amount of green dollar bills! The people that have a dedicated following of fans, such as the Kardashians, are blinded by the factor of somehow being like them when they purchase the product they are promoting. We, as consumers, should start looking beyond the surface of these advertisements, and understand why these celebrities are really partaking in promoting products. Some of these stars could care less about the audience they are generating, they just want to continue making the big amount of money by simply posing with a product, while all of us are trying to make a living by working hard and actually trying to earn a college degree!

"Finding Dory" Trailer Generates a Whirlwind of Emotions

From the people I have talked to, many automatically have a bad outlook on movie sequels. Well, I am here to take a look at one movie sequel that I find as enriching and done in a responsible, effective way. I am going to touch on why I believe the sequel to "Finding Nemo", which is called "Finding Dory" has a movie trailer that can change anyone's attitude towards a sequel not being as good as the original movie into the opposite.

I am a sucker for any type of children's movie that has a meaningful, yet funny, storyline to it, and  "Finding Nemo" did exactly this to me. This movie, at points, had me laugh until I would cry, especially with the sassy remarks Dory would make, I absolutely love her! One of the quotes that I have memorized was, "Wow. I wish I could speak whale." You would, of course, have to had watched the movie in order to understand the humor behind the things Dory says! Along with the laughter, "Finding Nemo" also brought out the emotional side of me, especially when Nemo was placed into the Dentist aquarium without his dad. I am an extremely emotional person, so I remember I was around 13 years old when this movie first came out, (yes an emotional and dramatic teenage age), I would literally cling on to whoever's arm was next to me when this part came on! Way dramatic, I know, but no worries, I'm over doing that now at the age of 19!!

I'm sure you're wondering, "Why does she keep going on and on about Finding Nemo when the title to her blog consists of the Finding Dory trailer?" Well, I touched on the feelings I experienced from watching "Finding Nemo" because I have not gotten a chance to watch the new "Finding Dory" movie yet, which I am super bummed about! But, this trailer of "Finding Dory" sparked a lot of the same emotions that "Finding Nemo" had on me. This ad campaign was one that I found extremely successful because it completed the job of reaching audiences of all ages by pulling at the heartstrings, but this campaign also balanced this emotion with a great amount of humor. And I feel that balance is key when you are trying to grasp the viewer's attention and making them want to watch your new movie. I find this to be true because, yes, it is a sequel, which many people are already "iffy" about, so you have to have a set plan for effectively balancing the different emotions in a trailer to draw people in to talking about this new movie. 

As for the specifics of the trailer, I have attached a link for you so you can enjoy watching it! I will, now, give my personal opinion of the different aspects used in this trailer that I noticed. In the beginning of the trailer it starts out with introducing Dory by having her scream, "Hello", multiple times to catch a couple of the character's attention because she is not visible, only heard. And once the other characters hear her, the trailer fully starts. I thought this was an attention getter that can grasp anyone's attention because when people cannot see things and only hear things, they want to know what in the world is going on. The trailer then goes into the emotional appeal of the people by having them notice that Dory does not know who or where her family is, but right after this dramatic scene takes place, the sound of happy music plays and the funny remarks and actions begin by all of the different characters. Throughout the trailer I noticed there are parts where the music plays loud, but when the characters are speaking, the music softens so the audience understands what they are saying. There is also a scene in the trailer when an octopus or something is trying to capture Dory and her friends, which can be scary for children, but this part only lasts a brief second, which I find as a good thing because you do not want to scare your audience away. This pattern of emotional and funny scenes continue to replay through the trailer also, which is what you need in order to accomplish the audiences needs of wanting balance, as I mentioned earlier. 

Overall, the "Finding Dory" trailer was a huge success in my book and fully grasped my attention to make me want to partake in watching this movie! And I encourage everyone to check this trailer out and see what you think of it too :)