Custom essays on Perspectives of Technology and Politics in the News Media

Synopsis
Today, the emergence of new technologies contributed to consistent changes in social, economic and political life. At the same time, the emergence of new technologies can change consistently politics and relationships between the government and the population. In this respect, it is possible to refer to the article Government Aims to Build a ‘Data Eye in the Sky’ by J. Markoff, in which the author discusses the possible introduction of a new automated system, with the help of which social scientists are going to mind data, analyzing data contained in blogs, social networks and other online media. The new system is supposed to be an “automated data collection system is to focus on patterns of communication, consumption and movement of population” (Markoff, 6). The author discusses benefits of the new system and critically evaluates prospects of its introduction, taking into consideration privacy rights of Americans.
Thesis statement
In fact, the introduction of the new automated system can help the government and law enforcement agencies to assess accurately actual threats to the US and American citizens as well as to understand better actual needs of Americans to elaborate policies that meet needs and wants of Americans and make their life more secure.
Key terms
Data mining – search and analysis of data using social networks
Social network – an online network, where people can communicate with each other using internet, e.g. Twitter, Facebook, blogs.
Supporting evidence
In actuality, the emergence of new technologies and the growing popularity of internet and social networks stimulate their wider use by the population to the extent that internet users create their virtual communities, while social networks allow them to communicate with each other on the regular basis. Social networks become huge storehouses of information, which may be important not only for sociologists but also politicians, economists, military analytics and others. In this regard, the author of the article argues that “these storehouses of “big data” will for the first time reveal sociological laws of human behavior — enabling them to predict political crises, revolutions and other forms of social and economic instability, just as physicists and chemists can predict natural phenomena” (Markoff, 3). Therefore, the automated system will help to gather important information, analyze and make forecasts to understand the further development of the society, economy and politics and to make decisions on the ground of this analysis to meet needs and expectations of citizens and to prevent economic and political crises.
Furthermore, the author argues that “today social scientists have more detailed and richer kinds of data available as well as predictive algorithms to use, and that makes possible a kind of prediction that would have never been possible before” (Markoff, 4). In such a way, the predictions made by social scientists with the help of the new automated system of data mining may be more accurate than they have ever been before. The accuracy of predictions is very important for the development of domestic, international, economic and other policies, especially in a long-run perspective.
Finally, the new automated system of data mining can help to prevent threats to the US and Americans. For instance, the author points out that the new system’s “analysis can expose terrorist cells and other stateless groups by tracking their meetings, rehearsals and sharing of material and money transfers” (Markoff, 12). Therefore, terror attacks can be predicted and prevented with the help of the new system that is extremely important in terms of the national security of the US.
Dialectical approach
At the same time, it is important to take into consideration alternative technology, underrepresented technology, or different perspective to understand the extent to which the new automated system of data mining may be helpful. In fact, there has already been developed a similar project by their military sister organization, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or Darpa, which aimed to automatically identify insurgent social networks in Afghanistan (Markoff, 11). This project has proved to be quite effective. On the other hand, the automated system of data mining raises the risk of interference from the part of hackers or cyber criminals. Such cases have already occurred in relation to the Congress online technology as well as it is possible to refer to numerous examples of hackers’ attacks on Pentagon databases. Finally, the case of Wikileaks reveals the full extent to which data collected or transmitted by state agencies are vulnerable to information breaches, which put under a threat privacy of Americans.
Conclusion
Nevertheless, the new automated system of data mining is worth implementing because benefits of the new system outweigh threats associated with the information breaches. In fact, the new automated system of data mining can open larger opportunities for the communication between policy-makers and the public. Policy-makers can understand better needs and wants of citizens and the data collected by the system can help them to elaborate policies to solve or to prevent numerous social, economic and political problems.

Works Cited
Markoff, J. “Government Aims to Build a ‘Data Eye in the Sky’.” New York Times, 2011.