Blog 8: Correction on The Juxtaposition of Journalism and Technology

For our second lecture, the class was introduced to another guest lecturer, David Johnson. He is an Assistant Professor at American University, where he teaches a course in digital journalism, interactive storytelling and convergence media. He appropriately came to speak to us on digital journalism and the effects new technology has had on the media.

Professor David Johnson in the flesh!

A self-proclaimed hard-ass, Professor Johnson gave his opinion on how to improve journalism. Firstly, in order to save journalism, there need to be more journalists. The basis of journalism is you are supposed to summarize information for other people when they cannot be at the event to receive the information themselves. In short, since journalists are at a specific event and others are not, it is the journalists’ job to report what happened at the event. The second aspect in order to save journalism is to that journalists have to act less like story-tellers and more like social scientists. The example Professor Johnson kept referring to was that of a report on Snooki. Professor Johnson argued that a story on Snookie was not a news-worthy event, but rather be kept in entertainment areas, such as People magazine. Professor Johnson contended that news journalists need to stop focusing on entertaining their constituents and concentrate on informing people more significant news.

While these are all valid points, there is a bigger problem facing journalism. That problem has to do with the American public. As television has gotten more channels, many people base what they watch not on what is of the most value but rather on what is the most entertaining. This has meant that many people choose to watch other programming over the news. According to a report from the Pew Center for the People and thePress, only 57% of Americans watch TV news on a typical day, while only 40% read a newspaper, and 36% listen to the news on the radio. On an average day, only 81% of Americans access news. This number is down almost 10% from 1994, even though there is more access to news. 

 Statistically, this is highly unlikely to occur.

Additionally, if there trend of less news watching and more entertainment viewing is to increase, it can lead to some worrisome results. This movement can lead to a public that has grown so ill-informed that it lacks basic understanding of the world. According to a poll taken in 2009 on the existence of Pangea, a supercontinent proven to have existed about 250 million years ago, there are some worrying results. That the continents were once a connected land mass is scientific fact, and one that children learn in grade school. The results of the poll show that of all Americans polled, only 42% believed that America and Africa were once part of the same continent. If trends like these continue, intelligent, newsworthy journalism (not the kind of stuff done on Snookie), will be hard to find in the future. 

The world around 250 million years ago! I think I can see my house!

In order to implement Professor Johnson’s ideas on improving journalism, there has to be an effort made to fix the trend of less news viewing. Some believe that Americans have become overwhelmed by the amount of news and information out there, so much so that they choose to ignore it rather than try to go through all the material. One possible solution to this problem is to utilize social media sites and blogs to expose the news to people. At this moment there are over 156 million blogs on the internet. Additionally, there are over 500 million users on the social media site, Facebook. With that kind of populace, if journalists found a way to effectively reach them, the news would reach a vast majority of Americans.

Facebook News Feed: The New Face of Journalism?

In this day and age, with so many resources available, there is no valid reason as to why 19% of Americans do not have access to news. It is up to this next generation to encourage interest in the news and in journalism.

Financial Regulation of Microfinance and Mobile Banking

In lecture this week, we welcomed Alice T. Liu, a member of Mobile Financial Services. She spoke to the class on the opportunities and benefits of mobile banking for developing countries. A manager and consultant focused on sustainable business models using Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) to address development issues, Liu had a great deal of knowledge on the mobile banking industry. She focused on three main e-banks that had been playing a major role in developing countries. These are M-Pesa of Kenya, G-Cash of the Philippines, and Easy Pass of Pakistan. In class, I asked Liu about their regulatory methods, and to be honest, her answer was unsatisfactory. She claimed that the microfinance banks were, for the most part, unregulated. This answer disturbed and I decided to research further. In this blog, I will briefly touch on each bank in regards to the regulation methods found in the country.

In Kenya, there has been some recent regulatory legislation done to the banks, specifically regarding microfinance institutions. According to the website of the Central Bank of Kenya, “The Microfinance Act, 2006 and the Microfinance Regulations issued thereunder sets out the legal, regulatory and supervisory framework for the microfinance industry in Kenya…The principal object of the Microfinance Act is to regulate the establishment, business and operations of microfinance institutions in Kenya through licensing and supervision.” In short, what the Microfinance Act accomplishes is to legitimize the microfinance institutions that are acting as banks and using electronic methods to hold and transfer money. Additionally, the Act imposes core capital requirements to every banking institution. This limits the possibility of a bank running out of monetary capital and forced into bankruptcy.

Regulation in Kenya's ICT sector with Kevit Desai

In the Philippines, the Central Bank of the Philippines (BSP) has created some legislation that attempts to protect consumers from exploitation, specifically regarding “the definition of microfinance loans, licensing of microfinance-oriented banks, guidelines governing the BSP rediscounting facility, rules and regulations of the establishment of branches and/or Loan Collection and Disbursement Points (LCDPs) of microfinance-oriented banks and microfinance-oriented branches of regular banks, and formal minimum credit risk management guideline including the measurement of Portfolio-At Risk (PAR)." All of these different forms of legislation allow the BSP to overlook the micro-finance institutions accurately and efficiently, in order to protect the consumer.

Finally, in Pakistan, there is a push for de-regulation. According to the article “Mobile Banking – Market Dynamicsfor Pakistan,” it discusses the faults of the regulatory method found in current Pakistan. “[T]he present regulatory framework… is based on 1‐to‐1 relationship. This offers a close system between a single bank and a single mobile operator required to develop their own payment solutions with low outreach possibility in terms of subscriber’s facilitation.” The articles goes on to discuss how there is a push among the populace for further de-regulation in order to promote banking services to more individuals and the current system does not allow for this expansion.

After doing the research, I realized that all of the countries are making an effort to regulate their banking industry, some more than others. Kenya and the Philippines are increasing their regulations on microfinance institutions, while, in Pakistan, there is a desire to decrease them.

ICTs & Government

This past lecture, we welcomed Aaron Smith of the Pew Research Center. Smith is a Senior Research Specialist who focuses on the role of internet in the political process, technology in civic life and online engagement with government. In class, he discusses the usage of the social media by the government and elected officials. Instead of lecturing us like most of the previous speakers had, Smith questioned the class, taking straw polls and listening to the opinions of some.

One of the topics discusses was Twitter, the social network and micro-blogging website. Smith asked the class how many people were users of the now-famous website and only two out of the twenty one individuals in the class raised their hands. That is equivalent to about 9.5% of the class. Smith, one of the leaders behind this type of research, has found some interesting statistics that show how our small class shows an accurate representation of the larger data. According to a recent Pew Research Center report, about 14% of those between the ages of 18-29 use a Twitter account. While this number is a little higher than the one gathered in our class, there are other variables that the straw poll did not take into account, such as education. As we are all have some college education, using the data found by Pew, the about 9% of those with some education use Twitter. This number is much closer to the one collected by our class. 

While this comparison of Twitter numbers is fun (at least for me as I enjoy statistics), how is it relevant to this week’s topic regarding technology and the government? To answer this question, I will throw out a few more statistics. Twitter and Facebook have over 145 million and 500 million users, respectively. Twitter is growing rapidly with 35 – 49 year-olds making up almost 42% of the traffic to Twitter.com (Nielson). Additionally, Facebook is seeing massive increases in adoption amongst users 35-65. The fastest growing demographic on Facebook is women over 55 (Inside Facebook). With numbers like these, government officials, whose job it is to understand and listen to their constituents, should be increasingly interested in getting into social media. There is at least one famous politician that has embraced social media sites and, they have, in turn, welcomed him. His name is Barack Obama. Obama has 9,148,818 followers on Twitter and 22,042,057 people “like” him on Facebook.

An interesting article I found, titled “Using ICTs to create a culture of transparency: E-government and social media as openness and anti-corruption tools for societies” was about the usage of information and communication technologies (ICTs) such as social media websites to establish more transparency and involvement with the government and the citizens. The article discusses the cost-effectiveness and convenience of using ICTs to aid in the use and communication of government officials. (science direct)

There are many ways for government officials to better their communication efforts with their constituents. As social media websites like Twitter and Facebook continue to expand to older markets, the ability for government to connect to people through these sites will only increase. In the end, it will hopefully lead to a more cost-effective and efficient representation of the people in government. 

One Doctor's Experience with E-files

This past lecture, we had Jody Ranck, an expert in health technology, come speak to us in class. He specifically discussed technology in the health sector related to patients. Ranck talked about many different areas, but one aspect he continually emphasized was “data is care”. He strongly promoted making patient electronic files and concluded that, in the U.S., this process will take a long time due to the fact that there already is a system in place.

There are some doctors who have begun the transition to e-files. One of those doctors is my father, Gerardo Lanes of West Broward Gastroenterology Associates, who started making the transition to electronic records back in 2008. As one of the first doctors in the area to make the transition to electronic patient files, my dad had a lot of knowledge in dealing with this new trend. Recently, I asked him about this experience, why he made the transition, and what have been the effects of the shift. My dad explained to me the initial reason he made the transition to electronic files is because there was a government mandate that everyone move towards electronic records. The main reason the government wanted e-files was to gather data and, in the end, cut down on the cost of healthcare and increase communication. He then broke it down into two categories: cost and efficiency, and the pros and cons of each aspect of the change.

Many people believe that e-files will cut costs for doctors. In one article titled, “Electronic Medical Records Poised To Cut Costs, Improve Patient Care,” it stated that one obstacle many physicians will face is the initial start-up cost of transitioning. My father has a very familiar experience to this belief. The initial startup cost of getting the technology necessary to do e-files was very expensive. There was the cost of installing the new software, teaching himself and his partners to learn how to use the new software (opportunity cost of wasted time), and purchasing computers with the software to be placed in every patient room to name a few. While this cost was extremely burdensome, because my dad’s office went to electronic records, there were able to rework their contracts with insurance companies to make more of a profit. Additionally, the administrative work of billing was diminished greatly. However, there is still the current cost of maintaining the software, upgrading it occasionally, and making sure it does not break down. In the end, my father stated it had been a wash and his office had ended up even.

           

My dad then went on to talk about his efficiency now that he has made the transition. In the paper, “Positive effects of electronic patient records on three clinical activities,” it concluded that physicians experience an overall reduction in mental workload and had better communication with nurses due to this technology. My father has a similar story. With regards to patient care, it “makes me a better doctor because it makes me ask a better history and think more with all of the tabs, giving [the patient] more value for the visit.” Additionally, the electronic files allow him to send his consultation directly back to referring doctors. Another positive is, with a history of terrible handwriting (nearly illegible in my opinion), with electronic filing, nurses can now read his opinions and recommendations for patients.  However, there are some drawbacks. Due to the nature of the software, it is slower to go through electronic files rather than paper. Additionally, if the electricity goes out, he is unable to do work. He concluded it takes about the same amount of time to see a patient, and my father noted there was little productivity or efficiency increase from this transition.

In the end, my father has seen little change with the introduction of e-files. His costs are about on par with his previous situation, while he is just as efficient as he was with paper filings. My father’s experience matches a study that had been done by the New York Times titled, “Little Benefit Seen, So Far, in Electronic Patient Records.” The article concludes that electronic health records do not increase efficiency at hospitals as much as some politicians are led to believe. While the doctors and hospitals may see little change in their practices, the electronic files do lead to better data gathering for patients.

“Electronic Medical Records Poised To Cut Costs, Improve Patient Care”  

http://americanmedical.com/2011/04/electronic-medical-records-poised-to-cut-costs-improve-patient-care/

“Positive effects of electronic patient records on three clinical activities”

http://www.ijmijournal.com/article/S1386-5056%2808%2900045-2/abstract

“Little Benefit Seen, So Far, in Electronic Patient Records”

http://www.nonprofithealthcare.org/uploads/Little_Benefit_Seen-So_Far-in_Electronic_Patient_Records.doc