EOTO #2: Terms and Concepts

For the second Each One Teach One, my group was assigned the "theories" section, with my given theory being Overton Window. Upon initial research, this idea has been written about in scholarly articles multiple times, including one from Oxford Academic Journal that discusses in depth some applications of this theory and examples of it. 

When looking for an introduction for this theory, I found a great article from the Mackinac Center. The brief description that they give of what the Overton Window is in the following quote, "The Overton Window is a model for understanding how ideas in society change over time and influence politics. The core concept is that politicians are limited in what policy ideas they can support — they generally only pursue policies that are widely accepted throughout society as legitimate policy options." This allows for me to take an introspective view on our system of democracy, as I look at different politicians' campaigns and how their policies may overlap with their competitors. The article mentions how the Overton Window can shift and either expand or narrow based on how societal norms and values differ. I think of this within issues that are considered "controversial" and how as a society we have become more accepting of diversity of opinion and people. The graphic below helps explain this idea in a visual way, that helped me conceptualize the scale of what people are willing to accept, and how policies tend to fall within the box of acceptance. 

Going over a brief history of this concept, the term was derived from the creator, Joseph Overton. In this short article from the Center for New Liberalism, the term was coined in the 1990s and started simply as an observation. Many found Overton's observation of the way that politicians take a stance on issues as a given, because we are all subconsciously aware of the range of acceptability. After Overton died, Joseph Lehman carried on his observation and extended it slightly. Lehman was mainly focused on how politicians can push to expand this window by advocating confidently for a radical idea until it slowly became integrated into society and therefore normalized, expanding the Overton Window to cover it. An example that this article gives is of a left-wing activist named Sean McElwee who popularized the phrase "abolish ICE". This movement then took off and created a copious amount of social pressure on these offices. 

As a Strategic Communications major, I am always interested in seeing how theories like this one play out in a Public Relations standpoint. Looking at this article from The PR Insider, the Overton Window theory has had a huge societal impact on how politicians hold their reputations. First, the article discusses how the window shifts in three main different ways: through change in societal values, through exposure to new information, and through advocacy. Looking at different moments in history, taking Prohibition, for example, the societal view towards alcohol slowly changed as exposure to its effects and its possible opportunities for the economy changed. This is also how the United States has become more open to diverse backgrounds, including the adoption of certain celebrations like Pride month, Black History Month, Juneteenth, and more. 

The article then goes on to discuss how the Overton Window is heavily intertwined with peoples political leanings, and the United States political parties. The biggest talking point here is about how politicians influence voter behavior, and can use that influence to shift the window. Voters are subconsciously using the Overton Window to assess policies that they believe to be "too radical" or unacceptable. Politicians then use this information shift their stances on policies in very minor ways to get the votes to expand their window, and therefore offer support to those politicians. From a PR standpoint, some of the strategies here include: shaping public perception and engaging with the media. As media has expanded with new technological innovations, everyone has access to this information so easily which, as mentioned above, is one of the ways that the window can shift. This means that for PR professionals, it is crucial to be engaging with the media and shaping their view of policies and politicians to match those who they are working for. 

Lastly, to understand how this concept has been integrated into our society, it is important to acknowledge example of it over the years. This article from conceptually.org names a few. Women's suffrage is a perfect example of a shift in the Overton Window, because over time society has grown to value women more than they did in the 1950s. This is seen through the 19th Amendment allowing women the right to vote, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act allowing for women to apply for their own credit cards without the permission of their husbands, and more recently, the fight for equal pay in women's professional sports. It was through the spread of new ideas and the advocacy for these rights that society grew to change their opinions and accept these new social changes. Another thing that I think is interesting from this article that discusses Donald Trump and how he has attempted to shift the Overton Window throughout his first term. With him openly speaking about controversial topics especially through social media. This has shifted peoples perspectives over the past eight years to make ideas about some of these issues more radical. Overall, after learning about this concept, I am definitely able to see it play out in all aspects of our democracy, and I will be able to recognize these shifts. 

Blog #5: Diffusion of Innovation

 After reading and learning about the Diffusions of Innovation Theory by Everett Rogers, it is clear to me that this theory was derived from something that happens often in modern society, especially as we are evolving to become centered around technology. To get a brief understanding of this theory, I visited the Wikipedia page for it, and then continued on with my own research. I found this article that clarifies the ideas seen on wikipedia more in depth. 

This theory is broken up into five "steps" of how something diffuses to become a part of the mainstream technologies, with a heavy emphasis on how the social structure accepts or rejects the innovation. To start, the first step is interest/knowledge. Connecting this to my subject from the EOTO presentation, there was a n interest in moving filing systems to be digital, coinciding with  the rise of computers and other technologies in corporate settings. Using this same article from one of my sources in the presentation, it is clear that the need for digital storage was becoming dire, and this creation found a solution to that. 

The second step, as outlined by Rogers is persuasion. In my interoperation, this means that once the need is identified and the idea of how to fix that need is created, there is a need to persuade people into both understanding and agreeing with you. This came with one of the the first cloud computing companies, Salesforce. Simple persuasion techniques show that when there is an established need for something, people are more likely to buy it. The this step is evaluation/decision. This is essentially where the work to create whatever the idea is begins. This step is outlined in cloud computing as the creation of the cloud, with the name and functionality of it. Important to note that Rogers also put emphasis on evaluating this innovation to make sure it was still answering to the need that was identified in the second step.

Lastly, step four is trial/implementation. This is often where many innovations will either take off, or the idea will trickle out. Cloud computing was luckily enough a huge success, though it did face its challenges with adaptability as people were needing data storage spaces for both public and private information. This then brings in the final stage, which is adoption/confirmation. Cloud computing became widely popular and then led to the creation of some iconic companies that are still used today like Amazon Web Services and iCloud. Then, the innovation can diffuse fully into society and become an integral part, just as cloud computing has for us. Nobody thinks twice about saving a photo or uploading a document to the storage, because we have had this innovation for so long that it is part of our society now. 

Blog #4: EOTO Reaction

After watching the Each One Teach One presentations, I learned about many new types of communication technology, their origins, and their proposed challenges. I also had the opportunity to learn some new facts about technology that I had previous knowledge on. Some of the presentations that interested me were about the inventions of the bluetooth, instant messaging, and paper. Additionally, I had already known the backstory of how the TV came to be, but I learned a few new key facts. 

Starting with bluetooth, the presenter stated some facts that I had already known like the reason why bluetooth was created, as a way to be able to form connection between devices without using so many wires. This makes sense because I have heard both of my parents talk about how they appreciate bluetooth as an invention, because it made their work experience more efficient and not have to carry around so many connectors on a day to day basis. What I learned from the presentation that I had not already considered were the setbacks of this invention, like the issue with battery drain. I then looked into a brief history of Bluetooth using this article. In my experience, any bluetooth divide that I own tends to drain in battery pretty quickly besides my Beats Studio Pro headphones, but those are on the newer side. This would make sense because over the years manufacturers have put better batteries in bluetooth devices to combat this issue. 

Another presentation that interested me was the invention of paper. I had never thought about this much, as it has been a baseline part of my education and life so I hadn't reflected on a time where it possibly wasn't around. Paper was one of the first versions of technology that allowed for long distance communication, and revolutionized the trade industry. It is interesting to think about how the invention of paper led to the creation of currency and paper money, which changed the way that trade worked. I then researched this on my own, finding this introductory article about how paper changed the world, to gather more info. Looking at modern society and how everything revolves around money, it would be interesting to see how our trade industry would look if paper hadn't been invented in the same way. 

Lastly, one more presentation that I learned a lot from was about the creation of instant messaging. Similarly to paper, this type of fast communication helped heavily with long distance challenges. They mentioned that the first form of this was Internet Relay Chat, which I then read the wikipedia page on to gather more base info on. I didn't previously know that this was used primarily in the government to oversee government crises, but it makes sense that this would be a preferred form of communication as many of these processes need to happen quickly and with clear communication to make sure that the government is working most efficiently. Additionally, the presenter mentioned how this also led to a rise in the spread of misinformation, which made me think about how much of the news I get, as mentioned in my first blog post, is through my friends who will use instant messaging to tell me something. Overall, I enjoyed engaging in this project to be able to teach my peers about my topic, and I learned a lot of new things about other forms of technology.