My 2019 Reading List

31/12/2019

Admittedly, I thought I had read more books than the ones on this list, but alas it is much smaller than anticipated when I compiled it. I wasn’t expecting anything huge, and 16 books is still a reasonable feat, in my view, but I can’t help but feel a tinge of disappointment that I didn’t get through more. I would, however, suggest that finishing university and keeping up with news events and analysis probably makes up for that. Nevertheless, these are the books I read this past year, with a few thoughts looking back on them and links to piece that refer to them.

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Social Media as A Political Tool

About a month ago I had a take home exam/essay for my Political Communication unit at university. Now that I have gotten the marks back for them – I can happily say I got 100% for it all, as the guy that ran the unit was really impressed and even praised the fact I challenged some of the concepts and ideas – I thought I would post them all here in a string of short pieces without fear of TurnItIn flagging me for plagiarising my own content. I’ll quote the questions we were given and then have what I wrote underneath – there will be six in total. This final piece was a short essay response relating to social media in politics. The few references used in all pieces will also be underneath.
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Trump Rules in Communication

About a month ago I had a take home exam/essay for my Political Communication unit at university. Now that I have gotten the marks back for them – I can happily say I got 100% for it all, as the guy that ran the unit was really impressed and even praised the fact I challenged some of the concepts and ideas – I thought I would post them all here in a string of short pieces without fear of TurnItIn flagging me for plagiarising my own content. I’ll quote the questions we were given and then have what I wrote underneath – there will be six in total. Here I discuss why I think Donald Trump is one of the most (scarily) spectacular communicators in the current political sphere.

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Are Political Term Limits Good or Bad?

12/11/2019

I will admit that I have very little knowledge about the situation in Bolivia, other than the fact that a right-wing military, OAS, and US backed coup has toppled the country’s left-leaning and first Indigenous leader after controversy relating to the recent elections escalated. With a little context, however, it may be a good topic to discuss the role term limits have in politics.

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Addressing Modern Slavery: A Reflection Pt.2

04/11/2019

Blockchain Technology

Modern slavery takes a variety of forms, but the most prominent, overarching sector it infiltrates is supply chains. From raw materials to the distribution of a final product, slave labour can be used to tarnish the origins of many things we consume without a second thought, from foodstuffs to electronics. But what if there was a way to blow this shady and opaque industry open and to the light of public scrutiny?

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The Human Scope of the Universe

17/10/2019

If there is one thing that I am constantly amazed by each and every day, it is the utter ignorance of the human race and the minute perception and scale we have of the universe and time. Everyone, particularly people my age and younger who don’t remember a time before digital technology being the norm, can’t seem to imagine life without modern technologies like the Internet, for example. And that’s just the technological aspect.

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The Fate of Blizzard

16/10/2019

As a massive fan of World of Warcraft and the Warcraft universe in general, it was incredibly disappointing – but not exactly surprising – when Blizzard took a kneejerk reaction after Hearthstone champion Blitzchung voiced solidarity with Hong Kong. The fallout of this event has hit Blizzard hard, but there are some important things to keep in mind while this continues to play out.

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QAnon: Who Are They, and What’s the Connection to Scott Morrison?

15/10/2019

I had heard of this group before and pretty much instantly passed them off as a small group of conspiracy nutcases making disproportionate amounts of noise over nothing of substance. My opinion of them and their ideas has not changed at all, but they have come up again in select (read independent) parts of the Australian media, specifically because of recently surfaced ties between a prominent member of the online group and Scott Morrison.

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Blockchain: Owning Your Data

12/09/2019

In my last piece, I threw together some thoughts about how blockchain could reshape how we approach work. It offers itself perfectly – if implemented right – to essentially abolishing the idea of corporate hierarchies, decentralising online platforms and giving individuals autonomy and security. Like the rise of the Internet, however, which promised similar ideas of freedom, blockchain is being hit with corporate influence. In this piece, though, I want to talk about one way blockchain fights back against the most lucrative market to ever exist: data.

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Blockchain Technology Can Reshape Work

11/09/2019

I have been reading Blockchain Revolution by Don and Alex Tapscott recently – at an admittedly slow pace, I’ve had a lot of reading to get through for university – and researching blockchain elsewhere. It’s a bizarre read, not because I don’t understand the concept of blockchain, but because the authors appear pro-capitalism while so many of the benefits they have talked about so far lend themselves more towards abolishing it piece by piece.

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