Evaluation of Social Media Sources

MacEntee, Sean "social media" 11/26/10 via Flickr
Attribution 2.0 Generic

I used Storify to isolate some social media buzz about the General Motors ignition switch recalls. For some reason, Storify failed to return results more than a month old so I was forced to pick from fewer results than I would have liked. However, I did manage to find an account that has created an art car out of a recalled Chevy Cobalt in protest to the mishandling of the recalls and has been consistently sharing and writing about the recalls.

GM Recall News: GM refuses 91% of faulty ignition switch claims: Dear @GM thank you for the recall notice. We ... http://t.co/67YUENXaLn

— Deathtrap Art Car (@DeathTrapArtCar) August 25, 2015

GM Recall News: Judge reverses Penn Hills woman's manslaughter conviction due to GM ignition: "I'm aggravated ... http://t.co/BCs7Y3Podf

— Deathtrap Art Car (@DeathTrapArtCar) August 27, 2015

This Twitter account appears to be credible as it is essentially a protest of General Motors' poor handling of the situation. The account is based out of San Diego, CA which is not particularly close to Detroit which is the center of the controversy but as it has been liberally and accurately reported by online automotive news outlets, I believe the location does not particularly adversely. I could not find anyone I know in their follower list. They post about the topic on average once a day as that is the entire purpose of the account. The posts are easily corroborated as they include outside links and are about a widely covered controversy. The account has been in existence since the end of January of 2015 and the information appears to be reliable though there is a justified anti-GM voice.

As Storify could not find much that was older than the beginning of July, I continued my search on open Twitter based on the #gmrecall and found this:

@mtbarra answer this. What if 1 of the #GmRecall Crash victims was ur Son? Would u stand up and Lie/Coverup for #Gm? What? NO? Thn y u lie?

— 1984 (@1984cdn) July 9, 2015

1984's Twitter account seems to be much less reliable than Deathtrap Art Car's. The first tip-off to this is the misspellings, random capitalization, and grammatical errors. We'll see how the rest of this analysis goes. 1984's stated location is "all over Canada" which appears somewhat unreliable however it is important to know that Canada is a large consumer as well as a large producer of General Motors cars. The most significant follower I can find here is @Bloodhound_SSC which is the official Twitter for the Bloodhound land speed record attempt which does hold some weight though I'm not precisely sure why they would be following 1984. General information about the recalls is easy to find however this particular tweet appears to be more of a personal attack so there is nothing to corroborate here. Though this account has only been active since August 20, it has already tweeted more than 3000 times. 1984 does tweet about GM often but it seems to be in general an unreliable Twitter account.

Evaluation of Scholarly Sources

Des Greeks et des lettres "total recall 1"  9/3/15 via Flickr
Attribution Non-commercial license

Throughout 2014, GM has been the subject to unprecedented recalls in particular related to stalling issues in Cobalt and Ion vehicles. The Harvard Law and Management Science articles look at different related aspects to the circumstances that both preceded and resulted from the internal failure of GM to do anything about the ignition switch and subsequent stalling issues for ten years.

In an article published in Harvard Law and Policy Review, Rena Steizor deeply dissects the entire GM fiasco from beginning to end. She highlights the issues from multiple different standpoints such as a section on the failure of the management, another on the oversight of the engineers, another about the Valukas investigative report, etc. Steizor dives deeply into the legal implications and the mismanagement and precisely how it should be punished.

The Management Science article, written by Gary Chao, Seyed Iravani, and Canan Savaskan, views the recall issue from a different perspective. In recent years, more and more of the process of constructing an automobile has been outsourced to specialized suppliers and engineering companies. This has made uniform quality control more difficult in some situations. Such was the situation with the ignition recall. Delphi Mechatronics was the supplier that produced the defective ignition switch for GM. The article goes into a technical explanation of how, based on selective root cost analysis or complete root cause analysis, the cost of a recall may be shared between a manufacturer and a outside supplier.

Evaluation of General Sources

Senator Claire McCaskill "GM Recall McCaskill slams 'culture of cover-up' at Consumer Protection Hearing" 9/3/2015 via Flickr Attribution No-Derivs 2.0 license 

Throughout 2014, General Motors finally had to come to terms with it's years-long failure to effectively deal with the issues it created by effectively ignoring the issues that cropped up when the failing ignition switches were first produced. Both the article from Car and Driver and the New York Times article deal with one of the originators of this controversy, switch engineer Ray DeGiorgio.

URL

• The domain names of both the Car and Driver article and the New York Times article end in .com These are both reputable commercial news organizations. They are both credible.

Author

• The Car and Driver article was written by Clifford Atiyeh. Mr Atiyeh is a frequent contributor on both Car and Driver and its sister magazine Road and Track. He appears to be very well qualified to be reporting on the recall issues with General Motors.
• Bill Vlasic wrote the article in the Times. Mr Vlasic won a Pulitzer prize for his work reporting on tech manufacturing practices so it seems that he too has experience reporting on similar stories.

Last Updated

• The Car and Driver article was last updated on November 17, 2014. This dates the information some but it was also reporting on a discrete event withing the ignition switch controversy which makes it more than likely it is still mostly valid.
• The New York Times article was last updated on November 21, 2014. A similar rationale applies as with the Car and Driver article.

Purpose

• Both articles' purpose is to educate the reader about the ongoing issues with the GM ignition-switch recall fiasco as well as possibly warn them to take action if their car is affected. Both articles have no other discernible purpose.

Graphics

• The Car and Driver article article includes a photograph from the Senate hearings about the ignition switch recall. This provides some visual fodder for readers but does not otherwise particularly contribute to any additional understanding.
• The New York times article includes both a video by Ray DeGiorgio speaking about the ignition switch failures as well as an interactive graphic that allows readers to explore more media related to the recalls.

Position on the Subject

• Both newspaper and magazine have no gain if readers believe their writing. The only possible development from readers believing what they read is that if their personal cars are affected, they might take it upon themselves to have the recall taken care of. All of the information presented is easy to verify with other sources.

Links

• As both are news articles, neither presents exhaustive sources. However, both provide links that would allow the reader to exhaustively research the topic. In fact, the Car and Driver article includes 13 links while the New York Times article has it's interactive graphic that includes a similar number of related articles.

My Profession

www.dirally.com "Oregon Trail Rally" 7/26/14 via Flickr
Non-commercial license

I'm studying mechanical engineering as I have always been very interested in cars (see: everything about this blog) and dream of one day working in the automotive industry, particularly in race car development.

1. In a mechanical engineering program, students learn how to apply their knowledge and technical skills to difficult and unforeseen issues that they may have no previous experience with in order to create the best possible solution. 
2. Mechanical engineers are often employed in a variety of fields that may require technical skills as mechanical engineering is generally considered to be the broadest form of engineering and thus the most adaptable. Additionally, most engineers can become project leads (but especially mechanical engineers as they tend to have some experience with other disciplines as well) where they are responsible not for the technical work themselves but for a team of other people working on a project.
3. For me, my interest to engineering was perhaps unusual. I developed almost in the reverse of how it might be for most people. I have known from a very young age that I was fascinated by machines and later cars in particular and thus chose mechanical engineering as a path of study with a career in the automotive industry as my end goal. My dream job would be to work at (or just maybe even start my own) boutique engineering firm such as M-Sport or Multimatic which work with large OEMs (original equipment manufacturers aka car companies) to fulfill engineering goals that are too narrow and specific for the company to want to do themselves. For example, M-Sport largely develops rally cars or Multimatic works on very low volume components and systems (ie the new Ford GT).

   

   Thompson, Gareth "WRC - Rally GB 2012" 9/3/15 via Flickr
   reuse with attribution

4. In the automotive industry, there are constant innovations so I will focus on only two. Audi has recently lead new investigation into the Fischer-Tropsch Process which creates gasoline out of carbon fixation from the atmosphere. This process would end up being carbon-negative (powered by solar energy) so it would allow us to continue using gasoline in automobiles which would be very advantageous as it is a very energy dense fuel and thus very practical to use. I personally would love this to work as it would once again allow more traditional engineering solutions such as high revs and more engine displacement as a means for increasing power rather than downsized turbo motors. The other recent innovation I wanted to mention was Hyundai's research with a HCCI (compression ignition) gasoline engine. This engine runs without spark plugs similar to a diesel but returns even better consumption as it is using a more refined fuel (gasoline).
5. Significant journals in mechanical engineering include:

          ASME Magazine - New York, New York

          Advances in Mechanical Engineering - Thousand Oaks, California

          SAE Internation Journal of Passenger Cars - Warrendale, Pennsylvania
       
          These are all very well regarded publications.

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After reading some of the blogs of my classmates, I realized that I am very happy with my chosen major. I hugely applaud people who want to do something completely different however. I am generally very impressed by people who can do things that I cannot. I feel like finding a career is sort of like economics: if everyone does what they are best at (and of course enjoy most), everyone will be best off. After reading Victoria's blog I realized I'm very happy that my major will leave me with pretty good job opportunities after just 4 years. This way, I will have some choice over if and when I pursue a Masters or a Ph.D. After reading Casey's blog, I thanked my lucky stars that I'm not doing something as intense as she is. Mechanical engineering may be hard but at least it's not as extreme as a physics double major.

My Thoughts on Comments

All comments below were found on a breitbart.com article summarizing the Hillary Clinton email scandal. Important to note is that breitbart.com is a considerably right-leaning news organization and as such many of their commenters also have a conservative bent.

Less Credible

Comment screenshot from breitbart.com article, 8/28/15

•  This commenter is undoubtedly displaying a wish that something would occur as he neatly expresses his desire that Hillary Clinton and indeed her entire staff see jail time for the email scandal.

• I'm fairly sure this is a considerably conservative commenter as he genuinely has it out for Hillary Clinton. I would assume this because people more toward the middle of the political spectrum would be more inclined to wait what the FBI investigation and Justice Department actually indict someone before advocating punishment for the alleged crime.

• This commenter comes off as unreasonable to me because he is advocating a punishment before guilt has even been determined. After all, in the United States, we try to avoid witch hunts and trial by popular opinion instead favoring a fair trial by a jury of peers. Additionally, this commenter fails to realize that using personal email was in fact not against policy at the Justice Department when Clinton was Secretary of State, regardless of it it would have been a poor choice or not.

Comment screenshot from breitbart.com article, 8/28/15

• This commenter does not really display a wish or desire or a fear. He is simply positing a statement.

• This is likely a very conservative commenter based on his belief that if Hillary Clinton were a Republican "she would already be in GITMO being Waterboarded..." On second thought, perhaps it is his subconscious desire for this to happen.

• This commenter appears unreasonable as he clearly believes that Americans perhaps are or might or perhaps should be held at Guantanamo Bay and exposed to enhanced interrogation techniques. Holding an American at Guantanamo is specifically disallowed (it only occurred once accidentally anyway) and the idea of torturing a candidate for the Democratic nomination for president is ludicrous.

More Credible

Comment screenshot from breitbart.com article, 8/28/15

•  This commenter does not really display any hopes or fears, He simply states his position on how Hillary Clinton could have come out of the mess a lot easier and potentially looking better.

• I think this is a conservative commenter as well as he is trying to blame internal struggle in the Democratic Party for the ongoing and mostly uninteresting investigation of Clinton's emails. Additionally, he is telling someone with a more liberal viewpoint to take his comments to Politico or the New York Times which are seen as more impartial news organizations or the Huffington Post which is on the liberal side.

• This commenter does not seem entirely reasonable to be completely honest. However his initial response about how Clinton could have avoided much of the unpleasantness by being more forthcoming and doing so earlier was incisive enough when compared to the rest of the thread that it was enough to consider this a more reliable comment.

Comment screenshot from breitbart.com article, 8/28/15

• Stosh's comment displays some desire that Hillary Clinton will get jail time for her possible actions but otherwise is simply sharing information.

• I think that this is also a conservative commenter based on his desire for Clinton to see jail time before there has actually been an indictment.

• I think Stosh left a more reliable comment here because rather than going into political diatribes, he compelling explains quite correctly that it is impossible for information on a secure server that is not connected to the internet to end up on an unsecure personal server without human intervention. Ultimately, his the last part of his comment where he advocated 25 years to life is premature unless she is actually indicted but otherwise Stosh is quite reasonable.

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When reading my classmates' blog posts about comments, I read one post about comments on modifications to No Child Left Behind and another about comments on the SAE OU fraternity incident. What I managed to glean from reading these two analyses is a rough outline of what is necessary to effectively craft a believable comment.

1. Perhaps most important of all, your comment must be free of any and all grammatical and spelling errors. This is the fastest way to be labeled as a crank.
2. Next in line is definitely almost as important. Please, for the love of god, be logical. No one is going to believe a single thing you say if one statement does not follow from the last.
3. Finally, and this ties in with the previous requirement, have some sort of backup. Can you quote an expert? Are you an expert? Why? Do you have a pet capybara? Really anything that will lend credence to what you you say. 96% of researchers agree that capybara owners are more credible people.

It is interesting to note that there is of a correlation between both line breaks and length to comment credibility. If it has line breaks, that means the author thinks in discrete thoughts, unlike William Faulkner. If it's long, that means the author has a lot to say. That means they're either smart or they're your crazy uncle Jeff that never stops talking at Thanksgiving.

My Controversey

screenshot from Politico 8/25/15  "A guide to Hillary Clinton's most sensitive emails"

Hillary Clinton's email scandal. What joy this has brought all of us. Whether or not you support Clinton or not, it has been trumped up to the point of ridiculousness. The FBI and the Justice Department are running an investigation, that is true. They will determine if Clinton has culpability in regard to sending classified documents over an unsecured email account. As recent news has discovered, the State Department does not in fact have a policy prohibiting the use of private email so regardless of FBI findings, she may be in the clear.

Essentially, we have been treated to a ridiculous political theater by the Republican Party out to make Clinton seem un-electable.

Clinton, on the other hand, is damn near impossible to support as well. She has a manner about herself that does not project the appearance of trustworthiness to the electorate. This is where her bigger problems from the E-mail investigation arise. The FBI discovered that large amounts of data were wiped from the server that she turned over to authorities. However, when asked about wiping the server by reporters, Clinton replied "What? With a cloth?" Still not building our trust. Authorities are currently trying to recover any of that data if at all possible.

If authorities can recover some of that data, Clinton could face an investigation for obstruction of justice. If Hillary Clinton does not have our trust now, I'm convinced it would only diminish. Is this the person we really want running our country? Perhaps the Democratic Party would be better served by nominating Senator Bernie Sanders.

Calendar Reflection

Screenshot from my computer, 8/27/15

I thought this activity was very interesting. I worked very hard to make sure I entered absolutely everything I do with utmost accuracy and I color coded all of my classes and other activities to provide easy at-a-glance organization. What surprised me most of all is the amount of time I have to do things, much more than I expected. I easily have enough time to devote two hours of time per hour of class time per week. I will simply have to work not to squander the time I have allotted. I even went so far to schedule recommended homework time by class to make my organization top notch. I have often struggled with organization and time management skills so I aim to do my best to stick to this schedule. My past difficulties made me really appreciate the usefulness of this activity.

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Reading everyone else's reflections on their calendars was a good experience for me. I got the feeling that many of us have similar concerns and worries about achieving maximum success here at the U. William utilized the old maxim that time is money which made me consciously realize how much this education costs and how much effort it is truly worth. I think I need to work on remaining focused when I work as I think that would greatly reduce the amount of time it takes for me to finish my studying and other school work. That way, I will have more time to have fun and decompress which will in turn help me be more relaxed and better at the school work at hand. I wish everyone the best of luck this semester and for the next four years.