Social Media

It's been forty years since Baltimore's zoning code saw a major overhaul. What's new? We ask city planning director Tom Stosur.

Anonymity on the Internet can lead to more honest conversation. It can also protect so-called "trolls" who publish misinformation and offensive material. Lately, vigilantes have unmasked some high profile Internet trolls. We ask our social media analysts Nathan Jurgenson and P.J. Rey if some of the unmaskings have gone too far.

Maryland is busy building an online marketplace where people could choose from different options--a “health benefit exchange.”  We talk about the progress the state is making with Jay Hancock, and with outgoing Howard County health secretary Peter Beilenson, who's co-op will be competing on the exchange.

Kids these days, with their gardening and foraging, and their fixed-gear bicycles, and their vinyl records, and their digital photos Instagrammed until they look like they were taken in 1957.

Are juvenile offenders getting adequate security and treatment? Nick Moroney, director of the Attorney General's Juvenile Justice Monitoring Unit, tells us what's going well and what's not in Department of Juvenile Services institutions.

Well, it’s not quite the oratory of, say, Daniel Webster or Henry Clay. But it’s how Congress communicates these days.

Here to talk about the 2012 election and all things social media is our monthly guest Nathan Jurgenson, a sociology Ph.D. candidate at the University of Maryland. His co-guru P.J. Rey will be back next month.

Smartphone apps can track everything from sleep patterns to diet habits in an effort to help Americans change lifestyles and improve health. David Freedman, author of June’s Atlantic cover story, “The Perfected Self,” joins us to talk about the psychology at work in smartphone tracking. WYPR and NPR technology commentator Mario Armstrong fills us in on the latest self-help smartphone apps.
Original air date: 7/31/12