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engl12013thblog-blog · 8 years ago

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Since the election of our 45th president, Donald Trump, the media has gained a lot of attention. With the whole “Fake News” movement going around, there are many mixed feelings about the media in the United States. Some believe the media is just twisting information and misleading people, while others believe it is a very helpful tool. We saw a negative example of the media in the film, “13th” when African American minority groups were always being portrayed as criminals on the media. You never saw the positive aspects of the African American community a long side other minority groups, only the negative side. Although the media can have some negative outcomes, the media does more good in this time period than bad. Especially with the rise of social media, there are many examples of positive outcomes from the media overall.

One positive outcome of the media is that the media, specifically social media, is a great way to organize positive social movements and protests. An example of this comes from a recent event that just happened known as The Woman’s March. The woman’s march gained a lot of popularity in the days leading up to the event, which occurred on January 21st, 2017. It was one of the world’s largest protests with every single continent in the world participating for the cause of woman’s rights and bringing awareness to the inequality between men and woman in the United States. The protest estimated about 500,000 people in attendance with an estimated 5 million worldwide participation. This was one of the largest protests in history and was able to get such worldwide coverage through Facebook. An article on wired.com stated, “ It was, in other words, a protest as sprawling, diverse and ubiquitous as the platform that spawned it: Facebook.” (The Woman’s March defines protest age in Facebook). The woman’s march wouldn’t have really been possible without the use of Facebook. The protest gained its agenda, popularity and effectiveness through this social media app and was able to spread past the United States and reach the world.

Another example of this can be found in the, “Day without immigrants” strike which occurred on February 16th, 2017. This was another event that was organized completely through social media. A day without immigrants was supposed to be a strike for all immigrants to show the United States just how important immigrants are to the United States and to respond to the hateful speech our President has toward immigrant people. The strike started to gain popularity through social media and was able to attract thousands of people across the country. Also, thousands of businesses across the country were closed that day to stand in solidarity with these immigrants. This event probably would not have gained as much popularity and would ultimately be a fail if it weren’t for social media apps such as Facebook that spread the word of this movement. Social media not only brought numbers to the protest, but it also shed some light on the issues that immigrants faced and the protest was ultimately successful in showing the country just how important immigrants are to this country and how important their labor is to our economy.

A good example of a failed protest due to lack of media coverage was another protest scheduled around the same time as the day without immigrants strike. This event was called the, “general strike.” It was supposed to be a day were everyone was supposed to not go to work, not go to school and not buy anything for the entire day. It was supposed to send a message to the Trump administration on just how much people are opposed to his policies such as the Muslim Ban. This event fell through and the event that ended up getting media coverage and more attendance was the day without immigrants strike. Both were fundamentally the same event but one event was able to attract the media and gain popularity through media. Both events could have been successful or could have failed without the attention from media. This is a clear example of just how crucial media attention is. One event succeeded due to the media popularity while the other failed due to the lack of media attention.

Another positive outcome from the media is that it brings awareness to certain people and events. There are many opinions out there in the United States but some people use their opinions to spread hate in this country. That is the case for controversial speaker, Milo Yiannapolous. Milo is a conservative speaker who has been lately seen talking at Universities around the nation. His rallies consist of making fun of people with disabilities, talking against minority groups and spreading fascism. Milo had been relatively unheard of and continued to take advantage of University policies on free speech to spread hate on these campuses. A lot of people disagreed with his speeches and started to take to the Internet to bring awareness to his very hatful speech. After some months of gaining attention through media and more people learning about what he stands for, Milo lost a book contract with and resigned from Breitbart publishing company after making some comments about underage sex. What ended up happening was that Milo had an interview were he basically defended pedophilia. This was a while back, but the media resurfaced this old interview of him, which ultimately lead to his tour being canceled and his book deal being lost. It’s very ironic that the media attention that he loved getting from his radical beliefs and hate speech, is what ended his career. This is a win for society because that means there’s one less racist throwing hateful speech into society and we have the media to thank for bringing awareness to this hatful man.

The film 13th by Ava DuVernay takes a stance on the media being a negative tool because it portrays African Americans as criminals on the news and on movies. Although the media isn’t perfect and can often times be twisted, it is necessary for this day and age. With so many media sources out there and so many tools to access them, we need the media in order for our society to continue to be a free society. The media now, especially in regards to the use of social media, does more good than it does bad. The media can be a tool to organize large-scale events and bring awareness to the good or bad aspects of our society. Without the media, the woman’s march may have not been as successful. A day without immigrants may have not been organized and Milo Yiannopoulos would still be out there sharing his hate speech. It’s good to look at the positive and see the good that things like the media can bring when there is so much negative events going on in the World around us.

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