as the semester comes to an end, i want to reflect on all that i have learned in regards to the media and politics and all that jazz. We started the year of bumpy to say the least, with all of a not so sudden Russian invasion, which really showed clear differences between the coverage on the "war" in Europe and the wars that have been fought in other parts of the world. For months it has not been the number one breaking news story on all major networks, however, other parts of the world can't even make it into the last segment. we saw full opinion pieces being written on twitter, facebook, anywhere where anyone was willing to listen, from people who were experts on the region, to people who probably couldn't even point out Ukraine on the map a year before. We all saw horrific images in the news of bombings and even dead people just laying on the ground and nobody blinked twice, which makes me believe that we are so desensitized that i don't know if there is a way back.
we learned about propaganda and the use of media to sway the populace, the rise of influencers to help out the president to reach a whole new demographic and inform them. which makes you think if that is the best route to take, because it is flirting with the idea of propaganda, since the definition of the word is: "information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote or publicize a particular political cause or point of view." the information that he wanted to spread might not have been biased or misleading this time, but it was effective and might be used in the future and who knows what kind of information these influencers will spread to further politicians' agenda. the use of influencers to spread information to younger (and impressionable) generations, where do we draw the line from information sharing and using them as a tool to spread propaganda, since at the end of the day, it is their job to influence people.
we have also learned of the rise and the semi fall of official journalism and how it has kind of taken a hit, since now everyone is kind of a journalist in their own right, whether it is someone who just spreads information to their friends and family or it's someone who has millions of followers, like Joe Rogan, who i don't consider a journalist, but i could get major push back for saying that controversial statement.
all in all, i think we covered a lot of bases and it was a successful semester. Thank you for reading and talking about it with me.
talk to you next time, maybe
Sophia
Comments
Post a Comment