Written Task First Draft

Social Networks a Way of Communication or a Way of Exposing your Negative Opinions?

     Society today is greatly influenced by the media and its surrounding elements. I for one believe that the media today does have a strong impact on our lives; let’s take social networks for example, they are a great way of communication and sharing ideas, many people take advantage of this in a way to connect with others. People use social networks in this way most of the time, again, most of the time; often times there other people who are a bit careless and ignorant about the things they post/tweet on either Facebook or Twitter as if no one will see. Often times these careless posts are done by celebrities and political figures all of whom have a high social status and sometimes even the average teenager looking attention. Anyways, it’s a bit pathetic especially when you are a person of high social status, in which you have many followers and viewers of whom you influence greatly. This can often hurt your image and make society think differently of you because you are indeed, in society’s eyes, an important person who does have a great influence and opinion on different subjects. A prime example of what I’m talking about has occurred recently in French news.  

     A few months after France’s recent elections for their current president, President Francois Hollande, there were some interesting tweets on Twitter made famous by France’s first lady, the wife of Hollande, Valerie Trierweiler. Her tweets were mainly pinpointed towards Hollande’s ex-wife, it was here that Trierweiler was downplaying and insulting the president’s former wife. I believe this was quite careless of her because obviously many people would have seen this post because being of such high social status in the French society she has many followers and what she believes in and what her opinions are indeed effect the French society. In addition, right after these tweets were among the internet for everyone to see, France’s first lady soon found herself as one of the least popular figures in France, all because of one simple tweet that didn’t even need to be posted, this indeed is a fact on how careless she was by posting her tweet. I feel that social networks do change our behaviors because from what we see on social networks whether something was posted or tweeted can definitely change our opinion and influence towards someone based on their opinion toward a subject or social status.

     Later on France’s first lady did come to realize that her actions were indeed “clumsy” and that it was a mistake that she “regerts”. She went on by saying: “I had not yet realized that I was no longer a simple citizen. It won't happen again”. Again this brings up the point of how someone’s social status can have a great effect on their influence and popularity in the media. Obviously moving from a simple citizen to France’s first lady is a huge increase to your social status.

     Eventually this whole situation came to the point of affecting the image of President Hollande. People in France’s society began to realize that the president’s own wife was indeed a bit stuck up and crazy, eventually this came to the conclusion in which France began to question Hollande’s presidency because his own wife is making him look bad.

     Even though France’s first lady is a woman of high social status a group of people can be just as powerful sometimes even more when it comes to posting things on social networks. When I use Facebook or Twitter, on average I often see a lot of fads being passed around and used. These fads can be noted by a picture being posted and shared by many people for others to see or even words and phrases that people continuously end their most recent status update with. These fads are as similar to people hoping on the bandwagon; once someone starts it others follow and so on. I often ignore these because to me they are a bit dull but these fads are huge on Facebook and Twitter and you can see them daily. Recently France has again been affected by the usage of social networks, this time with a certain fad, a phrase in this case, that has been going around Twitter. The phrase being overused by many was “#unbonjuif (#agoodjew)”; it was very popular at the time and it was accompanied by a few offensive comments each time it was posted. Eventually the Union of Jewish Students of France (UEJF) had taken this in a very bad manner and took legal action on the situation with Twitter. In the end the UEJF had won against Twitter and had gotten them to remove all comments containing the offensive phrase from the Twitter severs in France. In my opinion it’s a bit sad to see something so anti-Semitic. Moreover, it’s very disturbing to see a social network, a tool for communication and joy, being used in such a harsh way. This definitely has a negative impact on the Jewish community, but it was very pleasing to see that they had won their case to get these anti-Semitic posts off Twitter. As you can see the use of this fad had changed the behavior of some of the French community in which most of the community had jumped on the band wagon. On the other hand the Jewish community of France had retaliated on the matter, thus again showing how the media impacts are lives.

     It’s crazy how such small and simple posts or tweets on any social network can become the topic of a huge issue. Again I find that often times social networks make us careless because we don’t think about what we are sharing on the internet for everyone to see; we don’t ask ourselves if “this really is the right thing to do” or “do I really need to post that”, and the list of questions goes on and on. You can see how the start of one simple joke led to a fad in which everyone was commenting on and not caring for one second if what they were posting had any effect on the Jewish community of France. In addition, we can also see how the carelessness of a person of high social status indeed affected their image amongst their own nation. I guess that social networks give us the opportunity to speak out more and give off a strong opinion that a large quantity of people can see, it could be a possible way of being noticed but they way I see it, is that it’s only a way to attract negative attention toward yourself, although it is possible that positive attention can be gained by this depending on what you’re talking about and who you are. 

Written Task Outline

I've chosen to write my written task based on the ideas of my blog post entitled: "Why We Should Ask Ourselves are you sure you want to tweet/post that? I have chosen to write my written task based on the ideas and examples in this blog post because I do believe it will resemble a well written editorial. Moreover, this is a topic that almost everyone can relate about. In addition, there are a lot of ideas and evidence I can use within my written task, such as the ideas presented in my post.

Outline

Topic: "The true impact the media has on our lives"

Subject: The content of my written task will be about how social networks can change our character on the web. People tend to act differently when they are behind a screen. For example if we take my blog post about France's first lady downplaying her husband's ex-wife we can see the negative impact that this had on her personality and even her husband. This is a great example of how social networks not only give us the ability to speak our minds but also at times act careless and lose our ability to really think about what we are doing. Moreover, this can be linked to aspects such as cyber bullying in which some people find power to downplay others when they are behind a screen.

Text Type: Opinion editorial
I plan on using formal words while showing detailing my opinion about the subject, it may be difficult to reach on towards teens judging by the fact that they read magazines more than newspapers.

Audience: For my audience I would like to pinpoint my ideas toward teens, young adults, and adults. I'm choosing this audience because these are the 3 type of people who happen to use social networks the most in society.

Purpose: To identify how social networks give us 'an extra bang for our buck'; meaning that we often post strong content on the internet that may influence your life and the lives of others. In addition, I will mainly be pinpointing the negative aspects as my point is to show how we are careless and often times seem stronger behind a screen.

Title: Do you Really Want to Post that? Why We Should Always be Cautious of What We Write on the Internet

Rationale: Provided after my written task is complete

If this isn't the write topic to write about I will also consider basing my written task on stereotypes

Mr. Rees if I base my opinion editorial on my outline may I use the same example I used in my post "Why We Should Ask Ourselves are you sure you want to tweet/post that?; provided I go more in depth with the example and connect it with the topic as well as provide other examples?

Why We Should Always Ask Ourselves 'Are you sure you want to tweet/post that?'

Lately in the past four months of France's recent elections French President Francois Hollande's wife Valerie Trierweiler (Both president and first lady can be seen to the right) has quickly found herself as one of France's least popular leading figures. What led to France's first lady's downfall in popularity? Well believe it or not, it started with a simple tweet in twitter. Trierweiler's tweet consisted of downplaying Hollande's ex-companion. In later news France's first lady has repeatedly stated that she "regrets" the tweet and has even told one of France's newspapers that "It was a mistake that I regret  I must have been clumsy because this was badly interpreted". She goes on by saying: "I had not yet realized that I was no longer a simple citizen. It won't happen again". From moving to a simple citizen to France's first lady this obviously has a huge impact on your social status. It was a bit unwise to post a harsh tweet about someone you dislike knowing that you are now a public figure that people look up to and follow. Moreover, you are the president's wife, you have a huge influence on him and his presidency. Although, this wasn't the only time Trierweiler had gained negative recognition for her tweets. During the parliamentary elections, Trierweiler had sent out a tweet wishing good luck to Hollande's opponent and another harsh comment to the president's ex-companion. This had attracted a widespread coverage in France's press. Many called this incident an "embarrassment" to Hollande right after his presidential victory. So from the start of the elections Trierweiler had been decreasing her popularity with the French nation. To make matters worse there had even been statistics about how unpopular the first lady is. In a poll for a French celebrity magazine 67 percent of respondents have a "fairly negative" or "very negative" view on the first lady, moreover, 42 percent said Hollande's private life has a negative impact on the president's image. With all these scandals based upon the first lady, some of the French nation questions Hollande's presidency. Opponents of Hollande now portray him "as a hapless ditherer who lives in fear of two formidable women in his life".

It obvious that the media has a huge impact on our lives from what we can see from this entire event. As regular people who are active on social networks we often find important figures whom we admire posting careless nonsense. This sometimes can have a negative or positive effect on the way we see things. As you can see this event obviously had a negative impact on the first lady and the president, as they have both become unpopular to the nation of France through the carelessness of the first lady. Now most people of France see the first lady as a negative influence on the president and this has been made clear by the media. Moreover, it was very unwise for the first lady of France to post such careless comments especially since the French Press was able to get a hold of it. Being a public figure you'd expect someone to be a bit more responsible but I guess her personal rivalries got the better of her. This is why we should always be responsible and ask ourselves if 'we really need to tweet or post that comment', 'is it really worth it?'; maybe we should keep to ourselves and save our opinions for a more reasonable time.

Here is the actual article about the event from France 24:
http://www.france24.com/en/20121003-france-first-lady-trierweiler-regrets-tweet-mistake-snubbing-hollande-ex-partner-royal

Cuba's Limiting on Journalism

Lately in Latin American news a dissident Cuban blogger by the name of Yoani Sanchez (Right) has been arrested by Cuban authorities. Sanchez has her very own blog known as: Generation Y. Sanchez also covers stories for a Spanish newspaper known as El Pais. Sanchez was arrested before arriving to Bayamo, Cuba where she was planned on covering a story for El Pais about the trial of Spanish politician Angel Carromero. After being arrested another blogger who is known to be pro-government blogged about Sanchez portraying that her intention during the trial was to put on a "media show" of the trial and to disrupt it. This isn't necessarily true because Sanchez's primary intention was to cover the events of the trial. So far in the event El Pais has stated that they have lost contact with Sanchez; it is possible that this could turn into a national crisis much like the Julian Assange situation. Although  throughout this entire event Sanchez has gained even more international attention and recognition for her blog. So from this Sanchez has gained many followers and admirers who will indeed be behind her and would want to see her release.

The Cuban government has been repeatedly been using "arbitrary detention to silence critics, disrupt peaceful assembly, and impede independent journalism". As you can see the media has a impact on many factors of our daily lives; in this case the media has impacted the Cuban government to appose all types of journalism in a very drastic way. In many ways this is seen as a bad fault because this defies the Freedom of Speech; although being a Communist country Freedom of Speech is very limited in fact the Cuban media is controlled by the government. This event could spark many events such as the a crisis between the release of Sanchez. Moreover, maybe even a movement to have the Cuban media break free from the government.

Here are some links to the actual article about the arrest of Yoani Sanchez -
CNN: http://edition.cnn.com/2012/10/05/world/americas/cuba-blogger-arrest/index.html?hpt=ila_c2
The Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/oct/05/cuban-blogger-yoani-sanchez-arrested
Yoani Sanchez's Blog Generation Y:
http://www.desdecuba.com/generationy/

The Media and Stereotypes

The World Map of Useless Stereotypes
Christoph Niemann

Today there are many impacts that the media has on our lives, some more positive than others. One negative aspect of the media today that has existed for some time now are stereotypes. What are stereotypes? Well for those who don't know stereotypes are: fixed and oversimplified images or ideas of a particular type of person or thing. Most stereotypes are sexual or racial. Stereotypes are used all over the world, in fact they are seen everyday, heard everyday, and used everyday. We see them on TV, in books, and magazines. Stereotypes today are so strong and overused its impossible not to notice them. To the right is a photo of The World Map of Useless Stereotypes. This poster outlines some stereotypes of countries and what they use to define each other. 

There are many other examples of stereotypes other than the ones seen in the poster, some more harsh than others. Some even hit us where we live. For example after the 9/11 terrorist attack many middle eastern cultures and races became victims of stereotypes. These stereotypes pinpointed them and labeled all people who come from the middle east as terrorists. In more recent news there was a article published by The Guardian that was about negative stereotypes being created by a British TV series and its advertisements; the show is called Big Fat Gypsy Wedding. This show airs on Channel 4 on British TV networks and many of its advertising posters where seen as offensive much like the one seen above to the left. Britain's Advertising Standards Authority ruled the advertising campaign as "irresponsible, offensive, and reaffirmed negative stereotypes" that were directed toward the Traveller and Gypsy communities. Many of the other posters used in the advertising campaign also down played the Gypsy community and has left them victim to new negative stereotypes. 

Stereotypes are all over the word and are greatly portrayed by the media and the worldly events that happen daily. Most stereotypes come from movies, TV, and the internet. They have a huge impact on the way people see other cultures and races and they even effect how people treat those cultures. Stereotypes can indeed be seen as a negative aspect created by the media. 

The World Map of Useless Stereotypes (For a closer look): http://niemann.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/06/the-world-map-of-useless-stereotypes/

The Guardian Stereotype article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/oct/03/big-fat-gypsy-weddings-stereotypes