This semester we have acknowledged in more ways than one, that the way we communicate has effected the way news is brought to us, and the amount of people that see it. I think that there is no better example of this phenomenon then the Texas student who was sent away out of fear of bringing a bomb to school. The story broke on September 16th. In a matter of hours, both President Obama and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg responded encouragingly to the story, reassuring Ahmed Mohamed that he had their support. Everyone in the country began tweeting about it, retweeting it, sharing it on Facebook, as well as maybe finding it in the newspaper. Just 5 days later, Ahmed has been invited, and is going, to space camp, and the story seems to have been resolved. I couldn't help but notice, that since I've been informed on the perspective of the speed of national interest, the story was introduced, reached the climax of national interest, and has died down faster than I realized it could. It goes without saying that without the internet, we would probably be getting the details today, instead of hours after it happened. That's why this serves as the best case study for what we've been discussing so far.
Timothy, I think addressed a good point. The media has evolved in such a way that stories across the states and even the world are easily accessible. President Obama, NASA, presidential candidate Hilary Clinton, and Mark Zuckerberg all made political statement through support of Ahmed. The media/social media has been a platform and allowed for political movements to take place in areas that might not be in the national spotlight. Ahmed's name in headlines brought attention to Islamphobia and allowed for the media and political to take it head on by deciding if they would #StandwithAhmed or not.
ReplyDeleteChloe and Tim, I like that you referenced social media in respect to the speed and accessibility of information . We know that the new media is changing how we receive information and you're right Tim, the Ahmed story was a fantastic example of a current event that has undertones of new media influence.
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