Sunday, November 11, 2007

Not everybody is like that....

When we watch the news we see that people in Iraq are terrorists, that Iran makes nuclear weapons and that there is genocide in Darfur. That sometimes misleads us to think that everyone in that region is mean, supports their government or are doing the wrong thing. That leads us to create a stereotype.

Not everyone in that certain country is like that. There are many people who oppose what is going on, but the media doesn’t tell us that. As I read in the article Online Activism: Media Stereotypes And The Rise Of Smart Mobs, media wants to sell, and people like stereotype, terror and death. Therefore, generally they'll tell us the bad things, but never the good or the boring ones. They'll always tell us about the terrorists but not of the people in that country who oppose it.
Blogging gives individuals the opportunity to show the world who they really are and what they really think. They tell us that even if there are bad people and bad decisions in their region, they are not part of it. In addition, it allows us to voice our opinion and help change a situation. It lets the world know that someone is opposing what is going on and it puts pressure on governments to try and make a change.

Before, it was hard to voice these opinions. It was hard to let people know what you felt and who you agreed with. The internet and blogging has really eased the process up. However, I do believe that it is not total freedom.

There are countries where people go to jail and suffer hard consequences when voicing their opposing opinions. Countries like Iran and Cuba have very limited freedom of speech and when they say what they feel, they end up in jail to set up an example to prevent other people from doing it.

Overall the internet provides more freedom than any other media to show inidivual perspectives and opposing views. But this only happens in countries where there is freedom of speech. We should really work so that this works all over the world and not only where people are allowed to talk, because in the end, every one has something to say and they should be allowed to do it.

1 comment:

Abdul said...

I agree that the media distorts things. I know that some US soldiers have done various blogs stating the same things you say that the media just reports the violence in Iraq and not about how certain military groups are helping the people of Iraq rebuild their villages and improve their lives.