A. J Willingham Social Media

Many people will consider today’s technology to be a gift, the power to search and do anything on the internet within seconds making life easier for many. However, that isn’t always the case for others. It’s true that millions of people have the internet at their disposal, within their grasp. With a tap of your finger, an infinite amount of information on multiple websites is at your at your disposal. This kind of power is very reliable for many people who use the internet as a source of information. When you don’t know the definition of a word you simply type that word and you automatically get its meaning. Nevertheless, with power like this, of course, comes with downsides. Many people have become too trusting of a website.

It is addressed in the article how fickle the public is when it comes to what entertains them. News stories like “‘Heroic American fighters’ was the best and most marketable story before and during the major fighting. ‘Suicide bomber attacks’ has proven has proven to be a forceful story in the last

The internet is one of the many technologies to come about in this fast pace and ever evolving world. Within these new technologies, such as the internet, one can see how even people have evolved and changed their ways of thinking to keep up. One aspect of this change is the way people understand and think about what they read or see. In Nicholas Carr’s Is Google Making Us Stupid, the author present the idea that the use of the internet is the reason behind the changes within the minds of its users. This idea points towards the internet being both a mind altering and convenience mechanism; as well as being easily abused by its users. This allows Carr to effectively propose the idea that the internet, and technology in general, is used not only as a convenience mechanism, but also has a way to change how its uses think. However, Carr ineffectively represents how this change comes about due to user abuse of new technology like the internet.

Excluding events that happen through a disaster, leads to a falsification of the disaster and allows the viewer to continue to ignore the severity, as discussed earlier. In Chris Vanderwees’s article, Photographs of Falling Bodies and the Ethics of Vulnerability in Jonathan Safran Foer’s Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, he states, “censorship is never a viable suggestion and only leads to ignorance and repression, ultimately obscuring the historical record of any given event” (Vanderwees 179). Through the repression of images like “The Falling Man,” and others that are considered too graphic, the realistic aspect of the disaster is tainted and is not expressed to the truest form. This continues to provide viewers with Kaplan’s idea of “empty empathy” (Kaplan 93-95). However the exposure of these “taboo” images forces viewers to comprehend the reality of the attacks at a more personal level. Vanderwees continues in his article, stating that although the images of falling bodies is contextualized differently among individuals, they collectively bring what had been repressed back into the reader/viewer’s consciousness (Vanderwees 181). Through the use of these images, viewers are more capable and inclined to stop repressing the reality of what occurred. Rather then looking at the September 11th attacks as an attack on The World Trade Center, the

Primary sources are first-hand accounts of a moment in time. The use of raw materials such as images, letters, recordings, letters, interviews, objects and other sources are the best form of direct evidence to support research. One of the most vivid forms is images. Photographs have the power to provoke strong emotions one might miss with words. It is important when selecting images the media is subjective, and provides the most accurate account during that time period. When using photographs as primary sources there are several factors you should consider to ensure the photograph is the best analysis for your research. One of the most memorable events of the 21st century was 9/11. I will examine how using images can be just as powerful, if not more powerful and meaningful than words, when used correctly by looking at two different sources, The 9/11 Commission Report and The 9/11 Report , but showcasing the same thing in two different ways.

The author discusses the major role of mass media in mass shootings, and makes connections between the different reactions mass media has had between different shootings. The authors studies are extremely helpful when looking for information on society's reactions to mass shootings. These studies are also helpful when comparing different types of shootings, not just school shootings. The author further explains to the reader how one can go about comprehending mass shootings and this is helpful because it helps the reader answer their own questions of why shooters resort to rampage shooting, and how they go about doing so. The reader is then able to make arguments concerning mass shootings and why it is important to analyze

The aftermath of the September 11 attacks created a dichotomy between the American people and people of Arabic heritage, specifically the Muslims and those who “appear Arab”. How do the aftermaths of these tragedy portray and place a great emphasis on a divide between the “us” and the “them”? My paper will examine the aftermath of the tragics events that occurred in the September 11 Attacks, through the works of scholars and authors to investigate the portrayal and emphasis on the “us” and “them” divide that sprouted from the catastrophe. Douglas Kellner, a theorist in the field of critical media culture, explains that the way the media portrays victims of tragedies is them as weak and the culprits as violent, citing how the media portrayed the Americans as “vulnerable and open” and the terrorists as “violent and capable of causing great harm” (Kellner, 2004).

The co-ordinated terrorist attacks induced fear in civilians within the zone of the attacks, many people were wounded and looking for shelter. However, through the use of the social networking website twitter, users began hash tagging ‘#PorteOuverte’ which translates to ‘door open’. Facebook also placed a ‘safety check’ on the website so that people who lived in france would be able to mark themselves as safe. Many users who used the hashtag #PorteOuverte were using the medium to speak out to people near the attacks and even posted their address in order for people to come for shelter. This shows that through social media, communication has increased and arguably improved social solidarity. However, this hashtag was also being used by people who were not living in Paris, offering their homes but by people who were touched by the kind acts shown among Parisians. This caused a difficulty as the hashtag began trending worldwide and would have caused more confusion, which illustrates that the modern medium of communication has faults which could have cost people their

Sometimes people can get national news on social media faster than the news, which is good and bad. 14 young black girls went missing in the nation capital Washington D.C in one day. This story didn’t even make it to the world news people found out about the girls on social media. A New York Time’s writer name Morgan Jerkins wrote an article about these girls. Her story applies to my 3 principles such as altruism, scapegoating, and bystander effect.

A “moral panic” is an event that has the potential to take place all over the world and is not restricted by time, culture or a specific religion (Luce, 2012: 399). When these panics occur, there are various players involved. For example there are those whose actions result in the initiation of the panic, as well those who take advantage of these actions, such as the media in various ways such as images so as to possibly benefit themselves or draw negative attention in the direction of a certain group. In my essay I am going to discuss what a moral panic actually is and carefully examine an example of a moral panic that has taken place in society such as the HIV/Aids case so as to try and understand the underlying nature of the people involved

The moral panic dynamic is defined as a cause and effect, the cause being a group of people who have upset and threatened societal rules and formalities, while the effect is the public reaction. Key actors such as news teams, mass media leaders, and the government determine the validity and severity by constructing what the societal transformation and cultural conflict is. These experts, considered credible by society, play prominent roles in defining how much attention the threat deserves from the public. Often these judgements are exaggerated, causing intense media coverage, and the consequence is a permanent change in society. As a result of these broadcasted reactions, moral panics generate harsh conflict within a society. Using a macro-level

From “Regarding the Pain of Others” it describes, “The camera brings the viewer close, too close; supplemented by a magnifying glass—for this is double lens—story the “terrible distinctness” of the picture give unnecessary, indecent information”(63 Sontag). With media showing images caught and captured by everything happening it became a surreal experience. Seeing pictures and images of people falling out of a building rather than being burned alive is a traumatizing experience that people want to look away from, but they can’t. Yet, by seeing this unfold and being captured into history it creates a build up of emotions. People start to question what had just happened and need answers to this act of terrorism everyone starts to question others and there becomes a need for a

In Carrs article he discusses the way that the Internet gives us a false sense of knowledge. When we want to know about something we Google it. We find the article title that is closest to what we are searching for and we click it. In our everlasting quest to be know-it-alls we skim and skim or look for bold words and sentences until we feel that the information we have now obtained is suffice and we are considered knowledgeable about the topic. Although we feel this way, this “knowledge” is usually based off of two or three sentences that are compact and straight to the point.

In this modern technological age, the demand for constant updates and tension between speed and accuracy led to the communication of unverified information regarding the Boston Attacks. Despite this, hypothetical suspects, crime scenarios and the clues on social media as to who were the persons behind the attacks, led Boston police to Watertown where the Tsarnaev brothers were found and Dzhokar Tsarnaev was arrested. However soon after his arrest, new social media groups formed to defend and honour Dzhokar’s actions. The ‘FreeJahar’ and ‘justice4jhar’ replaced the trending hash tag ‘BostonMarathon’, with people tweeting messages of hope to Dzhokar. In addition to publicising Dzhokar, Rolling Stone featured Dzhokar as their cover story, with a selfie image of Dzhokar posing on the front page. Contributing editor of Rolling Stone, Matt Tabbibi responded to the controversial cover after critics accused the article of glamorizing terrorism. “Terrorists, he argued, are a fact of our modern lived and we need to understand them, because understanding is the key to stopping them”. As useful as social media was in accelerating medical responses and the safety of civilians, it was as damaging. Social media has given terrorists the power to spread messages and reach like-minded audiences, far beyond what would be able to otherwise reach. In effect, the Tsarnaev brothers’

“If the media were not there to report terrorist acts and to explain their political and social significance...terrorism as such would cease to exist” said John O'Sullivan, an editor of the Times of London.1 This is also the way many other people feel about the recent increase in terrorist activity; they feel that the media is causing it. The media is doing this by fulfilling the terrorists' need for publicity.2 Terrorists need media publicity in order to get their views spread to the public.3 Because of this need for publicity, terrorists are committing their acts of terrorism in areas where a lot of publicity will be gained; the United States and Western Europe are the most recent targets. The bombings of the federal building in