Maris’ Politics in the Media Blog
Introduction:
Hey I’m Maris!
If you couldn’t tell already, I am pretty progressive. This is going to be a blog where I write about things or people that I am most passionate about in the political spectrum. Since this class is about politics and the influence that social media has on them I will focus more on that side of things. In class we have to pick an individual that we follow on our accounts to report on. Originally I picked Malala Yousafzai who is a female that escaped from her country and went on to tell her story and is now running a global fund to help educate younger girls. I personally have worked with low income and foster girls and taught them art for a while so what she does really strikes my interest. Well, Malala does not post too frequently on social media so it is a bit difficult to follow and track her progress from one platform. So I am also deciding to follow Cyntoia Brown who is 32 years old and just finished spending 15 years in prison for shooting a customer of the sex trafficking business she had been trafficked into. Cyntoia is also a big activist now and even has the Glitter Project which is a project to help prevent human sex trafficking. I hope this gives you an idea of what I will be writing about. I look forward to the semester.
Week 3 Reading Connection:
In the Stier reading he states “whether news is consumed offline or online affects perceptions of issue importance.” Cyntoia Brown immediately came to my mind when I read this. Her case became popular due to the online media. After being featured in a documentary, Kim Kardashian shared her story and then Rhianna and eventually Alissa Milano all over social media. That is how her story got out to the world. There are so many girls that are just like Cyntoia and are still locked up because their stories were not lucky enough to get covered. Cyntoia even says that she just happened to be lucky enough to get noticed. If this story was not published online she would still be locked up. The power of social media influenced and let her clemency hearing go through. Perceptions change once people see news being shared on social media. It suddenly becomes a lot bigger.
Using Social Media as a Platform for Advertisement of Non Profit:
Malala uses her social media to mainly advertise her work with the non profit that she created. Her non profit is called the Malala Fund and it is a organization to get girls in foreign countries and low income areas into schools. Her father was an educator when she went to school in Afghanistan and so this is where she got her original idea from because she had to fight to be educated as a woman in her country. The Malala fund currently serves Afghanistan, Brazil, India, Nigeria, Pakistan and the Syria region. I first noticed this when I was scrolling through her twitter and she was thanking Apple for contributing to her fund. Apple is such a big corporation that they probably would not have thought or known about this if it wasn’t for advertisement on social media. Malala is constantly posting updates on the work of the fund and the progress as well as sharing the donate link pretty continuously.
Usng Social Media for Book Advertisement:
I realized while doing my research on both accounts that they both use social media to promote their books a lot. Malala’s book is a few years old so it is not as frequent. Cyntoia just released her book, so I am really seeing from her perspective that you can gain press release and all sorts of other things by advertisement on social media for those types of projects. They are two different situations though as well. Malala kind of got recognized and is well known from her book. Where as Cyntoia just released her book as a statement after her release. Each scenario can gather large amounts of fans or followers though.
Trending?
No trending news on either person this week. Two things that did not trend but are interesting. Cyntoia’s Book was just released and it is already nominated for a NAACP Image Award. She also went to do a talk and sign books at Dilard University yesterday. Malala has been silent on social media unfortunately due to the loss of her grandmother. Those are the latest updates as of 02/05/2020.
Human Trafficking Portrayed in the Media:
For this next piece, I wanted to talk about the difference between how human trafficking is portrayed in television shows and movies compared to modern society. This clip above comes from the television show The Fosters. Human Trafficking is a very risky subject to put in a movie or television show in general because it is a trending topic and any program has to be careful how they portray it or it could come off the wrong way. I use The Fosters specifically because I know that they used a lot of controversial topics in their show for the story line. Along with human trafficking, they brought up immigration struggles, transgender identity issues, abortion and they even reenacted a school shooting. I personally think that they portrayed it pretty well. I think that this show did its presentation of these controversial topics very professionally. Specifically, I think they made the coercive power of the pimp so convincing that you were almost scared watching the show. That’s one thing that I think that people underestimate. You will often hear someone who has never been in that type of situation before talk about how they would do a lot to get out or escape etc. The reality of the situation is that you do not know how you’re going to act until you are in the situation yourself. So in my opinion, this is a good representation for what the topic is.
This is clip is how Cyntoia was portrayed at the beginning of her story and after her trial when she was officially sentenced. As we have talked about in class, when you pick a source to watch a video from or a article to read you always have to make sure the source is valid and that it does not have a bias opinion. MSNBC is pretty factual based so I feel like it was good to show this clip because it is a true credible news source that reports daily on trending topics. Of course this was in Cyntoia’s darkest moments of her life because she realized that she was sentenced to life and did not have a lot of hope. So these clips were before she actually started believing in herself and in return, succeeding in prison.
Finally, this is Cyntoia after she was released. Notice how the media is not saying it is a “sad” or “hopeless” story anymore. Now they are emphasizing that she is powerful and motivating for what she did. This is also after her story went viral. They clearly know that the story is well known now, so the video is going to have more views. So it is interesting how her story is portrayed now in a positive and motivating light so that the media will not upset anyone.
The Malala Fund Website Analyzed using the “five pump valves” Metaphor from the Entman Reading:
Platform: In Entman’s article he describes a platform as, ” a software that hosts content originated by people besides the owner.” (ex: Google, Facebook, Twitter) Although the Malala Fund is not a platform by that description, it runs off other platforms. As you can see, all of Malala’s social media accounts are linked to the bottom of her website. Also you can easily access her website off Google which is a platform of its own. So although this site is not a platform itself, it needs platforms to continue running.
Analytics: analytics in this context are described as, “technologies that allow organizations to monitor online sentiment, tests and opinion.” or “data about audience behavior” Malala uses this quite frequently to help prove that her work is working. For example, below you can see that a statistic of 3.5 million children are not educated in Afghanistan. 85% of those children are girls and most of them if not all are forced into marriages that they do not want. Malala uses analytics like this to fuel her work for the fund.
Algorithms: Algorithms are referenced in Entman’s article as, “procedures for turning input into output based on a series of calculations and ordered steps.” Using the analytics of the website Malala puts her activism to the test. She is able to sort of prove herself and prove her fund by the “output” that it creates. As you can see below, the Malala fund helped Ana Paula a resident of Brazil and now she has also become an advocate for the movement. Her and Deema Hiram above are just two examples of the “output” that the Malala fund has.
Ideological Media: Ideological Media is defined as having “eschew objectivity” This means that the media should attempt to avoid specific targets. If it is presenting an idea it needs to be clear and precise but not objectifyng any special categories negatively. (i.e. race, gender, sex) specifically. The Malala Fund is specifically advertising for helping to educate young girls but none of the advertising to donate or be a part of the movement is negative.
Rogue Actors: Lastly the rogue actors are described as “those acting outside of norms that previously constrained media and powerful elites.” otherwise known as (hackers, bots) This does not specifically pertain to this site. I am sure there are editors on the outside making it look the best that it can. I could see how on a platform this would be something that you would have to closely observe but here it is not a main point.
Power Creates Impulsivity
In class earlier this week we watched Dacher Keltner’s talk on the Power Paradox as well as continued to read it. One of the main points in the reading is that when someone gains power with that comes impulsivity. This could correlate with Cyntoia’s story in a lot of ways. After her story went viral and although the governor already had power I wonder if the governor felt as if he had to make a decision about her clemency out of impulse. As we have discussed in class, Cyntoia did not have power from the start and it was kind of handed to her. So she could potentially make all of her decisions out of impulse. This is one point that I really have noticed majorly throughout the reading. Also this week Malala posted a photo with Greta Thunberg after not posting on social media for weeks. I wonder if she felt like she had to come back with something big out of impulse to maintain her power? This has really made my mind wander this week.
Disinformation Combined with Human Trafficking in the Media:
This week we are mainly discussing how disinformation is completely disguised as real information in the media. It is hard to tell where the line lies from real news headlines to fake headlines when you are scrolling through Facebook. Now imagine being a young teen looking for a job ad in Craigslist for the summer and being tricked into becoming a teen trafficking victim instead. That is the reality for so many young girls in today’s society. You might think that this is pertaining to ads that are for working abroad but it is truly right in your backyard. Similar to trafficking itself, a lot of people are stuck thinking that that could never happen to them but they are the individuals that are the most nieve to it.
One of the major red flags for these ads is the high pay. You may notice that the pay seems a bit odd to because it is by the month and not weekly or bi weekly. In Maine if you are being paid minimum wage monthly you would be paid $2,080.00. That means this ad is triple what a normal person would make. That could be coercing to anyone and especially people who are really struggling in their situation which are their main targets. This ad could be easier to point out due to their way of advertisement.
This one could be easier to fall for. Notice there are no big totals on the ad and it is simply just a summer work ad. Personally if I was looking at this ad I would probably think it was just a local business wanting more help. My mom used to own a daycare and I know she used to post ads similar to this at local grocery stores and things to acquire employees. The only thing that sticks out to me here is that there is no name mentioned of a business. Even if it was a simple nanny ad or a lawn work you should be able to see a job description. To trap someone into human trafficking it is easy, as soon as they have your phone number they can track your location and get all of your info. That is why more people need to be aware of this constant issue.
In conclusion, we just need to inform more people of disinformation being portrayed as real info on social media as we talked about in class. Most people do not understand the importance of this and that in some cases, you could even be putting yourself in danger. One of our students at UMF even personally experienced this. My close friend Moninda was getting “famous” for winning multiple running races in Africa. Someone who was pretending to be a manager reached out to him and offered for him to come to the US and run. Of course Moninda took advantage this opportunity. Once he made it to the US, he learned later on that he was actually being labor trafficked and the “manager” took all of his forms of identification as soon as he got to the US. It is crazy to think that something that you may think of as a great opportunity could turn into your biggest nightmare due to disinformation.
Meme of choice:
I chose this one because I think it is important yet a bit comical. It is important to constantly point out and evaluate the privilege in our society. Also to evaluate the criminal justice system and what we are letting get noticed in the media and what is hidden. I know that the Brock Turner case got a good amount of negative attention because many saw it as unfair. Also it did not get as many judgements as Cyntoia’s case though. This is the type of meme that I think is important to publicize on social media. Not pointless or ignorant memes that often get out into society.
Update on both the accounts as of 03/20:
With COVID-19 running wild in our society Malala has been doing something interesting on her Instagram Stories. She sent out a video telling everyone to send her videos of what they are doing with their quarantine time. This is basically to promote to use your time wisely while you have it. I think this was a good way to send out a positive message during this difficult time for a lot of people. She has also been using cartoon animation to promote powerful female leaders on her Instagram and Twitter accounts and I have enjoyed watching these.
I have kind of noticed a trend on Cyntoia’s account for Instagram. One week she will post fun photos and then the next week she will post photos from what she is doing with work politically. I think this is just to keep people updated and to let them know that she is doing to avoid backlash but also to just let them know in general. I just happened to find that interesting. Also as of right now Cyntoia has not addressed COVID-19 at all.
Maris' Politics in the Media Blog 