'We Media' and Democracy - Ellie Lester

Reflecting on your research from the summer: what have you learned about your own media use and how you access news content. (1000-1500)

Over the summer holidays I collected information about news stories from numerous sources, such as the news and social media, as part of my research on ‘We Media’. This gave me the opportunity to look at how I get my information about news that is transpiring locally, nationally and worldwide. When analysing the data that I collected, I discovered that the majority of my articles were from the internet on websites such as the ‘BBC News’ or ‘The Guardian’. A small proportion of my news was seen on Twitter, however I did further research on these stories on more reliable news websites. This suggests to me that perhaps I support Keens idea that ‘...these days’ people can’t tell the difference between credible news by objective professional journalists and what they read on joeshmoe.blogspot.com...' as I tend to try and gather my news from the more credible websites.

The first news story I heard about was the on-going Syrian refugee crisis in Hungary. I heard this story via the BBC news on TV, which I believe is a very reliable source. This storyline has been dominating the headlines for a long period of time, the most notable consequence of this being the death of a three year old boy who had drowned whilst trying to escape and later washed up on the Turkish coastline. The images of a police officer holding the child’s lifeless body went viral and stunned the world. This storyline was the one that caught my attention and encouraged me to read the story in depth to find out more, after hearing the story on the BBC news, I later decided to research the story even further on the BBC’s website. There are many arguments given for and against helping the refugees in Britain, however, my personal opinion is that before we open the doors to the refugees we need to have our eyes fully open and be prepared for what consequences may occur. For example, in areas across Britain (such as Bradford etc.) have very dense populations of Muslims who tend not to integrate into society. This can often lead to social tensions that cause conflicts. I think that what is happening to the refugees is awful and that nobody deserves to put through such turmoil or terror. I think that we should send as much aid as possible in order to help the refugees in the meantime while we slowly bring them to Britain and integrate them into society in order to ensure that there are no conflicts in terms of culture, which could lead to social instability. This story is an example of the power that “Big Media” has within our society today.

The second news story that I heard about was the death of two news journalists being shot and killed by an ex-colleague of theirs in the USA. I heard about this story via Twitter as somebody that I followed retweeted it. When it appeared on my timeline I wasn’t sure whether it was reliable or not, so I researched the story and came across an article on ‘The Guardian’ website called ‘Virginia TV journalists shot dead on air in attack staged by former colleague’. After reading this article I discovered that the killer, Vester Lee Flanagan II, who is black had claimed “racially toned grievances against his former employer”. Further into the article I discovered that the killer had recorded a video of himself carrying out the murders and posted it to Facebook. The story itself is very sad and upsetting, it makes me wonder how one human being can cause such pain and suffering to another human being. My opinion on this news story is that it needed to be covered in order to raise awareness to the public of what people can be capable of. I think that what the killer did is unforgiveable, whether or not his motives were real. Another part of me, whether right or wrong, feels that this whole ordeal was just used as an excuse to be in the spotlight and it worked. The video that was shot by the killer and was shared on Facebook, which has been viewed by many, sparked a lot of outrage among Americans, especially family and friends of the victims. The fact that the killer filmed the video himself and then posted it online, gives the impression that he was determined for the world to know about what he had done, it’s as if we was trying to achieve attention or fame for his crimes.

The final piece of news that I came across was about the death of a lion named Cecil who was shot dead in Zimbabwe by Walter James Palmer. I found out about this story via my Dad, who told me about the story after hearing about it on the radio. I was intrigued by the storyline and also heartbroken, so I decided to do some further research into it to find out more. I looked on the BBC news website which I trust to be a reliable and accurate source. I discovered that Cecil the lion was well-known and lived in the Hwange National Park in Matabeleland North, Zimbabwe and was 13 years old when he was killed. He was a major attraction at the park and was being studied and tracked by the University of Oxford as part of a larger study. An article that I read on the BBC’s website was called ‘Cecil the lion killer, Walter Palmer, to return to work’ which talks about the fact that the killer of Cecil has been allowed to return to his job as a dentist. This story has created an outbreak of anger amongst Zimbabweans as well as the world, as many people believe that Palmer has not been punished enough for his crimes. However he claims that he “he had been unaware of the animal's significance”, despite this fact he still paid a whopping £32,000 to kill Cecil, whether he knew he was important or not means nothing in my opinion. Poaching is a horrible and cruel act that should be banned altogether. Palmer’s actions have caused such anger that his family have also been put at risk, as he revealed that his wife and daughter have been subjected to intimidation as well as himself. "They've been threatened in the social media, and again … I don't understand that level of humanity to come after people not involved at all," he said. On a personal level, this quote agitated me a great deal because Palmer preached about the lack of ‘humanity’ in targeting who he seems to believe are innocent people, yet he shot dead a beautiful and innocent creature, where is the humanity in that? Overall, my opinion is that Palmer did not get the sufficient punishment that he deserved.

To conclude, my summer work has taught me that I get my news from a wide variety of sources, however if I believe that a source may be unreliable I tend to do my own further research. My news stories also differ in terms of their content which shows me that I take an interest in a wider variety of news topics rather than just sticking to one theme such as news on politics or celebrity gossip. I have also learnt that I tend to pick up a lot information about news stories from my parents and then if I find any of it interesting I will go and research it.