Wednesday, March 22, 2017

Perception

Whats worst the images we see or the ones we don’t?

What’s worst the images that we see all around us or the ones that we don’t. In my life I always thought it was the images we seen on the news or on social media because of how they can pain the picture of a human being without it being totally true.  In the article "the side of depression we don't often see" by Alexa Erickson it talks about what is shown and not known with the difficulties of depression. Even though it talks bout a different subject it's about the same concept of things we don't see. after seeing some images that I have never seen before it changed my whole perspective. I feel as though that we should live in a world that gives us all the information so then we can conclude ourselves. Images such as protests in Muslim based country’s that are just as upset about the terror attacks on the united states as we are. I’m sure if everyone got the knowledge of both sides of perspectives this country would be different. Since the election of Donald trump we have seen a division within this country that we haven’t seen in a long time. With social media, bigger than ever, news anchors say that this was a big factor in his election. With the new president of the united states shows an example of everything that I have been talking about through these blogs. With the political propaganda and the use of social media in his running and presidency that us as country has never seen before. This is not every supporter of Donald trump but a portion of the voters that voted for him have a strong-minded opinion on race, gender and equality which are predominately young voters. Is it a coincidence that the people that I’m talking about are in the new wave of the social media era? I can almost guarantee the images they see of people are there timeline shaped their minds. 

Images in the media?

Now that we understand the concept of how propaganda works in politics and in regular social problems in people’s lives we must understand how little things can lead to a big problem. In the article "racial bias and news media reporting" by John wihbey it talks how races are portrayed in the news. With stereotypes that are developed with people to generalize them for example with Muslims being labeled as terrorist or being black is criminal the images people see are a big part of that. The big concept of these blogs is the perception of race but now we are going to be focused on how the images people use play a factor in the concept of race. Ask yourself this, if the only thing you see in your life is one image of a person, how would you ever know to contradict that. With social media in which 62 percent of this country gets their news from you have the power to follow people that you want to follow, that means you only see the ideology’s that you like, which means you are getting one sided facts and ideas that are being tossed around in a cycle. The biggest problem in this world that I believe is that we live in bubbles. And within your bubble if you have preconceived viewpoint on a certain race, let’s say African American and you only see that images that prove your mindset right it’s impossible to grow. In the news, my whole life I seen time and time again images of black men when something happens in the news they use the scariest images of them. This could be a coincidence but It would be hard to think otherwise. I group up around people that looked like the images that were being displayed about them, but what if I didn’t?

Is the social media the death of facts?

“A majority of U.S. adults – 62% – get news on social media, and 18% do so often” (journalism.org). In the article "social media use for news and individuals social capital" by Nakhon Jong connects with this last quote and the use of social media as a news source.This is the world that we live in, with the invention of social media with sites such as Facebook, twitter and snapchat people have a new way of finding news around the world. The scary thing about people finding news on social media is that not everything on social media is true. Facts are being challenged because when news that are false get thrown into the social media world they are placed as a fact. The statement don’t  believe everything that you see, is defiantly true in this generation. Before social media, the way people got their news were from the actual cable news channels or the newspaper. With these sources of information if it was conservative or liberal or republican democratic they couldn’t push false narratives and push out extremely opinionated viewpoints, so they had to find a clever way to push propaganda on their audience. With channels, such as Fox news which is conservative with topics like terrorism they wouldn’t call the people terrorist they would form it into a question like “are these people terrorist” see the difference. But with social media, because of our first amendment rights we can say anything without being punished. News still play a big factor in how people form their perceptions. When you already have a pre-conceived thought of a topic the images you see just prove their viewpoint in their mind. Social media and the classic news that people get play hand in hand with each other. While social media can persuade you of information that is false to develop your mind to think something, the news can use images or show you what you think Is true.
What is political propaganda?
In the article "media use to persuade people's attitudes" by johnnie Mozaria and  jonathon brick talks about the media in and out of politics persuades people's views. I got the most out of the politics point of view. Political propaganda is a way that a party in politics which in our country could be from liberal, progressive or conservative ideology from the democratic or republican party to use the media to persuade their audience of a certain mindset to make them act in way of their favor. This strategy does not have be from actual politicians, it could be from citizens as well. The 1933 nazi book burning is example of this when thousands of college students across Germany burned thousands of books that were opposing their viewpoints of the world, the “anti-german” mindset was what these college kids were trying to eliminate. This was part of a movement that would later develop into Adolf Hitlers campaign to destroy the “Anti-Germans” of the world. The biggest thing people have to understand is that at the time people that were following Adolf Hitler didn’t realize he was Adolf Hitler. Let me explain, the villainized person that we know of Hitler wasn’t how exactly he was perceived, just like how during the civil rights movement it wasn’t so clear that that was the right move. During these time periods the media plays a big part on cognitive effect, behavior effects and psychological effects. Television, social media etc. have effects that make people see things in a certain way that they don’t know persuaded them From my experience the statement that I often hear which is amusing in the reasoning that I’m finding the connection between these people is the statement of “I’m not racist or discriminatory I’m just saying the truth” the people that say that don’t usually say this exact statement but they mean it. Often the people that have controversial viewpoints on race or gender a lot of the time do not have frequent encounters with whom their talking about. Interesting is this coincidence?
What is the perception of race?

“a swathe of evidence from the 1980s and 1990s also seemed to suggest that race is an automatic categorisation,”(bbc.com).  When people see different races, they see products of experience. A lot of times people do not have any prior experience or they have a limited experience with certain races so how do they conclude how to identify people from different cultures? That’s a question that I have been asking myself for a while and is a difficult question to answer. In the article "silent war" by frank Furedi it talks bout perception and what is. About how different races view the world discussing their challenges. A big question that I have been asking myself is what messages are more effective the messages that we see or the messages we don’t. Social control is a big problem in our country and has been since this country has been developed. Human rights were and is still being challenged within a country in which the penal system was designed to enslave people and designed to enough control over different cultures and genders so that the wealthy, powerful men was never challenged in a way that they would lose their power. Since the 14th and 15th century America has made huge strides and milestones in which improved how people are perceived and treated but is it over? We all say that things aren’t perfect and is fine but their actions speak otherwise. This is a product of control this country has on its people to make them believe certain things without people knowing that they have been controlled. The media is the biggest tool that persuades people to believe a certain culture, race or gender is  certain way. Political propaganda is a powerful thing and has been used to destroy a generalized group of people. Adolf Hitler had a whole media campaign to destroy the image of Jewish people before he did so and that strategy has been used numerous times since then to convince people of a thought. The most effective way to control people is to make them believe their isn’t a problem.
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