%% Contemporary Issues in the Media %%
Presentations
Tags
Humanities
Cegep/2
Word count
704 words
Reading time
5 minutes
- Memecoin
- Dogecoin, Trump coin, etc.
- Rugpull: hype up then sell
- Exploits ignorance and influence and "get rich quick" mentality
- Charles Stuart
- Orchestrated the murder of his wife for insurance
- Claimed the attacker is a Black man
- Media's role:
- Rushed the story
- Reinforced racial stereotypes
- Prioritized sensationalism
- Consequences:
- Police raids targeting Black people
- Street searches of Black people
- Detainment of innocent people
- Fueled anger, with some demanding death penalty
- TikTok
- Reasons for ban:
- National security
- Misinformation / disinformation
- Censorship
- Limits topics about China and Hong Kong
- Addictiveness
- History:
- 2020: India bans TikTok
- 2020: Trumps demands selling of TikTok
- 2022: ByteDance accessed nonpublic data (birthdays, phone numbers, etc.)
- 2025: Trump delays the ban
- Reasons Trump changed his mind:
- 14.5 million followers on TikTok
- Republican donor holds 15% stake
- Reasons for ban:
- NSA
- Edward Snowden exposes NSA surveillance
- Spying on:
- Americans
- Foreign countries
- Journalists
- Importance of encryption
- Protects whistleblowers
- Social media trends
- Herd behaviour: conformism
- Youth likes challenges
- Examples:
- Tide pod challenge
- Ingest a tide pod
- Blue whale challenge
- 50 days extreme challenge
- Promotes suicide
- Tide pod challenge
- Media's role:
- Facilitates the spread
- Facilitates prevention and intervention
- Consequences:
- Physical and psychological danger
- Dependence on others' perception of self
- Fyre Festival
- Music festival on private island
- Promotion:
- Instagram and YouTube
- Celebrities invited
- Deceptive FOMO trailer
- Reality:
- Problems with security, food, understaffing, medical care
- Censorship on social media
- News deserts
- News desert: region with no local news outlets
- Role of local news:
- Key information: weather, crime, traffic, local electron, etc.
- Advertisement of local businesses
- Media governance in Canada:
- CBC
- Bell Media
- Governed by CRTC
- Causes:
- Less attention
- Dying business model
- Consequences:
- Increased nationalization of local elections (national politics affect local politics)
- People rely more on online sources prone to echo chamber and misinformation
- Difficulty to hold local powers accountable
- Solutions:
- Nonprofit organizations who run local news
- Bill C-18
- MTV Lebanon attack
- July 2024, journalists attacked while filming in Dahieh
- Context:
- Media in Lebanon is heavily politicized
- Every major political party has its own outlet
- Angry Hezbollah supporters claim journalists caused strike
- Media problems:
- Danger journalists
- Assaults, arrests, lawsuits, threats, etc.
- Polarisation
- Propaganda
- Decline of independent journalism
- Fragility of freedom of speech in divided societies
- Danger journalists
- Alex Jones
- Founded Infowars
- Made conspiracy theories:
- Sandy Hook Shooting
- 9/11 inside job
- Pizzagate
- COVID-19 hoax
- 2020 election fraud
- Was sued by victims
- Filed for bankruptcy
- Consequences:
- Harassment and threats
- Psychological trauma
- Financial damage
- Erosion of trust
- Erosion of critical thinking
- Michelle Remembers
- Michelle Smith
- Had three miscarriages
- Suffered from satanic ritual
- Lawrence Pazder
- Manipulative psychiatrist who wrote Michelle Remembers
- Fame hungry
- Michelle Remembers:
- Lots of religious elements
- Drawings of Satan
- Funded by the church
- Media's role:
- Sensationalist reporting
- They married
- Pazder interviewed all the children at the McMartin school
- Demolishment of the McMartin school
- Michelle Smith
- Harvesting spaghetti
- BBC April Fools joke
- Importance:
- Critical thinking
- Media integrity
- Balenciaga
- Creates sexualizing toys
- "Garde-Robe" campaign to promote Hourglass Bag
- Michael Williams
- John Phillip Fisher convicted for sexual assault
- Apologized
- Uses shockvertising
- Daniel Pearl
- Journalist kidnapped and murdered by Al-Qaeda
- US' foreign interference causes decline of democracy
- Can't fight terrorism with terror
- Planned Parenthood
- Planned Parenthood: US' biggest sexual / reproductive health care provider
- CMP: anti-abortion group
- CMP exposed P.P for selling body tissues from abortion
- Counter evidence omitted
- Cherry-picking
- Impact:
- Lawsuit
- Wave of abortion ban
- Colorado clinic shooting
Ajitani Hifumi