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	annefred8
	Anne


Title and Organization:		The media and us
Gender and Age:		Female, 20
Location:		Laval, Quebec
Country of Residence:		Canada
Languages:		French , English



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About Me

The world is not doing well. That's not new: Political crises, natural disasters, propaganda, pollution, etc. There are a lot of reasons to explain why all those problems can’t be solved easily and the most important reason is also the most vicious one. Few people have doubts about it. I'm talking about the media and the way it arranges, dissolves and even sometimes erases information.

There are laws in journalism. It is constricted by space, time, money and even the consumer who’s going to absorb the information. To satisfy the latter, they must organize the information in a way that’s going to interest but it can sometimes create a ridiculous hierarchy. For example, a very popular singer can have a huge photo and his name written in humongous letters right in the middle of the page while a tiny text about Africans dying of hunger under the burning sun of Ethiopia can have a pictureless square at the bottom. Does it really make sense?

Also, there is an existing law called «The law of death by kilometre». Basically, it means that if a catastrophe happens far away, the media won’t talk about it unless there are enough casualties. The farter it is, the bloodier it has to be. So, if we respect this law, it means that a dozen of demonstrators tortured far way in China is considered less important than a local hockey player punched in the face by an opponent. It is revolting.

The rule of space is really important as well. The media only displays what it considers the most important at the very moment, which is why they sometimes put aside very horrible events. A caricature in the newspaper La Presse that appeared last week denounced that fact: it showed Mouammar Kadhafy, reading his newspaper, laughing because they completely ignored the atrocities he commits to only talk about the tsunami in Japan. Conclusion: If you are a villain, have some timing. Wait for the moment something VERY devastating will happen so your acts will be completely ignored.

In fact, we are manipulated by the media and everything we can see on television needs to be questioned again and again. We must not stay ignorant because the mass media, practically made for entertainment nowadays, makes us appreciate our blindness. It is our duty as responsible citizens to gain all the information we need so we can grow and participate in the evolution of a better world.

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