JOUR1111 was one of my first lectures, so of course when I entered the room I was blown away by the amount of incredibly attractive people studying this course. Oh, and the drop dead gorgeous lecturer of course. I finally found a seat, facing that awkward "sorry, excuse me, yes my bum is in your face, oops, pardon me.." Blah blah blah, a guy talked about exchanges in other countries, and then we began to learn. As our lecturer Dr Bruce Redman continued speaking, I gradually came to the realisation that yes, I was going to be assessed on using social media. Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Blogger, all of it. The one thing that kept me distracted all the way through high school is finally going to be useful!
One thing that really stuck with me from our first lecture was a phrase that Bruce used in passing, but later came back to and expanded upon. If it bleeds, it leads. Powerful stuff, and it got me thinking and in turn realizing that in fact yes, all we want to see/read/hear is the bad stuff. I would like to say that if I had it my way, I'd talk about old ladies turning 100 and baby antelope being born on the news, but I'd be lying. I myself am a news fiend and I (strangely enough) am always attracted to the sad stories before I even consider reading about a gold medal win or the like.
But hey, i'm not the only one. You know you're guilty of it too. I suppose it's a parallel with another snippet of my first JOUR1111 lecture that came away with me - The best stories come from the heart. We feel the need to be compassionate and empathetic, and hearing about others misfortunes is just one way of doing that. An amazing example of this is the KONY 2012 campaign. If you haven't heard of this by now, you should probably think about dropping JOUR1111, because clearly you don't even know what internet is.
This campaign, run by Invisible Children, aims to raise awareness of the conflict and and use of child soldiers in Uganda solely through the ever-expanding world of social media. By increasing awareness, this shows American Government officials that people truly do care, and they should continue the deployment of US Soldiers in Uganda to help find Joseph Kony (the main bad guy). They are aiming to make Kony a household name; to give him celebrity status - not because he should be looked up to, but because he should be hated.
I mean, how crazy is that. Last I checked, 2,378,343 had liked Invisible Children on Facebook. My Tumblr dashboard has been endlessly flooded with KONY 2012 posters and images, and i'm beginning to overhear it in people's conversations. All from one movie being released on social media, which has been viewed over 10 million times in just two days.
But I dunno, it's up to you to decide. A lot of people think it's just a money making scam, some think it's ignorant to other crises going on in other parts of the world. Personally, I think it's amazing, but that's just me.
Well, after that little spiel, I'll let you go and do actual important things with your life.
I'm super excited for this Semester of JOUR1111, and I know it can only get waay better from here on in!
Much love,
Sala
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