Social Media as a Tool for Change

It was interesting to hear the different view-points during class about whether social media is something that truly helps promote activism that is needed to produce meaningful social and political change or not.  Being created by the internet it is loosely tied together and can easily have people not feel connected to a cause.  Many things that do not have a central leader to point to can fall apart easily.  This is how online activism is structured: a sea of people that can not distinguish who is leading the movement and who is following.

While all these things are true, social media is something that can bring together and mobilize a large number of people behind one cause.  The examples that Black Lives Matter and Women's March on Washington have set show that there are many people willing to take the streets for a cause they believe in.  We have seen many people becoming a part of a movement that normally wouldn't have before having social media bringing them into the picture.  By bringing these people out into the groups of people it is a step in the right direction of social and political change.

Demonstrations are something that catch the attention of political heads, but it rarely every changes their opinion or stance.  The most important piece is that citizens are becoming more and more involved and knowledgeable.  There are citizens that are learning about the causes behind these demonstrations and making the right moves to get involved with the government to make change for the greater good.  By interweaving people that have the same views of what needs to happen for the right social change with the government, true change can begin to happen.

Social media truly gives a voice to those that previously had no voice simply because they were outside of the mainstream media.  By interconnecting our society we can make it much stronger and have goals that are more applicable to each citizen.  Most large demonstrations may not create change immediately, but rather gradually.  Trying to change the shape of our society is something that can not happen overnight.  By educating citizens on both sides of issues, we can find progress.  The next step after having demonstrations is having civil discourse with those that disagree.  By doing so, in a personal manner, we can find a middle ground as a society.  We can not solely rely on social media when trying to make change, but rather use it as a tool to get towards the change we believe is necessary.

Op-Ed- Ghost Fishing: Not as Cool as it Sounds

            Our sea-life is in danger not only from the fishermen catching them, but from the nets that get left behind.

This issue is mostly unknown to the public, but it is estimated from studies that at least tens of thousands of marine creatures are killed every year.

            Abandoned nets are capturing these creatures to suffer a slow, painful death.  While I enjoy seafood, it isn’t the same for these animals to die for no reason.

            This serious threat come from fishermen purposefully discarding or accidentally losing their gear and sailing away.  The nets continue to catch sea creatures long after they are left behind.

            Trammel nets and gillnets are the worst when it comes to ghost fishing, and they account for one-fifth of all fish caught across the globe each year.

            These nets are made by mesh that captures fish by their gills.  The nets may be one to two miles long and 10 to 50 feet high, with weights holding them down and floats on top to create a solid net.

            When an animal is caught, it isn’t pretty.  Animals’ heads, mouths, fins, or limbs become entangled in the strong netting preventing them to escape.  

            This can cause a problem for animals that need to breathe such as dolphins, because if they are caught they are certain to die.  The lines on the top and bottom are dangerous enough to cut marine animals causing infections and loss of body parts.

            Ghost fishing is something that can be easily prevented by conscious care from fishermen.  If the fishermen simply take the time to properly dispose of nets or retrieve lost nets, the problem would be eliminated.

            The damage that is caused by ghost fishing is caused by an estimate of 640,000 metric tons of fishing gear that is discarded in the sea.  This is only about one percent of what fishers use, which is concerning to think if there was a higher percentage left behind.

            The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is taking the lead in trying to rid this problem.  They are the ones calling for fishermen to take a larger accountability for their nets.  What is asked is that fishers mark their gear as their own and increase the surface visibility of their gear to avoid forgetting it in the sea.

            Further, the FAO is calling for more regulations for ghost fishing policies.  With such relaxed standards, it is not a surprise that ghost fishing is a problem we are facing.

            There are numerous volunteers that spend their time in the seas working to cut and remove these nets from the marine animals’ habitat.  They attach flotation devices to the nets in order to take the nets out of the water and into their boats.  In five days, volunteers from Healthy Seas managed to remove 75 percent of all nets from a reef off Makronisos Island in Greece. 

            If we do nothing to rid our seas of these nets left behind, they will continue to ghost fish for multiple decades and even potentially several centuries.  The death toll from ghost fishing will only continue to rise without action.

            There are many ways to help prevent the problem of ghost fishing in our waters.  The options range from the simplistic action of taking care of your own fishing gear, making sure not to discard it or leave it behind in the waters. 

            Another way to help out is donating to organizations that dive into the sea to rid it of these nets.  If you have the skill, you could even volunteer for an organization to get the nets out of our sea.

            This is a problem that can be solved by intentional care of the gear we use to fish in order to keep our seas healthy and full of marine life for generations to come.

Op Ed Topic

The topic for one of my blog posts is talking about a widely unknown severe issue called ghost fishing.  This is a problem that kills tens of thousands of marine animals each year from nets discarded in the sea.

Polarization

I believe that the "newer formats" may contribute to the political polarization and breakdown of dialogue between differing political opinions.  As said in my last post, when I see guests of different opinions visiting a show, it seems that no matter what happens the host will make them seem foolish.  Interruptions run amok limiting the amount of discussion that can truly happen.

While, this increases polarization in some capacities, it is something that raises the knowledge and engagement of the viewers.  Certain outlets have successfully used comedy to engage audiences that would not normally follow news outlets.  This increases the overall knowledge of our citizens.  This can spark discussions in person that are civil.  I believe that when the discussions are online, they rarely are fruitful, but in person there is much more respect.

Media Representation

As there is not much diversity in the individuals that are classified as public intellectuals, there is not much diversity in the academic fields and disciplines most represented within the media.  There are certain backgrounds that are much more represented than others.  There have been times I have seen that racially diverse individuals in the media are looked at to answer for the entire population for their race.

The most common academic fields that are seen in the media are political science and economics.  It is obvious that the media outlets that people subscribe to have a political agenda and leaning.  With this, the political science individuals usually occupy the spaces in our media.  Following this, the public is usually concerned with the current economic state.  Economists are looked to in order to shed light in the current time as well as for what is predicted in the future to come. 

Academic backgrounds that are not often represented in the media are subjects such as psychology, English, and the arts.  The arts are usually looked down upon from the “professional” backgrounds as something lesser.  The perspectives that could be shared from any of these backgrounds could be extremely beneficial.  By consistently broadcasting individuals of the same background, it creates a barrier for those outside of it to enter. 

As for the intellectual and philosophical perspectives, there are categories of expression.  Each of the individuals that work for media outlets must adhere to what their network wants to broadcast.  With this, they cannot deviate far from what the media source wants.  We see this from the termination of Tomi Lahren for her differing perspective on abortion from The Blaze.

Depending on how diverse of news sources one subscribes to, will determine which perspectives are limited.  Usually, if one subscribes to only one wing of media, they will not hear the perspectives from the other wing.  There are times that individuals that have differing opinions will come onto a media source, but this usually ends up not building a bridge in any capacity.  In the end, the viewer will back up their media outlet’s representative and discredit the visiting representative.

Public Intellectuals

Elon Musk

Elon is certainly engages in critical thinking, research, and reflection about the reality of society.  In turn he proposes solutions for problems of society.  There are five things that Elon had interests in helping society with that would most affect the future of humanity:

• The internet
• Sustainable energy
• Space exploration
• Artifical intelligence
• Human genetics

Warren Buffet 

Warren is someone that is extremely concerned about society, and while he may not be able to provide specific solutions to problems that society faces, he is helping by offering up 99% of his fortune to charities.  He also is pushing alongside Bill Gates to have others that make large amounts of money to donate to charity to help society.  

Blog Prompt #1 (Tyler Espino)

I believe that there is much life in the public life and across many public spheres in America.  The idea that there are multiple public spheres is one that I subscribe to.  I do not believe that there is only one domain in which there is public discourse.  Online platforms have really multiplied public spheres by connecting people who would not have been brought together by any other way.  It gives room for these subaltern counterpublic spheres that do not connect as directly with the "mainstream" public sphere.

Having many public spheres that are present on the internet is a great way to connect many members of our society to those they align with.  There is increased conflict because with this particular public sphere, people feel much more disconnected personally from the conversation and are not afraid of repercussions that would result from quarrels in person.  While many people believe that polarization is something that is happening to our society, we are much less polarized than people tend to think.  By asking questions further into issues and hot-subjects one can find common ground with others that may seem to be the opposite polarization.  Finding moderation between opposing views is possible, but takes effort that some people in the public sphere are not willing to put forth.  Multiple public spheres flourishing is not bad in theory, it is similar to more knowledge and ideas being formed.  It is important to find where, even in polarized views, there is intersectionalities.