It was around five pm and I was walking out of the school grounds, excited to go home. Today was an extra rough day, in terms of playing of course. You see, I was eleven years old and spent my afternoons at the afterschool program where I did homework and played for hours, until my dad picked me up on his way home from work. The concept at this young age of “overseas” was hard to grasp. More specifically, the image of America was one of great respect, of wonder and admiration at the power that this one place held across the world. I could not always understand everything related to this place, but I did know that this was the place where everyone wanted to go, and that my family would, at some point, go there too. I remember walking toward the car, confused as to why my dad wasn’t leaning against the car, ready to take my backpack and open the door as usual. Instead, he was sitting inside the car, his hand covering his mouth, looking at the dashboard. What is going on? I got in the car, expecting to start babbling about my day, but was silenced by the blaring radio. I couldn’t understand what it was saying, and decided it would be best to wait as my dad gestured a “hold on one minute” sign. I looked at the radio and remember the date displayed, 11 September 2001. The drive home did not commence for another half hour…within which the fear built in my heart as tears ran down my dad’s face. Why is he crying? What is happening? It took a few days to fully grasp why my dad was so upset. It was all over the TV, the radio, even at school. I cannot imagine how it was in America, but for us, in South Africa, it was like the world was ending. The strongest, most powerful country in the world, attacked.
Today, as I sit in a coffee shop in America, writing about this experience, it dawns on me how significant a role media plays in the entire world. Learning about the events on this tragic day, seeing the images and reaction of a broken nation, would have been impossible without the influence of media. People are dependent on many forms of media today in order to know what is happening, not only in their society, but in the rest of the world. It has become second nature for most of us to turn on the television or pick up a newspaper in order to get up to date with worldly events. Living in a society where these things are so conveniently available makes me wonder if there is ever a sense of question. It is clear that every news source has their position on issues, and we are educated enough to understand that news sources choose what they want to say and how they say it. Yes, this can become a problem, and it can lead to a wrongly informed society, a formation of bias views, or even action that is not in the best interest of people.
Since we are such a media-dependent world, it is important to be critical toward news sources. Know what their position is, know who provides the information and what their motivation is, and finally don’t limit yourself to one source, read and research many in order to stay well-rounded in what is going on. Knowing these things has helped me to be informed on issues and the different perspectives around them. Media is an influence that will grow in society as technology improves and it is a blessing to live in a time like this, when I can be in a different country and still be informed and experience a sense of what is happening somewhere else. I am grateful for this but with that I am cautious, always making the effort to look at different sources to get the facts right.
I think that day for every American showed how important the news and media are to us. Every American was glued to their radio, television, and computer just trying to find out what had happened, how many people were hurt, how we were handling the situation, and who was responsible for this terrible act. I remember hearing dozens of different reports and information from different news stations and hearing different stories from people I knew. Of course that awful event created chaos in our country and it was hard to find out what had happened right after the planes crashed, when there was so much to take care of.
ReplyDeleteBut this shows that we have to be careful about what news we listen to and believe. We cannot be naive and think that the news stations we watch are completely unbiased and simply there to tell us the complete story of what is going on in our world. We have to be smart, and like you said, cautious about where we get our information. In a world so connected by technology it is so much easier to get information but it is also easier to get information that could be wrong or completely slanted in someone’s favor. We simply have to analyze everything put before us.
Wow, your 9/11 instance was a lot like mine, although I was let out of school early. This is probably because we could be close in age. My mom was waiting for me by her car, and she wouldn’t turn off the radio for hours. I did not really understand the situation that well at that time, although I knew something horrific had happened. Additionally, the media is extremely important. They are the ones that disburse information into our minds. The media has the ability to slant information and manipulate a subject to the point of distortion. You made a great point on the matter that we must check our sources of information, and this is done best by comparing to other sources. That is exactly what we did for the assignment on biased opinions in media. I worked on two school newspapers, and learned that sometimes people can be inaccurate with their information, and it is not always intended. However, sometimes it is intentional, although I have not yet seen this. At times, reporters become desperate for a good story, so they now and then change some information, quotes and statistics, to make their article livelier. They typically get caught for these things because multiple people read the written work, and then the reporters will have to correct the information.
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