Under the Dome

Yes, I am not talking about the new hit TV show that you guys are watching. I am talking about a new documentary which was funded by a former state television reporter, chai Jing, swiftly commandeered the attention of tens of millions online over the weekend.  The documentary has been compared to Silent Spring, Rachel Carson’s seminal work that shaped US environmental policy. Basically the documentary is on the issue of the very serious air pollution in China and received a lot of compliments from the public for being brave enough to talk about this issue. As a Chinese myself, I know what the documentary is talking about because I feel like it is almost impossible to live in Beijing for a long time since the air pollution is just so terrible that I can not even breathe sometimes. Integrated evaluation of aerosols during haze-fog episodes at one regional background site in North China Plain also showed that it is truth that the particles are bad for people’s health. When people applauded Chai Jing for the effort, suddenly the documentary is now being censored by the country’s propaganda department.

Chai Jing claimed that Under the Dome is a self-fund documentary, but it is not difficult to find that she would not accomplish this much without getting support from the others, especially from Chinese government and some agencies here in America. Under the Dome: the climate film taking in China by storm also addressed this perspective by saying “it is clear that she also worked to gain government approval for the documentary before its release” and “China named its new Environment Minister, Chen Jining he noted he had already watched the documentary and had phoned Chai Jing to thank her for contribution.” Obviously at first the chinese government was supporting this documentary.

Political Media Scandal: Looking Beyond Brian Williams

In an interesting recent meshing of media and politics, NBC news anchor Brian Williams has come under fire for lying about political events on air, resulting in his suspension from the network. In an online Bloomberg Politics article, author Will Leitch explores the politics of the media machine by exploring the “media circus” that ensued upon Williams’ suspension, and the reaction of the American public, both fascinated and sickly satisfied by the fall of a prominent media figure. Americans, Leitch argues, “love when journalists get taken down. It confirms everything they already believe”. This public view on the media as an unreliable and untrustworthy source is purely enflamed and increased by scandal– Americans love political scandal. Leitch writes, “Today, scandals multiply in intensity not because of increasing revelations, but because of increasing evidence of public interest. The beast must be fed.”

And indeed it is. This academic article explores the concepts of trust and truth in the media, specifically regarding Mr. Williams’s case. This just exemplifies that the public distrust in the media is nothing new, and is in fact a constant in society and politics.

As a student studying media and mass communications, I found Leitch’s article and the conclusion it comes to truly troubling, raising many questions. Are we setting the media up for failure by distrusting them from the get-go? Do we enjoy when media figures, like Brian Williams, fall from glory? And how come the media is such a fickle entity when it comes to its own people?

Why does America love scandal, even when they reinforce our own negative views on society, truth, and politics? Sound off in the comments section below!

– Claire Cella

U.S Ambassador attacked?!

I was on Facebook the other day when I came across an article about how the United States Ambassador was attacked in South Korea by a Pro-North Korean activist. The story was showing up all over my newsfeed both written in Korean and English and also trending on Facebook. The current method of sharing and distributing news on social media sites has become so overwhelmingly common that it is almost impossible to avoid. These images and news stories are pretty much thrown in your face over and over again until you memorize the headlines and curiosity over the hype causes you to look into the matter.

Like I previously stated in my first blog post, I am not one to keep up with political affairs of any sort. However after being constantly exposed to this content through social media, it become almost impossible not to be aware of popular political stories. Like the story of Mark Lippert, the U.S. Ambassador, who was attacked and slashed on the face and hand with a knife. From the constant posts of this story I learned that the man who attacked him was a pro-North Korean activist who did not like the relations between South Korea and the United States. Reading about this article caused me to look up Mark Lippert, and begin to look into his biography and also the relations between South Korea and the U.S.

Constantly seeing articles and comments about Mark Lippert and this terrible occurrence made me curious as to who this man was and why something like this would happen to him. The way that social media is taking over so much of our daily lives really affects the things we are exposed to and the way that we think. If it was not for my friends sharing this story, I probably would not have heard about it, or at least not immediately after it happened. Social media really speeds up the distribution of news and also affects the things we choose to look at and learn about.  There are also many studies that discuss how new media is affecting the political economy.

Ga-young Shin

United States says Professional Gamers are Atheletes

If you are a casual gamer or a hardcore gamer, you probably have noticed the change on how gaming is viewed over the past decade. As a hardcore gamer, I witness first hand how gaming used to be viewed as an only activity for break time; at best a hobby and to these days, depending where you live; playing certain games could be considered a viable option for a job in the future.  But how did this change happen?

Selective viewers, like I said before; the growth of technology has allowed us to have an outstanding number of access to media. This allows us to have the power to choose which media we want to consume. This shift in power between the media consumers and the media outlets create an environment where the media is portray in a way that mostly satisfy its main audience; this is called media bias. The gaming industries figured out that in order for their companies to grow and their product to be successful, like other media; they needed an audience. Big gaming companies like Riot, Valve and Blizzard essentially created the foundation where playing video games become a world sensation called Electronic sport or E-Sport. For more information about the growth of E-Sport.

In America, we are behind in the scene of E-Sport; compared to South Korea, where professional gamers are considered athletes and have television channels dedicated to cover E-Sports 24/7.Regardless, in the North America, over the past decade we are slowly catching up. E-Sport has generated ridiculous number of viewers worldwide and profit where the United State government can no longer ignore. In the recent years; the US Visa Bureau has granted professional gamers athlete visa to enter the United States to stay and compete as if they are professional athletes.

Now do you think professional gamers are athletes? Or the US Visa Bureau is too lenient and just looking at revenue that the scene of E-Sport is generating?

– Truc Pham

China is secretly suppressing America?

I think we all know this without a doubt that America holds a safe lead in so many ways than the other countries in the world. Actually as an international student who came all the way here in America to learn knowledge, I believe that America has the best education systems. Born and raised in China, I have a very complicated impression of America. I read local newspapers and history books while still could not get a clear concept that what is the relationship between China and America.  Now I get more access to US media outlets, I am really interested to see how Americans see this relationship.

It is a shock that some of the Americans see China as an enemy. China and America: We Are Not Enemies is an article actually written by a Chinese author, Sun Xi. He addressed the issue that due to the history reasons and conflicts in interest, sometimes China and US are not in harmony but still definitely should not be seen as enemies. I believe that what he said is what most of the Chinese have in  mind. I see so many opportunities for China and America to work together in the interest of both countries. Has China Given Up On The U.S.? Short Answer: Yes is a whimsical and insightful article that I found it a little bit harsh to accept. It says that the Obama administration’s rejection in China’s wish to forge a “new type of great power relations” might be a costly mistake. I think that sometimes mistakes happen but the relationship is much more than this. It understandable that America feels threatened due to the rapid economic growth in China but there is no need to be because China is a country that admire peace and harmony. Also it is not hard to see how the US government use media as the tool to manipulate public opinions towards China by writing articles like this. Coming from China, I know Chinese government is also doing the same thing. As you can see, people in both countries get to know each other mainly through domestic media reports which could be misleading and cause bias. I think American should get to know China better and so do the Chinese because obviously we still have a long way to go and the best way to fix issues might be corporation, not hostility.

Lu Li

HOW DOES FREE SPEECH FIT IN IN THE AGE OF THE INTERNET?

Since starting this blog in the hopes of expressing and discussing opinions on current affairs dealing with politics and the media with my classmates, I’ve become extremely aware of the delicate matter of free speech. In setting up and formatting the blog, we’ve had to consider issues such as potential negative feedback, biases of expressing personal opinion, and even the possibility of being accused of libelous content. Therefore, it’s no surprise that the issue of “free speech” has been a topic extremely present in the news recently, both on a national and on a global scale. Especially in light of our current age of mass communications and social media as king, free speech is a concept that’s been turned on its head and that has changed greatly with new technological advances and increased access to social media outlets and platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, etc. Through these platforms, it’s been easier to express opinions (even those considered unpopular or revolutionary), and some even post controversial or inflammatory content anonymously. However, it’s still shocking to me to hear stories in the news about censorship or punishment for the expression of certain political views via social media—and how, in some countries, governments and/or political groups are going to extreme lengths of punishment to restrict unpopular or conflicting perspectives. And in a less severe example, even popular websites have recently come under fire for limiting certain users from creating certain content/engaging in certain discussions about particular “red flag” topics. While the first example is a terrifying example of foreign limitations on free speech and clearly shows the dangers of restricting (and severely punishing) those who don’t agree with popular opinion, the second example is almost as scary. Reddit, a website originally intended as a filter-free online forum, would be the last site I’d expect to censor or limit content deemed “inappropriate”. Even if a user posts something offensive or inappropriate, do they still have the right to do so under the guise of free speech (an interesting connection shared with the debate over the recent Charlie Hebdo attacks)?

So—sound off below if you want to join the conversation. Because it is so closely knit with the First Amendment concept of free speech, is censorship a political issue? Can “free speech” be limited or restricted if it’s offensive, unpopular, or contrasting with public opinion? Or do all perspectives and viewpoints deserve an outlet or place to be expressed, especially in our age of Internet domination (no matter how questionable/harmful the content may be)?

– Claire Cella

Same-sex marriage allowed in Texas?

I have never been one to pay attention or stay up to date on political affairs. It was never particularly an area of interest for me so there was no reason for me to go out of my way to look up current events. However, it has become much more common for me to be constantly exposed to the news, whether it be from suggested posts, what’s trending, what my friends decide to share, or what shows up on my news-feed. Since social media is something that I use quite regularly, it is almost impossible to ignore what is constantly suggested on my news-feed. The issue on gay rights is something that has been showing up on my Facebook news-feed most recently. I never really gave it much thought before because I always thought that you should be able to marry whoever you wanted to. However the constant articles and posts on the issues of gay rights made me realize how big of a problem it actually is. On February 19, 2015, two women in Texas were married after receiving a one-time court order. While the state of Texas currently bans same-sex marriage, they were allowed to get married because one of the woman had cancer. However, soon after the marriage took place, it was revealed that the Texas Supreme Court imposed a stay on county court rulings and to implement stricter regulations to ban same sex marriages. If it were not for social media, I most likely would not have heard about this event. Now that news sites rely greatly on social media platforms to spread their news, the information becomes much more widespread than before. It is easier to share and popularize certain events while allowing people to comment and have discussions about these events instantaneously. I believe that social media has improved the amount of exposure people like myself get to many political issues. I look forward to continuing to see the effects of media on the way politics is represented in the future.

Ga-young Shin

2016 Presidential Battle Ground: Social Media

Try to remember back about 7 years ago, during the time of Obama’s presidential campaign run; whether you were involved politically or not, you probably have seen the above image before. Personally, I wasn’t very interested in political matters but I was very interested in my social media outlet, Facebook. I can still remember so clearly because how much it annoyed me, the constant recurrence of now President Obama’s image in my news feed day after day. I felt like I was forced or obligated to know more about what was going on politically. Little that I know, it was a movement that had a great impact on our country’s future. Now thinking back, Obama’s campaign team should get more credit for President Obama becoming president and also his reelection in 2012. How Obama won his campaign runs is something that was really special, President Obama and his team focused on a battle ground that no one else thought was important enough to conquer, social media. It was brilliant to say the least, stirring away from the conventional ways of running a campaign,many can argue, was what gave President Obama the winning edge. Maybe other candidates didn’t really understand  the behavior of social medias or maybe they chose to ignore it, regardless if it was intentional or not, President won a large portion of advertisement for his campaign. Instead of spending large amount of money for President Obama’s messages to be advertised and broadcast, he got the people, his supporters, to do it for him in a cheap and fast way.

In the future presidential election, it will be interesting to see and study how future candidate follow President Obama’s campaign methods. With the growth of technology along with access to social media, the importance of this battle ground can no longer be ignored.

– Truc Pham

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