jueves, 2 de julio de 2015

English Exam: Bias and Society

Candidate: Ignacio Ruiz



Rationale



The past three weeks we have been reviewing what media is and how bias is constantly being used by them. We were told to make a blog entrance, speech or an opinion column about bias and its effects. I chose the blog entrance because you can use informal language and it is easier to address an audience as big as the Internet becaus you can use any topic you want and someone out there will get it (U.S.A. and Syria). Being able to write about whatever we like gives us (the students) the freedom to write and give our opinion about what we like or we would like to give our opinion.Not having an specific audience helps at the moment of choosing words and of choosing ideas. I have been reading news about the conflicts between United States and ISIS and I thought it was a good idea to give my opinion about those conflicts. Also how the Muslim community has been defamed by media and also by people all around the world.
In one sentence my text is about how bias is destroying the image of things and how it is important to be aware of what is going on in the world and to not trust any media, because it makes people think like the media when you're supposed to have your own opinion, not making you have own.


Written Task



Bias and Society



Hey guys, it's me again, Ignacio, and I'm ready to tell you the truth about some things that happen in our society. Bias is hiding, distorting information from our eyes. This can be through many resources that the media can use at any moment, and three of them are strictly related to language, but why? Well, that's because that's the easiest way to make us believe things and keep us away from the truth and those type of bias are the ones that I will try to explain in this blog.
First of all, the news tries to make us take a side on any problem and be against the other position that is shown. An example of this is how the U.S. marines are portrayed in ads, movies, video games, etc. They show us these badass soldiers, eliminating enemies of the country, fighting against the evil forces of ISIS and saving the people in Syria, but obviously the truth is, things are not like this. News reports don’t show the other side of the story, the suffering of people in Syria and people in their own army and how the advances they do in those wars make the country enter slowly into a crisis. This technique used is called framing, the media just doesn’t show the other aspects of the theme that is being touched, and stays strictly in one position to it. In the case of U.S.A. and Syria, although the States are trying to save the country form literally disappearing, there is no mention whatsoever of the ambition the country has for the oil that lies within the barren lands of Syria.
People will leave comments down below telling me how stupid I am and probably worse things, but I don’t really care at all, because in your insides you feel it, you know that something is wrong, and yes. That’s right. Something is not right. You’ve been brainwashed. You really think that the U.S.A is the actual hero of the story? You think that Muslims are all terrorists? And this question leads to the second form of bias: limiting debate. It is known that the classic white Anglo-Saxon average man of the country believes that all people who were a white robe, have a grown beard and speaks in a foreign language are terrorists, and we all know that this is not true, why do you think Trump has so much support in the elections? He is racist and laughs at everyone, and that’s enough to make people go wild. He actually said that they should make illegal all Muslims and it made him have more voters, but why? This is because the media shows us that all the terrorist attacks in every country are being made by ISIS or Muslim extremists, making the audience think that every one of them is a bad guy. If you see a Muslim, what is the first that comes to mind? Allahu Akbar or Terrorist. It is a shame to see that people are like this, it is awful. 
Another form of bias is omission, this happens when media doesn't show us a part of relevant information that could make the opinion of anyone change. For instance, if we have a man, let's call him  Dave, that is diagnosed with a terminal cancer and asks his friend Jack to kill him, the media could omit the part that Dave had the cancer and that Jack just helped a friend as last resource, leaving Jack as a murderer and not like a good person. Using America as example (again) last year the country bombed an ISIS base in Syria, and the news seconds later posted an article that went like this: "Heroes destroy ISIS base in Syria" claiming that the general who took the decision should be recognized as a national hero. U.S.A. nationalist speeches "forgot" to say that in that same bombing the explosions caused several infrastructural damages of civilian houses and also that the bomb killed more than 20 Syrians.
The last form of bias that we can detect is the word choice, that is using certain words to approach the reader to make a message more powerful. Believe it or not, this works a lot and is used more often than you think. For example, is different to say "you should buy this product" than "buy now", obviously the second one is way more effective because it gives the buyer a sense of confidence with the product that they're selling. In politics, saying "Frank won against Dan" is less effective that saying "Frank destroyed Dan" or "Dan lost by 1 vote" the message doesn't change but the impact does. We can't move on without using an example from U.S.A. The best example I could found it was the poster from WWII "I want you" starring Uncle Sam. This is obviously more convincing that a blank paper saying "Join the army" , because it gives you the choice and tell you that the one who needs you is the whole country and that it only needs you.
In conclusion, be careful, the media master (the one who provides the media) could be brainwashing you slowly and trying to make you say that all the things that I said are lies, but don't believe it, I'm the truth in all this topic, be critical and rational people, think about it, I would not waste my time writing this if I didn't knew about the topic, stay with me, be media smart, delete the bias and come live a clean and wonderful life like mine. Comment any doubts, I will try to answer them as quickly as possible, and hopefully I will be able to help you. Without anything more to say I'm out, PEACE.


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