I’ve selected the second prompt to further
analyse. “It is acceptable for a government to try to shape public opinion
through information campaigns”. When asked this question in class I moved to
the agree corner, arguing that the government should have the right to shape
their opinion, in order not to worry the public. Thinking that the governments deception could be justifiable.
After watching “The Control Room” documentary
discussing the Iraq’s situation and the news about it, I’ve come to the
conclusion that I don’t particularly agree with my previous decision. If I
watched this documentary prior to being asked that question, I would stand in
the “Strongly disagree”.
Throughout the video we’re objected to several
different opinions and judgments of the famous news channel “Al Jazeera” due to
their completely unbias news coverage. Al Jazeera’s message is “Wake up, look
at what’s happening around you in the world”. Al Jazeera provides information
in the news completely as it is with no bias or hidden agenda, they do this so
appropriately that the two opposite sides of the spectrum have accused them of
being bias, within the documentary we hear two different government
officials/reports saying “Al Jazeera stop your American propaganda” and at the
same time have been accused of being bias completely against the us. Although
in reality they do not provide any bias opinions and try to remain partial
towards the situation at hand.
Due to this many governments and countries have
opposed. As stated within the documentary “Several Arab countries banned their
channel for going against their regimes”. This shows that many governments do
not want their community to be objected to Al Jazeera unbiased news, this means
that the governments within those certain countries fear the truth being known
by their people, which is unfair an creates a wrong perception of what the
world should be.
As well as watching the documentary we looked at
two different stories, that of Jessica Lynch & Pat Tillman, in the Tillman
story we see that the mother of the soldier who was discussing the story, was
more devastated than ever by the fact that she was lied to about the accurate
events that occurred with her sons death. And within the Jessica Lynch story
they lied about injuries she had, untruly stating that she’d been shot and
stabbed, when that was proven to not be the case.
In conclusion all people have the right to the
truth and should not be subjected to untrue versions of the events occurring as
it is unfair to everyone involved.
I definitely agree with your point of view in responding to the Prompt. A government should speak the truth to their people other than being deceptive of it and hiding behind lies. Receiving information from both sides is crucial in being able to grasp a decent understanding of a news story and develop one's own opinionated perspective. However, a fine line can be drawn between the truth of the matter and deception based on emotional responses. When you say that "all people have the right to the truth and should be subjected to untrue versions of the events occurring", this stood out to me as it is a good bold statement.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with your point of view in responding to the Prompt. A government should speak the truth to their people other than being deceptive of it and hiding behind lies. Receiving information from both sides is crucial in being able to grasp a decent understanding of a news story and develop one's own opinionated perspective. However, a fine line can be drawn between the truth of the matter and deception based on emotional responses. When you say that "all people have the right to the truth and should be subjected to untrue versions of the events occurring", this stood out to me as it is a good bold statement.
ReplyDeleteReally cool to see your perspective of this documentary and how it related to the prompt, i think you backed up your ideas with some cool background information and interesting insight. Thannks good read! 1/10
ReplyDelete