1 Cepeda Carolina Cepeda Professor Deborah Weaver ENC 3315 21 April 2014 Information: Why Our Future Might Be Hanging By A String Audience This paper is strictly directed to college students that lack interest when it comes to obtaining basic information. Although it might seem obvious for some, being informed is essential; however, some college students believe that those who need to be up-to-date are those who are a Political Science or International Relations Major. My main reason for this paper is to let those students know that it doesn’t matter your major or interest, what matters is having an understanding of the outside world; learn about other cultures, ideals, and systems.
2 Cepeda As an international student living in the United States, I’ve created an enormous amount of interest about different cultures and politics. I’ve come to realize that the importance I give to being up-to-date when it comes to news is more than some of my fellow classmates do, mainly because they haven’t emigrated from a completely different country, having to learn and understand different societies. However, being uninformed can create negative future prospects, and by having lack of information—whether it’s national or international, might be deteriorating the future leaders of the world. Moreover, information is not only watching or reading the news, information consists on having knowledge of other cultures as well. “I only care about living in a happy world, so I don’t watch the news”. Those were the words expressed by one of my classmates when I asked her if she thought the situation in Ukraine was devastating. I started thinking: I wonder why there’s so much disinterest about the outside “wonderful” world we live in. For those who watch the news, we have an interest in the international and national issues that affect our society whether it’s political, societal, or in an economical matter. The news are no longer a oneplatform of communication, our generation has been lucky enough to now have more options when it comes to finding information. However, the different platforms can have a positive as well as a negative impact when it comes to reports. So, my question for this argument is: Is it really that important for students to be informed? Modern day students have the resources to obtain information that our parents didn’t have. There are social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook that provide a 24-hour service to the uninformed, and without
3 Cepeda leaving behind the television and radio; there is more access to have current day knowledge than before. However, the excess amount of information might be impacting how the youth lacks interest when it comes to news, mainly because it’s so accessible, that the relevance is gone. Karen Dunlap, editor at Poynter, states, “Some shifts raise questions about the amount and quality of news consumed. All that leads to the crucial question of what people know about major public issues.” Dunlap focuses on a very important point here; there is an increase in the number of people, especially youth, that don’t have an interest when it comes to be informed about public issues. Quality of information is deteriorating; the news has become an industry that has lost control of the information that circulates outside their sources- for this, we now have the platforms that include social media. Information comes in many shapes and forms, and with our current way access information alternatives, we can improve the quality of our information. Ryan Holiday, contributor at Forbes, states, “I am a media manipulator. My job was to use the media to make people do or think things they otherwise would not. People like me are there, behind the curtain, pulling the puppet strings.” Holiday confirms, as his job is to write an attract an audience, that the main objective of delivering media information, is to shape reality into a more entertaining, amusing, and of course, dramatic form. This might be one of the reasons why us, the youth, have portrayed information as a “boring” tool, and would rather watch the dramatic reality show featuring actors
4 Cepeda that, in fact, brainwash our minds into becoming more superficial and less knowledgeable. This might be one of the reasons why my classmate would rather “live in a happy world” and not be informed with topics that might be devastating and stressful. However, as students, we have to understand how to face reality and understand why certain situations, such as government corruption, riots, and even natural disasters happen and how to overcome those tragedies. The constant competition between who can obtain higher ratings, who can get more followers on Twitter, and who can get to the story first, is damaging the way we receive information. It has been seen in cases where highly recognized news stations have lacked information and misled the audience with inaccurate reports in order to release the story first. For example, the tragic 2013 Boston Marathon bombing was, in fact, a victim of the media’s misleading and false reporting including CNN, Fox News, and NBC. Sabrina Siddiqui, editor at The Huffington Post and in her article “Boston Bombings Reveal Media Full of Mistakes, False Reports”, state President Obama’s outlook on how the media had behaved on the false reporting: “’In this age of instant reporting and tweets and blogs, there's a temptation to latch on to any bit of information, sometimes to jump to conclusions,’ Obama said in a statement after 19-year-old suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was captured. ‘But when a tragedy like this happens … it's important that we do this right’.“ Even though the reports we might receive might not be accurate, and to be honest, it might not always be one hundred percent precise, these social
5 Cepeda media platforms provide us the advantage of examining different opinions and perspectives, giving us the opportunity to create our own arguments and our own knowledge on a topic. Like President Obama’s concerns, all we have to do as an audience is scrutinize different resources on the topic we want to learn about, and not just rely on one single article. Another reason why being informed is significant is the generation we are in, Generation Y, known for having a massive amount of technology access. More than being Generation Y, we are the future of our world. One day, after graduation, we will find jobs and become professionals. Some of my classmates will probably become the future CEO of a multinational company, or the future Republican or Democrat candidate in a political party. But, where would those future businessmen and women be at without having read the newspaper, watch the news, go on Twitter or Facebook and seek for information, or even read a book? Yvon Chouinard, founder and former CEO of Patagonia Inc., dedicated his life into expanding his eco-friendly company. Besides being a businessman, he is also a writer and former climber. During his young days, Chouinard traveled around Europe and South America in order to explore the splendor of the mountains he wanted to climb. Patagonia is located in Argentina, South America, and Chouinard, surprised by its beauty, named his company as the South American region. Patagonia now has retailers across the globe, including North and South America and Europe. There’s many other CEO’s like Yvon Chouinard to come, possibly having his ideology of having knowledge of other cultures and societies; exploring inspired him to open his own successful and global business.
6 Cepeda Going back to my original question, yes, students need to be informed. Although this statement might seem obvious for some, the amount of college students that don’t pay enough attention to the outside world is devastating. As proper citizens, we have to rely on what reports say about national and international issues. We base our main decisions on what reports tell us will happen. In order to become the best citizens we can be, and be able to help our community to prosper, we have to be informed. I have always lived by philosopher Francis Bacon’s quote, “Knowledge is power”, and power will provide us triumph in our future endeavors.
Holiday, Ryan. "What is Media Manipulation?--A Definition and Explanation." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 16 July 2012. Web. . . Siddiqui, Sabrina. "Boston Bombings Reveal Media Full Of Mistakes, False Reports (VIDEO)." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 22 Apr. 2013. Web. . . Dunlap, Karen. "How well-informed are citizens, and how are they getting their news? | Poynter.." Poynter. N.p., 6 Sept. 2013. Web. . . "Patagonia Company Info: Jobs - Director, US Retail Stores." Patagonia Company Info: Jobs - Director, US Retail Stores. N.p., n.d. Web. . .
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