One cultural effect that I’ve noticed takes form due to our social media communication network stems from the idea of categorizing those with disabilities as different. This doesn’t necessarily relate to fake news, political memes, or propaganda however whoever created the top meme (the meme that stemmed from my choice of topic for this task) was trying to troll. Social media is absolutely polarizing society by providing content for people to become biased when they see or watch an image or idea repeatedly.
Although this isn’t a scandal and the meme truly was created by a cruel person, good “news” or ideas do get lost because of bad “news” or ideas similar to this one overpopulating. Due to the fact that good news does get lost, I investigated a few solutions. One solution is that we create a higher ratio of good news to bad news content. This will force the bad news to become buried and allow the good news to spread. Another solution would stem from people, instead of supporting bad news, society as a whole could overcome this by unacknowledging the bad news and focusing on the good. When we like, comment, or share news or ideas, it spreads. Instead of sharing unrealistic content that seems to be funny on the surface, but has a serious underlying message we should be supporting good news in order to increase its popularity.
The second meme which I created stems from a girl named “Chloe” who when told she was going to Disney land gave a questioning/unimpressed look to her parents. Although I’m unsure if this was the correct way to go about creating a meme to combat the previous meme. I decided to sort of tease or categorize those who do discriminate against those with disabilities, in order for this meme to become popular. Although teasing over the internet isn’t a great idea, there needs to be some way to combat this spread of bad news and create the same viral quality, because whether we want to admit it or not, the people of the internet just want a target. This meme of Chloe is also still relevant to our generation and brings back a phase in our childhood.
In order for uplifting content and good news to travel faster than negative news amongst the digital ecosystem, society would have to completely reverse the effect that repetitive or recurring memes or similar forms of news have on viewers. We would do this by collectively encouraging positive news and regulating bad news. I think communication organizations could be designed and developed more to regulate the balance of good/bad news. By embedding code that pics up on certain words- the news spread that invites racism, sexism, or discrimination would be deleted and banned. Most people would argue that this takes away the freedom of speech, and I would argue to an extent however when speech is harming and affecting others, I think regulation can/should be set into place.
I did refer to Yes Magazine for some further insight on the well-known issue of cyberbullying or online harassment (containing “bad” news). If I had any website to recommend It would be national geographic which may not focus on issues like racism, and sexism as much as it does with natural good news, however, it still remains a realistic place to look for insight. Topics like climate change, conservation, etc.. are brought to the media attention on this site.
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