Hello Friends,

Today I want to talk about today's media. Specifically about how it warps what it says so it comes off as what we want to hear. The media is a major source of information. Whether we are talking about the news, newspapers, radio, or social media, we can hear about the latests updates around the world within seconds. The problem is, though, what can we believe? I would like to share with you all an experience that I went through the other week.

I attend the University of Delaware and I am a freshman. For those of you who don't know, the city of Newark just passed Ordinance 19-05, which in summary states that "super parties" are basically a no go for UD students. When my friend group heard about this, we were shocked. It came out of nowhere in my opinion. A petition was started to get rid of it on Change.org, which is a website where anyone can make petitions about something they believe in. A few days after this law was passed, my friend Kaylie and I ran into a reporter from ABC 6 News. She asked if we would like to answer questions about the new law, and we agreed to. We talked to her for about 15-20 minutes about the new law and our opinions on it. As students on campus, we don't support this law as it comes off very strict and harsh. I said that personally I believe there could be a compromise with the people of Newark and the students of UD, and that this is not a very good situation.

That didn't make the news though.

When the news segment came out 2 hours after we talked to the reporter, a few of my friends and I sat down to watch it. I was pretty excited to hear my opinions on TV. It's a neat thing, is it not? Well, when Kaylie and I appeared on the screen I said something along the lines of, "I went to a party once and people were throwing TVs from the house." It instantly cut to the reporter talking about the law, and I was shocked. In my opinion, it came off as I thought that the parties are too crazy and that I support the law, which is not at ALL what I think. We were on screen two more times, and I talked about how partying is practically a college experience and that the law is taking that away from us. I said how our parents partied and other adults definitely did because it's a part of college! So that made me feel a bit better about what was shown on the news segment.

Regardless, I could not help but think about how the media changes our words to make it sound like what they want it to come off as. It's crazy. It also sucks because there is no written record of our conversation with the reporter. They took what I said and edited it to be their own. That is the power of the media. They control what we believe.

It's like how certain people will watch specific news stations based on their political views. Trump says that CNN is "fake news," so people who follow him will not believe what CNN says. It is the opposite for people who don't believe in Trump. People in power + the media = major influence on the people. To me I think of it as judging a book by a cover. You may see a title of an article or thread that says "America is Ready for World World 3" and start freaking out because you automatically assume that it is true. I'm not saying that everyone does this, but it happens quite frequently. Someone may see that, then start tweeting about it the next, and before you know it the whole internet is talking about it.

The media is great don't get me wrong, but we should be weary about what we read and hear. You never know what is true and you never know what is total bullshit. Think before you post about something, or start spreading news that might not be true.

Sincerely,

Al