Fake News, Mangoes and 70,000 Students
I am about to complete my final year of high school here in New South Wales, Australia, along with 70,000 other students.
As a parting gift, the New South Wales Educations Authority (NESA) decided to include an oddly basic and childish poem - "Mangoes" - in our English exam for us to analyse. Naturally, NESA made a right fool of itself as 70,000 students all took to the Year 12 Facebook discussion page and 'exchanged thoughts' on the poem.
Many a meme was created in the days to come, many of which were very entertaining.
But as we students were all happily procrastinating with memes...
All of a sudden...
News headlines began to appear
"Students Racially Target Indigenous poet"
"Indigenous Poet Racially Abused by Year 12 Students"
And they kept coming, from news outlets all over Australia (ABC News, 7 News, SBS, Sydney Morning Herald, News.com.au to name a few)
I think everyone in the discussion group collectively googled the poet, and yep, she was Aboriginal. The race card had been played by the media before we had even realised she was Indigenous. This only led to more memes and more discussion on the concept of free speech and 'fake news' which all was very interesting.
We realised the cause of the media's false interpretation; a meme picturing the "Infinite monkey theorem" - which, if you don't know, is the theory that if you have infinite monkeys using typewriters, some of their writing would turn out coherent. A picture of a monkey at a typewriter was labelled "leaked photo of Mangoes author." This particular meme was taken out of context and used as a means to label our dislike of the poem as racially driven. However, not only did we not know the poet's race, she hardly even looks Aboriginal.
Meanwhile however
Back in fake news fantasy land
More headlines appeared, but this time from outside Australia
Buzzfeed, The Guardian and Daily Mail had all jumped on the racist-labelling bandwagon.
To conclude, I just find it very amusing how the media is so quick to latch onto anything - like one misunderstood meme - and force their own story into it, accusing a whole cohort of school students. It is as if, for some reason, they are desperate to perpetuate the idea that widespread racism exists. Ready to pounce upon any tiny inclination of racism, true or untrue and blow it out of proportion.
They have reached a new low on this one.
Thanks for reading
It is very ban to ill-treat others due to racism. All are human beings. All should be treated equally for the sake of humanity according to my point of view.
Thanks for sharing Tomee. I found this to support your view.
http://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/nitv-news/article/2017/10/17/hsc-students-claim-theyve-been-taken-out-context-over-abuse-toward-indigenous
If the leftist media and government bureaucracy want to stop race division, why do they continue to fan the flames?
Though I suppose if they did Tomee - they might actually have to answer to genuine criticism such as:
https://www.spectator.com.au/2017/10/mango-and-the-delightful-discovery-of-sexual-abuse/
See you round Steemit Tomee...
SirKnight
Exactly,
I agree, they want to fan the flames so that they have something to complain about.
Thanks for your thoughts and the links.
Thanks for sharing tomee. If high school students can see through the leftist media agenda then there is real hope for the future. Good luck to you.
Thank you.
And yeah I actually see this as a huge positive for the 70,000 of us who witnessed this reality first hand. I think there's a new wave of conservatism on its way ha
Conservatism is not the way either mate ;)
It's not about left vs right. It's about centralisation vs decentralisation. You're in the right place to learn all about it! :)
I know where you're coming from, and you're right in this circumstance. The left/right...thing has just turned into stupidity. I perhaps used the word conservatism wrongly, but I would argue that from experience, conservatives tend to lean more towards decentralisation. Could be wrong though :)
#life
Nelson Mandela:The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.By participating in this forum, you are engaging in social media. You have just as equally hijacked a news report for your own agenda. I started reading your post because I thought, here is a young person entering the adult world, I'll encourage them. The correct journalistic response to the misunderstanding is to correct the facts, not sneer at the misunderstanding that arose. You have even vilified the poet by saying she doesn't look Aboriginal. How dare you. That's like me saying something like, you don't look like a musician.
My agenda was to spread the story and its origin. And yes I accept that I hijacked a news report for that agenda. I sneer because misunderstandings like this crop up pretty often (and also to make the blog more entertaining to people who like reading this sort of thing). Finally, I wouldn't say you vilified me if you couldn't identify my race. Am I Slavic or Anglo saxon?
Thanks for your thoughts by the way haha :)
I like your style @tomee! The media are a real class act when it comes to turning a negative light on things. Look at any news outlet whether its TV or newspaper and weigh up the positive stories against the negative. Its a good thing to take a step back and have a laugh.
@katyclark Im curious to know more about the ideology of the adult world. Is it a place where we can identify different race and have serious discussions? I know as a kid i didnt even recognise the colour of my friends skin as different to mine and paid little attention to serious discussion because i was too busy enjoying myself.
What am i saying, im 27 and i still do! :D
Thanks mate :)
We need someone to stick up for Katy now so its fair haha