In relations to the recent 10th anniversary of September 11th, I chose a video that criticizes specific but popular conspiracies that the attacks were not acts of terrorists but acts of the government.
This video's effectiveness is significant in many ways. It quickly derails 5 huge arguments proposed about the facts of 9/11. For the longest time I was confused because of documentaries and videos I have seen through television and other media related resources. I started to contemplate whether the tragedy of 9/11 was imposed on us by our on people. Thanks to user generated content, lots of those thoughts have been eradicated from my mind. This video is very effective in many ways, it portrays pictures and video evidence that prove events and help question others. There are lots of people who strongly believe 9/11 was caused by our government, and because of videos like these made by average every day people, we get to see both sides of the argument.
In all honesty, if a video like this was produced by "traditional" media, I think its main points would be reversed. I feel like the video would be enforcing the ideas that these events were NOT an act of terrorism. I have never seen a televised related source that agrees with the views of this video. This happens because, people who produce things that air on television are not doing it but for any other reason then to make money and satisfy their own agendas. Fear, gets viewers interested, it's a conversation starter. So for even people like me, I watched all the conspiracies, and the first thing I did after was tell someone else to watch it. But now with user-generated content, most people don't make a video for a profit or for their own benefit, they do it to open up peoples eyes.
Weird Coincidence?
To start this homework I went to Youtube and typed in "9/11 conspiracies" in the search bar, the first video that supposedly proves that the government was involved in some way had 1,155,522 views. Then the first video that opposed these beliefs had 131,417 views. Media generates fear for profit, I just hope that with user generated content we can make a dent in the ratio of people who follow and believe things because of popularity, as opposed to ones that actually make sense.
I think this is one of the greatest examples of user-generated content! It exhibits how user-generated content allows for there to be people who believe all sorts of things and then use the Internet to spread their beliefs and false facts. At the same time, though, the video also exhibits how there are others who gain the same opportunity to contradict the irrational arguments and prove them wrong.
ReplyDeleteI think that as Michael wrote, there are so many reasons behind user-generated content. Users sometimes have negative intentions as simply putting fear into people's minds, or have intentions to make profit. These are the great cons of user-generated content; a user being able to use the Internet for whatever the reason.
Ironically, the video not only shows and contradicts falsehoods that other videos and users portray, but somehow still manages to show the pro's of user-generated content; the ability to properly inform viewers, share ideas, and also create debate!