Presenting The News

G T

gt814529@ohio.edu

Presenting The News

Demonstration in Berlin: Scientist Rebellion

The flow of knowledge and the spread of information is something that has occurred between people, cities and nations throughout time. From a traveling messenger bringing word from a faraway country, to a blog being posted online, bringing people together through their screens, weaving a digital web of threads that connect us to emissaries of information and ways to communicate with one another.

Whether online or in person, these types of channels of which information is dispersed, are important to protect, from too many ulterior-to-bad-faith motives, so that they remain an independent, uninhibited bastion of which people can read, see and reflect on information, and decide upon it for themselves.

Thus, it is not only the content itself, but the way it is presented, that is key to consider, as it can potentially change the meaning surrounding it. Choosing how to present something that may be more favorable in the way it is presented, can give a different impression to a news story, or even change the general sentiment around it. Take one incident, and report on it hundreds of times on mass, and you have a recipe for an artificially exaggerated majority.

With so much news out there, even an overload on certain stories can decrease the coverage on others. Recently, hundreds of environmental scientists, tried to bring awareness to the climate change crisis and how the funding of fossil fuels is contributing to it. Several of them handcuffed themselves to banks in Los Angeles in a peaceful protest.

Environmental activist Bruce Wynn to call for greater and more urgent action to the climate crisis, self-immolated on the steps of the Supreme Court. Initially reports about the story did not seem to mention the cause for this act being connected to climate change (though later reports did go on to include it).

Within weeks of these two stories, was the incident between Will Smith and Chris Rock at the Oscars, which seems to be talked about and reported on everywhere, from social media to news stations. While the environmental change will have an exponential impact on more people, these got a percent of a percent of the same airtime as the Will Smith, story.

Metal Gear Solid 2: Konomi Entertainment

This topic of media obfuscation is the central theme that the video game Metal Gear Solid 2 was building towards, amidst its stories of hyper soldiers and weaponry. Even if you have a passing interest in video games, I do think it is quite an interesting artifact on video games and culture. Released over two decades ago, its become even more relevant, in the last couple of years, especially with the landscape of news media sort of evolving into what it is currently. Whether it be the manipulation of news or commodification of public opinion, Metal Gear talks about the media’s involvement in the spread of truth, and use of data. So with that in mind, I feel it brings a renewed appeal to the game's story and those who would like to look into parallels with current media systems.

This game has definitely inspired lengthy essays on it, both written and otherwise. Though there’s no shortage of great breakdown on it that are out there, here’s one that I thought was fairly direct, if anyone's interested in it :)