Alex Bourdeau
Social
Shift
There have been many important and significant social
changes and revolutions throughout our history; the Civil Rights Movement,
Women’s Suffrage movement, and America’s fight for independence. These movements took place because people
stood together, did the small things, and fought for what they believed in. This is how many social movements take place,
but throughout time there have been some new changes and influences placed on
social change like advanced education, the media, the economy, and society in
general. Understanding social change is
so important because social change is how the world is changed and shaped and
the actions we take today will form the world our children will live in
tomorrow. These new modern day
influences and changes like the media, economy, education, and social climate are
important and can be discussed using the works of Martin Luther King Jr.,
Nelson Mandela, Howard Zinn, Frederick Douglas, and Cornel West along with a
modern day perspective.
Throughout
human history, there have been many different social changes and movements. In the United States alone we have had the
Abolition movement, the Woman’s Suffrage movement, the anti- abolition movement,
the movement to free slaves, and the Civil Rights movement. What all these movements have in common is
the fact that people stood up and did the little things to make a difference in
their lives and the world around them.
This is how movements have happened throughout much of human history,
but I believe this has changed slightly in our modern world. I believe that the media has a very strong impact
on any kind of social change or movement today.
For example, on huge social change in our country was the implement of
the so- called “Obamacare system.”
According to U.S. News over one billion dollars will be or has been
spent advertising for or against Obamacare.
In my experience a vast majority of the Obamacare advertising has been
positive to try and get people on board with the program. This is because in today’s world the media
has an unimaginable control over opinion and news. The media of today can choose to broadcast
pieces of news they want and ignore other news that may not benefit their
viewpoint. In my opinion, the media is
now the main driving force in social change in our world today. With the expansive reach and influence the
media has, they can effectively relay their ideas to millions of people in a
matter of seconds. This kind of mass
awareness or “campaigning” in a sense has not been seen or accessible before
the mass media craze. The media can
pretty effectively push through or advertise any ideals they see as important
to the masses. People lean on the media
for all their information. For example,
Nelson Mandela talks about how newspapers were the most valuable thing to him
and his fellow inmates because of the news and hope they provided. “Newspapers
were more valuable to political prisoners than gold or diamonds, more hungered
for than food or tobacco; they were the most precious contraband on Robben
Island (Mandela 78).” People take the
media as the only source of news out there sometimes, and this can lead to
problems because the media can choose to ignore certain points or facets of
news stories. People usually rely on
only one medium (Fox, NBC etc.) to get their news so all their news is received
through a tinted lens so to speak. They
are only exposed to one point of view or opinion and may be missing out on
valuable information from the other side. Another factor of media people may
see as an issue is the fact that ninety five percent of the mass media we
receive every day is dominated by a total of seven conglomerates which include
Walt Disney, News Corporation, Time Warner, CBS, Viacom, NBC, and Sony (UNCP
1). These companies can easily push out
whatever opinions they want to affect the masses very quickly. These companies are the biggest, and have the
most funds so it is easy for them to control the cable and web, the two most
popular forms of media in our time. When
discussing or thinking about political issues, we need to be very careful to
not just absorb everything the media feeds us and to get down to the actual
facts and issues at hand. In our world
today, the media influences many facets of our lives. When you wake up what’s one of the first
things that you do? Reach for the remote? Maybe a newspaper? Go on the
internet? All these things are daily
activities in which the media can influence you. Before you vote, hold a political discussion,
or take part in day to day political events, get educated and really figure out
the issues. It’s best to get your
information from a variety of sources to get all sides and points of view. This will help you to make the most educated
and informed decision to push our great country in the right direction.
A
key component of any movement or change is education. First of all, Frederick Douglass’ basic
education; the ability to read and write is required. To share your opinions intelligently or to
get a point across, you need the basic form of education. To write an article on your issue or to share
with others quickly and efficiently whether in a newspaper or online forum, you
need the ability to write. Basic
literacy is a fundamental aspect necessary for social change. Another kind of education people need to make
a difference or to push forward change is the deeper worldview and education
Martin Luther King talks about. As
citizens in a democracy, we need to be informed about the issues and to form
our own opinions. We cannot just blindly
take in what the media feeds us and then regurgitate that information in
arguments or debates. We need to be
informed citizens and figure out issues and problems on our own.
An
integral part of education today is the higher education system or
universities. Universities are seen as
the pinnacle of higher education and critical to success in our modern
society. The problem with universities
is their continually decreasing accessibility to the masses. With a college education costing as much as
some people’s houses, not everyone can afford to go. This puts people at a great disadvantage in
the job market and highly- competitive economy we have today.
Another
large issue in the field of education is the unequal standards and levels of
all lower levels of education in grade school middle school, high school. The K-12 education is seen as a building
block in some students’ lives, but clearly not all K-12 systems are equal. Poorer areas have less funding so their
programs and supplies are not as good.
Other schools in more well-to-do areas can afford advanced supplies and
curriculum like the AP or IB systems.
For example, in California, there are many summer school programs that
help students advance more quickly, the problem is these programs can charge up
to $800 per course (Dreier 1). This
isn’t a problem for wealthier families, but the poor families and children are
left in the dust. A really telling study
revealed that eighty- two percent of affluent students who scored above a 1200
on the SAT graduate college while the percent falls to forty-four for low
income students. (Dreier 1) This
disparity in education, based on economic privilege, can be seen across the
country and really puts some students at a disadvantage. This problem may seem simple to solve because
the federal government can just give each district an equal amount of money per
student. This may seem like a quick and
effective fix, but many facets and programs in K-12 education are privately
funded through donations and fundraisers, so the “education gap” will still be
present. Frederick Douglass expressed in
his book that he learned to read and write from poor white boys who accepted
food in exchange for lessons. The sad
truth seems to be that education was more balanced and fair in Douglass’ time
than in ours in respect to economic standards.
Of course this is based on just the people who could be educated in
Douglass’ time which were white children, but it seems money had a little less
to do with it.
I
feel that another huge issue in our society today is entitlement, or people
thinking the just deserve good things without any work. In the time of Martin Luther King, or Cornell
West, people who wanted change worked hard and actively to help bring about
those changes. Cornell West’s whole
conversation on hope and how hope is the push and active movement for change
shows that he believed it was up to the everyday man to bring about change. In the United States today, every citizen
(aged 18 years or older of course) has the ability and RESPONSIBILITY to vote. I hear people complaining all the time about
certain issues or problems in our country and I ask them if they voted and they
say no. In our last presidential election
in 2012 only fifty-nine percent of the eligible voter population actually voted
(Fairvote 1). We complain, hoot, and
holler than nothing gets done and nothing is changing, but we don’t go out and
actually make our voices heard, or make a difference. People know that money is a driving force in
politics, yet only .28 percent of the adult population (18 and older) gave
$200+ to a political cause. For all the
people who complain, that is a very low number.
Obviously in tough economic times the monetary donations are more
understandable, but voting is a free and easy way to participate in your
government and change your everyday life.
Voter efficacy is an important issue that needs to be handled especially
in the United States. Our sense of
entitlement today causes people to simply pass the burden of change onto others
and do nothing themselves. This leads to
a lot of complaining and little action.
As Martin Luther King said
“I
must confess that over the last few years I have almost reached the regrettable
conclusion that the Negro’s greatest stumbling block is not the White Citizen’s
Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate who is more devoted to
“order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of
tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice” (King 283).
King
is saying that people who are not active are the issue in change, not the
people who take a side that may be the wrong one. Tension creates change which is what King is
advocating, so even if you choose a different side, you are still creating
tension and being a catalyst for change which is what King is calling for. This message still holds true today. Going out and voting and discussing issues
creates tension and competition. If politicians
have to do more to earn votes, the quality of the job they do will inherently
rise. No matter what you believe, or
what party you back, stand for something, because if you stand for nothing you
will fall for anything.
A problem some people see in society
today is in our economy. The top twenty
percent of Americans control eighty-five percent of the wealth. This leads to Cornell West’s rage which he
says can be channeled into hope which is an active push for social change. The problem with this is that politics is now
a well-oiled machine that is run by money.
In the 2012 election the average cost to win a House of Representatives
seat was well over a million dollars while the cost to win a Congressional seat
was over ten million dollars (Steinhauser 1).
These figures are substantial and although some are covered through
fundraising and donations, a candidate still needs to pretty well off
themselves. The hope for political power
for the lower class is further hurt by the fact that the incumbency rate of
House and Senate members in 2012 was near ninety percent (Mahtesian 1). This means to win a seat, an opponent of the
incumbent would need to pump even more money into the media to get their face
out there. This again seems to return to
the issue of media influence in politics and wealth distribution. To make change you need political power and
influence. To get political power and
influence you need money. To make money
you need to have a fair shot through the educational system. To get a fair shot through the educational
system you need change and money. Seem
like a never-ending cycle? This is the
uphill, seemingly winless battle that underprivileged Americans have to face
day in and day out.
In our modern times, many factors
involving social change have changed or are new completely, but some of the
messages of past social heroes still ring true.
Even though the education system today is very different then in Martin
Luther King and Frederick’s Douglass’ times, their messages on proper education
are still true. Even though society and
the mass media affect change greatly, Cornell West’s message on turning anger
into positive actions and movements still is applicable. With our current
education system, we lack educated voters and equal opportunity. A democracy works best when many members are
educated and participate in that democracy.
We need to strive to improve the equality of opportunity in the
education department of our country which will in turn create more educated
voters to push our democracy in the right direction. The improvement needs to start at the youth
because we currently have an entitled and undereducated society which does not
bode very well for our future.
Works
Cited
Domhoff, William.
"Who Rules America: Wealth, Income, and Power." <i>Who Rules
America: Wealth, Income, and Power</i>. Web. 24 Nov. 2014.
<http://www2.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/wealth.html>.Douglass,
Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. Oxford: Oxford UP,
1999.
333-340. Print.
Dreier, Peter.
"America's Classist Education System." <i>The Huffington
Post</i>. TheHuffingtonPost.com,
25 July 2014. Web. 30 Nov. 2014.
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-dreier/americas-riggededucation_b_5621332.html>.
"FairVote.org |
Voter Turnout." <i>FairVote</i>. Web. 30 Nov. 2014.
<http://www.fairvote.org/research-and-analysis/voter-turnout/>.
Mahtesian, Charles.
"2012 Reelection Rate: 90 Percent." 13 Dec. 2012. Web. 24 Nov. 2014.
"Mass Media
Influence on Society." Web. 25 Nov. 2014.
<http://www2.uncp.edu/home/acurtis/Courses/ResourcesForCourses/Media&Society/MassMe diaInfluenceOnSociety.html>.
Martin Luther King Jr.
“The Impossible Will Take a Little While: A Citizen's Guide to Hope in a
Time of Fear”. Ed. Loeb, Paul
Rogat. New York: Basic, 2004. Print.
Metzler, Rebekah. US
News. U.S.News & World Report, 9 July 2013. Web. 26 Nov. 2014.
<http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2013/07/09/obamacare-ad-spending-to-top-1-billion>.
Steinhauser, Paul, and
Robert Yoon. "Cost to Win Congressional Election Skyrockets."
<i>CNN Politics</i>.
11 July 2013. Web. 19 Nov. 2014.
West, Cornel. The
Impossible Will Take a Little While: A Citizen's Guide to Hope in a Time of
Fear. Ed. Loeb, Paul Rogat. New York: Basic, 2004. Print.
"2014
Overview." <i>Opensecrets RSS</i>. Web. 30 Nov. 2014.
<https://www.opensecrets.org/overview/donordemographics.php>.
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