The Voice of Abuse

This is The Voice of Abuse, produced by the Beta Productions team of myself, Terese Marszalek, Brittany McKee, and Beth Kribel. Many thanks to Vanessa Ford Taylor for bravely sharing her story. According to Mr. Bradley Weaver: Westminster students, armed with consumer available video equipment, produced this documentary about the survivor of domestic violence. The project was part of a cluster course at Westminster College where students enrolled in Mass Communications and Majority-Minority Sociology.

What role do I want to play in my life?

The role that I will choose is that of an informed educator. To do this, I will stay abreast of information in the media and be careful of becoming influenced by what I see in the public. Additionally, I will work each day to see and embrace all forms of diversity so that I am sure to treat each of my fellow humans equally.

My largest goal is to work with students of all ages and encourage open minds and forward thinking. I feel that if I can inspire young people to work for equality and opportunity, I will have made a difference.

Even more than this goal, I want to inspire in the way that I live my life daily. If I show my beliefs in what I say, do, and don’t do, others may be more inspired to do the same in their own lives. Saying is one thing. Acting is quite another. I hope to act out and perform the change that I seek.

Additionally, I want to be an active member of society, being sure to vote, communicate, and work with organizations that promote the beliefs that I hold true. If I can participate in the world in these ways, I will feel that I am doing my part to promote my ideals.

Education!!

Although I agree that people need to become more involved in our democracy, I do not necessarily share Lippmann’s viewpoint that the information put to the public must be controlled by the elite. After researching and presenting on Edward L. Bernays, I’m more likely to agree with him, that “Today the privilege of attempting to sway public opinion is everyone’s (p. 51 of his Manipulation Public Opinion text).” Although he wrote that article in 1928, I think it extremely applies today in the blogosphere and citizen journalism. We DO have the power to change things, we just have to get out there and do it. Lippmann’s ideas are grand, but we will never have a media free of outside control. It just won’t happen.

So, I think the viewer must learn to take what they hear and add their own view. It’s easy to get caught up in the news and what is being emphasized in the media, but if we honestly work for what we think is right, we have the power of swaying the public. As Bernays pointed out, similar to Dewey, education is key. Swaying public opinion is based on providing more information. As an educator myself, I see daily in the eyes of students that in order to have a change of mind, you must be presented with more information. Let’s go seek out some of that for ourselves and bring the power back to the democracy.