Post-colonialism - bonus reading and tasks

MM58

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1) Aisha Harris - This theorist argued that social media play a negative role in the construction of black identities, for example, in social media such as Twitter, we tend to see a lot of black people in "internet 'memes'". 

Giddens - This theorist argued that social media can be an arena for the construction of positive black identities. One example given from the article is 'The Blackout', which was a campaign involving the "celebration of blackness".

 Henry Jenkins - This theorist also argued that social media is an arena wherein 'participatory cultures' can be established. An example of this is another online campaign on Twitter called '#BlackTwitter', which challenges negative representations of black identity.

2) In my opinion, I believe that social media is a negative force when it comes to issues of black identity. Since I believe this, this is therefore linked to a theorist that was mentioned in the article, Aisha Harris. A key reason why I believe that it is a negative for because of the fact that the users, occasionally make 'fun of' black identities when it comes to social media and hardly ever target anyone else. This, in my opinion, makes the black identity vulnerable and therefore, some of the audience would feel sorry for them because they are occasionally the ones who have been targeted at by the audience.

3) The key theorist which links to the issue of social media and black identity is Alvarado. One of the key words which works well with this issue is humorous. A lot of things posted on social media related to black identity whether it's vines or memes, it tends to generate a lot of laughter. Therefore, I believe that humorous is a good way to describe this issue but to some extent, it does downgrade them which then can also link to pitied as they are shown to also be vulnerable.

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1) In the British press, a great deal of the language and the imagery has been hostile. Refugees are often labelled as migrants, to create the impression that they are travelling by choice, rather than fleeing a genuine disaster. In addition, they have been misrepresented as the refugees are described as swarm, horde or tide.

2) In my opinion, I believe that the documentary genre is less biased than the news media. As said in the article, documentary television can correct the overwhelmingly negative impression of refugees given elsewhere in the media, and the humanity of those at the sharp end of the world's conflict. With the documentary genre, they tend to focus more solely on the topic of the issue and therefore, the audience then understand the issue more .

3) Edward Said is a good post-colonial theory to link to the issue of representation of refugees. Said talks about the west against the east of the world and how the West over power the East as they also believe that they are more superior than them. Therefore, since the East side of the World contain the refugee's, this is why I believe that Said is a good theorist to mention, because the West is more powerful.