Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Can Social Media Hashtagging Save The World?


There’s no doubt that when any issue becomes headline news a celebrity and/or politician will co-opt, hijack, corrupt and spin the issue into a personal political agenda with added monetary value and suffocate the issue with over exposure that will nudge people too tune out within a week’s time.

In my opinion, the normal lifespan of a media born narrative lasts 6 days in headline status and then dwindles to back page filler depending on the outlet before becoming obsolete.


Whether it’s Sandra Fluke or Texas Boll Weevil or Cliven Bundy, the carousel of Media darling come and go, leaving many to do whatever it needs to keep oneself relevant in the public eye. But for that moment in time, they are paraded around the Media dial gaining support/protest while the clock ticks down.

Determining which side of the issue that politicians, frankly those pseudo-politicians, and celebrities will jump also determines the Media narrative coverage that follows.
It’s easy to quickly point the crooked finger at the Liberal mindset when thinking about those that co-opt and corrupt an issue as it seems they jump faster and further to get their grubby hands on it and turn towards their liking.

For every Sandra Fluke abortion rights soapbox for Liberals there’s a Chic-Fil-A freedom of speech/religion platform for Conservatives to march behind as well. It’s all in ones perspective as which is right or wrong to follow.

Absolutely the Nigerian schoolgirl kidnapping is a tragedy and it only opens one’s eye to the horror of human trafficking that is present Worldwide, even if the focus is on just that of Nigeria. Face it from the dawn of the slave trade to today's latest kidnapping; the World’s history of human trafficking has been unkind to the continent of Africa and its inhabitants. Why is this situation any different than the missing child on the milk carton?

Is it the number of children taken at one time or the fact that a Radical Islamist some-what terrorist group called Boko Harem committed this atrocity?

My guess, it’s the latter and I’m trying to figure out how some poli-yankers are blaming the fall of Libya and the US’s passive involvement that led to the current Nigerian kidnapping.

Please don't take me as insensitive of the Nigerian kidnapping situation; being a parent myself I worry even when my son is 20 feet away on the playground. Yet it takes one issue for people to get behind, whether ordinary Joe to celebrity to politician.
I don't see anything wrong with those that feel they're doing some sort of right by tweeting a picture of them holding signs with “#bringbackourgirls,” if they believe that's helping. But contrary to poli-yanking media host, it's far from just a bunch of Hollywood liberals holding court.

Yes, FLOTUS Michelle Obama has joined Sean Penn and Alicia Keyes with many others, including Dwayne Johnson. Yes the very Republican card carrying member Dwayne Johnson of WWE /action movie fame is among them. OMG! Does that make him a closet Liberal or just someone believing in a cause?

Or how about Political America's favorite Brit, PM and Conservative leader Cameron, is he now coming out of his limey bastard Liberal leaning closet?

The answer is simple, neither are doing nothing of the sort except showing a new awareness of the human trafficking issues abound. And in PM Cameron’s case, he can actually do something about it in form of government policy.

Yet, this is the USA, no matter the issue, a political agenda must be found to exploit and absolutely "Never let a crisis go to waste." If our Media was smart, they would push the agenda but talk more about the disturbing numbers of human trafficking in fact filled narrative without placing blame on any administration.

But that doesn’t bring in ratings, so it’s a pipedream.

Here are some figures to catch your eye (thanks to UNICEF for the info):
-Roughly 2,300 children go missing daily by either abduction or runaway status in the US
-Worldwide an estimated 1.2 million children are trafficked yearly, with approximately 27 million people enslaved around the World
-In South Africa, an estimated 30,000 children are prostitutes due to human trafficking, some as young as 14 years old


Those are staggering numbers to digest!

But we’re the U.S of A and well there are people who just can’t hold back to mock their divisive voice on an issue, including the Nigerian kidnapping.

Probably one of my least favorite poli-yankers is Ann Coulter. So when I read about Ms. Coulter’s attempt to be funny and hijack the “#bringourgirlsback” campaign with “#bringourcountryback,” my eyes rolled while saying “poor timing” for her attempted sense of humor.



I give her points for making a political statement that is entirely true, but hijacking a current soapbox and rewriting it, well it’s cheesy and unoriginal. But the backlash that ensued was extremely comical that for someone as technically advanced as Coulter is should have expected the Photoshop-mania that went wild on Twitter afterwards.

Maybe Ms. Coulter should point to her fellow poli-yankers on both sides of the partisan divide and ask them why so many of them are for sending in the US military in attempts to find the Nigerian children yet say nothing about concerns about US children being abducted?

I bet if Nancy Grace jumped on board (as she did with Natalie Holloway) and the News executives watch her ratings, they would dispatch reporters worldwide holding milk cartons in attempts for a ratings snatch.

That’s it, Slap the Tap on some “Omission” and don’t choke on your favorite abbreviated narrative as a full report.
CHEERS!