Facebook: The Newspaper of the 21st Century, and its Role in Displaying Trauma Narratives

In a globalized world where stories are increasingly being sent through “global circuits” (Schaffer & Smith 7) such as the publishing market, and news sources such as BBC, and CNN, a new competitor has joined the scene: Facebook. As seen within recent major events, such as the shootings and bombings in Paris and Beirut, Facebook seems to be at the top of the game in delivering news to its audience, instantly. Though Facebook itself is not the  creating articles in regards to these traumatic happenings, it acts as a blank canvas for individuals looking to speak out about their own experiences in regards to these traumatic events. It is interesting to examine the role of this new form of media delivery, which in part acts as an orchestrator of voices, and also acts as a tool for individuals to share their version of the story.

Facebook is what I like to think of as the newspaper of the 21st century. It acts as an orchestrator of many voices, just as newspapers provide articles written by a variety of storytellers. The big difference is these storytellers no longer need to be professional journalists, but rather are the general public, serving to produce material that aids in the forming of their own personal life narrative. Individually, they use the format of Facebook to format what could be thought of as their own individual newspaper, sharing articles and photos related to their life, interests, political views, etc. As traumatic happenings occur throughout the world, these events hop to the top of the newsfeed, serving to be cases of front page articles sharing what the biggest events are in news right now.

While looking at the composition of the material I most commonly see on Facebook, I have noticed an increase in the amount of trauma narratives filling my newsfeed. For example, as I write this blog post, I decided to check what was happening on Facebook. Within a minute of scrolling through my newsfeed, I found a video displaying military attacks on ISIS, a picture of an ambulance rescuing individuals in the midst of a massive blizzard, and this article by BBC, bringing news to millions about anti-Islam rallies going on in Australia. Another example lies in the attacks that occurred in Paris that on November 13th, which instantly filled my Facebook newsfeed with images, videos, and stories displaying the horrible atrocities that had taken place. Here is an interesting article regarding how and which items arrive at the top of each persons newsfeed. These stories seem to both come in the form of narratives by individuals, and in the form of professionally produced works by major news sources. From seeing all of these trauma narratives, it seems to be that Facebook is no longer just a site for the developing of ones own life narrative, but instead has become a leading source in delivering narratives of trauma to world audiences.

In “Conjunctions: Life Narratives in the Field of Human Rights”, by Kay Schaffer and Sidonie Smith, they bring light to Kirby Farrell’s “post-traumatic ‘wound’ cultures of postmodernity” (13), and the idea that Western culture has become desensitized to suffering. It would be interesting to investigate the role of this “desensitizing” to trauma in relation to Facebook, and trauma narratives being presented on the social media platform.

 

Works Cited

Schaffer, Kay and Sidonie Smith. “Conjunctions: Life Narratives in the Field of Human Rights.” Biography 27.1 (2004): 1-24. JSTOR. Web. 2 Oct. 2015.

Eliminating Stigma Through Disability Memoirs

In contemporary Western society, the stigma surrounding people with disabilities produces false representations of disabled people than what they would like to portray. Focusing in on a type of life narrative, disability memoirs, G.T. Couser argues that these writings have the “considerable potential to [be] counter stigmatizing” (Couser 31). Through disability memoirs, individuals write with the goal of eliminating this stigmatization in a hope that they will remove the marginalization disabled people are subject to.

One form of disability memoir is described by John Couser as being a “rhetoric of emancipation”, which serves to “contest received attitudes about disability” (Couser 33). An example lies in Cockeyed, a memoir by Ryan Knighton, who works to provide a counter narrative using a humorist approach to his blindness, that works to eliminate stigma by giving readers of the book a look into the life of a blind man. Throughout Cockeyed, we see Knighton making his experiences with blindness accessible and relatable to everyone. Initially in his writing, he accepts the stigma surrounding blindness and disabilities, wanting nothing to do with it, and ignoring it as long as possible. This acceptance of stigma can make him seem more relatable to his audience, who, whether they realize it or not, may subconsciously accept the stigma surrounding people with disabilities (PWD’s) as well. But after having to adopt a cane, Knighton comes to begin accepting his blindness, while at the same time still accepting some of the stigma society has placed on disabled people. In his acceptance of the cane, it urges the audience to also accept the use of a cane, and accept blindness, eliminating the marginalization of individuals with disabilities in society. Another example lies in the works of Jason DaSilva, a filmmaker who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, and has proceeded to produce multiple short films describing his experiences. In DaSilva’s work, he produces short films outlining and describing his experiences living as a disabled person, in a world mostly designed for the non-disabled. His works provide his audiences with insight into the life of someone who struggles with everyday tasks, like walking up stairs. These works by DaSilva work to eliminate stigma by outlining the problems he encounters in everyday life, but showing that he is a completely normal and relatable guy, not someone to be marginalized.

Ryan Knighton and Jason DaSilva’s works don’t directly appeal to their non-disabled audience in a confrontational way, but rather seem to attempt to eliminate stigma by creating a relatable character. This relatable character works to stop non-disabled people from looking at disabled people so differently, simply urging them to view PWD’s as a peer and complete equal. Both Knighton and DaSilva were born with no idea they would develop these disabilities, again producing an element of relatability in their works. Having lived both the non-disabled, and disabled life, their audience has the ability to directly relate and make the transition with them.

As new disability memoirs are produced, it will be interesting to investigate the ways in which they make appeals to their audience, eliminating stigma surrounding people with disabilities.

 

Jason DaSilva

Jason DaSilva

http://wheniwalk.com/about-the-film-makers/

http://wheniwalk.com/about-the-film-makers/

Ryan Knighton

Ryan Knighton

http://www.fortyfps.com/asap/media.htm

 

 

Works Cited: Couser, G. Thomas. Signifying Bodies : Disability in Contemporary Life Writing. University of Michigan Press, 2009. Web. 9 Nov. 2015.

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