In this video clip, Ellen speaks about the situation in Saudi Arabia in a humorous manner. This video clip caught my attention for a few reasons. First, at the beginning of the term, our class spoke about how one aspect of being a global citizen is to be up to date on news and spread awareness of these issues with the intention of providing help. This is something that an individual must intend to do because unless you make the initiative, the news will not come to you. As we discovered through studying the “Beware Online: ‘Filter Bubbles’”, the Internet is becoming increasingly tailored to suit it thinks an individual wants to see. I truly believe that unless you make an effort, an individual could go weeks without hearing any news, local or global. Even if they spent time going on Facebook, Twitter, Google, etc, because everything is designed to show us what we want to see, typically light-hearted entertainment, they might only hear about news through people in real life. So when I saw this clip from the Ellen show, I was slightly surprised. Initially surprised because her show is primarily comedic and she typically does not speak about serious issues unless it is a charity initiative. Secondly, I noticed that she did not speak about the issue in Saudi Arabia for very long amount of time. She took a serious issue and spoke about it with humour. On the one hand, I do not expect Ellen to speak very seriously about issues on her show or spread/discuss news. That is not the shows purpose. On the other hand, I was surprised that she would bring up an important issue and not elaborate on it.

This made me think about how light-hearted, popular media represents important, global issues and whether this is beneficial or disadvantageous for the viewers and those who are experiencing the issue at hand. I can expect that those who are watching the Ellen show are not watching to learn about the news. Nevertheless, if these types of media speak about issues, whether elaborately or not, they bring attention to the issue and spread awareness. This could be beneficial, perhaps people will watch the show and then do further investigation. Or perhaps they will share the video on social media. I do not see how this could be disadvantageous in any way. The cheery way of speaking about this may in fact bring the issue more attention because those who do not normally watch the news may be more intrigued to watch something like this. Conversely, due to these cheerful and humorous media sources speaking about serious issues in such a way, they may not accurately represent the situation. This might only distort the situation in a way that is harmful. In this case, those affected by the issue may not want any inaccurate information being spread in popular media when it could so easily be prevented. Obviously, the media continuously misrepresents issues and spreads false information however this typically occurs in a ‘telephone game’ type manner. Whereas on a popular TV show, presenting a specific and prepared segment, the way the issue is spoken about is entirely in their control.

Is slight misrepresentation or humorous interpretation damaging to the actual issue? Or is it acceptable considering that it brings further attention towards the issue? Having been informed about the issue in such a manner, are people more inclined to solve the problem and/or spread awareness? Or does it only distract from the real problem?