For the past few sessions we’ve been reading Shahzad’s article on the War of Terror. Her studies is based on the narratives of students on their accounts on the war of terror. Their accounts are strongly influenced by the different technology of memories that exists in our generation such as social media sites, youtube, live news and etc.
I’ve got strong influence from the news media itself. I grew up in a country where the news is extremely bias and uses emotive language. In my IB English class, we looked into the use of language by the media and politicians. In particular, we analyzed the language used by George Bush in his post 9/11 speech. His words evoked emotion and patriotism. He described in detail the traumatic scene that happened that day. And using that emotive description, he blinds the American people into supporting his campaign in Afghanistan, despite there’s no direct link between the attack and Afghanistan.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CSPbzitPL8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BwxI_l84dc
In addition, the use of words is key. In the second speech (second link), he uses words such as “coalition of our allies” or “common defense” to evoke a sense of unity. And he keeps emphasizing on the word “terror” or “terrorist”.
Another key technology of memory that comes to my mind is the social media. So many news articles or propaganda appear on sites such as Facebook and spread like wildfire. I’ve read so many news article regarding so many key issues from my own Facebook page alone.