Name: Mia Sullivan
Social Justice Group: 2018-2019, Freedom of the Press
Date of Fieldwork: February 8, 2019
Name of Organization: Democracy Now!
Person (people) with whom I met and their job titles: Amy Goodman, Kate Aronoff, Simin Farkhondeh
Type of Fieldwork: Tour of Organization
What I did:
Last Friday we went to visit Democracy Now! Democracy Now is a private news organization that reports on news that is not being focused on in mainstream media. They do not take funding from private companies and there are no advertisements. They are funded by their listeners and viewers.
First, we watched a live taping of the show from 8-9. Then we got to interview the host Amy Goodman about what she does and we talked to her a little bit about how fake news affects her and her company. We also got a special interview with Journalist Kate Arnoff who was a guest on the episode that we watched. She is currently reporting on the Green New Deal and focusing on climate change around the world. After we discussed how Democracy Now was different than other mainstream media.
What I learned:
I learned a lot about how fake news is negatively affecting media stations all around the country and breaking trust between the media and the American people. If people do not trust the media anymore we will not be as informed about what’s happening all around the world as we need to be. Without trust between the people and the media lawmakers and politicians will not be as afraid to break the law because no one will believe the media when they report on it. Basically, the media is what holds our lawmakers and government accountable for their actions.
What I learned about Social Justice “work” and/or Civil and Human rights “work” from this fieldwork:
Through this fieldwork, I learned that sometimes fake news is not as obvious as it seems. Somes times when people write an article most of it is true and seems true, but that is not the case. I also learned that people like Donald Trump hide fake facts in true statements which confuses people into thinking that what he says is true. For example when he was talking about abortion in his state of the union speech is stated a few true facts, but then started talking about how babys could feel pain from the moment that they are conceived in the womb. Which is most definently not true.
