The Danger of a Single Story / Chapter 6: Reflect: Protection and Empowerment

Reading #1

Three things I learned about storytelling are-

1. It's important to be honest. People will be able to tell if you are fabricating pieces of your story.

2. Stories transcend cultures.

3. The problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue; it's that they are incomplete.

But the most important thing I learned is that a single story can shape our entire view of a place or culture. Instead we should try to immerse ourselves in a culture before forming opinions.

"Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: The Danger of a Single Story." TED. TEDGlobal, 1 July 2009. Web. 17 Oct. 2015.


Reading #2

"Next year, there will be a new outrageous fashion fad, sure to attract peer attention, creating new must-have items and generating shock and anxiety among parents, teachers, and members of the community."

• When I read this statement initially, it came across as a campaign slogan for supporters of school uniforms. After all, requiring students to wear identical uniforms would solve all the issues presented in this passage.

"Familiarity breeds liking. There's a kind of pleasure that we experience when familiar brands and products show up in popular media. Teens have pleasurable associations about the many different brands in their lives. The average 10-year-old has memorized the names of 300-400 brands."

• The statistics prove that advertising reaches and affects even the youngest of viewers. Buying and owning the most popular brands, even when it comes to seemingly small items such as snacks and drinks, appeals to the desire people have to fit in and be accepted.

"There's nothing persuasive or coercive about digital and media literacy education--except in one regard: We valorize the importance of questioning assumptions, asking questions, and reflecting on one's own process of interpretation."

• When it comes to critical media literacy, the desired outcome is not that everyone come to the same conclusion. On the contrary, viewers of media may view the same image, ad, or video very differently. The most important thing is that every individual learns to be more inquisitive and more aware of what they are digesting as media consumers.