For this week's original posting, I would like to pause and reflect on Shirley Sherrod, the now former USDA (U.S. Department of Agriculture) official forced to resign after an internet mishap that is indicative of the dangers of our excessively fast-moving world under the influence of the internet.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/07/21/agriculture.employee.usda/index.html?hpt=C2
According to the Washington Post: "Sherrod, a black woman appointed last July as the agency's Georgia state director of rural development, was forced out after a blogger circulated a video showing part of her March 27 appearance at an NAACP banquet."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/21/AR2010072101460.html
The video was taken out of context and portrays her to be an 'angry black woman' who could be biased against whites in making her decisions and even unwilling to help white farmers. The contents were criticized by the NAACP, who did not go further than to look at the internet clips even though Ms. Sherrod is respected in her job and furthermore, the presentation was given at a NAACP event.
Ms. Sherrod may now be offered to take her job back, but she says the trust has been broken. She wonders how she could go back to work for a group that clearly does not trust her, if they can be swayed so easily by false reporting.
An quick analysis of the situation:
1) Radical right-wingers use the clips on a blog to discredit their target;
2) The information posted on the internet is taken at face value. The NAACP denounces her comments;
3) The scandal of this black woman saying she would not help white farmers due to injustices she faced during her lifetime spreads like wildfire on the web;
4) She loses her job;
5) Investigation is made into her real comments and the entire video is now recognized. It is widely accepted that the internet clip took comments out of context and do not reflect the real sentiments of Sherrod;
6) The NAACP apologizes;
7) The USDA announces it will reconsider her case;
8) Sherrod announces the trust has been broken and she may not want her job back.
http://cnn.com/video/?/video/politics/2010/07/21/am.shirley.sherrod.interview.cnn
Racism in America is put back on the table. Credibility lost. Time and energy lost. Bad karma created.
Comments?
I agree with the title of this post !!!!! It's the perfect resume!!!! All the principles described at this book teach us manipulate the minds of our customers and maximize profits. Exelent!!!!
ReplyDeleteI see that the world of social media plays a major role in politics and organizations and it helps people to be carefull in decision making.
ReplyDeleteThe internet can be very dangerous when it comes to taking things out of context, as can all media forums. This incident shows how careful we have to be with the information we discover on the internet. I like how you outline the situation, it is very concise and accurate.
ReplyDeleteI think that any kind of media is created to manipulate. And it's not necessarily a negative thing. Especially if you manipulate such great audiences. It's really a dream of marketing specialist, so if you can do it - good for you.
ReplyDeleteI thought this news story was interesting. What happened to POST RACIAL AMERICA!!! I would like to see the full context of the speech
ReplyDeleteHello everyone,
ReplyDeleteThanks for all your comments. There is so much to be said about this case. A couple things I didn't mention were the NAACP spokesman's claim that they'd been "snookered" (his word) into taking the videos at face value. This shows how he felt they were clearly misled and did not take the time to further investigate the matter before reacting. But it also shows how naïve an institution - even the NAACP (!!) is regarding social media. tata.rus: I do agree that it is somehow to your "credit" if you can manipulate your audiences, but I do have difficulty accepting this "buyer beware" principle. And Jacob, I believe Post-racial America can only exist when people can stop pulling at our heart strings and somehow turn the tables/manipulate us into believing that racists are the good guys and the victims of racism are the evil enemy!! Amazing what you can get people to believe!!! This means calling a spade a spade (which is a racist-based comment, BTW) and daring to tell it like it is, without fear of judgement and being called a racist (whatever your skin color). Things are moving, though and I believe incidents like this can help us see the true "color" of mankind. Here's a link to a collection of info, of which, the full speech you said you'd like to watch.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/21/shirley-sherrod-defended_n_653747.html
Great topic. I actually caught the tail end of CNN coverage when I got home from class Wednesday. It goes to show that we can’t jump to conclusions with rapidly spinning news/information often initiating via the web these days … particularly our top echelon of American politics!
ReplyDelete