Start with an anecdote/people story: Case study:
In the wake of the Hurricane Katrina natural disaster tragedy in New Orleans in 2005, there were varying responses to the event. These responses differed depending on the role of the person, and their degree of disadvantage. Joseph Canizaro, a wealth developer said, “I think we have a clean sheet to start again. And with that clean sheet we have some very big opportunities”. Contrastingly, Jamar Perry, an African-America victim said: “I really don’t see it as cleaning up the city. What I see is that a lot of people got killed up down. This isn’t an opportunity. It’s a goddamned tragedy. Are they blind? (Jamar Perry)
See persona/ personal style beginnings
Sample 1: first hand experience changes one’s view of “reality”; may question accepted /dominant beliefs)
“Until you have been there in that country, you can’t grasp what we are doing there” says one Sapper. After losing 10 mates in three months from IED explosions, Sapper Tom Williams states that he quickly lost his “innocence” and developed the typical “long stare” of someone who had seen a great deal of brutality and trauma.
Sample 2: how exposure to life and death situations can alter one’s view of reality; one’s view of self changes
Sapper Tom Williams who served in the Afghanistan war says that a three-day period of intense bombing at the height of the war “knocked his psyche off balance”. He became “scared shitless” and “it changed things”. Certainly what changed was the image of the bullet-proof hero and the exposure to prolonged stress. Conditioned to a life-and-death reality, Williams says he now finds it extremely difficult to return to every-day living conditions. A plastic bag rustling in the wind is a most likely an improvised explosive device; a parked van is not a courier but an ominous sign of a bomb-carrier and septic smells remind him of death.
Sample 3: conditioned /constructed realities; how groups use the “image” to influence public/people’s views and realities
Abu Khaled from Australia, a 17-year-old Sydney teenager warns Tony Abbott that he will be beheaded. There he is centre stage, in the spotlight, enjoying the attention of the seasoned fighters who surround him. This teenager is the latest “Hollywood-star” in a recruitment video used by Al-Hayat to condition young men around the world to believe that war is a religious crusade, an adventure and an opportunity to make a difference.
Sample 4: how we believe what we want to believe; illusions and fantasies
During the past few months, I have been obsessed with many of the stories of the Commonwealth Bank victims. How could they possibly be so naïve? How could so many have lost so much? Certainly many were naïve, but I could also imagine the slick pompous financial adviser weaving and spinning aspirational dreams to their unsuspecting clients about the promise of a quick buck.
Take for example, Merilyn Swan’s 81-year-old father, Merv Blanch who lost $170,000 – 70 per cent of his retirement savings – after advice from disgraced financial adviser Don Nguyen. She said her father had been duped by Mr Ng who promised him that he would double his savings in just two years; that he would be able to pay off his investments, and leave his daughter debt free. Merv had struggle with his daughter’s financial plight ever since the break-up of her family. She had lost her treasured home and been bankrupted through her recent divorce proceedings. It was Merv’s dying wish that he provide a stress-free future for his daughter. And the rest is history, thanks to the lure of an impossible dream and the sinister manipulation of his reality.
Another sample anecdote : collective realities: others shape my reality (often through emotions such as fear)
“Check your bags; if you see an unaccompanied bag lying around please report this to security”. This voice over was repeated at 10 minute intervals during the Woodford Music Wave Carnival punctuating the popular lyrics of Jay Park and Dr Mr Mojo, singing about, of all things, brotherhood. Such reminders to be afraid are everywhere these days. You only need to catch a train from Southern Cross station and you’ll be greeted by dozens of posters and banners, plastered from floor to ceiling reminding us, “if you see something, say something”.
Watching who? Watching what?
OR
“If you see something, say something”. Periodically, Melbourne’s busiest railway stations feature enormous bright yellow advertisements warning commuters about the heightened risk of terrorism. These posters and banners are designed to make people alert and encourage them to constantly watching for suspicious behaviour and odd packages. In short, we are reminded to be afraid.
Likewise, we see images of grey ominous fighter aircraft being prepared for overseas deployments. We see federal police appearing at carefully orchestrated press conferences explaining how they have successfully prevented us from being murdered in our beds.
After the murder of 17-year-old school girl, Masa Vukotic, the chief Detective Inspector Mick Hughes told ABC Radio National that parks are not safe for females. “I suggest to people, particularly females, they shouldn’t be alone in parks”.
The ability of governments, law and order officials, and the media to manipulate our emotions and promote fear at a subconscious level is a useful tactic – especially if they want our support for an issue or scheme.
As Age writer, Michael Leunig says, when we went to war in 2003, and which is equally applicable today, “to prosecute an avoidable war, a government requires in its citizens a critical mass of fear and hatred against the proposed enemy, and in the media there were many who were suddenly willing to work quite ravenously at fostering this emotional climate”.
Think about this Herald Sun introduction (29/1/16), which you could use as a model. It certainly attracts the reader’s curiosity and is so “foe-like”. “It’s the holiday story from hell – a woman gang raped by a ‘cannibal’ tribe in PNG as her boyfriend was held captive. But is that what really happened?”
You could add another short paragraph/link to prompt: “However, after hearing the stories of an eye-witness, as well as the translated testimony of one of the women in the “tribe” it seems the story-teller is more intent on relying on stereotypes and clichés to dramatise an event rather than investigating the subtleties of an unfortunate encounter.”
If using an anecdote/ persona:
make sure it is perfectly clear who or what the person is and how their story links to the prompt: eg. student persona or youth leader work well:
- their participation in a student rally against the return to war in Iraq; or
- rally to encourage the university to divest its shares in coal companies;
See persona/ personal style beginnings
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