From my last post, we saw how social media platforms like Instagram make it very easy to view news stories, but it doesn't always create the space to tell the whole story. So, what was missing from the photo published in the last post?
Apparently, Zoe Sturges (the woman protesting) knew she would likely get arrested, which is why she went ahead and crossed the police barricade to hand out flowers. The Instagram thread of posts make her seem completely "peaceful and non-threatening", but if she knew she wasn't allowed to cross the barricade in the first place, is this post telling her whole story? Once again, social media's visual rhetoric creates an issue as it allows so many people to circulate popular news stories without creating enough space to actually share the whole story. Although there are usually links to external articles, most people only "scroll" the news feeds and don't end up reading the links or seeking out the whole story; leading to posts like the one above creating outrage among younger people. Social media wasn't created to circulate world news; it was originally created for friends to connect with each other by sharing photos and a few short sentences.
[1 photo, 1 quotation, 202 words]
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