Friday, January 29th 2021

Barack Obama about “woke culture”

Barack Obama is explaining that activism on social networks is not activism because it’s easy to judge people on social media, it’s not committing at all. He is speaking in front of a crowd at his foundation and he is speaking in a normal, cool relaxed, unwound tone. This is not Barack Obama, the president speaking but Barack Obama, the man and the father: he mentions his daughter, Malia. 

Nevertheless, he gives a lesson to his audience: he talks to the audience so he creates a link with them. He is not aggressive at all but he uses a technique in which he tries to become one of them: he says “I” to better denounce what young people do. He is quite clever in the way he presents his point of view and criticizes “woke culture”.

You know this idea of purity and you’re never compromised and you’re always politically woke and all that stuff, you should get over that quickly. The world is mess, there’re ambiguities, people who do really good stuff have flaws, people who you are fighting may love their kids, and you know, share certain things with you, and I think that one danger I see among young people particularly on college campuses, Malia and I talked about this, Yara goes to school with my daughter but I do get a sense sometimes now, among certain young people, and this is accelerated by social media, there is this sense sometimes of the way of me making change is to be as judgemental as possible about other people. And that’s enough! Like if I tweet or hashtag about you didn’t do something right or used the word, wrong verb or then I can sit back and feel pretty good about myself, cause Man, you see how woke I was, I called you out! Then I can get on TV and watch my show, watch Grown-ish… You know, that’s not, that’s not activism. That’s not bringing about change, you know, if all you’re doing is casting stones, you’re probably not gonna get that far , that’s easy to do!

go to “Black Lives Matter”             Social transformation                   no thought about what it means

…. activism => people who are casually making activism / casual way / blasé

hashtag BLM                     social media                        past few days

what social media do to a cause                    slacktivism = armchair activism

what are the consequences                  drawback?         harm a cause                           do as an activist               what that means when you do that                protection

a moment of silence / post hashtag                     Tuesday

protest what is happening around the nation               criticism

post black squares for the show.. => slacktivism?           putting two words together

slacker => doesn’t contribute to the post when they just post black squares.

city                        scrolling on your phone                flood of black squares

Tuesday, January 19th 2021

What social media do and don’t do for a cause.

This is an interview on KUER radio which is an American radio from Utah. We can hear a guest and a woman. He is a professor in Social transformation and she works for the radio. They are talking about slacktivism: when you just participate to a cause for the show. This word is composed of two words: slacker + activism. It means it’s casual activism, or “armchair activism”. You do it in a casual blasé way. 

The professor talks about the movement “Black Lives Matter” as an example. People were protesting and started posting black squares on Instagram but there were so many posts of black squares that in the end, people didn’t pay attention. in the end, information is gone, just replaced by black squares. 

Any advantages to online activism: “What are the advantages of online activism?”

• it can be from home (more comfortable, cosier)

• it can be done by disabled people who cannot go and march in the streets

• when you are online, you can remain anonymous

• you can touch more people more easily

• everyone feels / can feel concerned

• you are protected from other people and especially the police brutality

• in case of a pandemic like Covid19, it’s better to protest online

Drawbacks to online activism:

• you are more involved when you are in the streets / you are less involved when you are at home

• going in the streets / demonstrating / marching has more impact

• you can be physically present with other people who support the same cause.

Barack Obama takes on “woke” call-out culture that’s not activism

the world is messy          making change          that’s not activism 

it’s / that’s not bringing about changes                twitter / hashtags

people who you are fighting may love their kids            ambiguities

that’s easy to do            that’s enough

something right          the wrong words          the way that it’s changed

people who do really good stuff                idea of purity       should get over that

the way that we make changes        watch my show on TV (Grown-ish)

… go to school with my daughter (Malia)

get that far

politically “woke”

you never compromise

the danger I see / young people / accelerated by social media

judged by other people

Tuesday, January 19th 2021

What social media do and don’t do for a cause.

This is an interview on KUER radio which is an American radio from Utah. We can hear a guest and a woman. He is a professor in Social transformation and she works for the radio. They are talking about slacktivism: when you just participate to a cause for the show. This word is composed of two words: slacker + activism. It means it’s casual activism, or “armchair activism”. You do it in a casual blasé way. 

The professor talks about the movement “Black Lives Matter” as an example. People were protesting and started posting black squares on Instagram but there were so many posts of black squares that in the end, people didn’t pay attention. in the end, information is gone, just replaced by black squares. 

“What are the advantages of online activism?”

Friday, January 15th 2021

This document is an audio document, recorded from a radio report about an attack / a shooting in Florida, in a high school. A student killed 14 pupils and 3 members of staff, he used a gun. This happened in February 2018.

The survivors posted messages on Facebook to raise awareness about this event. Then they received an invitation to CNN to talk about what had happened. After that, it resulted in a global movement. The group of friends asked for the minimum age to be raised from 18 to 21, they also asked to change the gun laws in America. For example, they asked to lengthen the purchase period to three days… 

Why did they use social media? They used social media because they are a generation who grew up with social media, so it was natural for them. They can reach more people because everybody uses social media. They used social media to organize rallies and social media helped keeping the pressure on because Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc are powerful tools.

The report ends on a key question: “Do you think social media can help make a difference? Give us your opinion on Twitter or Facebook!”

Tuesday, January 12th 2021

This document is an audio recording about an artist who handcrafts pieces of art. Her art is in the street and in the USA, Europe, Australia, Africa, and Central America. Her name is Kelsey Montague. She posts her works on Instagram and they are on display in museums. Today, she is not famous yet, but thanks to Instagram, her art is blowing up and she is beginning to become famous. She displays works or art and then people pose and take pictures of themselves in front of the piece of art and send it on social networks.