Someone with the same first name had been shot protesting against the government. They became a martyr. Their face was used on posters all around the world. Only now it was your face. Now you were the martyr.
Within days you are visited by the secret security forces. 'Help us!' they demand. You refuse. They threaten. You run.
You survive, but in a refugee camp:
"To live the life of a refugee is to be a leaf in the air. You just hang in the air with no sense of belonging."
As one journalist explains, "today we consume, and demand, stories and photographs faster than ever before" and this means that corners are cut. Not all information is checked.
Our university professor blames the Western media for ruining her life and that of her family. Are the media to blame? Or are we? Or is Facebook?
The full story is here.
The full story is here.
First of all I am really impressed with this story, it's amazing what has happened from a confusion and a photo. I feel very sorry for her and mostly after reading what she said “I can never be the person that I was before these things happened. I'm still suffering from depression, I am still suffering from nightmares.” Whats's more, everybody should show interest for this story because is something that could have happened to anyone. However, I think that she should blame the media as I think they have the fault. Facebook didn't do anything, it was only involved because the photo was taken from there but Neda was the responsible of uploading the photo. On the other hand, the people just got the photo the media had diffused and they thought the photo was the real one. So I think that the media had the fault because is the one who actually has de power to change things. They knew perfectly what was the truth but they didn't do anything to change what was happening. If they had done it in the first moment none of this would have happened and Neda wouldn't have passed for this.
ReplyDeleteGemma Carreira
After reading this horrible story I have been very surprised, I'd never thought about something like this happening, because analyzing this situation we can arrive to a conclusion that's this time Neda had this bad experience and she was the unlucky one, but who knows if in a few of years something like this will happen to us?
ReplyDeleteI can't think what a bad experience this woman has passed through and I am very sorry for it. I don't understand how people can let this happen and haven't done anything to end it.
Answering to the questions I think she should blame the media because definitely they were the ones that take and expand the Neda's photo. I also think, as Gemma said previously that Facebook haven't the fault of anything because it is just the social web from where they have taken the photo. And if Neda was the one who uploaded the photo to her profile. Although we could think Neda has some part of fault for uploading the photo I also think, that all young people upload photos to her websites and profiles for making it more original and we never think about the idea of something like this happening. However people influenced on the expansion of the photo, the media was the real diffusor and people just got something that arrived to us without any sense, looked at the picture and thought that woman was te real one.
In conclusion, I think that the media had all the fault including some influences from different sectors, but they mainly have the fault because if the wanted they could change some things or just don't let this go for so long, because there was a woman that was suffering a lot. Once they sad, the things weren't going through the right way they should have stopped this situation and they should tell the truth to everybody.
When I read this blog I was completely absorbed by the story, I couldn’t believe that this had really happened to a woman. First of all, I’m really sorry for her, as I can imagine that all this situation might have been very difficult for her, as she sais ‘’I can never be the person that I was before these things happened’’, which reflects that she stills remembers everything and is paying unfair consequences.
ReplyDeleteI think that the fault is from the Western Media, as they are professional and they made had a confusion taking the photo of another woman that wasn’t the real Neda Agha-Soltan. What is more, when they discovered they had made a mistake, instead of making everybody know that there had been a mistake, they didn’t say anything and continued using her photo even though they knew it was not a picture of the real victim in that tragic video. They obviously knew that they were exposing Neda Soltani to extreme danger, so that was a really negative decision to make.
I don’t think facebook has fault, because everyone is free of having privacy in his or her account, so that anyone could take a picture of them, so Neda was totally responsible of uploading that picture.
Finally, in my opinion Neda has had really bad luck, because this is a really rare story, I had never heard something like that before, but she was totally innocent, and it’s not fair that she has had to leave all her life for a picture. A solution could be that many people got to know this story so Neda could continue her life in peace and this wouldn’t happen again.
After having read this horrible story, I realise the negative effects social websites do have in society. This story has made me think a lot about to what extent should we as humans spread our private life in social networks which in some cases, as we have been able to see can spoil your life, as most of you I guess have been hearing about “Frapes” and many other similar terminologies which all sum up to cyber bulling. Why should this man be put in such a situation?
ReplyDeletePersonally I think we should not blame Facebook, the media or us, we should blame society, meaning that, once again we have been able to see the media’s attacks towards individuals and the lack of double-checking their work. But what is by all means crystal clear is that the man does not having any fault whatsoever of having been named that way.