Like most girls who’ve seen the greatest movie of all time Legally Blonde, it was a dream of mine once upon a time to grow up and become Elle Woods. The way she could dress in a hot pink suit but also kick ass in a courtroom is admirable, inspiring. But alas, I did not get bit by the Law bug, and my lawyer dreams died the second I realized how much brain numbing reading that’s involved with law. So when this assignment finally came around, I knew I was going to have trouble with it. When it comes to the law, unless it’s directly affecting me, I tend not to research too much into, something that after this week I need to readjust. I lose focus reading about the law, I just get bored. The readings this week have definitely helped me open my eyes a bit, but now I have really mixed feelings about how the law affects the media. It doesn’t do nearly enough but they overstep all at the same time.
In one of this week’s readings, they mentioned the case of Nikki Catsouras. Luckily, when I googled her name afterwards, there were no immediate images of her accident, and I didn’t go searching any deeper. But where was the law here? The fact that those images circled around for as long as they did, and her father had to fight as hard as he did just to get some dignity for his dead daughter is outrageous. It makes me think that maybe we need to adopt some European principles about the right to privacy. There’s no reason why we couldn’t give that family peace of mind sooner than they got it.
On the other hand, the fact that the Internet is no longer going to be the same for everyone is tough to swallow. The more we let the government regulate the media, the closer we get to censorship. Maybe it’s just me and I’m traumatized by our current administration, but I’m skeptical that a government body is ever going to act in my best interest and is instead going to do whatever it can to make itself look good. We already have so much division, is that something that we want to bring to the internet as well? Me and a guy in Spain might not have much in common but we should still have access to the same information on the Internet.
I don’t really plan on changing how I use social media. I don’t post much anyway, just memes (always memes). But I’m trying to be more responsible with my media consumption, a theme for this semester for me apparently. What can I say, I have a lot to learn.
