The Effect of News Deserts in Today's Society

News deserts stood out to me because I have been all too privy to the effects of misinformation on rural, white American communities. I am from Charleston, WV, and when I heard about news deserts, I related to it immediately because it is a very real problem that I see every day.

Since the 2016 election, the nationalization of media has had a negative effect on areas without robust local media, those who want and need news about their local communities. The slow death of local media has created an epistemic closure in conservative, rural areas. This has lead to the popularization of "fake news" stories being widely spread on Facebook, which are usually untrue and extremely misleading. 

There is no easy solution to solve this problem and contradict the narratives that lots of rural white voters have come to believe are true. It is nearly impossible to combat all of the fake news with "real news," especially because most of the sources offering the real news aren't trusted by those in the small communities.

Local media outlets used to be that trusted news source for those in small communities. They are slowly being economically strangled, however, by today's political environment that requires them to turn to nationally syndicated programs and stories, instead of focusing on local events. These problems would most likely be solved by a more robust local media presence, specifically a larger local media online presence, but they lack the means to pay for that.

How the Internet is Fueling Domestic Abuse

So it is no secret to my friends and those around me that I am a feminist and I am very vocal  with my thoughts on the cowardice behind domestic abuse. Individuals who perpetrate domestic violence are weak and awful people and the internet has provided them with new means to harass the men and women they choose to attack. 

The two TED talks that I have included below really inspired me to speak out against the terrors of domestic abuse. Hearing about these two strong, amazing women and what they went through truly shook me to my core, and they truly changed the term "victim" for me. 


In the second video, Darieth Chisholm, TV personality, author and women's rights advocate, talks about her horrible experience with revenge porn. In her talk, she says that 1 in 25 women have been impacted through cyber domestic violence. And for women under 30, that number changes to 1 out of every 10 women!

When I was researching this topic for this blog post, I had difficulty finding any information on this, despite the staggering number of people affected. I found two articles on the subject that, but that isn't nearly enough considering how popular this method of abuse has become! Legislation has failed to be passed to help these women out of this situation and no one seems to be concerned.

TED Talks:
https://www.ted.com/talks/darieth_chisolm_let_s_call_revenge_porn_what_it_is_digital_domestic_violence

https://www.ted.com/talks/leslie_morgan_steiner_why_domestic_violence_victims_don_t_leave?language=en

The Overton Window and Political Opinion Today

The Overton Window is the range of things that constituents are willing to accept and consider. These ideas are what politicians use to run a successful campaign. This window shifts over time, depending on the trends of social thought and norms.

With the political landscape shifting in sometimes startling ways, the Overton Window theory is becoming more and more relevant. Things that were once just an obscure idea have started to gain broader relevance. 

The Overton Window has become a useful tool to keep up with what's going on in the world around us. Policies that were once dismissed for being too extreme, like "Medicare for all", a 70 % top tax rate, sweeping action on climate change or abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement, are now being discussed in mainstream political circles.

But the window is a description, not a tactic for achieving political power. Shifting it doesn't mean proposing extreme ideas to make somewhat less extreme ideas seem more reasonable. Overton came up with the theory to explain that the key shifts begin with the public, and political organizations is not to get politicians to support policies outside the window, but to convince voters that policies outside the window should be in it. If they are successful, an idea that was previously thought of as unthinkable can become so inevitable that it is hard to believe it was ever otherwise.

Joseph P. Overton was an executive at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy in the 1990s when he introduced the concept now known as the Overton window. He died in 2003.Creditvia The Mackinac Center for Public Policy

I

My Online Footprint

I have never had a good relationship with social media, but I have always had one because it felt like a necessary evil. I was a popular target for cyber bullying when I was younger because I was the first girl in my small, sheltered Catholic school to ever get a 'boyfriend'. I got slandered with the words "slut" and "whore" in person and on my social media pages from the age of 13-15 and that was traumatizing to me. I just remember thinking, "who is seeing these things, and thinking I was a slut when I hadn't even kissed a boy yet?"

Because of that, I have been an advocate for how important it is to teach young girls the emotional dangers of social media. I don't think its fair or appropriate that we are exposed to that kind of sexist ridicule at such a young age, because it really takes a toll on your self esteem and it has a lasting effect. However, as much as I am an advocate of that, I had never actually practiced what I preached. I kept all of my pages, untouched, expect for once every couple of months when I had some photos I felt needed sharing with family and friends because I was truly proud of them. I just couldn't make the plunge into deleting my pages entirely, until my instagram was hacked a couple of weeks ago.

I tried desperately to get it back, but to no avail and I had no choice but to just let it all go. It was isolating, freeing and altogether terrifying. It sounds dramatic but thats the kind of power that social media can have on the youth of today. It goes from a fun way to connect to your friends to a nightmare all too quickly.