With
the rising of social media networks like Facebook and Myspace, today’s users
often are unaware of the long existence of social media. Social networks extend
beyond the webspace and technological world, and include everything as simple
as the word of mouth. In a December 29, 2011 edition of The Economist, an anonymous writer explains the effectiveness of
even past forms of social media in the spreading of ideals, which led to
historical reformations, as seen with Martin Luther.
The
most noticeable aspect of this article is the lack of an author. It was a well
written piece, so why was their no credit given to the writer? It was not only
this article that was written anonymously, but all of the works produced by The Economist. According to their “About
Us” page, The Economist believes in
collaborative pieces that show their belief in, “what is written is more
important than who writes it.” The thoughts behind this process seem innocent
enough, but readers should be wary of what they read from a source with nobody
to take responsibility for what is written.
Although they refer to
themselves as a newspaper, The Economist
acknowledges that they are opinionated and analytical. They only refer to
themselves as a newspaper because, in their opinionated analysis of a topic,
they cover important events in the economic and political world. Therefore,
despite acquiring knowledge of a topic, a reader should only read these
articles if they are prepared to be persuaded or ready to question what is
written. Although many news organizations provide biased articles, The Economist intentionally does this in
order to give their insights on certain topics; In this case, the power of
social media in provoking necessary changes.
When reading The Economist, many topics and articles contain very conservative
ideals. Although they claim to also back many liberal topics, the majority of
subjects supported are known to be very conservative. This does not mean that
the articles provided are of low quality, but that many liberal topics may not
be covered unless there is a way to argue against it. As seen in “How Luther
Went Viral”, the idea of freedom of speech and anti-government intervention is
supported. The anonymous author uses anecdotes of how Martin Luther was able to
change corruption of Catholic churches via pamphlets and oral transmissions, as
well as how disliked Arabian rulers were only able to be overthrown through the
help of expression by using Facebook.
The Economist covers a vast array of stories related to economics
and politics, and their articles are informative in teaching the reader.
However, unless cautious when reading, the reader may be oblivious to the
conservative views incorporated. The company is not shy in admitting, and
sometimes even bragging, about their use of opinion and analysis, and depending
on the reader, this may be beneficial. However, to many readers, biased views
may distort the facts or only present one side of a topic.
Works Cited:
Economist. (2011, Dec 29). How Luther went viral. Retrieved from
About Us. The Economist. Retrieved from
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