{"id":122,"date":"2014-11-16T01:55:55","date_gmt":"2014-11-16T01:55:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.warnercnr.colostate.edu\/iucn-2014-congress-cltl\/?p=122"},"modified":"2014-11-16T05:20:32","modified_gmt":"2014-11-16T05:20:32","slug":"the-value-of-media-in-our-current-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.warnercnr.colostate.edu\/iucn-2014-congress-cltl\/2014\/11\/16\/the-value-of-media-in-our-current-world\/","title":{"rendered":"The Value of Media"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the things that caught my eye from the World Park\u2019s Congress feed<\/a> thus far was the report<\/a>\u00a0by the IUCN and the Ranger Federation dedicated to the world\u2019s park rangers that have lost their lives or have been severely injured in the field. This hit home in an impactful way since watching the newly released Netflix documentary \u201cVirunga<\/a>,\u201d directed by Orlando von Einsiedel. <\/strong>This story is about the gorillas of Virunga National Park<\/a> in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the rangers that protect them. SOCO, a British oil company was discovered by journalists to be supporting a rebel faction known as M23 to force the DRC army out of Virunga. This was done so that SOCO could move in to drill for oil in one of the world\u2019s last sanctuaries for\u00a0the wild Mountain Gorilla, a World Heritage Site and National Park. This movie reveals the day-to-day dangers that park Rangers face and why they continue to risk their lives. This movie struck me for a number of reasons; not only was the cinematography incredible and the story telling powerful, it gave a voice to the rangers and journalists that put their lives on the line\u00a0for their moral beliefs in an intimate and emotional way.<\/p>\n

This brings me to my long-winded point\u2026 the importance of underrepresented storytelling and the complacency\u00a0of media in our society. The world over contains people that risk their lives everyday for a greater cause, whether that\u2019s for gorillas in Virunga National Park, the rights and safety of sex slaves in Nepal <\/a>or for\u00a0those that lack a political voice in Tibet<\/a>.\u00a0And most go unrecognized. We live in a country and in a time with the amazing opportunity to freely share our stories, our political opinions, even our most vulnerable and sensitive thoughts across the world whenever we feel inclined to do so. It is in this opportunity that I ask our generation to take a moment, step back and really try to understand what that means. Why do we waste countless hours and millions of dollars on reality TV shows like \u201cthe Jersey Shore?\u201d Even Discovery Channel and National Geographic, channels that have traditionally supported education and exploration, have shifted their foundations in order to jump on the lucrative reality show bandwagon. These meaningless and shameful dramas take up valuable airspace, too much money and portray a culture that values surface interactions, un-empowering judgments, and complacency. Why is it that \u201cToddlers and Tiaras\u201d get their own reality show and Emmanuel de Merode (director of Virunga National Park shot multiple times trying to expose SOCO\u2019s exploitation story), and Andre Bauma (caretaker for gorillas at the rehabilitation center in Virunga) are given so little attention?<\/p>\n

If we do not witness and share these valuable and empowering stories, we are wasting an opportunity to make this world a better place. Today, please, turn off \u201cthe Kardashians,\u201d and take ninety minutes to watch \u201cVirunga.\u201d Share this story with those around you. We all don\u2019t need to drop\u00a0everything, get up and move to the DRC in order to risk our lives to protect Mountain Gorillas to make a difference. But,\u00a0spend some time today thinking about someone that inspires you through their voice or work, ask yourself why they do what they do, and consider\u00a0how you may\u00a0exemplify similar\u00a0traits to the people and things around you in a way that matters. Post a comment, share your underrepresented heroes with us! We want to hear their story!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the things that caught my eye from the World Park\u2019s Congress feed thus far was the report\u00a0by the IUCN and the Ranger Federation dedicated to the world\u2019s park rangers that have lost their lives or have been severely … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.warnercnr.colostate.edu\/iucn-2014-congress-cltl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.warnercnr.colostate.edu\/iucn-2014-congress-cltl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.warnercnr.colostate.edu\/iucn-2014-congress-cltl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.warnercnr.colostate.edu\/iucn-2014-congress-cltl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.warnercnr.colostate.edu\/iucn-2014-congress-cltl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/sites.warnercnr.colostate.edu\/iucn-2014-congress-cltl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":132,"href":"https:\/\/sites.warnercnr.colostate.edu\/iucn-2014-congress-cltl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122\/revisions\/132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.warnercnr.colostate.edu\/iucn-2014-congress-cltl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.warnercnr.colostate.edu\/iucn-2014-congress-cltl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.warnercnr.colostate.edu\/iucn-2014-congress-cltl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}