The Digital CultureSHIFT

 Area 1; The contributors of this panel all have a very similar take on what needs to happen in the current media environment; BIPOC need to hold entities accountable, and be willing to make meaningful and decisive action against transgressions equal to the intentional hijacking, co-opting, or smearing of community voices by others.  In bold statements, it is made plain that the new definition of any ally is not someone who will take up a cause as theirs, but rather someone who will get out of the way and allow the true unadulterated voices to be heard. There is an interesting take on what the rise of citizen journalism has done to the overall climate to do with race relations, social justice, and the ways that people will interpret events. In an age where people of color have found it necessary to record notable moments and post them to social media, the speed with which saturation of a message  based on horrific events can become desensitizing is rapid and has produced a cacophony of irritated responses is stunning. An unarmed man shot seven times in the back warranted a response of "he should have complied" 26 times in my facebook feed before I decided to stop counting the comments that effectively placed the blame on a person who presented no physical threat to law enforcement on himself when lethal force was employed. 

Area 2; I believe that the message they are delivering is very necessary and vital to the progression of societal understandings. It is not supposed to be quiet or comfortable, it's supposed to be provocative and confrontational. It's meant to bring about a reckoning, a true account of a long list of wrongs committed that have evolved and continued in one form or another. I do agree that the sensationalism applied to all situations in reporting is toxic and brings about conflict in a way that is based upon resentment and fear. It's time for the decolonization of these ways of thinking, where the current approach is only done to discredit or besmirch another viewpoint, rather than seek a deeper truth. One place where the voices of BIPOC communities can effectively employ this is to share their humanities, their lives and interests, which have been almost completely ignored, sanitized, or given a "minstrel" treatment where people are presented within an expected stereotype. The voices cannot be from anyone else, and should never feel the need to apologize for who they are.