The audacity and absurdity with freedom of speech

By: Pete Thackston

Generally many people would refer to the audience of media being passive to some extent when being subjected to various media influences. My first blog will focus on how the audience of media is not passive; rather the audience is generally active. The idea of audiences being active can specifically be related to recording artist Kanye West. As of recently West has been heavily talked about due to his seemingly unnecessary actions at the recent VMAs. The following are examples of an active audience.

1. Kanye Wests’ seemingly controversial statements live on NBC in 2005 with Mike Myers during the Hurricane Katrina aftermath is an example of active audience. “I hate the way they portray us in the media. You see a black family, it says, "They're looting." You see a white family, it says, "They're looking for food." And, you know, it's been five days [waiting for federal help] because most of the people are black. And even for me to complain about it, I would be a hypocrite because I've tried to turn away from the TV because it's too hard to watch. I've even been shopping before even giving a donation, so now I'm calling my business manager right now to see what is the biggest amount I can give, and just to imagine if I was down there, and those are my people down there. So anybody out there that wants to do anything that we can help -- with the way America is set up to help the poor, the black people, the less well-off, as slow as possible. I mean, the Red Cross is doing everything they can. We already realize a lot of people that could help are at war right now, fighting another way -- and they've given them permission to go down and shoot us! “ Shortly after this statement he says, “George Bush doesn't care about black people!” Here it is apparent that the audience, Kanye West, is being active in his thoughts and beliefs the Katrina aftermath. Furthermore, examples of an active audience would be the media’s reaction of West’s statements. The Washington Post’s Lisa de Moraes referred to the facial reaction of Mike Myers right after West’s statement of Bush as, “Myers, now looking like the 8:30 to La Guardia turned around and caught him square in between the eyes.”
2. The second instance of an active audience again deals with Kanye West and his actions at the VMAs against Taylor Swift. The first example in this situation is Kanye being active in his belief of Beyonce having the best music video of the year, and of all time. West voiced his active opinion by stealing the microphone from Swift while on stage. Cnn.com in an article title Anger over West’s disruption at MTV awards reports, “Celebrities and fans alike expressed their disapproval of West interrupting Swift’s win for Best Female Video to tout his appreciation of nominee Beyonce.” Later in the evening another example of an active audience engagement was when Beyonce verbally expressed her apologies and allowed Swift to come back on stage.

There is also the appearance of a domino effect within the media when various audiences act on their beliefs and in-return other groups or individuals reacting to prior actions of others.