Last Lecture? (Feb. 10th)

    Today's class took place online due to the snow, which turned out to be quite unproblematic. Class after class is getting relegated to online platforms which is slightly disappointing because we only have so much time before Mr.Paterson leaves TGUISS and we progress into the next grade. Regardless, in today's class, Mr.Paterson talked about a show called "Top of the Pops". This is a music chart television program broadcasted by BBC and was very popular back in the time. Through the decades it was broadcasted, fashion, song genres, technology was rapidly alternating but one component that remained constant was the young audience. Up until today's class, we have always handled cases or frauds in the media where there was a substantial number of victims. Nevertheless, this time around, circumstances had changed. Like Mr.Paterson said "in the grand scheme of things the victims were a small number of people", in fact, corporations concealing the fraud became a larger fuss. 

    Young girls being targeted is unfortunately nothing new. It has happened before and it still happens today in numerous regions across the world. Although victim numbers may not be large, I think it is as significant and valuable to broadcast and raise awareness as other cases. After introducing the issue, Mr.Paterson showed us a few articles that covered the report on the missing file encompassing this scandal. What I think is complicated about this case was it was partially reported. Sometimes a fraud will be completely hidden from the public, and not one article will exist. However, if there is little information exposing the fraud, the public will assume that that is the entire story, and to say the least, I would not think to dig deeper to find out what more could be happening. In reality, what the articles covered was only a small fraction of it all. The mainstream media do not mention the senior's abusive acts, or about police investigations being phased out. Alongside these articles full of political manipulation, Mr.Paterson introduced a communist newspaper in England. I never knew that the UK had a communist newspaper, but thought that that is very convenient because this party does not have anything to protect. In contrast, BBC have excessively powerful connections with significant people in the country (and are quite literally owned by the government officials). Typically, in order to obtain truthful information about a country we have to read another country's newspaper, but with the UK's communist newspaper, reliable information is provided by journalists in the country which I thought was effective and convenient. This is probably something that was made possible due to the systematic structure of the UK. I have heard that there is a communist newspaper in Japan, but I do not think its reliability and interdependence are as strong as the UK's, and they probably contain a heavy political bias. Overall, today's class served as a culmination of this long school year packed with all things politics and media. The important moral of today's lecture was that it is not always scandals affecting thousands of people that are being concealed. If the victim is not someone powerful, does that mean it does not have to be reported? Is it not worth an article? Does there have to be a huge radiation issue or ocean pollution by the military for it to be reported? No, I do not think so. Politicians are supposed to be serving citizens, not exploiting them. So if it interferes, it should be reported. 

    The number of things we have learned this school year is immeasurable, and I have no idea which I want to choose for my final project. Nonetheless, I am excited to bring together the knowledge and skills I have learned from Mr.Paterson in the last four years and hopefully create something my kouhais can benefit from. Also, I know these blogs will undoubtedly be of great help for this assignment so I am glad I did not decide to write superficial blog posts and instead contemplate my content. 

Notes:

assignment instructions 

canva, slideshow (more sentences), short essay, infographic

add a youtube video? documentary?