Week 7: Response to Chimamanda Adichie’s TED talk: “The Danger of a Single Story” – Kat Valachova

In the age of an easy access to gigantic number of sources of information thanks to the various media and internet, it may seem the problem of single story is a thing of the past. With the countless articles and researches on various topics, one could think it is impossible to even have just a single story. But the reality seems to be different. As Chimamanda Adichie mentions in her speech, there are various versions of single stories being circulated, which subsequently makes them appear more valid. One may think the number of what we deem to be official and trustworthy sources, such as the journals, books and newspapers, on a topic further proves its credibility. Nevertheless with the number of sources sharing the same opinion as a proof, he may become a victim to a rather common practice of taking over ideas, parroting of information, or simple omission of information (such as happened in the books Chimamanda read as a little girl), that inherently happen when the media are worldwide, but the topics they many times talk about are local or too far away to authenticate. The call after information is huge, but the media are located in physical places with limited resources and thus also limited access to genuine verified information. So in order to meet the needs of viewers, the media source from each other and so support the single story, rather than shedding light on it. A completely another aspect of media may be, more in accordance to Chimamanda’s speech, the simple omission of information. This way, there can be “only white, blonde and blue-eyed people in children’s books, drinking ginger ale, talking about weather” (Chimamanda). Without critical thinking and acquiring information from various sources with different backgrounds, it is more likely to take over a single story that is being served to us through media. One should be responsible for his opinions and make sure he builds them on information, that is as close to reality as possible.

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