One World of Inspiration

By: Halle Garrus

Edited by: Capra Fellows

During the International Media Seminar Roger Hobby who is a consultant on Social Media for the OECD (Organization for Economic Corporation and Development), started off his presentation by describing what it is that the OECD does. The OECD is an organization whose mission is to promote policies that will improve the economic well-being of people around the world. The organization is that provides a forum in which governments can work together to share experiences and seek solutions to common problems. Social Media is one way that we can help bring awareness to everyday problems people experience around the world.

To show us exactly how Social Media brings attention to problems we experience on a global scale, Roger used something that we all know best to be viral videos. These are commonly found on YouTube and spread through places like twitter and Facebook.  For example he used the biggest summer hit in history, Carly Ray Jepson’s Call Me Maybe. This one video has over 500 million views on YouTube and that’s just the official video. Roger then showed the group the parody’s that had been made famous by ordinary people just like you and I. These included people videoing themselves singing along to the catchy hit or even a split screen of man dressed in women’s swim wear and dance outfits made up his own dance moves and definitely got the attentions of unexpected audience members while doing so. Even the 2012 US Olympic swim team got involved making their famous video parody. Nonetheless this goes to show you just how powerful Media really is. After having a laugh at some of the video’s we were shown, Roger turned the tables a bit to a video of a person who had a simple message written in marker on his hand “One World.” This individual then asked that viewers post their responses to this video. It created a chain reaction with people from all over the globe writing inspiring messages to share with those who need them most. Some just consisted of single words while others were small phrases; laugh, truth, be you, you are not alone and carpe diem, just to name a few. The point was to see how powerful a message can be even if it is one individual one word is proven to go a long way.

Photo Credit: Toniesha Taylor

After watching the impact of Social Media projects had on the world it was our turn to make our own. We were divided into teams and were able to create our own social media campaigns for the different projects we were given. This workshop was definitely an eye-opening experience. A lot of the time we blame Social Media for what is put out for the world to see but we have to remember we are the ones putting the message out there no matter if it’s good or bad.