SECOND YEAR ADVOCACY FORUM

For my second-year advocacy project, I decided to research the unethical treatment of elephants in captivity. Specifically, I examined the treatment of elephants who are subject to elephant tourism. The reason why I chose this topic is that I visited an elephant sanctuary (home to rescued elephants who were once in captivity) in Thailand. We learned about the horrors of elephant tourism and the physical and mental abuse that elephants endured for the sake of companies earning a profit.  I felt as though there was not enough knowledge on this subject and therefore decided that this would be the most appropriate topic for my second-year advocacy forum project.

Elephants are the largest land animals on Earth and are known for being smart, protective, and pompous. They are known as talented circus performers and have been seen carrying humans on their backs at zoos as a source of entertainment.  While this may seem like harmless fun, there is a very dark side to elephant tourism.  As babies, elephants are taken into captivity and are beaten, starved, and tortured in training so that they will perform for humans. When they are not performing, they are severely dehydrated and malnourished and are chained into small sheds and shacks.  No defenseless animal deserves to be treated this way and it is our responsibility as tourists to stop supporting vicious elephant tourism.

The expression of ideas and thoughts on social media and the internet has pitted the first amendment right of free speech against what has been termed “fake news”. The dilemma facing society is how to protect the guaranteed right of free speech while simultaneously creating rule and regulations to filter out that which is nothing more than potentially harmful and unverifiable claims and positions.

Historically, the vehicles of delivering information were television and unbiased newspapers. If an opinion was being presented it would be made clear in fine print. In today’s society, that has been lost and now the opinions of news sources and intertwined in the real news that is being posted and, therefore, fake news is spread and turning audience members against each other.  Platforms such as Twitter and Facebook have made it clear that they are not publishers and have not hired employees who are journalists, they merely provide the platform for free speech. This becomes problematic when these corporations ban specific users because of the content that they are putting out. When this occurs, lawsuits are born because the writers who are publishing their beliefs feel that they have been done a disservice if their views are different from the majority.  The main concern, in this case, is who decides when it is appropriate to ban users if what they are saying isn’t slandering a specific person or corporation but is stating their opinion, which may or may not offend opposing groups.  The Twitter and Facebook employees who censor users are essentially deciding who is and is not allowed the right to free speech.

There are ways to make what is read and shared on the internet and different social media platforms more verifiable and generally fairer for all users despite political beliefs.  There are laws that both protect and go against publishers, such as The New York Times and Time Magazine as they outright state that they are opinionated journalists and editors. Since Facebook and Twitter claim to only be platforms, the same laws applied to editorials should be tweaked so that they can also be applied to social media sites.  If this were to happen, there would be far less upset users that file lawsuits against such sites.  If users feel that their freedoms are being jeopardized then that can lead to a lot of trouble for corporations.

Another way that social media sites and the internet’s content can be more trustworthy is a universal way of maintaining what is “accurate”. Often, the news will be tainted based off of political views possessed by different users and since it is so easy to be anonymous, some people tend to not hold back when expressing anger towards others. If there is one manner of filtering out the fake news pages, there will be much more civility on social media and internet sites since there can be a more even amount of input from different political parties.

If fake news coming from both sides of the political spectrum is weeded out fairly and equally, then society will experience far less political turmoil. Decades ago, opinions were spread face to face between people in the same social groups. Today, people hide behind their screens under unidentifiable handles as a way to express their opinion.  As slander is punishable, the large corporations normally avoid any mess to their names. With the implementation of more strict federal regulations, more verifiable news can be shared.

Mentor Profile

Name: Hanna Stolzer

Age: 19

Hometown: Shaker Heights, OH

Year: Sophomore

Major: Undecided

Interests: Reading, Painting, Watching TV

Hanna chose OSU because she pictured herself here when she visited during the college admissions process.  She chose to participate in PSL because she in interested in politics and getting involved on campus, especially during the presidential election in 2016.  Her favorite thing about PSL is the fieldtrips. She wanted to be a mentor because her mentors were the people who helped her the most during her first year.  She is also involved in He for She and rushed business frat and applied for OUAB.

Hanna’s favorite thing about Ohio State is the diversity. Her favorite class that she has taken is Intro to Criminal Justice. One thing she would change about her experience so far is having smaller classes. Before she graduates, she would like to be involved in a research study. While she is unsure what she wants to do for a career, one of her goals is to become a published author.