How negative and positive media content shape our world | Philippa Young | TEDxThessaloniki

Filmmaker Philippa Young examines the way news are often presented to the public. More often than not over the past years media outlets have made extensive use of shocking images in order to grab the attention of the audience. Lately though we have seen a shift in the media landscape. Nowadays it seems positive media is gaining traction as a valid currency.
When the talk shifts to the dangers of a single story, she brings up the example of Mogadishu. We are all aware of the bomb attacks that have taken place in Somalia. But the reality is that these attacks are not the whole truth. “We know that daily life exists there, we just have to see it,” she says.
“It is up to us as media consumers to consider what information we want to have in our life and it's the responsibility of media makers to keep us aware of our choices, because ultimately the pictures that we see will frame our reality and how we react to the rest of the world.”

(Video edited by: Pnevma Productions.)

Philippa Young is a British writer and a filmmaker living in Beirut, Lebanon. She is the co-founder of What Took You So Long, a guerilla production company that produces documentary films to the most remote areas of the world. Along with her team, they work with an informal and flexible method that fits the situation, culture, country, and people we are shooting. Their guerilla documentary work is about building relationships through living with the people they film, travelling by public transport, and working with local partners and volunteers. She also serves on the editorial board of Makeshift Magazine, a journal of hidden creativity.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx