Fiche notion lieu et forme de pouvoir

Orale d’anglais

Lieu et forme de pouvoir

I am going to talk about the notion « Places and forms of power ». First let me give you a quick definition of power. Power is the ability to exercise control on somebody or on a group. It's a force that can be used in many ways, with violence or without, by a group, a government. The power is today shared between many actors, but among them, media has taken a really important place, in particular in democracy. What are media? Media are all the way of communication of diffusion of information; There are the radio, TV, newspaper and for 10 years, social media. Their role is to keep informed the people about current events. In fact what are the powers of media?

• It has the power to brainwash people. Indeed we studied the centuries’ joke made by Orson Welles. In 1930 when he was 22, he was a radio’s star. In October 1930 for Halloween, he decided to make a joke. He based from the wars of the world, to manipulate people into believing that the Martian was invading the earth. Orson describe the scene really precisely; people could heard on the radio the sound of artillery fire and air force plane. He reported the battle as an American defeat; the Martian army used heat ray and poison gas to kill.  Some estimates say that 6 million people heard the trap and 1.7 million believed it. That show that radio could and can influence people into believing false news and a simple joke can have bad consequences. In my opinion I believ…..
• The media have also the power to make or break someone. It the case of Francois Hollande and his mistress. In class we saw a BBC’s report about this event. When FH has been elected in 2012 he had a partner, VL, a journalist. However in 2013 she became to have a relation with the president, and in 2014 the case break out in gutter press, closer and the president’s reputation has been broken and his credibility, his popularity decreased dramatically . I think that …
• It can change government opinion about certain important issues. In 1972, nick UT covered the Vietnam War. The same year; when he was on the north of Saigon with American soldier, the South Vietnam army made a mistake, they bombarded with napalm bomber a small village without North Vietnam soldier.  In fact Few minutes later a group of children was running crying due to bombardment, and among them a little girl called Kim Phuc naked and burnt by the napalm ran to the American soldier. Nick UT take this moment in picture. This picture had great repercussion in USA and in the world. First, the Vietnam War appeared as unfounded war. Second that reinforced the peaceful movement of students against Vietnam War. Third that pushed the president Nixon to stop the war. In my opinion …..
• The media is often called the fourth state, indeed it is a counter power. For instance WikiLeaks has disclosed classified information which showed abuse of power of government. For instance WikiLeaks has disclosed the fact that, 3 French president and leader of French company has been listened by the NSA. The French political class has been scandalized by this revelation….

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