Synthesis essay

Synthesis Essay
Issues regarding young people wanting to make a difference in the world do not always offer the possibility of simple, black and white answers or solutions. . We see evidence of this phenomenon in the writing of James Rainey, Tony Perry, Halley Aelion, and Nicholas D. Kristof. In “ Kony 2012 ”, James Rainey argues that the campaign of Kony 2012 may have two-sides to the storythat we know. In Marines change recruiting pitch, Tony Perry argues that marines need do more community service work. In the article: How Iran’s ‘ Twitter Revolution ’ died with Michael Jackson”, Halley Aelion states that social media can influence a country’s politics to a certain point but at the end they might be more interested in the top news of entertainment. Finally, Nicholas D. Kristof inhis article “ Viral Video, Vicious Warlord” offers answers about the Kony 2012 video being simplified greatly to hold attention. Through careful examination of these four articles, along with an understanding of the non-fiction narrative Mountains Beyond Mountains and the non-fiction text Generation Me, we can conclude that people are not always that selfish and they show that they can make adifference, or at least they try to make a difference in the world, by raising awareness by using the media. A look at these texts helps us arrive at this idea.
Tracy Kidder’s dramatic depiction of Dr. Paul Farmer in Mountains Beyond Mountains inspires us to think of how people can take a stand for the human rights of once persecuted individuals. This story tells us that Dr.Farmer is a generousperson, who helps all the people in need with out receiving anything in exchange, with his work he is showing that he can make a difference in the world. On the other hand, Generation Me by college professor Dr. Jean Twenge indicates that today’s generation want to help but that they are too narcissistic, and that has become a problem. These two texts provide two different perspectives regarding themotivation or tendency of individuals to intervene and assist their fellow human beings. Different perspectives can also be seen when studying the issue of new social media and people wanting to help causes. The arguments offered by different texts demonstrate the complexity of such massive issues. The issues of people wanting to make a difference can be seen from different perspectives that make thereader feel engaged to it. History tells us that we should be more generous with the people around us, we should stop being selfish and help more in anything we can. It is nice to help others, because you don’t know when you will need some help.
In his article “Kony 2012”, James Rainey argues that the campaign of Kony 2012 may have two sides to the story that we don’t know. He supports thisargument by first saying how Russell and his companions have employed social media and celebrities including pop stars Bono, Justin Bieber and Rihanna to promote the video. By doing this, the author is trying to explain how the creator of the video is trying to influence the people by using artists supporting the campaign. Then by giving facts about how an article is saying that they used manipulatedfacts for strategic purposes, exaggerating the scale LRA abduction and murders and emphasizing the LRA’s use of innocent children as soldiers. Finally by saying how they try to get people by using a 30 min film. I think they are trying to manipulate the percentage of the deads and abductions in order for people to feel sorry and support them.
Halley Aelion in her article ”How Iran’s ‘TwitterRevolution’ died with Michael Jackson”, states that social media can influence country’s politics to a certain point but at the end they might be more interested in the top news of entertainment. She supports this argument by saying how Mir Hossein Mousavi the reformist candidate use social networking to gain votes, he created a Facebook group with more than 10,000 supporters. By doing this, the...