Thread by @YasminJUllah

Here's a (hot) take (probably) from the feelings people have towards news coverage in general and the CNN special. No one & I mean no one, will have your best interests at heart especially when it comes to a giant media corporation. Your issue isn't a life & death issue for them.

I took sociology of mass media last semester & let me tell you there's a lot of issues around beliefs that "objectivity" truly exist. We all are socialized to have certain set of values/believe in certain ideologies. Until we are critical of ourselves, we can't see the problem.

Media companies like CNN operates under Warner Media which owned by a giant conglomerate like AT&T isn't a good sign for objectivity or for freedom of the press/speech to flourish. At best, it is superficial b/c the people who work on the news maybe diverse though it's really not

And most newsrooms are made up of white employees more than POC. Now the decision makers of these conglomerates are all white men with billions in net worth. So to put it simply, #WhatsHappeninglnMyanmar is a news sensation at best for the newsmakers to gain more ads investments

This isn't to say that there aren't genuine journalists who care, but the structure that is mostly based on white supremacy & American exceptionalism limit the ability of serious journalists to be able to help amplify the voices from within Myanmar in the way that represent us.

So what we need to do is learning how to work with the system when it is in our favour. CNN coverage maybe so flawed, but it does get the word out. When 2017 happened in Rohingya case, we also didn't like some coverage/representation of our people that isn't wholesome or truthful

Being a victim of dictatorship/tyrannical government comes w/ a lot of silencing & erasure, but we must remember that we are extremely powerful in unity & humanity. Use any media coverage to pivot & highlight the msg we need to send the world. Don't be manipulate by it.

Use it to show the world our agency & our resilience as a people. Though we can't hope much from current media landscape, we are more than capable of uplifting our own voices through our platforms. This is why cross cultural/regional solidarity is important. We lift each other up