The year 2019 and 2020 has been a tremendous event in my life.

There are too

many things that happen in just two years. One of the biggest worldwide events is the
spreading of a virus known as Covid-19 all over the world. Many countries had been forced
to lock down to prevent the spread of the virus. Physical distancing for at least one meter
has also been practiced in every public space. All gatherings had been banned to prevent
the spreading of Covid-19. Seeing that gathering face-to-face where prohibited, all business
conferences, as well as classes had to be carried out online. Almost everyone is depending
on electronic gadgets to get the latest information on the Covid-19 daily cases and global
news. Because of the advancement of technology, news and information can be spread all
over the world in just minutes or seconds just like the virus itself. News that has never been
paid much attention by people now is gaining global attention during the pandemic. In this
essay, I am going to discuss three events that had gained global attention because of the
media.

The first event that gained global attention is the death of George Floyd. George
Perry Floyd Jr. as known as George Floyd was an African-American man who was murdered
by a police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota. On 25th May 2020, George Floyd was
suspected by a grocery store employee that he had used a counterfeit $20 bill. The
employee then called the police. When the police arrived, they had cuffed George Floyd and
instructed him to get into the police car. In the raw footage of the former police officer’s
body cam, we can see that George Floyd was scared to be shot and pleased the officer for
not shooting him as he had tried to be shot the same way back then. George Floyd resisted
getting into the police car as he had claustrophobia which is an anxiety disorder that causes
an intense fear of enclosed space. He asked the officer to stay with him. After that, the
police officer had ignored his request and pulled him into the police car. As George Floyd
resisted, he then fell under the car seat and was unable to breathe. He shouted “I can’t
breathe” even before he was being nailed down by the officer. Then, one of the police
officers, Derek Chauvin knelt on George Floyd’s neck and back for 9 minutes 25 seconds.
During the time being, he kept shouting “ I can’t breathe” loudly to the officer but it had
been ignored by the police officer. The bystander on the scene was asking the officer to
check George Floyd’s pulse as he was not moving anymore. When the paramedic arrived at
the scene, cardiopulmonary respiration (CPR) was carried out by the officer. Eventually,
George Floyd’s heart was not responding. Protests against police brutality and racism had
begun hours after George Floyd’s death as bystander video and word of mouth began to
spread. The “#BlackLivesMatter” movement also gained a lot of attention worldwide. The
protest had caused chaos in at least 200 cities in the United States.

As a matter of fact, the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement which is a social
movement protesting against incidents of police brutality and all racially motivated violence
against black people began in July 2013, way before the case of George Floyd. Nevertheless,
it did not gain attention globally until the case of George Floyd. In this case, I personally
think that the spreading of media has its advantages and disadvantages. On the good side,
racism and police brutality have finally gotten global attention through the power of the
media and it is getting solved. Many people from all over the world notice that this is a
severe matter which has to be tackled in the 21st century. The government is getting
involved in this matter and receiving pressure from the people so that justice can be served.
If it is not Covid-19 and everyone is using smart gadgets to get the latest news, this case
will not be treated in this way where the police officer was sentenced to 22 ½ years in
prison. This case might just be a news headline and it just fades away in a few weeks and
the police officer will not get any punishment for his actions. On the other hand, the
overwhelming power of the media had been misused. Some misleading messages had been
spread after the death of George Floyd such as “George Floyd’s Fake Death”, “George Soros
Conspiracy” and “Antifa Misinformation”.

In my opinion, these types of cases where police brutality and racism based on skin
color in the United State happened quite often in reality but they could not get a huge
amount of attention like the case of George Floyd. It only gets global attention because of
the advancement of technology during the pandemic. An African-American is also called
black Americans in the United States. Society had structured them as lower-class people.
Black Americans were seen as criminals, drug dealers as well as drug addicts. The white
people will stay away from African Americans and the police will be more aware of them and
treat them unmannerly and rough. Many short films on the internet show the discriminatory
treatment of black people. For example, the black people were taught by their parents to
show their hands whenever they got pulled over by the police and do not reach to get
anything on the car drawer unless they got permission from the police officer or else they
will get shot by the police officer immediately as they might be a threat although they are
just trying to get the driving license out of the drawer. Some police officers might also point
the gun at them regardless of they were just a child. On the contrary, the police officer will
let their guards down if the suspect is a white American although they had a weapon on
their hand. In short, I think we should change the way we treat them. Instead of defining
good or bad Americans depending on their skin color or what had been done by their races,
we should look into them or their criminal history. Everyone should be treated the same no
matter what their skin color is. By giving equal respect to people from all walks of life only
then peace will exist.

The second case that I am going to talk about is the case of the killing of Gabby
Petito. This event also gained attention globally during the pandemic. After a year and a half
as the Covid-19 cases are under control and almost 80% of the population had been
vaccinated, going on a vacation by renting a recreational vehicle (RV) became a popular way
to explore the beauty of nature in the countryside without having to stay in a hotel. Many
YouTubers (people who post videos on a video platform as known as YouTube) had posted
their vacation videos in an RV and it attracted a lot of people from all over the world.
Gabrielle Venora Petito, also known as Gabby Petito was an American woman who was born
on 19th March 1999. She had been found dead while traveling in an RV during the journey
across the United States with her fiancé, Brian Laundrie. In December 2020, Gabby had
purchased a white van and modified it into an RV to go on a journey with her fiance before
their wedding. After attending her brother’s graduation ceremony, they decided to start their
road trip on July 2, 2021. On July 4, 2021, Gabby Petito started to post photos of her and
the places on Instagram. On the photos that had been posted, we can see that they had
been traveling to Monument Rocks in western Kansas, Colorado Springs and Great Sand
Dunes National Park, Colo, Zion National Park in Utah, Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah,
and Mystic Hot Springs in Monroe, Utah.

With the beautiful view and vibes, Gabby had gained a lot of followers on Instagram.
After that, out of the blue, Gabby Petito had stopped posting photos and videos on
Instagram for around 12 days. On 12 August 2021, Gabby posted a photo showing that they
had traveled to another national park in Utah. On 19 August 2021, Gabby uploaded a photo
of their van without a location tag unlike others of her posts. On the same day, a video “Van
Life Journey” was uploaded on their new YouTube channel and it is the first video that they
have uploaded on YouTube. On 25 August 2021, this is the day where Gabby last posted on
Instagram, and the photo is just like the last one without any location tag. We can see that
many followers had started asking where she was in the comment under the post to make
sure that she was safe. The next day, according to Gabby’s mother, Gabby’s mother received
a message from Gabby saying that they are going to Yosemite National Park in Northern
California and there is no signal. Then, after Gabby’s mother tried to call and message
Gabby and got nothing in reply she decided to file a missing report to the police. The search
for Gabby had then begun. Police then found out the fact that on September 1, 2021,
Gabby’s fiance Brian Laundrie had returned home with the white van alone. The case then
sparked controversy in society. Brian had become the person of interest, but he and his
family were not willing to cooperate with the police to give any detail that would help with
the search for Gabby. After the news had gone viral, Brian’s house was surrounded by the
crowd. On Sep 17, 2021, Brian Laundrie's parents claim he went missing 3 days prior The
search for Brian then began. On Oct 20, 2021, just a few hours after Brian’s parents had
joined the search for his son at Carlton Reserve, they had found some bags and items that
belonged to Brian and some teeth and bone that had been confirmed to belong to Brian by
the authorities. Many people also started to post videos on different social media platforms
to use the power of media to collect as much information as possible from all the people.
Many people had posted videos that related to Gabby and Brian. For example, a video
posted on TikTok said that they met Gabby and Brian on August 27 where they had dinner
and saw Gabby and Brian seem to be arguing with the owner of the restaurant and then
they get kicked out of the restaurant. Then, police found out that they had been pulled over
by an officer as they were speeding on the road on Aug 17, 2021. In the video footage, we
can see that Gabby was crying and getting anxious. There are some bruises on her body. On
social media, Gabby and Brian seem to be a couple that had a good relationship and
everybody is envious of it but on the other side, Gabby and Brian always argued for their
relationship. In the video footage, we can see a typical gender hierarchy where Brian is a
man who is always on the top of the hierarchy while Gabby as a female is always on the
bottom. This is because Gabby said that Brian acts like he knows everything and always said
that Gabby had done everything wrongly.

In my opinion, the benefits of the power of the media are shown in this case.
Because of the media, the authorities only can gather this much information about Gabby
and Brian and slowly get the truth. If the case were to happen back in the time in the 70s or
60s, this case will just have zero progress as there was no information gathered from the
people. Moreover, it is because of the media which gives so much attention to Gabby on
social media that this case could be gaining so much attention as well as the pressure from
people to the authorities to find out the truth. As if Gabby were just a normal person who is
not active on social media, this case would not have gained so much attention and had
gathered so much information. Other than that, according to the video footage of the police
officer that pulled over Gabby and Brian, we can see that the offices were not biased. They
do not see Gabby as a victim of domestic violence on the spot just because she is female
and she is vulnerable, the police officers discuss the case according to the confession that
they both gave. Besides, because of the power of the media, it makes people gather in front
of Brian’s house which makes them feel uncomfortable and cannot sleep at night. This
situation happens when a person gets famous, people will want to get near them and affect
their normal life such as getting on the head news just because they appear in a shopping
mall suddenly.

The third case that I am going to discuss is the case of Nur Sajat. Muhammad Sajjad
Kamaruz Zaman as known as Nur Sajat is a transgender cosmetics business entrepreneur in
Malaysia. Nur Sajat was a Malaysian and she believes in Islam religion. Nur Sajat started to
gain a lot of popularity since she represent Malaysia participated in Miss Universe Queen,
2013 (an international beauty pageant for transgender women). Before people found out
that she is transgender, Nur Sajat had developed her own skincare products and health
supplements. After accumulating thousands and millions of followers on Instagram, people
start questioning her real gender. In the year 2017, Nur Sajat posted a doctor’s report on
social media and officially announced that she was now fully a woman. However,
transgender is forbidden by Islamic Law in Malaysia. After that, Nur Sajat posted a photo on
social media where she went on a pilgrimage to Mecca with her family and she was dressed
in women’s prayer garments. This had sparked criticism from conservative Muslims. Because
of being transgender is against the law of Malaysia, Nur Sajat eventually granted asylum in
Australia. Recently, she posted a photo of her new house in Australia on Instagram to inform
her followers that she is safe and sound in Australia.

In Nur Sajat case, we can see how a transgender was treated in Malaysia. Although
many countries had taken moves to support LGBT as a human rights, Malaysia as an Islamic
country still does not support LGBT. For example, JAKIM, the Department of Islamic
Development said that the case of Nur Sajat was called “gender confusion” and she needed
help from the authorities. LGBT in Malaysia in the perceptive of Islam was seen as an mental
disorder or illness that need to be treated. Moreover, Nur Sajat said that when she was
being arrested by the Selangor Islamic Religious Department (JAIS) in January, the officer
had illegally touched her breasts and private parts. Then, Nur Sajat’s mother was being told
that it was acceptable because she was a man and that is how they treat a man. There is
disrespect for Nur Sajat’s Body.

In short, Nur Sajat life could be normal if there is no existence of internet because
nobody would have known that she was a transgender. But on the other hand, Nur Sajat
became a well-known entrepreneur, being successful on her skincare products, and being
able to get attention from the government of Australia in order to grant asylum were all
because of the existence of the internet. Because of the internet and the pandemic where
everyone was locked down in each other's house, the issue of LGBT rights in Malaysia can
finally get the attention of all the people, and because of that we can also learn how other
countries respect LGBT and their human rights.

In conclusion, the invention of the internet and media has its pros and cons just like
everything else. To illustrate, the media is like a knife, when people use it in the right way, it
can help us throughout our life and make our life easier. But in the wrong way, a knife is also
a dangerous thing as it could make you bleed and it can also be used as a weapon.
Misusing the power of the media or internet could cause severe chaos. Despite that, the
responsibility cannot be laid all on the media or internet. We as surfers on the internet
should filter the information as well as perform fact check no matter if the information is
from the official or unofficial sources.

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