Blog #10 Antiwar

I'm not entirely sure that I'm appropriately responding to the original blog prompt, but I read this incredibly interesting article on antiwar.com that is worth talking about, and extremely relevant to our discussions of media influence. Essentially, the court system in Romania, for the first time ever, annulled the first round results of its presidential election- and they've called for a do over. Why? Tiktok. 

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As The Associated Press claims, "The Constitutional Court’s unprecedented decision — which is final — came after President Klaus Iohannis declassified intelligence on Wednesday that alleged Russia organized thousands of social media accounts to promote Calin Georgescu across platforms such as TikTok and Telegram." Of course, major concerns are being raised that Russia is interfering with the election process of Romania. However, other sources are claiming that the rumors are just part of a scheme to prevent Georgescu from becoming President. If that is the case, it would appear to be working since things have escalated tot he point where the court has overturned the first-round election results. The red flags that are being raised are due to his claim of no campaign spending whatsoever, and the shocking results of the first round that put him out on top- after the featured Tiktok videos gained millions of views. As the article explains, Georgescu is a far right candidate, and the majority of the Romanian population is also ultra-conservative, so I'm not quite sure why the results were so quickly called into question. It would seem that these accusations have been made out of paranoia, and have been overwhelmingly denied. However, a re-vote will take place and hopefully they can prevent Russian interference and feel satisfied with the results.

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Briefly, I'll discuss my thoughts on antiwar voices and why we don't hear as much from them in mainstream media. I think the media thrives on fear-mongering and keeping the public on the edge of their seat. It's an industry that relies on high-arousal emotions (learned that in my publicity methods class this semester!) Also, most of the content is outspokenly against what the government is doing. For example, another article on this antiwar website discussed the almost $1 billion of dollars in weapons that was sent to Ukraine by the Biden Administration, furthering the conflict between Ukraine and Russia. The media's bias becomes so clear when you read the articles on here and that of The American Conservative. They are purposefully trying to sweep these things under the rug by not sharing them in mainstream media. I find a lot of these articles to be new information for me, and eye-opening in terms of what our government is doing behind the scenes. It's disturbing in all honesty, and I hope more people find and educate themselves on these topics.